One of the best things about adopting a more lexical view of language is that you start to appreciate more clearly how words interact with other words, and you are then able to start passing on to students the message…
Archive for January, 2015
January 2015
Still cutting up cards! Activities for storing and retrieving chunks
We're delighted to feature our very first guest post. At IATEFL Harrogate last year, one of the sessions we enjoyed was by a young teacher called Andrea Borsato, who was working at International House, London at the time. Andrea was…
Exploiting self-study phrasal verb exercises in the classroom
I'm very pleased today to be able to respond to the first request we've had in from a visitor. Patrick Gallagher has written to ask for ideas on how to tackle what's essentially self-study material that students would probably do…
Phrase of the day: What’s not to like?
We've often said that what strikes us most about the many incredibly competent non-natives we meet in our field is very rarely their grammatical accuracy! Rather than noticing the correct use of a mixed conditional or the stunning use of…
Phrase of the day: nothing if not
Listening to a Radio 4 review programme the other day, I was struck by the description of quirky Icelandic singer Björk's new LP - Vulnicura - as "nothing if not honest". The chunk is a subtle and interesting way of…
Phrase of the day: saying it is one thing; meaning it is another.
Jon Wright is the author of the wonderful Idioms Organiser, for our money perhaps the best self-study book on idioms on the market. Just before Christmas, I was lucky enough to catch Jon talking at the English UK South-West conference…
More Moscow, Russia: January 2015
Phrase of the day: What’re you doing later?
Lots of very common chunks don’t get taught early enough in many course because they are seen as somehow being examples of ‘advanced’ grammar. For instance, this common question is often left out of Elementary and Pre-Intermediate courses due to…