Uncategorized
-
All About TESOL Team Teaching
Why do it? And does it even work? It is my belief that if you asked the average person to visualize a classroom, they would imagine a square room with about 30 students and 1 teacher. This has been the popular model throughout most of recorded time. Born from necessity instead of any kind of…
-
Speak No Evil
A tongue-in-cheek critique of the three types of people who show their faces when it comes to grammar. Is it just me or has grammar become rather popular lately? Weird Al’s newest album topped the charts with its song about grammar recently. The Oatmeal has several comics specifically about grammar. And the level of memes…
-
The Effect of Alcohol on Language Learning
It doesn’t take long for some folks to get bored with what they’re doing and decide to throw alcohol into the mix. But do alcohol and language learning really mix? Many humans are desperate to find any redeeming qualities of alcohol consumption; from the glass of wine a day maxim, to alcohol improves your sex…
-
On the Plight of Journalists and the Myth of Linguistic Determinism
Raise your hand if you ever find yourself bored and looking for entertainment on the Internet. The Internet, ah yes, did you know the Internet is supposed to have a capital letter? I’m not sure why; perhaps to avoid confusion when someone is talking of some other inter connected network. We use the Internet for…
-
The 5 Best TED Talks on Language
TED has hours of interesting videos to watch on almost any subject matter. Here’s some of my favorite that deal with language. I discovered TED talks roughly ten years ago, and promptly went on a borderline unhealthy binge of watching every one I came across. TED has since gone through a transformation, sprouting limbs such…
-
Prescriptive Grammar: fueling a culture of native speaker elitism
I took part in a discussion a while ago that arose from a grammatical survey on which of two sentences sounded correct. These were the sentences: A) Mary was seen entering the building last night. or B) Mary was seen to enter the building last night. It was an entirely casual survey given to a…
-
Communicative Activities for Beginners
Just a few information gap activities in case you were looking for something to do in your language class today. Many teachers struggle with finding ways to get beginner ELLs to use English communicatively in the classroom. Often teachers get stuck on things like repetition or reading out loud that may sound like the student…
-
What Would Joseph Do?
Teaching over 50 foreign languages, the Mormon Church’s language program deserves a close look Well, they found me. I didn’t think they would. I didn’t even know they were anywhere nearby, but then there was that inimitable knock on my door at 7pm on a Sunday night. They were startled when I opened the door.…
-
Winners Want the Ball
Recently, I was sitting at my desk when I looked up and saw a caucasian gentleman being escorted around the office by the school principal. In most scenarios I wouldn’t bat an eyelash at this, but at my school, it’s not every day I see someone of European heritage, unless I’m looking in a mirror.…
-
Benign Frankenstein
English can be a powerful instrument for community building, but is it hurting as much as it’s helping? The 2014 TESOL International Convention ended a month and a day ago. I didn’t go, but the organization conveniently live-streams the presentations of the keynote speakers. This year Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, of Thai political notoriety, gave the…
Alex Barrett 