Good Activities to Do in Teaching Pronunciation

There are lots of activities you can do with your child to practise pronunciation. Choose the activities that you think your child will like best. Try to make the activities as fun as possible, and stop when your child has had enough.

Here are some ideas for activities:

• Songs and rhymes; Songs, nursery rhymes and chants are a great way to introduce younger children to the sounds of English. Many chants and nursery rhymes are repetitive and easy to remember, and your child will not need to be able to read or write English. You'll find some traditional songs and nursery rhymes on LearnEnglish Kids. Listen to the songs, learn them together and sing the rhymes wherever and whenever you like - in the car, on the way to school, at bathtime! You can also read some tips for using simple rhymes with children. You'll find some rhymes that you can listen to, or download. You'll also find a fun resource you can try with your children called 'Rhyme and record'.

5 Principles in Encouraging Students to Speak English

Principle 1: Positive Reinforcement

As a teacher, you should focus on your students successful attempts to use English. At first, reward ANY success however small. If students speak out loudly and clearly, but make a mistake, praise them just for speaking out or for pronouncing it well. As students improve, you can focus on the most outstanding successes. Whatever you encourage, students will continue to do. On the other hand, if you do not encourage them, they will likely become passive in class. 

Principle 2: Clear Goals and Instructions

Students need to know exactly HOW an activity is done, otherwise they will be out of control when the activity starts. If necessary, write the instructions on the blackboard or overhead projector. Or, model the activity with one of your best students so everyone can see what they need to do.

Students also need to know WHY an activity is being done. Dictations are done to train the ear, so they will be more successful in learning in the future. Pair practice is a simulation of real-life conversation, so they should not show their questions to their partner. Without understanding why, many students think an activity is not important and give up or practice half-heartedly.

Be sure to include goals and instructions in your lesson plan. That way you will be sure to remember to do them, and if you do have any problems, you will easily see how to fix them in future lessons.

Teaching Reading Comprehension; Guides for teachers

The followings are seven strategies to implement by teachers in improving students' text comprehension;

1. Monitoring comprehension

Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to "fix" problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.

Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:

• Be aware of what they do understand
• Identify what they do not understand
• Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension

2. Metacognition

Metacognition can be defined as "thinking about thinking." Good readers use metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and "fixing" any comprehension problems they have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.

Students may use several comprehension monitoring strategies:

Tips for Teaching Reading to Children

Tips for Teaching Reading to Children

 Be mindful of your goal.

To be mindful means being inclined to be aware or conscious. It implies focusing your attention on something. The goal is the end toward which effort is directed.
If your end goal is to teach your child to read, to be mindful of it means consciously making efforts or doing things to reach that end. Some of these activities may include putting up on the wall an alphabet poster or chart, buying early reading children's books, playing with your child using educational toys like magnetic letters or letter puzzles, and telling them stories or reading together.
You intentionally spend some time doing these things with your objective in mind. You can start by spending a few minutes each day reading to your child so she will develop the love of reading. Later on, more time can be spent in the teaching-learning activities as she becomes more prepared to learn the skill.
I've learned from Simpleology 101 that the scientific formula for success is: See your target; Keep it in your sights; and Hit it (until you hit it). This is a good formula to follow in order to succeed helping your child to read.

Teaching Speaking Skills

 Teaching Speaking Skills 

'I can understand my teacher's English, but when I speak to 'real people' I can't understand them'. This is a comment I'm sure many teachers have heard. While it is a bit of an exaggeration, students clearly feel that classroom-based speaking practice does not prepare them for the real world. Why do students so often highlight listening and speaking as their biggest problems? Partly because of the demands of listening and speaking and partly because of the way speaking is often taught. It usually consists of language practice activities (discussions, information-gap activities etc.) or is used to practise a specific grammar point. Neither teaches patterns of real interaction. So what can we do in the classroom to prepare students for real interaction?

What do students need?

