writing english essays 31 topics

LEARNING ENGLISH
1./ THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH AND HOW TO
OVERCOME THEM
The difficulties in learning English and how to overcome them
Beginners of foreign language always meet difficulties from the outset. For me, I
had to overcome these problems when I started learning English.
English pronunciation is my first obstacle. The pronunciation in English puzzles
me a lot because the same letter has different sounds. For example the letter “a” in
“bath” is not pronounced in the same way of that in “bathe”. The “ou” in “South”
is also different from “ou” in “Southern”. Generally verbs and nouns are
pronounced differently although they are written the same. Record is a good
example to illustrate it.
In order to solve this puzzling question I carefully study The A.P.A (The
International Phonetic Alphabets) which helps me pronounce English words
correctly.
In order to have an accent just like the native speakers, I often listen to tapes and
repeat after them, trying to imitate them. Moreover, my everyday conversation
with the foreigners I meet in the street will enable me to acquire a proper accent.
Compared with French, English grammar is much easier. However, this does not
mean that learners meet no difficulties in learning it. It took me a long time to learn
how to master the tenses in English grammar, to endeavor to do as many grammar
exercises as possible and read various grammar books.
In writing English, English language has its own style. In order to drill writing
skills, I have tried to read famous novels of distinguished America and English
writers. I enjoy the humorous style of writing in Mark Twain’s masterpieces, the
elaborate and polished style of George Eliot and the sentimental and lyrical style of
John Keats.
After long and hard years of English study, how pleased I feel when I am able to
read English and American authors without any obstacles and difficulties at all.
2./ Why I want to learn English
The outline:

1. The beginning
2. How important it is
3. How much it is used – Why?
4. How it helps us
5. The end
English is considered to be the most common and important language of the world
today. A great number of people understand and use English in every part of the
world.
English is the most useful language. Being good at English, we can travel to any
place or any country we like. We shall not find it hard to make others understand
what we wish to say.
English also helps us to learn all kinds of subjects. Hundreds of books are written
in English every day in all countries to teach people useful things. The English
language has therefore helped to spread ideas and knowledge to all the corners of
the world. There is no subject that cannot be learned in the English language.
As English is used so much everywhere in the world, it has helped to make
countries of the world become friendlier with one another. The leaders of the world
use English to understand one another. The English language has therefore spread
better understanding and friendship among countries of the world.
Lastly, as a person who knows English easily get more knowledge from many
parts of the world, he or she is respected by people. It is for all these reasons that I
want to learn English.
3./ The reasons for your study of English and the ways you have been learning
it
It cannot be denied that today English is the most widely used language in the
world. It has been used in all spheres of public activity. Because of its importance I
have chosen English as the second language after my mother tongue.
In fact, English has become the international language. If I master this language I
can go to any continent in the world: Asia, Europe, Africa, America and Australia.
Everywhere people speak English. Because of its popularity, innumerable books

have been written in English; so one of my ways of improving my English is to
read books on a variety of subjects: science, sociology, anthropology, geology,
entomology, political science and so on. If I read books on one or two subjects
only my vocabulary will not increase fast enough. Therefore I try my best to
accumulate as many vocabularies as possible by reading about different subjects
because each subject has its own vocabularies. The more subjects I read in English
the more words I can acquire to express my ideas and thoughts with great ease and
satisfaction.
I have dreamed of becoming a tourist guide one day. In order to realize this hope I
should read more books on traveling and learn more vocabulary on different
aspects. Standing before one of my historical vestiges, how can I tell my tourists
about the history of my country and the courageous struggles of my people during
the period of founding the nation and defending it against foreign invaders if I am
not able to obtain any knowledge, any words on this domain?
After French, English is a living language because of its vitality and lucidity.
Thanks to these characteristics, English has been used in all important meetings
and conferences or in summit talks between leaders of powerful countries. To
acquire correct and fluent English I should learn the basic rules of English
Grammar and practice speaking English regularly with my friends and my
teachers. “Practice makes perfect”. I should frequently listen to native English
speakers through videos, television and radio. Whenever I find a new word whose
pronunciation I do not know I should look it up in the “Every man’s English
Pronouncing Dictionary” by Daniel Jones, a very precious dictionary for English
beginners.
Being aware of the preeminence of the English language in every aspect of man’s
activity, I have been learning it with great zeal and avidity.
4./ Men who learn English as a foreign language often say that writing is more
difficult than any other skills. As the fact of the matter, most native speakers of the
language have to make their efforts themselves to write accurately and effectively
even on what they are well aware of. Needless to say, it is not easy at all for a non-

native speaker to do something that an average native speaker usually considers a
difficult job to do. Here are three reasons which, in my opinion, can answer the
question why writing becomes the most difficult skills.
Firstly, writing requires good grammar. A non-native person has to remember a
large number of rules in structure which are quite different from their own
language. This is a very big problem if he or she learns the grammar with an
English native teacher at the beginning. The teacher cannot help to point out the
distinct differences between the two languages. In this case, the learner must figure
out the differences themselves and even outline some rules to convert from their
own language to the target language.
Secondly, people are often known to spend less time to write than to listen, to
speak and even to listen. Learners learning the language in their country are proved
to read more than any other skills while learners learning overseas must listen to
the language most of their time. In any cases, they spend little of their time for
writing. It is clearly known that an average person spend the most for listening, the
second most for speaking, then reading and finally writing.
Thirdly, when students of English as a foreign language write something, they
have a big question in mind whether what they write is correct or incorrect. Who
can answer the question for them and help them recognize the mistakes. It is, in
many cases, the teacher who is teaching them and is ready to give them a hand.
The problem however I want to mention is that the teacher does not have enough
time to correct for all of them if there are more than ten students in the class. When
the teacher corrects the writing for just some of them, the other students cannot
recognize their own mistakes. Without correction, the mistakes may be repeated
many times and become bad habits which are hard to adjust.
In conclusion, writing is the most difficult skill that learners of any foreign
language may face. To be good at it, learners must give much effort.
5./ The advantages and disadvantages in teaching English to Adult Learners in the
Current Situation in Vietnam
A brief look at the current English language teaching and learning context in

