September 29, 2008
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“Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach” ~ Albert Einstein
Students and Friends,
Opinions are great but provided examples make a stronger case. Many learned men and women have had much to say on the subject of examples as a method of teaching. But, do they serve a useful purpose anywhere else?
This is the question I put to my writing students when trying to get them to see the fundamentals of a good argument or position paper. With or without research data, the example is the cornerstone of good reasoning . . .
Click to continue "Why are ‘Examples’ Important as a Writing Strategy?"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 01:38 PM and is filed under Composition.
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June 21, 2008
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Alisa Miller of Teaching Tips.com has written an article/put together a list of resources called "100+ Tips and Resources for Teaching Abroad." An excerpt from her text follows:
Teaching abroad is a popular way to see the world and make some money. Whether you are a graduate right out of college, a retiree who is looking for adventure, or you’ve decided to make a change mid-career, teaching English overseas is easily obtainable. The following resources and tips range from how to find a teaching job to learning the differences between the types of schools to resources for travel and teaching. Read below to find . . .
Click HERE to read the full article
~L
This entry posted by lhobbs at 02:26 PM and is filed under ESL.
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November 19, 2007
Hi Students,
Even after my long-winded explanations of phonology and etymology in our class lectures, some of you still have questions on how to pronounce some of the names from Oedipus Rex (or, Oedipus, The King).
Below, I have reprinted a few worthy explanations from voices younger than mine. Perhaps their explications are simpler to understand . . .
Click to continue "How to Pronounce *Iocaste* and Other Names from Literature"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 10:09 AM and is filed under Etymology.
Readers' Comments (1)
November 03, 2007
The rule seems simple enough doesn't it? Except for words such as "heir," "hour," "honor," or "herb" the article "a," (not "an") precedes a word beginning with the letter "h." That's how I was taught, yet the either archaic or exceptional "an" article still crops up here and there, even in more "respectable" venues such as NPR, one of the supposed final bastions of clear, crisp, and articulately spoken Standard American English. Is public media's incorporation of the, for example, commonly-heard British and Canadian usage of "an" before "historic" mere pretentiousness on their part or some refusal to use Standard American English "rules" on the air? To many, this bold grammatical choice is unoffensive, but how are we to--as teachers--properly explain this inconsistency to EL learners and even native-speakers in grammar and writing bridge courses? Below is an excerpt from James Dvorkin's reply to a recent letter by Charles Everest about NPR's on-air grammatical faux-pas. (Please note Everest's own reply to this post below). Dvorkin replies . . .
Click to continue "Using the Articles 'A' or 'An' Before the Words 'Historic' or 'Historical'"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 12:55 PM and is filed under Etymology.
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May 03, 2007
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This week, the English-Blog is pleased to present the following revised version of "Playful Experience is the Best Teacher," an article submitted for publication by author Darryl Bishop. The original version won first prize in the 2006 Philadelphia Writers Conference for best magazine article. Bishop's second piece on English-Blog examines grammar instruction from . . .
Click to continue "Playful Experience is the Best Teacher of English"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 01:48 PM and is filed under ESL.
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March 20, 2006
Dear Convention-Defying Instructors,
When hurtful stereotypes and ignorant prejudices collide, a major accident is bound to ensue. Mao once said, "without destruction there can be no construction." I interpret this to mean that in order to construct (or re-construct), a positive deconstruction is sometimes necessary first . Crash is layered enough to do that and much more. If you have a class of top-level English students that seem open to receiving pop-cultural topics for writing and discussion subject-matter, you might have some success with this piece.
The film itself is a full two hours long and it took two complete class periods to show this film in its entirety to my class. Should you decide to screen this film, your students should be forewarned: It's certainly violent, graphic and has something to offend almost everyone. But, at the same time, some really important social issues are first toyed with and then brought to the surface. The narrative results in an amazing chain-reaction of hatred, prejudice and bigotry. Does hate fuel the uninformed and misguided opinions or do uninformed and misguided opinions inform the hate? In the third class period, I conducted a . . .
Click to continue "Collisions over Social Issues in the Film "Crash""
This entry posted by lhobbs at 08:11 PM and is filed under Critical Theory.
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February 27, 2006
English Students,
We’ve discussed previously the concepts of metaphor and simile. Both compare different ideas and draw connections, thus offering a new perspective or interpretive definition. But, what’s the difference between them?
