culture. education. literary studies.
Enid Blytonโs book series The Famous Five turns eighty this year! Still much loved by children all over the world and translated into numerous languages, the series describes the holiday adventures of brothers Julian and Dick, their sister Anne, cousin George (Georgina, that is), and Georgeโs pet dog Timmy.
[This post has been written with ESL/EFL students in mind, CEFR level B2 and above.] Letโs be honest, reading poetry doesnโt come naturally to most of us. Same as with visual arts or classical music, sometimes it's difficult to understand complex symbolism or to follow a poetโs train of thought. And what to do with …
Continue reading "How to interpret a poem (with a little help from Walt Whitman)"
Lord knows how much I love a good, old paper book, but I canโt deny the convenience of having immediate access to almost any title I want, available within seconds on my computer, smartphone or e-book reader. E-books tend to be substantially cheaper than traditional books, too, but if youโre an avid reader like me, …
During many years of teaching English, one thing Iโve consistently used with my students have been graded readers (you can see the ones I'm currently using in the cover photo at the top). There are different types of those - some are designed for native speaker children - but the ones Iโll be discussing here …
Continue reading "Graded readers: what are they and how to use them"
grammaticus 