February 2015 Newsletter

Meeeh - me-eee-eh - me-eee-eh . . . is it just me, or do you hear that goat too?

To kick off our February 2015 newsletter, let us wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year! Whether you're holding an open house, visiting open houses or just celebrating quietly with family, we hope this time of year will be enjoyable for you and bring you much happiness and prosperity.

The recently concluded GOAT SOUND COMPETITION has been documented on our facebook page and three winners have been selected:

1st place: Sharmayne

2nd place: Kuang Yee

3rd place: Jia Hao

Congratulations to the winners for producing the most life-like goat sounds. They each received 'angpao' (red packet) with a little monetary reward inside.

There are two themes for February - Chinese New Year, and Accommodation. Vocabulary, brainstorming, grammar, reading, writing and speaking exercises incorporate aspects of both themes. Speaking features every week this month, which we will be especially emphasizing in 2015, as we look to get our students to open up and express themselves and build confidence in speaking the English language.

As far as availability goes, classes are full to overflowing. Unfortunately there is no space for new students, only as current students stop. We will still add prospective students to our waiting list and hope to be able to enroll them in our classes as soon as possible.

We have opened up new classes for a maximum of 4 students per class. Each class will be for one hour (2 classes per week). Children will receive more close attention from the teacher while following the same syllabus. The fee for this class is set at RM50/hour. Classes can be held any time on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday afternoons.

That's all for this month. Now let me invite that goat into my house for a drink . . . 

The "Chocolate" lesson - for adults

This month we are conducting a special lesson dedicated to chocolate - the food of the deities. Students will read a short article about chocolate, where it comes from, and how it grows. They will answer several comprehension questions on the topic.

Mr. Duncan will then present five different chocolate items for tasting. Students will then right down lists of words that describe the taste of each piece of chocolate.

Samples of chocolate ready for tasting in adult classes in September at Horne Learning Services

The final part of the lesson will see students have an opportunity to speak to the class on the topic of chocolate.

We are looking forward to this exciting class and hope our students will find it worthwhile and memorable!

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!

2014 Syllabus

We hope everyone enjoyed the New Year celebrations, wherever in the world you may be.

We are welcoming back students old and new to our classes, which are filling up quickly. Please be aware that Thursday afternoon is the only class remaining for children with available spaces.

During the Christmas and New Year holiday I've been busy preparing the new syllabus for 2014 at Horne Learning Services. A lot of the exercises which our students are accustomed to will remain, but there are some new additions too.

Once every 2 months (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov) we will be conducting a variety of grammar exercises from The Word Bank, a more fun and flexible way of learning tense work, nouns, verbs and adjectives, synonyms and antonyms, word lists and making sentences.

During the same months we will be continuing Movie Week, essentially a listening test with comprehension questions, but doing so by watching a fun movie.

During the months of February, April, June, August and October there will be a Games Week where we'll be learning English in a fun way by making short stories as a class, doing word searches, and other games.

A new addition for 2014 is Exam Week. There will be five Exam Weeks, held on the 4th week on the same months as Games Week (mentioned just above). Exams will involve vocabulary, speaking, reading, writing and grammar exercises. Results will be recorded and passed to parents. (Exam Week will only be for students who are capable of reading and writing and who can understand and answer grammar questions. Those of a lower standard will continue with simple exercises)

Activities including speaking, creative writing, reading and word games will remain on the syllabus. We are confident our students will enjoy the variety of exercises, a  more fun way of learning, as well as being more accountable to their parents through exams every two months.

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.

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).

When students interview their teacher

Last week I gave my English students the luxury of preparing questions they would like to ask me in a one-on-one personal interview.

This was designed as a means to explore students creativity, writing, reading and speaking skills. It was also intended to give them a confidence boost.

As it turns out, they didn't really need that lift in confidence, as I answered a whole range of questions from silly, to obvious, to hilarious!

Here I'll share with you some of the more notable questions I was asked, and by whom, along with the answers I gave:

To kick off the analysis of the interviews with Mr. Duncan, I want to share this question asked by a young Shuen Lin: 

"Do you like to speak English?"

My response was a "yes" since English is the only language I can indeed speak! I have no option but to like it!

Another similar question with an obvious answer came from Marcus:

"Do you have a toilet in your house?"

I sure do, Marcus. My students, particularly the younger ones, use it often!

Meanwhile, Seng Fong asked me the criminal question, 

"Which daughter is your favourite?"

As you can imagine, this question is impossible to answer other than "I love them both equally."

Kghartie seemed to be giving me a general knowledge test with these two questions:

"Is Pluto a planet?" and 

"Where is the world's driest and hottest deserts located?"

I answered him that Pluto is not a planet, but used to be. Now it's just one of many thousands of similar 'rocks' floating around in that region of space.

Regarding the deserts question, I honestly didn't know, so we did a quick Google search to discover that the Atacama desert in Chile is the world's driest, as it gets just 4 inches of rain in a thousand years while the Lut desert in Iran is the hottest in the world with a recorded temperature of 70.7C!

Mastermind quiz over, here are some more funny questions:

Adam and Brandon wanted to know, (and I'm not sure why!):

"What is your favourite underwear?" and

"What colour is your underwear?"