Here's some help:
Simile - A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as, as in “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get" - Forrest Gump (or) "My love is like a red, red rose" — Robert Burns
Metaphor – The metaphor is similar to the simile, but doesn't say that one thing is like another thing. A metaphor says one thing IS another thing! For example, “Life is a process of becoming . . ." - Anaïs Nin (or) "No man is an island" —John Donne
Click to continue "Defining Our Own Terms: Teaching is a Metaphor, Learning is Like a Simile"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 01:27 PM and is filed under Literature.
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February 13, 2006
"The Stone Age was marked by man's clever use of crude tools; the information age, to date, has been marked by man's crude use of clever tools." ~ Source Unknown
I've been using the instructional videos from this production company, the Standard Deviants, for some time now. They also have a series on grammar and punctuation in a similar format but it's the one on writing for college that I generally try to incorporate somewhere in my writing courses near the beginning of the semester. The overall success of this series has . . .
Click to continue "The Standard Deviants: Sesame Street for College Students?"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 12:02 AM and is filed under Film.
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February 07, 2006
Photograph: 'Der Danzig Danse Macabre I' © 2006 Lee Hobbs
"Cast a cold eye / On life, on death. / Horseman; pass by!" ~ W. B. Yeats Under Ben Bulben
Caption: A grim church ornament gives a grisly grin over onlookers in a Danzig cathedral (2002) . . .
Click to continue "Using Strange Depictions as both a Discussion and Writing Prompt"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 10:22 PM and is filed under Photography.
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February 01, 2006
Photograph: 'Rock Devil's Head' © 2006 Lee Hobbs
"I like being near the top of a mountain. One can't get lost here." ~ Wislawa Szymborska
Caption: A side of the Chimney Rock mountain - which resembles a face - looks gleefully over the valleys of North Carolina . . .
Click to continue "Utilizing The Power of Photography in Writing-Intensive English Courses"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:50 PM and is filed under Photography.
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January 30, 2006
For Monday's English composition class, I used this educational video as part of my daily lesson plan:
English Composition: Writing for an Audience. Program 2. "Finding Something To Say." Nar. Peter Berkow. Prod. Peter Berkow and Anita Berkow. Annenberg/CPB, Annenberg Foundation-Corporation for Public Broadcasting. PBS. 30 minutes. 2000.
Click to continue "Suggested Instructional Video for Teaching English Essay Writing"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 02:29 AM and is filed under Film.
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January 28, 2006
"DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another. " ~ Ambrose Bierce
Readers, if you've been to the ESL-Lesson-Plan blog recently, you've probably seen my lastest comments on the hot topic of unfair hiring practices and outright discrimination that hundreds of qualified, experiened ESL instructors must deal with on a daily basis. Have you, for instance, or someone you've known, faced discrimination in the ESL marketplace? Lately there's been plenty of buzz on the internet about various types of unfair hiring practices in the ESL industry. For example . . .
Click to continue "Why is Job Discrimination Such an Important Issue in ESL?"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 02:59 PM and is filed under ESL.
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January 27, 2006
Contemplating Robert Frost's "Road Not Taken"
I like to use poetry in my English language writing courses as both writing-prompts, discussion topics and lead-ins to other assignments. In my experience with Western students, it seems that today the majority of them enjoy and have full access to all forms of popular music, much of which - hip-hop for example - is lyric intensive . . .
Click to continue "Using Poetry as an In-Class Writing Prompt: Frost Part II"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:25 AM and is filed under Literature.
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January 23, 2006
For Friday's English composition class, I used the following production as part of the lesson:
English Composition: Writing for an Audience. Program 1. "School Writing / Real World." Nar. Peter Berkow. Prod. Peter Berkow and Anita Berkow. Annenberg/CPB, Annenberg Foundation-Corporation for Public Broadcasting. PBS. 30 minutes. 2000.
I found that . . .
Click to continue "Recommended Resource for Teaching English Language Composition"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 04:01 PM and is filed under Film.
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January 17, 2006
Playing With Robert Frost's "Fire & Ice"
What are your experiences using poetry in the writing classroom? Do you prefer the easier-to-comprehend-type model for poems so that more time can be spent on the actual craft of response-writing, for instance, or do you like the headier examples that will probably take an entire class period of discussion before students "get it" enough to even have an academic reaction?
Recently, I asked the students in my English language class . . .
Click to continue "Poems In The English Writing Classroom: Take Frost, For Example"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 01:28 PM and is filed under Literature.
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January 15, 2006
"Every burned book enlightens the world." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Bonfires,” according to Ruth McClain of OCTELA, “were a very efficient form of censorship in an age when books were handwritten and existed in few copies . . .
Click to continue "Censorship in the English Classroom"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 03:20 PM and is filed under Industry Issues.
