Success & Achievement - Full Teaching Unit

Intensive English · Week 1 · CEFR B1+ · 4 days · 90 minutes per day

Domain: Identity & Experience

Target language: present perfect simple vs present perfect continuous

Real-life function: describe achievements with nuance

Integrated skills: listening, reading, speaking, writing

IELTS link: Speaking Part 1 style answers: direct answer + reason + specific detail

Life Competency: Communication

Takeaway: success can include both visible results and sustained effort

Weekly outcome

By the end of the week, students can describe a completed achievement and an ongoing effort, choose the present perfect simple or continuous to express the intended meaning, support their claims with specific evidence, and respond naturally to follow-up questions.

Speaking can-do

I can distinguish completed results from ongoing efforts when I describe achievement, and I can ask follow-up questions that show I have listened.

Weekly question

What have you achieved, and what are you still working on?

Target chunks

I've managed to...
I've been working on...
a real sense of achievement
over the years
looking back on...
by any measure

Supporting interaction chunks

What made that difficult?
How long have you been working on it?
What has changed as a result?
What are you most proud of?
That sounds like a real achievement.

Entry recycle pool

Week 1 has no earlier Intensive weeks, so it retrieves language expected at the end of Fluent:

I've already... / I haven't... yet
for / since
past simple for a finished time: I started in 2024.
sequencing: at first / then / eventually
follow-up questions: What happened next? / How did you feel?

Do not reteach this pool unless the opening diagnostic shows a class-wide gap. Use it as student output.

Weekly fluency task

4/3/2: talk about one real achievement to three partners, reducing the time from four minutes to three minutes to two minutes while keeping the key meaning and improving flow.

The four-day learning journey

Day	Experience	Main purpose	Primary evidence
1	Discover: Results and journeys	Understand different definitions of achievement and notice result/process language	Result-versus-process evidence card
2	Language Lab: Done or still doing?	Choose the tense accurately and say the forms naturally	Accuracy recording and grammar exit ticket
3	Interact: The Achievement Exchange	Listen for evidence, interview deeply, and report another person's achievement	Completed interview record and partner report
4	Create & Perform: Looking Back, Moving Forward	Give concise IELTS-style answers and an extended achievement talk	Final recording, peer feedback, and self-assessment

Materials and teacher preparation

Print Source A, Source B1/B2, Source C, Source D, Source E, and the assessment card.
Prepare the Day 1 audio by reading Source A naturally or recording it on a phone. No external clip is required.
Cut the Day 2 timeline cards into Partner A and Partner B sets.
Put students in pairs and groups of three. For an odd number, one group of three rotates interviewer, speaker, and observer.
Students need a phone only for optional recording. A paper transcript and teacher observation are full alternatives.
Keep a visible weekly language wall with the six target chunks.

Whiteboard-only fallback

Write the three Source A speaker headings and key facts on different parts of the board. Read the scripts aloud. For card tasks, students copy only their assigned clues from the board and sit facing away from their partner's clues.

Teacher language precision

Present perfect simple

Use it when the speaker foregrounds a result, completed achievement, quantity, or change with relevance now.

I've completed three training courses.
I've managed to save enough money for a laptop.
My confidence has improved.

Present perfect continuous

Use it when the speaker foregrounds an activity, duration, repeated effort, or a process that is continuing or has recently stopped with visible evidence.

I've been studying for six months.
I've been applying for new roles.
I've been practising every evening.

Important B1+ distinctions

A finished time normally takes the past simple: I completed the course last month.
Some state verbs normally do not use the continuous: I've known her for years, not I've been knowing her.
Sometimes both perfect forms are possible, but the focus changes: I've worked here for five years presents the fact; I've been working here for five years foregrounds the continuing experience.
Keep the ceiling at B2. Do not turn the week into a technical survey of every possible perfect-aspect exception.

Pronunciation focus

contraction and linking: I've managed to /aɪv ˈmænɪdʒd tə/
weak been in connected speech: I've been working on it
sentence stress on the evidence: I've managed to COMPLETE the COURSE.
smooth chunking, not word-by-word delivery