Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country

America's Secret Slang Season 1 Episode 5 Coming to America

Amy's Lyric School

Here's a little lesson on subject-verb agreement.

Welcome to Session 6 at ELS.  I am really looking forward to being your teacher this session.  Whether it's vocabulary, reading, writing or SSP, I will gladly help you all to improve your language skills.  Please check this blog on a regular basis for assignments, games and comments.  Your responses to me are welcome and I look forward to reading what you blog.

Susan

Adventures in English

ESL students are the best learners!  There I said it.  The wonderful students I am so fortunate to work and interact with daily brighten each and every one of my days.  It is so satisfying to watch them progress with enthusiasm, dedication, and motivation.  That's not to say it has always been smooth sailing.  Oh no, no, no, no, no!  Stormy skies, choppy seas and a handful of shipwrecks characterize my experiences thus far, however, I wouldn't (modal) change it for anything in the world.

I have observed the students at Global ESL Academy in Flushing flourish.  Cultural differences and a looooooooong silent period - them, not me - has been overcome filling the classroom with a wonderful energy resulting in great discussions, active participation, fantastic projects and a tremendous leap forward in their willingness and ability to speak English.  They have taught me a great deal also. I know now that learning a language can be fun.  To that end, I say thank you to each and every one of them.

Please check out the links to their blogs on the right hand side of this page to see what we have been up to and where we are heading.

Thanks,
Susan

How I feel about writing.

For all intent and purpose, there are five stages to the writing process.  They are:

• creation
• research
• drafting
• revising, and
• editing

How are we as future teachers expected to teach these five steps to our students?  According to the Purdue OWL there are two categories to pursue.  The first road to travel down consists of higher order concerns.  Higher order concerns are thesis, purpose, audience, organization and development. They make up the first two stages of the writing process.  The second category is lower order concerns.  Lower order concerns involve grammar, word choice and spelling, or the final three stages of writing.  These techniques are very clear and helpful, but they do not take into account the emotional toll and the challenge of putting pen to paper and painstakingly creating a written masterpiece.  

For some of us, writing is our art, but it comes at a price.  It pulls, it draws, it sucks the energy out of you leaving your brain a tangled mess as you choose each word carefully, cross it out, and try and find another way to say the same thing.  It is easy to be distracted from writing.  You may need to be put it aside when the cat has to go out, or the refrigerator needs cleaning, or the silver needs polishing or you must check Facebook for the thousandth time that day and let's not forget to watch Dr. Oz.  

Working under pressure or with bad conditions, however, sometimes produces the best work.  I wonder how many other writers go through this same pressure.  It's been 15 minutes of semi-torture to create this masterpiece and this is all I have to show for it.  Imagine how your students might feel!!!!!

Grammar Corner    

Try this exercise the Purdue OWL to improve your writing abilities.  

Exercise : Eliminating Wordiness Exercise 1

Revise these sentences to state their meaning in fewer words. Avoid passive voice, needless repetition, and wordy phrases and clauses. The first sentence has been done as an example.

1. Many local farmers plan to attend next Friday's meeting.

2. Although Bradley Hall is regularly populated by students, close study of the building as a structure is seldom undertaken by them.

3. He dropped out of school on account of the fact that it was necessary for him to help support his family.

4. It is expected that the new schedule will be announced by the bus company within the next few days.

5. There are many ways in which a student who is interested in meeting foreign students may come to know one.

6. It is very unusual to find someone who has never told a deliberate lie on purpose.

7. Trouble is caused when people disobey rules that have been established for the safety of all.

8. A campus rally was attended by more than a thousand students. Five students were arrested by campus police for disorderly conduct, while several others are charged by campus administrators with organizing a public meeting without being issued a permit to do so.

9. The subjects that are considered most important by students are those that have been shown to be useful to them after graduation.

10. In the not too distant future, college freshmen must all become aware of the fact that there is a need for them to make contact with an academic adviser concerning the matter of a major.

11. In our company there are wide-open opportunities for professional growth with a company that enjoys an enviable record for stability in the dynamic atmosphere of aerospace technology.

12. Some people believe in capital punishment, while other people are against it; there are many opinions on this subject.

Grammar Gaffs

An update on National Grammar Day contest winners:

"The Origin of Third Person in Paleolithic Epic Poetry" by Gerald Warfield was the winner of the 2011 National Grammar Day short story contest. (Watch Gerald read the story himself in this YouTube Video.)

Read the other top entries:

First Runner Up “When Mr. Brown Met Miss Fox: A Love Story” by Rich Russell
Honorable Mention “When Ellipses Meet” by Michael Kroth
Honorable Mention “March Forth” by Sandy Listorti

Is it a grammar revolution?  (from Why Palin doesn't need National Grammar Day by Robert Day Greene)

Friday is National Grammar Day, a commemoration of sorts begun in 2008 by the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. The cheerful grammarphiles there have written a song promoting their cause, but while having fun, they're also doing good.

Their website, for example, knocks down two old myths: that you can't end a sentence in a preposition and that you mustn't split an infinitive. Fine English writers have been doing both for centuries.

At the same time, the good folks at the society have made a playlist of songs with titles that offend their sense of grammar, such as Bob Dylan's "Lay, Lady, Lay," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" from the Rolling Stones and "Who Do You Love" by Bo Diddley. It's all in fun -- would anything be more ridiculous than Diddley singing "Whom Do You Love"?

But the group has put its finger on a common concern: Is our language going to heck in a handbasket, and are our celebrities and leaders, people whom Americans look up to, misusing it more and more? The answer, to many, is a clear yes.

Take former President George W. Bush. The leader of the free world, the most powerful man on Earth, spent eight years in the White House mangling language so memorably that one writer, Jacob Weisberg of Slate, made a one-man industry of "Bushisms," available in book and calendar form.

Everyone has a favorite. Mine is probably this: "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." A close second was the president's public concern about out-of-control medical malpractice lawsuits: "We got issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their, their love with women across this country."

Bush knew that language skill was important: As he put it, "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." At the first National Grammar Day, in 2008, he sent a congratulatory letter to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. The group (ironically?) posts it prominently at nationalgrammarday.org. At least Bush has a sense of humor. He once admitted,"In my sentences I go where no man has gone before." It's true: The man has talent.

Some people see the second coming of Bush in another Republican, Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor made Twitter twitter when she called on peaceful Muslims to "refudiate" the mosque near ground zero.

Grammar Corner

1. I usually  (go) to school by bus. 2. Yesterday morning I  (get) up at 6.30. 3. We needed some money so we  (sell) our car. 4. "  she ever  (be) to Spain?" 5. "What  Peter  (do) now?" 6. Please don't make so much noise. I  (study). 7. Water  (boil) at 100 degrees Celsius. 8. Carol often  (learn) with her father. 9. Now Ron  (phone) Jill again. It  (be) the third time he  (phone) her this evening. 10. It  (rain) now. It  (begin) raining two hours ago. So it  (rain) for two hours. 11.  you  (hear) anything from Tom since Christmas? 12. "  it  (rain)?" she always  (ask) me. 13. "  you  (go) out last night?" 14. New York  (be) one of the largest cities of the world. 15. This house  (cost) 35.000 pounds in 1980.