Reading Strategy

To learn any language, you should consider its skills.   English language has four skills: listening, reading, speaking , and writing. The former two are decoding skills; that is to say, the  skills through which we get information. And the latter two are encoding skills; that is, the skills through which we give information. A skill can be improved by practice and following certain strategies.

Reading is the third skill of language acquisition and the second decoding skill. Through reading, we get information, expand our vocabulary, develop our minds and imagination.
To assimilate any text and get the potential of it, consider the following strategy:

Before reading:
Before approching the text, you should first describe the picture(s), if any, and guess the idea of the text via the picture(s). Wait, wait, wait! Don't rush and jump to the text. Read the title and guess the idea of the text from the title. Take it slowly and brainstorm for estimated ideas.

During reading:
Start your first reading and underline or highlight all the unfamiliar words while reading. In the first reading, don't bother yourself with details. Try to get only the main idea. When you read, try to create a visual image in your mind. In other words, if you read the story of the Harry Potter, then you should imagine the place, the people, the hanky-panky stuff, the whole atmosphere, etc.
Before you reach the end, you should stop and try to guess the conclusion by yourself, for this helps uplifting your imagination and creative thinking.

After reading:
Translate the new underlined words either by guessing or looking them up in the dictionary.
Then reread the text. This time you would probably understand a lot more.
Finally, summarize the text using your own words.
If still there are things you can not understand, then read the text for the third time concentrating on the special uses of words, literal meanings, and complex structures.

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How to be an Outstanding Teacher

Being a teacher of English as a foreign language requires both mastering the language and delivering information smoothly with a touch of creativity. In fact, every teacher is creative his/her own way, but teaching English requires more than just normal creativity.
To distinguish yourself from the massive number of teachers and become the hero of your students as well as your employer, you need to do the following:

1. Reflect a phenomenal first impression.
First impression is what sells you to your students. If you reflect a bad, weak, hesitant first impression, your students will disrespect you for the whole year and perhaps for your whole life! Indeed, first immpression is hard to change. As a result, the first lecture is immensely crucial. You must come fully prepared and energizes with confidence in order to reflect a fabulous impression.

2. Be enthusiastic enough to encourage your students and create an I-love-this-language attitude.

3. Love what you do.
If you don't love it, then forget about all this because when we do what we love, we do it perfectly. But wait a minute...
Don't withdraw and despair. You can fake it. ;-) convince yourself that you love teaching English and take it from me: you will.

4. Have passion.
Passion can be seen in your eyes, smile, and confident movements. You ought to show them that you really love what you do. Believe me they will get fascinated and love the lecture and the language.

5. Be creative.
Surprise your students everyday with new techniques, revolutionary activities, and superb ideas. Students hate monotony and easily get bored. So, you gotta liven them up.

6. Speak in English.
Teachers who don't speak English in the class indicate deficiency  as students perceive. So you have to show your students that your are as skilled in the language as you are in teaching it.

7. Study the mentality of your students.
Teachers who know how their students think will probably have better opportunities to deliver excellent lectures, for they know how their students understand better. Case in point, to understand your students' mentality, you should notice what makes them active in the classroom. For example, some students respond better to activities, others to technology, and others to tests and practice.

8. Imagine yourself the student. Students like it when the teacher remembers what it is like to be a student. So, show them that you really care and understand their conditions. But don't let them fool you and not bring the homework. :-P

9. Prepare before class. Preparation reduces the possibility of making mistakes, and you certainly don't wanna make mistakes in class.

10. Advise, urge, and inspire. Teaching is not about explaining the lesson only. Teaching is about evoking the thirst for learning, guiding and instructing, and making better generations for the years to come.

11.. Praise the good work. There are always students who are excellent, others who are trying to be so, and those who are not interested. With the first type, keep pushing forward. With the second type, praise and encourage. With the third type, inspire! Plant the seeds of success and desire for learning.

12. Never humiliate any student.
They are there to get knowledge from you, so deal with them accordingly. You are doing a noble mission, and you should really realize this. So do not treat your students like slaves! You don't know how much they suffer at home, so don't add the fuel to the fire.

13. Be sympathetic. You are not a robot. Giving a lecture and then getting back home. No! Keep their names, joke with them, ask them about their personal lives,  and let them know about you. No need to be the mysterious guy!

14. Have a sense of humor. There's nothing wrong with a joke or a funny comment from time to time. But remember: keep control of the class. It's quite hard to do both simultaneously. Though a good teacher knows well how to control the class with a single look!

15. Be their role model. Let them see what they want to be in your persona. Show them that you are the epitome of a great teacher and a human being. Be marvelous at what you do. Apply the former steps and enjoy teaching.

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All Basic Information You Need to Know about the TOEFL?

Many English learners have the misconception that TOEFL is a course or a diploma.
TOEFL is the acronym for Test of English as a Foreign Language. So it is a test that measures the student's proficiency in English. TOEFL started in 1963 by scholarship programs, universities, agencies, and other institutions as the standared test of English language which measures English proficiency of the candidates. After the TOEFL many other standard tests popped up such as IELTS, TOEIC, GER, and others.
TOEFL is majorly based on the American Accent.
The TOEFL is used to measure the students ability to use English language in an academic setting like the university.

