Past Continuous Tense vs. Past Simple: The Mysterious Stalker (Suspense Thriller Short - ESL Video)

Watch the suspense thriller short about Elissa and the mysterious stalker & present the past continuous tense vs. past simple to students in a pre-intermediate level lesson.
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Title of English / ESL Video:
Elissa and the Mysterious Stalker

Target English Grammar:
Past Continuous Tense vs. Past Simple Tense. (Also known as Past Progressive Tense and Simple Past Tense)

Student Proficiency Level:
Pre-intermediate level grammar

Suggested Courses:
General English.

Instructions:
– Play the video in class after delivering a warm-up activity first.
– Pause the video whenever the narrator asks students a question to give students time to answer. For example, after elicitations and concept checking questions (CCQs).

Summary of English Grammar: Past Continuous Tense vs. Past Simple
Approximate chronological order:

Storyline:
– Starts at 0:00. Ends at 2:40.

English Grammar Rules and Explanations:

Function:
– To talk about an action still in progress in the past.

Timeline:
– Someone was chasing her.
– Someone started chasing her in the past, but we don’t know when.
– That person stopped chasing her some time in the past. Again, we don’t know when.
– We are talking about the whole period from the beginning of the chase to the end.

Specific Uses:
– Background event:
– On a cold dark night, Elissa was working late at the office.
– This sentence sets the setting and the background of the story.

Simple Past:
– To talk about completed or repeated actions.
– She quickly ran into the cemetery.
– This action is finished and completed.
– When we use two simple past actions, the second action happened after the first action. For example,
– She quickly ran into the cemetery and hid there.
– So she ran into the cemetery first, then she hid inside the cemetery.

Combining the Past Progressive Tense with the Simple Past:
– Past progressive = longer action
– Past simple = shorter action
– The shorter action happened while the longer action was still in progress. But sometimes these two actions happen at the same time.
– Example: As she was leaving her office, she realised the streets were now empty.
– Elissa leaving her office is the longer action.
– Elissa realising the streets were empty is the shorter action.
– So Elissa was leaving her office and during this time, she noticed the streets were now empty. But she didn’t stop leaving the office when she noticed this.

Specific Uses:
– Interruption: Sometimes a shorter action interrupted a longer action.
– Example: While she was walking back home, she heard some footsteps behind her. She turned around to look.
– Elissa walking back home is the longer action.
– Hearing the footsteps is the shorter action.
– In this case, the footsteps interrupted her walking and made her stop to look back before she continued walking again.

Multiple Progressive Actions in the Same Sentence:
– Multiple actions happening at the same time.
– Example: I was walking home and someone was following me.
– We don’t know which action started first.
– We also don’t know which action finished first.
– We only know that during a certain period in the past these two actions were happening at the same time.
– We can use more than two past progressive actions in the same sentence, and all these actions were happening at the same time some time in the past.

Form:

Statements:
Subject + was/were + verb (-ing) + …
Elissa + was + working + late.

Yes/No Questions:
Was/were + subject + verb (-ing) + …?
Was + Elissa + working + late?

Open Questions:
Wh-/How + was/were + subject + verb (-ing) + …?
Why + was + Elissa + working + late?

Conjunctions:
– We use conjunctions to join past simple and progressive actions.
– Example conjunctions: while, when, as.
– Example sentence 1: While she was walking back home, she heard some footsteps behind her.
– Example sentence 2: When Elissa was hiding, the footsteps stopped.
– Example sentence 3: As she was running, she saw a cemetery.

Switching the Order of the Tenses:
– We can also place the simple past action at the front of the sentence before the past continuous action.
– Example: She heard some footsteps behind her while she was walking back home.

Concept Checking Questions (CCQs)

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