The English teachers voice

  What is context and why is it important? The dictionary defines context as being: T he background, environment, setting, framework, or surroundings of events or occurrences. Simply put, context means circumstances forming a background of an event, idea or statement, in such a way as to enable readers to understand the narrative or a literary piece. ... This piece of information is called context. In language learning be it either your native language, or a second language, context allows the learner to form a picture in their minds of the word in an environment that makes its meaning easier to understand. For many older native speakers, they are able to read academic papers, books etc and completely understand virtually all of the vocabulary based upon the overall context even if they have never experienced many of the words before. ADVANCED ENGLISH: Enhancing Your Vocabulary with Prefixes and Suffixes. Attaching Context to Vocabulary Attaching context to the vocabulary that you...

Here’s how the TOEFL Independent writing question works: It is the second writing question on the TOEFL You will be asked a question and be given 30 minutes to write about it. The questions are usually about  education  (40% of the time),  work  (30% of the time), and  lifestyle  (30% of the time). You should write between 300 and 400 words. Styles of Questions:  There are four main  styles  of TOEFL independent essays. Agree/Disagree Style (65% of the time) Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?  Children should be required to follow strict rules set by their parents . Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Do  not  use memorized examples. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?  Students do not respect their teachers as much as they did in the past . Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.  Multiple Choice Style (15% of the time) Which of the follo...

  Here’s how the TOEFL Integrated Essay works: It is the first writing task on the test. First, you will have three minutes to read an article (four paragraphs, 250-300 words) about an academic topic . Next, you will listen to a lecture (2-3 minutes) that opposes the main argument of the reading. Finally, you must write an essay (280-300 words) about the relationship between the two sources. You can read the article while writing your essay, but you cannot hear the lecture again. Note that the TOEFL no longer includes questions where the lecture  supports  the reading. Styles of Questions There are three styles of questions , the templates given below work for all three.  The frequencies stated below are from a survey of about 400 students in 2020. Opposition Style (80% of the time) The reading makes a claim about a specific topic. It supports its claim using three specific arguments. The lecture opposes this claim and challenges the three arguments.  The que...

  The online classroom is an ideal place to teach visual learners because of the pictures, slides, and readings that occur with the computer screen interaction . Studies have shown that visual learners make up about 65% of the population and that 90% of our information is presented visually. I have found, though, that we can concentrate so much on the other learning styles , both auditory and kinesthetic , that we can easily forget to engage the visual learners during our classroom time. The most important thing we as teachers can do is to engage all three learning styles as we present information. We should always seek out new ways to appeal to our learners, no matter what their strengths are. In a previous article, I listed methods that can be used to engage the auditory learner in the online ESL classroom . I have compiled a list of creative ways to engage the visually discerning students in our virtual ESL classrooms . Teaching Strategies for Engaging Visual...