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Diploma in Higher Education Studies

Telling a story: the past simple

HES 104 · Developing English Language Skills — Week 3 of 16

CourseHES 104
Week3 of 16
SemesterI
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This week’s topics

Telling a story: the past simple

  1. Regular and irregular verbs
  2. Time words: yesterday, ago, then

What you will be able to do

  • 1.1 Use present, past and future verb forms accurately.

Activity

Tell the story of a memorable day in five sentences.

Study materials

Further resources

  • Writing for Success, ch. 2.3: Verb tense (regular and irregular verbs) · PDF · Saylor (2012); pp. 71–78 · for registered students
  • Writing for Success, ch. 5.5: Verb tenses (simple past) · PDF · Saylor (2012); pp. 187–199 · for registered students
  • Writing for Success, ch. 10.1: Narration – telling a story · PDF · Saylor (2012), time words and sequence; pp. 366–369 · for registered students
  • The Role of Narrative Structure in the Acquisition of English Tense-Aspect Morphology · Open-access article · Chiravate (2011), Journal of the Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics. How learners use past tenses when telling stories: main events versus background. · for registered students
Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.
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Course plan
  • Week 1: Talking about yourself: the present simple
  • Week 2: What is happening now: the present continuous
  • Week 3: Telling a story: the past simple
  • Week 4: Building vocabulary: word families and collocations
  • Week 5: Reading for gist and detail
  • Week 6: Listening for key information
  • Week 7: Speaking clearly: sounds and word stress
  • Midterm: Midterm evaluation
  • Week 9: Talking about the future: will and going to
  • Week 10: Giving advice and rules: should, must, have to
  • Week 11: Writing good sentences
  • Week 12: Writing a paragraph
  • Week 13: Comparing things: comparatives and superlatives
  • Week 14: Writing an email
  • Week 15: Review and coursework completion
  • Final: Final assessment and submission
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