The Word Bank

To our students, young and adult, and to the parents of our students, here is an explanation of some exercises we are doing this month.

During the month of October 2013 we are conducting exercises from "The Word Bank." The Word Bank consists of various English words, which are made up of correctly and incorrectly spelled words, as can be seen above. Identifying the misspelled words and correcting them is one of four exercises being carried out this month.

In the second week of October, students will be asked to make 3 lists of words from The Word Bank, by searching for 'feelings', 'colours' and 'occupations.' For example, 'excited', 'pink' and 'pilot.' Once they have completed their lists, they will write sentences by combining 3 words in their lists. For example, "The pilot was excited because he saw a pink cloud."

In week 3 students will be searching The Word Bank for synonyms (words which are similar in meaning) of 'happy', 'big' and 'very.' Perhaps you can find some yourself!

The final exercise throughout week 4 will involve our students looking for words that begin with 'a', 'b' and 'c'. They will then practice writing sentences with those words in the past, present and future tenses.

The Word Bank is a large collection of grammar exercises, but designed to be done in a much more fun way than just going through page after page of workbook questions. Practicing English grammar can, and should, be a lot more fun and interesting!

Y is for Year

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

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HLS English Classes Kuantan

A basic mistake some of my students make is with the word 'year.' A typical wrong sentence is as follows:

"I was born in year 2006."

The correct sentence simply removes the word 'year':

"I was born in 2006."

The A-Z challenge is almost finished. How are you doing? Did you achieve your goals? How many blogs did you manage to visit?

W is for Write sentences

(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

Key Point #2 is "Write sentences" and this follows on from yesterday's post about VOCABULARY.

The best way to learn a new word is to use that word in a sentence. Truly building vocabulary doesn't only include writing down a word and its meaning. It also entails USING that word by writing example sentences and then attempting to use it in your daily life.

Do you write sentences? How do you USE the new words you have learned?

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!

Monday night class

Here's our Monday night class as of yesterday. During week 4 of September we are having a number of activities including: word game, writing sentences, speaking, creative writing, a grammar check and wordsearch. Looking forward to the rest of the week!