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…
Acceptable language
From the age of 10 until I started teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) I swore like a drunken muleskinner (the coarseness of muleskinner invective can make a sailor blush). College classes in general and English classes in particular…
Copyright issues and The “P” word
Plagiarism issues come from: not broaching the subject early, confusion, and the changing nature of the legal question. Maybe also students are lured into a false sense of unaccountability by teachers who don’t call them on it. Sometimes if you…
Digital Rights Management, Copyright, and Citing Sources
If you can handle scatological terms there’s an interesting thread to this discussion started elsewhere. Part of the goals of this class include the effective integration of the words and ideas of others. We need to all follow some practices…
New Open
China and Chinese speaking countries will be the largest English speaking populations within a few years. How new users impact the language interests me. While living in Taiwan I noticed “New Open” used the way we in the states use…