Teacher Discussion Forums

"Do you have to go now?" - "have to" here is a modal verb to show obligation, the question is asking about a present situation. It is impossible to say Do you had to go now, if you want to talk about the past you would say "Did you have to go?".

Hi Glenski I teach in Italy, in a small private school. Like you I have quite a few students who just want conversation and don't see the need or don't have time for homework, but I always give them the option and then those who want to do it, can. Then I usually correct it in my own time to avoid t...

to Glenski, I agree with you about the arriving on time thing, if they regularly arrive late then that's their problem and it shouldn't interfere with the rest of the group. But homework is essential even in a private language school. The students who do the homework are always those who make the mo...

yes, I would be interested. I teach mainly adults in Italy, general and business English.

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It is fine to put "seldom" at the beginning of the sentence, for emphasis. However, you do not need "ever" because it emphasises in a different way, for example "It was the worst shock I had ever had". Either "Seldom had I seen such fear" or "I had hardly ever seen such fear", but not a mixture.

Hi, the best game I've used for getting students to speak is Distractor, it works for all levels except complete beginners and especially good with children/young learners. Choose a fairly strong student, get them to do a simple 5 minute task such as looking up a list of words in the dictionary and ...

Hi,
I need to get some videos for teaching both general and business English, elementary to intermediate. Any suggestions? I'm particularly interested in functional English, i.e. short dialogues showing realistic everyday situations. THanks.

Personally I would use what you normally say and feel comfortable with, without worrying about the different variations. I come from the north of England and sometimes it raises a smile when I say "have tea" when people from the south would say "have dinner". I normally teach "have breakfast" "have ...