There use of the simple past is relegated to actions that are finished at a definite moment before the present. Usually a time phrase like using words like “last night” or “yesterday” would help the learner understand the differences between what has terminated and what is can still be continuing. Otherwise the present perfect would be used.

Sentences in the past tense can be used with or without objects depending what verbs they are. Some may even use a pronoun object and another object afterwards, like “She bought him a book.” The pronoun may be left out to read, “She bought a book.” Not all verbs have this ability. A good example would be when using verbs relating emotion such as like. We can only use like then with a singular object such as “She likes him” or “She liked it.”

It is a good idea for students to look up irregular verbs usually listed in table form at the end of their texts and get acquainted with them, the old fashioned way, meaning by memory. They can be organized in similar structural forms as I discovered in another methodology and this will facilitate the memorization process. So fly, grow and blow, and know can be learned together since their pasts all end in “ew.”

Talking about something done “during a period” in the past means that the person can the past continuous. Notice how I have not said anything about talking about something done in the past during a specific time. This tense is used in relation to the past simple tense in order for the learner to understand it’s importance. He can also use it on its own but its association to a more recent past allow the listener to know the relationship between two past events and that something was happening when another action occurred. Usually the second action interrupts the first and this is how the Anglophone introduces the fact that there was interplay between two events.

In the example I was reading a book when you called then means that the reading was the first activity that was happening when an interruption, the telephone call occurred. The student can understand this tense best when asked what action happened first before the interruption or vice-versa, what the activity was that interrupted the first.