Teacher Discussion Forums

A good language learner must be willing to take risks (practice the language without fear of failure, embarresment) and must abandon 'ideas' and their 'norms' for a language. Pronoun placement is a good example. In English, we place direct object pronouns after the verb (I have it), but in Spanish, ...

Thank you very much for replying. These are good ideas!

This is just the 'nature of hte beast,' at least with non-credit classes. I, too, have been teaching this type of class for a few years. It can be frustrating becaust you feel for your new students coming in who can't speak anything and you are practicing with vocab. and grammar they don't understan...

These are all good points, however the original post asked about the simple past. But, the present continuous got me thinking about how to further explain the topic.

I am setting out on an adventure this summer. I have focused my ESL teaching on pre-beginning classes/students with a communicative approach. I will be teaching an intermediate reading/writing class and am a bit nervous. Can anyone give me some tips on activities or lessons that have worked well? Al...

I know this is an old post, but it struck my interest. I did my MA thesis as a "diary study," which sounds odd, but it is just as you were inquiring about: Introspection to improve teaching. There is a broad range of literature relating to introspection, diary studies, and individual development. Ka...

"My mission" is the noun/subject and "is" is the main verb!!

"One of the students who (come/comes) from the USA was late this morning"

"Comes" is correct. The verb will agree with the main noun, which is "one" If the subject was students, then the verb would be "comes"
Students who come...

Hope this helps

"Looking forward to" is a transitive verb, so it must take something after it. "To" is part of the verb. If it were a preposition, the verb would be looking forward, which could mean literally looking into the future. A phrasal verb is a multi-word (or just two word) verb.] Grow up ("up" is not the ...

Was/Were questions are for sentences that use the "to be" verb as the main verb.
She is happy - Is she happy? - Was she happy?

Otherwise, you will use "did" or "do" (for the present tense) for the question.

She drinks beer - Does she drink beer? - Did she drink beer?

It's that simple.

"What do you think ARE the main aims in an English speaking academic essay?" This is incorrect because the question word in this sentence is "What" Questions that begin with a "to be" verb transpose the subject and verb. Otherwise, the subject and verb to do switch places. "What do you think" is the...