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Having covered the present tense in unit four, this unit moves on to the past tense and its four forms, past simple, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous. Each form was introduced with its grammatical structure, usage, example sentences, and ways in which these can be taught during the activate phase of an ESA lesson. The unit began with a simple explanation on identifying forms of the past tense in relation to the present tense. For example, past continuous follows the same rule as present continuous by using the verb “to be” (am/is/are) but in its past simple form (was/were) plus the “ing” form of the subsequent verb. With the exception of past perfect, each form of the past tense in this unit included a “Common Mistakes/Errors” section, highlighting the areas in which English learners struggle most. For example, when it comes to past simple, students find it difficult to conjugate irregular verbs to past tense because, unlike regular verbs to which one can simply add –d or –ed to the base form of a verb, there is no definite rule to follow and must instead be memorized individually. Similarly, past perfect and past perfect continuous also require students to learn the past participle form of each irregular verb individually. Additionally, past tense also requires any auxiliary verb to also be conjugated to past simple and/or past participle accordingly. I find this section very helpful because it shows the areas in which I should dedicate a bit more time and effort during a lesson. After reading this unit, it has become clear that the better understanding students have on the proper usage of each form of the present tense the easier the transition between it and past tense will be. It goes without saying that the same would apply to future tense.
