Movie Week July 2015 - Strange Magic

Strange Magic will be showing at Horne Learning Services during the last week of July 2015. It's a musical tale of two worlds that are merged into one by real love. Strange Magic fits in nicely with the theme for July, which is 'Music.'

As usual, students will be required to answer questions to test their understanding of the movie. Hope you guys enjoy it!

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 :)

Movie Week for July 2014 - The Croods

The Croods is an excellent movie which depicts a family of cave dwellers who eventually open their eyes to new horizons. Mr. Crood is a stubborn father who only wants to protect his family and whose rules are threatened by the arrival of Guy, who becomes friendly with his daughter and offers greater optimism for the future.

As usual, we have prepared questions which will test students' comprehension skills. So sit back, get your pencils ready, and enjoy the show!

Movie Week in January - Home Alone 3

In January, students will be watching and listening carefully to Home Alone 3. A young boy, Alex, inadvertently comes into possession of an expensive and dangerous computer chip. Four crooks do all they can to find it, only to fall victim to Alex's many booby traps throughout his house!

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.

November 2013 Movie: Johnny English

Rowan Atkinson provides the entertainment for our latest Movie Week as he stars in "Johnny English" as an English secret service detective.

Pascal Sauvage, a French heir to the English throne forces the Queen to abdicate so he can become King and create the largest prison in the world - encompassing the whole of England.

The nutty Johnny English, and his more rational sidekick Bov, set out to thwart Savage's plans, with many laughs along the way!

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!

July Agenda

I prepare each month's agenda pretty much at the end of each month and rely solely on inspiration to guide me in what sort of activities to do. There are a few exercises like a popular word game that we do each week, but other than that, it goes by inspiration.

Once in every two months we will watch a movie with our students, complete with questions, to test their listening skills.

Once in every two months we will conduct a specific reading exercise, usually a short story written by myself, including a number of writing, comprehension and grammar exercises, all related to the story.

At least twice a month I will have the students stand up in front of the class and speak about a certain question or topic.

I'm very excited for this month and the exercises we have lined up. Here's what's going on at Horne Learning Services in July:

JULY AGENDA

WEEK 1

• word game and sentences
• Speaking exercise
• Creative writing

WEEK 2

• word game and sentences
• A-Z list of words, story writing

WEEK 3

• movie week

WEEK 4

• word game and sentences
• Speaking exercise
• Creative writing

Looking forward to a great July. There is also a 5th week this month, so there will be no classes from Monday 29th July - Friday 2nd August. (On Saturday 3rd August we will be conducting replacement classes for the two groups on Saturday).

Night at the Museum

A warm welcome to our blog today, and let me express my gratitude for your visit here. I hope your English is improving in "leaps and bounds" and that you are steadily increasing in confidence.

I'm sure most of us have been to a museum before. I remember going with my parents to a selection of museums in Leicester city centre when I was a young boy. I was fascinated with the dinosaur remains, as well as learning about a man with huge feet!

Here in Kuantan we attended a 'torture' exhibition at the local museum. It was a little too scary for the young children, and left me feeling nervous too!

A scene from the torture exhibition at the Kuantan Arts Museum

What do you think a museum would be like at night after everybody has gone home and the doors are locked, lights switched off?

Would it be dark, quiet, and rather scary to walk around? Or do you imagine things coming to life in the museum when nobody is there? What if you were trapped inside a museum through the night? What would you do?

All these questions come to life in the movie "Night at the Museum" which we are watching with our students this week for their listening test.

A man stumbles across the job of Night Watchman at a local history museum when he quickly discovers that history literally comes to life!

I hope our students enjoy their entertaining listening test this month!

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.