Activities to improve Reading Skills

Activities to improve Reading Skills

There are 3 easy to implement activities that each take just a few minutes a day to improve reading skills.

1. Improve reading fluency in 5 minutes a day.
2. Improve spelling and learn the 8 ways we put letters together to make words.
3. Improve reading comprehension by playing a reading comprehension game.

1st Activity: Improve Reading Fluency

The speed and accuracy of your reading are extremely important. The first activity you can do to improve your reading skills is reading fluency training. In just 5 minutes a day, you can boost your speed, accuracy, and comprehension. When you skip, repeat, or mispronounce words while reading, the meaning is often lost. Reading fluency is one of the most ignored reading skills and one of the easiest to practice at home. And, yes, fluency practice can be done in as little as 5 minutes a day. More and more research shows that short interval training consistently throughout the week helps people have bigger gains than working for long periods.

2nd Activity: Improve Spelling Skills

Spelling incorporates both decoding words and encoding words. The decoding is the ‘sounding out’ part. Encoding is the ‘writing down the sounds you hear’ part. So many students struggle with this as they are expected to learn over 30 spelling rules. However, when you realize we only put letters together 8 ways to make words,  improving spelling skills doesn’t have to be hard. When spelling becomes easier, reading becomes easier.

3rd Activity: Improve Reading Comprehension

The third activity is all about having fun with reading. The key here is to play games that are specifically designed to improve reading comprehension. The third activity is playing a reading comprehension game. That’s right, game playing! Playing The Comprehension Zone, a reading comprehension game, teaches yourself how to read for the main idea and details or sequence what they read does the trick. Other reading games might be ones that build vocabulary skills. Comprehension improves when you know the meaning of more words.

Let's put into practice everything learned:

https://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension/

First Conditional

First Conditional

We are talking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition or situation in the future, and the result of this condition. There is a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, it is morning. You are at home. You plan to play tennis this afternoon. But there are some clouds in the sky. Imagine that it rains. What will you do?

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. It is not raining yet. But the sky is cloudy and you think that it could rain. We use the Present Simple tense to talk about the possible future condition. We use will + base verb to talk about the possible future result. The important thing about the first conditional is that there is a real possibility that the condition will happen.

Here are some more examples (do you remember the two basic structures: [if condition result] and [result if condition]?):

if       condition result                        will + base verb

If        I see Mary,                          I will tell her.

If        Tara is free tomorrow,          he will invite her.

If        they do not pass their exam,  their teacher will be sad.

If        it rains tomorrow,                  will you stay at home?

If        it rains tomorrow,                  what will you do?

Result                                 if condition

will + base verb         Present Simple

I will tell Mary                 if I see her.

He will invite Tara            if she is free tomorrow.

Their teacher will be sad if they do not pass their exam.

Will you stay at home         if it rains tomorrow?

What will you do              if it rains tomorrow?

Mini Quiz

Fill in the blanks with the correct option.

1. The first conditional is used if there is _______ that the condition will happen.

• no possibility
• little real possibility
• a real possibility

2. "If we _______ free, we'll go with you." Which is correct?

•  were
•  are
•  had been

3. "We'll win if we _______ well enough." Which is correct?

•  play
•  playing
•  had played

Continue practicing in the following link:

http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/1stconditional.html

Future simple tense

Future simple tense 

The Future Simple tense is often called the "will tense" because we make the Future Simple with the modal auxiliary will.

How do we make the Future Simple tense?
The structure of the Future Simple tense is:

For negative sentences in the Future Simple tense, we insert not between the auxiliary verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary verb. 

How do we use the Future Simple tense?

No Plan

We use the Future Simple tense when there is no plan or decision to do something before we speak. We make the decision spontaneously at the time of speaking. Look at these examples:

• Hold on. I'll get a pen.
• We will see what we can do to help you.
• Maybe we'll stay in and watch television tonight.

Prediction

We often use the Future Simple tense to make a prediction about the future. Again, there is no firm plan. We are saying what we think will happen. Here are some examples:

• It will rain tomorrow.
• People won't go to Jupiter before the 22nd century.
• Who do you think will get the job?

