Jottings - Liste des derniers articles parus sur jottings.over-blog.com

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Nonnative-English-Speaking Teachers (29/01/2012 publié dans : Culture )

Being a nonnative speaker of English, I'm very happy that recently people have been more open to the fact that nonnative English-speaking teachers can be good English teachers. In fact some people ...
English Pronunciation Verse (The Chaos) (27/01/2012 publié dans : Pronunciation )

The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité Dr. Gerard Nolst Trenité ( 20 July 1870, Utrecht - 9 October 1946, Haarlem), was a Dutch observer of English. He is best known in the English-speaking world for ...
gradable / non-gradable adjectives (24/01/2012 publié dans : Vocabulary )

This a subject I have managed to avoid teaching until last week, when I was 'forced' to have a closer look at it. I really don't think that it is a very important subject, but as I have all the ...
Each peach pear plum (22/01/2012 publié dans : Culture )

When my children were little I would read them this lovely book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The text is as follows: In this book With your little eye Take a look And play “I spy” Each Peach Pear ...
Furniture vocabulary (18/01/2012 publié dans : Vocabulary )

First of all "Happy New Year" to all of you! I will start the year with a vocabulary list. I know, I know, not very exciting. But in fact lots of students don't know this kind of vocabulary. So ...
Don't teach the 'Queen's English' to foreign students (02/11/2011 publié dans : Culture )

Daily Mail By Emily Allen Last updated at 8:30 AM on 2nd November 2011 ________________________________ Don't teach the 'Queen's English' to foreign language students, linguist urges Mario ...
Irish Pub Songs (24/09/2011 publié dans : Culture )

This Summer (August 2011) I was on holiday in Ireland. And one of the things I enjoyed most, was going to the pub where musicians would play Irish music. Most of these songs were known to all, and ...
Why do the French drive on the right? (24/09/2011 publié dans : Culture )

The other day I was listening to the radio, and they talked about why the English drive on the right. I had never heard an explanation for this, and I guess most of you haven't either, so I ...
Uncountable nouns (27/07/2011 publié dans : Grammar )

I really like teaching this subject. So, let's start: What do you have to know about "uncountable nouns"? Well, you cannot count them. So - not "a" or "an" or "one" + noun - not 2 , 3, 4, etc. ...
Paper Planes (12/06/2011 publié dans : Culture )

This afternoon I bought a book called "A Picnic on Earth" by Rupert Morgan. It caught my eye, because it said on the front cover something like "download free audio version". I thought that this ...
English words with Arabic Origins (12/06/2011 publié dans : External links )

An amusing video on Youtube: a young Arab woman talking about some English words that have Arabic origins. Click here for the video. The words she mentioned are: alcohol algebra apricot aubergine ...
"English: it's a neologism thang, innit" (10/05/2011 publié dans : Culture )

An interesting article in The Guardian yesterday (Monday May 9th 2011): http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/09/neologism-thang-scrabble-abominations Some extracts: "Standardized ...
Adverbs (19/04/2011 publié dans : Grammar )

In general you make an adverb by adding -ly to the adjective. She is a very beautiful woman. She sings beautifully. He is very angry. "Leave me alone," he shouted angrily. ----------------- There ...
to test your level... (12/03/2011 publié dans : External links )

While looking for a website that would test the level of Dutch, I came accross this website: http://en.altissia.com/. This website offers a free test to assess your level; it has tests for 5 ...
Youtube: 21 accents (03/03/2011 publié dans : External links )

Yesterday I found this video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/embed/3UgpfSp2t6k In this video a young woman says the same sentences with different accents: The accents are from: 1. London, ...
odd (03/03/2011 publié dans : Vocabulary )

I have always liked the word "odd". Difficult to say why... One of the reasons is the spelling: a vowel + 2 consonants; but as a student pointed out this afternoon, there are other words in ...
much / many / a lot of / lots of (24/01/2011 publié dans : Grammar )

This is something I have to teach very often.. A subject that has to be taught at the same time as countable vs. uncountable nouns. In general one can say that you use 'much' for uncountable nouns ...
OUP English Language Teaching on Youtube (23/01/2011 publié dans : External links )

I've just found some interesting videos on YouTube. International Express Elementary: "Berghaus" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV0ZQzpmkQk International Express Pre-Intermediate: "Venice" ...
difference between 'of' and 'off' (20/01/2011 publié dans : Grammar )

Happy New Year to you all!! One of my students asked me what the difference was between 'of' and 'off'. While looking for a suitable answer on the internet I stumbled upon this website: ...
French words in the English language (29/11/2010 publié dans : Vocabulary )

There are a lot of French words in the English language. Some of them have been imported a long time ago, some more recently. Most of them have kept their meaning, at least partly... beret (round ...
elk, moose, reindeer, etc. (28/10/2010 publié dans : Vocabulary )