• Practice at using L1 (mother tongue) strategies, which they don't automatically transfer.

• An awareness of formal / informal language and practice at choosing appropriate language for different situations.

Educational Quotes

Educational Quotes

Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform.
Susan B. Anthony 

EDUCATION AND THE PROCESS OF EDUCATING IS A TOTAL INTEGRAL, CONTEXTUAL SITUATION WHICH INCLUDES STUDENTS, TEACHERS, PARENTS, ADMINISTRATION, AND ENVIRONMENT.
Jean Huston

Everything depends upon the quality of experience . . . just as no man lives or dies to himself, so no experience lives and dies to itself.
Any experience is mis-educative that has the effect of arresting or distorting the growth of further experience.
The central problem of an education based upon experience is to select the kind of present experience that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences.
John Dewey, 1938 

When I think about all the crap
I learned in high school . . .
. . . . . it's a wonder I can think at all.

Paul Simon

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? Let's Get Philosophical...

Why did the chicken cross the road?
KINDERGARTEN TEACHER:To get to the other side.

PLATO:For the greater good.

ARISTOTLE:It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.

TIMOTHY LEARY: Because that's the only trip the establishment would let it take.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

HIPPOCRATES: Because of an excess of phlegm in its pancreas.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

Starting the Writing Process

Starting the Writing Process

This resource was written by Stacy Weida.

Writing takes time

Find out when is the assignment due and devise a plan of action. This may seem obvious and irrelevant to the writing process, but it's not. Writing is a process, not merely a product. Even the best professional writers don't just sit down at a computer, write, and call it a day. The quality of your writing will reflect the time and forethought you put into the assignment. Plan ahead for the assignment by doing pre-writing: this will allow you to be more productive and organized when you sit down to write. Also, schedule several blocks of time to devote to your writing; then, you can walk away from it for a while and come back later to make changes and revisions with a fresh mind.
Use the rhetorical elements as a guide to think through your writing

Thinking about your assignment in terms of the rhetorical situation can help guide you in the beginning of the writing process. Topic, audience, genre, style, opportunity, research, the writer, and purpose are just a few elements that make up the rhetorical situation.

Topic and audience are often very intertwined and work to inform each other. Start with a broad view of your topic such as skateboarding, pollution, or the novel Jane Eyre and then try to focus or refine your topic into a concise thesis statement by thinking about your audience. Here are some questions you can ask yourself about audience:

INSTANT NOODLE, IS IT HARMFUL?

Who does not know what instant noodle is? (Ramen in Japan and mie in Asia). Since it was invented by Momofoku Ando, the boss of Nissin Japan, it has aroused controversy, a food which is considered suitable with the bustling era, delicious, fast served, but on the other side is harmful for the body.

You are a young man and living far from your parents as a boarder. Studying in the college makes you busy and do not have time to prepare your meal. Then, you take the overcome by the practical and cheap way. Instant noodle is the choice. It’s so simple to be prepared and provide various delicious tastes. Within just 3 minutes preparation you can enjoy the delicacy and still your hunger. Sounds’ nice!

Most of collegians in Indonesia ever tasted instant noodles. Not only collegians but also young children are given the instant foods. Unluckily, they like it. Our life styles have been changed to the instant style and it also affects our meals. It can be seen that the fast-food restaurant are always crowded by visitors. But, how big are the disadvantages of instant foods for our health?

How to improve your English skills

My most important advice is to do something (anything), but above all have fun! Make it your hobby, not a chore.

There are many ways to improve your level of English, but only you can find the right way for you. Here are a few tips that might help:

Improve your Learning Skills

Learning is a skill and it can be improved.

Your path to learning effectively is through knowing yourself your capacity to learn processes you have successfully used in the past your interest, and knowledge of what you wish to learn

Motivate yourself

If you are not motivated to learn English you will become frustrated and give up. Ask yourself the following questions, and be honest:-

• Why do you need to learn/improve English?
• Where will you need to use English?