EnglishClub TEFL Forums

To whom it may concern: I tried to access English Club's homepage directly from my computer, search engines, from other computers, the university there, coffee shops, and computer labs throughout the city. The city's name was Puebla, Puebla, Mexico. I know for a fact that I tried on at least four se...

I just returned back home last week to the US after teaching a couple of English graduate courses for a Mexican university. I was amazed at when I tried to log into my account here and found that even the home page could not be found in Mexico. I wonder if the site is banned or just Englishclub's se...

Dear Meylenlau,

Follow my example. I believe that your usage of the preposition "on" is incorrect.


Sincerely,

Eric Paul Monroe

http://www.eric-tesol.com/

Dear Ben, Calm down. No one should expect you to miracle your future students' English proficiency in just a manner of several weeks. On the other hand, if you were using a full-immersion approach for the entire two months, miraculous improvements could manifest. Remember that your role as a teacher...

Dear Hubert, I just finished teaching for over five years in China. As far as English language teaching there goes, I believe that British pronunciation is promoted there and initially taught to primary and especially secondary school students. However, if and when conversation skills become emphasi...

Dear Njsullivan, In my previous entry, I offered my interpretation of what I thought your student was attempting to say while at the same time, giving you advice on lexical development. Now, I believe that you should review English punctuation rules and when you are ready, learn more about English s...

Dear Argneka, I believe this is more a semantics question. Logic would suggest differing perspectives: from the viewpoint of the sender or the recipient. Do you want the product to leave the manufacturing facility on that date or do you want to be opening up your package at that time: shipping date ...

Dear Njsullivan, I think that one of your Korean students is taking a Korean- English dictionary and just inputing their result into your sentence. After further lexical development, motivate your student to shun such dictionaries and opt for a dictionary totally in the target language. That way, su...

Dear Paola,

Which level of English are you teaching in Florence?

As a teacher, I would think that we should know the etymology of a given word so that we can better explain how it functions pragmatically nowadays.


Sincerely,

Eric Paul Monroe

http://www.eric-tesol.com/

Dear Peter,

Who are the students?


Sincerely,

Eric Paul Monroe

http://www.eric-tesol.com/

Dear Paola,

Hence= (away) from here (this point) on

Pragmatics often changes the original semantic origin of a word. Take a look at the word's etymology:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hence


Sincerely,

Eric Paul Monroe

http://www.eric-tesol.com/

Dear Nowoman and Paola,

Therefore = from there (that point) forward
Hence= from here (this point) on


Sincerely,

Eric Paul Monroe

http://www.eric-tesol.com/

Dear Hubert, Please don't get intonation confused with tone. Intonation refers to a change in pitch while uttering a phrase or sentence. Tone, on the other hand, refers to a single syllable. Tone has another context also, but you are not talking about composition here. Mandarin Chinese has five tone...

Dear Awyckoff, I think that the context you find yourself in right now could be improved through utilizing a teaching methodology known as Total Physical Response: TPR. http://www.tpr-world.com/ABC.html I tend to encourage emotional responses from my students while foregrounding TPR exercises. I fin...

Dear Paul, I apologize for offending you. My intentions were not to order you to do anything, but rather only to provide high-context suggestions. At any rate, I offer another high-context suggestion that you may or may not wish to take advantage of: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tact Furth...

Dear Paul, Foreign language learners don't require parenting or schooling to think in a language: learn more about full-immersion. Better yet, try learning Swedish or Spanish using the aforementioned methodology. If you need help, drop by my on-line school since I teach just that for Spanish in addi...

Dear Hubert and Paola, Use caution when reading Zhou's article: think outside the box. Language is a medium of communication through which knowledge transfer manifests. In my opinion, after teaching five years there, the mainland Chinese education system is still too focused on examinations. Rote me...

Dear Effie, As long as you avoid the Grammar Translation Method and engage your students with meaningful content, you are sure to augment both lexical and cognitive development. Introduce a new character to them that they can easily relate to, utilizing a full-immersion approach in the target langua...

Dear Fredrik, Tell your friend to learn how to research effectively. For the most part, different contexts require differing usage in regards to both lexical and semantic situations. At the same time, don't get so confused that you forget to avoid an obvious conclusion: "most" is the superlative for...

Dear Justin, Sounds like your students need to respect and accept your position as a teacher. My advice would be to contemplate corporal punishment as an option, as you take your class outside to teach them a new sport. Incorporate the teaching methodology Total Physical Response for lexical develop...

Dear Tony, Temporal perspectives are culturally based. Don't assume that all languages follow the same time line. Learn more about tense, aspect, voice, finiteness, modality, and mood. Take a look at the outline I made on my Grammar page: click on "Verbs" and follow the links there, taking care not ...

Dear Henz988, I support what Paul is telling you. You have to have a subject in your second sentence after following "if". I also think that your original first sentence is grammatically correct, but is a bad translation... maybe from Chinese. To solve this and many other linguistic problems like th...

Dear Tony, I support Kevin's stance on there only being two tenses in English: past and present. The future is considered to be a modality in English. Each language's temporal system functions differently, but you only asked about English's. 8) Sincerely, Eric Paul Monroe http://www.eric-tesol.com/

Dear SummerSnow, Lexicality is a crucial factor when pragmatically implementing contextual discourse analysis. Take advantage of your knowledge concerning advanced grammar, stylistic concerns, cultural norms, and critical thinking skills. Have your students collaborate while you instruct them about ...

Dear SummerSnow, Could you please clarify what you mean by lexical reading? Are you talking about improving your students' lexical development through reading? I use contextual discourse in thematic situations for my students and I think what you are talking about is not unlike my curriculum. Sincer...