LEARNING STRATEGIES

Learning strategies are used by students to help them understand information and solve problems.

A learning strategy is a person's approach to learning and using information. Students who do not know or use good learning strategies often learn passively and ultimately fail in school. Learning strategy instruction focuses on making the students more active learners by teaching them how to learn and how to use what they have learned to solve problems and be successful. There are strategies for : grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, listening, reading, speaking, writing, motivation, etc that every student needs to be aware of so he can use one or two or three to learn independently. 

PRESENT PERFECT, SIMPLE PRESENT, SIMPLE PAST, OR CONTINUOUS?

1.       I had breakfast 2 hours ago.

2.       I am having breakfast.

3.       I have had breakfast recently.

4.       I have been having breakfast for 10 minutes.

NUMBER 1: my breakfast finished at a specific time in the past. (Simple past)

NUMBER 2: describes an activity that is in progress right now (present progressive)

NUMBER 3: tells us the action happened but occurred at an unspecified time in the past.. (Present perfect)

NUMBER 4: in this example the action began in the past and is progress now. (Present perfect progressive)

WILL OR BE GOING TO?

When do we use “wil” or be going to” for future?

v  I am going to see a famous person.

v  I will see a famous person

Both examples are correct because they are predicting about the  future.

v  I bought some eggs. I am going to prepare scrambled eggs for dinner. I use “going to “ to express a prior plan. I thought about it before the moment of speaking.

v  I am tired and I can´t lift this box. I need help! 

v  I will help you.    “Will” is correct because the decision the speaker makes is at the moment of speaking.

If you want to use “probably”, follow this rule:

Affirmative:       You will probably leave early.

                            You are probably going to leave early.

Negative:          You probably won´t leave late.

                           You probably aren´t going to leave late,

Let´s see the immediate future by using the idiom  “be about to …”

Example:  I always go to work at 7:45 a.m. it is 7:44, so I am about to go to work.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hello dear teachers
This is to say "Merry Christmas"  and pray for a "New  Year". God bless us and let´s continue improving our teaching process.
Thanks for reading this blog.
Santy

ADDING SUFFIXES OR PREFIXES

Hello dear teachers,
Here you have the examples.

NOUNS	VERBS	ADJECTIVES
1.       advice	advise	Advisable        advisory
2.       suggestion	Suggest	Suggestive
3.       reader	Read	Readable
4.       cook	Cook	Cooked     cookery
5.       student	Study	Studious
6.       learner	Learn	Learned
7.       washer   washing	Wash	Washable
8.       worker    workaholic	Work	Workable
9.       help	Help	Helpful   helpless
10.   watch	Watch	Watchful
11.   teacher	Teach	------
12.   light	Light    lighten	Light
13.   book	Book	-----
14.   fright	Frighten	Frightened
15.   bore    boredom	Bore	Bored   boring
16.   excitement	Excite	Excited   exciting
17.   shock	Shock	Shocking   shocked
18.   play	Play	Playful
19.   writer	Write	written
20.   break	break	broken

Let´s reflect on what teaching means to us.

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.  ~Clay P. Bedford

Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study.  Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life.  ~Henry L. Doherty

I am learning all the time.  The tombstone will be my diploma.  ~Eartha Kitt

A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.  ~Chinese Proverb

When the student is ready, the master appears.  ~Buddhist Proverb

Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections.  You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.  ~Vilfredo Pareto

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.  ~Jacob Bronowski

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.  ~Mark Twain

Individual Factors in the Learner´s development

6.-In that class we laughed and joked in English. We made friends. They didn’t care about the mistakes I made.

The learner is clearly affected by the Affective strategy. Self-reinforcement and positive self-talk can be part of it. Also she/he says they laugh and joke in class, it means their anxiety is low enough to practice the new language and they don’t care about their mistakes. This learner follows the Social and Affective strategies. There is an expression of personal control in the learning process. Therefore, he/she is motivated from internal and external  sources.

7.-I felt I was losing my English. I found I could only use simple words.

The learner seems to lack some Cognitive strategies. The type of motivation I can say is Intrinsic since he/she realizes that something done is not satisfactory to his/her interests and the leaner needs to be adapted to reality. Field independence in that the learner is aware of his/her level which could be a sign of a fairly autonomous learner.