Express Publishing ELT

“A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”
Chinese proverb

When students are repeating, doing drills and practice tasks they are not really communicating as one would naturally where the interaction has the purpose of getting messages across in a specific     read more >>

Apologies to all you Trekkies out there, but Space is not the final frontier; that space is reserved for death: “the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns.” – Hamlet

Is it a bit of a taboo subject in class – death?
Well, if the only two sure things in life are death and taxes, and we can at least try to fiddle our way out of the latter, why not think a bit about the former, which we cannot wriggle out of.

We may not be afraid to die, but we probably don’t want to be there when it happens – unless it’s Robert Patterson sinking his canines into your neck perhaps.

So, doing death in class. (Not the practical!)
First a warning! Do not use activities which might upset students in your culture! You have to be sensitive when dealing with death, ghosts, vampires, zombies and intolerance.     read more >>

(Much virtue in “if” – Shakespeare – As you like it)

If I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring.
If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can’t I paint you?
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
If Cleopatra’s nose had been longer, the whole history of the world would have been different.
If you know your onions, you’ll never be confused.

We’re familiar with our text book categorisations of conditionals into the zero, first, second and third, as exemplified above. We allow the mixed (past condition with present result) – If I’d passed, I would be happy.

Now, how do you feel about these?     read more >>