Our new ESL Lesson Plan helps your students use the present perfect continuous in positive, negative, and question form. This is a robust intermediate lesson plan with clear descriptions, examples, and practice opportunities.

When should you teach the present perfect continuous tense?

The lesson suits intermediate-level students and can be taught to children, teenagers, and adults. Before using this lesson, review the present perfect simple tense with your students.

How to teach the present perfect continuous tense

This lesson begins with an introduction to the basic structure of the present perfect continuous:

• Basic structure: subject + have/has + been + verb -ing
  • E.g., Simon has been running.

Then, it delves into:

• Contractions: subject + contraction + been + verb -ing
  • E.g., He’s been running.
• Negative sentences: subject + have not/has not + been + verb -ing
  • E.g., Simon has not been running.
• Negative sentences with contractions: subject + haven’t/hasn’t + been + verb -ing
  • E.g., He hasn’t been running.
• Questions: have/has + subject + been + verb -ing?
  • E.g., Has Simon been running?

Remember: we use the present perfect continuous for activities that are repeated, are continuing, and have just stopped. Use this timeline to help your students visualize the concept:

With playful illustrations, examples, and practice questions, these slides are designed to help students understand and master how to use the present perfect continuous tense. Students will have plenty of opportunities to practice making their own sentences as well!

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