Secondary English teacher / Profesor de Inglés de Secundaria: CLUES TO SUCCEED

CLUES TO SUCCEED

In this page I will give you not only clues to succeed in learning English in general, but also to improve your skill in certain kinds of activities, such as dictations, compositions, listening exercises.

DICTATIONS >>> There are three parts in a dictation:

1. The teacher reads for the first time the text and you have to pay attention to two things: the topic and the main tense. Why?? Because if you know about the topic, you will be able to guess some of the vocabulary and, if you know about the tenses used, you will be able to foresee certain difficulties, such as the use of auxiliary verbs for the interrogative and negative sentences or the different past forms of regular and irregular verbs.

2. The teacher reads for the second time text, repeating each bit twice. Listen, don't interrupt, try not to make any noises and do not leave any blanks (you will never guess a word from a blank). Your handwriting must be clear and your presentation must be neat (margins, crossing outs, corrections).

Checking time 1 >>>> It is time to check your punctuation, spelling, agreements (be careful not to forget the s of the 3rd person singular for the present simple forms), possible grammar mistakes and try to guess the words you didn't know from what you have written bearing in mind the topic of the dictation, the kind of word it fits in the gap (verb, noun, adjective...) and obviously the sounds you heard.

3. The teacher reads for the third time and you have to check all your corrections and even check certain sounds by looking at the teacher (for instance, if you are not sure if a sound is an 'm' or an 'n', you'll have to look at your teacher's lips and see if he closes them, which will mean it is a bilabial sound, that is an 'm', or if he doesn't, which will therefore mean it is an 'n').

Checking time 2 >>>> You will do the same as in the first one.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING IS THAT MOST DICTATIONS (IF NOT ALL) ARE FROM THE GRADED READERS YOU HAVE TO READ AND ALL OF THEM HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BECAUSE THEY HAVE A CD TO LISTEN TO, SO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT AND LISTEN TO THEM REGULARLY (AT LEAST 5 OR 10 MINUTES).