Good Educator

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...

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...

Ok, so we have talked about the adjectives and how to teach the adjectives , next what I want to do is to take a look into adverbs which can give us a really hard time when dealing with them. I am taking a writing course at canvas.net and it was really helpful to learn so much things about how to use adverbs; therefore, I totally recommend this kind of free online courses. Anyhow, Adverbs are different from adjectives because the first ones modify verbs instead of nouns. let´s check it: Are these in-red words modifying a noun or a verb? 1. I read a book quickly 2. I read a big book 3. She runs slowly 4. She is a slow runner The verbs from the sentences one and three are been modified by the words "quickly" and "slowly"; then, they are adverbs. the words "slow" and "big" are qualifying the book and the girl; therefore, they are adjectives. There are adverbs of manner which tell us how something is/will be/was done. oftenly...

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...

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.  ...

Here is something basic about teaching English. It is whether teaching or not grammar.  Yes and No. Both answers are correct depending on some context-related thoughts. What is Prescriptive grammar? Prescriptive grammar is the rules and patterns taught in schools, discussed on teaching newspapers and magazines are protected by linguists organizations. that is, the grammar people should use in order to speak "correctly". For example:       Who did you see last night inside the movies?. This sentence, seen from a Prescriptive grammar view, has two mistakes. Although they continue being understandable, there are mistakes. A way to fix this could be:       Whom did you see last night at the movies? Those rules which tell us that we must use whom rather than who because it is the object of "see", are the Prescriptive grammar. Its main function is to lead us on the road for a "correct" way of speaking. Descriptive Grammar I...