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Concept Mapping in ESL

If anyone has followed my thoughts on teaching English as a second language, they know that I believe that teaching with written materials, especially in the early stages of learning, is detrimental to the...

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

How important is grammar? Here’s a famous sentence that is completely correct grammatically, but that makes absolutely no sense. It illustrates in a very simple way how grammar is not nearly as important as...

Writing Interferes with Learning

If you go into any traditional English however, you see the teacher writing out sentences on their whiteboards, referring students to textbooks and giving them written handouts and written assignments. You’ll see the students...

Context Is King

One of the problems with learning English in the classroom is that there is seldom any context to what is taught. You are taught bits and pieces of information. You learn a lot about...

Regrets in English

Shoulda, coulda, woulda! These are the sounds of regret. “I shoulda known he’d leave me.” “I coulda been a better father, but I always put my job first.” “I woulda done better on the...

ED Is Dead

I’m dying! I’m dying! I’m dead! DyING is a process. The -ing ending indicates something continuous or progressive, that is, something that is in the process of happening (ex. I’m playing, jumping, laughing). So...