Category: Speaking of Language

This will be the farewell post of the Speaking of Language blog on the Language Teaching Professionals site. I’d like to thank David Paul and all the members of the forum for the opportunity to write for the LTP community.  After four years and 45 posts, it’s time to move on.  I hope future readers … Read more

  This writing marks the 100th post in my Fun Facts About English series on the Kinney Brothers Publishing website – a goal I set almost two years ago.  I thought it worth sharing this personal milestone with all the LTP members.   Out of the world’s approximately 7.9 billion inhabitants, 1.35 billion speak English … Read more

  In 2010, the United Nations introduced an initiative dedicating one day to each of its six official languages: French (3/20), Chinese (4/20), Spanish and English (4/23), Russian (6/6), and Arabic (12/18). The language days recognize the importance of global communication through multilingualism and cultural diversity. The UN first celebrated English Language Day on April … Read more

The Kinney Brothers Publishing Communication Series is designed to extend students’ skills and interest in communicating in English. The four-book series includes Stories For Young Readers and Dialogues For Young Speakers. The textbooks work in tandem to provide students with exercises in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Each textbook is detailed below with links for … Read more

A solid phonics program is the cornerstone of many pre-K through elementary classes. Focused phonics lessons and phonemic awareness improve pronunciation, listening comprehension, and give students the confidence to read and understand English. The Kinney Brothers Publishing five-book Phonics & Spelling Series is designed to teach kids the fundamental sounds and spelling of English in … Read more

  It’s the time of year to start planning for Christmas parties! Like Halloween parties, I’m tasked with organizing a series of activities that are easy to set up and repeat over multiple days for dozens of classes ranging in age from wee little ones through junior high students.   Many games I use in … Read more

Although this blog post was part of my weekly Fun Facts About English in October, the history is so culturally rich, I thought it worth publishing as one of my monthly educational posts.  The Kinney Brothers phonics textbooks featured in the image below are available through David Paul’s online ETJ Book Service.       On … Read more

Growing up in a family with six siblings, there was no end of board games to play. I remember playing Candy Land and learning colors. Checkers and chess taught me strategy. Monopoly presented a world of real estate, property taxes, and banking. The Game of Life taught me about life insurance and the cost of … Read more

  It’s hard to believe it’s time to start preparing for Halloween. I hope you don’t let the holiday pass without celebrating, even if it means doing things a little differently.   I was thinking about Halloweens past. There is one that stands out most in my memory.   The fall of 1967 was an … Read more