[gmalara]

You may want to help them "notice" the /s/, but it is late learned because it carries no meaning. I would not spend too much time on it.
My students play a game to draw attention to the /s/. I make a wheel with a spinner (a brad holding a paperclip). The wheel is divided into 8 parts. In each part is a stem sentence, one singular, one plural...like this: A turtle..../Turtles.../ A bear.../Bears.../ They have to finish the sentence using one of the words from the word bank (live/eat/like...).Beyond that, I have an editing chart and the /s/ is listed along with punctuation (self-checking).

[revel]

Hey.

In many cases, that "s" sound at the end of 3rd person singular in the simple present is actually the consonant sound that starts off the first syllable of the word that follows it:

He lives in New York = he lif si noo eeork.

Repeating over and over again "3rd person singular in simple present always ends in "s" there is NO exception" is a nice reminder but does not always help when that hissing sound needs to be produced. Since many languages are actually pronounced consonant -- vowel, doing this kind of liaison practice might help.

Fortunately, the simple present is not used as often as other tenses or modes of verbs and this kind of error is probably only really a sore thumb when doing simple present exercises in the language classroom. Must be insisted upon for correct use but not going to get in the way during a chat over a beer....or kool-aide as might be the case.

peace,
revel.

[Kushla]

Quote gmalara

I have an editing chart and the /s/ is listed along with punctuation (self-checking).

Any chance you could post your editing chart here under Worksheets? My 16-year-olds could sure use help with self-correcting their written work.