Teaching English Radio

Today I wanted to mention a section of the Teaching English website.  (Another of the sites I'm subscribed to and visit regularly.Teaching English RadioThere are 15 minute radio programmes on a particular theme. 9 themes have been covered so far:1  Planning your lessons2  Teachers supporting each other3  Finding and creating worksheets4  Using group work in larger classes5  Pair and group work in practice6  Developing...

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Learn and play!

As I write this post, my computer is playing some jazzy music to me.  Why? Because I've just been trying out Academy Island!  What exactly is that, you may ask?  It's a game!  I'll paste the description provided by Cambridge ESOL (I couldn't describe it better myself!)What is the game about?An unknown alien life form who landed on earth today has had to learn the English language to get by in a range of social situations... Don't...

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Olympic sports

If like me, you like interesting facts that you can share with your students, then I think you will also like the Olympic Sports page of the London 2012 website.You can click on any of the sports listed on the left or on the blue icon for it.  This will take you to a new page where you can read about the dates the event will take place in London, the venue.  There is a video illustrating figures about the number of players taking part,...

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Freelance Writers - Do You Know What Services to Offer?

If you want to get writing assignments right now, one way to do that is to write letters of introduction and send them to at least a dozen small local businesses. Along with these letters you should include a list of your writing services. But do you even know what services you want to offer?Maybe you've only thought about writing for magazines or other commercial print publications and you've never considered writing for businesses or individuals. You can still write for magazines. But you'll make more money FASTER if you also go after some regular...

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Funny consular requests

In the past here in Cantabria, teachers at the school where I used to work and myself too were often asked to help out tourists in difficulty. Incidents included putting up a couple who had missed their ferry till the next one because they had spent all their money and could not pay for a hotel room. I was asked to interpret for a poor woman who had been involved in a tragic motorbike accident and she and her partner (and the doctor treating her)...

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PET Speaking materials on Writefix

While I was looking at Writefix, a website designed generally to work on the area of argument and opinion essays and describing graphs, I came across a section of the site that focuses on the Cambridge English: Preliminary speaking test.If you move your mouse over the photo, you can see tabs of text with suggestions for things you could say about this photo.There are also some Part 2 materials for you to use with students.I think this could be VERY...

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Respected Reference Manuals Aren't Always Accurate or Pertinent

Sometimes the Most Respected Reference Manuals Don't Provide Pertinent AdviceMost often the reason for the error is the time that has passed since some rule was written. An example of this is a reference in THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE that allows for placing thoughts in quotations. This has been eschewed for decades, but in my writing workshops not long ago I had a participant cite section 10.42 from TCMOS and the following text: "I don't care if we have offended Morgenstern," thought Vera.Fortunately, TCMOF illustrates four other ways to handle...

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British Council Seminar on choosing and using resources

Yesterday, I received my weekly newsletter from British Council Teaching English.  (Another site I'm subscribed to). If I have time, I look through the areas mentioned in the newsletter as soon as it arrives and click on the links to find out more about them.  (If not, the email gets transferred to my 'subscriptions' folderand stays there till I have time to look at it properly!)I decided to have a look at the email this morning when I...

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Book Ghost Writing

Book ghost writing is a term that has been around for a long time. As a matter of fact, book ghost writing began shorty after people started writing and selling books.You might have good ideas for books but just do not have the time or writing expertise to write the book. These are some of the reasons why people hire book ghost writing services.Whatever idea you have for the book, there is a qualified ghost writing service that can turn the idea into a completed book. Book ghost writers are available to work with you all throughout the writing...

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Then Vs Than and That Vs Which

So, I'm reading some articles that just made the muscles in my neck strain and shake in my growing annoyance at seeing multiple grammar mistakes. The writer kept writing "then" when he/she meant "than." Being that the articles were published online, I couldn't click on the mistakes and fix them. It drove me nuts. And like all things that drive me crazy, I thought, "Hey! Why not complain about it in an article and teach people how to do it right?"So, here we are. Again. Learning to write right. I'm so pithy.Then vs. Than"Then" refers to a period...

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Toptenz.net and Toptenzphotos

As you know from previous posts like Camera Obscura, Camara Obscura 1, Life on the Edge, Compare and congrast challenge , I love sites with great photos for use in class.A little earlier, I was looking at various bits and pieces on a site I like to browse from time to time (http://www.toptenz.net/).  The name says what it is - a wide and varied collection of 10 things on a theme.To give you an example, here are four photos taken...

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The Big Egg Hunt

Some of you have already started your Easter holidays.  In Cantabria, we start on Wednesday :·)I was preparing a few suggestions for some friends who will be visiting London next weekend, when I came across the Big Egg Hunt.Next weekend (Easter weekend), 209 giant Easter eggs will be on display in Covent Garden. Up until yesterday, they were 'hidden' around London and people went round hunting them. Want to see more of these beauties?   Visit...

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Three Grammar Myths

I'm here today to de-mythify the rules of grammar. Yep, that's right. There are real grammar myths embedded into what most people think are hard and fast rules. I'm going to tackle three of the most popular right this minute, take them head on, throw them to the ground and beat them to a pulp.Grammar Myth #1: You can't end a sentence with a preposition.This is by far the most pervasive myth in grammar. It's absolute bunk. If you're writing an academic or scholarly article, you should try to avoid placing the preposition at the end whenever possible,...

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