Death in the 1820s and a walk in the park
-
On Sunday I went for a walk in Philips Park near Prestwich, which was
muddy and steep in places but enjoyably varied. You can go from overgrown
former for...
Monday 13 September 2010
Interesting idea: verbs and prepositions
This is from one of my favourite web comics. I'm sure there's something can be done with this idea: http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/?p=1965
Tuesday 26 May 2009
My new favourite website
Could www.futilitycloset.com be one of the greatest websites of all time?
From a teacher's point of view it may well be. It's a compendium of weird of amusing anecdotes, fun linguistic facts and brainteasers, many of which would be brilliant for advanced English learners.
Here are a few of my favourites so far:
Puzzles:
Short texts:
And also:
From a teacher's point of view it may well be. It's a compendium of weird of amusing anecdotes, fun linguistic facts and brainteasers, many of which would be brilliant for advanced English learners.
Here are a few of my favourites so far:
Puzzles:
Short texts:
And also:
Thursday 19 March 2009
New post at "Tatty Jackets"
Easily the most interesting textbook from my collection, "Pleasant English" is a textbook for German schools from 1939, published before war was declared between Britain and Germany. It traces the learning curve of a German family who have recently moved to England, but adds a sprinkling of nationalist, political comments to avoid "an unworthy idolisation of all that is English" (my translation).
Read all about it here.
Read all about it here.
Tuesday 10 March 2009
English Life and Thought
A little background: on the rare occasions that I manage to dig myself out from the mountains of vocab cards that accumulate around me, I go to flea markets to find old English textbooks. Here's one from 1927. Hop over to my other blog for a full description with pictures, quotes and everything.
Wednesday 4 March 2009
Inspiring photographs
Intriguing, artistic, topical, and sometimes amusing pictures can be found on the websites of most news sources, for example:
Beginners:
- The Guardian's 24 hours in pictures
- The BBC's In Pictures
- Reuters' Signs of the Times series
Beginners:
- Name as many things as you can in the picture.
- How does the picture make you feel? (choose from a list of adjectives)
- Guess the country / situation
- Tenses practice: What is happening? What has happened? What is going to happen?
- Brainstorm adjectives to describe the picture.
- Describe the picture to a partner so they can make a rough sketch (good for designers, marketing students)
- Speculation modals: They might be doing... They must have been...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)