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You don't need to understand everything.... or do you?

One of the questions in a Needs Analysis questionnaire that I use with general purpose intermediate learners asks them What do and don't you enjoy doing in the classroom? In reply to this question, one...

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An Elt Glossary: Word families

A word family is a group of words all derived from the same root word. For example :a) sad, sadness, sadden, sadlyb) origin, originate, original, originallyc) dictate, dictation, dictator, dictatorial,...

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An ELT Glossary : The mandative subjunctive

The so-called "mandative subjunctive" is the use of the base form of the verb in a "that" clause after verbs and other expressions expressing concepts such as advice, recommendations, suggestions,...

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First Lessons : Establishing Classroom Culture

It’s the beginning of the academic year here, and new classes are starting up. And despite having taught for years, I still feel nervous before meeting a new class. Groups of students are a bit like...

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Learning Students' Names

At the beginning of the course you need to learn students’ names as soon as possible. Using names to call on students creates a more personal and involving atmosphere in the class, and also allows you...

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Inferring unknown words from context (Part Two)

If you've not yet read Part One of this article, click on the linkTo summarise where we’ve got to so far : inferring words from context is a skill which is necessary for our learners if they are to...

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Inferring unknown words from context (Part One)

It is very unlikely that any of our learners will ever know all the words they need. English has an enormous number of words - on the Oxford University Press website they estimate it at a quarter of a...

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Teaching High Level Lexis to Business English Learners

This article looks at why learners of Business English might need a higher receptive knowledge of lexis than they possess productively. It also suggests that this type of lexis can best be taught using...

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An ELT Glossary : Partitive nouns

 Partitive nouns, as the word suggests,  are nouns which express the concept that the item described is only a part but not the whole of the item then referred to. For example (with the partitive nouns...

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An ELT Glossary : Sentential Relative Clauses

Most relative clauses refer back to a noun phrase in the preceding discourse. For example :I spoke to John, who agreed to do it. (Who refers back to John).I liked the last book that she wrote. (That...

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An ELT Glossary : Lexical Priming

 Priming is used in two ways in EFL. Firstly it is used in Task Based Learning (notably by Jane and Dave Willis - see the articles referred to below) to describe the sort of scaffolding task often used...

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An ELT Glossary : Proform

 A proform is any word which can replace another word, phrase or clause in a sentence or utterance when the meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extra-linguistic context. Proforms thus avoid...

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An ELT Glossary : Optative Mood

Optative sentences are those where the speaker/writer makes a wish of some sort. In English there is no specific grammatical form for optative mood, though there is in some other languages such as...

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Understanding Relative Clauses - Suggested Answer

 A) The legislation aims to regulate the hours under-16s can work online  Form : Defining relative clause with relative pronoun (which/that) ellipted. Ellipsis possible as the relative pronoun is the...

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Using Guided Discovery

A brief introduction to Guided Discovery was given in the article onconcept checking included in the ELT Glossary. If you haven't read it or aren't fully sure what GD involves, click on the link to see...

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Analysing Word Class, Phrase and Clause Elements

 NB: All the materials used in these activities come from our Delta Module One Course. The course is no longer running and the activities are therefore being made available for general use. However,...

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Differentiating Activities in the Classroom

Differentiation has already been briefly discussed in the ELT Glossary, and you might like to start by checking out what was said there. in this article we go into more detail looking at...Why...

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Relative Clauses

 How much do you know about relative clauses? Can you answer these questions?What's the difference between a defining and non-defining relative clause? When can that be used as an alternative relative...

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Teaching Functionally to Develop Pragmatic Competence

This article looks at the way teaching functionsand pragmatic competence in general are treated in contemporary coursebooks and classrooms. Whereas these areas were the main focus of any course in the...

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Teaching the so-called "conditionals" - pre-viewing task

 Have a look at the beginnings and possible ends of these conversations. How do  they relate to the so-called “three conditionals” (or four if you’re being generous)? How many other beginning and end...

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