For those who are interested, I answered 'Superman' and 'white' respectively!

Xiang Qiao: "How many fingers do you have?"

Me: "Is that a trick question? I have 8 fingers, and 2 thumbs!"

Cindy: "What is the thing you like the most about Malaysia?"

Me: "Good weather, good food and good people."

Cassy: "What present did you give to your wife on her birthday this year?"

Me: "An ipad mini."

Muiz: "What is your favourite sport besides football and tennis?" (He knows my sporting preferences well!)

Me: "Formula 1 racing."

Xiang Meng: "Why do you love Man. Utd?"

Me: "They were the first team I ever saw play football way back when I was in primary school. Oh yeah, they are the best too!"

Ser Han: "What is your ambition?"

Me: "To be a famous English teacher."

Jen Yee: "Why did you come here?"

Me: "Because I fell in love with Fidelia!"

Sheng Wey: "What cartoon do you like to watch?"

Me: "Special Agent Oso."

Shafiqah: "Who is the person who inspired you?"

This question made me think. A lot. Eventually I answered "my mum."

Kelly: "What do you think of your Wednesday adult class?" (Kelly belongs in that very class!)

Me: "It's a good class, lots of fun, but they also do all the work I present to them."

Pui Wan: "Where did you get the idea to name your daughters Lauren and Leah?"

Me: "There was a nice girl at my high school called Lauren. She seemed to be different to everyone else and had straight, black hair. I very quietly admired her though I never spoke to her. But I remembered her name. With Leah, we wanted it to begin with "L" like Lauren, and we experimented with many different names. We just liked Leah the best."

To finish off this post, here is a selection of the more amusing questions:

Marilyn: "Why did you marry your wife?"

Let me think . . . you know what? I fell in love with her!

Yu Chen: "How do you prank your hometown friends?"

I mentioned the story of camping with a large group of friends. We went into someone else's tent at 3am and put toothpaste on this boy's eyebrows while he was asleep. It was a killer to get off in the morning!

Irfan: "What are you talking about?"

Well, I had to laugh at that question. I told him I was trying to answer his questions!

Ye Hao: "Do you like Barbie dolls?"

Me: "No." But I probably should have said 'yes' as I play Barbie dolls with Lauren from time to time!

Kelly: "What is your average monthly income?"

Me: "That's confidential!"

Theresa: "Why do you cut your hair?"

Me: "To keep myself cool, and light, and it's easier to maintain."

Sook Chia: "How many girlfriends did you have in college?"

This answer actually included 2 girlfriends in primary school and 3 in secondary school (though two of them lasted no longer than a couple of weeks). So I answered '5, and not at the same time!'

So that wraps up my students interviews. If you don't see your name or your child's name in this post, it probably means you or your child asked me very good and proper interview questions. Not too crazy, not too funny, not too obvious. But hey, I enjoyed answering every single one of them!

Congratulations to my students for successfully participating in a very good exercise!

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?

Reading Comprehension

Image taken from http://literacy-builders.blogspot.com/2011/11/assigning-reading-comprehension-vs.html

Yes, reading is very good for you. I used to read a lot of books, but now I find myself reading blogs a lot more often. I'd love to get back to the books ;)

This week in our English classes we are conducting a reading comprehension exercise for our students.

I am very particular about creating my own syllabus, from grammar exercises to spelling tests, essays to creative writing topics, and speaking questions to reading articles.

I wrote all of our short stories myself, one set for primary children, and a higher level set for secondary and adults. For the questions, I have formulated some comprehension questions about the story mixed with grammar questions, creative thinking requirements, word games related to the story, and various other things.

It keeps them busy and actively engaged in the very good habit of reading! This week's reading articles are about relationships and a magic badminton racquet . . .

Until next time . . . happy reading!

Reading your way to good English

In my previous post, I explained about the art of listening, in particular by watching English movies.

A good companion to listening is reading. Reading, reading and more reading!

One of my current primary school students is passionate about reading. His mother has to pull him away from his books so he can do his homework, eat dinner etc. Coupled with him speaking English at home, he has such a strong grasp of English that he speaks equally as good as me and gives amazingly coherent and sophisticated speeches in class with an unbelievably wide vocabulary for his age!

Reading good English on a regular basis will work wonders for you! Of course, all good English books are great for reading and building one's confidence and vocabulary. Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, magazines and newspapers are all wonderful additions.

In my adult classes, I have recently introduced another reading tool, which is my personal blog.

My personal blog can be found at:

http://www.duncaninkuantan.blogspot.com

At my blog, my students, and indeed anyone, can browse a plethora of articles I have posted about life in Kuantan, since mid-2009. My students find it particularly useful for quick, easy, and free reading practice, seeing how sentences are strung together grammatically, and bolstering their vocabulary.

So feel free to browse my blog, and whatever you do, please get reading!

First English lesson via Skype

Today we conducted our first English lesson via skype with our good friends from Russia whom we blogged about previously.

English class via skype. I'm wearing the sunglasses to block the bright computer screen!

The skype call went well and the English lesson lasted for 90 minutes and included some speaking, reading and writing exercises.

We are gathering ideas for the skype lessons so hopefully we'll come up with a whole English syllabus in the near future.

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.