Perhaps no frequently used tense in the English language is as bedeviling as the present perfect tense. Many advanced ESL students still struggle to use it correctly. And plenty of instructors—myself included—have struggled to teach it well.

This fall, after several semesters of doing valiant battle with this tense, I decided to adopt a new approach. Instead of dutifully marching my students through our textbook’s chapters on using the present perfect with “since” or “for” or “already, yet, and still,” I decided to lay the groundwork for our work on the present perfect by asking them to listen to how people at work, on the street, in the movies, and on the Internet actually used this tense.  Their assignment was to “eavesdrop” on the English language as it was being spoken around them outside of class, to listen for the use of the present perfect, to write down what they heard, and to bring the sentences they overhead to class. Continue reading →