There are two types of TOEFL: TOEFL iBT( Internet-based TOEFL) and TOEFL PBT( paper- based TOEFL).
TOEDL iBT:
-It has four sections: listening, structure, reading, and writing.
- The score ranges from 0-300. Each of the three sections is graded from 0-30 and the total grade is multiplied by 10 and then divided by 3. For example. If your score is like this:
Listening: 27
Structure: 28
Reading: 25
The total is 80 multiply 10= 800 divided by 3= 266.7 so this is your score out of 300.
The writing section is evaluated separately from 0-6

TOEFL PBT:
It has four sections: listening, reading, structure, and writing.
-The score ranges from 310-677. Each of the three sections is graded from 31-68 and the total grade is multiplied by 10 and then divided by 3. For example. If your score is like this:
Listening: 50
Structure: 66
Reading: 62
The total is 178 multiply 10= 1780 divided by 3= 593. So this is your score out of 677.
The writing section is evaluated separately from 0-6

There is also a type called Institutional TOEFL. This type is special for institutions such as universities or companies. It is designed to test the language competence of  a student or an applicant. This type is also called the local TOEFL, and it is not internationally accepted.

Why does everyone crave to pass the TOEFL? well, everybody wants to get a good job. Getting a good job requires a globally approved certificate which can be gotten from the international  top-ranked universities. The enrollment in such universities is a mere dream, unless you pass an English test, and the TOEFL is the most popular and accepted test. Further, to complete your higher studies of master, PhD, or the like, you need to pass an English test, and, again, TOEFL is the most popular and accepted test. Thus, getting a good TOEFL score opens the gate for many people to pursue their dreams.

The minimum TOEFL score depends on the institution itself. That is, each intitution accepts a different minimum score depending on the field of study and level of study but generally you should aspire for at least 250 in the iBT and 600 in the PBT.
Mind you, Your TOEFL score is valid for only two years.

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Color Idioms:

Idioms are expreaaions that cannot be understood from the meanings of their separate words, but that has a special meaning of it's own. In fact, they are almost as numerous as words that they have special dictionaries. Using idioms makes you sound like foreigners, for they (especially Americans) use idioms excessively.
Here are ten useful idioms linked to colors orthographically but semantically refer to other ideas.

1. In the pink.
Meaning: becoming well after a long illness.
E.g: I am sure you will be in the pink soon.

2. Green with envy.
Meaning: envious/ jealous.
E.g: Don't give her a damn. She is just green with envy.

3. Have the blues/ be blue.
Meaning: be meloncholic and depressed.
E.g: I'll call you later. I am having the blues now.

4. Once in a blue moon.
Meaning: rarely.
E.g: Although he studies once in a blue moon, he gets high marks.

5. Have green fingers/thumb.
Meaning: be good at gardening.
E.g: Your garden is breathtaking. It looks like you have green fingers.

6. A black eye.
Meaning: a bruise in the eye.
E.g: If you don't shut up, I am gonna give you a black eye.

7. Black sheep.
Meaning: someone who doesn't fit with the rest of the group and is considered an embarrassment.
E.g: Mary is the black sheep in her family. They often go out on holidays without her.

8. White elephant.
Meaning: a lazy perosn who does nothing except sitting and watching TV.
E.g: Don't be a white elephant. At least do your homework.
Note: a similar idiom is " a couch potato".

9. In gray area.
Meaning: hesitant
E.g: you shoud not be in gray area. Make a decision as soon as possible.

10. The red eye.
Meaning: a night flight.
E.g: how was travelling on the red eye?

Finally, Enjoy English and remember: No pain, no gain.

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The Most Efficient Strategy to Retain English Words

Words in English are mercuric. It's quite hard for English learners to retain and use the new words.
How can I retain the new words? This is, actually, the most frequent question asked by English learners. So here is the answer:
Well, there's a potent strategy that shall absolutely help you.

1. First of all, get the words from the context whether a reading passage, a listening audio or whatever. Getting words in isolation would help increasing your vocabulary repertoire, but it will not help using these words properly.

2. Get a special notebook for the new words.
You, as English learners, tend to run into numerous words from different sources everyday. If these words aren't stored well, they will fade away from the memory and you will not be able to retrieve them.

3. Keep before u sleep and when you wake up!
This is the most powerful tip of all. Have you ever listened to a song before going to bed, and you woke up in the next day singing it all day long? Your answer would probably be "yes". To understand why, you should first know that when we are awake our conscious mind works, and when we are asleep our unconscious mind works. Consequently, when you go to sleep your unconscious mind will substitute your conscious mind. This means that the words you have just kept before going to bed will move to your unconsciousness. Thus, they will be processed during your sleep. When you wake up and read the words again in the morning, they will move to your consciousness. Hence, they will be in process all the day long.

4. When taking the words into your notebook, use them in sentences of your own and write the phonemic transcription of the words so that you pronounce them well.

5. Learn words in categories. Categories makes it easier for you to recall the other words that are linked to the words you have. For example, the word "father" belongs to the category of "family". So when you encounter the word "father", you will remember all other words that belong to the category of "family" such as mother, sister, son, husband, ..etc.

6. When memorizing, use your senses.
Suppose you have the word "book", look at the word with your Eyes. Say it out loud with your Tongue. Hear it with your Ears. And most importantly, imagine it and feel it with your Mind and Heart ; that is, imagine "a book" in your mind. Do this with all the new words because using all the senses makes memorizing easier.

7. Practice makes perfect.
If you memorize words without practising them when you speak, they will surely fade away with the course of time. Hence, you need to speak all the time in order to practise your words. If you have no chance to practise, then think in English! It's a great way to practise. Thinking in English is actually an integral part in the process of getting the hang of this language. When you think in English, you saturate yourself with it.

8. Whenever you cannot retrieve words or make a mistake in spelling or pronunciation , go back and check it instantly, for instant recalling consolidates the word in your mind.

9. Constant revision is a must. Everyday we run into a massive amount of data and knowledge. New words are only one part. So if we don't revise them, we surely will lose them.Try not to begin keeping today's new words until you revise yesterday's words, and allocate the weekend for revision only.

10.  Don't get frustrated for not using all the words. It is natural to use only those which correspond to your daily affairs. And don't worry the other ones will go nowhere. They will be stored in your vocabulary repertoire.

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