Vietnam will show that the demand for English learning is very great. This is
clearly seen in the multitude of institutions and centers that offer English courses
as well as in the great number of learners who go to English classes. Among these
learners adult learners form a big special group. Due to some of their
characteristics the teaching of English to this group of adult learners has some
advantages and disadvantages as follows.
The first advantage is that adult learners have some degree of extrinsic motivation.
They may study English for a variety of reasons but they all do so because they
want to or need to. For some students, the motivation may be in the form of
integrative motivation because they wish to integrate themselves into the culture of
an English-speaking country like Britain, America, Canada or Australia. For
others, the motivation is instrumental in the sense that the mastery of the English
language is seen as an instrument that can bring them a better job or position.
When these adult students go to class with some motivation they are easier to teach
than those who bring no motivation to the classroom.
The second advantage is that adult students can transfer those study skills and
learning strategies they have acquired in their first language to their study of
English. Unlike children and adolescents, adults are autonomous in some way.
They have finished their studies or have undertaken at least some in their own
language, so they must have gained some basic skills like reading, summarizing,
identifying and applying formulae and information and such critical thinking skills
as analyzing, synthesizing, hypothesizing, speculating, etc. Moreover, they may
also have some well-established strategies for learning. Therefore, the English
language teacher can make his job easier by creating conditions for adult students
to reactivate these study skills and learning strategies and apply them to their study
of a new language.
One more advantage is that adult learners can make use of whatever kind of
knowledge they have accumulated in their own language. Again this advantage
cannot be seen in other groups of learners like children and adolescents. First, adult
learners have extensive experience of using a language, which is their mother

tongue. Now that they start learning English, they can remember the new langue
system better by making use of what they know about their own language. It is not
uncommon to see learners comparing and contrasting their first language with the
foreign language they are learning to find out areas in which the two languages are
different or similar so that they can learn the new language more quickly. Second,
adult students’ life experience, world knowledge and specialist knowledge can
contribute much to their learning a foreign language. It can help them a lot when
they have to read about or discuss complex or controversial topics in English. So
the English teacher can engage adult learners more easily if he knows how to tap
the knowledge they have gained over time.
On the contrary, there are some disadvantages to the teaching of English to adult
students as well. The first disadvantage is that English learning makes a strong
demand on adult learners in terms of time. As a matter of fact, it is really difficult
for adult students to make time to learn English. As most institutions and centers
teach English in the evening adult students have to study after work. Three one-
hour-and-a-half sessions or three three-hour sessions a week seem not to add up to
a lot of time but not all adult students can manage to set aside that much time for
study purposes. The simple reason is that they all have their own lives to live
outside the classroom or they all have other commitments in life than learning
English. As a result, some students fail to invest as much time and effort in
learning as they should. Of course, teachers will have difficulty in monitoring the
performance and progress of those students who cannot attend class regularly.
Another factor that can interfere with or even impede adult students’ learning
English is their fear of failure and frustration with lack of progress. As can be seen,
some adult students are very successful professionals or have a high status at their
work place. And now, at school they are just normal students coping with tasks,
assignments, examinations, etc. as they have been successful in their career, they
do not want to fail to achieve their desired goal of mastering English. They may
therefore put themselves under unnecessary stress if they do not give themselves
enough time to achieve their goals or if they set themselves unrealistic goals. Other

students may be hard on themselves in a different way. For example, adult
intermediate and advanced students, those who already know a lot, may find
progress difficult to perceive. In this case, the teacher has more work to do: they
must help these students get the level of challenge right or view success in a
broader sense.
In addition, the lack of well-qualified teachers and the poor physical conditions of
the classrooms at some English language schools and centers can be damaging to
student motivation. Currently, in Vietnam a great number of institutions and
centers provide English courses and they range form universities and their satellite
centers, joint-venture centers, privately-owned centers to privately-run home-based
classes. Such proliferation of schools and centers is useful in the sense that it offers
students a wide variety of programs to choose from. However, because of a lack of
quality control, the reality of some schools and centers may fall short of student
expectations. Some teachers are untrained or inexperienced, delivering boring or
uninteresting lessons; the physical classroom conditions and resources for learning
are just basic. All this cannot of course supply students in general and adult
students in particular with any intrinsic motivation, a crucial factor for successful
language learning.
In general, this analysis of the current teaching context for adult learners of English
in Vietnam in general and of the characteristics of this group of learners in
particular partly reflects the increasing need for English language learning and
mainly shows the advantages and disadvantages that adult students have in their
English study. Both teachers and students need to be aware of these findings of the
analysis so that they can find ways to maximize the advantages and minimize the
disadvantages. Only in this way can teachers deliver quality English language
programs for students to benefit from.
6./ Nowadays, everybody is very fond of learning a foreign language.
However, successful men are seldom. In your opinion, what is the basic
factor?
The most difficult thing for a person to accept when he begins to learn a foreign

language is that the foreign language is so different from his own. Of course, he
expects to find some differences; it may sometimes seem to him that some of the
differences are completely unnecessary.
A person’s native language has a powerful influence on him. After all, he has been
speaking his language since before he can remember. His family, his friends, even
complete strangers – everyone around him uses that language. Under such
circumstances, it is only natural that a person would have the feeling that his
language is the most beautiful, the most perfect and the most logical of all
languages.
Therefore, the first thing that one must learn as he begins to study a foreign
language is that, each language is the best possible language for the people who
use it. We would not expect a person from India to think and act exactly like a
person from France. And we should not expect the languages of India to be exactly
like the French language. After this fact has been understood and accepted, many
of the problems in language learning disappear.
There are other attitudes which you will have to develop in order to learn a
language successfully. The most important of these is that learning a language
requires constant practice. You must not think that because you have seen or heard
a word or phrase one time, or five times or ten times, that you really know it and
know how to use it. You must be ready to repeat new lessons again until you can
really use them, automatically, without having to think about them.
Many students have the idea that if they can memorize long list of vocabulary
words they will be learning the language. Learning a language is much more than
that. In the early stage of studying a language, we must learn more important
things, such as pronunciation and grammatical structure. After the student can use
the grammatical structure, he can then begin to increase his vocabulary. Learning
new vocabulary without knowing the grammatical structure of the language is
something like trying to build a house without using a plan.
Another important thing to remember is that it is not necessary to begin with a lot
of reading or writing in the foreign language. Reading and writing lead to many

