Despite being a modest sort, I am forced to admit that I live in a tony, up-scale neighborhood. I found it interesting that one of (Continue Reading)
Despite being a modest sort, I am forced to admit that I live in a tony, up-scale neighborhood. I found it interesting that one of (Continue Reading)
Just to encourage those of you who are trying to hold on to some values and standards in a new America where both have been (Continue Reading)
As I was wandering through the house talking to myself, I found myself using the word ’instantiate’. “That’s a rare word,” I thought, “I wonder (Continue Reading)
I just want to than Wes Groleau for making this blog possible. He works very hard and displays great patience with me. I am truly (Continue Reading)
Why should teachers tremble? Listen to several things my 5 year old granddaughter has said recently. She starts kindergarten July 23. When I asked her (Continue Reading)
No, I haven’t turned religious; it’s just the title of a great book I just finished. It’s by William F. Pitts, deceased, who did field (Continue Reading)
This to me is at the heart of the controversies in foreign language teaching. Teachers believe that teaching the intricate grammatical, phonological and syntactic rules (Continue Reading)
Recently in a post on a listserv a member showed a great deal of concern about a statement that an American had gone to France, (Continue Reading)
The following post to a listserv speaks to the whole issue of why have any sort of professional organization. Here ’tis: I never thought I’d (Continue Reading)
As I was reconfiguring my library I came across a book titled Teaching Spanish-Speaking Children by L.S. Tireman, published in 1951. I was 10 and (Continue Reading)
In response to a job-seeker highly qualified to teach Chinese EXCEPT for not having a h.s. certificate, I responded on a List thus: Having seen (Continue Reading)
Over and over again, good-hearted people join the bandwagon of grammar mavens. Grammar maven is a term coined by William Safire as ’language maven’, as (Continue Reading)
On one of the foreign language teacher listservs the incident at Virginia Tech was discussed in a few posts. One in particular was poignant: a (Continue Reading)
Whenever teachers get to talking about the good old days, I get a sneaking suspicion that either they are not old enough to remember those (Continue Reading)
M.W. posted the following to a listserv: *Pat, I teach Spanish. *I want the grammar for communication. *I also would like to know how much (Continue Reading)
I finally read all 200 posts on the thread started by the SLA (Second Language Acquistion) researcher and author, Bill VanPatten (bvp). He asked fl (Continue Reading)
Just think: George Bush 43 will probably become our most quoted president.
here’s a couple of things to munch on if you believe the teaching of SE to students is simply a matter of setting out and (Continue Reading)
The original work, as far as I know, on this topic is great for nostalgia buffs wanting a return to the fifies: Robert A. Hall, (Continue Reading)
A general treatment of English, incl its history, is the ubiquitous David >Crystal’s The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. > >An easy read but (Continue Reading)
The Grammar Mavens (Steven Pinker’s term) cite rules of English only to denigrate those who “break” them. The rules they refer to are not the (Continue Reading)
This year at ACTFL did more to rally my spirits this last year of my tenure as a foreign language teacher than any except my (Continue Reading)
As I was sorting my picture files out in the garage and thinking about how students will talk and write about the pictures after we (Continue Reading)