This article is based on four broad assumptions: a. By “planning a grammar lesson”, I mean planning a balanced lesson with an overt focus on form at some point, rather than grammar in isolation, of course. So, it could be reading or listening followed by grammar and then by speaking, for example. b. This is … Read more
Official definition of fossilization:
Fossilization may be defined as “The point at which no further learning appears possible, with the student’s performance apparently impervious to both exposure to English and explicit error correction (i.e.: ‘set in stone’).”
First things first: What is subject / verb agreement?
It’s a grammatical rule that states that the verb must agree in number with its subject. In English, present tense verbs change to show agreement in the third person singular form by adding an S (or ES). Seems fairly straightforward, doesn’t it? So how could it be that students of all levels, nationalities and age groups seem to get this wrong far more often than would seem reasonable?
This post is a short anecdotal account of two lessons I taught in 2002.
Why on earth, you must be wondering, would I have any sort of recollection of two lessons I taught nearly ten years ago.
It so happens that those two lessons were very significant because they helped me to finally make sense of something I’d read about but couldn’t fully grasp. Not until then, anyway.