Search found 151 matches

by Macavity
Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:24 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: too or either
Replies: 16
Views: 43981

Maybe your inner ear would serve you better if you blew your nose from time to time :wink:
by Macavity
Fri Feb 12, 2010 8:59 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: too or either
Replies: 16
Views: 43981

Either sounds better because of the negation.


I don't like grammar/ Me either!


I could be quite negative about grammar, though, without negation:


I hate grammar/ Me too!
by Macavity
Fri Feb 12, 2010 8:40 am
Forum: Adult Education
Topic: What does it take to be a good teacher?
Replies: 4
Views: 4550

For me, speaking in the students' own language has less to do with ego and more to do with the efficacy of lessons. Teacher talking time is important because students need to hear the target language spoken in an authentic manner. It also gives them a breather. Again, not really about egos. The most...
by Macavity
Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:30 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Spoken: when did you last (took/take)...?
Replies: 7
Views: 9803

I think if you change the word order around a little and leave the "do support" out, you are okay with took . otherwise, what I teach is that where there is auxiliary support of this kind it's the "help verb" that does all the work - it shows person, taking on the 3rd person "s" where necessary, neg...
by Macavity
Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:27 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Learned or Learnt
Replies: 8
Views: 17575

Some verbs can be both regular and irregular. Where this is so, many British people tend towards the irregular variant (myself included). However, students of English already have enough irregular verbs to learn, so I usually teach the regular verb form in class.
by Macavity
Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:47 am
Forum: Adult Education
Topic: The worst student I have ever had
Replies: 8
Views: 7235

You say that she isn't allowed to ignore the phone so I assume you're trying to teach her as she is doing her normal job. This won't work, as the last two years of your lives have already proven! You and your colleague will continue to make no progress until you remove her from her professional, Spa...
by Macavity
Thu Apr 16, 2009 8:22 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: 10 most hated phrases
Replies: 28
Views: 57882

Very true Mr P, however, when considering the probability of my team being promoted to the premiership this season, I have to say, given that they really have to win their last 3 games and hope that the team currently 1 place above them don't get more than 5 points from their remaining 3 games to ev...
by Macavity
Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:49 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: 10 most hated phrases
Replies: 28
Views: 57882

It's a big ask.


I hate this phrase. Football managers and players use it all the time -enough said.
by Macavity
Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:41 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice
Replies: 27
Views: 20674

This may be an obvious observation but descriptive grammar is a record of what is already known and understood well enough to be used by native speakers. It's nice to be able to refer to this source as a teacher when mulling over a finer point or two, but what use is this sort of grammar to students...
by Macavity
Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:31 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: I'm not on duty???
Replies: 5
Views: 4184

I'd like to help you on this but, as I'm not on duty tonight, I'm unable to.....or should that read I'm not able to? The mind boggles sometimes!
by Macavity
Sat Nov 08, 2008 3:31 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Relation between age and second language acquisition
Replies: 10
Views: 20715

I don't agree that age is a very big factor when learning a second language. Yes, children appear to pick the language up in what seems a natural process which would seem to require little or no effort on their part (although I personally doubt that this is really the case) whilst adults need to ove...
by Macavity
Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:45 am
Forum: Adult Education
Topic: Do you run a democratic classroom? Should you?
Replies: 9
Views: 7527

Democracy is only one of many forms of government, and not necessarily the best form to run with in the classroom. Many of the adult learners (2 hours a week for the most part) that I have tried to empower with a certain amount of autonomy, whilst exploring the possibilities of running democratic co...
by Macavity
Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:01 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: How long for fluency?
Replies: 5
Views: 3574

Three years or so I would estimate for a fairly competent and "fluent" grasp under the conditions you describe.
by Macavity
Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:28 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Present perfect vs. present perfect continuous.
Replies: 4
Views: 3970

I think the sentence could be read as implying that an activity has recently ended and this is somewhere that we often encounter PPC. "Are you all right? You look awful!" " I've been sitting in a meeting all afternoon" "Don't tell me - Jones and his budget. Am I right?" -----------------------------...
by Macavity
Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:01 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: person responsible
Replies: 7
Views: 9951

As I understand things a concerned person is someone who is worried about something or somebody whereas a person concerned is someone who is involved in some way with a given situation. This sort of difference is also true for responsible person , which tells me the person is reliable and trustworth...