Hello, Goodbye!
“And so, the time has come and I must face the final curtain…… “(no prizes for guessing which song that line comes from :))
Well, it seems we have already said goodbye to Marcos. It is a shame we didn’t get a final exchange together but never mind.
It has been an incredible month and I have loved interacting with all of you. I am sad to say goodbye but you never know we may get another opportunity to talk.
I thought I would leave you with some final language learning tips to help you on your way. I will divide the tips into skill areas. First of all, as we are blogging, let’s look at writing. Here are my top tips for improving your writing:
1. Write without editing initially and do not let your fingers off the key board or your pen off the page until you have run out of things to say. While your thoughts are flowing, let your pen flow too.
2. Review 3 times. In the first review, go back and look at the words which convey meaning – the nouns, verbs and adjectives in your sentences. Ask yourself if you could have used a more vivid verb or a more precise noun or adjective. Use a thesaurus if you are stuck. Look for repetition of verbs, nouns and adjectives. If you have used the adjective nice 3 times – try to find a substitute. If you have repeated a noun, replace it with a pronoun.
3. In the second review, if you are working on the computer, make use of Microsoft software and pay attention to all the green and red lines. Don’t edit blindly though. Ask yourself whether you want to use British or American English and stick to your decision.
4. in the final review, if there is no body to take a look for you, go over your writing with a fine tooth comb and look for your common errors (which you should already be aware of) and double check for your common typos. For example, I know my common typos are ‘fro/form/studnet/adn’. Notice that Microsoft won’t help me with fro and form as they are words anyway – but they are not the words I want – I want for and from.
Now let’s look at speaking. Here are my top tips for improving your speaking:
1. Number one: do NOT and I mean NEVER be afraid of making mistakes or making a fool of yourself. Speak at every given opportunity. Talk to everyone – do not discriminate – whether you know them or not, whether you need to or not. Tell them you are learning and most people will be empathetic.
2. Carry a notebook with you for when you have an opportunity to speak to someone who will comment on your fluency/accuracy and who will suggest more suitable words to use.
3. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Remember to become fluent and to sound more natural you need to practise regularly and improve upon your pronunciation of individual sounds and your intonation.
Now let’s look at listening – closely linked to speaking. This is what I recommend:
1. Again for this, it is useful to carry a notebook to jot down words and phrases you hear but are not sure of the meaning.
2. If you do not understand and you can ask, ask. Do not be afraid and nod and just pretend to understand. The speaker will know!
3. Listen to a wide variety of texts – language learning tapes initially. TV and films when you feel a little more confident. And most important of all, real everyday speech.
4. Take part in the conversation – listen actively.
Last but certainly not least, reading. This is a skill close to my heart as you know and I do believe that there is nothing more satisfying than being able to read in a foreign language. So, here are my top tips for reading.
1. Read widely but start with texts that you can manage to build your confidence, like graded readers and abridged versions of stories.
2. Don’t stop to look up every unknown word in a dictionary – this will take away the enjoyment.
3. Start a reading group so you can discuss what you are reading and get feedback on phrases you don’t understand.
4. Do not try to read every word. You would not do this in your mother tongue so don’t do it when you read in a foreign language.
Well, that’s all from me. Stay keen and keep blogging. I wish you well with the next teacher and student blogger. It has been a pleasure.
Best wishes for the future.
Helen x
Comments
Hi Helen, it was really pleasure to meet you. Thank you for everything. Best wishes:)
Hi Helen, It is sad to know that you are saying goodbye to all of us. As you said we may get a chance to talk to you sooner. We could not communicate with you for couple of blogs because of technical problem. Any how I must thank them to restore the functionality of this before end of last month and helped us to get solid tips of learning language from you. Helen, I have completed three of your recommended books for beginners. I am reading disgrace right now. Apart from these I have finished Manokar Devadoss’s a poem to courage. I am happy that I have gone through four books for the last two months. You made me to read. I realize the importance of reading to improve the language. I did not try to look each and every word which I was unfamiliar. But most of the time I could imagine the meaning. I do not know whether I understood it correctly or not. Among all I graded first Paulo Coelho’s Veronika decides to die and next Aravindo Adigo,s white tigers. I do not know the Russian history much. So I could not compare the animal farm story with it. But it was interesting. About Veronika decides to die, I have seen in many films that the psychiatrist became mentally ill after certain period of their work. Why? We could see the experience of many mentally ill people in this book. Every one wanted to live when the end comes. There is no exception for mentally ill people. About white tigers, from darkness to life, the life of the driver was thrilling and exciting. Since I am an Indian I enjoyed finishing the book. Did author want the servants to kill their masters to become an entrepreneur? I can’t imagine. I try to follow your tips to be a successful learner of English language. Till we meet again good bye. Thank your very much for all your remarks. convey my wishes to Pankaj and love to Isabel.
Dear Helen, It’s a shame I didn’t have enough possibility to read and comment your blog. Now I’m reading the last post and regret. Hope others managed to catch more :) Thank you for the tips – they must help me in progressing! Wish you good mood and hope to read you here again.
Hi Helen, Althoug I haven`t participated in commenting your postes earlier, I`ve been following it with a great pleasure. Not only because you live in a place which is very exotic in comparison to Poland:), but mostly due your amusing, gripping and truly positive way of writing. I`ve also enjoyed the parts, which had been written by your Dad. Thank you for your blog and I wish you and your family good luck and lots of happy moments together! Rose
Hi Helen, I have enjoyed your blog very much, thank you. It's been fun but the time has come to bring down the final curtain move along.See you around, and best wishes, James.
Best wishes to you Helen, it's been a great time Learning English with you as well as knowing about Sri Lanka. Good luck for now and for the future:-) Naheed
Hi Helen and farewell to you. Thank you very much for your support. I am sure your students will notice in a short time how luck they are to have a teacher like you.All the best to you, Pankaj and Isabel as well Roy. :))
Hi Helen, I would like to thank you very much for your effort you put into our learning process. It has been a pleasure to read your entry, which brought sunshine of Sri Lanka to my cold at that time of a year country. Thank You for everythink all the best to your family and take care. Robert
hello Hellen, I read your recommendation, I want to say that it's very great. I will practise your comment, and I do hope that in a nice day I would listen English clearly. Thank you for your postes!!!Cuong
Dear Helen! I have to admit I don´t read lots of books only by bits I go slowly ahead. Just now it is ´Far from the madding crowd´ Thomas Hardy. The book I read as a teenager and it is first time I read in not conterporary English, if I may so describe it. There are awfuly lots of unknown words impossible to look them out but I am tied in by the story to proceed away after brakes when I am attached to my painting. Guess what, last weak I did an aquarelle from your Dad with Isabel on a see shore with the sun. I think it is lovely. Before this I´ve started it by oil (we went through this technique on our last two sessions in a course and I decided to try it home but it is on the drying process yet which is not so convenient for me). So, you may imagin I have had twice as pleasure reading your useful lessons! Thousands regards to the whole your family, don´t forget you did once this useful mission!
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