On Wednesday I tutored both Eduardo and Maria again They are both really nice and we all get along well but this session was a bit more challenging explaining the verb tenses this time. Maria especially had trouble with them, but sometimes Eduardo was also able to explain.
We did some fill in the blank activities where they would choose the correct version of the verb provided to them. They did well with the simple tenses, but often had trouble figuring out when to use perfect/continuous. Also, they would often give me a sentence and ask if it it was correct. It was hard for me to answer them, because as I told them, just that sentence might be grammatically correct, but I would have to hear the rest of the context to see if it fit in. For example, they would say “ ‘I had been reading’ is that right?” I would then make them give me the context and they would say ‘I had been reading for five hours ago’. I would then have to explain to them that this constitutes something that started in the past, but that is still continuing. I think this point of emphasizing the context helped them. I also spent a considerable amount of time explaining how “have been” is actually present tense.
Next time I will make more of a lesson for tutoring. Last time they had me work more with their homework, and I assumed they would do that this time, but they were just studying in general for their exam. I plan on making some of my own exercises for verb tenses, so that they can really understand how context and use of time is significant.
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