Effective Ways of Learning German for Children
- Learn through cue cards
Kids will learn German alphabet and words by flashcards featuring numbers, colors, words and more. Flash cards are proved an effective way of learning a language for kids
- Learn through Activities
- Songs. Kids will learn popular children’s songs from Germany.
- Activities. Kids can learn German through shopping, role playing, acting and more. By this way, kids can interact with teacher and their classmates.
- Games. The teacher will organize games in the class such as memory matching or quizzes. Games create joy and competition among kids
- Learn in Great Class Setting
- Teachers: Kids will be guided by great and experienced teachers. They have WWCC surely.
- Small Class Size. The class is limited to 4-8 students per class so that all kids will have the best experience.
- Learning style. Interactive class setting in funny environment. The class comes with free materials and Free bottle of water for all kids
Advantages of Bilingual and Multilingual Children
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BILINGUAL/MULTILINGUAL CHILDREN:
– Better academic results: research has shown that bilingual/multilingual children can often concentrate better, have better problem-solving skills, understand language structure better and are better at multitasking.
– More diverse and interesting career opportunities later in life: employees speaking two or more languages can form better connections/relations with clients and other business partners. Therefore, multilingual candidates are preferred by employers.
– Children who speak more than one language have a better sense of self-worth, identity and belonging.
– Bilingual/multilingual children are said to be more educated since they can indulge in reading books written in various languages, enjoy movies and music in different languages.
– Children who learn foreign languages appreciate other cultures more and feel a sense of affinity while communicating with people from other countries.
BENEFITS OF LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR CAREER GROWTH:
Learning starts at a very young age and learning new languages as a kid not only has a positive impact on your child’s personal growth, but it also gives them an edge in the professional world when they grow up.
Here are some advantages of learning foreign languages as a kid:
- Your kid will automatically become more attractive than other candidates when it comes to Global companies. In this dynamic world of globalization, employers are seeking candidates that are multilingual. International companies are trying t0 widen their reach across the globe and hire employees that can blend in with other cultures and fill in the communication gaps between the company and its clients.
- Career growth opportunities: being fluent in foreign languages doesn’t always mean your kid will have to go abroad. Many small local businesses prefer multilingual candidates who can help them explore new business opportunities and bring in more clients from other countries.
- Higher salaries: research shows that multilingual employees earn at least 10%-15% more than monolingual employees.
- Relationship building: having the ability to speak and understand different languages will allow your child to relate to various cultural groups at a personal level. Having a good relationship with colleagues is essential in a professional environment.
- Increased job opportunities: being fluent in foreign languages can be extremely beneficial for an individual’s professional growth. Many companies now require only employees who are bilingual or multilingual.
Benefits of Having Children Learn a Second Language
Why must children learn a new language from a young age?
- Experts say that children have more time and ability to pick up a new language faster than adults and develop a native-like pronunciation.
- Learning a new language also boosts a child’s creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and listening skills.
- In the long run, a second language will also be advantageous for them in the workplace where being multilingual gives one a competitive edge over others.
What makes our program different from other community language schools?
At some community language schools, the programs are designed to be beneficial if only both parents speak that particular native language at home for the children to have a chance to hear and practice the language. While this is advantageous for some children, others with only one parent who speaks language cannot have the chance to hear from their parents’ interaction. In fact, there are numerous households in Sydney with only one bilingual parent. In such circumstances, going to a language class with a structured program will help the students.
At Sydney Language Solutions, we offer language courses for children from all backgrounds, regardless of the number of parents who speak that language at home. These courses are also tailored for children whose parents are second-generation language speakers in Australia, or those parents who do not have enough background knowledge in speaking, reading, and writing their language to teach their children at home.
Why is the Mastery of English Important?
Being the most commonly used language around the world, English is an essential skill for everyone – from students to professionals. This is particularly important in the workplace where you need to talk to clients, present your work to higher-ups, and communicate well with your colleagues.
If you want to be commended for your efforts and ensure that your point will be delivered across, you must have good communication skills and an excellent command of English. It will definitely boost your confidence if you are able to express yourself in a clear manner.
5 Tips on How to Reduce Your Accent to Sound Like a Native Speaker
Having an accent is not a bad thing; one should not be ashamed of it. A person’s accent represents his or her background and culture. Lots of people take pride in their accent as it reveals their cultural heritage. Even English native speakers have their own accents such as American-English, British-English or Australian-English. However, this sometimes causes difficulty in understanding so some people are embarrassed by their own accent in English Speaking. It turns out that having a residual accent might affect self-confidence in communication and interaction.
There are some techniques that non-native English speakers can use to reduce their accent in speaking.
