Feb 20, 2015 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: the bottom line In class yesterday, we looked at some vocabulary for describing different roles and duties people have at work. Students then went on to discuss which they had themselves, how good they felt they were at them – and which other ones they might be good / bad at. In the midst of this conversation, one […]
Feb 20, 2015 Core Principles 3 Language is norm orientated This use of the word norms here is inspired by Patrick Hanks’ recent book, Norms and Exploitations. It’s just the latest in a large number of articles, books and theories which have tried to account for the fact that despite an infinite number of possible sentences based on a limited set of innate grammar rules […]
Feb 15, 2015 Grammar, Opinions Further thoughts on teaching grammar Last week, I posted up a few thoughts I’d had on starting to teach (at IH London) a part-time, six-week evening course called Focus on Grammar. Following the second lesson with my lovely class last Thursday night, here are a few more things that have been going through my mind about grammar, the way we […]
Feb 12, 2015 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: It’s not as though I had two conversations last night which featured this chunk. The first one was with a friend who was moaning about a culture clash in the Paris office he often visits. Leaving his house at 5.30 in the morning to arrive in Paris at 10, he often finds the office still half empty. Then when […]
Feb 11, 2015 Grammar, Opinions Some reflections on the universal panacea Last week I started teaching a six-week evening course at International House, London. For someone with such a keen interest in lexically-oriented teaching, the decision to go for the Focus on Grammar option may seem perverse, but I’ve long maintained that learning to look at language from a lexical point of view has made me […]
