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[johnslat]

Dear BrentBlack,

Well, I was fortunate in having had a parochial school education; those nuns drilled grammar into us with a vengeance.
So, I had a bit of a head start on many of my colleagues who (especially later on) had gone to public school and couldn't tell you the difference between a gerund phrase and a participle phrase if their lives depended on it.

But don't worry; teaching is the very BEST way to learn. I know that I've certainly picked up a lot during my time in the classroom.

One piece of advice. Lack of knowledge can fuel insecurity. NEVER be afraid to answer a question with, "Sorry, I don't know, but I'll find out."

Ignorance in nothing to be ashamed of - we'll ALL ignorant. But remaining ignorant when you don't have to, well, that IS shameful.

All the best.

Regards,
John

[wayne1523]

Thanks everybody for replying to this so extensively. You guys are a helpful bunch. I actually used the book How English Works by Swan referred by Justin on this forum. It was very helpful and simple, which was what the task required as it only provided 3 lines of space for each answer. No timelines needed or anything, which seemed to be quite intimidating for me when I read some of the answers to this post lol. Now, I actually got the interview with the CELTA school on Monday. I answered the 3 questions as follows and apparently these were decent answers:

1. When we arrived, we had eaten dinner is the "past perfect tense". We use the past perfect tense for the action that happened first. One action happened before the other. The earlier action is in the past perfect tense. In this case, they ate dinner before they arrived. The latter sentence is in the "simple past tense". This is the tense used for the action that happened after. In this case, they ate dinner after he arrived.

2. The former sentence is in the "future perfect" tense. We can use the future perfect to say that something will have been completed by a certain time in the future. The latter sentence is in the "future progressive" tense. We can use the future progressive to say that something will be going on at a certain time in the future. The future progressive is also used for planned/expected events.

3. I've painted the porch is the "present perfect simple", which indicates that something is completed or achieved. I've been painting the porch is the "present perfect progressive" which looks at the continuing situation itself. We can also use the "present perfect progressive" to talk about long or repeated actions that have been completed recently.