This year I predicted would be full of changes, and one came about that has surprised me and invigorated the modes of expression of theLingoGuy. From the tender age of 17 – 19 I was in an art studio for my General National Diploma in Art and Design, and recently spoke to one of my […]
More European – untrained ears & sounding weird
As I am playful with my words, this means I am a mish-mash of accents and phraseology. Recently I have had some odd observations that I thought I would share. Firstly to a South African ear I sound German, apparently. This is no insult and no surprise as I do have an accent no way near […]
Geek or Nerd? how absurd! – Rams as Champions
A roller coaster ride to get to the top of the EPL, 6 seasons in all. A slow rise to the summit, and a hard climb at times. However, with a budget that never exceeded 20m I think I overshot my expectations. Football manager 14 seems to have a couple of tweaks needed, i.e. Full and […]
Never in my classroom – top 3 lesson plans 1Qrt 2015
Been kinda quiet on my blog front, as I have been focusing on my non-profit org and creative writing/performing. Time now to share my three most successful lessons from the first quarter of 2015. No1 Local business analysis I have done/run this in two ways, but with the same focus. I work in an Applied Sciences […]
Never in my classroom – only the teacher teaches
I often get my students to teach each other, but today I had added a twist. I was looking for a fun activity to challenge my technical English students, and came across one when recently watching a QI episode hosted by Stephen Fry. I always find the end of the QI series very intriguing as it takes […]
Never in my classroom – correction and discipline
“Will you just shut up”. A comment I heard more than once this previous semester. Should we as teachers be allowing students to make such comments? As a pupil myself coming from a mainly authoritarian tutelage, I struggled with this notion of the role of the teacher in correction and discipline. We all know peer […]
Never in my classroom – stick to the plan
Often as trainers we are told to keep up-to-date with the company website. It certainly has benefits, but is this just a Director of Studies ploy or trainer fail-safe. Yesterday I was searching for input on the theme “Encouraging innovation and independent thinking”. So naturally after scouring resources, and calling out to colleagues on […]
Never in my classroom -comprehension of the native speaker
Ya losing ya Mojo arent ya? You are so different to speak to? But …. what do you mean,…. erm my accent? No your vocabulary, you use unusual words not like the other guys. This compliment and exchange at a recent friends birthday party made me mull over yet again the point of lingo usage […]
Never in my classroom is the problem the native speaker?
Let me return to the flummoxedness of my first few weeks teaching in 2013. Apologies to those of you who are not so techy minded, but it may interest you all the same. Normally if we are to believe linguistic theory, as communicators we accommodate our partners in order to aid comprehension. Unless we are […]
Never in my classroom – mislabelling & moving on
Recently during my local Aldi weekly shop I have noticed a lot of mislabelling going on. Wrong prices, wrong product or product is not what it says on the wobbler. This I think is due to human resources and some restructuring in the store layout. My milk and juice is just not where it used […]