One doesn’t have to talk about romance on Valentine’s Day. I find the topic makes some feel uncomfortable, so you have to consider how best to approach it if you’re going to approach it at all. I just hosted a live stream with a couple hundred learners, and I invited them to build a story…
Can Anyone Hear Me? — Erasing Confusion Over Indefinite Pronouns
I recently shared a handout to help basic English students with indefinite pronouns that refer to people. See my earlier post. It turns out that more practice is needed, or so I discovered after I met with less success than expected during a recent lesson. Some of your students may also have some lingering doubts,…
The Perfect Aspect: Replacing confusion with comfort
Do we need the perfect aspect in communication? It seems like we have quite a number of ways to avoid it. I’ve discussed the challenges in understanding aspect in an earlier post. (Click to view 2017 post.) One thing that confuses students is the frequent use of the simple past instead of the present perfect…
Someone, Anyone, and Other Indefinite Pronouns
My basic English students, Flavia and Andreia, have made good progress over the past several months. The most recent lessons posted on YouTube were recorded back in June 2019, so they are noticeably farther along the path to proficiency now in January 2020. There are still a number of topics I’d like to cover…
College Tuition: A Hot Topic to Debate
Several topics are trending in U.S. news, somewhat due to the recent presidential debate. The views and proposals of different candidates are making people in the U.S. think more about certain issues, such as the cost of college tuition. ELLs should be welcome to weigh in with their own personal opinions without fear of language…
Storytelling: Your Go-To Activity
Storytelling can be any teacher’s go-to activity because stories can be short or long and make use of any target language. If you have any concern about your own lack of creativity, don’t worry about running dry; tap into your students’ wonderful minds. All they need is a prompt, like an interesting photo from the…
Student Stumper 50: “Last” vs. “Past”
QUESTION: What’s the difference between “last” and “past”? Can I say “the last year” and “the past year”? Do they mean the same thing? ANSWER: We can use both of those phrases, but they don’t necessarily mean the same thing. Anytime there are similarities, we must figure out where exactly there’s overlap. Structurally, the phrases…
My Holiday Wishes to You
I wish you all happy holidays! May 2020 bring you joy, peace, growth, and unexpected moments to treasure! I’ll return with new posts in January. Enjoy these last few days of 2019. Kind regards, Jennifer Featured photo by congerdesign. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/christmas-christmas-decoration-4646421/.
Creating an Inclusive Celebration of Christmas
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are officially listed on U.S. calendars. With many schools and businesses closed on theses days and with special holiday events scheduled in abundance at this time of year, it’s pretty hard to ignore the importance of Christmas in American culture. Whether you’re in the U.S. or not and whether you…
10 Ways to Explore and Expand the Topic of Personality Types
In a recent video lesson, I presented vocabulary for talking about the range of personalities a person can have. It leans towards pop psychology, and that’s the fun of it. Few of us have any credible background in psychology (the handful of courses I took in college do not equal a degree!), but we’ve all…
A Realistic Path Toward Accent Reduction
I’m not a big believer in accent elimination. A successful pronunciation lesson of mine doesn’t guarantee a 100% “native-like accent.” I support progress towards accent reduction. The end goal is clear, natural, confident pronunciation. Reducing one’s foreign accent in English is about targeting a model closely enough so that variations don’t confuse or distract the…
Thanksgiving Wishes (and one activity!)
This week I’ll take a short break from blogging. I’ll need some extra time to bake my pumpkin pies and stuff the 13-pound turkey that’s currently thawing in the fridge. To all who are celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday, I wish you a warm and peaceful holiday. May your plate be full, may conversation be pleasant,…
