“I am a university professor at the University of Bergen in Norway. My students and I have some difficulty communicating the international students who arrive at my university from China. They are extremely formal and we are unable to ‘read’ their faces. Where should we start?” In traditional Chinese culture, Read more…
“How and why did you move from TEFL into scientific editing?” I didn’t actually make a conscious decision to move from TEFL into scientific editing (i.e. correcting and proofreading research papers and proposals written by people whose first language is not English). The conscious decision was to get out of Read more…
“In addition to ChatGPT, what are some AI applications and other online tools that students (and teachers) might find useful?” ChatGPT (and to a lesser extent Bard, Bing and the others) can do pretty much anything, so are the language tools that pre-existed these bots still of any use? QuillBot Read more…
“My coursebook has very little on word order. Yet my students often get the words in the wrong order. Should I simply ignore this problem?” Word order is rarely touched on in course books. I have no idea why, given that it is the basis of any language. Let’s take Read more…
“Do students have difficulty writing even in their own language?” “What is the difference between reader-oriented and author-oriented writing?” In answer to the first question: very probably. Professor Florkowski from Poland, and a professor at the University of Georgia, highlights an important point: Whenever I talk about how to write Read more…
“What are the pros and cons of becoming a lecturer in academic skills?” Having spent 10 years in the EFL trenches, I made the move over to Higher Education two years ago to a position as a lecturer in academic skills. While I haven’t looked back, my decade in the Read more…