Why do Sports Commentators Use the Present Continuous Tense?
By Jelena Mihajlov, Studio for foreign languages Matilda, Belgrade
Key words: revision, vocabulary, flashcards; project, present continuous
Age/level: 4th and 5th grade
Preparation: pictures of different sports; paper; glue; flashcards with sports plus one whammy
flashcard (a whammy flashcard is a flashcard which on the back is the same as the other cards
but has a different picture from the rest of the flashcards you are using, e.g. a toy, a fruit)
Step 1 (10 min): Revision of the sports vocabulary and present continuous tense.
This activity is called Minesweep. Divide your class into two teams. Put the flashcards together
with the whammy card on the table face down. If you do not have flashcards, you can use the
pictures which your students are going to use later for their project. The first team starts the
game by taking one card and making a sentence in the present continuous, e.g. I am doing
karate. You can vary the person and the form by telling your students which pronoun and type of
sentence to use. If the student says the correct sentence their team takes the card. Then, the
other team take their turn. However, if one of the teams finds the whammy card instead, they
have to return all the cards they have won. The game continues until the last card remaining on
the table is the whammy card, or as my students like to call it “boom”. You can cut the activity
short by stopping the game after the whammy card is revealed for the first or second time. The
winner is a team which possesses most cards.
Step 2 (5 min): Talk to your students about sports events and the job of the sports
commentator. Ask them which tense they think the commentators use and why. Elicit from the
students which tense they think the commentators use and why – present continuous because
they talk about an activity happening at this moment.
Step 3 (25 min): Sports commentators project.
Give your students pictures of sports and
pieces of paper where they can stick them.
Then
tell
them
they
can
choose
their
commentator’s name. I usually tell my students
to pick a colour and a sport, e.g. Karate Red,
Yellow Golf. Tell your students that they are
going to comment on a sports event. On the
board write a list of questions which will help them, e.g. What is your name? Which programme
are we watching? What is the event? Who are the participants? What are they wearing? With
the help of these questions they have to
describe the event using the present continuous
tense. While the students are writing, you can
go round the classroom and offer your help to
weaker
students
or
ask
some
additional
questions.
Step 4 (5 min): In the last 5 minutes of your
lesson you can have the students read their
writings to the rest of the class. When finished,
you can display the students’ projects in your
classroom.
*****
Jelena Mihajlov has been an English teacher at the Studio for Foreign Languages Matilda for 5
years. She works mainly with young learners and finds them really inspiring. In her free time she
likes reading books and watching films, especially fantasy and science fiction.