Luke Pearce
Luke is an Associate Lecturer at UCL, working on the Englicious project, and has worked as an English teacher for over 10 years, mainly in post-16 and adult education.
Location South London, UK
Activity
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Luke Pearce replied to Ho Namgung
This is a great response! It certainly takes the reader on a journey! An advert like this could take advantage of the fact that people often use their phones to check the bus times, which connects to the imperative at the end.
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Luke Pearce replied to Marina Pohrib
I experienced that conflict between TEFL and the UK curriculum. EFL resources often talk about the 9 tenses, whereas I think most grammarians would say there are 3 or even just 2.
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Luke Pearce replied to Alina Șerban
Welcome!
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Luke Pearce replied to Angelica Vega
Welcome!
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Luke Pearce replied to Ho Namgung
That was an error! Thank you for pointing it out. It's now been corrected.
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Luke Pearce replied to Alexander Storey
Beautiful poem!
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Luke Pearce replied to Hisham Conor
Great questions!
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Luke Pearce replied to Karam Mahmoud
As you will see, we recommend prioritising the author's intention and purpose before identifying word classes etc.
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Luke Pearce replied to Rosario P
Very similar to our approach! :)
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Luke Pearce replied to Rawla Ahmed
I think the key here is making sure your learners know what forms of language are appropriate in different contexts. Abbreviations are common even in formal contexts and can become part of the standard language e.g. 'phone' for 'telephone'. I would take the opportunity to talk about how language changes as can be seen in their use of slang and abbreviations....
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Welcome to the course! I had a great time teaching in Spain a few years ago.
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Luke Pearce replied to Rawla Ahmed
Welcome to the course! I hope you find some useful techniques. Are you teaching children or adult learners?
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Luke Pearce replied to Ali Ca
@AliCa thank you! I will credit you as 'Ali, an ELT teacher working in France'
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Luke Pearce replied to Deborah Hill
Hi Deborah - thanks for your comment on our course. We would love to use it to promote the course on the FutureLearn website and on social media. May we have your permission to do this? We can of course anonymise your comments. Email l.a.pearce@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions.
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Luke Pearce replied to Ali Ca
Hi Ali - thanks for your comment on our course. We would love to use it to promote the course on the FutureLearn website and on social media. May we have your permission to do this? We can of course anonymise your comments. Email l.a.pearce@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions.
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Luke Pearce replied to Emily Phyo
Great idea. The students could make a mind map/table comparing dogs and cats (or other animals), and then write their own poems using these ideas as inspiration.
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Luke Pearce replied to Alexander Storey
To me this reads neutral with a slight bias in favour of the police/government. I like how the 'battle' metaphor is continued throughout e.g. 'clashes', 'marched against' and 'repelled'.
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Luke Pearce replied to Emily Phyo
The brainstorm is a great idea. For grammatical cohesion, you could create some handouts/posters since these organising words and phrases will be the same whatever the topic is.
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Luke Pearce replied to Alexander Storey
Good point. Makes me think of the 'hidden curriculum' and how different markers/teachers have their own ideas of what 'good' or 'proper' English is. There are many rules that have fallen out of use, but some teachers will still see them as essential.
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Luke Pearce replied to Alexander Storey
Good idea to start with everyday language before moving on to technical concepts.
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Luke Pearce replied to Alexander Storey
This difference is - as far as I know - purely down to the preference of the grammarian. We follow the terminology used in the National Curriculum of England and Wales for clarity and consistency.
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Luke Pearce replied to Alexander Storey
Yes, that final sentence was intentionally confusing!
The main verb of that sentence is 'thinks' since it agrees with the Subject (Martin) and is conjugated in the present tense.
A doing word that ends in '-ing' does look like a verb and in many cases definitely is. For example, in a sentence using the present progressive - I am playing football - the...
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Luke Pearce replied to Barbara Montecchi
The trend in the English-speaking world has been to teach grammar less over the last 50 years or so. It will be interesting to hear how knowledge of grammar in one's native language helps learners with other subjects in your context!
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Luke Pearce replied to Ali Ca
It might work if you lead the textual intervention and only do it with a couple of example sentences to start with.
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Luke Pearce replied to Ali Ca
Great suggestions of writing tasks!
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Luke Pearce replied to Anup Pandey
Welcome to the course!
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
We don't film the talks at English Grammar Day currently. Hopefully we will see you next year!
