Funny Sketch About Different English Learners' Problems

This is a fun sketch that goes over the different problems a student may have in a class.

One student struggles with grammar! This is the students I would be most like. With a student weak in grammar I suggest lots of reading, movies, fun drills, and maybe some grammar comics. 

There's another student who is pretty bad at spelling (and thus pronunciation!). There are a few great sites out there if your students can't spell, but I usually know a few good spelling tricks to help out students.

http://www.spellingcity.com/ 

http://www.spellingcity.com/ gave a free password for Teacher's Appreciation Day.

The next student struggles with idioms and proverbs. If you can find these in songs or movies it may help your students remember them.

The final girl has large problems with her vocabulary. There's an entire MOOC going on right now on how to teach vocabulary. I have an older blog post that covers some basic suggestions for activities, games, and quizzes.

And the last student struggles with emphasizing words (and vowel sounds). I am pretty bad with pronunciation other than using minimal pairs and jokes. but the 34th ELT Blog Carnival has given me many more ideas to work with.

The Carnival will be published on September 1st, so all submissions must be received before August 31st.

See http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/2013/07/the-34th-elt-blog-carnival-pronunciation.html for more information.

Business Idioms and Proverbs "They Cooked the Books"

We are in the process now of changing one of our college English as a Foreign Language classes from an academic writing course to more of a business course. So when I found "They Cooked The Books": A Humorous Look at the World of White-Collar Crime I thought it would be a fun read and maybe useful! I was right on both counts.

The author, Patrick Edwards, is a fellow California native so we seem to have similar views on quite a few things. While his knowledge of the financial industry is different, I find most of his references very humorous. 

 I wouldn't suggest giving this books to students (unless they are pretty advanced and have an interest in finance), but I think that having read it I can now give a better history and some fun examples for business idioms!

Basically throughout the book he goes through different proverbs and idioms explaining where they come from and how we can see them used today. I admit I skim through most of the financial explanations, but I enjoy the origins a lot.

For example, his first chapter explains "Cook the books" comes from the 1930's when the Earl of Straffor stated, "The proof was once clearr, however, they have cooked it ever since." He even references a use in current pop culture like this Beetle Baily:

If you have some free time and are teaching a business class this is a fun book to scan.

What's your favorite place to find idiom origins? Or what's your favorite financial idiom to teach?