5 Lifehacks for Super English Spelling!

Lifehacks* are terrific ways of remembering tricky stuff! So without the benefit of one of the those snazzy You Tube vids (I am not up to that level of tech just yet) here are five spelling lifehacks for English!

* You will also see 'life hack' written as two words.

SPELLING HACK #1
POETRY: I learnt to spell difficulty with the very same poem represented here in the wonderful film adaptation of Roald Dahl's book 'Matilda'. You can use Mr. just as well as Mrs. - the rhythm is the same.

'I before E except after C.' Is another rhyme that is taught, but there are so many exceptions how do you remember them? I love this meme, even though it doesn't cover all the exceptions:

Or 'When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking.' Meaning that the first vowel in the pair is the sound that's pronounced. In words with a double vowel that makes one sound, this is usually the case.

boat, goat, maintain,

SPELLING HACK #2
ACROSTICS: Make up silly sentences from the letters of words that you always spell incorrectly.

Look At Ugly Goat's Hair! (laugh) ( Taken from Jolly Phonics books bought from ELC.)
Could Old Ursula Love David? (could)
Would Otters Undo Locker Doors? (would)

SPELLING HACK #3
PATTERNS WITHIN WORDS: Look for motifs within the word you want to remember.

Never remember the order of ght in words like light, night, fight, bright, taught, fraught, daughter? These letters are in the same order they come in the alphabet: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST...

SPELLING HACK #4
MNEMONICS (Memory triggers): These are often mental images.

Is it friend of freind? ie or ei? Simple:
Friend ends with end.

Can I have a piece of pie?

Never remember how many Cs or Ss in necessary? Think of a businessman getting ready for work; it is necessary for him to have one collar and two socks, so one C and two Ss.

Desperately want to write bizness?  Simply remember: Businessmen catch the bus to work.*

Or separet? There's a rat in separate* (*Adapted from Study Skills for Students with Dyslexia)

This also works for homonyms: words that sound the same but have different meanings. How do you remember which ones the right one.

Wear and Where? The one that describes place has the word here in it.
Hear and here? Hear is what you do with you ears and here is there.


SPELLING HACK #5
BACK TO BASICS: Break words down into parts. 

WORDS: Never remember how many Rs in earring? It's two words, ear + ring= earring

PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES: This is especially true of adverbs and words whose prefix ends with the same letter the word begins with.

Real + ly  = really
un + necessary = unnecessary

SYLLABLES: Re + com + mend = recommend


I hope you enjoyed these hacks and find them helpful. Be sure to follow my blog for more fun and games learning English!

To Vax or Not to Vax? (C1/2 debate material/vocabulary)

How Do Vaccinations Work?

When a person is vaccinated, they receive a small amount of a pathogen (the thing that causes the illness) via an injection which causes the body to suffer a mild form of the disease (or a different strain of the disease) against which immunisation is required. In this way the body's defence system builds up antibodies or immunity against further and possible more lethal attack from the disease in the future.

Who Discovered & Developed Vaccinations?

Although the Chinese had knowledge of immunisation as early as the 10th century, the first documented medical trial was conducted by Edward Jenner in the 18th century. He saw that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox seemed to be immune to a more deadly strain of the disease, smallpox. He put this theory to the test by inoculating a small boy, James Phipps, from Sarah Nelmes, a young girl who had cowpox. He later injected the boy with smallpox. Because of his exposure to the milder disease, the subject did not develop smallpox. Louis Pasteur developed the techniques and created vaccines for anthrax and rabies in the 19th century. The most prolific number of vaccines were developed by Maurice Hilleman (measles, mumps, hepatitis A and B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia and the flu). The World Health Organisation (WHO) is looking to eradicate various deadly diseases and has been successful. The last naturally occurring case of smallpox was in 1977, polio has almost been eradicated with measles the next on their list.

So Where is the Controversy?

The medical journal The Lancet published an article that claimed autism could be triggered by the MMR (measles, mumps & rubella) vaccination. This caused such a scandal, despite the fact that the claims were founded on very sketchy evidence, that many anti-vaxxers still believe that vaccinations may do more harm than good. There is also the belief that, because a disease had been eradicated, there is no longer any need to receive the vaccination against it. This is unfounded as diseases living in unvaccinated hosts are able to mutate into stronger strains and thus infect even those who have been vaccinated thus destroying what is known as herd immunity. There have been recent outbreaks of whooping cough, scarlet fever and measles probably caused by abstinence from vaccination.

Click here for printable copy with discussion questions and exercises.

