Content Based Learning

Welcome to English Lessons

English is learned through experiences and activities that lead to speaking, through reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Content based activities  extend student vocabulary and knowledge, giving students words to use when they speak or write, extending vocabulary and speaking and writing skills. In other words, students learn new words with every activity, and create a base of words built on the activity.

You need to have a pencil and paper, or a page on your computer where you can write the new words for your use. If you do not write them, you will not have the vocabulary needed for the lesson.

Active English learning is the student doing more than just listening. The student must write, read, speak and listen all the time. Learning is active.

All  activities extend the knowledge of the student through student research, with students doing the task. This means that after the lesson, the student can extend the lesson by doing more than the lesson.  Homework is revising the lesson, and extending it by adding more words, or writing a story about the lesson or the topic. The student researches and extends their own learning.

Speaking is a natural extension of every activity. Students are encouraged to read out loud as the lesson progresses, repeating words heard. As the lessons are computer based, this is easy to do in your own setting. If you are in a classroom, then speak quietly, but you must vocalize the words and read out loud the passages, as this is a speaking English class. You are here to learn to speak by speaking, and reading out loud  repeating words is speaking. You are speaking to yourself, and that is also speaking.

Students record their progress in their own Journals in individual wikis. Using pbiki.com as a wiki suggestion, or any other journal program. You start a journal, blog or diary. The success of your learning depends on how much you create and put in this journal. If you do not have a journal and do not write anything, then you are simply a passive observer. You will not learn as fast as the student who keeps a journal. This can be pen and paper. It can be a page with Word. It can be a wiki. (http://www.Pbwiki.com) It can be a blog. (http://www.Typepad.Com )

Select a method for your journal and have it ready for your first lesson.

Active English provides activities and experiences that promote the Active learning of English Speaking. Much of the conversation and talking is about pictures, as without  language, you cannot follow a reading passage. Illustrations are used and pictures shown so you understand the meaning of the word you are learning. You see what you learn. You experience it. You have content to your learning, and you layer or scaffold this content to increase your knowledge.

Language will be developed, and vocabulary will be increased, and extended and developed. You will learn ways of undersatnding words from base and word parts, and you will have developing vocabulary lists to use. Reading passages will be created about the pictures, and you will be encouraged to write your own passages and share them with the class, through your shared journals and diaries. You will read and comment about everything that is written in the lesson. You are an active learner and part of the learning process.

You also attend every session, as learning is progressive and each lesson builds on the previous lesson. If you miss a lesson, you need to read it in your own time.

To learn to speak English, you must speak English and that is the aim of the class.

When you can have a good conversation with an English speaker, you are at a basic level, and when you can read and understand a Newspaper, you are at an English Speaker Basic level, which is equivalent to IELTS 5.0. The next step is focusing on the area you need to study,  with specialized language and specialized vocabulary and extended words and word usages using articles and text in your area of expertise for reaching higher IELTS and TOFEL Levels.

The Classes also use Multitech tools, so having a working wiki or blog is recommended, with access to online free programs and resources ,that will help you power your experiences and add multi dimensions to your content based learning.

Welcome to Active English.

The students who follow the lessons and do the set tasks, will learn to speak English within 3 months of instruction. This I guarantee you, and I will follow your progress through your journal.

"You learn to speak by speaking"

"You do by doing...this is Active English"

Maggi Carstairs 2008

http://activeenglishspeaking.com