“Think in English,” we say to our lower level multi-lingual writers. However, to really support them in avoiding translation errors, we need to give them lots of practice. The following prewriting refresher is structured as a game in which teams compete to create target sentence types. The first team to […]
After students have studied a set of vocabulary, they are often left with a long list of words which can appear quite lonely. Many textbooks include these lists as a reference for students at the end of unit, but what if they could be used more actively in […]
What is pragmatics? Like the highways, roads, and trails that guide our travel, language-oriented patterns scaffold our conversations. The existence of patterns does not mean there is not variation. Every time we get on a freeway literally or figuratively, it’s a new experience because we bring a different mood […]
As language teachers, we often have our students write sentences to practice the grammar they are learning. This is a sound approach, as it can help students to both internalize the structure and use it to express their own ideas. Unfortunately, while their sentences are often complete, the […]
When it comes to vocabulary, published materials generally offer plenty of exercises. Traditionally, students match words to definitions or fill in gaps as a way to get a “hit” on meaning and perhaps exposure to form. It is then up to students to move from the contexts on the […]
Summer is over and a new group of learners are about to enter your room. Tentative and hopeful, they want to relax, open up and feel comfortable experimenting in English. So how can you help? The following low stress ice-breaker is inspired by John Fields book, Listening in the Language Classroom, but […]
Students rely on models to help them communicate accurately and effectively. How often do you see a student’s thesis statement modeled after one in the textbook? Words are swapped out, but the pattern of the sentence essentially remains the same. Swapping is a useful learning strategy, and one […]
Making tests that push our students enough but not too far can feel like one of the biggest challenges for teachers. Tests that are too easy may lead to a false assessment of proficiency. Those that are too hard can be discouraging to students, and challenging for teachers to grade. What we want […]
For native speakers, a writing process that starts with a plan and ends with sentence-level editing makes sense. However, nonnative writers have different challenges, especially at the introductory level. Fortunately, process writing is not set in stone. We can adapt it to suit our students’ needs. The first […]
Below is a slideshow of one of the presentations we gave at Baltimore TESOL, “Thinking Outside the Paragraph,” where we outline three key principles that inform our teaching of academic writing at lower levels and helped formulate the pedagogy behind our new writing series, Trio Writing, by Oxford University Press. Beginning […]