- Slow down and clearly pronounce words
People tend to speak fast when they are excited or nervous. If you have an accent, try to speak slowly and clearly pronounce words so that everyone can understand what you want to say.
- Feel the rhythm while speaking English
English is considered “stressed language” as every single word have its own stress, differently on verbs, words and adjectives. Same to sentence. People said that sentence stress gives English a rhythm or beat.
- Listen and Talk to native speakers
Listen and repeat to sentences spoken by native speakers until you can naturally speak those sentences. Try to speak to the native speakers as many as possible. You need to overcome your in-confidence and speak to the native speakers. It might make you feel embarrassed at first but failure creates success. People also tend to imitate others whom they frequently interact with. Therefore, the more you talk to the native speakers, the more you could improve.
- Record yourself
Don’t learn from others only, learn from yourself. Take your time to record your speaking and listen again to identify your weaknesses. Recording will also make you proud of yourself in how clarity in your pronunciation has progressed.
- Take a class or tutor
Consider working with an experienced tutor or teacher to help you with pronunciation, intonation and even vocabulary. An ESL teacher will have his/her strategy to quickly help you with your accent. Joining a class might also motivate you as you have partners in your accent reduction journey.
English Pronunciation: Compound Adjectives
A compound adjective is a fixed expression which is made up of more than one word and which has the function of an adjective. Most compound adjectives are written with a hyphen, but a few are written as one word:
skin-deep long-term threadbare
The following types of compound adjective usually have main stress on the first part:
- compound adjectives usually written as one word
- ‘ airtight ‘ carefree ‘ praise , worthy
- Exceptions: , nation ‘ wide, , hand ‘ made
- noun + -ing form
- ‘ hair- , raising ‘ fee- , paying ‘ time-con,suming
- noun + past participle
- ‘ poverty- , stricken ‘ pear-shaped ‘ health-re,lated
- Exceptions: , eagle- ‘ eyed, , home- ‘ grown
The following types of compound adjective usually have main stress on the second part:
- noun + adjective
- , fat- ‘ free , sky- ‘ high , snow- ‘ white
- Exception: ‘ camera-shy
- adjective + noun
- , long – ‘ term , full – ‘ length , high – ‘ profile
- adverb or adjective + past participle
- , fully- ‘ grown , long- ‘ sighted , well – ‘ dressed
- adverb or adjective + -ing form
- , easy- ‘ going , hard – ‘ working , well – ‘ meaning
- Exceptions: ‘ backward – , look ing, ‘ forward- , looking
- self- as the first part
- , self- ‘ confident , self-in ‘ flicted , self- ‘ governing
Most compound adjectives with main stress on the second part can have stress shift. Compare:
- The tiger was fully-GROWN. but: It was a FULly-grown TIger.
- The prices were sky-HIGH. but: They were SKY-high PRIces.
5 Reasons Why Good English is Essential in Business!
English is the language of communication: English is the most widely spoken language in the world with over 1 billion people using it as a foreign language.
English spoken in business is different from English spoken in daily lives, as certain industries have certain vocabulary or jargon. For example, English vocabulary is different in business administration, finance, law or retail.
Mastery of English is beneficial even though you are working in your home country. Many businesses are international in scope and English is official language in the company.
Better job opportunities: if you work in English-speaking countries, English is a must. In non-English-speaking countries, it would be another skill that you can add to your resume and would boost your chances of job promotion.
More confidence in working: Business English with Sydney Language Solutions will improve your confidence in presentation, negotiation, conversation, better comprehension and pronunciation in Business context. All of these will boost your confidence in conducting Business in English.
PTE Speaking- Read Aloud
PTE Speaking: Read Aloud
What is ‘Read Aloud’?
- Read Aloud is the first speaking Item type in the PTE Speaking section. There are usually 6-7 questions for Read Aloud and it credits you score for both Speaking and Reading.
- Read Aloud requires you to demonstrate your ability to read fluently and pronounce correctly a passage provided on the screen.
- Read Aloud tests you on your ability to identify a writer’s purpose, style, tone or attitude; understand academic vocabulary and read a text under timed conditions (PTE Score Guide, v.11, 2019)
What do I do?
- You will have 40 seconds to prepare before the microphone opens.
- You will have 40 seconds to read the passage out loud to the microphone.
Scoring Criteria
- Read Aloud is scored based on three Criteria – (1) Oral Fluency – (2) Pronunciation – (3) Content.
- Among the three criteria, Oral Fluency is the most important while Content is the least important. This means that you can score high in Speaking with good Oral Fluency and bad Content; but you can NOT score high in Speaking with bad Oral Fluency and good Content.
- Remember, it’s all about Oral Fluency. The more fluent you are, the higher score in Speaking you can achieve.
