Activities
Explaining basic logic
The simplest and commonest use of the conditional is "If ...X..., then ...Y..." - meaning that if X applies, then Y is the consequence. For example, "If it rains, people get wet" - and the present tense...
Language
Ideas, nouns & verbs
The focus of this page is the language that expresses the basic process of the rational and methodical exploration of ideas. This is a key element of what we may call Transferable Academic Language -...
Language
Modifiers in use
One of the difficulties in teaching Transferable Academic Language (TAL) is that it often comprises vocabulary and/or phrasing which is both abstract and complex. These qualities make such language tricky...
Activities
Question frames
Grammar books, I discover, are not really helpful about how to handle questions usefully. Having scanned quite a few, they either concentrate on how to construct questions (inverting subject and verb...
Activities
Related Conditional phrases
. There are a number of commonly-used phrases which are in fact 'hidden' or 'embedded' if-structures. There is not much point in learning these through the full application of the Conditional rules: it...
Language
Chinglish demystified
. Nannan Mu is an English B/Mandarin ab Teacher, TOK Workshop Leader, and a life-long learner of English and Japanese. . . In my career as an English teacher, I have often been approached by my colleagues...
Blog
Of paranoia and victimismo Free
My first head of department growled to me one day “We all fail, David, what matters is how we fail”. This bit of world-weary wisdom impressed me greatly, partly because I was young, pink-eared and impressionable,...
Activities
Phrases & chunks
What is the significance or value of teaching idiomatic phrases? At a superficial level, using idiomatic phrases can help you sound like a native speaker - if you use them appropriately. I remember once...
Literature
Christopher & logic
Christopher likes logic. He wants to go to university and "... study Mathematics, or Physics, ... because I like mathematics and physics and I'm very good at them." (p.33) He sees himself as clear-thinking...
Language
Russian
. Damesh Satova teaches English at Nazarbayev Intellectual School, Astana, Kazakhstan. . . . ‘…In summer of 1999, my mom bought me dress. On the dress were flowers of different colors and it instantly...