Teaching Matters: How to Add Student Voices to Classroom Discussions
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” -Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), British author and Nobel laureate This Teacher Edition Tuesday post, a weekly series based on ten teaching tips from the recently released Compelling American Conversations – Teacher Edition, addresses classroom participation and bringing more international student voices into community...
Read MoreTalking About Fun with Phrasal Verbs
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962), American politician, activist and chairman of the drafting committee for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights This Teacher Edition Tuesday post, a weekly series based on ten teaching tips from the recently released Compelling American Conversations –...
Read MoreTeaching Phrasal Verbs – Fun with Take and Make
“Make change your friend.” – Bill Clinton (1946-), 42nd President of the United States Part of Teacher Edition Tuesday, a weekly series based on ten teaching tips from the recently released Compelling American Conversations – Teacher Edition! “Take” and “make” create many common phrasal verbs. One could “take” several English lessons just going over the intricacies of their...
Read MoreTeaching Matters: Do Our Students Need to Swim in English or Pass Grammar Tests?
“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” ~C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British novelist, theologian, and literary critic Last week we discussed English as a lingua franca (ELF), and how emphasis on a mutual understanding between conversation partners remains the goal. Earlier last month, we questioned what standards were reasonable for...
Read More“Good Enough”: English as a lingua franca & a uniting force
“I’m a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they’re interested in.” ~Bill Gates (1955- ) American business magnate, philanthropist As more people learn English, using English as a lingua franca (ELF) has become increasingly...
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