Forums- The Joy
Our site reached its tenth birthday this year. Technology has changed a lot over that time, but the basics of forums have remained, and are still the best thing going for me on the site. When I was doing my MA, learner-driven was a buzzword, but forums are all that. And more besides. The simple act of communicating works.
People respond to questions and issues raised by learners. Apart from the occasional poll, I never start any threads now, and that is the same for most of the teachers, experts, authorities, etc.
It is interesting, and somewhat humbling, to see what people ask. Grammar questions, which still dominate textbooks, don't come first. There are a lot more questions about meaning, style, register, and, for someone who was never greatly interested in phonetics, quite a lot of questions about pronunciation and phonetics too.
Given the possibility to ask or talk about what they want, learners go their own way and we respond. Ten years down the line, it is still a pleasure to see pages of new threads and discussions that are going on every day in unexpected and interesting ways.
Thank you all (except the spammers)
Categories: UsingEnglish Content
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