Posts tagged reading practice
Creating School Newspaper to Practice English…Awesome!
Nov 30th
English Students are writing the school newspaper!
International students studying at Kaplan’s English language school in Portland are improving their English skills by running their very own newspaper.
ESL instructor Sadie Dickman launched the newspaper as a fun and innovative way for students to practice their English learning by writing articles during the class. Her idea became so popular it turned into a monthly four-page newspaper featuring restaurant reviews, stories about Portland events and advice for new students. What a great idea for students to not only practice their writing skills, but also help out new classmates in the city.
Anyone can participate in the newspaper and contributors are encouraged to write about anything they are interested in. They published a recent “literature edition,” which was full of student fiction. Ms. Dickman said proudly that, “Everyone at the college takes a newspaper when it is published and the writers are really proud to have their by-lines in the paper!” This is a great example of teachers getting students to collaborate and achieve “creative and intelligent” results.
Writing is a great tool for practicing vocabulary and reviewing grammar. Getting classes to create a school newspaper like this builds a sense of community in the class as well as in the school. It also gets students to read more! What a fabulous idea.
Key Vocabulary used in this article:
- Run (v) to manage or operate
- Launch (v) to begin or start a new project
- Innovative (adj) inventive; something that has never been done before
- Contributor (n) someone who writes articles for a newspaper or magazine
- By-line (n) The headline or title of a newspaper article
- Collaborate (v) to work together
If you know anyone who is interested in this topic, why not help them out! Just share this article with them.
Thanks for studying today!
Spider-Man is #1 for Helping Readers Learn English
Nov 22nd
As I am sure you know, Spider-Man has a huge arsenal of superhuman abilities. But in addition to climbing walls and using is “spider-sense,” the web-making Superhero is responsible for helping people across the world learn English.
In a recent research study conducted by Kaplan International Colleges, over half of people surveyed said they improved their knowledge of the English language by reading comic books and that Spider-Man was the most popular superhero.
Peter Parker’s alter ego fought off competition from rival superheroes Superman and Batman by helping 15% of people in their English learning journey while the Man of Steel could only assist 10% and the Dark Knight 6%.
The study’s results have been turned into Kaplan’s Infographic, shown here. The language school asked hundreds of their past and present language school students whether watching television shows, listening to music, reading comics or playing video games helped them to understand and study English, and an amazing 55% of respondents picked up some English language skills from following the adventures of their favorite superheroes in comics such as Spider-Man, The X-Men and The Fantastic Four.
The news was met with great fanfare by The Stan Lee Foundation, a non-profit organization founded to provide access to literacy, education, and the arts. Ms. Junko Kobayashi, the organization’s president, said that they were please that such a well-known character as Spider-Man was playing a big role in helping students learn English. I think it’s a great thing to. Do you read comics? Leave a comment here and let us know!
If you know anyone who is interested in this topic, why not help them out! Just share this article with them.
Thanks for studying today!
English Reading: Life as a Pet, Part I
Nov 21st
[Editor's note: This is the first installment of a fictional story, My Life as a Pet, written by Kaoru, an international student here at Happy English. We hope you enjoy it!]
I am a pygmy marmoset which has coffee color. I am living The U.S, but I am not sure of my height and build. I guess my height is just about the same size as Denny’s thumb. Denny is the owner of the pet shop I have been living in for 1 year. My birthplace was Colombia, but I don’t know the exact city that I was born.
I am actually an adventurous animal, so I jumped into a bag of coffee when some farmer packed coffee into bags to export to The U.S. Then my adventure was a great success because I could come to Denny’s hose. One morning, when he opened the bag of coffee, he surprisingly shouted. As you know I was in the bag of coffee from Colombia. Even though he was astonished by me, he was very kind to me. He loved me so much, but his beautiful wife whose name was Linda was frail, so he had to call in a primary doctor for her. At last he decided to sell me so he could afford her expensive medicine.
The next day Denny put me into a green cage in his pet shop. The animal next to me was a parrot. I was annoyed by the parrot because the parrot was a chatter bird. The parrot‘s name was Ring. However no matter how tired Ring was, Ring was smiling at me every time. I grew to like her over time. Every night she sang a lullaby like a mother. One day some graceful woman who has beautiful white hair and blue eyes came over the pet shop, and she immediately liked Ring, so she bought Ring without hesitation. Ring winked at me. The wink made me very sad but I hoped for Ring’s happiness.
My life has been boring because the pet shop had become hushed since Ring was gone. Every morning I said to all of pets “Good morning guys.” First, I do grooming myself. Second I eat some seeds and drink milk then I take a nap with my pink pillow. Finally, I fall sleep early. How petty my life is……
However Denny still was kind to me so I hoped that Linda would be fine. In addition, I have had a dream to travel all over the world and wanted to see a lot of people and animals since I was in Colombia, so I had been waiting for someone who can take me all over the world for a long time. If I go to Africa I will ask elephants what is different between you and mammoths, and if I go to Japan I will ask snow monkeys about our ancestors. And I wanted to get my name because I didn’t have my name…
Dear Reader! What do you think is a good name for this pygmy marmoset? Leave a comment below and tell us why! Then, check your reading comprehension with this quiz:
Reading Questions
Question 1 |
He is a primary doctor | |
He owns a store | |
He is a coffee farmer |
Question 2 |
To purchase medicine for his wife | |
To purchase Colombian coffee | |
To purchase a present for his wife |
Question 3 |
A frail woman | |
An elegant woman | |
A coffee farmer |
Question 4 |
She surprised the pygmy marmoset | |
She sang a song to the pygmy marmoset | |
She made an eye gesture to the pygmy marmoset |
