Mar 8, 2015 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: on the way I went to visit my parents yesterday and on the way there, I was thinking about the number of times I’ve done that journey up and down the motorway and imagined all the little ant trails that I have left – my journeys from home to school, from home to work, from home to where […]
Mar 5, 2015 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: It’s alright for some! This week, a friend of mine in France sent me a message via Facebook asking if I’d got a copy of a new box set that collects together all the LPs by The Pretty Things, one of my very favourite bands of all time. I replied that I’d managed to grab a free one from […]
Mar 3, 2015 Lexis, Opinions Phrasal verbs: myths and realities Last year I was lucky enough to attend the PASE conference in Warsaw, where I saw a locally based teacher, Jonathan Marks, give a thought-provoking talk on phrasal verbs. Having long believed that this is one area of the language that’s incredibly badly presented in most coursebooks, and that subsequently is often poorly handled in […]
Feb 27, 2015 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: would’ve thought Last Wednesday evening, I took a train from Preston back home to London. As we were nearing Euston station, I left my seat and went to wait near the door. A mother and her teenage daughter were already there, and the girl was messing about, pretending to open the door – in order to get […]
Feb 27, 2015 Grammar, Opinions Yet more thoughts on teaching grammar I’m now four weeks into the Focus on Grammar course I’m teaching at International House, London, which means only two more weeks to go. It’s been a strange and mostly fairly lovely experience, made much easier by having some really great students. It’s also been a course that has provoked two posts already – here […]
