Episode 46 - Create "A-ha" Moments in your Classroom with Simple Drawings
In this episode I look at how you can use images effectively in the classroom and give your students more of those "a-ha" moments.
Through a job posting in a small Russian village, via a polyglot war hero, past split brain experiments and behaviourist studies, into Atkinson's Keyword Method (a vocab-learning approach) and out into the magic formula for "a-ha" moments, we look at what makes a perfect image.
At the end of the episode there are suggestions for different images you can use in the classroom today to teach various vocab and grammar points.
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Episode 45 - The Wizard of Oz, Ingroups and Outgroups, and How Language Reveals What We Really Think
Have you ever really thought about how some words you use to describe others are a bit ... rude?
Have you ever noticed the words you use to describe groups of people you don't like?
Have you ever noticed that the word for Germany in your language is different from the word Germans use?
Have you ever seen the Wizard of Oz?
And what's up with Chavs?
In this episode I explore the world of exonyms and endonyms.
We look at how language, and these language features in particular, reveals our nasty, tribal side. The side that makes us see ourselves us superior and our neighbours as inhuman.
We see how words can be used to create enemies.
And why "Paris" is pronounced oddly.
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Episode 44 - The Quest for the Holy Grail of English Grammar | An Interview with Christopher Walker
In this interview, I talk to Chris Walker, a long-serving teacher at International House and author of English is a Simple Language.
Join us on our quest to “get to the bottom of it all,” examining and uncovering the underlying structures of English, following in the footsteps of Michael Lewis.
During this engaging conversation, we ask:
“Can we get to the heart of the meaning of modal verbs?”
“Can we summarize conditional sentences in a single sentence (or maybe two)?”
“Can we divide English grammar into either subjective or objective forms?”
But I also ask whether there really is a “Holy Grail of English grammar.”
Is there a system behind it all?
Is there something that unlocks the way grammar works?
Or is it more complicated than that?
At the end, and for a bit of a laugh, we also have a look at some badly-written test questions and how they can help you and your students understand these deeper, underlying dynamics at work in the language.
Don’t forget to check out Chris’s blog/archive at: www.closelyobserved.com
Music: bensound.com
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Episode 43 - Some, Any, Metal Bands and Why You’re Not Talking To Someone’s Leg
They lied!
They all lied to you!
Well, some of them did.
What am I talking about?
I’m talking about the people who told you that “We use ‘some’ for positive sentences and ‘any’ for negative and question sentences.”
Sure. We do.
But what about: “Would you like some tea?” and “It’s just some kid.”?
Find out how “some” and “any” really work...
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Episode 42 - When is a Mistake a Mistake? Errors, Innovations And Angloversals
Have you ever corrected your student for making a "mistake" that you make yourself?
In that case, is it a mistake?
Are they mistakes when the same features are used by speakers of English in Kachru's outer and even expanding circles of English?
In this episode, I check out a fascinating paper by Elina Ranta on student mistakes, innovations and Angloversals.
Whatever they are...
The Clark and Miller English podcast is a fun, innovative and exciting way to learn English. Join us and see English in ways you've never seen English before. Follow Gabriel's English "hot takes" and really FEEL English naturally and comfortably. Listen to interviews with some of the world's best teachers. Get involved and join the community ... and have a laugh while you're doing it.
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