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Showing posts with the label teaching grammar

According to Paul Seligson.

I love reading and I am fond of articles dealing with language education and even more when those articles entirely report on my ways of teaching and beliefs about how students should be taught. Here's a little resume on what Paul Seligson answered during an interview to El País. Link is provided at the end of the post. Paul Seligson goes with this basic lines. We need to focus less on grammar and more on listening to become better speakers.  Nothing new yet. However, I must recognize he is implying many teachers are obsessed with grammar rather than English as a communicative asset. Rajoy, president of Spain, wants every college student to hold, by the end of their careers, a B2 proficiency level. deadline: ten years. I'm leaning towards thinking he'll not make it. Colombia has already prorogued their goals. "Think in English" is a misleading dogma. Students should be able to use Spanish to find meaning in English since they're linked by Latin as...

Physical Education: Required or optional?

Prolog This texts answers to a prompt within Barron's Essential word for the IELTS Student's book, which I'm carefully learning from. I invite you to share comments. Physical Education: Required or optional? Physical Education is a subject that has been overlooked as it has happened with other school programs such as music and arts. Having sports or gymnastics at school will gainfully add to students' psychosomatic health and social skills; making it a mandatory field of learning. It is well known that those students who practice a sport are more willing to eagerly learn  other subjects. Pupils who don't work out, tend to get deeper into a sedentary life which would possibly result in chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, nervous breakdowns, and so on. Mental health is another factor to look at. Playing a sport enriches students' goals and life style; challenges them to improve on their skills and to look after being the best; and teaches the...

Ideas to teach adjectives!

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First, go to check what I posted about adjectives when referring to grammar on  how are you? a post about adjectives Ideas for teaching or using adjectives in an EFL classroom Our students should be able to describe or give information about things. Adjectives allow them to do so and even to say what they think about anything. We must remember that adjectives are not only for describing things we can see. Love, peace or air, are nouns we can describe easily because we know what they are and what they are related to. When teaching adjectives we cannot lose track of our class context. Will I teach to teenagers who are labeled as advanced students or will I teach to a group of adults whose main motivation to study English is to pass the MET with a B1 level of proficiency? Having this clear you might create your lesson plan and here is where ideas show up.  I will show you some ideas for basic, intermediate and advanced students you can use. This ideas will also he...

How are you? A post about adjectives

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have you noticed something. When you are in a classroom with EFL students and you say "hello class, How are you today?" their answer is " FINE , thank you. And you?" that really creeps me out. That makes me get sad . That is so annoying .  Why is it that they are always fine ?   Why don´t they use some other adjectives   ?   can´t they get bored ? can´t they get amazing every since in a while? I was checking on how to use adjectives in English and I found a lot interesting things. Here I go. Adjectives  modify  and / or  describe  the subjects of the sentences. Modifying:   such as: A large tree Describing:   such as: The tree is large The main characteristic of the adjective is that its main intention is to give more information about an object.  Order of adjectives: Even though this is not a mandatory rule. It is good to know that adjectives are usually used in a certain order.  ...