The cognitive approach to Aspect is concerned with the conceptual underpinnings of the two types of grammatical Aspect and addresses questions such as why a linguistic form has the meaning that it does. This study proposes a division of types of Aspect according to their conceptual nature. In English, Complete Events, Habituals and States are autonomous situations and are expressed in the Nonprogressive Aspect. Ongoing Events, Ongoing States and Ongoing Habituals, by contrast, are dependent situations and are expressed in the Progressive Aspect. Ongoing situations are seen against the backdrop of their corresponding Complete situations, and the contrast between these two situation types raises rich implicatures. The cognitive approach provides insights into the function, use and motivation of English Aspect and lends itself to being used in language teaching. The chapter also provides useful ideas for applying this approach in the classroom.