Here's a cartoon I just posted about action versus non-action verbs:

This one is always a little tricky since we tell students that non-action verbs like smell, see, taste, hear, and feel are not possible with the present progressive, but then other senses of the verb are still possible. You can't say "I'm seeing a bird out my window!" but you can say "I'm seeing someone" (i.e. I'm dating someone). Ron Cowan's amazingly thorough The Teacher's Grammar of English describes four exceptions to the "no ING-verb with non-action verbs" rule:

Exception #1: To add more intensity of emotion

Remodeling my house is really costing me a lot of money!


Exception #2: To describe a sudden change in behavior


You are being so horrible today! (Normally, you're a fine chum, but today you're a royal jerk!)

Exception #3: To describe a change in condition


His guitar playing is sounding better and better every day! (he's learning guitar, and it's getting better)

Exception #4: To make something more polite


We were hoping you could explain the problem. (We hope you can explain the problem is a bit more forceful)

Tricky, tricky!

Anyway, if you don't have a copy of Cowan's Grammar, you really should get one. I resented my professor for the fact that we didn't use this book too much in class, but I am still referring to that book in teaching any thorny issues.

All things aside, it conjures up a pretty funny picture if you say the soup is smelling.

-Bill

I've added a couple cartoons to illustrate cause and effect. For some reason, this structure causes a lot of trouble for students even in the higher levels. Every semester, I'm bound to hear at least one student say:

"Wait, wait, I'm confusing." 
"No, you're confused."
"Yes. Could you explain..."

Sometimes the pictures help (or at least I hope so). These aren't as elaborate as the ones I make on the board in class:

I really like the beard. It reminds me of my dad.

And of course, what would  a boring lecture be without someone on a phone, not-so-slyly glancing downward. That's right! I see you!

Have a good one.

-Bill 

I just finished grading ten weeks worth of reading journal entries on a discussion board in Blackboard. To encourage extensive reading, the only requirements for the assignment were to read something they enjoyed or were interested in (NOT a TOEFL study guide!), write a short summary, and then post a question that is associated with the reading. For example, if they found an unfamiliar structure, they could post the example and ask questions. The questions, when they were sincere, were very illuminating for me as an instructor because I could see where my students' interlanguage was. For instance, a student may ask me something like this:

This student obviously doesn't know that "name" can also be a verb, or that this is fairly common in English for verbs to become nouns.

Anyway, as I was finishing commenting on the last entry, I ended with a question I ended many journal entries with: "Does that make sense?" Only one time in the whole semester did a single student respond with "yes, thank you" or some acknowledgement of receipt. It's possible they are busy (it's summer), and since I don't require it, students don't pipe in with more questions or followup. Or maybe my responses are just so magnificently clear that students have no further questions :). Whatever the cause may be, I have found it nearly impossible to create a kind of vibrant mini-community in a class where everyone is reading each other's posts and commenting or making followup questions or rating them. I'm sure I could force it and require them to participate like this, but I really wish it would just happen.

Back when I was teaching English 101, I was taking a course with former faculty member Dr. Maryann Crawford, and in a class discussion about what makes a discourse community, I remember her making a claim that it would be very difficult to make a class a discourse community since a class doesn't all the characteristics of one.

That week, I made an assignment to test this claim (I like a challenge). I had two freshmen English classes, and I had them use a class wiki to create a class paper by writing the different parts in groups during class. I then graded the class paper promptly with feedback about what it would need to be passing. I also communicated how each class was doing to the other class (One class had a D- and the other had an E). My vision was that each class would be inspired with some friendly competition and try to "one up" the other class, and it would all lead to this awesome communal knowledge of what it takes to make a good rhetorical analysis. After two days, a couple changes were made by one or two students, and both classes bumped their grade up to a D. I was excited. My plan was working!

Then it just sort of fizzled out and no one did anything more. Obviously, I was not pleased with this. 

I tried to encourage more participation, but a couple honest students commented that if it wasn't required, they just wouldn't do it; they were busy with their other coursework and just didn't have the time.

At the time, I remember reading an article about Old Spice's attempts to manufacture viral videos with its Old Spice Guy commercials. The initial one has been viewed, at the time of this blog entry, almost fifty million times. Interestingly, people at the time claimed that the amazing success of the ad campaign did not lead to increased sales. I remember reading those articles and thinking, "I'm just like Old Spice. I can't just manufacture a natural phenomenon and bend it to another purpose."

But then just now as I was looking for an article to link to stating that the campaign was a bust, I read that Old Spice critics even in Time Magazine had to eat their words since body wash sales actually increased 7%.

Maybe it can be done, but I need to require more things or give a few more incentives to get it rolling like extra credit or something like that.

Then again, maybe I just need to have Isaiah Mustafa sub for me.

-Bill