Teaching the Present Simple Tense to ESL Students

In this post, I will cover teaching the present simple tense to ESL students. Also, I will show teachers what to focus on and introduce them to useful materials to ensure an engaging lesson.  Finally, I will explain how you can help students gain the confidence to start conversing in English.

Teaching the present simple tense is one of the first things that ESL teachers should aim to do. Chances are, your beginner students are already a little bit familiar with this tense or at least some phrases using the present simple. If not, don’t worry because after this lesson, your students will have the tools to start forming simple sentences on their own.

Download your ready-to-teach free lesson plan here:

What to focus on when teaching the present simple tense

In English, we use the present simple tense to talk about general truths, habits and unchanging situations. As you can imagine, it is used several times throughout an English speaker’s day. With this being said, it’s important to provide a solid foundational lesson so your students can use it correctly in the real world. If you want to take your teaching even further, help your students create notes for reference. 

Often enough, students will think that the only rule they need to remember is to, “add an -s to the end of the verb”. However, this is not always the case! Be sure to introduce them to the spelling changes that happen when using the present simple tense. For example, when using the present simple tense your students need to know what happens when a verb ends in -s,-sh or -ch. Finally, do not forget to work on pronunciation with your students. The –s  sound can be difficult for ESL students of all levels so it’s necessary to practice saying words with it. This teacher-led lesson plan will help you do all of these things and more!

Practice makes perfect!

Off2Class’s introduction lesson plan is ready to teach and easy to follow. Additionally, it is perfectly suited to online or in-person classes. It covers sentence structure, spelling changes and the 3rd person singular –  he, she and it. This lesson is full of useful, everyday words and phrases that your students won’t want to forget. This lesson is great for practice and provides several vocabulary words for students to use in English. 

If you found this lesson plan helpful, visit Off2Class.com and sign up for your free teacher account. Teachers can access the handy teacher notes and assign homework to students. Additionally, Students can access their homework online from their laptops, tablets or cellphones. Doing homework couldn’t get any easier! Finally be sure to check out Off2Class’s ESL Lesson Plan Library! With over 800 ready-to-teach lesson plans available, you can spend less time searching and more time teaching the subject you love.

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