Common Mistakes
- We all like to have everything perfect and so is doing Read Aloud. We all want to read all the words out loud and pronounce them all correctly. Therefore, we never mind repeating ourselves a million times or hesitating in pronouncing a word for perfect pronunciation. Why not? It’s all for perfection! The more perfect we are, the better score we get. However, this seems to be a misconception that we know but find it hard to find back our human instinct in perfecting what you do.
- The brutal fact is if you miss or mispronounce a few words in the passage, it’s not the end of the world. However, repeating yourself to make sure you read all of the words in the passage guarantees you a ticket to the PTE website to re-book for another PTE test. So choose wisely!
- What’s else? The punctuation! We were all taught at primary school that we pause at commas and rest for our breath at full stops. We were all taught that reading slowly and musically enhances the effects of our speech. We were all taught that leaving some extended pauses may leave the audience some room to think. So we apply these beautiful taught habits into PTE, and wait with a fantasy that the highly anticipated magic number ‘90’ will appear on our Score Report; and sadly, fall down to earth from cloud nine knowing that the magic number has been printed the other way around. So think wisely!
Tips
To do Read Aloud well, you can consider these steps
- Prepare yourself in the 40 seconds wait. Read SILENTLY to yourself so you can prepare for the pronunciation of difficult words.
- What if you don’t know the pronunciation. Easy, just say whatever you think is right!
- Put your finger on the screen. Trace the finger along when you read. This helps with concentration.
- Speak fluently and fast, but allow you a quick pause at full stops so you can catch your breath.
PTE Listening – Write From Dictation
Question type #20 PTE Listening & Writing: Write from Dictation
Familiarise with how the question is formed
– There are 3-4 sentences, each of which has up to around 12 words.
– You have 5 seconds to mentally prepare yourself before the sentence is read to you.
– You need to type the sentence exactly as you hear it into the dialog box on the screen.
Understand how this question is scored
– Each correct word (for each sentence), spelled correctly and in the correct order will earn 1 small mark
– No extra penalty for wrong answer.
– Maximum mark:9-12; minimum mark: 0
Avoid these common mistakes
- Write down the sentence and transfer later. Instead, type in directly as soon as you hear it as you may not have enough time to do this, since this is the last question type in the listening section.
- Type all words in capital letters. Only do this for the first letter if it is a proper name or it is the first word in the sentence.
- Miss the plural form of a noun when it is a count noun.
- Miss the –s/es for a verb when you have a singular subject.
- Use the wrong word form. (e.g., a noun when you need an adjective, a verb or an adverb).
- Swap the word order or try to paraphrase a word. Remember, you’ll only earn marks if the words are spelled correctly and also are in the correct sequence as it is read by the speaker.
Practise the best way to do it
- Picture the sentence structure and sentence meaning in your mind before you start typing. Take mental note of the ‘story’, S-V agreement, and the position of time expression, adverb of places and linking word used.
- Type in the sentence as accurately as possible.
- Proofread quickly to make sure the spelling, grammar and the word forms are correct.
- You should spend around 30 seconds doing this, time permitting.
Listening – Select Missing Word
Question type #18 PTE Listening: Select missing word
Familiarise with how the question is formed
– There are 2-3 questions, each of which refers to a brief lecture of 40-90 seconds.
– The Topic will be on the screen in the instruction part.
– You have 7 seconds to preview the topic and the 4-5 options before the lecture starts.
– The lecture will be cut off when the time gauge reaches the end in the middle of the screen, when you hear a beep.
– You need to choose 1 best response which logically finishes the lecture.
Understand how this question is scored
– Each correct response will earn 1 mark
– No extra penalty for wrong answer.
– Maximum mark: 1; minimum mark: 0
Avoid these common mistakes
- Not reading the TOPIC. Doing this will help you tune in to the lecture.
- Get carried away while listening. Taking down some key words pertaining to the topic and main points should help you to concentrate.
- Choosing the option with the exact word(s) which you hear in the lecture. In fact, this is the obvious wrong answer!
- Rushing when choosing options. Remember, it’s good practice to spend up to 20 seconds on this question type after the lecture.
Practise the best way to do it
- Skim read the topic and the options to help you focus on the topic.
- Take brief notes while listening. Ask yourself what the topic is and what the main points are.
- As you take notes, notice the use of linking words (e.g., however, because, therefore, but, in conclusion, etc).
- Concentrate on the linking word and content when the lecture is nearing the end.
- After the lecture is cut off (the beep), take around 20 seconds to systematically eliminate answer choices which are opposite in tone.
- Let’s say the tone of the lecture is favourable, but you hear ‘However’ towards the end, so you need to find a word/phrase with a negative sense. Also, note whether you have to choose a strong or weak word.
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