Today kids look at me as if I've just landed from Mars when I refer to my gym shoes or plimsolls when everyone is wearing trainers or the latest Nikes . Well 'yes' and 'no' as any politician would say. Our job is to be constantly fascinated by the language and only present to classes those changes which they are likely to meet or find useful. For example, we all teach the difference between there is and there are , but we fudge the issue with there's . A fact of today's English, especially spoken English, is that you can follow there's with a singular or a plural.
Today there's seems to function differently from there is and there are .
It has a life of its own. Jimmie Hill is Director of Language Teaching Publications, an independent ELT publisher. He has written several books for LTP and co-authored another for Heinemann.