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UNIT 6 – PAST TENSES As with the unit on present tenses, this unit covered a lot of familiar knowledge for me, but it was still nice to have a concise and clear overview to check any gaps in knowledge. It gave a nice overview of the four past tenses – past simple, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous. The unit also covered the main grammar points on each, which is essential information for any English language teacher to have. The unit also described a few common student errors in each tense, which was useful to read as it gives teachers something to keep in mind when students are in the Activate part of the lesson. Personally, I liked the different ideas given for Activate stage games and discussion prompts – as with the present tenses, getting the students actively using the tense that you are trying to learn is a very effective way to have them remember the rules. Doing so with varied and lively games is invaluable, and I learnt a few new ones by reading this unit (such as the detective game to work on the past continuous and backwards storytelling to work on the past perfect). I’d have liked to see a section mentioning the differences between American and British English in the past tenses, as I think this would have rounded out the unit nicely. The differences are important not only for spelling, but also for the learning process, as students that may be using American TV shows for extra practice could get confused if they see irregular past verbs written differently to the classic British verbs they have so diligently memorised for their English class. Similarly, those studying for language exams should be aware that certain sources of English may not be “correct” enough for their (often-British) exam papers! I think these are important aspects of grammar-focused teacher training.