[MUSIC] English for Teaching Purposes. Describing a process. >> If you know what really matters is the journey. Process description depicts adurity. It's like story telling. [MUSIC] When we describe a process, we basically want the students along a path that leads to a given result. There are a few things we need to pay attention to when describing processes. The first one is the order of events. Which we need to make clear and explicit by means of signposting language. The second is tense sequences. Let's first take a look at signposting. Site posting is like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to signal the path you're following. I usually group the breadcrumb expressions into categories that are easily remembered. We have starters that, as their name suggests, marks the beginning of the process. Some expressions within that group are first or firstly, to begin with, the first step is or the first stage is, and we begin by or we start by. And after any of these expressions, we'll insert the first event or action. First, we soak the fabric in water. We begin by preparing a solution with X and Y. I'm Anna from the School of Education here at UAB, recently presented a process as a part of her final micro lesson. We will be taking different extracts of her class to illustrate how you use the expressions to describe processes. Here's the way she begins. >> We start with a working app. And, which means the breaking app with common sense with the breaking up with our preconceptions, with some prejudices we, we may have about the topic we are going to study. Continuers is the name I have given to expressions that make the progress of the process explicit at any given stage. Among them are, for instance, second or secondly, and third or thirdly which refer to very specific stages of the process. And also next, afterwards, after, then. So you would say something like, first, we soak the fabric in water. Next, we let it dry in the sun. Let's see Elena once more. >> The first step is the actual checkout of the, of the reality. So the actual take out. And this can be done through a lot of kinds of observation. That means visual observation, but also taping or interviewing or questionnaires or whatever. Describing a process chronologically in class, it's like setting up the autopilot and keep going. Our students would fall asleep by the fourth or fifth step. We need to add some spice to the process. And we do so by means of what I call synchronizers. Among synchronizers we can find while, at the same time, in the meantime, during, to express simultaneity. Before or earlier, or prior to, to change the order of two events and not lose track. And as soon as X, Y. When X, then Y. Once X, then Y. All of them establish a prerequisite action. Elizabeth uses one of the expressions, mentioned before, to present yet another stage of the process. >> Once we have broken all the knowledge we had into pieces. Next step is to reconstruct it. Okay? So next step is the structuring. And here, what we want to do is to build some kind of a, of a map with concepts connected between them. The last group is, as you may have suspected, the finishers. They are linkers that make the ending of a process explicit. Finally, lastly, we finish by. And. Let's now see how Elena presented the last part of the process. And the final step is drawing some conclusions from these results. And the conclusions [COUGH] the conclusions might be written in a final report. A good technique to, to draw good conclusions is to compare the results of the data na, analysis with the former model of analysis we have designed. You will need a stronger finisher if your process is very long, but if it is a short, three, four step process and will be enough to close it. Most lecturers will definitely favor the present sample when describing processes, but they will also use the past sample just when sharing an anecdote. This is just a quick guide to the past tenses in English. We will fly through them, so feel free to stop this video at any point you need. Remember the path we mentioned before? Well, the main parts of that path are a thread that will guide us through the process. That events that makeup of the path are expressed in the past simple. First, the staff sterilized the lab. Afterwards they brought in the samples. But sometimes the events on the path make no sense unless we look back. When we do it we use the past perfect. They had stored the samples in a separate facility. They hurried not to compromise the sample's integrity. Sometimes, a stage of the process takes longer. It is more complex, and you will need to describe it to highlight its duration. In those cases, you use the past continuous. As they were walking to the lab, they encountered a couple of obstacles. And clearly, when bad action is interrupted, or goes back to the regular path, we go back to using the past simple. Even if you need your tenses really well, you will need to pepper your discourse with with connectors, otherwise it's going to be very difficult to understand. And here we'll leave it. See you next time. [MUSIC]