I got him to put down his pen and sit down for a chat. I engaged him in a discussion around what he actually experienced in Fiji when he was there that he really enjoyed. He immediately launched into a vivid description of a shark diving event underwater in the ocean. He excitedly recalled the events with gestures and descriptions so that it was like watching a mini pantomime.

We then talked about how we could write about the event without writing the word shark, jellyfish and coral. He then came up with wonderful figurative language – “sly as a shadow”, “beady eyes following me” “rough as sandpaper”, blobs of jelly pumping like hearts, underwater flowers that bit my hand, ribbons of red dripped down (blood) and so on. His story started to take shape from “I saw a shark and touched some coral that made my hand bleed” to a vivid mosaic of underwater life that ended in suspense. Of course I was leveraging off his first language (Maori) which is very metaphorical and full of imagery!

It was quite thrilling to see a young learner get so excited about the writing of a story! While I got him to begin taking brief notes of our discussion, he paused and said, “Aunty, creative writing is like art – you just need to write your pictures on paper rather than draw them”. What a neat way to sum up an activity that he initially thought was quite simply going to be “stink”!

http://appleplectic.blogspo…Two words: OSCAR BOUND.”From director Clint Eastwood, ‘Invictus’ tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the capta…

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Native speakers of English generally speak quickly. They tend to shorten words, run words together, use incorrect grammar patterns, speak informally, and say things out of sequence. They do not speak like your classroom teacher or the text books and audios that you may have studied as these materials are all designed for classroom use. It can therefore be quite difficult when you try and use your English in a real situation. Don’t give up!

What can you do?
Listen to or watch short news items, videos, blogs, conversations, movies and songs that use natural, spoken English. This will help your listening ability especially if you do this every day. Practice speaking like the native speakers that you hear or see. Converse with native speakers whenever you can and on a daily basis if possible. Ten minutes every day speaking on a range of topics will be more productive than 30 minutes once a month!