Teacher Discussion Forums

Dear all,

I am having a problem with motivating my student to read and write. I've found it's hard in HK situation that students are all stressing out, due to the HK education system that pushes them to just study for the exam. After they finished the exam, all the things they learnt will be gone with the wind! I am trying to think of different ways to encourage one of my student to read. I have downloaded some online games which focus on comprehension, but still he felt sick with comprehension task that he's not really paying any attention to the exercise. Sometimes I feel my efforts has been wasted! I tried to choose some short comprehension for him to do, but he doesn't have any interest in it at all. About his writing, as he seldom read books, he knows very limited vocabulary, so his writing wasn't that satisfactory as well.

I hope to find an interactive way to stimulate his interests, please help. Note: I am a private tutor, so I am on a one-to-one basis....

Thanks.

some ways I have found to generate intereset in reading and writing:

download interesting videos and you can do two types of activities. (1) write a sentence or two describing what's happening in the video, have the students try and read it (don't help them) and then show the video and have them try and read it again(then you can help them after they can't figure it out).
(2) watch the video and have them describe what is happening, have them write it down with your help (help is considered translating a word or expression they want to say but don't know how to say it in English.

some sites for videos:
http://www.funpic.hu/en.gallery.php?id=20&s=dd&p=1
http://www.drakeshangout.com/cat6.html

or just type a search including some terms like: funny video

I am still developing writing activities, don't have many yet. The key is seems to be having them write about something real and interesting. This goes for reading as well. That is why I use a lot of news sites or interesting short stories. for news, look for "odd news" or "bizzare news" your bound to find good stuff.


Also, on those sites where you download the videos, you can download the commericals or other videos with audio, and write out the script. Watch the video and this generates interest in the script to find out what is happening in the video. The focus is always the "point" of the video. Don't get bogged down in grammar or you will dismantle any interest in reading or writing.

If you don't have access to a computer during class, you can print pictures that are interesting or intersting ads and use those as I mentioned above. you want to provide as much context as possible. Come to think of it, you could you music, or art, etc. Something that stimulates. (you could be the first to use porn in a class! Get known all over the world and then I could read stories about you in my class, just kidding)

If your student is coming to extra lessons for English he probably is not doing well in English at school or his parents want him to do well and so on. Why not concentrate on the things that he needs for school and get to be confident about the lessons that he has in school or will have. It is pretty hard for a teenager to look ahead and realize what will be useful for him in the future and if he is getting sick at the pressure of exams, it seems that it would be better to concentrate on what he needs at the moment rather than what would be good for him in the future. Otherwise you have to convince him that reading is good for him which it is of course. There are numerous articles on learning English that seem to suggest that the more students read, the better they become at English. You could show him the results sections of these articles. Then get him to read something that will be useful for him for his English exams so you take the pressure off as much as possible. You could also read useful articles on how to well on exams and how to study but in English.

Thanks for the advice.

Actually I have been trying many things to stimulate my student's interest. I use some pictures, ask him to tell me what's inside the pic (for practicing his oral english), also ask him to write a short story as well. I even bought a comprehension board game, try to stimulate his interest in reading, cuz I love my student to read the passage out loud, I love that too. As I think when they read it out loud, they tend to remember what they read rather than just purely read it through.
I think for the video thing, it's interesting. But I will concern about whether he can afford it. He's age 10 but he's not that good in listening (and he usually loses his patience). I used to give him a story book with the VCD, he can listen to the story and answer some questions on the book, he lost interest listening to it...that's why I feel so hard to stimulate his interest....

He will have some reading log to do in his school homework, but i think that doesn't really help the students to develop a reading habit. My student just picked the reference book (e.g. dinosaurs/animals) for his book report, he wrote the same thing all over and over again during the school term, as I read some of his book report from school. He wrote a few passages like: I think this story is interesting, i like it because it is funny. (he wrote similar sentences like this for the book report!!!) He didn't actually read it at all....
He didn't enjoy the process of reading, he treated it only as a task that he has to do with. (that attitude is pretty bad for learning a language, isn't it)

Alice.

Perhaps that is why his parents want him to come to you. Does he read anything in his own language? How is he doing in subjects written in his own language? Is this a pattern for his whole school experience? He might have learning difficulties or reading difficulties and then will need a different kind of help. The best thing you can do is greet him warmly and encourage him in what he does learn while he is with you. If he enjoys coming to see you, then he might equate that with learning English. For one hour in his life, make it comfortable and supportive. If you suspect that he has learning difficulties suggest to his parents that he be tested or find out more about what you can do to help him by looking up information on Attention Deficit Disorder or Learning Disabilities. Sometimes though, 10 year old boys just would rather be out riding bikes, playing basketball, skateboarding or playing video games. Anything you can do to make English more physical might encourage him to learn.

As a child who didn't like to read, I would have to say that reading is important and I wish I had read more, but I hated it as a child and loathed any teacher who made me do it.

And I turned out OK (all except those 3 pending charges )

Anyway, maybe he would rather be more creative. Here are 2 activities that have worked well for me.

1. Get a really funny action packed movie like Home Alone or Mouse Hunt. Show one of the crazy scenes without audio. Tell your student that we're going to add dialog to the scene, words/phrases like ouch, oh, stop, I'll get you, Come back here. Then play the scene and you and the student then try to provide the dialog as the scene plays (even adding sound effects.) After 2 or 3 times you can watch the actual scene with volume and then compare and repeat mixing the actual dialog and the one your student helped to create.

If an interest in this activity is sparked you can move on to other movie scenes and hopefully ones that provide for more dialog than ouch, oof, wham, bang

as a writing follow up you can do several things with what you saw but maybe you don't need to right now with your student.

2. I took the book Where the Wild Things Are and photocopied just the images and gave them (in order) to groups of students. They had to look at the picture sequence and discuss what they thought the story was about. Then I had them write out their story, writing 2-3 sentences for each picture. Once they completed the story I had them go back and add in 7 adjectives anywhere in the story.

Afterwards, you can have the them try to tell their story just using the pictures. Don't have your student memorize it, but do allow him to refer to what he wrote or create a story board with some main points to help with the flow.

Finally, I read the actual story.

You can do this with any picture book where the pictures lead the story.

Good luck. I hope that helps or gives you some ideas.

Mark
www.mes-english.com