PRACTISE ENGLISH ON OUR BLOG

Literacy starts in the home

You may not have noticed but the reports on this blog spot have been written in simplified English for the benefit of readers of English as a second language.

The focus has always been on the people living in the developing countries who need basic health knowledge and basic practice in English.

It is hoped that there will always be someone who can download the reports. Not every village has a computer and printer.

My daughters have been able to read the reports for the last 4 years so the English is quite readable for people learning the language. They are now 14 and 13 years old.

I have spent half a lifetime in writing simplified English particularly in Papua New Guinea where so many people have only basic understanding.

In 1992, I attended a course from Cambridge University conducted by Holmes College in Melbourne. I learned the basics of Teaching English as a Foreign language. That was the beginning of my role in promoting English skill in Papua New Guinea.

Each report on this blog spot is written mainly in simple sentences. So the meaning is immediately apparent to the reader.

I would like to report on the situation in Papua New Guinea. There is a problem with the breakdown of coral. There are several factors. The first is the erosion caused by over-fishing. Then there is the effect of global warming.

I have several friends in this country who read the blog spot daily. They do so mainly to practise their English. They say their English comprehension has improved in the years of reading our two websites.

Parents may find the reports useful for their children to read and practise their language comprehension. There are reports on the blog spot that deal with aspects of sex that may not be suitable for young people.

If I were conducting a class of students, I would start with the simple sentences to promote the various structures. Then I would move on to teaching students to combine simple sentences into complex sentences with addition of phrases and clauses.

I looked out the window.

I saw a ship.

It was on the horizon

I looked out the window and saw a ship on the horizon.

For many years, I have promoted the skills of converting simple sentences into more complex sentences to remove what I call baby talk. I teach the students to write what I call Sweet English.

FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: WRITE SWEET ENGLISH

29 Jun 2011 ... WRITE SWEET ENGLISH ..... and stop the baby talk. In Papua New
Guinea schools, .... Posted by HIV/AIDS: FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING at 18:55 ...

familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2011/06/write-sweet-english.html - Cached - Similar

A problem in learning English is first to understand the words and the meanings. Most important is the ability to explain an idea in one’s own words. So many students lack this ability and are unable to explain an idea in an essay or on an exam paper.

This is a major problem with all people learning a foreign language. We would have the same problems in learning and using Chinese or German to explain and analyze ideas.

It is easy to speak and ask questions in a foreign language. The difficulty comes in analyzing ideas in that language and producing a plan.

But let us go back to the start. Teachers find that the difficult task in teaching a foreign language is to make a start. I have spent half my life teaching Tok Pisin.

There are basic tasks in teaching a foreign language. The first task is to have the learner listen and understand basic stories or conversation.

The next task is to ask questions on what was said and have the students respond. Then the learner puts the responses together into a short story. The final more difficult task is to have the learner ask the questions.

My name is John. I am 23 years old. I live in Port Moresby. My father works in the city. My mother stays at home. She looks after my brothers and sisters. I have two brothers and one sister. We go to school near our village.

What is my name?

How old am I?

Where do I live?

Where does my father work?

Where does my mother stay?

Whom does she look after?

How many brothers do I have?

How many sisters do I have?

Where do we go to school?

If the teacher put together 80 stories like this and covered 500 new words and 20 question types, the students would have learned basic English.

As the stories become more complex with complex sentence structure and abstract words and forms of words, the students are moving through the language.