Be

When the main verb is be, we can use the Future Simple tense even if we have a firm plan or decision before speaking. Examples:

• I'll be in London tomorrow.
• I'm going shopping. I won't be very long.
• Will you be at work tomorrow?

Now, you are ready to develop the next activity.

Access the link and complete the activities that will be presented on the use of the future simple.

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/simple-future-exercise-1.html

How Writing a Blog Can Improve Your Written English

How Writing a Blog Can Improve Your Written English

Have you heard the phrase “practice makes perfect”? It’s absolutely true! The more you practice something, the better you will get. Whether you’re playing a sport or writing in English, practicing will help you improve.

Practice on its own is not always very exciting or interesting. That’s why writing on a blog is such an excellent method of practice. It gets you writing in a way that’s enjoyable and entertaining.

Through blogging, you can…

• Practice using vocabulary words and grammar rules correctly.
• Learn new vocabulary words and grammar rules by writing about a variety of (many different) topics.
• Get feedback (responses that help you improve) on your writing from other people.
• Challenge yourself to try new structures.
• Discover which parts of your English skills you still need to work on.
• Write and learn about a topic you find interesting.
• Want to get started? Let’s look at how to create a blog.

Where to Create a Blog?

There are many free blogging platforms that don’t require any special knowledge or skills. Just make an account, click on “new blog” and start writing! It’s pretty simple and anyone can get into it.

Three of the most popular and simplest platforms are:

• Blogger .- Blogger was more popular a few years ago, but it’s still going strong with a loyal group of users. This platform is part of Google, so you can access it with your Google account. It’s simple to use, perfect for this type of blog.
• WordPress.com.- This is one of the most popular and powerful blogging websites available for free. You can use just the very basics (write and publish your posts), or you can use the extra features—like linking your posts to social media.
• Tumblr .- If WordPress is the most powerful blogging platform, Tumblr is the easiest to use. Tumblr is mostly used for image-based posts, but you can decide how to use it. The community on Tumblr is usually friendly and talkative, so it’s a great place to join a conversation.

Once you pick a home for your new blog, you can start setting it up.

Well, It's time to work¡¡

• Using any of the blogs mentioned above, create an account and start making your first writing on the importance of learning a new language.Then, share your blog with your classmates and check the mistakes if there are.

Ways To Improve Your Listening Skill

Ways To Improve Your Listening Skill

Listening activities based on simulated real-life situations are more motivating and interesting to do than working through textbook comprehension exercises, which quickly becomes boring. Try some of the following listening texts and tasks that are likely to grab your student’s attention.

1. Predicting content 

If you are taking a listening test, skim through the questions first and try to predict what kind of information you need to listen out for. A question beginning 'How many..?', for example, will probably require you to listen for a specific number or quantity of something.

2. Listening for gist

Find a short video with subtitles on a topic that interests you. Use the title to help you predict the content and then listen out for the content words. Go back, and listen again with the subtitles. How much did you understand the first time? Return to the video a week later and try again.

Tip:

When you learn new words, try to group them with other words used in a similar context. Mind maps are good for this.

3.- Detecting signposts

Just like the traffic lights on roads, there are signposts in language that help us follow what we're listening to. These words, which link ideas, help us to understand what the speaker is talking about and where they are taking us. They're particularly important in presentations and lectures.

For example, if a university lecturer says: 'I am going to talk about three factors affecting global warming…' then later on you might hear the phrases first of all, moving on to and in summary to indicate the next part of the talk. Other words and phrases can function in a similar way. For instance, to clarify (in other words, to put it another way); to give examples (to illustrate this, for example'), and so on. 

4.- Listening for details

If you are taking a test, as soon as you get the question paper, skim through the questions, underline the important words and decide what kind of detail you need to identify in the listening text.

Decide on a type of detailed information you want to practise listening for and watch programmes where you would expect to get that information. For example, you could listen to a weather report to get details about the weather, or you could follow the sports news to find out the latest results.

Now using the techniques learned previously, access this link and perform the activities to improve your listening skill.

https://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/london/green-london/upper-intermediate-listening-lesson.html

How to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

How to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

Speaking is often the hardest of the four language skills. It's one thing listening and understanding, or even reading and writing, but it's another talking to a native speaker and not getting all flustered and experiencing brain shutdown. But with the right tricks, you can get over the learning curve with ease.