Comprehension tasks:
Explain, in your own, words how vaccinations work.
Who was Edward Jenner and what did he do?
Which scientist from the 19th century is mentioned and for ehat reasons?
Can you name three diseases which are mention in the text?
What does WHO wish to achieve?
What are the fears of the anti-vaxxers?
Which belief is unfounded according to the text?

Discussion questions:
Are you vaccinated?
Do you know what you have to vaccinated for?
What vaccinations are required by law in your country?
Is vaccination a prerequisite for attending school or children's social activities?
Are there punishments for not vaccinating your child?
What are the risks of not immunising a child
a) to the child
b) to the community?
In your opinion, do parents have a moral obligation to immunise their children?
Can you think of any grounds where not immunising a child is justified?
Which diseases would you like to see vaccinations developed for?

Further reading:
Rage at anti-vaxxers (The Telegraph, Australia)
Should Anti-Vaxxers be Shamed or Persuaded? (The Atlantic)
Childcare Centre for anti-vaxxers (Northern Rivers News, Australia)
The True Cost of Not Vaccinating (The Huffington Post)
Evidence that anti-vaxxers may not be to blame. (Global Research)
Public support for anti-vaxxers (The Daily Mail)
Vaccination on Wikipedia


Authors note: I have tried to be impartial and represent both side equally, as well as give further reading to support both sides. As a mother of two vaccinated children who have unvaccinated friends, it is a subject on ongoing interest for me and your comments will be of great interest.

WATCH AND LEARN

Watching documentaries is one of the best ways to improve your English. Now you can surf the Net and look for things that interest you, but I thought I might help you out by adding 10 films I've found on-line. Each one is no more than 20 minutes long. I might add another 10 next month if you like these, so be looking out for them!

HOW TO WATCH AND LEARN
When you are watching a documentary turn on your English learning skills. What do I mean?

• Have a pen and paper beside you to write notes - facts you like or think will be useful, unknown words etc. 
• Think about the basic points raised in what you are watching. If someone was to ask you what the documentary was about, what information would they need to know? Could you tell them?
• If you really enjoyed the documentary, would you recommend it to a friend? Which friend, and why?
• If you thought the documentary was awful, what were the precise reasons for this?

 

15 Richest YouTubers

Air, Land, Water Pollution

Sustainable Tourism (In New Zealand)

Unemployment

Homeless Teenagers

20 Self-made Teenage Millionaires

Cosplay

Music Piracy

Teenage Gambling

Why Are We Addicted to Extreme Sports?

 If you know any good short documentaries to share, add them in the comments below.

LOOKING FOR LOVE?

So you may be hoping that you'll be on the receiving end of a little love this coming Sunday. Valentine's Day is a day of joy for those who do get something and a day of sadness for those who don't, but were expecting it! Most of us recognise that in reality it's a  Hallmark holiday (it is the second most popular for sending cards after Christmas) and it is true that most do not know the origins of the day.

Who was Saint Valentine?
There are three saints in the Catholic church who go by the name Valentine. One was a priest during the reign of the Emperor Claudius II, who married young lovers in secret, although the the Emperor had ruled that soldiers should remain unmarried. He was decapitated for this. Another was supposed to have freed prisoners from Roman prisons and the last is claimed to have fallen in love with the prison guard's daughter.

No saint at all?
There are even suggestions that the origins lie with the pagan festival of Lupercalia, an ancient Roman fertility festival, which was held on the 15th of February and supposed to bring fertility and a good harvest to all those who were blessed during this celebration.

Give a little love!
Write a poem telling the world, or at least your love, how you feel - be brave! Bare your heart! Here's how:

• Think of all the reasons why you love this person.
• Choose your favourites and write them down.
• Use similes and metaphor.
• Avoid 'very' and adverbs - use strong adjectives and verbs instead.
• Order your ideas in way that sounds great when you read it aloud - your poem doesn't have to rhyme.
• Write an acronym using you lover's name or the words LOVE or ROMANCE, or something just for you.

A little love goes a long way!
The saying goes that 'To give, is to receive.' so why not show your love this year! Don't just think about romantic love. How about showing your friends or your family how much you appreciate them? Give a little love to an elderly relative or neighbour who may live alone.

More importantly, remember Valentine's Day is only one of 365other days; you have to love your love the other 364 days of the year as well! (+1 this year as it's a leap year!)

Sources: Wikipedia,Wikihow,The History Channel

Playing Up! Acting Out!

Bored? Hate English because it's an endless stream of exercises and learning vocabulary? I know kids who feel just like this, but it doesn't have to be this way!

