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Sing
You can sing English songs that you like, either
alone, or with friends; e.g. karaoke.
Act
You can join a drama club or group that puts on
English plays. The ELC has a Drama club
Imagine
Imaging that you are in a
situation where you
need to speak English; e.g. as a character you
like
in a movie. Try to imagine what you would
say. Do you know what to say?
If you are not
sure, you can research it later.
You can
repeat a word out loud or silently to
practice pronunciation. Be
careful to listen to a
model to make sure that you pronunciation is
correct.
Sound:
This means remembering
English sounds by
using sounds in your own language. For
example, the English sound / i: /is very similar
to the Chinese sound of
the word that means
'one'.
4-Writing Strategies:
Note-Taking:
5-Reading Strategies:
Transfer
This means using ideas that you already have to
make learning easier. For example, if you know
that a paragraph (like a hamburger) usually has
an introduction, a middle containing supporting
detail, and a conclusion.
You can use this knowledge to skim (read very
quickly, by missing out non-important
information, to understand the general topic) a
text because you know that you only have to read
the introduction and conclusion of both the whole
text and the paragraphs.
Translation:
You can read a story in a newspaper in your own
language first, then read the same story in an
English newspaper.
Most of the story will
probably be the same, so the story in your own
language will help you to prepare for reading in
English.
For example, it will
give you vocabulary, and
when you read the English story and there is
some vocabulary that you don't know, then you
can use your knowledge of
the story to guess
what the new vocabulary is.
Inference:
You can also use the
strategy of reading a
newspaper story in your own language first for
prediction. You can predict the contents of the
same story in an English
newspaper. Reading
to confirm your predictions is easier than reading
with no background information. Click here for
more information on reading newspapers.
Prediction:
As well as predicting from newspaper stories in
your own language, you can predict from your
knowledge of the world, you knowledge of how
people think, write and
talk, and your
knowledge of what the writer is like.
For example, if you
are reading a book it is a
good idea to read about the author and the
contents (on the cover or at the front of the
book) to help you make predictions about what
he or she believes.
6-Listening Strategies:
Physical Response
You can listen to
instructions about how to do
something, and follow the instructions.
Relating
sounds to movements helps you remember the
sounds. So does
listening to the sounds many
times and repeating the movements. For example
you can buy an English fitness video and listen
and follow the instructions, and get fit at the same
time.
Prediction:
You can predict what someone is going to say by
the topic of the conversation and your knowledge
of that person's opinions. Listening to confirm
what you
predict is easier than listening and trying to understand everything.
For example, if you
are watching a film or TV
program about lawyers, you can predict that the
defense lawyer will say that his client is "Not
guilty.", and give
reasons. Here are some phrases and predictions about the words that will
follow:
"I think" + an opinion.
you can listen to the news in your own language,
then listen to it in English. Listening in
your own
language will help to predict what topics and
vocabulary will be in the English news
Motivate yourself:
For example if you like movies or music, you can
practice listening to them. CILL has a large
collection of movies, and some songs on CD.
Deduction:
This means using rules to work out the answer or
how to do something. It is especially
useful for
grammar, for example Rule:
To change normal speech to reported speech;
eg. for writing minutes of a meeting, move the
tenses
back one past tense.
Example:
Mr. Chan - "I will see her tomorrow."
Reported speech -
'Mr. Chan said that he would see her the next day.
Recombination:
This means joining
together things you already
know to make new things. For example, if you
know that the simple past tense is used to
describe things that
happened in the past which
have finished, and you know that the present
perfect tense is used to describe experience.
you can make a sentence that includes both :
"I first visited America in 1990. Last
summer I
went there again, so I have been there twice."
Writing your own grammar book:
This can contain rules, examples
(e.g. from newspapers or magazines),
your notes (e.g. on things
you don't understand),
lists of exceptions, etc.
Using new grammar:
After you learn some new
grammar, use it in conversation
or writing, and see what your listener's or reader's reaction
is: do they understand you?
You can ask "Did I say that right?"
Get a grammar book:
Come to CILL or go to a bookshop and look at the different
grammar books. Choose one that you understand.
Read and Listen:
Read and listen to see how writers and speakers use English grammar to communicate their ideas.
Contextualization:
This means putting new vocabulary words into sentences to
help you remember them and to test if you are using them
correctly. You can use these sentences when talking to
an English-speaker to see if they understand.
You can write these
sentences in your learner portfolio for
the tutors to see, or you can
e-mail the tutors and ask them
to check these words in your sentences.
The most
independent ways are talking to an English speaker, and
searching the Internet to find examples of the word being
used in sentences.
Elaboration:
This means relating
new information to information you
already know. For example, if you
know the meaning of
'information', it is easy to remember that the verb
is 'to
inform', and that 'informative' is an adjective, and that 'an
informant' is someone who gives information.
Inference:
This means using
available information to predict or guess
the meanings of; e.g. new vocabulary items.
For example, if you know that you are reading about
football, and you know that a field is often a large area
covered in grass, then you can guess that a football field
is a large, grassy area for playing football.
Translation:
You can read a story in a newspaper in your own
language first, then read the same story in an English
newspaper. Most of the story will probably be the same,
so the story in your own language will help you to
prepare for reading in English.
For example, it will
give you vocabulary, and when
you read the English story and there is
some
vocabulary that you don't know, then you can
use your knowledge of the story to guess what
the new vocabulary is.
Personalization:
You can write down why the vocabulary item
(i.e. the word or phrase) is important to you,
where you first saw it, and when you used it,
for example, you may have heard the item
in a movie you liked and used the item when
you talked about the movie with your friends.
Keeping your own dictionary:
Writing entries for the
dictionary will help you
to learn words, and using your own dictionary
can be faster than a normal dictionary.
Grouping:
You can group words into different areas, such as
words in the different courses you study.
For example, business students could group
vocabulary items into marketing vocabulary,
accounting vocabulary, and human resources
vocabulary.
Translation:
You can read a story in a newspaper in your own
language first, then read the same story in an
English newspaper. Most of the story will probably
be the same, so the story in your own language
will help you to prepare for reading in English.
For example, it will give you vocabulary,
and when you read the English story and there is
some vocabulary that you don't know, then you
can use your knowledge of
the story to guess
what the new vocabulary is.
Personalization:
You can write down why the vocabulary item
(i.e. the word or phrase) is important to you,
where you first saw it, and when you used it, for
example, you may have heard the item in a
movie you liked and used the item when you
talked about the movie with your friends.
Keeping your own dictionary:
Writing entries for the
dictionary will help
you to learn words, and using your own
dictionary
can be faster than a normal dictionary.
Grouping:
