Gabriel García Márquez’s illness
Gabriel García Márquez, the famous Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1999. His impeding death was incorrectly announced by Peruvian daily newspaper in 2000. Later newspapers published Garcia Marquez’s alleged farewell poem, “La Marioneta” (“the puppet”). However shortly afterwards García Márquez denied being the author of the poem. In fact, it was the work of a Mexican ventriloquist. The poem is republished below. I think it may constitute a very good piece of material to teach English.
García Márquez alleged farewell …

English and the world
English is a rich language. Its lexicon has a multitude of words from different origins. In fact, English has evolved through centuries open to the influence of other civilizations, other cultures. Now it has become a global  language, influencing in its turn other languages with such an amazing speed. Everywhere in the world languages borrow from English words that enrich their lexicon. But English was and I hope, is still, a language that is open to other cultures and civilizations. The following are examples of English words …

English teaching and globalisation
English is part of globalisation. English plays a vital role in global trade, media, communication, movement of people, and many other areas. It is not just a system of grammar, words and pronunciations; it is also a tool to integrate countries both politically and economically into the global community.
However a question has to be answered. What type of English do we want our students to learn?. The three alternatives generally offered are

centred varieties of English, such as US and British English;
English as an international language or lingual …

A bilingual person
A bilingual person is someone who speaks two languages. Speaking more than two languages means that you are multilingual. Multilingualism is not a rare phenomenon. It’s the norm for most of the world’s countries. A lot of people know and use three, four, or even more languages fluently.
Becoming a bilingual
Bilingual people acquire two languages at the same time in childhood because of many reasons:

Children from immigrant parents are exposed to their parents native language at home while receiving a lot of  target language input from outside in their …

Age and the brain
People in the middle age tend to be forgetful. They forget the names of people they have just met, the books they have read, the movies… Does this mean that age destroys the brain? Or is it just the result of some developmental process of the brain? How can adults train their brains and continue learning?
Read this interesting article to get a glimpse of the answer:
How to Train the Aging Brain

EFL and ESL Articles
This is a list of mybest 2009 posts. The list contains posts that attracted some comments but also those that I consider worth being republished here. The topics range from classroom management and teaching tips to lesson plans.
The list:

Motivation -  Be motivated to motivate!
Teach with love and logic – Breaking the ice!
Teachers and teaching quotes
Teachers, parents and homework (1)
Teachers, parents and homework (2)
Hell is the classroom
Writing tasks! Are they time-consuming ?(1)
Writing tasks! Are they time-consuming? (2)
Why do teachers need lesson plans?
Repetitions and recycling in EFL and ESL …

A list of quotes and sayings about language
It is believed that language is the very essence of what constitutes our humanity. It is the mirror of both individuals and nations. Language reveals our thoughts and thoughts can never exist without language. So many prominent people have spoken about language and none has denied its supremacy over human behavior. These are some quotes and sayings that I favored and want to share with you. I’ll be appreciate your comments!
To have another language is to possess a second soul. -Charlemagne
We should have …

Watch this funny video
Here is an interview with Noam Chomsky. He talks about why studying language is important.
Watch and have fun!

Choosing a career is a matter of personal inclinations before it is a result of some sort of training. A lot of people have changed the course of their professional lives because they saw  light gleaming in new directions. This may not mean that they were unsuccessful in their first jobs. Rather this may mean that they thought that they could be more productive and useful in other areas of interest.  The following celebrities who are now musicians, writers or actors  were once teachers.
Sting
At the beginning of his career Sting …

What is education? Well education is progress. It offers choices and opportunities for people, fights  poverty and diseases and sets new horizons and hope. Education prepares good citizens to contribute in the development of nations in order to compete  and cooperate globally, leading nations towards economic and social prosperity.
Education also aims at cultivating personality integration and creative thinking. Teachers lead learners to create peaceful environment in the world where they can achieve personal change in their behavior and seek to influence the world positively. Unfortunately this is not the case …