![]() Learners’ grammars and dictionaries often had nothing to say about the kind of detailed point that lay behind a student’s problem, or they simply addressed it briefly in a footnote, or gave it a line inside a larger entry. The trouble was that the right kind of book didn’t exist. So as I developed a professional conscience, I took to admitting when I didn't know the answer (‘Even your teacher doesn’t know everything’), promising to find out, and hoping that they would forget. In fact, as I slowly came to realise, it's no use trying to analyse language on your feet: your first answer is always wrong. When I was asked about the difference between one structure and another, I would either produce meaningless phrases like ‘It’s a matter of style / a question of emphasis’, or tell them what turned out on reflection to be lies. Working out the rules on the spot was generally useless. ![]() ![]() ![]() However, when I corrected the students’ homework, the books often didn’t explain why something was wrong and the students had an irritating habit of asking questions in class which I couldn't answer. Coursebooks and grammar practice materials gave some of the basic information that my students and I needed, and this helped a good deal. I started in ELT as an untrained teacher who knew nothing about English except how to speak it.
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