Learn how we use the verbs ‘Can’ and ‘Could’ in English in this #ESL video. We answer viewers questions and share a news update about our live English lessons.
Sep 212016
Sep 062016
It’s taken me years to work out how to teach negative questions. They’re so tricky! Here’s why…
1. The answers aren’t logical.
If someone says ‘Will you sit down?’, you say ‘yes’ if you plan to sit down. So why do you say ‘yes’ if they ask ‘Won’t you sit down?’ Shouldn’t it be ‘No, I will’?
There are other languages like Russian and Japanese where they are more logical about it. I didn’t understand this when I first started teaching in Tokyo and I caused lots of confusion.
Me: Can I have everyone’s homework?
(Hiroshi looks embarrassed)
Me: Haven’t you done your homework, Hiroshi?
Hiroshi: Yes (meaning ‘Yes, I haven’t done it’)
Me: Oh good, can I have it then?
(Hiroshi looks flustered)
Me: Sorry? Didn’t you say you’d done it?
Hiroshi: Yes (meaning ‘I didn’t say I’d done it’)
Me: Have you left it at home then?
When I went back to the UK, it took me a couple of years to re-learn how to answer negative questions the English way again. And actually, if you listen carefully you’ll sometimes hear native speakers answer them the other way round too.
2. If you use them in the wrong context, you can sound like you’re nagging.
In some Central European languages a negative form makes a question more polite. This can happen in English too, as in ‘Won’t you have another cup of tea?’ But more commonly we use negative questions to indicate that something is not quite what we expect it to be, and that means we can use them to express (mild) irritation. Compare ‘Can you hurry up?’ and ‘Can’t you hurry up?’ Which one is
nagging?
In Slovak you might say things like ‘Haven’t you finished yet?’, and ‘Aren’t you ready yet?’ to enquire about someone’s progress when you want to sound extra pleasant. But if a native English speaker hears this they’ll think ‘Give us a chance!’ or ‘What are you breathing down my neck for?’ There’s potential for relationship damage here.
So all in all it would be jolly nice if we didn’t have to teach negative questions but there’s no getting round the fact that students will hear them and have to respond. So what to do? Well, let me show you how I now teach them…
Aug 302016
Help your students fix five top mistakes with ‘Fix it’. It’s a checklist I’ve written that’s available for free at our Simple English Videos website. Just sign up for our mailing list and you can download it for free.
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And while you’re there, check out the new look of our website. There are more than a hundred video lessons now and we’ve made it easier for you to find what you want with new search options.
Aug 272016
Avoid and prevent are handy verbs but there are a couple of mistakes students often make with them.
First, they often get the structures wrong and try to follow them with an infinitive. Both verbs are followed by nouns or gerunds.
And second, there’s a slight difference in meaning that they’re not always aware of. This video is designed to help them use both words correctly.
Aug 162016
Four or five years ago, @Cecilia Lemos, @Guido Europeaantje, @Jens Kjaer Olsen, @Sophia Mavridi, @Erika Osváth and @Geraldine Mayor were kind enough to help me experiment with skype and we made this video. I realised the other day that people were still watching it, although the sound was really poor on the original version. I thought it was time for an update! Here it is –
Thank you to the great performers! They were stars – and such fun to work with!
Aug 092016
We put Carter to work for this week’s video lesson.
The rules for adverbs of frequency are actually very complex, so we kept to the basics here.
Hope you like it!
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Jul 262016
May 102016
Make Friday the thirteenth a lucky day with a lesson on superstitions!
Superstitions are a rich topic for the EFL/ESL classroom. Some teachers use them for controlled practice of ‘if’ statements. E.g.
If you break a mirror, you’ll have seven years of bad luck.
Others use them for discussion practice and cultural comparison. You can do either or both with this lesson.
It’s a video lesson with two parts. First there’s a conversation that will warm students to the topic and check the meanings of the words ‘superstition’ and ‘superstitious’. You might want your class to act out the conversation after watching it. And the second part of the lesson comes in the form of a song which has a built-in puzzle.
The other day I noticed that Google had cleared permissions for Stevie Wonder’s terrific ‘Superstition’ song on YouTube. Wow! What a great opportunity for a puzzle! So I’ve made a video that’s packed with images of different superstitious events and objects, and the students’ task is to see how many they can spot. You might want to set up competing teams so they watch the video and see which team can spot the most.
The video is designed to prompt lots of discussion and the advice in the song is very sensible and clear: don’t believe in superstitions!
Here are some things students will see:
Situations where people often get superstitious
- When gambling
- When they see a fountain. (People often throw a coin in and make a wish.)
- At weddings (What colour do brides wear? Do they have ‘something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?’ Do they throw the bouquet to find out who will get married next?)
Creatures
- Black cats – If a black cat crosses your path, does it bring good or bad luck? The answer seems to vary.
- Spiders – Finding a spider on your clothes is sometimes said to be lucky and killing a spider is often frowned upon. ‘If you wish to live and thrive, let a spider run alive.’
