Teacher Discussion Forums

'How could he have found us so quickly?' A student has asked if the have found in this sentence is present perfect of past perfect? My feeling is it is past perfect but I don't have an explanation for him. Thanks in advance.

How can I explain the use of 'though' in the following sentence?
(Father recounts his young daughter's day) By the time we got to the lighthouse though, she was really cranky.
Thanks in advance.

Tessa

The sentence is 'When I came to Australia the first thing I did was to look for a flat.' How do I explain the 'was' to my post-beginner/intermediate students without getting too bogged down? Thanks in advance.

Someone can say, "Make yourself useful and hand me that spanner" meaning Help me by passing me that tool. "When I visit my friend (who has a heap of screaming kids) I like to make myself useful" (i.e. helpful) When praising someone, I would generally say 'You're very helpful.' I wouldn't say "You're...

Hi Noel, English is my first language and 'make a trip' sounds fine to me. e.gs "Business people make numerous trips O.S. every year."
"Last year I made a trip up the coast to see my dear old granny."
So there's no wincing from me.
Tessa.

Likewise. English is my L1 and I can't see any difference in the two sentences re: liking her because she's rich except the latter has a comma. I usually consider a translator to be someone who works on written texts and an interpretor as someone who interprets the spoken word. Characteristics of wr...

I don't know of any websites but IELTS preparation text books are great for academic essay writing. They have heaps of examples and writing tasks designed for students wanting to sit uni entrance exams.

Tell me more about the kind of students you will have. Are they literate? Are they adults? Kids? It's a good thing to find out what their needs are with regard to learning English i.e. Why are they learning English? For work? For pleasure? That will make lesson planning more relevant. Is it a lesson...

I often refer to Mario Rinvolucri's 'Humanising Your Coursebook' - it gives a variety of ways to spice up your lesson or extend the material you have, making the most of what you've got.

Hi, Marg, When I read your post, I felt I was reading about my own situation. I'm working in Liverpool, Sydney, and have a mixed bag of 'intermediate' students such as you have. Some view the class as a social outlet, some want to improve their English in order to enter the workforce or further thei...

Could can be used to express past abilities. E.g. As a child, I could run very fast. Now I can't. I couldn't read back then but now I can. However, as you're aware, could is used to express a multitude of things such as expressing possibility, making suggestions, indicating permission, making reque...

What you call advanced organisation , I call building the field - the field refers to what is to be talked about or written about. I teach adult migrants (post-beginners) and I always build the field at the beginning of a topic. If I were doing a lesson on using public transport, I'd write 'Transpor...

When the teacher leaves the room, they must turn off the light is A.O.K with me.

If the students know the topic so well, have them teach you (act dumb). Brainstorm ideas on how to use the Internet. Writing on the board, have sts tell you blow by blow how to connect and successfully surf the net. e.g. First, you click here to log on, then you press OK . Clear the board and have t...

If the students have some English up their sleeve, you could start with activities about getting to know each other. Brainstorm ideas about what we say when we meet people for the first time. Print off questions from 'Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom' http:/iteslj.org/questions/ Ther...