Grammar discussions demand humor.
Taylor Mali, a teacher turned Slam Poet (he’s been on Def Comedy Jam and Comedy Central), has great material on YouTube. His poetry (more stand up/ spoken word with a hip hop feel) rocks. See a collection of links . His rant on “what a teacher really makes” lifted my spirits, but his video on rhetoric and the loss of voice in contemporary culture is more relevant for students.
Victor Borge’s a phonetic punctuation system can lighten up a grammar discussion and teach mechanics. And for me it’s practical; living in multilingual environments, I sometimes speak out punctuation to clarify meaning.
There’s an online cartoon at http://www.bitstrips.com/series/34595/ that treats grammar. Web comix work better in the wiki than in the blog. The blog cuts off much of the content, but if you click on the image itself it will open up larger and in its entirety.
Also on the issue of tired language , Oxford researchers have released a list of the top 10 most irritating words or phrases in English. Not all of them are cliches, but…
And what is the difference between a cliche and a colloquialism?