very special problems which may complicate learning for the beginning student.
The most important thing of all in learning a language is to have patience. If you
keep working steadily, day after day, constantly practicing the language and using
it at every opportunity, you will learn to speak a language well.
7./ Is it true that one who is good at English grammar can write well in
English?
(Acquisition of good writing skills requires more than Mastery of English
Grammar)
In the English language teaching writing is called a productive skill because it is
concerned with the production of the language. The teaching and learning of this
specific skill has provoked much discussion about the question of how to write
well in English. Some people may think that a good knowledge of English
grammar is sufficient to enable them to achieve a high level of competence in
written English. However, this is a somewhat simplistic view. As will be analyzed
below, the acquisition of good writing skills requires not just a good command of
the grammatical system of English but a wide lexical knowledge, a thorough
understanding of the topic given and a repertoire of organizational skills.
Apart from a good knowledge of English grammar, one needs to demonstrate a
broad lexical knowledge in a good piece of writing. There is an element of truth in
the fact that grammar rules help to generate sentences. However, if the writer has
no real understanding of the lexis of the English language and just applies the
grammatical rules mechanically, he will run the risk of producing grammatically
correct but semantically inappropriate or anomalous sentences. To use the English
language with clarity and precision, he needs to know what words mean literally
and figuratively, what words can collocate and how words, though synonymous,
are different form each other in subtle ways. Therefore, the writer’s ability to
manipulate structures and his word choice are both needed for the appropriate use
of language. For example, while one can write ‘Sorry, I can’t make it’ in response
to a friend’s invitation he must formulate his refusal to a business partner more
formally ‘I apologize I will not be able to be there.’ In other words, structural

accuracy is just as important as vocabulary selection in effective writing.
Next, one needs to rely on one’s general and/or specialist knowledge to develop
the topic given in depth to produce an original piece of writing. If one’s mastery of
English grammar can partly help shape the form of a piece of writing, it is the ideas
presented that decide the content. A good writer does not write merely to reach the
word limit (within the time limit); he must write to achieve his purpose, whether to
narrate a story, to describe someone or something, to discuss a topic, to inform or
to persuade the reader. The best way for him to do this is to ensure that the content
of his paper is excellent. He is therefore expected to exploit whatever kind of
knowledge he has acquired, be it his general knowledge, his knowledge of current
affairs or his specialist knowledge to come up with brilliant ideas that can attract
and maintain readers’ attention. As the writer is not in direct contact with readers
and cannot therefore get direct feedback from them, he cannot afford to be vague.
He has to elaborate his ideas or explanations to get his message across, leaving no
scope for misunderstanding or interpretation of any type. This makes an enormous
demand on the writer indeed. So in his treatment of the subject assigned, the writer
has to draw on the above mentioned areas of his knowledge, which are by nature
different from his knowledge of English grammar, to search for worthwhile ideas
and arguments.
In addition, one needs to know a number of generally called organizational skills
which are essential for the production of a fine piece of writing. Viewed as a
process, writing involves the following major skills. The skill of much use during
the first stage is that of planning. Before starting off, the writer has to envisage
how he would like to go about his writing assignment. He has to take into
consideration all the resources he has at his disposal (such as time, vocabulary,
language, structures, his understanding of the topic) to make a detailed plan as to
how to turn out the end product: a letter, a story, s description, a report, an essay, a
term paper, etc. Next comes the skill of much importance here, the skill of
paragraphing. After a brainstorming session in the planning stage, the writer may
have hit on many ideas and now it is time for him to select and organize those that

are really relevant to the topic under discussion. The organization of ideas requires
a clear understanding of the discourse structure of the target language, which is
English in this case. Here the non-native writer is expected to go beyond the realm
of grammar to explore the realm of discourse. For example, he needs to acquaint
himself with a variety of genres or styles produced by native writers so that he
knows what is expected of him when he writes in English. Besides, the skill of
structuring discourse is often coupled with the skill of using liking devices. It is
because ideas must not only be grouped together but also developed in logical and
coherent paragraphs. Then the skills of drafting, editing and proofreading come
into play. The writer has to work on his draft to revise his ideas and check for
spelling and punctuation. Only when all the necessary changes have been made can
the writer be sure that his end product is ready for ‘publication’.
In general, writing is not an easy skill to get native speakers of English. As can be
seen above, the mastery of the skill demands different areas of knowledge such as
vocabulary, world knowledge and specialist knowledge and organizational skills in
addition to that of grammar. Thus a wide knowledge of English grammar is a
necessary condition, not the only necessary and sufficient condition for the
acquisition of the writing skill. A high level of written English can only be
achieved when one puts huge efforts in building up his knowledge of the areas
mentioned above.
8./ Ways to help students enlarge their vocabulary
It is a self-evident truth that a good command of a language requires a knowledge
of both its grammar and vocabulary as structural patterns serve as building blocks
that hold lexical items together. Therefore, in addition to teaching grammatical
rules, English teachers must help their students enlarge their vocabulary. This will
not come as a daunting task to language teachers if they know that they can offer
assistance to their students in their vocabulary learning and vocabulary expansion
in the following ways.
Teachers can first help by raising students’ awareness of the importance of
vocabulary learning and expansion. As can be seen, not all students are fully

