eslwriter

Rob Whyte is a university teacher, teacher trainer and writer.

ESL Intermediate Conversation – Week 11

by

Last week was a short week for the ESL students because of two national holidays.

This week, we will be building English fluency skills with

  1. reading and summarizing exercises
  2. a new vocabulary game
  3. a logical thinking puzzle worksheet
  4. facts about reading

 

The Importance of Reading

Click to read a few facts about reading.

 

 

 

Facts About Reading

by

Some facts about reading and learning.

  • If a child reads as much as one million words per year, they will be in top 2% of all children on standardized reading tests. If a child reads as little as 8000 words per year, they will be in bottom 2% of all children on standardized reading tests. Therefore, if you read 3,000 words every day you will be in the top 2%. If you read 20 words every day, you will be in the bottom 2%.
  • The average person retains only 5% of what is read once, after thirty days.
  • Reading aloud and talking often to a young child promotes brain development.
  • 35% of adults in the UK don’t read for pleasure.
  • Research suggests that regular reading is associated with a 35% reduction in the risk of dementia.
  • One out of every eight letters you read is the letter ‘e’.

Read more

Writing Class Week 11

by

ESL Writing Lesson 1: Appositives

Appositives? Huh? Sounds hard, but it isn’t.

An appositive is a noun that describes another noun.

Appositives can be a single word or many words (a phrase). An appositive looks like a relative clause but there are no words like ‘which, who or that’ at the beginning of the clause.

Here are three examples; the appositives are in red.

The appositive can go at the front of the sentence. Like this:

Read more

Writing Class Week 10

by

It’s a short week of English classes, thanks to the long holiday weekend. Here are a few extensive writing activities to help ESL students improve their English composition skills.

ESL writing activity 1

Write one haiku.

Japanese poetry. Typically (but not always) 17 syllables written in three lines. Divided into 5-7-5.

Read more