Apr 8, 2019 Coursebooks, Grammar, Lexis, Opinions A different kind of Beginner-level book 1 If that’s what it’s not, what is it? A recent talk I did about the Beginner syllabus and why we really shouldn’t be bothering with short auxiliary answers at this level produced quite a few responses o social media – both positive and negative. On the whole, I’m happy to receive both, though some made […]
Mar 31, 2019 Opinions, The state of our profession In Memoriam: Remembering Michael Lewis Like many of you, my first encounter with Michael Lewis came via his seminal 1993 book The Lexical Approach: The state of ELT and a Way Forward. I did my DTEFLA in 1995 and it had already made it onto the reading list – possibly for the first time. It was utterly unlike any other […]
Mar 28, 2019 Coursebooks, Grammar, Opinions Why don’t we teach more grammatical chunks at low levels? One of the curiosities of the dominant grammar syllabus at low levels is that certain ‘higher-level’ grammar does occasionally creep through as words or chunks, while other patterns are apparently still not allowed to.Would you like some more chunks?The best example of this is that Would you like …? is frequently taught as a pattern. […]
Feb 14, 2019 Opinions Grammar nonsense: the syllabus for Beginners It’s been quite a while since we last published a post in this particular series. Writing both a Beginner-level book as part of the Outcomes series and two levels of the new Pearson series Roadmap really hasn’t left much time for writing anything else – especially given my typing speed and slowness of thought. And […]
Jan 29, 2019 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: go through a rough patch According to some recent research I read, the number of divorces in the UK last year was highest among men and women aged 40 to 44. I mention this because this afternoon, I had one of those depressing kinds of conversations that I seem to be having more often as I get older! I was […]