conscious of the necessity of having a wide vocabulary of English. Some students
may emphasize the acquisition of linguistic structures over that of vocabulary
because the former, in their opinion, can help them operate effectively in English.
However, it is not difficult to find cases in which it is words, not grammatical
structures that help one get his message across. For example, a speaker can still
make himself understood even though he produces a grammatically incorrect
sentence like ‘Yesterday I meet mine old friend’. Therefore, language teachers
should give priority to making students aware of the important role that vocabulary
plays in language learning. Only when students realize the significance of knowing
the lexis of a language will they make effort to learn words and increase their
vocabulary.
Second, teachers can help students enrich their vocabulary by teaching words in
context. The reasons for this technique are not difficult to understand. For one
thing, the environment in which a word occurs with other words that will decide
which meaning of the word is intended. Lexical items should thus not be presented
to student in isolation; they should be presented in clear and meaningful contexts
so that students can work out which sense of the word concerned in used. For
another thing, students will get into the habit of guessing the meaning of new or
unknown words form context, a badly needed skill for their vocabulary expansion.
It is because when they first encounter new vocabulary items students will rely on
the context as a clue to their intended meaning. In this way the meaning or use of
the word will be retained longer in their mind.
Moreover, teachers can promote students’ vocabulary learning and expansion by
teaching words in relation to other words. It is highly recommended that specific
words such as red, blue, yellow should be related to the generic term color, that
words like happy should compared with happily, happiness, unhappy, unhappily
and unhappiness, that words like book should be extended to notebook, textbook
and handbook and that acceptable combinations like headache, earache,
stomachache should be identified as opposed to illegitimate ones like eye ache or
throat ache. In other words, teachers do not simply teach certain words as discrete

lexical items; teachers have to present words in a network established by such
language phenomena as sense relations word formation and collocation. An
additional teaching tip is that teachers can present vocabulary in categories of
words depending on topics. Teachers can ask students to keep a notebook to record
words in different sections for different themes or topics so that they can develop
their vocabulary systematically. In this sense, students not only learn, for example,
a single word happy but several connected forms like happily, happiness, unhappy,
unhappily and unhappiness and other words referring to human emotional states
like glad, pleased, sad, and depressed. This will certainly lead to a massive increase
in the number of words students learn and acquire.
One more thing that teachers can do to help their students to widen their
vocabulary is to train them in dictionary using skills. Naturally, teachers cannot
provide students with all the words they need. So dictionaries will serve as their
best source of reference outside class time. And that is the reason why students
should be given practice in using dictionaries. Teachers can start by recommending
a good bilingual dictionary such as an Oxford or Cambridge or Longman learners’
dictionary. Certainly, a monolingual dictionary has a role to play but an English –
English dictionary would expose learners more to the language. As learners’
dictionaries often define more complex words by means of simpler words, students
can get at the meaning without switching back to their mother tongue. What is
more, as easy and familiar words are used to explain new words, the former are
recycled, thus facilitating students’ comprehension and acquisition of the latter.
Then teachers can spend some of their class time showing students how to use the
dictionary they have recommended. For example, they can set exercises in which
students have to look up some new words from their reading or listening texts. This
will force them to get to know the symbols and abbreviations used in the dictionary
and to choose the most appropriate meaning of the words from a range of
meanings listed in the dictionary.
In conclusion, there are just a few ways in which teachers can help their students
enlarge their vocabulary. It is hoped that with the help and guidance from the

teacher, students can first discover the value of vocabulary learning and expansion
in language learning and then develop strategies to increase their vocabulary.
9./ Talk about your teacher of English
Miss Wilde is our teacher of English this term. She has been teaching in our school
for three years ever since her return from London, but I have never attended her
classes before.
She is rather tall for a lady, about twenty-four years of age, and I find her really
slender. She puts on a little make up in very discreet manner. Though young and
attractive in appearance, she is dignified and reserved. She is somewhat strict at
times, but never too severe or stern. Her patience is wonderful she will never give
up explaining until every one of us understands.
Her method of teaching differs somewhat from that of our former teacher. She
pays much attention in correcting our pronunciation and drills us in expressing
ourselves in short English sentences. At the end of each lesson, she gives us
assignments and lets us work out ourselves. Her method means more work for us
to do in the evening, as we have to consult the dictionary again and again; but this
help us to remember the new words and phrases and we feel that we have been
making rapid progress.
Though my teacher is sometimes severe, yet her kindness and gentility always
commands our respect.
10./ Should all errors made by foreign language learners be corrected at any
cost?
(Overcorrection should be avoided at any cost)
Error correction may prove to be a difficult task to language teachers because it
involves decision-making about what to correct, when to correct, how to correct
and how much to correct. Several approaches to correcting student errors have
been suggested. One of them holds that all errors made by learners should be
corrected at any cost. On the surface, this approach seems to be of much benefit to
students. However, a close examination will reveal that this approach to error
correction will do students more harm than good.