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January 14, 2006
Photograph: 'Gulf Shores after Hurricane Ivan' © 2006 Lee Hobbs
"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." ~ Willa Silbert Cather
Caption: After the mighty winds of Hurricane Ivan, the once happy resort at Gulf State Park sits gutted and utterly defeated on the coastal shores of southern Alabama (2004) . . .
Click to continue "Ways to use Quotations in your English Classes: Cather, et al."
This entry posted by lhobbs at 06:45 PM and is filed under Composition.
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January 10, 2006
"Education costs money, but then so does ignorance." - Sir Claus Moser
Are you being paid enough to teach English? Most of us would probably stand up in unison to yell a resounding "no" if asked en masse . . .
Click to continue "Being Compensated Fairly for English Teaching"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:56 PM and is filed under Industry Issues.
Readers' Comments (16)
January 04, 2006
"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." ~ Winston Churchill
Click to continue "Comments on "ESL Instruct" - December"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 09:33 PM and is filed under Surveys.
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December 26, 2005
Did you get the last issue of the ESL Instruct newsletter? This might be the last one I author alone. Read or comment on it here.
Click to continue "Comments on "ESL Instruct" - December 2005"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 07:13 PM and is filed under Surveys.
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December 20, 2005
"Grammar, which knows how to control even kings." ~Moliere
Looking for really USEFUL grammar textbook for your ESL lessons?
Dear English Language Teacher-Resource Shoppers, look no further . . .
Click to continue "Teaching English Grammar? Some Reader Recommendations"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 08:10 PM and is filed under Textbooks.
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December 19, 2005
"What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honorable, than that of teaching?" ~Harriet Martineau
ESL qualification prerequisites anyone?
Blog folk,
There's a lot of talk going on now on the ESL-School blog and in the various ESL-Job-Forums out there about what kind of academic degrees you might (or might not) need to qualify for employment at a respectable ESL school abroad (or, just get legal working papers). On top of this . . .
Click to continue "ESL Teaching Prerequisites"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 12:19 AM and is filed under Surveys.
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December 15, 2005
"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." ~Sir Francis Bacon
Are you an ESL graduate student?
Have you still never presented at a conference before but realize that potential employers will see your involvement with the academic community as a big, big plus when considering your C.V.? Then think about university sponsored graduate conferences, particularly interdisciplinary ones (where you'll have improved chances of having your proposal accepted). They are the perfect place to begin presenting since they are a safe, friendly environment where you'll find encouragement instead of criticism . . .
Click to continue "Industry Events - ESL [Friendly] Conferences"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 07:35 PM and is filed under Industry Events.
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December 13, 2005
"The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar" ~Michel de Montaigne
Hello There ESL-Textbook Hunters!
This semester, based on a trusted recommendation, I tried the following grammar book (also covers punctuation and style) which (don't laugh!) is designed for North American eight-graders. I'd like to report, though, that I had a tremendous success with it . . .
Click to continue "ESL Textbook Recommendations"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 03:48 AM and is filed under Textbooks.
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December 11, 2005
"Early to bed, early to rise. Work like hell and advertise." ~Ted Turner
Click to continue "Teaching ESL WITHOUT An Employer"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:06 PM and is filed under Tutoring.
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December 09, 2005
"They're called lessons because they lessen from day to day." ~Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
Click to continue "The Problem with Private ESL Classes"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:57 PM and is filed under Tutoring.
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December 07, 2005
"If you have no critics you'll likely have no success." ~ Malcolm X
Click to continue "Comments on "ESL Instruct" - November"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 12:04 AM and is filed under Surveys.
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December 01, 2005
"The joys of meeting pay the pags of absence / Else who could bear it?" ~ Nicholas Rowe
Click to continue "What Do You Do About Missed ESL Classes?"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 08:13 PM and is filed under Tutoring.
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November 29, 2005
"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." ~ George Orwell
Click to continue "A Dystopian Future for The English Language?"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 03:49 AM and is filed under ESL.
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November 25, 2005
"There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world." ~Jean Baudrillard
Click to continue "Using Halloween for ESL Class: Anytime!"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 05:32 AM and is filed under ESL.
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"There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world." ~Jean Baudrillard
Click to continue "Using Halloween for ESL Class: Anytime!"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 05:32 AM and is filed under ESL.
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November 24, 2005
"It usually takes me three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech" ~Mark Twain
Click to continue "Impromptu ESL Teaching Demonstrations"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 05:28 AM and is filed under ESL.
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November 23, 2005
"I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there" ~Charles Bukowski
ESL Inmates? Sounds like the title for a new blog on the horizons . . .
