Forum: Teaching Reading and Writing
08-17-2008, 08:37 PM
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Replies: 10
Views: 7,059
Do you think these questions are relevant?
Dear Maria,
Yes, I agree that the main difference is the reader’s intention. (In order to simplify this post, I‘ll focus on nonfiction, but that’s just a matter of preference. The reader’s intention...
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Forum: Teaching Grammar
08-12-2008, 11:36 PM
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Replies: 4
Views: 5,778
There’s Context and then There’s Context
Dear Maria,
I agree that “a context, whether up front or eventually, is essential for students to make [a] real world grammar connection.” My students in my large Level 2 class (40+ students at the...
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Forum: Teaching Grammar
08-06-2008, 10:41 PM
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Replies: 4
Views: 5,778
It depends on things like class size.
Dear Maria,
Beginning with a cliché, grammar without a context (which I assume means focusing on form) and grammar within a dialog, a reading, or some kind of authentic or authentic-like discourse...
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Forum: Using Authentic Materials
08-06-2008, 04:35 AM
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Replies: 9
Views: 23,703
Is this normal in Malaysia?
Dear Michael (Logos),
Since you are familiar with choral speaking in Malaysia, I’d like to ask you about this … ummm … interesting activity. First, were any of the videos that I included links to...
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Forum: Using Authentic Materials
08-05-2008, 04:41 AM
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Replies: 9
Views: 23,703
Choral Speaking, Plays, and Reading Theater
Dear Love Hui,
I think that I understand what choral speaking is:
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/mla/speak023.html
Following your description, I think that a script, or a transcript, for a film is...
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Forum: Using Authentic Materials
08-04-2008, 09:01 PM
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Replies: 9
Views: 23,703
Film Scripts and Transcripts
Dear Love Hui,
Film scripts are made before the movie is made, and the words and scenes are often quite different in the actual movie. Film transcripts are made after the movie is made, and the...
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Forum: Teaching Reading and Writing
08-01-2008, 05:23 AM
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Replies: 10
Views: 7,059
The Medium and the Message
Dear Maria,
In addition to what's been discussed so far, maybe reading teachers should, also, consider both the medium and the message. The following are letters to the editor of The New York Times...
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Forum: Teaching Reading and Writing
08-01-2008, 05:09 AM
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Replies: 10
Views: 7,059
Bottom Up and Top Down
Dear Maria,
Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser. While my brain can understand what you said, my gut is baffled. I run across both #1 and #2 quite often. However, I always hear some sound in my head —...
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Forum: Teaching Reading and Writing
07-30-2008, 09:24 AM
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Replies: 10
Views: 7,059
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Forum: Teaching Reading and Writing
07-28-2008, 02:00 AM
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Replies: 10
Views: 7,059
Reading Aloud and Reading for Pleasure
Dear Maria,
I thought that it might be profitable to think about reading aloud and reading for pleasure. You said that you didn’t want a variation of students reading aloud, but this post might add...
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Forum: Teaching Reading and Writing
07-25-2008, 12:52 AM
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Replies: 10
Views: 7,059
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Forum: Teaching Grammar
07-19-2008, 07:21 PM
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Replies: 4
Views: 6,996
A Fun Review Game
Dear Teachers,
This is virtually identical to something in the following thread:
http://www.azargrammar.com/teacherTalk/forums/showthread.php?t=53
This game does take some advanced preparation the...
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Forum: Azar Grammar Series
07-17-2008, 12:35 AM
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Replies: 1
Views: 2,503
If they wanna cheat, let ‘em.
Dear Maria,
I do not think that the major portion of any student’s grades should be based on correctly answering close-ended-questions in any textbook. The textbook should be a tool to help students...
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Forum: Teaching Listening, Speaking, and Vocabulary
07-15-2008, 08:54 AM
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Replies: 1
Views: 2,758
Absolutes Versus Rules of Thumb
Dear Maria,
First off, thank you for telling us about this great resource. I’m thinking about using corpora for what may seem fairly obvious: finding out what people say. That may seem odd because...
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Forum: Language Learning and Teaching
07-03-2008, 02:39 PM
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Replies: 6
Views: 5,233
My List for Novices
Dear Maria,
This isn’t exactly a list of Do's and Don'ts, but it is a short list of aphorisms (or clichés) with some comments that I hope some new instructors will find...
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Forum: Language Learning and Teaching
06-29-2008, 10:46 PM
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Replies: 1
Views: 3,300
Do Tongue Twisters Try Students' Tongues?
Dear ESL Teachers,
On June 15, Woody wrote:
“[T]he students [will] have to fulfill their obligation to [practice] a tongue twister I gave [them] last week. …. I also have to recite a tongue twister...
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Forum: Teaching Listening, Speaking, and Vocabulary
06-29-2008, 09:20 PM
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Replies: 2
Views: 3,443
Cranium
Dear Woody,
I have often used an extremely modified version of Cranium. I won’t explain the original version, but you do need to be familiar with it, so look at this...
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Forum: Technology for Teachers and Students
06-29-2008, 03:49 AM
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Replies: 6
Views: 4,695
Maybe one of these will help.
Dear Frances,
I have not used any of these. I just did a search based upon your description (I Googled “create” “comics”), and these are some of the sites that I found:
Comic...
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Forum: Technology for Teachers and Students
06-28-2008, 06:03 PM
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Replies: 6
Views: 4,695
What do you want?
Dear Frances,
I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you want. By “comics,” do you mean “comic strips” like Peanuts?
http://www.snoopy.com/comics/peanuts/archive/index.html
Or do you mean you want...
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Forum: Teaching Listening, Speaking, and Vocabulary
06-21-2008, 01:33 AM
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Replies: 9
Views: 6,394
That’s a good thing
Dear Woody,
First off, I think that Maria has done a wonderful job of summarizing some of the things that can be done with videos. I often use videos, but I sometimes get in kind of a rut (that is,...
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Forum: Teaching Listening, Speaking, and Vocabulary
06-16-2008, 02:03 PM
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Replies: 9
Views: 6,394
Welcome to the club
Dear Woody,
I am going to try to give you some suggestions to improve your class in a future post. For now, I just want to assure you that I think that every noncredit ESL/EFL teacher has students...
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Forum: Teaching Grammar
06-04-2008, 11:05 PM
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Replies: 7
Views: 12,779
Here’s my best guess.
a. The forklift crushed the box.
b. The box was crushed by the forklift.
c. The news excited the employees.
d. The employees were excited by the news.
How are sentences b and d described? Are they...
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Forum: Teaching Grammar
06-02-2008, 09:10 PM
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Replies: 4
Views: 4,870
I don’t refer to their L1 very much.
Dear Maria,
For the most part, I don’t explicitly compare the students’ L1s with English in class because I’m not familiar enough with their L1s, and I’m not usually aware of any benefits to doing...
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Forum: Teaching Grammar
05-30-2008, 12:35 AM
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Replies: 7
Views: 5,153
I think it’s a perfect solution.
Dear Maria,
I think that your awareness raising methodology is the perfect solution — especially since you are going to examine “authentic or near authentic text or dialogue.” My semi-educated hunch...
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Forum: Technology for Teachers and Students
05-27-2008, 02:13 AM
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Replies: 14
Views: 8,970
We use these
Dear Frances,
My school uses Azar’s Understanding and Using English Grammar Interactive and the Side by Side software. We used to have the FoG (Focus on Grammar) software for all levels of the 2nd...
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