Archive for March, 2008

“I will practice my English with you, if you will do me the honor”

“You keep alive just to practice your English?” (more…)

“Only half of the activations in the brain were to do with the speech and language areas. The voice is not just coming from your lips. It’s coming from the whole body and you need to think about that when you’re trying to change aspects of it.” (more…)

A huge change in the way English is being taught in Oregon, apparently:

“Schools have begun explicitly teaching the grammar, rules and structure of English. And they are doing it in a carefully ordered way, making sure that students don’t miss any of the building blocks of how English verbs are conjugated, words are ordered, conversations are expected to proceed and sentences are constructed.

‘For a long time, we just read to them and exposed them to English and figured they would pick it up just like native speakers do,’ said Danelle Heikkila, who directs the English Language Learner program for Gresham-Barlow schools.

‘But the state has asked us to . . . make sure that we teach them about English, about the rules and forms and structures of English.’”

So the revolution is: teachers teach rather than “letting students discover themselves through the language” or some such 

And the results? (more…)

“Hello Alex,
 
I am writing to find out who owns your balanced “forum” of ideas. You will know that the web is a place for all-comers to denigrate others without the need for any material explanation or proof- some it seems make this a sick life’s work.
 
As I say please let me know the owner or CEO as soon as possible so that my lawyers can write to him/her/them and initiate some dialogue or potentially some action.
 
If I do not hear I will advise my Law firm to use all methods to seek this information out.
 
You may also need to be called to give evidence in the matter I refer to, since you are clearly a “voice” in this sector.
 
You cam reach me on 01753-858995 or on the mail address.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Paul S Lowe
Windsor Schools

paul@windsorschools.eclipse.co.uk” (more…)

“Hi Alex

Just been looking at the worksheets and lesson plans you´ve reproduced.  You´ve certainly been busy, great work I will be using quite a lot of them.  I was checking through to see if you had any specific to Legal English, as I am currently teaching a group of five lawyers in Spain.  If you have anything or know any good links to other websites I´d really appreciate your help.

Thanks very much.

Cheers
Sarah”
———-

“Hi Sarah
 
Thanks for your nice comments. I’m afraid I’ve never taught lawyers (the nearest I got was immigration officers), but do you mind if I post your email to see if any other readers have suggestions?
 
Thanks
 
All the best
 
Alex”
———

“Hiya

Thanks for your quick response.  Yes, you can post my email if you like.

saludos
Sarah”

—

So, any help at all gratefully received by me and Sarah. Please! Pretty please!

“An American teenager was hitchhiking in Nigeria. A carload of locals passed him. The car screeched to a halt. The locals jumped out and promptly roughed up the visitor. Why? (more…)

The worst book I have ever read about Japan, Shutting Out the Sun, has more or less made up for the dental work I need from gnashing my teeth while reading it, by reminding me of another way to deal with living abroad without the irritation that the writer of the book obviously couldn’t keep down. The trick is, to take the criticism that you read, hear or that pops into your head, and see if you can’t replace the world “Italians” (to choose one random example of a nationality you might find infuriating) with any other group of people, such as some or even all other nationalities. Let’s all try this trickwith some opinions about Japan from that book, shall we: (more…)

Maybe because it is the most obvious next step for an experienced and ambitious teacher who still wants to do something related to teaching rather than stepping into management, over the years I must have met 20 times as many teachers who wanted to be teacher trainers as people who ever managed to find a full time job doing it. That demand and the lack of a standard qualification for teacher trainers means that it can be very difficult to break into teacher training, and many of the teacher trainers I know relied somewhat on luck to do so. As such, none of the suggestions below are guaranteed to work- but all of them are guaranteed to improve your chances over sitting and waiting, or over taking one of the very dubious online qualifications for teacher trainers: (more…)