Jan 20, 2020 Classroom Activities, Coursebooks, Lexis, Opinions Beyond word lists: eight ways to get more from the OUTCOMES Vocabulary Builder One of the more innovative add-ons that accompanies the OUTCOMES series of General English coursebooks we wrote for National Geographic Learning is the Vocabulary Builder, which is often just known as the VB. The main idea behind the Vocabulary Builder was to provide both teachers and students with a list of language covered on each […]
Jan 10, 2020 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: on the wagon This Friday I’ll be meeting an old friend of mine called Jon. I’m looking forward to seeing him as it’s been a while since we last met, but I’m also slightly worried as ever since we arranged to go out a couple of weeks ago, he’s been making a big deal about the fact that […]
Jan 5, 2020 Coursebooks, Grammar, Lexis, Opinions A different kind of Beginner-level book 5: Pronunciation Pronunciation: Really? Do I have to?While the bulk of Beginner coursebooks on the market are pretty uniform when it comes to the way they handle grammar and – to some extent – vocabulary, there seems to be little consistency when it comes to pronunciation and what to teach. Headway Beginner doesn’t have any pron sections […]
Dec 8, 2019 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: (the) MSM MSM sounds like an unfortunate disease that someone might suffer from – a cancer that’s spreading and eating away at your insides, for instance. Maybe that similarity is deliberate, because what we are talking about here is the mainstream media, and many of those who use the acronym (the) MSM believe that it’s also something […]
Nov 27, 2019 Opinions, The state of our profession Five things I’ve learned from running the ENGLISH QUESTIONS ANSWERED group One of the side-effects of being a coursebook writer and teacher with a relatively high social media profile is that I get a lot of mail. A depressingly large chunk of this is simply messages saying things like HI! or WHERE ARE YOU FROM? Then there are messages from both teachers and students who are […]
