a cLiL to cLiMB

Reminder of new version of blog

2012-01-11T23:21:00Z

Are you still following this blog? If you are, you would have missed two posts which have since been published in the "new" version. See I'm MOVING! for details. Read More......(read more)

I'm MOVING!

2011-12-30T23:06:00Z

I've been putting it off for quite a long time now because of this reason or that, but I've finally done it - just made it before this year ends! The new address is http://aclil2climb.blogspot.com/ The only change is the "to" is now the figure "2". I...(read more)

Broken legs in Andorra, aka To *** with Cholesterol!

2011-12-27T22:47:00Z

Broken legs in Andorra? Yeah, that's Cockney rhyming slang for broken eggs with chistorra, and yeah, I've just invented that, the slang, I mean. :-) Cheese-toh-what? Well, that's a type of sausage that hails from Navarre, in the north of Spain. Wikipedia...(read more)

Best 7 of 11 stitched up

2011-12-22T11:11:00Z

Just as you thought it was safe to store away all your PCs for the festive break, along comes yet another tool to help enrich your browsing experience. Will it? Or will it stay stitched up? Take a look at a quick Stich.It of the best 7 of 2011 of this...(read more)

Two For The Price Of None

2011-12-19T19:38:00Z

Where were you last Saturday 17th December 2011 from about 09:00 until 15:00 GMT? Seriously, if you were not doing anything you couldn't postpone such as looking after the sick or the young, or earning your daily bread, and you're a so-called educator,...(read more)

How to overcome the Lonely Teacher Blues

2011-12-11T18:28:00Z

Image by @ij64 on ELTPics; Teaching is, often, a lonely job. If you're lucky, you get to talk about your problems, exchange ideas, or periodically receive some level of motivation in the staff room. Most of the time, however, you get thrown in the deep...(read more)

UG2BK - Hinglish, Chinglish & Singlish?

2011-11-28T20:05:00Z

This is so hilarious I've just got to share it here, too. Shame it's so fast that learners may have a hard time following it. Anyway, just sit back and try to enjoy it: The History of English in 10 minutes! Read More......(read more)

#ELTBITES Challenge: We like to move it, move it

2011-11-27T12:50:00Z

Once in a while I read something and I find myself thinking, "Now, why didn't I think of that?". Well, Richard Gresswell had such an idea. He started a blog, called it ELTBITES, and challenged us: "Describe an activity that requires no more than the teacher,...(read more)

Stand By Me, Japan

2011-11-24T10:53:00Z

This is a good an excuse as any to listen to a good song, and, at the same time, be reminded of the suffering the great nation had to endure earlier this year. Why not use this video as a springboard for a class discussion on natural disasters, for example?...(read more)

How much is... or how much are...?

2011-11-21T22:53:00Z

Words shaped by David Warr's PlantMaker How much is a cheese sandwich and a coffee? How much are a cheese sandwich and a coffee? Which is correct? This is a bit like my post on There is... or there are... Instinctively, I'd say the first sentence is the...(read more)

How to navigate around this blog?

2011-11-12T08:06:00Z

As part of the prize package for winning Grammar.net's Grammar Blog of the Year 2011, they have designed an infographic for me - thank you, team! Since I no longer have the dynamic tree menu, I thought it a good idea to have an infographic showing how...(read more)

Top Tools for Learning 2011

2011-11-11T10:30:00Z

C4LPT (Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies), run by Jane Hart, is taking votes for their annual Top 100 Tools for Learning. This is the fifth time they'll be compiling the list, and voting closes on Sunday 13th Nov. To be honest, I've never...(read more)

Modal verbs: must, have to, or have got to?

2011-11-07T23:33:00Z

Many students have trouble understanding the difference between must and have to, and it's really hardly surprising. Before we get into that, I'd like to say, first, that we can use have to and have got to without any difference in meaning. The difference...(read more)

SpiderScribe mindmapper now allows embedding and exporting

2011-11-06T10:56:00Z

Followers of this blog would have seen me using a few websites to produce mind maps for various purposes. For a list of free mind mappers I've used, see the useful resources page. To see examples of the mind maps in action, see Cokey Monkey, Ideas on...(read more)

There is or there are?

2011-10-29T08:19:00Z

The rule is quite clear...or is it? We generally use 'there is' or 'there are' to talk about the existence (or not) of something, and the general rule is that we use 'are' with plural subjects. There is a girl from Greenland in our class.Can you believe...(read more)