Looking on the internet for some information about editing, I took several online grammar tests and the results were horrible. Having taught 2 1/2 years, I would think that having taught so much grammar, it would have stuck with me.
How many teachers, ‘know’ grammar, but really don’t know grammar rules and such?
Me. I know what it should be and how it should be said, but why…? I sometimes have to look it up when a student fires one of those out-of-the-blue technical grammar questions at me.
Just to be sure, mind.
Then I forget again.
jds no do grammar
So, it’s not just me then 
[quote=“Dangermouse”]Me. I know what it should be and how it should be said, but why…? I sometimes have to look it up when a student fires one of those out-of-the-blue technical grammar questions at me.
[/quote]
Yea i know what it should be and how it should be said, but I couldn’t tell you what certain grammar terms/rules are. But is that a key indicator of a well trained or educated teacher? Do ya lose face if you can’t explain at a moment’s notice?
[quote=“Namahottie”][quote=“Dangermouse”]Me. I know what it should be and how it should be said, but why…? I sometimes have to look it up when a student fires one of those out-of-the-blue technical grammar questions at me.
[/quote]
Yea I know what it should be and how it should be said, but I couldn’t tell you what certain grammar terms/rules are. But is that a key indicator of a well trained or educated teacher? Do ya lose face if you can’t explain at a moment’s notice?[/quote]
My sincere and honest approach is as follows…
Actually, I wouldn’t be such a brown nose, but … something like that 
I looked up “will” and “going to” in the dictionary tonight, and read the Chinese grammar books to find out exactly what the difference is between the two phrases, I’m sure it was something I used to instinctively know. That’s just one example.
The other day I got “will have been” at the time I couldn’t even think of an example, I had to look it up. :help:
Not an English teacher, but why don’t you just tell them: “That’s just the way it is - now, remember it!”
New thread! New thread!! I found myself disagreeing with one definition that I saw.
“Will have been (+v-ing)” is the future perfect progressive tense.
Ex: By next year, I will have been living here for 10 years.
Not the most common tense in the world, but it does come up.
I’ve had a strong sense of accurate, technical grammar for a good number of years, since I studied a few romance languages back in high school, uni, etc. Actually, I was one of the few kids in 9th grade who actually enjoyed diagramming English sentences. Also, I remember winning an argument with a French teacher about a certain structure. She admitted I was correct but wasn’t happy at all about the way the sentence looked. 
Having said that, I wasn’t able to describe, in detail, English grammar until studying Azar’s blue edition last century.
The reason it’s important to know these things is because when a second language learner asks you how a tense works, or brings up an example from some text, you need to be able to say more than “because it sounds right”. You need to be able to put the tools of the language into the learner’s hands. And, the easiest, most accurate way to do so is to give the student the formula for the structure. You don’t necessarily have to know all the technical terms, but you should at least be able to show how the structure works. If you can’t provide the formula, then at least be prepared to offer 3-5 example sentences of the way the structure works.
Once you put tools into a s’s hands, you empower him/her. Oh, and I’d strongly recommend having s’s write a few sentences (of their own!) showing they can actively construct sentences using the new structure.
PS: In general, s’s here don’t expect foreign teachers to be well versed in English grammar. But if you are, you gain a great deal of legitimacy with them.
Jefferson’s post brings up a few interesting considerations, some I grapple with but have no answers yet.
For grammar, one of the deadliest and dullest subjects ever around, it’s so key for business english courses. Grammar questions pop up all the time, especially during writing exercises. OTOH, there are some grammar points that don’t usually, if at all, show up in business english context. The example of future perfect progressive tense is one. Tell me how often that comes up in a business english situation? If it does, there are better ways of (re)writing the sentence. Future progressive tense doesn’t fit into the KISS principle too well. I’ll avoid it and steer students away from obscure grammar points. Am I doing them a disservice? Will they be worse off by it? 
In the end, working with limited time and (sometimes) high expectations, not everything can be taught well or effectively. So it seems to me that structuring a class program requires deliberately avoiding areas of English. I guess that’s ok if one is teaching a specialized area such as Business English and Writing but I don’t know. Doesn’t always seem right.
The Azar Fundamentals of English Grammar book seems quite good but can it be bought in Taipei? It has both the workbook and the teachers book. Also, diagramming sentence exercises, a brilliant reminder. I haven’t seen too many English books in Taiwan that deal with that.
YC - Caves has all the Azar books.
The FPP tense can actually come up in a business sense. For instance, if you’re discussing ongoing operations in an area and want to demonstrate, say, how long you’ve been doing business in Kuwait, then you could very well say this to a prospective partner:
“We’re very strong in the Middle East. In fact, by next year, we will have been operating in Kuwait for 50 years.”
Granted, the FPP tense is possibly the least used of all the major tenses, but it does have a place, and I actually use it from time to time in regular speech. Of course, you can probably find work arounds. I don’t know. I personally kind of like the tense. Of course, this is the guy who memorized Mozart’s Requiem for fun in college. :loco:
DIES IRAE! DIES ILLA! SOLVET SAECTUM IN FAVILLA! TESTE DAVID CUM SYBILLA!
I’ll check out Caves on Zhongshan Road even though I hate it there.
Anywhere I can find the The Oxford Picture Dictionary: Monolingual or English/Chinese? This came up in class. Some people like pictures 
They should have that as well.
You sure? The last time I went there, they had very little, extremely disappointing. And it’s not that convenient for me to get to.
Easiest thing to do is call and ask:
2537 1666