So today there were a load of new people and we all had a look at what we should be doing with our time here.
As this is a short term study break for most of us- and for some of us it's the last week-, I really want to make sure that you use every opportunity to study LIVE in English here.
So I suggested going getting out and meeting people but how? Try meeting people who are interested in learning about the same things as you. Do you like movies? Help make one. Do you listen to a lot of music? Get together and record a song. Do you want to make the world a better place? Meet some people who want to do the same thing.
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THE PRIORITIES
SPEAKING/Pronunciation
- We want to speak more fluently with correct grammar. (x3)
- We'd like to be more sure about our speaking skills, in particular our pronunciation so that we can be more fluent.(x2) Also we feel a little insecure about our pronunciation.
LISTENING
- We want to improve our listening.
WRITING
- We want to improve our writing (x2) and our spelling.
VOCABULARY
- We want a more flexible vocabulary.
- We want to know more phrasal verbs and be able to use them.
- We want to use prepositions more easily. We want to learn frequently used set phrases like IS SUPPOSED TO
- We also want to know how and when to use connectors like Although.
GRAMMAR
- We'd like to finish studying the 12 verb tenses.
- We want to know how and when to use the passive.
Here's a link to the Checklist from the Swiss.
**I'd like to look at this on Wednesday night please. If you have done it already let me see it as soon as you like.
: )
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THE LEARNING
The new stuff today was the old stuff from Friday. We learned about follow up and its 4 uses.
We learned about the gerund and its 3 uses.
We also did a bit of an experiment in learning with the questions below:
Can you understand…?
And
Can you use… to talk about you/ your life / something real?
We looked at a list of words from the book which John had put on the whiteboard and tried USING THEM TO TALK ABOUT OUR LIVES. Some examples were "I'm considering moving to New York for work next year" and "I can't stand watching TV."
The book we used today was Michael Swan's Practical English Usage.
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That was it. Spelling test tomorrow.
Some of the words on it will be speak, writing, grammar, studying pronunciation, phrasal and shebang.
Thanks for all the tips on how to make friends, personally I like the last option how to stop politicians, and alienate housewives of soap opera,destroy biological and nuclear weapons,and people who eat with their mouth open or talking with food in their mouth. I will try to find somebody interested in some of them...
ReplyDeleteIn my desperate search to discover how to speak English properly I found the following rules that also might help you...
ReplyDelete5 Speaking Rules you need to know!
1. Don't study grammar too much
This rule might sound strange to many ESL students, but it is one of the most important rules. If you want to pass examinations, then study grammar. However, if you want to become fluent in English, then you should try to learn English without studying the grammar.
Studying grammar will only slow you down and confuse you. You will think about the rules when creating sentences instead of naturally saying a sentence like a native.
Do you want to be able to recite the definition of a causative verb, or do you want to be able to speak English fluently?
2. Learn and study phrases
Many students learn vocabulary and try to put many words together to create a proper sentence. It amazes me how many words some of my students know, but they cannot create a proper sentence. The reason is because they didn't study phrases. When children learn a language, they learn both words and phrases together. Likewise, you need to study and learn phrases.
If you know 1000 words, you might not be able to say one correct sentence. But if you know 1 phrase, you can make hundreds of correct sentences. If you know 100 phrases, you will be surprised at how many correct sentences you will be able to say. Finally, when you know only a 1000 phrases, you will be almost a fluent English speaker.
3. Reading and Listening is NOT enough. Practice Speaking what you hear!
Reading, listening, and speaking are the most important aspects of any language. The same is true for English. However, speaking is the only requirement to be fluent. It is normal for babies and children to learn speaking first, become fluent, then start reading, then writing. So the natural order is listening, speaking, reading, then writing.
4. Submerge yourself
Being able to speak a language is not related to how smart you are. Anyone can learn how to speak any language. This is a proven fact by everyone in the world. Everyone can speak at least one language. Whether you are intelligent, or lacking some brain power, you are able to speak one language.
You don't have to go anywhere to become a fluent English speaker. You only need to surround yourself with English. You can do this by making rules with your existing friends that you will only speak English. You can also carry around an iPod and constantly listen to English sentences. As you can see, you can achieve results by changing what your surroundings are. Submerge yourself in English and you will learn several times faster.
5. Study correct material
A common phrase that is incorrect is, "Practice makes perfect." This is far from the truth. Practice only makes what you are practicing permanent. If you practice the incorrect sentence, you will have perfected saying the sentence incorrectly. Therefore, it is important that you study material that is commonly used by most people.
Studying English with a friend who is not a native English speaker is both good and bad. You should be aware of the pro's and con's of speaking with a non native speaking friend. Practicing with a non native person will give you practice. You can also motivate each other and point out basic mistakes. But you might pick up bad habits from one another if you are not sure about what are correct and incorrect sentences. So use these practice times as a time period to practice the correct material you studied. Not to learn how to say a sentence.
In short, study English material that you can trust, that is commonly used, and that is correct.