HLS Newsletter, March 2025

 CNY WEEK

During the week of 10th - 15th February, 2025, HLS English Classes Kuantan held classes on the theme of Chinese New Year. Students dressed in their CNY clothes or associated colours and engaged in some fun activities including snakes, fireworks and 'ang pao.'

The Friday night English class during CNY week

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Also in February, we watched three of the videos I compiled from my trip to England last December/January. The children enjoyed watching the videos and then answering some questions I prepared based on topics discussed in the videos. Below are the videos:

MARCH 2025 CLASSES

In March, we have continued our speaking focus by having students regularly engage in speaking English, whether in conversations with the teacher or each other, in presenting their written work, or in a Show & Tell class (upcoming next week).

This week students will be reading a short story provided by the teacher and answering several questions to test their understanding of the text, and their ability to think creatively and write good English.

We wish our Muslim students and friends a very happy and uplifting fasting month, and also look forward to April at HLS, with continued speaking opportunities for our students.

Take care,

Mr. Duncan

Movie Week - November 2014 - Tangled

It's movie week time again at Horne Learning Services, and this time it's Tangled.

Above are the main characters, Flynn Ryder, Rapunzel and Maximus, in the Disney hit, Tangled. A take on the story of Rapunzel, this movie is full of laughs and action.

Movie Week at Horne Learning Services is done under strict exam conditions of a listening test. However, students are free to laugh out loud and enjoy the movie while answering the questions :)

Exam Week

This week marks the first time at Horne Learning Services that we'll be holding an Exam Week.

Now, we do not base our teaching on school methods and we don't follow the same 'exam focus' that schools do, but on 5 occasions this year, we will be keeping our students accountable with an exam.

The exam will test them on 5 areas:

1. Speaking and listening

2. Vocabulary

3. Grammar

4. Reading comprehension

5. Writing

All completed papers with results will be passed to parents!

Johnny English Reborn - Movie Week

As it's Christmas, we are conducting another Movie Week this month, featuring Rowan Atkinson again, the famous actor who plays Mr. Bean and Johnny English.

In this Johnny English sequel, Rowan Atkinson stars once again as the MI7 detective who is charged with stopping the planned murder of the Chinese Premier by a secret organization called Vortex. He soon discovers that the key member of Vortex is one of his own. As can be expected, the story develops with many funny twists and turns. Eighteen questions await our students to test their reading, comprehension and listening skills.

The Pink Panther - Movie Week September 2013

The Pink Panther features for movie week this September at Horne Learning Services.

Steve Martin plays the role of the haphazard police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. He is assigned to solve a murder case in which a diamond (the pink panther) is stolen.

There are many funny twists and turns as Inspector Clouseau unwittingly makes his way through the plot. I'm sure students will find this movie very entertaining while answering 16 questions to test their listening and observation skills.

Here's a little teaser for you to laugh at. English pronunciation humour!

Movie Week for July - Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a 2007 movie made by Disney. A rat named Remy has developed quite a taste for food and one day discovers that he has been living in the marvellous city of Paris. Getting lost from his family, he ends up at a famous restaurant where an apprentice chef takes him under his wing, (or I should say, under his hat) and he becomes the architect of the most delicious food in town.

As usual, there are 20 questions prepared to test my students listening and observation skills. This is a fun movie and we are looking forward to watching it with our students next week!

Interviewing Mr. Duncan!

This week I'm putting the students in my position. They will prepare 12 questions they would like to ask me and then individually they will interview me based on their questions. I will answer their questions just once, in which time they will be expected to make some notes on my answers.

It's great to put them in charge and see how they handle it. Their speaking, listening and writing skills will be put to the test, as well as receiving a confidence boost!

I'm excited to see what sort of questions they come up with for me :)

M is for Make an effort!

(During the month of April we are participating in an A-Z challenge hosted by Arlee)

We'd love your support by 'like'-ing us on facebook. Just click here: 

HLS English Classes Kuantan

I love nothing better than to see a student join my class who has a deep desire to learn, improve and be committed to the lessons. They arrive on time, come prepared, listen attentively, contribute to the lesson and have plenty of questions to ask me.

