Teacher Discussion Forums

The textbook answer is that simple sentences can have compound subjects and compound verbs, i.e. My sister and I partied and shopped last weekend. Here, the "and" connects only words, not complete clauses with subject and verb. A compound sentence is connected by a "coordinate conjunction", the well...

In my EAP classes, preparing students to go into Composition I, I ask them to double space their essays and indent 5 spaces at the start of each paragraph. I also am an editor for a local literary/art journal, and that's what we ask for in prose submissions. (Frankly, I don't really care if students...

I got 18 right. Can't even blame it on me being a Yank and the test being British...I knew to watch out for -ise vs. -ize!

The past tense is "took". When we ask a question, or make a negative, we use "did"+"take":
Did you take my book? No, I didn't take your book.

Although, as an English major, I recall seeing forms like "Took he the sword..." in 19th century (18th? older?) works.

I teach in an EAP program--basically, it's to prepare students to go into the regular English Composition (and speech) courses in a U.S. college. The CELTA is a good preparation for teaching overseas and in language schools, but you need an M.A. (mine is in German, actually) to work in colleges in t...

Some of the Business English texts have cassettes/CDs for listening practice, and have the tapescripts at the back. Many of these can be used as dialogues. Check In Company, Market Leader, etc. for this. If you are in Shanghai, I recall there was a big bookstore that had some Business English texts-...

If you Google "composition"+"middle school" you can get some good ideas. I'm tutoring a girl in 5th grade now (in the U.S.) and she has to do a paragraph every week, so maybe even "elementary school" would be useful.

Go to www.businessenglishonline.net/InCompany/PDFs/worksheets/intermediate/IC029WSI_Peasants.pdf I've used this twice in my college-level EAP classes. Divide the class into 2 groups or "villages", let them discuss how they're going to negotiate for the things they need, them divide them into small n...

In our college we've just started using English Pronunciation Made Simple, by Paulette Dale and Lillian Poms. It comes with 2 CDs and has a lot of exercises for individual sounds, word and sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation. Plus, there are a number of short poems, which I like as I have a poet...

But, to answer your question: "A child slowly and steadily develops a sense of responsibility" Or, since I haven't read the original, it could also mean that people gradually, over time, began to think of children as responsible beings (What they thought of children before this-- as wild animals?--I...

When I taught Business English, it involved a) teaching industry-specific vocabulary (marketing, human resources, management, banking) along with collocations and set phrases b) explaining American business culture (personal space, sense of time etc.) c) working on business presentation skills in En...

It means "our excessive focus on the present" (as opposed to the past or future).

"Her energy was on the verge of giving out"=She was almost exhausted/ready to collapse.

Just noticed this post... It depends on what kind of suburban housewife we're talking about. Right now I'd guess it would be what we'd call "preppy", slacks and a matching top in all-natural fibers, i.e. cotton in summer, wool in winter. Shoes would be sneakers or loafers. But if you want to see wha...

Who's the speaker? Male/female/American/British/teenagers/adults...?

I guess I could also ask the same questions about the audience.