Category Archives: Collocations

Teaching Chunks of Language review

Posted on 16/10/2011 by alexcase

Like most people, I didn’t take much convincing that students need to learn chunks of language such as idioms and verb + noun collocations, and have tried various ways of bringing them into the classroom over the years. However, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Collocations | 2 Comments

Chunking in the New York Times

Posted on 19/09/2010 by alexcase

Nothing you haven’t heard before, but interesting that it is has (just ) gone that mainstream. Michael Swan also does his usual Doubting Thomas/ Voice of Good Sense bit. Can’t be many TEFLers who make it into the NY Times … Continue reading →

Posted in Collocations, Vocabulary | 1 Comment

Rules, Patterns, Words and Doubts

Posted on 12/08/2009 by alexcase

A continuation of Rules, Patterns, Words and Quotes and What I Learnt About Rules, Patterns and Words, obviously all about the quite wrong but quite interesting book of the same name. This will probably only be of interest to those who … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, Collocations, Functional language, Grammar, Grammar books, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, PPP (Presentation practice production), TBA (Task Based Approach), Teaching methods and methodologies, Test teach test, Vocabulary | Tagged | 4 Comments

What I learnt about Rules Patterns and Words

Posted on 18/07/2009 by alexcase

The promised but much-delayed continuation of Quotes from Rules, Patterns and Words, and hopefully a good example of an Easy TEFL Blog Post the busy or uninspired (like me) can copy On grammar “the present continuous and the present simple can … Continue reading →

Posted in adverb word order, Collocations, Grammar, Present tenses, Vocabulary | Tagged | Leave a comment

Some nice quotes about Rules Patterns and Words

Posted on 26/06/2009 by alexcase

Unsurprisingly, all taken from the book of the same name (some of which is viewable on Google Books here): “When our students produce accurate question tags, we feel we and they have succeeded. When they fail to do so, we … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, Collocations, Grammar, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, Materials, Teaching methods and methodologies, TEFL, Vocabulary | Tagged | Leave a comment

The best end of term revision games

Posted on 10/12/2008 by alexcase

One way of finishing the term is with Xmas-themed stuff (see the post below). Another good one is lots of fun revision games. As I’ve spent a few years teaching students who want to do every page in the book … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English and ESP, Business English games, Collocations, ELT publishing, English for study abroad, Functional language, Grammar, links, Materials, Personalisation, Photocopiable worksheets, Revision games, Speaking, Speaking games, Taboo, Teaching teenagers, TEFL, TEFL games, Usingenglish, Vocabulary, Vocabulary games | 2 Comments

Nutty TEFL idea of the day

Posted on 07/11/2008 by alexcase

“Sole Mates” from “The Grammar Activity Book” Tie words that go together (such as collocations) to different students’ shoelaces. They then walk around putting their feet next to each other to try to match them up. If they make an … Continue reading →

Posted in adjective plus preposition, Alternative teaching techniques, Cambridge University Press, Classroom management, Collocations, Dependent prepositions, ELT publishing, Grammar, Grammar games, links, Materials, Photocopiable worksheets, Prepositions, Teaching English Abroad, TEFL, TEFL games, Vocabulary, Vocabulary games | 3 Comments

The “Should you be teaching EAP?” quiz

Posted on 27/06/2008 by alexcase

If the amount of new stuff I learnt from the new book “Academic Vocabulary in Use” by Michael McCarthy and Felicity O’Dell is anything to go by (a book for students from “good Intermediate level”, not for teachers!), the answer … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic vocabulary, Cambridge University Press, Collocations, English for Academic Purposes, IELTS, links, Self-study materials, TEFL, Vocabulary | 2 Comments

TEFL fun and games Part one- Guess me!

Posted on 03/09/2007 by alexcase

Mondays are not a day for pontificating, and anyway I’m a bit ponficated out at the moment, so here are some fun and games instead- This is one that fits into my ultimate TEFL desert island survival game kit. It … Continue reading →

Posted in adjective plus preposition, Adjectives, Grammar, Grammar games, Mixed conditionals, Photocopiable worksheets, PPP (Presentation practice production), Present perfect, Second conditional, Staging, TEFL, TEFL games, Third conditional | Leave a comment