The first reason that teachers will undermine students’ confidence if they correct
student mistakes all the time. It is not difficult to realize the demotivating effect of
this overcorrection. Perhaps there is nothing more disconcerting or intimidating to
students than to be interrupted every time they make a mistake in oral practice.
Distracted and discouraged in this way, they may forget what they intend to say or
feel that they will never be able to say anything right. The damage that over written
correction does to students is no less serious. Most students will feel a sense of
failure or defeat when they see their piece of written work covered with red
corrections and comments from the teacher. Only very few well-motivated students
will not lose heart in this case. Thus the teacher’s over emphasis on accuracy at the
expense of fluency or comprehensibility has a detrimental effect on students
indeed. It goes against the principle of language teaching that part of the teacher’s
job is to support and encourage students, not to discourage or demotivate them.
The second reason is that overcorrection fails to focus students on genuine errors.
Apparently, teachers who tend to overcorrect think that all incorrect forms
produced by learners are dangerous and need to be fixed. However, their
indiscriminate treatment of student errors may backfire because students may not
understand what is worth correcting. There are many kinds of errors or mistakes
and if all the errors or mistakes are picked up and dealt with, students will assume
that they are of equal importance. In reality, some of the inaccuracies produced by
learners are just unfortunate mistakes resulting from mere confusion, from lapses
of memory, from slips of the tongue or the pen, etc. Given time and help or
guidance form the teacher and friends, learners can remedy these mistakes
themselves. In contrast, genuine errors reflect students’ lack of knowledge about
the target language. For example, they do not know what the correct form or word
should be or they believe that what they are saying or writing is correct. In other
words, these errors are clear indications of problem areas to students and as such
they should be addressed immediately if teachers do not want them to persist and
hinder learning in the long run.
The last and also the most important reason is that teachers who are in favor of

constant error correction fail to realize that mistakes are a natural and important
part of learning. If teachers insist on putting right anything incorrect in students’
oral and written communication, they will over time reinforce the false belief that
mistakes of any type are something to be feared and should be avoided at any cost.
However, in so doing, they ignore a very basic fact that even native speakers, those
who are supposed to have a good, if not perfect, command of the language, make
mistakes all the time. The main reason is that communication, oral or written, is a
complex activity. To process the language people have to simultaneously make use
of several language systems such as syntax, lexis, phonology. They also need to
draw on their communicative competence to use the language appropriately. It is
understandable why any instance of using the target language is quite challenging
to learners. It is therefore quite unrealistic to ask learners’ speech or written work
to be faultless. So teachers have to be open to the fact that mistakes made by
learners are natural and inevitable. What is more important, not all mistakes are
regrettable and should be condemned; they have a role to play too. As an expert in
language teaching puts it, mistakes are sometimes “healthy proof that learning is
taking place”. It may sound strange but it is true. A telling example can be found
when students are adventurous enough to experiment with the structure or the word
or the sound they have just learned instead of sticking to the safe old one. In this
case the students’ brave attempt should be encouraged rather than thwarted.
In summary, error correction is an area in which teachers can offer direct service to
students. However, they will do their students a grave disservice if they insist on
overcorrection. The implication for foreign language teaching is that remedial
work done by the teacher should highlight important mistakes to encourage
students to use the correct form to improve their performance. Moreover, teachers
should be sensitive enough to tolerate some errors, especially those that are
evidence of learning taking place. Such an attitude to errors on the part of the
teacher will have positive effects on students the most important of which is to
boost their confidence and overcome their fear of making mistakes.
11./ Qualities of a good teacher

(What makes an ideal teacher)
Teachers play an important part in training children, teenagers and even people in
their early maturity. Some qualities of a good teacher that are crucial for
determining one as a good teacher are the teacher’s sound knowledge in his/her
major and its related fields, certain devotion to and great love for his/her students
and his/her ability to inspire the students’ passion for studying either in or out of
class.
There is no doubt that knowledge is a quality/must for a good teacher. In addition
to his/her professional knowledge, the teacher need to enlarge his/her general
knowledge on culture, society, humanity, psychology, methodology, politics,
history, etc. to provide his/her students with what they need to know, satisfy their
curiosity and meet their requirements in any case.
Another quality that a good teacher should have is his/her devotion to and great
love for those who call him ‘sir’ or her ‘madam’ in class. Generally speaking, the
students are not mature enough to behave properly. They are sometimes really
stubborn. Consequently, the teacher has to learn how to handle the students’
troubles in a gentle and affectionate manner. He/she should pay adequate attention
to the students and know how to keep calm in any situation so that he/she can give
the students some advice when they are in need or help them distinguish the right
from the wrong.
Last but not least, a good teacher always succeeds in inspiring his/her students’
passion for studying both under his/her guidance in class and out of class by
themselves. I highly appreciate this third quality of a good teacher because of its
undeniable value. It is not always easy to provide his/her students with all the
required knowledge in class; therefore, a good teacher can manage to make the
students motivated enough to carry on their active and successful self-study at
home. Obviously, teaching his/her students how to study independently, creatively
and effectively is what a good teacher must do in any academic setting.
In conclusion, to be a good teacher, anyone who devotes himself/herself to the
“coinage” of a succession of young generations must keep on working really hard

to enlarge his/her skill and general as well as professional knowledge, to
accumulate experience in how to deal with his/her students properly and to be able
to inspire in the students the true love, the increasing hope and the ever-lasting
enthusiasm to reach higher and higher levels of education in their life. Those are
important qualities of a good teacher.
12./ Should teachers give pupils too much homework? Discuss.
Many people now think that teachers give pupils too much homework. They say
that it is unnecessary for children to work at home in their free time. Moreover,
they argue that most teachers do not properly plan the homework tasks they give to
pupils. The result is that pupils have to repeat tasks which they have already done
at school.
Recently many parents complained about the difficult homework which teachers
gave to their children. The parents said that most of the homework was a waste of
time, and they wanted to stop it. Spain and Turkey are two countries which stopped
homework recently. In Denmark, West Germany and several other countries in
Europe, teachers cannot set homework at weekends. In Holland, teachers allow
pupils to stay at school to do their homework. The children are free to help one
another. Similar arrangements also exist in some British schools.
Most people agree that homework is unfair. A pupil who can do his homework in a
quiet and comfortable room is in a much better position than a pupil who does his
homework in a small, noisy room with the television on. Some parents help their
children with their homework. Other parents take no interest at all in their
children’s homework.
It is important, however, that teachers talk to parents about homework. A teacher
suggests suitable tasks for parents to do with their children. Parents are often better
at teaching their own children
13./ INTRODUCE YOURSELF
About yourself
The outline:
1. My name – age – address

