Student Dulansa's corner

Students can post their diaries and notes here.
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admin
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Student Dulansa's corner

Post by admin »

Have a good day!
I want you to post a short essay about yourself and your aims here. It will help us to pick up an individual plan for you.

I'd like to see answers to the next questions in your essay. You can answer whatever you want (it's just an example of an essay, you may not follow it strictly).
1.How long have you been studying English?
2.What kind of skills do you have now? Are you able to express all your thoughts in plain English (in text messages and verbally)? If you cannot then write approximately in percentages how much, you think, you can express.
3.What books (children literature, short stories, poems, novels, fiction, (also it can be some specific like programming, science, engineering books...) etc.) can you read without looking up words in a dictionary? Give us examples (if you have them) of books you have read recently.
Browse our website and tell us what was easy (you can read it without translation) and what was difficult for you to read.
Examples (A-D from easy to difficult)
A English diary (read 5-10 posts from there)
B Writing prompts
C Heart health
D Encyclopedia of molecular biology
E Three men in a boat (read 2-3 excerpts from there)
4.How often do you have to use Google translate, English dictionaries to write or to say something? Do you need more time to make a good sentence or you do it rapidly?
5.Tell us of your listening skills. What do you do to improve them? Can you understand some dictations or audio books? (which audio books were easy for you).
6. Listen to the next podcasts
Trees in the forest
A picnic
Windswept
Let us know what is easy-difficult for you.
Listen to "Learning English Broadcasts", "As It Is" on our website and tell us if you understand what is broadcasted there (how much in percentages you can understand).
Broadcasts (scroll down when you are on the webpage)
7.What do you do to improve your speaking skills? Do you have a language partner or someone you can talk to? Have you ever done speaking monologues or recorded your voice?
8. What are your strengths and weaknesses in English?
You can talk about:
Grammar
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
Accuracy
Confidence
What do you want us to train you more?
What do you expect to get from English courses?
9.How do you see your ideal English (being able to read everything, to watch English TV, to speak with native English speakers etc.)?
10.What kind of skills do you use or are you going to use in your work and daily life (reading articles, listening to some audio or video content, speaking with colleagues, friends in English etc.)?
12.Do you want us to make your own diary private (visible only for you and teachers) or public (visible for everyone)?
13.Do you want to get emails with a mention "Study English" everyday?
Dulansa
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:07 am

Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by Dulansa »

Hi. I am Dulansa. I'm from Sri Lanka. I'm 14 years old and my mother tongue is Sinhala. I'm in 9th grade. I want to learn English as a second language because I think It will help me in the future.
I have been learning English since 2 grade (some basic things). I want to learn advanced English and speak like a native speaker. I started watching Linguamarina's and English with Lucy's videos in June 2021. I take notes of some useful phrases from videos in my notebook and memorize them when I have a free time. When I chat with my friends I try to use English as much as possible, however, it's only 50% of a conversation. Every time I text with a teacher I have to call my mother to help me because I'm afraid I can type wrong sentences in English.
I can read some children books and short stories, not novels and fictions. I buy books and read them with a dictionary. I have read Geronimo Stilton's books, Dork Diaries etc. My uncle bought me Lord Of The Rings story book, so I'm going to read it with a dictionary or with Google translate. I can't read encyclopedias, story books and web pages like Wikipedia without Google translate or a dictionary.
I have a lot of weaknesses in Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking.
I want to learn a basic grammar in English and I want you to recommend me some storybooks which I can read in Sri lanka. I'll post my diary on this Forum, please correct my mistakes.
Thank you very much for making a platform like this and helping us.
admin
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Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by admin »

Hi. I noticed you try to make complex sentences and mix up Tenses very often. Try to make more shorter and more simpler sentences. Start from Present Indefinite Tense. This Tense is used to describe daily things (I go to school/work everyday, I do exercises everyday).
admin
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Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by admin »

Bookmarks this webpage, it's your own corner to study English online.
Press Ctrl+D to bookmark.
What does it mean to bookmark a webpage and how do I do it
I recommend you to switch to Firefox web browser then you get more options for addons (you may find an addon that translate English to Sinhala)
students-lobby-f47/my-english-studying-t84.html
admin
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Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by admin »

