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Ideas for language learners and teachers

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Entries from May 2008

A problem shared with Auntie Betty

May 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Dear Auntie Betty
I think my wife is having sex with our next door neighbour. How can I be sure?
Waiting eagerly for your answer
Mr P Jones (Leeds)
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Tags: Grammar · Present continuous · Uncategorized

The Guardian Weekly Global Network

May 24th, 2008 · No Comments

Last August saw the launch of the Guardian Weekly Global Network, an international community of thousands of Guardian Weekly readers and website users. The aim of the network is to stimulate discussion and close the gap between international news headlines and the personal experiences of real people.
For teachers of English, there are a number of […]

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Tags: Newspapers

Two-faced verbs

May 20th, 2008 · No Comments

I told a group of trainees during a session on ‘Time and Tense’ today that there are 6 troublesome words in English that cause confusion as a result of their two-faced nature: have, has, had, do, does and did. The problem is that sometimes they function as auxiliaries and other times they are main verbs.
Here […]

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Tags: Auxiliaries · Grammar

The cloud game (a lesson plan)

May 17th, 2008 · 1 Comment

The cloud game is the first TEFL activity I ever learned. On day one of my TEFL course, our trainer wrote 6 answers to 6 questions about himself in a cloud on the blackboard. Our task was to work out what the questions were. It was a bit like Jeopardy, the well-known US quiz show.
I […]

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Tags: Adjectives · Grammar · Question forms

A is for apple, B is for bear cat

May 15th, 2008 · No Comments

I wanted to link to my favourite blog posting of the year so far. Joshua, an English teacher working in Qingdao, China, came across an interesting set of building blocks for children learning English. Don’t just scroll down the page and look at the pictures - make sure you you read Joshua’s entertaining comments as […]

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Tags: Translation

The language of instructions

May 13th, 2008 · No Comments

Do you know the bomb game? It is an activity that aims to get learners practicing their prepositions. We tell them that there is a bomb somewhere in the classroom and get them to ask us closed questions in order to locate it (Is it behind the clock, under the rug, in your bag, etc?).

I […]

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Tags: Instructions