2. My family – how many people – what they do
3. What I do – what I like, etc.
4. What I wish to be when I grow up – Why?
5. The end
I am an Indian boy. My name is Sanjay. I am fourteen years old. I live in the town
of Klang.
I have three sisters and two brothers. My sisters are older than I am. My brothers
are younger than I. they all go to school. My father is a teacher. He is not very old.
My mother works at home. She is a very nice lady. I love her very much.
I go to a school in the town. It is a large school. I learn many lessons in school,
such as English, Bahasa Malaysia and many others. Of all these lessons I find
English is the most difficult to learn. But I enjoy learning English. It is a beautiful
and important language.
I play all kinds of games. The game I like most is football. I play football with my
friends every day. Football is a very interesting game.
When I grow up I wish to be a teacher. If I become a teacher, I can teach hundreds
of boys and girls. I can help them to read and write and become cleverer. At the
same time, I too can learn many more things. I hope that I will get my wish.
My friends are of many races. Some are Chinese, some are Malaysian and some
are Indian. I like my friends very much. I am indeed a very happy boy. I hope that I
shall always be happy.
14./ What difficulties are you facing in choosing a career?
Almost every school leaver is confronted with a very important question that is
nearly impossible to answer: The question of what to do next. As for me, I was
bugged by my plans for the future from the very moment I finished my last
examinations. In addition, there is also the question of passing time during the few
months of waiting for my results. During this time, I had a choice of enjoying
myself or looking for a temporary job or even taking up an interesting course, I did
all three of them. Unfortunately I was not successful in getting to a university, so I
had to enter the job market.

I had always desired to take up teaching as a career. First of all I love children.
Secondly I believe teachers are important people as they groom the citizens of
tomorrow. As I grew older my exposure to the outside world has made me believe
that there are many other careers that could interest me. I believe that I am facing
the problem or psychological changes that any teenager would be facing during the
period from childhood to adulthood.
I tried relief teaching during my holidays in search of the teaching career. The
experience I had was valuable as I managed to grasp the duties, responsibilities and
challenges of a teacher. I discovered my lack of working experience. Since I
gathered quite a lot of information from the short period of teaching, I decided that
I could choose any career by working on a temporary basis. The successful stories
of how some people started off doing only odd jobs in beginning spurred me on.
However this does not seem possible in the present gloomy economic situation. I
also face of another problem where employers are not too keen in employing job
hoppers like me.
My third problem concerns professional skills. For instance a secretary or
computer programmer requires a certain level of knowledge in the field of typing,
filing, shorthand and computer programming. These prerequisites can only be
achieved through comprehensive courses. My concern is over which I should
acquire and discover the abilities inherent in me.
These are the problems I face in choosing a career like other school leavers. I
believe parents play an important role in choosing a career by allowing the children
to expose themselves to part-time jobs. This way they can narrow down their
career choices more easily. Seminars, talks or discussions on careers can also help.
15./ Today there is some changes in the educational system. In your opinion,
how should we change to raise the quality teaching?
Education is to draw the best in children and to develop their faculties. Education
is a complicated affair as it is supposed to equip children for life. Since life styles
are always changing, the contents of education must also be changed accordingly.
The school is supposed to provide necessary experiences to the child. When a child

leaves the school, he may lead a useful life.
But in the traditional school, the child was supposed to learn mainly the 3 R’s. So
the chalk bard and the text books were the main stay of the teacher who was to
shape the character of the child. Rote memory was insisted upon and examinations
were based on this learning technique. There was not much of a difference from
year to year on the way children were tested. The examinations conducted did not
test all the faculties of the child. So, it was necessary for those who got through
examinations to be trained afterwards. In short, children were very rarely taught to
learn for themselves. This had continued for so long and the practice had to be
abolished.
Once this was realized, many new methods of teaching were tired and many new
aids had been used for a better education of children. Today the school is a very
complicated organization; the teacher is no longer the sole arbiter. The children,
instead of being passive listeners, have been made active participants. They are
handling, feeling, planning, creating and learning with newer tools and aids. The
subjectivity has give place to healthy objectivity.
In order to make education relevant and meaningful, children are exposed to
almost life like situations. They must know how to live as good citizens and honest
members of society. They must know how to live as good citizens and honest
members of society. The way the school creates situations with these ends in views
is important.
On the intellectual side, the library and the laboratory must play a vital role. They
complement and supplement more and more, and the use of library and the
laboratory must be encouraged through proper assignments. The playing field,
various camps, many organizations like the Junior Red Cross, etc. have to be fully
utilized to shape the character of the child. Beside the text books, there are other
aids for learning. They much be judiciously used. In fact, there are hundreds of
ways in which the audio-visual aids can be used with advantage.
Examinations must not be used to show weakness but must be a yardstick for
proving the all-round education of the student. The questions must be objective and

reliable. The examinations must be welcomed by the students. In order to satisfy
the diverse population, there must be diversity in programs, approaches, resources
and aims and room for experiment. Examinations should be a challenge for
students.
The world is shrinking and nobody can feel parochial. So education must equip
students for world understanding and world citizenery. Science and technology
must find their places in any scheme of education. Any system of education must
help turn out a fully developed and all-rounded personality.
16./ Talk about the things you like most.
There are so many things around us that one finds it hard to have a special
preference for a few particular things. I, however, take a special interest in motor-
car and television.
Motor-cars have always fascinated me. Since my childhood I have been traveling
in motor-cars, and I have visited hundreds of places in this country. I have been to
remote villages and almost all the towns, large and small. Travel has broadened my
outlook on life. I have met various types of people, and my knowledge of the
people and places of this country has increased greatly. If I am at home or if I am
walking along a road, I feel the urge to travel as soon as I see a car.
It is because of motor-cars that I am able to do various types of work. In the
morning I go to my school, a long distance away, in my father’s car. After school I
go to my father’s plantation to help him in his work. Then I visit one of my
classmates and discuss our school work. Sometimes I visit the cinema, miles away.
If there were no motor-cars, I would not have seen so much. Even in this small
country, I would perhaps not have been able even to attend school.
The next thing that I like is television. Television helps us to watch and listen some
of the famous leaders of the world. We are also able to see some of the great events
of the day. In addition, we can get news from all parts of the world, and listen to
songs and music. Sometimes there are special programs which are very amusing.
The television programs become more interesting on a rainy day. We can then sit
in the comfort of our home and watch the television program. Even if we cannot

