How Michael Jackson’s death will forever affect my English teaching
I have an equivocal attitude to Michael Jackson. I’ve never been a fan of his music anyway, but having said this, the bassline to Billy Jean is a killer and fantastic to jam to in a band.
No, the first thing that struck me when I heard the news today was that I will no longer be able to use him to teach the present perfect tense for describing changes. I’m now forced to find someone else who has drastically changed in appearance over the years to elicit “He has grown his hair”, or “His nose has got smaller”. Now all of the amazing ways that Jackson changed himself have to be reported in the past tense. Bah!
The Queen springs to mind as a possible replacement for Mr. Jackson, but she’s really not as easy to recognise as the king of pop.
RIP Michael as I search for another icon to exploit for pedagogical reasons.
About TEFLorama
My name is Adam and I’m a teacher of English language. I live in Taiwan and I’ve been teaching for 13 years. As well as Taiwan, I’ve also taught in the UK and the Czech Republic. I’m keen to share my thoughts and ideas with you on teaching English. I hope that you get something useful out of my blog.
Right now I’m reading:
A Framework for Task-Based Learning by Jane Willis
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language by David Crystal
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TEFLorama- Readings for Reflective Teaching Edited by Andrew Pollard
- Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom by Tricia Hedge
- Understanding Research in Second Language Learning by James Dean Brown
- How Languages are Learned by Patsy M. Lightbrown and Nina Spada
- Innovation in English Language Teaching edited by David R. Hall and Ann Hewings
