⏳ What Have You Been Working On? Present Perfect Continuous
B1 Grammar Lesson 05 introduces the Present Perfect Continuous — the tense that shines when the focus is the process: how long, how much effort, what visible signs remain. Built around a long feature reading (over 1000 characters of connected prose) on Mira, a 15-year-old Finnish teen who has been writing her first novel for eleven months, plus four shorter stories from Japan (cello exam prep), Italy (sourdough bakery), Morocco (swim training), and Türkiye (teaching herself to code). Covers the form, three uses (ongoing, duration with for/since, visible result), the critical process-vs-result distinction with Present Perfect Simple, and the stative-verb restriction with examples. Reading colour-coded in three categories. Includes a warm-up, 10 vocabulary items, 6 flashcards, 8 practice MCQs, partner speaking with model dialogue, an 80–100 word writing task with word counter, and a 10-question quiz.
Lesson Plan
- 4 'process' questions priming the target tense
Key Vocabulary
Grammar Points
- Form: have/has + been + verb-ing
- Use 1 — Ongoing activity that started in the past and continues now
- Use 2 — Duration with for/since when emphasis is on length of the activity
- Use 3 — Recently finished activity with visible result (tired, dirty, wet, etc.)
- Present Perfect Simple = completed result, countable (three pages); Continuous = ongoing process, emphasis on effort
- 'How long have you been doing X?' → Present Perfect Continuous is the natural answer
- Stative verbs (know, love, have-possess, believe, want, etc.) cannot take -ing — use Present Perfect Simple instead
- Question formation: How long + have/has + subject + been + -ing?
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