Graeme
How Fortunate the Man with None
From the play “Mother Courage” by Bertolt Brecht You saw sagacious Solomon You know what came of him, To him complexities seemed plain. He cursed the hour that gave birth to him And saw that everything was vain. How great and wise was Solomon. The world however did not wait But soon observed what followed [...]
Freemasons – A Secret Society Or A Society With Secrets
Anyone familiar with Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code will have heard of Freemasonry. The Freemasons are often referred to as a secret society, and feature prominently in many conspiracy theories. Many Freemasons dispute being a secret society, suggesting that they are simply a society with secrets. Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the bombing [...]
Are you bored or boring?
A common mistake that I see (or hear) English learners make is when they say, “I am boring,” instead of “I am bored” (nothing to do). Unlike present progressive verb, such as running, sleeping, eating, jumping, or playing, boring is actually an adjective. Adjectives that end in –ing describe a person, a thing, or a [...]
A Psychological Method For Learning Languages
The title of this post is from the title for an essay written by Roberto Assagioli, the founder of the Psychosynthesis movement. Assagioli was born in Italy, and a contemporary of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. I reread his essay on language learning while researching current methods and theories of adult language learning, and I [...]
The Hedgehog
Scrabble for ESL
Scrabble is a fun board game that can be used as an ESL tool for teaching and practicing vocabulary. When playing with ESL students, Scrabble can be played slightly differently than the usual game rules. The important thing is for the students to have fun while practicing English vocabulary, and the game can be used [...]
English Articles – A, An, The
Articles are used before a noun to show whether something is specific or general. English has three articles: the a an The is a definite article and refers to a specific thing. This word can be used with singular or plural nouns. e.g. The apple that I am eating is very delicious (singular). The apples [...]
Four Candles – The Hardware Shop
The Two Ronnies’ sketch, The Hardware Shop, is commonly known as Four Candles. It is good for ESL students to see how confusing English can be, especially when words are not pronounced clearly and correctly. ESL teachers can reflect on the idiosyncrasies of English. Four Candles Transcript In a hardware shop. Ronnie Corbett is behind [...]
Theophilus Thistler – An Exercise in Vowels
Theophilus Thistler – An Exercise in Vowels is a clever song by Sonic Animation. It contains several tongue twisters, including part of the traditional Theophilus Thistle. Theophilus Thistler lyrics focus on the English /th/ sounds (IPA: θ / ð). Robert Rolley lyrics focus on English /r/ and /l/ sounds. Try reading the lyrics out loud, [...]
Recent Comments