Any tips to do well in High School English

Test Preparation
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>This is from a concerned mother.We have recently moved to AB, Canada and English is not our first language.My younger son who has always been an outstanding student in his home country , is struggling hard with his 8th grade English and was able to score only 70% in his final exam.</p>

<p>Kindly guide me how can he improve his English as I fear it will get harder and harder for him in the high School.Any junior High/High School teacher/student/parent from Alberta here ......can guide me about the course outline ,examination,marking and scoring criteria and ways to get a good percent (around 80%) in English.</p>

<p>Really feeling very tensed ,plz do help me.</p>

<p>I would highly appreciate any help and suggestions provided.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Do you know an English-speaking person with whom you can read and discuss English texts, novels, magazine articles on all subjects, newspapers? If you highlight any words and phrases you don’t understand and find out what they mean and learn other ways the words may be used, you will improve your vocabulary as quickly as possible. Keep a list and study it at night just before you go to sleep. That is the best time for memorization. (That is a scientifically-proven fact.) Remember that English words have many different meanings and they also suggest different emotional attitudes than other words that have the same literal meaning. We speak of denotation (literal meaning) and connotation (implied and emotional coloration of the meaning). Many SAT questions stress these second or third definitions of the word and the reading comprehension tests often base inference questions on the connotations of words.</p>

3

<p>Thanks a lot for your suggestions.Though I dont know any person,having literary knowledge who could communicate with my son ,still try to find one.</p>

<p>Do you think reference or helping books i.e.such as for vocabulary enhancing,reading comprehension or persuasive essay writing could be of any use?</p>

<p>Thanks once again.</p>

4

<p>Read Read Read Read Read Read Read.</p>

<p>How did your son do well back in your home country/language? By growing up with the language and learning it all of your life. That is simply what you have to do with english. </p>

<p>When you have conversations together, do it in english. When you watch TV, read books, read magazines, buy food. Do it all in english. </p>

<p>Considering he got a 70% on his exam, it’s not a lack in proficiency or understanding. It’s learning how to better comprehend and understand the nuisances of language. </p>

<p>But when you don’t quite understand something in english? Look it up. Dictionaries, Teachers.</p>

<p>Umm you’re in canada… your school should have somebody who is more formally trained with helping ESL students. Try to see if your school has some sort of resource for that.</p>

<p>Writing… thats a good one. Personally, i would speak with your son’s english teacher and see what he might recommend. Is it coming up with ideas, is it organization (intro, body, conclusion) is it diction & syntax. These are things you can find out from the teacher. </p>

<p>If you want to practice, i would recommend starting with argument essays. (“persuasive”) is the elementary way of putting it. The whole goal of learning the language is to be able to effectively communicate ideas. </p>

<p>So if you give your son the prompt of… i dont know lets say should there be curfew for kids who are 16? </p>

<p>And he can discuss his ideas to you in english, then he can start to write them down. And with practice like that, he’ll get to the point where he can write a good essay in 25-30 minutes.</p>

<p>But Definitely if your son needs help with ESL errors (mistakes that are made because a rule that is inherit to english speakers isn’t known) The school will have somebody to help. ex: I feel very tensed. when it’s I feel very tense.</p>