There are some useful and fun alternatives to develop the speaking ability in addition to other skills.

1.- Record yourself.- When you're by your lonesome, you have no reason to be nervous. You can let your brain flow freely so record yourself now! Your English is going to be at its best. Find an application (youtube) or online course that allows you to imitate the sounds of the language . Does your English sound the same?

2.- Read aloud.- If your hands are full or you don't have a recording device, simply read aloud -- ideally, every day for at least 15 or 20 minutes. You'll get used to speaking for longer periods of time and forming long sentences won't phase you. And you'll run into words you can add to your vocabulary.

3.- Listen to music.-  If you can concentrate on one song a day or so, even better. Just make sure you actively try to understand it. Google the lyrics and sing along!. It's best to stick to ballads songs that go a bit more slowly. Pick one a day until you have it mostly memorized and understand what the words actually mean. It's a great way to learn a language.

4.- Watch TV and movies.- An integral part of speaking is hearing or listening. Because of this, the easiest way to involve yourself in a conversation without actually having one is to watch English TV and movies. If you absolutely have to, turn the subtitles on but try to resist! Movies are great because you watch them over and over; the more you watch them, the more things you'll pick up. TV is good though, too, because you develop relationships with the characters and you grow accustomed to how they talk and the quirks of their speech.

Now let's practice!

Activity in class

1.- Look for a topic of your interest and practice your ability to speak by recording a video in which you mention important aspects about the topic you have chosen.

2.-After recording your video, upload it to YouTube and share the link in the virtual classroom with the rest of your classmates.

3.- Make comments on the videos of the rest of your classmates and read the comments they made to you to know what are the mistakes and corrections that you should take into account when developing a speech.

Here you have an example: 

Demonstrative Adjectives

Demostrative adjectives 

Demonstrative adjectives modify nouns or pronouns. We use demonstrative adjectives to specify what we are referring to, to indicate whether the person or thing is singular or plural, and to give the listener information about that person or object’s proximity to the speaker (identifying whether it’s nearby or far away). Because they are used to determine a specific noun, demonstrative adjectives are sometimes known as demonstrative determiners.

There are four common demonstrative adjectives in English: this, that, these, and those.

Placement

Demonstrative adjectives always come before the noun they modify. Often, they start the sentence. For example:

• “This toy is my brother’s favorite.”
• “These cups are very pretty.”

They can also come at the middle or at the end, as long as they are followed by a noun (if they were not followed by a noun, they would become demonstrative pronouns):

• “My brother’s favorite toy is this train.”
• “I wish I had more of these chocolates!”
• “Can you please go buy me those books?”

In the examples above, the demonstrative adjective is placed immediately before the noun it modifies. However, if there are additional adjectives that also modify the same noun, they should be placed between the demonstrative adjective and the noun. For example:

• “My brother’s favorite toy is this blue train.”
• “I wish I had more of these delicious chocolates!”
• “Can you please go buy me those school books?”

Choosing the Correct Demonstrative Adjective

Use this table to easily reference which demonstrative adjectives to use in different contexts:

This/That

As you can see from the table, this and that are used when the person or thing we are talking about is singular (there is only one).

This is used for things that are nearby. The proximity is sometimes stated explicitly in the sentence. For example:

• “This toy I’m holding is my brother’s favorite.”
• “This chair I’m sitting on is broken.”

That is used for a singular person or object that is farther away. Again, the proximity is sometimes stated explicitly, as in:

• “That toy on the table over there is my brother’s favorite.”
• “That chair across the room is broken.”

These/Those

These and those work in the same way as this and that, but as you can see in the table, they are used to refer to people and objects that are plural (more than one.)

These is used for plural objects that are nearby. As we saw with this, the proximity can be explicit, as in:

• “These toys I’m holding are my brother’s favorites.”
• “These chairs we’re sitting on are broken.”

Those is used for plural objects that are farther away. Again, the distance can be stated. For example:

• “Those toys on the table over there are my brother’s favorites.”
• “Those chairs across the room are broken.”

Access this link to put into practice your knowledge about the use of demonstrative adjectives.

https://agendaweb.org/grammar/demonstratives-exercises.html