Language Awareness

There's a lot of linguistic rules that people follow without being very aware of them or their mechanics.




For example:
We say 'really amazing', but not 'very amazing'
We say 'Have you got any apples', but not 'have you got some apples'

An ESL teacher needs to be aware of these rules and be able to talk about them if asked during a job interview, or while teaching.

For countable nouns, we use 'any'. Do you have any pens.
Uncountable nouns are paired with 'some'. Do you have some water. Some ink. Some tape.

To learn more, consider: Understanding and Using English Grammar by Bettie Azar

I like to tell people that a lot of our language rules are based on sounding sophisticated and intelligent. When in doubt about which way to say something, the way which sounds most sophisticated is usually correct. We want language to sound beautiful. There are still rules, however, and one should know, understand, and be ready to teach them.



Gerunds

Colocations