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
This is a good way to stop learners feeling overwhelmed by grammar. By identifying one particular word class or feature to focus on, we make it more manageable. This does take some extra preparation by the teacher though! With stronger learners, you can leave it to them to pick out the interesting elements.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
That's a good point about Iroek: he is strong, but not a wild animal. He's definitely shown thoughtful in this scene.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
You could use the same techniques persuade the reader to make a choice between two things. I find younger learners can always argue about what's better between, for example, Marvel/DC, Apple/Android or local sports teams.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
Great point! We could talk about how these 'ungrammatical' fragments of sentences achieve those effects you mentioned.
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Luke Pearce replied to Ali Ca
'the doors' is a good one I didn't notice! That could be an example of metonymy.
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Luke Pearce replied to Ho Namgung
This is exactly the kind of close analysis that knowing the grammatical terminology can help us with!
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Luke Pearce replied to Laura Cacuango
Asking for another reader response after analysing the text and discussing how/if it changed is a great idea! @AliCa
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Luke Pearce replied to Nadine Fouché
Front-loading grammar means starting your lesson with a focus on an explicit grammar feature e.g. verbs or nouns. Instead, we recommend starting the lesson with the learners' response to an authentic text. After that, grammatical features will emerge as part of analysing meaning. In the next weeks, you'll see several examples of this.
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Yes, unfortunately, it can become 'feature spotting' quite easily! We always aim to connect grammar to meaning.
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Luke Pearce replied to ROWENA MARSCO
That is one of the confusing things about searching online for grammar resources. You will find so many terms from different countries, or different approaches, not to mention they become outdated. All the Englicious resources are tailored to the terminology as used in the current curriculum for England and Wales. Not to say that this terminology is superior...
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Luke Pearce replied to Nadine Fouché
'...grammar is something that enriches you with metalanguage, so you can therefore speak about the patterns that you observe.'
I couldn't have put it better myself!
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Luke Pearce replied to ROWENA MARSCO
I would be very curious to hear how English, other languages and grammar are taught in Scotland!
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Luke Pearce replied to Kiel A
Welcome! I hope you recover soon and find this course a good distraction!
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
Thank you! In that case, can I attribute your comments to 'Erin, a teacher in the US' or would you prefer to anonymise your name entirely?
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
Hi Erin, thanks for your comment on our course. We would love to use it to promote the course on the FutureLearn website and on social media. May we have your permission to do this? We can of course anonymise your comments. Email l.a.pearce@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions.
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
I think it's best to ask this question to FutureLearn directly as it can depend on how you've accessed this course. Please get in touch with us if you have any issues. There are contact details in Week 5.
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
Choosing one aspect of grammar to focus on is definitely a good way to make the topic less overwhelming!
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Luke Pearce replied to Laura Cacuango
This is not the case in the story! But it shows how an extract out of context can be ambiguous and the interpretations each reader brings to the text!
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
This is not the case in the story! But it shows how an extract out of context can be ambiguous and the interpretations each reader brings to the text!
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
How do these relate to the two characters? Why did the author make this choice?
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
The mental verbs for Lyra are also partly due to the fact that she is the protagonist so the we get more of her perspective.
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
On this course, we are only focussing on grammar, but of course, there is lots more we could talk about regarding poetic devices. It would be interesting to see how metre or rhyme scheme follow or break with the grammatical patterns.
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Luke Pearce replied to Laura Cacuango
Predicting how the story will end is a good activity to show comprehension!
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Luke Pearce replied to Margarita K
Welcome to the course!
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Luke Pearce replied to Laura Cacuango
Beautiful!
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
As long as you can find textual evidence, any interpretation is valid!
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Luke Pearce replied to Ho Namgung
That's a good example of how reading can change how we live! All the more reason it's important for are learners to be critical readers.
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Luke Pearce replied to Ho Namgung
Take a look at step 1.13 from last week to refresh your memory!
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Luke Pearce replied to Tanya Mary Elena Battistelli
It's totally optional! You can use the hashtag to talk about the course on any social media.
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
That's exactly the outcome we're hoping for! :)
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
Yes, this can be quite a dense topic!
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
One approach could be to focus on the grammatical structures and then apply it to a local issue. For examples, the repetition of the preposition 'between' shows the two choices, and then the imperatives at the end persuade the reader to pick a side. This structure could be applied to a speech about all kinds of topics!
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
Yes, I think fantasy is often used as a metaphor to deal with personal issues that are hard to address directly.
