Grammar can be fun, like a puzzle.
(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)
During a teacher-training course that I was teaching for American college students who wanted to teach ESL, we were discussing where to put commas. Several of the students said that they decide according to their breath. As they are re-reading something that they had written, if they stop to take a breath, that’s where they put a comma. Wow!
Engaging group work
(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)
Group work in a grammar class can be a powerful learning tool if it is carefully structured. The format for the activities that I’ll present here has been effectively used with students from lower level to advanced. And the structure of these activities makes it easy for even the most passive students to be active; in fact, many times, the normally quiet students seem to shine while doing these. Another positive aspect of these is that they are non-threatening for students to engage in.
(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)
A tutor recently told me about her student who was confused by “where” and “which.” She was wondering how I would approach this student’s question. He had two sentences:
Shanghai is a city which has a population of eight million people.
Shanghai is a city where eight million people live.
