Sep 8, 2019 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: prescribe If you’re ill and go to the doctor’s, once the doctor has examined you and discussed your symptoms, they’ll usually prescribe some medicine to help you get better. The doctor usually writes a prescription which you then take to the chemist or pharmacy, where you can pick up the prescription; they give you the medicine […]
Aug 3, 2019 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: pop-up Apologies for not having written one of these word / chunk of the day posts for quite some time. I’ve just been up to my ears in work these last few weeks, although I must admit I have also actually been away and am only just back home in London. I spent the weekend deep […]
Jun 13, 2019 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: Nae bother I have just come back from Scotland, where I was giving the keynote talk at the City of Glasgow College’s ESOL conference. I got given a present afterwards of a quaich – a small silver cup for sharing and drinking “a wee dram” (a small amount) of whisky (or brandy). Quaitch is originally a Gaelic […]
Apr 8, 2019 Beginners & Low levels, Chunks, Coursebooks, Developing materials, Grammar, Lexis What is a good coursebook for beginners? In a pevious post I explained why the typical syllabus at low levels is bad, but this does leave the question what is a good coursebook for beginners? Obviously, the short answer to this question is our own book Outcomes Beginner, but in this post and others I’m going to set out a bit more […]
Mar 28, 2019 Beginners & Low levels, Chunks, Core Principles, Coursebooks, Developing materials, Grammar Teaching grammar at low levels through chunks We could be teaching more grammar at low levels through grammaticalized chunks. We already do it sometimes, but we do it very inconsistently. Ironically, that’s because the syllabus at low levels is defined by teaching grammar, rather than being guided by what students need and want to say. Would you like some more chunks?The best […]
