Discusses future-tense form possibilities in English and their pedagogical implications. Six possibilities are discussed: (1) the future tense proper, signalled by "if" + present or mental state verbs; (2) declaration of intent, with "I'll" or "we'll"; (3) "Shall I/we" questions; (4) "will you"…

Discusses the difficulty in recognizing and expressing the formation of concession and counter-assertion. Words like "although" and "if," while familiar in other contexts, present problems when used for these functions. While the markers for concession are interchangeable, those for counter-assertion are not. Two different types of…

Shows, by discussing presupposition and speech acts, that the interplay between background information and linguistic surface is highly subtle and complex. These ideas are not always obvious to teachers, let alone English as a Foreign Language students. An examination of background information and speaker's intentions will facilitate an…

One can group and teach idioms according to their accessibility to a particular type of student. Four types of idioms exist: (1) those which have equivalents in the student's native language; (2) those having only semantic counterparts; (3) those understandable from the constituent structure; and (4) the true idioms, those not comprehensible from…