Most Hong Kong primary schools teach vocabulary from readers or textbooks, and this means students may know many words in specific areas (e.g. sports or household items) but be missing lots of common words. Many students struggle with reading because they haven’t acquired enough vocabulary items to comprehend a whole text. It is only when they’re asked to cram vocabulary lists in secondary school that… Read More
I teach grammar to students of all ages, and the one thing uniting them when they first start classes is a hatred of learning tenses. Students see tenses as a monster that’s both scary and boring! In school, they’re often taught long strings of rules, which they practise with repetitive exercises. As a grammar teacher, I personally enjoy teaching tenses a lot. The rules… Read More
Many students in Hong Kong are able to read and write well in English due to intensive drilling at schools. However, once they are required to speak in English, they are often stumped and don’t know how to express themselves. In my time teaching at i-Learner, I have come across many students who struggle with getting their messages across in daily conversation or with sounding… Read More
I’ve been teaching grammar for several years and I’ve seen many students who consider grammar to be a set of rigid rules they have to painfully memorise. In fact, your natural use of grammar in everyday English isn’t proportional to the effort you put into cramming grammatical rules. It’s better to get a strong feeling for accurate grammar instead. Playing games is a great way… Read More
