My wife, Alma, and I live with two dogs: Ronja and Mona, the English Springer Spaniels. Their antics in our home and the daily errands we run around to care for them frequently stop me in my tracks, prompting deep contemplation about the nature of communi ...
Remembering Susan Holden
Susan Holden was an editor, publisher, author, public speaker, councillor, teacher, teacher trainer and to me, she was a dear friend. I only knew her for what was to become the latter years of her life, nevertheless the influence she had upon mine was rem ...
English is Context 2022 Finalist – ELTons Innovation in Teacher Resources
Delighted to be a Finalist in the category Innovation in Teacher Resources at the 2022 ELTons. "English is Context by Andreas Grundtvig, was inspired by Geoffrey Leech’s “Principles of Pragmatics”. In an eye-opening workshop on the idea of “how utterance ...
GEPTED – Putting pragmatics into practice in the elt classroom
A 'paper' for the Factualty of Languages, Literature and Linguistics at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil Recorded 26 July 2021, from Lake Sartai, Lithuania - isten out for 'the bird(s)' 15:25To watch the video see: https://www.youtube.com ...
Untangling why, when, how and on what ‘it depends!’
I'm delighted to share the following guest post from my friend Jade Blue.Book review: English is Context. Andreas Grundtvig, 2021. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been telling my students ‘context is everything’. It’s a rare occasion when I don’t pre ...
Notes from Bordeaux
The beautiful notes of Dianne Chen Seguí, made during my workshop for TESOL France (Bordeaux) on 16 March, 2019. In this workshop I tried out several of the activities which were later to become English is Context - Practical pragmatics for clear communic ...
English is Context – Practical pragmatics for clear communication (DELTA)
"English is Context is as enjoyable to read as it will be enjoyable to teach. It is amusing, yet with authority; provocative, yet without giving offence; unexpected, yet with clarity. English is Context helps teachers and, what is hugely important, helps ...
A question of context – ETp March 2021
Context, meaning the circumstance and the conditions present at the time of speaking, is as integral to language as language is to context.This is no secret, nor is it rocket science. Yet for many of our learners it might just as well be.Perhaps similar t ...
Suffen about Suffolk – digging up the origins of English
This investigation explores one of the oldest dialects of English in order to discover which features of the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, remain buried in common use today. Spoken language is analysed on two levels: regional colloquial speech amo ...
The bits in between
"I suppose it makes sense that Shakespeare came up with hobnob - because it's the most old fashioned of biscuits, it's got like bits of hay in it and stuff, it's like eating a thatched roof!" Philomena Cunk