Anna's Teaching Tales #5

It was Thursday morning, and Anna was making her best grammar face—
you know the one—eyebrows raised, marker in hand, slightly over-enthusiastic energy.

She was teaching the present perfect. Again. This time the continuous form.

“So,” she said, “we use the subject and then the auxiliary have in the simple present tense plus another auxiliary be in the past participle form and then the present participle of the verb.

And then she paused.

Because half the class looked… confused.
And the other half were nodding—but in that vague, I-know-she-wants-me-to-nod kind of way.

Later, Anna messaged me:

“Jo, do you think I should even be using words like past participle? I thought they might know it from school, but… I don’t know. Am I just making things harder?”

Good question, right?

👋 If you’re new here, I’m Jo Gakonga. I’ve been teaching English for more than 35 years and training teachers on CELTA and MA TESOL courses for most of that time. I also run ELT-Training.com, where I make video-based resources for English teachers—practical, supportive, and (hopefully) a bit of fun. Like and subscribe if that’s your thing—I post new content every week.

So. Metalanguage. Language that describes language. Is it helpful? Confusing?  Somewhere in between?

Let’s look at what Anna figured out.

First—some learners do know these terms.
In a lot of contexts, especially if your learners have come through formal schooling, they’ve probably heard terms like “past tense,” “adjective,” and yes—“past participle.”

So, using a bit of metalanguage can actually save time.
It’s quicker to say “We’re using the past participle” than “It’s the third form of the verb—the one you use with have—you know, like gone, eaten, drunk…”

✅ Jo’s Tip: Use metalanguage when your learners already know it—or when it helps speed things up.

But—some terms are more learner-friendly than others…
“Past participle”? Fine. This is helpful because many past participles have the same form as the past tense and a whole raft of others are irregular so it’s useful to know what we’re talking about.

“Present participle”? Hmm… maybe just say -ing form instead. There are no irregular forms here- just a few spelling rules – so ‘ing form’ is easier and clearer.

How about base form vs ‘infinitive without to’ or ‘bare infinitive’? I know which is much less of a mouthful and more obvious in meaning….

Keep in mind that they’re trying to learn the language. You don’t want them to feel like they’ve accidentally enrolled in a linguistics degree.

Anna realised she could just choose which bits of metalanguage to use—and when.

✅ Jo’s Tip: Be selective. Use the terms that are helpful—and ditch the ones that aren’t

Next—she started looking at where the form needed explaining and where it didn’t.

Back to the present perfect continuous

They don’t need to hear ‘auxiliary have in the present tense’ – have/ has will do- it’s always one of these two things.

They don’t need to hear ‘auxiliary be in the past participle form’- it’s always been’.

So they can just learn it as have/ has + been + -ing.

Much simpler and more useful.

✅ Jo’s Tip: Don’t analyse when it’s not necessary

Finally—she taught the terminology if it helped.
Sometimes, learning the name for a form can actually give learners a shortcut.

So, Anna would say: “This is the past participle. We use it in the present perfect—and in the passive.”
Useful!
They’d hear it again, recognise the pattern, and feel more in control.

✅ Jo’s Tip: If you do teach a term, show how it works across different areas. Make it part of the learning, not just a fancy label.

A couple of weeks later, Anna sent me a message:

“Jo! I used past participle today and one of them said, ‘Oh, like eaten!’ It actually helped!”

Now that’s what we like to hear.

So, if you’re wondering whether to use metalanguage in your lessons, here’s the takeaway:

• Use it if it helps—and your learners know it (or can learn it easily)
• Keep it simple—use clearer alternatives where needed
• Always check they understand it
• And show them how it’s useful, not just a label

And if you’d like more practical ideas for making grammar clear and not scary, come over to my website. And if you’re looking for friendly, structured CPD you can actually stick with, check out The Next Step programme—it’s full of helpful things like this, and you’ll be in very good company.

Link’s below—hope to see you there!