Verb tenses for English for academic purposes (Version 1.0, January 2024)

Abstract

Verb Tenses for English for Academic Purposes was commissioned by the EAP Program, Liberal Arts Department at Georgian College in 2023, Barrie, Canada. It is meant for the students in the program and is aligned with the Georgian College EAP program course outcomes. We wanted to create a textbook that would be accessible to our students, simple to understand, and convenient to use. Each chapter has been designed with 4 parts in mind:

- Learning Outcomes - Functions - Forms - Practices In the Learning Outcomes section, we listed what the students should be able to do after they have completed the chapter. In the Functions section, we explained the various ways the verb tense could be used, showed a timeline, included time markers and gave several example statements. In the Forms section, a chart is presented on how the verb tense is structured in affirmative and negative statements, as well as yes/no and information questions. We also included spelling rules if necessary. Finally, in the Practice section, we created activities in which students had to apply the form and functions that they had learned during the unit. At the end of each chapter, we suggested songs to look up and a joke using the specific verb tense from the chapter, to make grammar tenses just a little less scary for students.

The people studying in the Georgian College EAP program come from diverse backgrounds and include international as well as domestic students who are working toward a pathway into post-secondary programs. Our idea of creating this resource stemmed from the new reality of classes shifting online, initiated by the pandemic. We wanted our students to have supplementary material that matched the syllabi because we found that most online textbook versions did not include the specific verb tenses that our students were working on in the classroom, along with a simplified explanation of the most common uses of each tense.

For the both of us, this project was the first time we had created an online Pressbook. It was a huge endeavor, however, as we got deeper into the project, it became almost addictive. It was very satisfying as the chapters started coming together. We were constantly keeping our students in mind as we carefully worded our content. It has also inspired us to soon add on other grammar to this textbook, or create another OER for our EAP program.

We would like to acknowledge Jen Booth and Jessica Jones from the Georgian College Library's OER Design Studio for always responding to our endless questions on formatting and accessibility. They were quick to respond, patient and very supportive.