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Desert vs Dessert - English Grammar - Teaching Tips

 

This video covers the difference between 'desert' and 'dessert'. As these two words have a similar pronunciation and spelling, their usage is often confused. This is such a commen mistake made by both native speakers and English learners that we simply have to cover it. The pronunciation of the words is slightly different so most mistakes occurr in writing. Let's take a look at the two words. 'Desert' spelled with one 's' refers to a waterless, dry and empty area. A suitable example would be: Crossing that desert is dangerous. 'Dessert' spelled with double 's', on the other hand, has a very different meaning. It refers to the sweet course usually served at the end of a meal, such as cake or ice-cream. A good example would be: I had some ice-cream for dessert today. Keeping this in mind, there shouldn't be a problem in identifying which spelling to use in which situation.


Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.

I am sure for teaching young learners this unit is a quite useful, because reading and listening are very important for students. For example, listening not only helps to increase vocabulary, but also helps to improve student`s pronunciation skills and general understanding of foreign speech.This unit has definitely been helpful in dishing out wisdom on how to approach different groups of English learners and adapt one's teaching every so slightly to suit . I found the checklist of questions and times to be of great use and will definitely make use of them during lesson planning.The example of the \"Bears destroyed by Cowboys\" headline was illustrative of our perception of things we hear and read is strongly biased by our culture and upbringing. Kind of opened my eyes to some of the problems my students will face when applying their learned skills in the real world.



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