Signs of the Times

One of the features of communicative language teaching is the use of authentic texts in the classroom. This includes utilising a host of materials which you can get outside the classroom. What if these so-called texts are peppered with grammatical errors? Aren’t we as teachers guilty of perpetuating the errors?

If Dickens were alive, he would have begun it like this upon seeing the two signs below:

It was the most horrific of times, it was the worst of times
It was the age of anything goes, it was the age of degradation throes
It was the epoch of so long it’s understood, it was the epoch of grammar may not be good:

Am I to stand close to you at all times?

It was a time where grammar can be dispensed, eh?

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