Teacher Discussion Forums

Thanks for the help. That was my guess as well but I wasnt sure. I appreciate the replies.

I got stumped by some students with this question and have not been able to find an answer. What is the difference between "The project is to be completed by tomorrow." "The project has to be completed by tomorrow." I could not think of any simple explanation for "is/am to be past participle." Any h...

Good examples there. THanks for the help.

I think I may have gotten the answer. Do you think "let alone" would be equivalent to "or even?" I could explain the meaning of the sentance just not how you would use "let alone." And the sentance was about a man who could breath smoke in a burning building and whose skin was not burned buy fire. I...

There is a rule on that. If you have an grammar in use book, its unit 89 (got that question from my girlfriend not long ago so I remembered it). -ing clause can mean what a person or thins was doing something at a particular time "The woman TALKING TO TOM is fat." or a permanent characteristic not t...

"Scientists were shocked that a human being could have either, let alone both, of these qualities."

I could not for the life of me find an easy way to explain "let alone" in this example in a simple way. Anyone have any suggestions?

Its an adjective. Some need "a" like "a few" "a lot" or "a little".

Depending on what kind of prison you are talking about, it could also mean the place where goods are on or off loaded from ship to land. Alcatraz has one.

As a general rule, you can explain "to" is usually for physical action and "for" is more like for the benifit of someone. Tough to explain "for" in simple English. For example, He brought the cake to me (physically carried it) He brought the cake for me (for my benifit). I am sure you could think of...

What level are the students? If they are intermediate to high level, I would suggest business vocabulary to be the focus. Its the only real difference between conversational English and business English since students tend to be more familiar with formal English to begin with. In my opinion, most bu...

I found the same problem as lolwhites with the articles, though interesting. When our students don`t have a chance to speak a lot with native speakers how can they pick up better pronunciation and more natural usage. Most teachers are told to speak no more than 30% of the time in class so the studen...

I am sure this has been discussed here before but I would like to know what some people who post here think about the idea that grammar based lessons are not effective and that experience, practice and listening to native speech is a better approach. I ask because this board can really get into to s...

Yes it is fine to say whole civilizations. Civilizations is plural so you dont need the.

"The" IS very complicated thats why it would seem so. Try explaining why it is THE Amazon river and THE Atlantic ocean but no "the" for Mt. Everest or Lake Michigan. There are a million rules for "the" and its quite overwhelming. In my opinion, its best to teach it as a general rule and not get into...

It could be confusing if they dont know that grammar before. If your students are at a decent level, they should know "I used to" sentances but if you are not sure I would just give 2 lessons on the 2 different grammar points. I would suggest skipping the "I would" as aposed to "I used to" for examp...