- Snakes – As well as being associated with voodoo, there are lots of superstitions surrounding snakes. For example, hanging a snake from the rafters is supposed to protect a house from fire.
- Lady birds (AmE: Lady bugs) If a lady bird lands on you, some say you shouldn’t brush it off. Instead you should count the spots to see how many years of good luck you’re going to get.
Flowers
We get a fleeting glance of chrysanthemums in the video which seem to have a lot of superstitions attached in different cultures. But other flowers do too. Are there flowers you’re not supposed to bring into the house? Do you have to present an odd number, unwrapped, when you give flowers as a gift?
Cutlery
Speaking of gifts, it’s unlucky to give knives in some cultures as it’s supposed to foretell the severing of the relationship. Are there other things you should and shouldn’t give as gifts?
Ladders, mirrors and candles
- Walking under a ladder is supposed to be unlucky
- As Stevie Wonder tells us, breaking a mirror is supposed to bring seven years of bad luck.
- Candles have a variety of superstitions surrounding them. For example, if a candle suddenly goes out on its own it can be an omen of death in the family. On the other hand, some say lighting a new white candle in a new house is supposed to bring good luck.
Lucky objects
Some lucky objects in the video include:
- a horse shoe (Which way up should it be? Customs seem to vary)
- a four leaf clover (or maybe it’s an Irish shamrock – that’s supposed to be lucky too)
- a rooster of Barcelos – a lucky symbol in Portugal
- a daruma doll – lucky in Japan (we also see a Japanese symbol for luck)
- the Chinese character for luck and also a Chinese fortune cookie, which contains lucky numbers.
Numbers
13 is often associated with bad luck, as is 4 in some cultures. Meanwhile 7 is sometimes associated with good luck and 666 with the devil.
Natural events
- A new moon – The story goes that if you turn a coin over in your pocket when there’s a new moon, your money will grow
- A rainbow – Supposedly there’s a pot of gold buried at the end of every rainbow.
Superstitious Practices
- Crossing your fingers
- Throwing salt over your shoulder if you spill it.
- Voodoo, fortune telling (tarot cards and a crystal ball), psychics, water dowsing (divining rod) and astrology.
We also see Stonehenge in the video, but why it was built is one of history’s great mysteries. Maybe it actually fulfilled a practical purpose, serving as an astronomical clock. Or maybe it was a place for sun worship, crazy rituals and superstitions. What do you think?
Where to find the videos:
I’ve made a playlist of the two video files, so both videos will play right through. Click here for the YouTube playlist link.
The first video is available with a clickable transcript that you can copy and paste on our Simple English videos website. Click here for the link. It is also available on our YouTube channel. Click here for the link.
For copyright reasons, the second video (the Stevie Wonder song) is only available on our YouTube channel. Click here for the link.
If you use this lesson in class and have time to come back and tell us how it went, please do! We’d love to hear from you!
And if you have other favourite songs you like to use in class, please tell us which ones. You never know. Google might have cleared permissions so I can make another video.
Oh and happy Friday the thirteenth, everyone!
Apr 052016
Students often muddle up the words ‘Travel’, ‘Trip’ and ‘Journey’ – well, it’s not surprising! Many languages have one word to cover the concepts, so why do we have to have three in English?
Here’s a video about how we use these words that includes the key meaning distinctions and grammar differences, along with lots of examples.
But you don’t have to stop there! Why not finish with a song that everyone can sing along to? Here’s a video that explains a couple of words students will find handy when they listen. (It also comes with a homage to Eric and Ernie – two of my favourite British comedians).
And here is the song, which is sung by the wonderful Doris Day. (Not Jay)
Make sure you leave time at the end of your lesson, so your students can tell you about a sentimental journey they’d like to take? Is there a time or place they’d like to revisit? Why? I’d love to know what they say.
Our ‘Travel Trip and Journey’ video is available with a clickable transcript on our website here.
And you can also find it on our YouTube channel here.
The Doris Day song is available only on YouTube. Luckily Google have cleared the rights so we can all use it legally on YouTube, so I’ve put the introduction video on YouTube too so it can work as a playlist. Follow this link to see both videos and they should follow on from one another. First the introduction and then the video.
Enjoy!
Mar 082016
How do you teach your students to respond to a question like this?
Tea or coffee?
a. I don’t care
b. I don’t mind
When I lived in England, I used to teach my students ‘I don’t mind’. Some would say ‘I don’t care’, and I’d say, ‘Yes, Americans say that, but I’d avoid it because it can sound negative in British English’. But then I moved to the US and discovered that ‘I don’t mind’ is problematic too!
Maybe the best answer in international contexts is something like ‘I’m happy with either’? What do you think?
There are lots of other curious things about the verb ‘mind’ and last week we released a video exploring some of the ways we use it in requests.
Both videos are available with clickable transcripts at our Simple English Videos website.
To watch the video on British and American differences with ‘I don’t care’ and ‘I don’t mind’, click here.
To watch the video on how to use ‘mind’ in polite requests, click here.
Happy watching!