Our key point #5 states that a 'Balanced Effort' is required to increase proficiency in the English language. That involves reading, writing, listening and speaking. We weave all 4 elements into our English classes.

Which element of English do you struggle the most with? Which do you enjoy the most?

Learning English through movies - Mirror Mirror

Welcome to Horne Learning Services and our blog post for today!

I do hope you are enjoying life and being successful.

Today I'm going to talk about learning English through listening.

Most people who want to learn or improve on their English, always demand speaking classes, or say "I just want to speak!" But English is about a lot more than just speaking.

"Speaking's" best friend is called "listening", and if they don't go together, "speaking" just isn't the same!

Listening is an important exercise in mastering the English language. And that doesn't mean a class of students should have to listen to each other's imperfect English while the teacher sits down and lets them get on with it. That is not the ideal listening exercise.

Students need to listen to correct English, from somebody who can speak English perfectly, which in most cases, should be the teacher. The exposure to listening to correct English is a big advantage for English students to have.

Fortunately for me and my students, I'm from England, and English is my natural language, it hasn't been learned like other languages had to be.

As such, I try to talk to my students a lot, give them instructions to see if they have listened well and follow them. I will not speak in any other language but English, to them. Very soon, they get comfortable with English and their listening improves.

I record myself speaking and give them listening tests with questions to answer. Best of all, I watch English movies with my students, young and old!

This week we are watching the movie, "Mirror Mirror", based on the story of Snow White, but told from the point of view of the evil queen. I've prepared 20 questions for students to answer by watching the movie and listening very carefully.

Students will not understand every single word that is spoken, and at times it may seem that people in the movie are speaking very quickly, and students may feel that they are losing pace from time to time.

It is however, a great opportunity for students to practice listening, look out for key words and answers, and develop an understanding of how the English language works. Learning new words to add to their vocabulary is another privilege.

But it's the exposure to listening to correct English which is the overriding benefit here.

Adult Classes

Adult classes are up and running at Horne Learning services. Classes for adults are currently being held on Wednesday nights (both at Vistana Hotel and in residence), Thursday mornings in residence and Thursday nights in residence.

Adults will have the opportunity to practice speaking in English, listening to me speak English to them, write sentences, read short stories, have discussion and begin writing a daily diary.

They are also encouraged to keep learning English every day by choosing something new to try out each day, whether that be reading a book or newspaper or magazine, listening to the radio, speaking English with a friend for 5 or 10 minutes each day, or any other thing which could improve their English.

English Workshop 1st September, 2012

Our 3rd English Workshop of the year was a success and was attended by 32 children over 3 sessions. Vistana Hotel provided the setting for us, with a nice Function Room and some good refreshments.

The agenda for the Workshop included:

• Ice-breaking
• Pictionary
• Boggle
• Speech
• Listening Test
• Treasure Hunt

The children really enjoyed themselves. This time we gave everyone individual points for how well they performed on each task. 

At the end of each Workshop the points were totalled and a winner declared. So here are the three winners:

9am session winner: Karthik

1pm session winner: Jia Qi

4.30pm session winner: Ken Foong

Congratulations to our three winners who scored the most points in word games, writing, listening and speaking exercises!

Here are some photo highlights of each session of the English Workshop:

9AM SESSION

And here are the treasure hunt winners!

2nd place:

3rd place:

4th place:

9am session group photo:

1PM SESSION

Speaking topic - "If I could go to the moon, I would . . . . ."

Speaking topic - "If I was the Vistana Hotel manager, I would . . . ."

1pm session treasure hunt winners:

2nd place:

1pm session group photo:

4.30PM SESSION

Treasure hunt winners:

2nd place:

4.30pm session group photo:

Thanks to all of the children who attended this English Workshop, and for their parents who support us in this event.

The final English Workshop of the year will be held some time in November, 2012.