Category Archives: Vocabulary

Uncovering linguistic layers

Posted on November 8, 2016 by

From time to time a student composing an essay asks: “Shall I write in the street or on the street?”  As I don’t want to disturb the others by long lectures on prepositions, I usually say: “You can use both. Just … Continue reading →

Posted in Corpora, Grammar, Linguistic issues, Uncategorized, Vocabulary | 2 Comments

Disappointed

Posted on November 5, 2016 by

Apparently, my blog has recently turned into a diary where I’ve been recording and sharing some of my corpora-related observations. Here’s another anecdote in the series of posts: Yesterday, in class, we dealt with adjectives of feeling and emotions and … Continue reading →

Posted in Corpora, Grammar, Linguistic issues, Technology, Vocabulary | Leave a comment

A flood of conversation

Posted on January 7, 2016 by

If you need your students to practise speaking about a specific topic, here’s a simple idea you may use in class. Let’s say you want your learners to talk about natural disasters. What a great topic to start the new … Continue reading →

Posted in Dogme teaching, Speaking, Teaching ideas, Trying out something new, Vocabulary | 10 Comments

The ‘shush’ tweak and lexical priming

Posted on January 1, 2016 by

Did I tell you how much I love the define-and-guess-the-word activities with the ‘shush’ tweak? The tweak lies in the rule that whenever a student guesses the word (or an expression, idiom, picture, movie, etc.), they are never allowed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Dogme teaching, Speaking, Teaching ideas, Trying out something new, Vocabulary | 2 Comments

Everyone is a genius.

Posted on December 30, 2015 by

I must admit that the older I get, the more I appreciate simplicity and spontaneity in language teaching. It makes me very happy when a beautiful, meaningful lesson grows out of something seemingly trivial or when an impromptu action leads to something … Continue reading →

Posted in Classroom management, Dogme teaching, Education, Grammar, Speaking, Teaching ideas, Trying out something new, Vocabulary | 7 Comments

A lion or a squirrel?

Posted on December 28, 2015 by

When I think of dogme, what first springs to mind is the type of teaching where, ideally, all the resources and the content of the lesson are provided by the students. Although I’m by no means a pure Dogmetist, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Classroom management, Dogme teaching, Grammar, Speaking, Teaching ideas, Vocabulary | 3 Comments

C’mon, let’s speak

Posted on December 22, 2015 by

In this post, I’d like to share a couple of speaking activities I recently tried out with some of my classes. I believe that the activities are worth sharing because they generated a lot of genuine conversation as well as … Continue reading →

Posted in Classroom management, Dogme teaching, Grammar, Speaking, Teaching ideas, Uncategorized, Vocabulary | 8 Comments