Image courtesy of scottchan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Drama is something which can make your learning come alive and you can use it with or without a teacher, in or out of class, and it will help you gets to grips with speaking the language. I remember that actually speaking, which when it comes down to is the reason most of us learn a second language, was the hardest part. I felt like I was lying, in some strange way. So make it fake. Invent a scenario and find the language for it. Just as you think through what you would say in a difficult situation in your own language, do the same in English.

In the classroom, drama has the benefit of giving weaker students the opportunity to speak with confidence - they can rehearse their lines. Those who are (hyper) active can get up and move around. If the students write their own script then there's communication and writing involved. Giving and receiving instructions are also necessary, so many skills are put to good use!

You can also use drama to introduce and discuss a theme. It doesn't have to be Shakespeare, far from it, just get an issue out there for discussion. Last week, one of my colleagues was absent and at short notice I had to teach her class. By mistake I'd left my emergency bag of tricks at home. Armed with no more than a CD from my car for inspiration (I had been listening to Monica Richard's 'A Good Thing'.) we had a very successful lesson on bullying.

We discussed the problem: What makes people bully others? How do the victims feel? What should we do if we see someone being bullied? Then we assigned roles and wrote a script up on the board. If your class is big and your play is small split into groups and do the sketch a couple of times. Or if it's small, take it in turns reading different roles.

Our basic idea was a bullying situation that was resolved with the intervention of a teacher (thus not fighting violence with violence). Also, that the bully realise the error of his/her ways.
Scene 1: The bully in action.
Scene 2: Friends/passers-by intervene.
Scene 3: Teacher is called and punishment is given.
Extra if time:
Scene 4: Bully needs help with whatever it was he was bullying the victim for.
Scene 5: Victim is the only person who can provide the help needed.

Not only did the students speak English, but everone also had fun!

Don't forget that Role Play is an integral part of most oral examinations (part 4 of the PTE General, all of the ECPE, part 3 of FCE and ECCE spring to mind) so dramatise everyday situations! See the Role Play Dialogues to the right of this post for more ideas!

Don't play up - act it out!
 

Talking Turkey!

Turkey phrases and expressions!

Thanksgiving falls on the 26th of November this year, in the United States. It is always the fourth Thursday in November and the food of choice is a turkey. So I thought it would be a good idea to talk turkey about turkey idioms and expressions in relation to the events that take place for this celebration.

I sincerely hope you are not as poor as Job's turkey or doing cold turkey, if the latter then perhaps you ought to see a couch turkey in relation to your problem. To avoid spending the holiday with jive turkeys it is good advice to hire a turkey bacon to keep them away from your House. For those of you watching that all-important ball game, I hope it's not a turkey shoot for your favourite team; if you've placed a bet on them and it is, that would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

Match the expressions to their meanings:

1 accept a difficult situation
2 psychiatrist/therapist
3 policemen/security officers
4 easily lost (or won) situation
5 suddenly stop doing something addictive e.g. give up smoking
6 speak bluntly/ honestly; to talk business
7 have no money
8 stupid/ignorant people

You will find the answers here
Printable Version

Q: What is an acrostic?

A. A means of learning new words?
B. A poem?
C. A means of remembering how to spell difficult words?
D. A type of crossword?

If you answered all of the above then you got the right answer! The word acrostic comes from two Greek words ἄκρος (akros) meaning highest and στίχος (styhos) meaning verse.

You have probably filled in puzzles in languages lessons which are acrostic; you know the ones that when you have all the right answers a word or phrase is spelled out.

It's a great way to remember the spelling of difficult words. Think of something humorous!

People
Eat
Omelettes
People
Like
Eggs

(This came from the Jolly Phonics books)

I think this is a super way to remember vocabulary for a theme too.

Endangered species
Narwhals
Vegetation depletion
Icecaps melting
Recycling
Ozone layer/hole
Non-toxic materials
Make a difference
Energy alternatives
Natural resources
Tropical rainforests

If you fancy stretching your writing skills why not be adventurous and make up a poem on a theme? Start with a word and then write the lines of the poem along that theme but don't forget, the first (or last etc.) letter must be the next letter in the word you have chosen. It might take a while to do and be frustrating at first. Search in a dictionary or a thesaurus for words that suit your needs. I'd love to see anything you have written. Why not post it in the comments below?

Here's one I rustled up for, well, I let you guess! (Clue: An autumn celebration.)

High in the mountains,
A lone wolf barks.
Low in the valley,
Lanterns light up the dark.
Over in the dale,
Where the witches pass,
Evening becomes night and
Enchantments are cast.
No danger will they know, where the pumpkin heads glow.

(Copyright N.O.A. Rawle 2015 All rights reserved)

Have a happy one! ;)