New forum for ESL teachers and learners

Hi TT,

I know several of us on here are ESL teachers and that several more are non-native English speakers.

I have recently been involved in discussions with some other teachers regarding the issue of what to do when a student asks you a question about English that you don't know the answer to. These can either be actual 'what is correct' questions, or questions about the reasons behind a certain usage/spelling or such (the 'why' questions).

I realise that not everyone has the same passion for linguistics or language history that I do, and that many ESL teacher/learners can't be bothered to spend the (sometimes) days it takes to find the correct answer to questions and to research the history and reason behind the many idiosyncracies of our language.

So, I have put together a new forum. It's not a general chat board or jobs forum. Its only purpose is to allow people to ask questions about English, discuss them, and find answers. I have enlisted a team of linguists from around the globe. They have volunteered to do the research and, as a team, formulate the correct answers to posted questions complete with the history and reasons behind the answer and examples of proper usage. Hopefully teachers can then discuss ways to use/teach this information in the classroom.

This is my first attempt at a forum, and I welcome any support, help, or criticism.

Please take the time to register and look around, it's free.

The address is:

http://whypage.forumer.com

There are currently only a couple of things posted, one on the difference between who/whom and one on spelling changes in the plural. These should provide a feel for the way the answers will be posted. I hope this helps.

--Lex

First suggestion: Proof all forum names and descriptions. Your use of capitalisation and punctuation is inconsistent. I presume the title of this forum is supposed to be a joke? "Weird Spellling. The reasons why some words have seemingly non-standard spelling."

Second suggestion: Research the difference between "everyone does not have" and "not everyone has", then correct the first forum description.

Third suggestion: Try to ensure that material purporting to instruct others is itself free of mistakes, especially before advertising it to other linguists.

Good luck with your project. Looks as though it could be very useful.

Not sure why you want to reinvent the wheel when Dave's ESL Cafe has a forum for such questions, and also a similar one on the ESL teachers in Germany board. But good luck none the less.

'spellling' was on purpose.

I will change the everyone part. That was in response to the statement that 'everyone doesn't have...' but it does make sense to have it the other way.

What mistakes did you find? I can't correct them if I don't know about them.

Thanks for checking it out.

Not sure what you mean about responding to a statement, but since you clearly do have the time, I suspect 'not everyone has' conveys your intended meaning.

My last point was partly tongue-in-cheek, but there are several inconsistencies even on the front page. I really do think standardising caps and punctuation would be a good plan. You also have "seperate" in there more than once and "No criticizing other’s grammar" is a bit unfortunate. If you want the site to be taken seriously as a teaching aid, I think you need to watch that kind of thing. Anyway, that's just what I noticed while glancing through it - still recommend proofing it properly.

oh ok.

My t-com modem has died and I'm stuck using a cell modem for now which is painfully slow. I typed a lot of that at work without the aid of a spell checker, so I don't doubt there are a few errors. I'll go through it again.

As for the grammar and spelling statement: That was mainly intended to keep that forum from turning into the petty crap that ESL/language discussions normally take on here where people spend post after post criticizing people's spelling and such because they don't like them or their posts. Basically it's trying to say be grown up enough to post about the topic and not to attack the poster.

In addition to the problems already mentioned (spelling, punctuation, inconsistent use of capitals), I find some sentences to be rather strange, e.g. "For teachers our job is to convey understanding to our students."

should probably say "As teachers..."

Yes, as Tiggi already said, it should be proofread properly.

Absolutely - my problem was just the position of the apostrophe, not the content.

I'm only picking up on these things because it's a language teaching forum; I don't do it on TT because that's not the aim of this board (and I have better things to do!). Nothing personal though.

Apart from frequent grammar and punctuation mistakes (which I also noticed), I have this suggestion.

"3. No criticizing other’s grammar, spelling, typos or other crap."

If you want your forum to be used by people learning the language or by other professionals, wouldn't it be wiser to use a more formal tone rather than "crap"?

Why? Too much time on your hands can't be the reason or you would have googled the already existing forums?

Dimmer, the existing forums are not always correct and mostly just provide examples and rules without explaining the reasons behind the rules. This website is suppsoed to fill that void.

Everyone else, thank you for your input. I will be reviewing it today and making changes.