read the newspaper for some reason, television keeps us well informed about the
latest developments in the world. In this respect, television is better than the radio
because the pictures and incidents shown on television convey a better impression
than only the spoken words of the radio.
I shall therefore always have a special preference for the motor-car and television.
17./ Which do you think is more valuable – health or wealth? Give your
reason
Health, in my opinion, is more valuable than wealth which is only the aftermath of
the former.
Men by nature are acquisitive. They all hope to have a pleasant and comfortable
life. They spend the whole of their lives keeping up with their neighbors. Tom
buys a new color television; his neighbor Peter is bound to buy a bigger and better
one. Most of people want to possess all things either with their own money or with
money borrowed from credit banks or insurance companies at a suitable rate of
interest.
However, once they are drained of strength, exhausted and breathless through their
hunt for wealth they all regret having wasted their health and efforts in
worshipping mammon. Wealth, therefore, is not always necessarily bound to bring
people’s happiness but it sometimes causes them misfortunes too. Those who are
avid of wealth are often dishonest and cunning. They resort to every trick to make
money and when they get dishonest earnings, they become addicted to opium,
gambling and prostitutes and all their ill – gotten gains will be dissipated – “ill –
gotten gains never prosper”. Then they find themselves in a state of distress, their
bodies get thinner and thinner, their minds become weaker. They are in the long
run parasites on families and society.
On the contrary, good health always brings about happiness. When we are quite fit,
strong and healthy, we feel genial, our mind becomes lucid and clear and we think
of noble things. If people do not have good health, strong body and an unflinching
spirit of enduring and overcoming, they will not be able to turn wilderness into
fertile soil which produces tons of food for their dear compatriots. Good health is

therefore necessary to happiness and success whereas bad health means misery and
continual failures. How can we feel happy when our body is in a morbid state
though we are living on a heap of gold!
In conclusion, we should feel no excessive greediness and enthusiasm for wealth
but should always maintain good health which is the most valuable thing in life.
18./ How do you relax when you are tired, nervous or angry?
To let off steam is the best thing a person can do when he is tired, nervous or
angry. There are ways and means for a person to do that. Usually it depends on the
person’s nature. For me, relaxing when I am tired is a must. To start with, I would
take a long, luxurious warm bath and wallow in the warmth of the water. The
stickiness on my body would be gone by then and I would finish it off with a cold
shower, which will leave my skin soft and tingling. Bath completed, time to get
myself into a loose fitting garment and there’s nothing better than curling up, with
a good book in hand. With the radio on, playing sentimental music and a plate of
fresh fruits besides me, I would then take a bite or two between every few pages of
reading. Snacks have to be by my side in case I run out of food. Full and contented,
taking a nap is the next best thing. Lowering my head, propped with two fluffy
pillows, I will be off in dreamland for the rest of the day. When I wake up, I would
switch on the television for my favorite shows, stretched full length on the sofa
eyes fixed to the set. Sometimes when none of the good shows are on television,
my next relaxing routine is just to feel the cool breeze on my face, teasing my hair,
relaxing in a park near my house. Life is so beautiful at times.
Tiredness is one thing but nervousness is another. Although I feel nervous at times,
especially during examinations, I am not that bad. However, I find that
nervousness is something which is difficult to conquer. Some people bite their
nails, others twirl their hair around their fingers and a few shift from foot to foot.
But for me, to curb nervousness I go for a jog around the evening when the
weather is cool and crisp. After which a cold chocolate sundae would top it off.
Screaming is the next best thing on my list. Then I’ll have a pillow fight with my
sister because with screaming I would feel I had got rid of the tension which is

thick enough to cut with a knife. Tension is something that would drain me out if I
don’t do anything about it. But when I am not that hysterical, I would go window
shopping browsing thoroughly in a particular section I like and if my cash is
sufficient, I will buy a few things. If not, browsing won’t hurt. At least it can help
me forget my nervousness. It also helps me to enjoy my life while it is still there.
Some people are gluttons. I do that sometimes myself and believe it or not, it
helps! A lot.
Counting till 100 is my best weapon against anger. I would count very slowly till
my anger melts away. But if counting doesn’t help, crying does. It is with crying,
you show what you really feel, and when I cry, my anger is washed away by my
tears. Crying helps me to relax because I do not keep my feelings bottled up and
feel like a nervous wreck deep down. I scream too loudly sometimes so that I
throw away my anger at everything especially the walls. As walls can’t fight back,
I would feel much better and satisfied like cat getting a saucer of cream. When I
am angry, I like to be alone. I can’t bear the sight of anybody and I feel rotten. So
the place I would go to is the beach. Listening to the sound of the waves, watching
them curl and lap at the beach’s edge, my anger will subside I feel that the beach is
a place which symbolizes tranquility, serenity and beauty. I can let my feeling
dance with the white horse riding in the water, while I away my time writing
poems, day-dreaming. Anger is a very strong weakness which many can’t fight
but, no matter how strong it is, it is no match for a thing of beauty. The easy way to
get rid of anger is to look at mirror, the wrinkles in forehead, and hardening of
cheekbones which is being reflected will immediately bring own anger, you may
even try it for good result!
19./ Discuss the view that tolerance is essential for peace and harmony in any
community or country.
The progress of any community or country depends largely on the conduct of the
people who reside in it. Discontent, jealousies, prejudices, and intolerance among a
few of the people can cause great damage to the whole community or country.
Gregarious by nature, men hate go live in isolation. The urge for association,

