When I teach, I allow my students to ‘perform’ the language skills with me in fluent, two-way conversation, I monitor their language at the same time, and then help them to choose more effective ways of expressing themselves, adhering to the ‘rules’ of English grammar, but also helping them to break away from the constraints of their childhood ‘classroom’ English, and their tendency to reproduce structures found in their own native language which may sound ‘clumsy’ in English. From there on it’s just about having fun discovering a whole new world of expression in a language which they already enjoy speaking, but realise that they can now use in a myriad of ways and situations.
In my future blogs and posts I will talk about some of the more unusual, lesser known aspects of the English language, which I hope will be of interest to native and non-native English speakers alike. I will discuss the weird and wonderful world of ‘phrasal verbs’ (both separable and inseparable!), how to avoid ‘false friends’ when trying to reproduce vocabulary from another language, pronunciation tips, confusing tenses and question tags. I will also talk about modal verbs, prepositions and conditionals, and many of the aspects of English grammar which crop up while teaching my students; some of which I already knew, but many of which I am only just discovering for myself! Join me…
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