Activities Focusing on Accuracy The class’ real teacher focused her lessons on accuracy. Her lessons went something like what
you are about to read below.
Teacher: Hello class. Today we are going to talk about the present continuous. We use it to talk
about things that are happening now. We form it by using the present form of the verb “to be” plus
the “ing” form of the verb. For example,
I am talking to you now.
I am writing on the whiteboard
now [as she writes on the whiteboard]. Here are some cards. [The teacher gives a card to each
student.] Look at the card and tell me what you are doing.
Student A: I am washing my car.
Student B: I am watching TV.
Student C: I ride my bike.
Teacher: You mean you are riding your bike.
Student C: Yes, sorry. I am riding my bike.
Teacher [after everyone has finished]: Good. Now open your book and turn to page 24. Take a
few minutes to answer the questions in exercise one.
Afterward, the class members take turns giving their answers and the teacher corrects them
when necessary. Now, after practicing using the present continuous in this manner for 50 minutes,
students are going to know how to form it. They are going to be accurate, but has any meaningful
conversation taken place? Students have practiced the language out of the context in which native
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Май 2021 10-қисм Тошкент speakers use it. They also had no real choice but to use the present continuous. Students come out
of lessons like these saying that they know how to use class speak, but they are lost when trying to
converse with native speakers outside of the classroom.
Compare that to the following example.
