I don’t believe it!
A couple of posts ago, I gave my Comparatives and Superlatives page as an example of something that people really shouldn’t be clicking on when I have a far more creative and important page of often fun worksheets for the vital modern day skill of emailing in English. And guess what happened:
That’s right, more people clicked on the Comparatives link than clicked on the emailing one.
Now, online I’m often a defender of some kind of grammar teaching against those TEFL hippies who would totally do away with it, but if anyone thinks that avoiding “more beautfuller” is more important than knowing the basics of writing an email in the language of international communication, I might have to change my mind.
Other little things that amaze me:
- Students who have never had a lesson on false friends
- Students who know the Future Continuous but don’t know how to say “The day after tomorrow” (vital for Elem or Pre-Int, I would’ve thought)
- Students who know and overuse the Past Perfect, but don’t know the difference between “two days before” and “two days ago”
- Students who have gone through however many years of English without ever having been taught classroom questions like “How do you spell…?” (properly?)
Sure there are many more, but those have been my most recent Victor Meldrew moments. Anyone else care to share any?
