Teacher Discussion Forums

"Yes, it looks like the American view is moving into Ireland then." Gasp! We're being infiltrated, haha! It's not bad - the language is developing, that's all. It's natural that over time more complex structures fade out and are replaced by the easier version. I mean, think of thou/you, as a basic e...

That's right, Lorikeet - in this case the students have to use it, of course. More difficult, though, are things like "Oh no, I've lost my keys" and "Oh no, I lost my keys" and German speakers who otherwise consistently use BrE will tend towards the easier version (Simple Past) before using the Pres...

Ooooh! I'm Irish so our usage of the PP sways somewhere in the middle, between AmE and BrE. However, I have six grammar classes a week and I INSIST on students learning to use the PP and PP-continuous properly - when their English is better and when they have been exposed to whatever variation they ...

Do you work for this website, Ross? I just checked it out but I'm afraid the two sample lessons are not enough to tempt me. The MS word exercise is something I'd come up with in five minutes myself... I'd need a bigger bait to get me to subscribe! On a positive note, the website looks quite appealin...

My two cents: I also live and work in southern Germany. I have had no experience of business people wanting to learn how to curse, but many of the younger ones tend to say f*** when speaking GERMAN - it is acceptable to use this word in German: it's cool (any English word is cool) and sounds Germani...

This might sound a bit extreme - or even a bit like Pavlov's dog, but it worked for me. I had a student at intermediate level who always said 'What means (e.g.) Regenschirm in English?' Because it was a conversation class he literally said it literally dozens of times and ... was impervious to corre...

I would most definitely agree with what Sally says. After many years of teaching conversation classes I have learned (a) not to choose topics simply on the basis of how interesting I find them (b) not to expect a group of strangers to get into a heated debate about a controversial topic (I'm in Germ...

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Hello Grace, It's not a stupid question - sometimes there are students who just know how to take advantage of nice teachers, they like to 'test the water' and see how far you will go. One thing you could do is when you hand out the assignment, clearly state that it must be handed in on time or there...

Some general advice about teaching in Germany - ignore what's not relevant to you. Specifics about business English follow. Do I need a TEFL cert? If you have never taught English as a foreign language before, some form of certification is certainly desirable. At the moment, officially, no one type ...

Of course it’s not a no-brainer, dear Larry! however, like a lot of issues in ELT, it’s hard to give a definitive black/white answer. IMHO, it depends on the student, on what they are learning, at what stage their learning is at. Very quickly: I believe in selective correction if we are aiming for f...

Just to introduce another perspective... As a non-AmE speaker: I would never say 'on the weekend' - only 'at the weekend.' To my ears, 'on the weekend' sounds incorrect and I know few e.g. British English (or British-ish) speakers who would say it. And I wouldn't say 'If they studied hard, they'll p...

Hello Coffeeandtea, Another idea just occured to me, re. model-building etc. If your students are students at a technical college (they are studying maths and science, you said) perhaps you could incorporate this into class. Split them into pairs. Give one person a drawing – could be a technical ske...

Hello Coffeeandtea, Another idea just occured to me, re. model-building etc. If your students are students at a technical college (they are studying maths and science, you said) perhaps you could incorporate this into class. Split them into pairs. Give one person a drawing – could be a technical ske...

Information Hunt – This requires a lot of preparation on your part but it is worth it. And if you do it once, you can use it for other classes, adapting or updating it. My ‘Information Hunt’ contains tasks like this, for example: • Go to Half Moon Street. In the window of the bank there is a poster ...