Click to continue "ESL Jailbirds and Stool-Pigeons"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 05:41 AM and is filed under ESL.
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"I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there" ~Charles Bukowski
ESL Inmates? Sounds like the title for a new blog on the horizons . . .
Click to continue "ESL Jailbirds and Stool-Pigeons"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 05:41 AM and is filed under ESL.
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November 20, 2005
"Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life." ~Anna Akhmatova
Click to continue "ESL Italian Style"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:56 PM and is filed under ESL.
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November 17, 2005
"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles." ~Niccolo Machiavelli
Click to continue "ESL Vitas, Reference Letters and You!"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 04:02 AM and is filed under ESL.
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"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles." ~Niccolo Machiavelli
Click to continue "ESL Vitas, Reference Letters and You!"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 04:02 AM and is filed under ESL.
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November 16, 2005
"There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it." ~ Dale Carnegie
Click to continue "When Students Evaluate their English Instructor"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 01:13 AM and is filed under Literature.
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November 14, 2005
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names" ~ John F. Kennedy
Ever wonder what to do on the first day of class? Nervous about remembering new students' names? Well, the first day of class is the perfect opportunity to satisfy both of these apprehensions.
Click to continue "Encouraging English Course Students to Talk"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 04:20 AM and is filed under Literature.
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November 12, 2005
"Only strong personalities can endure history, the weak ones are extinguished by it" ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Click to continue "Impressing a Potential ESL Employer"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 08:07 PM and is filed under ESL.
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"Only strong personalities can endure history, the weak ones are extinguished by it" ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Click to continue "Impressing a Potential ESL Employer"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 08:07 PM and is filed under ESL.
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November 11, 2005
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." ~ Annie Dillard
A Slavic Garden of Eden & A Winter Wonderland
Click to continue "ESL "Dream" Teaching Location"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 10:22 PM and is filed under ESL.
Readers' Comments (5)
November 10, 2005
"He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help." ~ Abraham Lincoln
Hi friends,
Thanks for taking the time out of your already busy schedule to provide feedback on the most recent edition of ESL Instruct.
Click to continue "Comments on "ESL Instruct" - October"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 05:04 PM and is filed under Surveys.
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November 09, 2005
"This inescapable duty to observe oneself: if someone else is observing me, naturally I have to observe myself too; if none observe me, I have to observe myself all the closer." ~ Franz Kafka
Click to continue "English Teaching Classroom Observations"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 03:33 PM and is filed under Industry Issues.
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November 08, 2005
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research." ~ Anonymous (of course)
Click to continue "Plagiarism and English Teaching Part II"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 06:02 PM and is filed under Literature.
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November 07, 2005
"True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information." ~ Sir Winston Churchill
Click to continue "Evaluating Student Work in English Courses"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 03:34 PM and is filed under Literature.
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November 06, 2005
"Professors known as outstanding lecturers do two things; they use a simple plan and many examples." ~ W. McKeachie
Click to continue "PowerPoint Presentations in English Courses"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 02:39 AM and is filed under Industry Issues.
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November 05, 2005
"The more laws & order are made prominent, the more thieves & robbers there will be." - Lao Tzu
Click to continue "Plagiarism and English Teaching Part I"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 01:38 AM and is filed under Industry Issues.
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October 01, 2005
Click to continue "All that's Fit to Discuss About ESL (& More!)"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:49 PM and is filed under ESL.
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September 30, 2005
Readers,
In addition to writing and compiling articles for this blog, I also edit two professional newsletters for ESLemployment. One is designed for ESL instructors and the other for ESL school operators . . .
Click to continue "Subscribe to the Newsletters I Edit for ESLemployment"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 01:15 AM and is filed under ESL.
September 28, 2005
Click to continue "Advice From the ESL Admins & D.O.S."
This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:08 PM and is filed under ESL.
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September 26, 2005
Click to continue "What our ESL Comrades are Discussing"
This entry posted by lhobbs at 10:59 PM and is filed under ESL.
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September 01, 2005
Lee Hobbs, a North American native-speaker (and partial descendant of Native-Americans and wily Welshmen), renowned global citizen (and infamous universal denizen) spends much of his existence "searching for sanity beyond the self-dynamic" After earning his bachelor of arts (in fine art) in 1993, he spent six of his thinner years trekking across the planet, experimenting with entrepreneurial endeavors, and working in the emerging ESL field of Post-Communist Europe. During that time . . .
Click to continue "Who is Lee Hobbs?"
This entry posted by msimmons at 04:22 PM and is filed under Tutoring.
Readers' Comments (1)
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