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My MA Dissertation – The full, unexpurgated version
In the interests of posting everything I do on a single blog, here’s something which will be unreadable for most people; my MA dissertation, finished a month-and-a-half ago, and now handed in, marked...
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Applied Linguistics As A Foreign Language – English Education in China
This is an article I wrote for the BCALS Newsletter. If you are not an applied linguist your mileage may vary. To an outsider the more practical theories of SLA may seem obscure and parochial, but...
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‘Theft’ and stealing
It’s not exactly becoming for an English teacher to start whining about correct usage of English, and it’s something I try to avoid completely these days. Aside from being fundamentally annoying and...
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No why
One of the responsibilities I have in my new job is to interview applicants for our TEFL course. The point is mainly to test their English proficiency, but I also want to find out if they are motivated...
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Rude English
I’ve always been perhaps too entertained by foreign language words and products name which are rude in English, but the joke is getting a bit weak now. What I really want to hear are some English words...
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English in China: Accent
One of the most disheartening things about English teaching in China is the way that gut instincts and what we call “first language interference” are allowed to interfere with education almost...
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False friends in English and Mandarin.
“False friends” are words in different languages that are similar but have different meanings. From wikipedia: False friends (French: faux amis) are pairs of words or phrases in two languages or...
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Does dubbing TV harm language learning?
As anyone who’s attended my “pet hates” English corner will know, I’m not a fan of dubbed TV and films. As an example of a pet hate it works well – it’s accepted by society at large, but annoys me on...
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