Hi mates,

Do you know how to say "nem que a vaca tussa em Inglês? There are 2 possible ways....

When hell freezes over.....or....
When pigs fly

For example:

Are you going to swim that early in the morning?
When hell freezes over OU
When pigs fly.

Bye for now! 😉

The Benefits of a bilingual brain

Hi fellow teachers and students,

I am really into watching TED talks as much as I can and I try to use them with my students too....it goes without saying that it is necessary to see how age and level appropriate they are.
The TED talk, I will recommend is very appropriate for all students striving in the field to speak a second language. With beginners, you may use subtitles. Cheers for all bilinguals!
https://youtu.be/MMmOLN5zBLY

Extreme Adjectives warm-up

Hi mates,

I did this simple activity which does not require much preparation except for a list of extreme adjectives and a general understanding on the subject.

Procedures: students have to talk about their weekend using extreme adjectives.
This way they can enrich their vocabulary too.

Materials you will need:

Extreme adjectives are words that give extra emphasis to the subject they describe: For example, "funny" is a normal adjective expressing that something makes us laugh, but "hilarious" is an extreme adjective which shows that something makes us laugh a lot. In other words, "hilarious" means "very funny".

In most cases, it is not necessary to use "very" with extreme adjectives e.g. "This movie's very hilarious", sounds a little strange because "hilarious" is a strong enough word that doesn't require "very" to add extra strength. Here are more examples along with their meanings.

The 7 ves' of an English teacher

Hi everyone!
Today I will talk about some of the characteristics that are common to those English teachers who have a passion for what they do. Any other 've' you would like to add to my list? Feel free to post your comments.

Grouping students!!! Two thumbs up activity!

Hi everyone,
In my classes, students tend to sit always on the same seat which means they will always have the same people near them. That can ba a problem if you want to pair students up or group them because there will be always the same pairs or groups, right?
I have been posting on this blog several different ways of arranging students in pairs or groups and here goes a different one. I did this past week and students had plenty of fun....and....as for me...I managed to have different group arrangements!!!!

1) show students the short video where the man can nail several English accents. Link is below:
https://youtu.be/jPAr3RpHugM
2) write on slips of paper: German Accent, Italian Accent, Spanish Accent and distribute among students.
3) tell them that when you say go...they should stand up and talk to people imitating that accent. Their objective is to find people with the same accent.

That's it dear ones! Fun, movement, learning, multiculturalism and interaction in a simple activity. Have a go! 😍

Homophones....teach them in a meaninful way

Hi everyone,
Homophones are tricky in English. So why not making use of pictures to teach them in a meaninful way rather then just focusing on pronunciation.
Below you find some ideas I have used in my classes:
1) memory game
2) Find the pair
3) Making up a story.

For the whole list of illustrated homophones, click here: https://mymodernmet.com/homophones-weakly-bruce-worden/

Can you recognize Thesaurus Syndrome?

If you came across the paragraph below. What would you think of it?

When I went to the meeting, I took the leaflets that my team had prepared because I wanted to show my colleagues which flyers our team wanted to use. We had worked hard to produce pamphlets because we were aware that another organisation had used brochures very successfully. My colleagues agreed at the meeting that the booklets that my team had prepared were appropriate for our customers.

Well, we can observe that although this writer can get his ideas across, he fails in choosing the right words, in other words, Thesaurus Syndrome.

Before using ‘thesaurus words’:
– Find a sample sentence that uses the word. Compare it with your phrase/sentence. Is your usage appropriate?
– If you see a list of words in a thesaurus, pick the one with which you’re familiar… at least you can’t go wrong!
– The best way of expanding your vocabulary is by reading. I don’t just mean Nobel Prize winning novels, Shakespeare and 18th century poetry. A scathing film review can offer as much in terms of new vocab and interesting turns of phrase. 

To conclude this post I will quote Stephen King: “Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.”  

That's food for thought, isn't it?