Teacher Discussion Forums

The Present Simple contrasts with the PRESENT PERFECT - in my book. Some may elect to call the perfect tenses "COMPOUND TENSES", but PERFECT has always been in use as well.

Still in China, and staying for some more time.

Roger

A good debate, thanks to all, especially to Larry whoalways initates good threads and offers sound comments. I have been absent throughout this summer for technical reasons, no other ones. I am glad those problems are overcome now. As for my take on this view, I can safely say I have learnt quite a ...

What a lemming like attitude for a language teacher to have! It is possible to learn the written language with a teach-yourself book and a dictionary. Why not let the government decide these things and do your best to teach as well as you can. One day they might be able to afford to make a nice, sm...

hey, woodcutter, I am terribly at odds with your claim about monolingual missionaries in the world at large, really I am! I do deplore the fact that so many monolingual TEFLers are roaming the world in search of thrill, excitement, and the somewhat pompous title of being a "teacher" when they have n...

it ( My question is this: And how would such instruction be carried out, specifically? For instance, would the teacher merely teach teh pronunciation quickly, and as long as teh student's pronunciatin is approximate and he knows the meaning of the word when he sees it, the teacher would just move o...

Hello and welcome, machjo, I have been reading your posts on another website and am glad to meet you here too. As Larry said, your noble intention hardly fits into our brief. It's an aspect too big to be handled by the TEFL or TESL only. You may have noticed that your presence in China is sought par...

As a TEACHER, you ought to know how to SOLICIT advice on behalf of your students; in your case, vital background information is missing in your query. Teaching the PAST TENSE to other tongue English students is a different kettle from teaching the same subject to EFL students. Also, age and grammar ...

I liked revel's answer the most! My students couldn't care any less whether they make mistakes or not; they babble and expect me alone to listen to them, nobody else; often we have a communication chaos as I don't understand their botched English, and they don't understand standard English. This is,...

Larry has, as so many times before, given a balanced recap of what has been said here. I can't add much except to say that the term "Grammar Translation Method" still baffles me, as it has done for these last 5 or ten years. Yes, I never knew this phrase before, although I am acquainted with some of...

I learnt a number of languages - newspeak: "acquired" them - in the second half of last century, and I did quite successfully, as did most of my peers at that time. We didn't know we were doing things the "wrong" way, as so many Chomskyans and Crashyans (deliberate misspelling) have everybody believ...

Man of us from the world come with totally naive expectations to China. At first, there is a feeling of being welcome and respected. But over time, you see through the sheen. Chinese learners can be very unruly. This is a feature of their culture. One sign anyone notices is that people don't have th...

This is the wrong forum to ask this kind of question. Go to the China forums. Just my opinion: you should think very hard whether it is in the interest of your kids to move to a foreign country at their tender age! Peking is an expensive place. Where will your kids be schooled? You won't be able to ...

I would second Stephen Jones!

If you ask us to help you, may we be allowed to expect you to write in conventional standardised English? Yours is an esoteric type fit for barflies or internet chatrooms!

I didn't think "making a trip" was ungrammatical. By the same token, I would like to ask: Which is better/wrong: 'make a comma there..." or "do a comma..." The popular expression "make that two" or "make that 'another round of beer'" comes to mind. I am also not sure if you "make a photo" or "take a...