Teaching Simple Present Verbs
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Three things are essential to teaching any verb tense to students learning English as a second language:
(1) Verb conjugation, (2) Verb form, and (3) Verb function.
See ESL Verb Tenses for a thorough discussion on teaching verbs to adults learning ESL.
Simple Present Verb Conjugation of Regular Verbs (using miscellaneous common verbs, for example)
1. I talk. I walk. I dance. I think.
2. You talk. You walk. You dance. You think.
3. She/He/It talks. She/He/It walks. She/He/It dances. She/He/It thinks.
4. They talk. They walk. They dance. They think.
5. We talk. We walk. We dance. We think.
Teaching Simple Present verb conjugation is often started with common, every day verbs the student can mostly likely use. There isn't any particular pattern (as in the Present Continuous, for example) to help the student. He or she must simply memorize the conjugation, paying special attention to the ending "s" used for the third person.
Simple Present Tense Verb Forms (five forms the ESL student must learn)
1. Affirmative Usage (e.g., She talks.)
2. Negative Usage (e.g., She doesn't talk.)
3. Yes/No Questions (e.g., Does she talk?)
4. Short Answers (e.g., Yes, she does. No, she doesn't.)
5. WH- Questions (e.g., When does she talk?)
Present Simple Functions (when to use the Present Simple)
The Present Simple verb tense has two primary functions:
1. To talk about general truths, that is, to talk about something that was true in the past, is true now, and will be true in the future (e.g., The sun rises in the East. Nurses work hard. Water boils at 100 °C.)
2. To talk about habits or rituals (e.g., I pay income taxes every year. She drinks coffee. We watch T.V. all the time. The Giants always lose.)
After a lesson teaching Simple Present verbs to students, the ESL teacher can also introduce "clue" words, such as "always," "never," "often," etc., to help the student better understand and use the Simple Present.
ESL Student Challenges
Here are the challenges ESL students have when learning the Simple Present.
(1) Remembering that the Third Person (he/she/it) of a regular verb takes an "s."
(2) Remembering to use the helping verb "to do" to form questions, negative statements, and short answers.
(3) Conjugation of irregular verbs is another difficult thing about the Present Simple. Very common verbs (e.g., "to be") do not follow the rules and simply must be memorized.
For a more thorough explanation of verb tenses and lessons for teaching Simple Present verbs, including irregular verbs, I use Azar's, Understanding and Using English Grammar
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