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 […]
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 […]
Oct 2, 2019 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: on an industrial scale On Sunday evening, as I was getting dinner ready for my kids, I listened to a programme on BBC Radio 4 about money laundering – the process of hiding the origin of money that’s been obtained from illegal activities by putting it into legal businesses – and the way that the City of London ends […]