You should try the next tests. Try to do at least 1-5 grammar exercises from every link and post your marks to own diary during two weeks.
=======================================================================
BE, HAVE, DO, DID, WAS...
Tenses
=======================================================================
Difficulties of the Passive Form
Active => Passive voice
Many tests on Active, Passive voice and mix of them
=======================================================================
Present Simple
Present Continuous
Present Continuous or Present Simple
Many tests on Present Simple, Present Continuous and mix of them
=======================================================================
Past Simple
Present Perfect
Present Perfect or Past Simple
Present Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect or Present Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous or Future Perfect Continuous
Past Simple or Past Continuous
Past Perfect
The pasts
Many tests on Present Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous, Past Simple and mix of them
Many tests on Past Simple, Past Continuous, Present Perfect and mix of them
=======================================================================
Future Simple
Future in Present Continuous (Be going to)
Present Continuous (Be going to) or Future Simple
Future Perfect
Future Continuous or Future Perfect Future Progressive or Future Perfect
Future Tenses
Will and Would: a little further
Future in the past
Many tests on Future Continuous, Future Simple, Future Perfect and mix of them
=======================================================================
Gerund
Gerunds or Infinitives
Infinitive clause
Infinitive in sentences
Infinitive phrase
Many tests on Gerunds, Infinitives and mix of them 1
Many tests on Gerunds, Infinitives and mix of them 2
=======================================================================
For and its use in English
For, During, While
In/into - On/onto
About/At/For/To
At - In - On
Prepositions of time
Prepositions of location
Prepositions: Finding one's way
Prepositions (for / in / of /on / to)
To or For
To - For
at/of/on/to
Verbs and prepositions 1
Verbs and prepositions 2
Verbs and prepositions 3
Verbs and prepositions 4
Verbs and prepositions 5
Verbs and prepositions 6
Verbs and prepositions 7
Phrasal verbs: GET
Phrasal verbs: GO
Phrasal verbs: PUT
Phrasal verbs: TAKE
Phrasal verbs: TAKE, LOOK, GET
Many tests on Prepositions, Adjectives, Phrasal Verbs
Many tests on Particles, Phrasal Verbs
=======================================================================
Adjectives -ing and -ed
Many tests on Adjectives
=======================================================================
Adverbial Clauses
Adjectives and adverbs
Many tests on Adverbs
=======================================================================
Can/Could/May... Must/Have to...
May, Might, Should
Can, Could and Be able to
Modals in Present tense
Modals in Past tense
Modals in Future tense
Must have or Had to
Many tests on Modal Verbs
=======================================================================
Participle Clauses
Many tests on Participle Clauses
=======================================================================
COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
A (An) or The
Countable nouns with A/An and Some
The or nothing
Using The or nothing with nouns
Many tests on Articles
=======================================================================
Dulansa
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:07 am

Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by Dulansa »

Thank you very much.
admin
Site Admin
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Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by admin »

Read this English Diary (at least 1-5 posts everyday) and mention reading in your posts. If you don't understand some sentences you may post them here. I'll try to explain them.
English Diary
If you have a free time you can take flashcards.
[On the Flascards webpage you get a sound of a word. Try to recall how it's spelled. It's a good idea to type a word in the field and choose how easy it was for you to recall (Again, Hard, Not Hard, Easy)
voa1.png
voa1.png (12.32 KiB) Viewed 2508 times
My Flashcards are based on an Anki's idea with the exception users have to record their progress on their own.]
How to Learn Everything Anki Tutorial
Flashcards
admin
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Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by admin »

So here is the plan for 2-3 weeks
1.Grammar tests
2.Reading
(3.Flashcards)
(4.I can give some tasks to improve your writing skills time to time)
admin
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Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by admin »

Many people do not even assume they already know a large number of English words, without even learning the language.
Here is the link to the well-known English words that are presented and ingrained in almost every language in the world.
learning-english-together-f26/well-know ... -t519.html
I think you can count up to a hundred or more the well-known words there, and the list goes on ...
Post if these words are familiar to you?

In principle, even without knowing grammar or knowing it badly, you can say a lot using so-called a phrasal template.
Let's describe what we have in our room, in our house, and in our life
I have [something]
about room
I have a desk, I have a chair, I have a pen, I have a picture, I have a TV.....
about relatives
I have a sister, I have a father, I have an uncle...
about animals
I have a cat, I have chickens, I have a hen...
about home
I have a house, I have an apartment, I have a room, I have an attic, I have a kitchen, I have a bathroom, I have a shower, I have a living room, I have a yard...
about trees and plants
I have a tree, I have a rose, I have an apple....
about food
I have a meal, I have a bread, I have a sandwich, I have porridge, I have a sausage, I have soup...
about feelings and interests
I have a life, I have interests, I have feelings, I have a love.....
about action
I decided to have a go, I have a swim, I have a play, I have a fight, I have a flight, I have a take on it...
....................................
Not bad? as for one useful phrase. Post in your posts what do you have, describe what do you see in your room and the world around you using the phrasal template. You can look up words in a dictionary or use Google translate to get names of things.
Dulansa
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:07 am

Re: Student Dulansa's corner

Post by Dulansa »

I can pronounce these words.
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