Feb 11, 2020 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: room for improvement This afternoon I interviewed someone who’s applied to do one of our language courses this summer. We like to Skype people who are coming to study with us because it helps us get a feel for their level of English, it puts a face to the name and it allows us to get to know […]
Feb 11, 2020 Grammar, Opinions, The state of our profession Back to school: Part One As you may have noticed, we recently wrote a Beginner’s book and I have written a series of posts exploring the ideas behind it. One thing that’s driving this two-man campaign (you can decide for yourself if that means it’s an advertising campaign or a war!) is the commonly-expressed view that lexical approaches are only […]
Jan 20, 2020 Classroom Activities, Coursebooks, Lexis, Opinions Beyond word lists: eight ways to get more from the OUTCOMES Vocabulary Builder One of the more innovative add-ons that accompanies the OUTCOMES series of General English coursebooks we wrote for National Geographic Learning is the Vocabulary Builder, which is often just known as the VB. The main idea behind the Vocabulary Builder was to provide both teachers and students with a list of language covered on each […]
Jan 10, 2020 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: on the wagon This Friday I’ll be meeting an old friend of mine called Jon. I’m looking forward to seeing him as it’s been a while since we last met, but I’m also slightly worried as ever since we arranged to go out a couple of weeks ago, he’s been making a big deal about the fact that […]
Jan 5, 2020 Coursebooks, Grammar, Lexis, Opinions A different kind of Beginner-level book 5: Pronunciation Pronunciation: Really? Do I have to?While the bulk of Beginner coursebooks on the market are pretty uniform when it comes to the way they handle grammar and – to some extent – vocabulary, there seems to be little consistency when it comes to pronunciation and what to teach. Headway Beginner doesn’t have any pron sections […]