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Luke Pearce replied to Deborah Hill
Yes, it's always worth considering how a text will make sense within a particular time and location and depending on the current audience.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
I like how each paragraph relates to an element of the headline in sequential order i.e. paragraph 1 = protestors, paragraph 2 = night-long battle. It also feels like quite a balanced presentation of the actions of the 'protestors and police'.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
That's a great idea. Students will bring their own prior-knowledge and biases to their readings which can make for interesting discussions!
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
Lots of great suggestions!
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
There is also variation among different British grammars! All the terms used in this course are consistent with the England and Wales National Curriculum. That doesn't make the superior, but it is useful for consistency for teachers on relevant courses.
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Luke Pearce replied to Erin Suchecki
Can I ask, what age/level are you teaching? Are your learners assessed on their grammatical knowledge?
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Luke Pearce replied to Tala Kreid
This is a great idea. Having a whole-school, cross-curricula approach to writing can be very powerful.
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
Personalising the story to the learners' experiences is an excellent place to start!
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
I like how each sentence mirrors the headline by using 'Police' as the Subject, so the whole article is expressing this one perspective.
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Luke Pearce replied to Deborah Hill
I think it's easy to overlook as teachers since we probably take it for granted!
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
Yes, I agree it's not an either/or issue, but finding the right balance!
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
What particular examples of authentic texts?
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Luke Pearce replied to Tala Kreid
What is 'paper son'? That is not a phrase I am familiar with in British usage.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
I know there is a big push to help EAL learners with maths papers. These learners may have excellent maths skills, but struggle with the English language scenarios set in the questions.
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
As someone who has never visited Toronto, I honestly struggle to picture a concrete, detailed image in my mind! It will usually be easier to understand a text about famous places like New York or Paris!
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
I've taught my share of Functional Skills, but not since the latest reforms.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
It's a question of judgement how far a teacher goes with the grammatical terminology. I think if knowing a term saves time in discussions and when making choices, it's a useful one to know. Arguments about what terms to use can distract from actually putting the grammar to use!
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Luke Pearce replied to Tala Kreid
Good questions! These are connecting meaning to grammatical structures. The teacher can judge when to draw the learners' attention to particular terminology.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
Do you think discussing standard and non-standard grammar could make your learners more interested in English as a subject?
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
After a student has told their story, do you ask the others what effect hearing the story had on them?
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Luke Pearce replied to Deborah Hill
That's a good example of how each readers' personal experiences colour their responses to a text!
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Luke Pearce replied to Tala Kreid
What do you mean by expository text?
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Luke Pearce replied to Deborah Hill
Great examples.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
Yes, that is a good point! I know a lot of teachers use acronyms like PEE/PQC as a scaffold but that can make the writing formulaic. A more recent approach is to use What, How, Why? as checklist, rather than a strict outline.
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A lot of the activities are designed for whole-class teaching. The teacher can show the activity on a projector or interactive white board. In the top-right corner of the page, there is a whiteboard symbol you can click to open a presentation. You're right that the equipment that each school has available will affect their approach.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
There's no requirement to use Twitter as part of this course, but you're welcome to follow us and join the conversation if you do!
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Luke Pearce replied to Deborah Hill
Great point! It's possible to look at grammar as almost separate from language and meaning, but that would be very dry for most learners!
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Luke Pearce replied to Deborah Hill
Good point. Analysing the syntax of the sentence is a great way to understand grammar, rather than simply using proxy definitions.
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
Great to hear!
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Luke Pearce replied to Heba Elmasri
Welcome!
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
I'm glad you've enjoyed the course so far, and thank you for all the contributions. Hopefully the flexible nature of the course will make things more convenient for you. Plenty more practical activities to come!
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Yes, here 'readings' means the same as 'interpretations'.
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Luke Pearce replied to Arina Cilcic
Well-put! Those circumstances could be scenarios used in English classes, essays or projects in other subjects, or real-life situations.
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
That's an interesting comparison with History. Now I believe the focus is more on application of knowledge and analysis, which is the similar to how we want to look at grammar. If the analysis of grammar is meaningful, hopefully it won't be dull!
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Luke Pearce replied to Deborah Hill
Welcome to the course!
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Luke Pearce replied to Arina Cilcic
Welcome!
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Luke Pearce replied to Karen Cullen
Welcome to the course!
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Luke Pearce replied to Sultan Ahmed
A nice surprise or not so nice?
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Luke Pearce made a comment
Hello! I'm Luke and part of the Englicious team. I also teach English at upper-secondary and post-16. Nice to meet you!
