Teaching vocabulary by Jeremy Harmer

Why are words so important? Words are what a language is made of. Their meaning, how they related to each other, what the other words they like to be with, how we can bend and twist their meaning to our own advantage.These are the things that make language fun, creative, humanistic. There are many vocabulary books available and being written about the topic vocabulary. But vocabulary is more than merely lists. In the first place meaning is a slippery concept. Secondly students need to know the ways words are formed, how we can change a verb into a noun, or if a word can be made into an adjective and so on. Perhaps the best vocabulary exercises are reading and listening lots and lots of reading and listening and if the students are motivated, the words they meet there are likely to be better learned and acquired. Other ways of teaching vocabulary are by showing objects or pictures, listing a number of things in categories such as vegetables, or music or matching words with definitions, fill-ins, and so on. (JH is a teacher trainer and materials writer who has worked extensively in the UK and Mexico and led training sessions all over the world.)

In life....

In life, it is not where you go. It's who you travel with.

A Hug Certificate for You

Gift Certificate to you from ME! A Hug Certificate for You! If I could catch a rainbow I would do it just for you And share with you its beauty On the days you're feeling blue. If I could build a mountain You could call your very own; A place to find serenity, A place to be alone. If I could take your troubles I would toss them in the sea, But all these things, I'm finding, Are impossible for me. I cannot build a mountain Or catch a rainbow fair, But let me be what I know best, A friend who's always there..

A little bit about grammar.Shall we?

I know, I know. Everything concerned to grammar usually makes people turn noses up. Lets try to understand why grammar is so important.Jeremy Harmer is a teacher trainer and materials writer. He has worked extensively in the UK and Mexico and has books published by Longman. He has an interesting opinion about this subject and states that teachers are interested in grammar, but students are not and prefer exercises like fill-ins and sentences completions. Although, we can't abandon any approaches to grammar but it does suggest that teachers should be sensitive to such needs. Choosing methods and activities pragmatically .Sometimes a simple situation which provokes five or six models sentences seems to be an ideal way to expose students to some new grammar, e.g. six things that somebody does every day to teach the present simple, a passage with several ways of talking about the past or a list of adjectives and theirs comparative forms . Deal with it is very important. Grammar is the study or use of the rules about how words change their form and combines with other words to make sentences(Cambridge Int Dictionary). Without this we would not be able to string words together in any meaningful way. See you.