Teaching grammar is, indeed, a juggling act. Give students a drill or a very controlled practice activity and, in the end, they might not be able to say what they wanted to say. Give them an open-ended task and they probably won’t use the language you wanted them to practice.
That’s where input-oriented activities that try to “trap” the new grammar receptively come in. And thanks to the Internet, every now and then we come across texts that are just perfect for input flooding. Here are two examples of authentic texts that you can use to expose students to the present perfect in context.
1. Amazon.com customer reviews.
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
These amazon.com texts are short, authentic (whatever this term means…), can be easily used as models for an end-of-lesson writing task and, above all, are packed with present perfect examples. Plus, anyone can publish a product review on Amazon, which means that students’ pieces might well wind up on the site.
2. Weight loss testimonials.
The web is full of success stories of people who have managed to lose weight. Here are a few examples from runwalkjog.com:
“The past 8 months of my life have been amazing. I cant begin to tell you how much has changed and what has happened.” Complete Story
“I’ve gone from not being able to walk down the driveway to running my first 10k.” View Complete Story
“We began on March 14th, 2009, with my weight at 286 lbs. Today, I am at 220 lbs.” Weight Watchers Story
“I purchased a pedometer and started walking with weights. I have lost 70 lbs and I feel great.” View Story
If you do decide to use some of these texts in class, though, please bear in mind that weight loss might be a sensitive issue to some of your students.
Thanks for reading. And be sure to check out my present perfect cartoons.
Humm what a great idea. TX!
🙂
Any time.
Love the idea, Lu! Thanks!!
Thank you, Rivanda. If you ever give it a try, tell me how it works out, ok?
What a great idea. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Vera
🙂
Such a great idea! As usual.
Thank you!
Thank you, Camila.
Great idea for a book. Simple things like that…is what we need…sometimes learning a phrase is much more efficient than learning rules. My mother language is Portuguese and even I’ve never had problems in writing, sometimes I can’t explain why do I put the words in some way. I just know it’s correct, but don’t know why ahahha.
Congratulations, the site is very helpfull =)
Thank you very much, Walkyria.
I would like to always visit your website. I have really liked it and found it resourceful.
Thank you!
That was simply PERFECT. Thank you very much for this page (and I love the cartoons as well!)
Muito obrigado!
Glad you liked it!
Great ideas thank you! I hadn’t thought of looking on Amazon for Present Perfect examples, but there some great ones to be found. Also some fantastic follow-up activities for this 🙂
Josephine, I’m glad you found that sort of context useful! Thank you!
The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention. christian louboutin hyper prive http://media.twilightaddiction.com/members/tntc1485
I’m sorry you didn’t find it useful, Christian.
There are lots of other resources on the web, though. I’m sure you’ll find something that appeals to you.
Hi
I was just browsing around and collecting . . . I’d say espontaneous materials rather than authentic materials . . . when I bumped into your posting. And I’ve just learned the expression “input flooding”. So what I’ve been doing to teach my students has a name! Yes, the only way to learn the grammar is by flooding your ears and eyes by listening and reading. I should follow your site!
Cheers
Hi, I found this article very useful and would like to quote it in my article, can you provide the date of publication and the corresponding information?