Teacher Discussion Forums

Dear me, Woody, you do read a lot into one simple statement. The answer to your question is no. I never meant for anyone to think that becoming trilingual is easy. It requires a great investment in time and determination. There are people who do this. However, my original thinking was more on the or...

The problem in France, for example, would be if people were under a lot of pressure to learn English in the Basque region, or Britanny. In that case there would be an effect on the amount of time devoted to the minority languages there. Of course, you can be trilingual, but is it really going to ha...

Chinese prepositions seem pretty pure and classic to me, since they generally indicate position or motion and don't do a lot else. Thank you for your insight, Woodcutter. Herein, I believe, lies the crux of the problem with prepostions for Chinese speakers. No matter what some of the literature may...

Thanks for the book recommendations Lotus. You are welcome, Ouyang. In an attempt to further muddy the water and complicate things for you, here is one more book that I am currently reading. Gorlach, Marina. Phrasal Constructions and Resultativeness in English I have not found a term for the kind o...

Zhaoli, It may be obvious, but one thing that is indispensable to learning how to write well is to read extensively. That said, allow me to refer you to the book mentioned in my last post. First, understand that there are many different kinds of writing. Before you can teach writing, you have to kno...

I am in the middle of researching prepositions in an attempt to figure out a better way to teach them to native Chinese (Cantonese) speakers (and hopefully pick up an MA in the process). So, I am deeply interested in this particular thread. Ouyang, I have a few suggestions for you. (You may find O’D...

It seems to me that everyone who has posted has a good grasp of the problem and some interesting ways to teach listening. One thing that I have not seen, and that I have used effectively, is realia, especially for beginner and intermediate classes. It is much easier to figure out what is being talke...

Making sense of phrasal verbs through their particles is some kind of Holy Grail, isn't it? I don't think there's an answer to your question. Actually, JTT, I'm not looking to make sense of the phrases through their particles. I'm just wondering why that particular particle, instead of another one?...

A little quibble: the particles you mention are not prepositions in the situations you give. You're right; these fall more into the territory of phrasal verbs. Yate's examples, not mine. Still, why these particular particles? Mostly I'd imagine there's either an analogy with existing PVs by virtue ...

When reading Jean Yates' The Ins and Outs of Prepositions I was reminded of an interesting phenomenon. Prepositons have a habit of showing up in new expressions all the time. Her examples of new phrases come from computer technology and include: boot up, key in , or log on . My query is this. How do...

Gloss?

The ideal approach would be to have all students learn to speak before they ever see the written word, much like NESs learn from childhood. How would that prevent/sway the teacher from introducing "quaint" language? Perhaps I misinterpreted you, Metal. I assumed from your original post, Intermediat...

Intermediate learners sometimes sound rather quaint as they struggle to obey the rules of written grammar even in the most casual of conversational exchanges. What can teachers do about that unfortunate situation? Are we to blame for creating masses of "quaint" speakers? Intersting post, Metal. Per...

Thank you, Jotham, for posting such an interesting question. First of all, I have to agree with Echnidna: As I understand it, many adverbs tend to be relatively constrained to certain specific positions within a sentence, initial, mid, or final. Therefore, when teaching adverbs, teachers need to exp...

I'd have to say my students. I never had any intention of teaching. I took linguistics in school because it was fun, but I never thought I'd apply it to anything beyond learning languages myself. After we moved to Hong Kong, I got recruited, then discovered that I really enjoy helping students. The ...