Apr 8, 2019 Beginners & Low levels, Chunks, Coursebooks, Developing materials, Grammar, Lexis What is a good coursebook for beginners? In a pevious post I explained why the typical syllabus at low levels is bad, but this does leave the question what is a good coursebook for beginners? Obviously, the short answer to this question is our own book Outcomes Beginner, but in this post and others I’m going to set out a bit more […]
Mar 28, 2019 Beginners & Low levels, Chunks, Core Principles, Coursebooks, Developing materials, Grammar Teaching grammar at low levels through chunks We could be teaching more grammar at low levels through grammaticalized chunks. We already do it sometimes, but we do it very inconsistently. Ironically, that’s because the syllabus at low levels is defined by teaching grammar, rather than being guided by what students need and want to say. Would you like some more chunks?The best […]
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 […]
Dec 3, 2018 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: nippy After an Indian summer – a period of warm weather in autumn, a time when it’s usually pretty cold – that seemed to last for ever, London has suddenly turned really cold. Over the last few days, temperatures have plummeted and at night it’s regularly dropping below zero out there. It’s so cold that there’s a dusting […]
Nov 12, 2018 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: When I win the lottery Almost everyone who has learned English in class has probably had that lesson where you study second conditionals. In a second conditional, we use a past tense to describe an imagined, unlikely or impossible situation and would to describe the result or subsequent action that follows on from this imagined situation. And quite probably, the example […]
