Simple present A1+

 In my experience teaching English, simple present is a complex topic as well as most conjugations in English (if not all of them). I have taught to Spanish and French speakers whose languages require an ending or a suffix that is added which complexifies the task of conjugating. We would believe this would make learning English easier, but it's the opposite since people want to apply the same rules of their language to English.

For the simple present, there are three most complex characteristics. The first one is adding -s at the end of the third person singular (he, she, it and all the nouns that can represent a single entity), the second one is the use of does/do for the negative and question forms, and finally not modifying the verb (not adding -s or -es) for the third person singular when confronted with the negative or question forms.

These are some ideas to teach the simple present for an A1+ level

1. (Grammar) I ask students to organize these simple present sentences, so they get familiar with the syntax. This is an example, you can find more using the same website or others like LearningApps

https://wordwall.net/es/resource/3383421/put-the-sentences-and-questions-in-order

2. (Oral comprehension) Students watch this video about the use of the simple present. I tell them they don't need to understand every word but identify the keywords and relate the images to the meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvVdIJ0las0

3. (Oral production or written production) You show students and image of a person's daily routine, with 10 or more images and they explain what they see (orally or written). You can give them some time. I think this activity is helpful to make the relationship between images and verb meaning. If they don't know the verb, they can use their mother tongue to explain. If it's an image of a single person it's better, so you can use the -s or -es at the end of the verb. You can extend the activity by asking the students the same information but they have to reply with I.

For example.

He wakes up at 8am (on image) What time do you wake up? (to the student)

4. (Written comprehension) Students complete some grammar exercises. I prefer to do this to make sure they understood.

I took the exercises from this website.

5. (Reading comprehension) To finish with the lesson, I propose a reading exercise. It's about a person's daily routine so we can conclude with this topic.

I used this one (page 3)