[ZoeA]

I have found this thread really helpful after a recent debate I had at work on the teaching of the Past Perfect.

My colleagues insist on teaching the English tenses by translating them into their supposedly equivalent Greek tenses. I avoid doing so, even when their uses coincide (such as the Past Perfect and the Future Perfect) as the pupils could make the wrong associations.

I, too, am an ardent supporter of the aspect+tense way of teaching.
However, I would like to make a point as far as the continuous/progressive aspect is concerned.

The progressive aspect adds the idea of 'limited in duration'. So to look at a couple of example sentences:
I drive.
I am driving.
I'd say that the progressive aspect adds more the idea of an action being "alive", in progress or active at the definite time (either present, past or future) rather than limited duration, which of course is an inevitable consequence (life cannot be for ever ). This is why the present participle is used (-ing): to emphasise the active mode of the action.

This is also why stative verbs cannot have a progressive aspect; by nature they do not imply any progress or activity.

Finally, the auxiliary "to be" could well indicate that the subject is upon the action of driving (I'm using the example above).

I'll have to add that I prefer to teach this way children of intermediate level and above. When it comes to adults, I explain the aspect + tense from the very beginning.