Why is the Present Perfect such a problematic tense?

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Didactics - English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: Sehr Gut, University of Innsbruck (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: It has to be mentioned that this paper mainly deals with the Present Perfect Simple because otherwise this topic would have become too complex. Furthermore, the present perfect is not always used the same way in British and American English. In the current paper, however, the used examples represent British Standard English. It will be shown that the Present Perfect is a problematic tense to learn and to teach because it has so many notions and uses.

It will be proved that a major difficulty in learning this tense arises from the interference from the learner¿s mother tongue. As far as teaching is concerned, when introducing a new piece of grammar we always have to teach not only the form, but also its functions, and not only meaning but also use. Therefore, teaching the present perfect is quite a difficult task.

This paper will also discuss critical questions teachers should ask themselves and the various notions and uses of the present perfect in detail, providing at the same time possible ways of teaching them with quoted activities from different coursebooks.