Recently, I had a lot of discussions with students and other people about what was the difference between an elk, a moose, a reindeer, etc. This was because I had done a vocabulary exercise where ...
Bilingualism: Good for the brain (15/10/2010 publié dans : Culture )

Bilingual education is controversial in the United States, but a growing body of research shows that regularly speaking two languages comes with certain types of improved mental performance. In a ...
if, when, in case, ... (30/09/2010 publié dans : Grammar )

A discussion about "if" ended with a list of different words that can be used to indicate a condition: if (si) in case (au cas où) unless (sauf si / à moins que) supposing (en supposant que) ...
past simple: doubling of final consonants (14/09/2010 publié dans : Grammar )

That really amazes me: even after teaching for so many years, I'm still discovering new things... For instance, last Friday I was teaching a student about the past simple, when he asked about when ...
"Les origines des langues" (03/09/2010 publié dans : Culture )

I just bought this magazine at the local newsagent: "Les cahiers de Science et Vie", N° 118 Août/Septembre 2010, Les Origines des Langues." Very interesting! It talks about the first languages, ...
"English for poetry....." (16/06/2010 publié dans : Culture )

Following up on my previous article, where I mentioned the "Académie Française", I just want to mention Maurice Druon (who died in 2009). Mr Druon was the secretary of the Académie Française and ...
The Queen's English Society (13/06/2010 publié dans : Culture )

This society wants to do something similar to the "Académie Française"; that is to decide what is correct English and what isn't. Personally, I really dislike the Académie Française, and for the ...
Not only ... but also... (05/06/2010 publié dans : Grammar )

In one of the texts we read during a lesson was the following sentence: "Look, not only do we have a major error on our hands, but we're also not sure how this happened." I was asked the following ...
Limericks (28/05/2010 publié dans : Culture )

I love limericks, they are very cleverly written poems. Just a few examples: A gourmet dining at Crewe Found a rather large mouse in his stew. Said the waiter, "Don't shout And wave it about, Or ...
false friends (2) : to control, to demand (28/05/2010 publié dans : Vocabulary )

Two very common false friends : 1) to demand - exiger (Fr) to ask - demander (Fr) He demanded a refund = Il a exigé un remboursement. 2) to control - maîtriser (Fr) to check - contrôler, vérifier ...
As (26/04/2010 publié dans : Vocabulary )

As is a small word, with lots of different uses: 1) "comme" (preposition) He works as a carpenter. Il travaille comme menuisier. 2) "comme" You can do that as you like. Tu peux le faire comme tu ...
sport (22/04/2010 publié dans : Vocabulary )

French is easy in this respect, you can almost always say "faire de" + sport, for instance "faire du vélo". In English it is a little more complicated. You have different ways to say it: 1) to ...
Comparison USA - Germany (10/04/2010 publié dans : External links )

OK, so this is a little off-topic, but I think that this rather long article is really interesting. It's written by a German who currently lives in the USA. It gives a good insight into American ...
présent simple (08/04/2010 publié dans : Grammar )

I have "discovered" that the French présent simple can be translated by loads of different tenses in English. 1) present simple J'habite en France. I live in France. 2) present continuous J'écris ...
Flaw, defect, default, fault (31/03/2010 publié dans : Vocabulary )

What do these words have in common? Well, they can all be translated by "défaut" in French. flaw = a mistake/fault in something, that makes is less valuable/attractive or that causes it not to ...
Horoscope (23/03/2010 publié dans : Vocabulary )

Occasionally the horoscope is mentioned during the lessons, and I always get stuck when I have to name the astrological signs in English (mind you, I find it difficult in French or Dutch as well). ...
WordReference.com (14/03/2010 publié dans : External links )

My favourite language website is www.wordreference.com. This website provides an online dictionary, and also language forums. On these forums you can ask specific questions about words/expressions ...
Ski holiday (28/02/2010 publié dans : Vocabulary )

For those lucky enough to have gone skiing these last few weeks, here is some useful vocabulary: ski resort = station de ski slope = pisteski lifts = les remontées mécaniques drag lift = ...
verb + "-ing" or + "to infinitive" (17/02/2010 publié dans : Grammar )

This is always a tricky subject. Yesterday evening we had to"decide" if it was "I like going" or "I like to go". Now in fact, this is one of the verbs which can be followed by either form, with ...
you (thou) (03/02/2010 publié dans : Culture )

Personally I really like the fact that in English there is no difference between "tu" and "vous". Here in France it's always complicated to figure out which of the two to use. Although I would ...

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Blog : Jottings
Catégorie : teaching tefl Culture
Description : My blog relates the different subjects that I talk about during my lessons: teaching (Business) English to French adults
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