therefore, enables men to tolerate the views and habits of others, to great extent.
Most men have come to realize that the cohesion of society cannot be secured
without the exercise of tolerance on the part of its members.
A community or a country is composed of various types of people, whose
psychological social and temperamental attitudes and needs are not the same. In a
great number of cases, there are fundamental differences even in race, language
and religion among the people. This is the result of the economic and social
necessities of the modern age, which have compelled people to leave their original
homes and live among people of foreign descent. These diversities in a community
or country necessitate the maintenance of a tolerant attitude on the part of the
people towards one another. They have to respect the cultural and social habits and
beliefs of one another and refrain themselves from doing, or saying things which
might offend the susceptibilities of some people. The racial and religious clashes
that have occurred in various parts of the world indicate the damage that the
expression of hatred and prejudice can cause in a country. Even differences in the
color of the skin can cause trouble and violence in a community, and when
passions are aroused, men lose their reason and sense of proportion and indulge in
the most barbaric acts. Innocent lives become the victims of insensate cruelty.
That tolerance is essential for peace and harmony in a country could be illustrated
by reference to the people in Malaysia, a country in which people of various races
reside. Despite cultural, racial and religious differences among themselves, the
people here have lived for generations in peace and harmony. They have also
helped one another in various ways at various times. It must be admitted, however,
there have been a few incidents from time to time caused by communal differences
in certain localities, yet they can hardly be attributed to the development of a new
nation, which has become the envy of many countries. The racial unity among the
people is the main factor that has contributed to the progress of the country in all
spheres of activity.
Another country that deserves mention is the United States of America. The people
of this country too are made up of a diversity of races and cultures. Yet, by

tolerance, cooperation and goodwill among the people as a whole, it has become
the richest country in the world. All this proves what could be achieved by the
people of a community or a country who exercise tolerance among themselves
20./ Ways to help students enlarge their vocabulary
It is a self-evident truth that a good command of a language requires a knowledge
of both its grammar and vocabulary as structural patterns serve as building blocks
that hold lexical items together. Therefore, in addition to teaching grammatical
rules, English teachers must help their students enlarge their vocabulary. This will
not come as a daunting task to language teachers if they know that they can offer
assistance to their students in their vocabulary learning and vocabulary expansion
in the following ways.
Teachers can first help by raising students’ awareness of the importance of
vocabulary learning and expansion. As can be seen, not all students are fully
conscious of the necessity of having a wide vocabulary of English. Some students
may emphasize the acquisition of linguistic structures over that of vocabulary
because the former, in their opinion, can help them operate effectively inn English.
However, it is not difficult to find cases in which it is words, not grammatical
structures that help one get his message across. For example, a speaker can still
make himself understood even though he produces a grammatically incorrect
sentence like ‘Yesterday I meet mine old friend’. Therefore, language teachers
should give priority to making students aware of the important role that vocabulary
plays in language learning. Only when students realize the significance of knowing
the lexis of a language will they make effort to learn words and increase their
vocabulary.
Second, teachers can help students enrich their vocabulary by teaching words in
context. The reasons for this technique are not difficult to understand. For one
thing, the environment in which a word occurs with other words that will decide
which meaning of the word is intended. Lexical items should thus not be presented
to student in isolation; they should be presented in clear and meaningful contexts
so that students can work out which sense of the word concerned in used. For

another thing, students will get into the habit of guessing the meaning of new or
unknown words form context, a badly needed skill for their vocabulary expansion.
It is because when they first encounter new vocabulary items students will rely on
the context as a clue to their intended meaning. In this way the meaning or use of
the word will be retained longer in their mind.
Moreover, teachers can promote students’ vocabulary learning and expansion by
teaching words in relation to other words. It is highly recommended that specific
words such as red, blue, yellow should be related to the generic term color, that
words like happy should compared with happily, happiness, unhappy, unhappily
and unhappiness, that words like book should be extended to notebook, textbook
and handbook and that acceptable combinations like headache, earache,
stomachache should be identified as opposed to illegitimate ones like eye ache or
throat ache. In other words, teachers do not simply teach certain words as discrete
lexical items; teachers have to present words in a network established by such
language phenomena as sense relations word formation and collocation. An
additional teaching tip is that teachers can present vocabulary in categories of
words depending on topics. Teachers can ask students to keep a notebook to record
words in different sections for different themes or topics so that they can develop
their vocabulary systematically. In this sense, students not only learn, for example,
a single word happy but several connected forms like happily, happiness, unhappy,
unhappily and unhappiness and other words referring to human emotional states
like glad, pleased, sad, and depressed. This will certainly lead to a massive increase
in the number of words students learn and acquire.
One more thing that teachers can do to help their students to widen their
vocabulary is to train them in dictionary using skills. Naturally, teachers cannot
provide students with all the words they need. So dictionaries will serve as their
best source of reference outside class time. And that is the reason why students
should be given practice in using dictionaries. Teachers can start by recommending
a good bilingual dictionary such as an Oxford or Cambridge or Longman learners’
dictionary. Certainly, a monolingual dictionary has a role to play but an English –

English dictionary would expose learners more to the language. As learners’
dictionaries often define more complex words by means of simpler words, students
can get at the meaning without switching back to their mother tongue. What is
more, as easy and familiar words are used to explain new words, the former are
recycled, thus facilitating students’ comprehension and acquisition of the latter.
Then teachers can spend some of their class time showing students how to use the
dictionary they have recommended. For example, they can set exercises in which
students have to look up some new words from their reading or listening texts. This
will force them to get to know the symbols and abbreviations used in the dictionary
and to choose the most appropriate meaning of the words from a range of
meanings listed in the dictionary.
In conclusion, there are just a few ways in which teachers can help their students
enlarge their vocabulary. It is hoped that with the help and guidance from the
teacher, students can first discover the value of vocabulary learning and expansion
in language learning and then develop strategies to increase their vocabulary.