UNIT 1:

OVERVIEW ON READING
SKILLS AND REVIEW OF
TENSES
Objectives:
1. To get general ideas of reading
skills
2. To learn tenses used to
express ideas in a text

I. Reading and Reading

Comprehension
1) What is reading comprehension?
2) What do we read?
3) Why do we read?
4) How do we read?
5) What skills does reading involve?

I. Reading and Reading

Comprehension
1) What is reading comprehension?
Understanding text as efficiently as possible for different
purposes

2) What do we read?
Novels, short stories; other literary texts and passages (e.g.
essays, diaries, anecdotes, biographies)
Newspapers and magazines
Handbooks, textbooks, guidebooks
Statistics, diagrams, flow / pie charts, time-tables, map
Others

3) Why do we read?
Reading for pleasure
Reading for information (in order to find out something or in
order to do something with the information you get)

4) How do we read?
Skimming: quickly running ones eyes over a
text to get the gist of it.
Scanning: quickly going through a text to
find a particular piece of information.
Extensive reading: reading longer texts,
usually for ones own pleasure. This is a
fluency activity, mainly involving global
understanding.
Intensive reading: reading shorter texts to
extract specific information. This is more an
accuracy activity involving reading for detail.

5) What skills does reading

involve?
Skimming to find the topic and the main idea
of a passage
Scanning to find specific pieces of
information intended
Finding referents
Guessing meanings of unknown words
Understanding particular text organizations
Reading tables and graphs
Transferring information and understanding
transitional markers
Distinguishing facts from opinions

Verb Tense Review

The Importance of Time
Verb tense expresses the time of an event
or action. Time and how it is expressed in
writing is very important to English
readers. The English language has twelve
different tenses, but only seven of them,
the most commonly found in a written text,
will be discussed in this unit.

Verbs. What is a verb?

A verb is a word which describes the
action in a sentence (the doing word)
Examples
I play football.
They skip quickly.
We eat spaghetti.
Bob is seven today.

Verb Tenses
Verb tenses describe WHEN the action
is happening.
PRESENT (its happening NOW.)
PAST (its ALREADY happened.)
FUTURE (its ABOUT to happen.)

Simple Present Tense

Otherwise known as the

Timeless Present

Simple Present Tense is used:

When you are referring to habitual
actions--actions that you always or
never do
When you are referring to unchanging
truths
When you are making general
statements of fact

Diagram--time on a line
NOW

XXXXXXXXXX
Past

Future

simple present tense

SIMPLE
PRESENT

PRESENT
PROGRESSIVE

(+) {I-You-We-They}

()

PRESENT
PERFECT

I am working.
work.
{You-We-They} are
{He-She-It} works. working.
{He-She-It} is
working

{I-You-We-They}
have eaten lunch.
{He-She-It} has
eaten lunch.

{I-You-We-They} do I am not working

not work.
{You-We-They} are
{He-She-It} does
not working
not work.
{He-She-It} is not
working

{I-You-We-They}
have not (havent)
eaten lunch.
{He-She-It} has not
(hasnt) eaten lunch.

(?) Do {I-you-we
they} work?
Does {he-she-it}
work?

Am I working?
Are {you-we-they}
working?
Is {he-she-it} orking?

Have {I-You-WeThey} eaten lunch?

Has {He-She-It}
eaten lunch?

Indicators
Always

Whenever

Everyday

Usually

Often

Frequently

Sometimes

Rarely

Occasionally

never

simple present tense

Simple Past Tense

The Simple Past Tense is Used:

When an activity or situation began
and ended at a particular time in
the past--in other words, when an
activity or situation is completed in
the past
To refer to past habits

Diagram--time on a line
NOW

X
Future

Past

Simple Past Tense

Simple Past Tense

STATEMENT

{IYouSheHeItWe
They}

worked
yesterday.
ate breakfast.

NEGATIVE

did not (didnt)

{IYouSheHeItWe work yesterday.
did not (didnt) eat
They}
breakfast.

QUESTION

Did {IYouSheHeIt work yesterday?

eat breakfast?
WeThey}

How do we form the simple

past tense?
English has two types
of verbs in the past:
-regular
-irregular

Lets read the following list of

past tense verbs.. Which are
regular and which are irregular?

Walked regular
Studied regular
taught
irregular
gave
irregular
Becameirregular
cried
regular
lived
regular
did
irregular

Regular verbs are verbs that

end with -ed
Simple form verbs: Past tense verbs:
walk

walked

study

studied

cry

cried

live

lived

Do you know the rule for choosing -ed or ied?

Rules for adding ed:

Add ed to most verbs
Drop the e and add ed to verbs that
end with e (smile= smiled).
Change the y to i and add ed to
verbs that end with a consonant and
y (carry= carried, study= studied).
Double the consonant and add ed to
verbs that end with one vowel and one
consonant ( drag= dragged, stop=
stopped).

Irregular verbs are verbs that

dont end in ed..
Sometimes with irregular
past tense verbs you have
to change the vowel to
make the verb past tense:
become
give
drive
forget

became
gave
drove
forgot

The Future Tense is

Used:
To indicate that an activity or
event will take place at a time
in the future

The Future Tense is

Used:
To indicate that an activity
or event will take place at
a time in the future

Diagram--Time on a Line
NOW

X
Past

Future

Future

STATEMENT

{IYouSheHeIt will come

WeThey}
tomorrow.

NEGATIVE

{IYouSheHeIt will not (wont)

WeThey}
come tomorrow.

QUESTION

Will {IYouShe
HeItWeThey}

come tomorrow?

I
STATEMENT

{SheHeIt}

am going to
is going to

{YouWeThey} are going to

NEGATIVE

am not (m
not) going to

{SheHeIt}

is not (isnt)
going to

come
tomorrow.

are not
{YouWeThey} (arent) going
to

QUESTION

Am I

going to

Is {SheHeIt}

going to

Are {YouWe

going to

come
tomorrow?

Indicators
Tomorrow

Next Saturday, week, month, year,

etc.
Future

Put the verbs in brackets in their correct forms.

Our lecturer told us that he (finish) correcting the
forms.
He (study) when his parents got home.
When I (leave) my office last night, it was still raining
very hard.
Arif interrupted the teacher while she (explain) the
nation condition.
The Japanese (develop) a transportation system that
doesnt need human driver.
Some stress (be) good for us.
Everything (go) well so far, and we feel relieved.
Teachers (use) a conceptual approach in the classroom
next year.
Food that (be) previously seasonal may now be eaten at
any time.
All the students (do) their best for the gathering.

Exercise 2. Choose the correct verb form.

They (a. realize b. realized c. are realizing) that they should

study hard.
Our classmates (a. are b. were c. have been) very helpful
yesterday.
This university (a. has b. had c. will have) a new faculty next
year.
The ladies (a. are attending b. have attended c. attend) such
kind
of seminars several times.
We (a. do not come b. did not come c. had not come) late to
the English class a week ago.
When we entered the room, he (a. explains b. has expalined c.
was explaining) Unit 3.
These students (a. studied b. were studying c. have studied) at
IPB last month.
We (a. have got b. got c. get) the result of the test a week ago.
The success of this system (a. depends b. has depended c. is
depending) on many things.
She (a. will come b. was coming c. come) when we arrived.

Thank You