Verb

Uses of Verbs

• Verbs tell you what the subject of a sentence or clause is doing (or being).
• Verbs are conjugated according to person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, or voice.

Action Verbs

Action verbs can also be actions you can't see such as: 

• Sue thought about pets.
• She wanted a puppy.

Action verbs are time-telling verbs. They also tell when something takes place. Examples:

• My dog runs faster than yours. (present tense)
• Yesterday he ran around the block. (past tense)
• Tomorrow he will run in a race. (future tense)

Actions verbs may be used alone as the main verb of a sentence; as in: 

• My kitten fell into the pond. 

Or the action verb may use a helping verb; as in: 

• If you get too close to the edge, you will fall too.

Non-action Verbs

Non-action verbs can indicate a state of being, sense, emotion, desire, possession, or opinion. The most common non-action verb is to be.

Helping Verbs

Helping verbs have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure of a sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. The "help" the main verb (which has real meaning).

Verb Phrases

Helping verbs and main verbs combine to form verb phrases. The main verb is always the last verb in the phrase.

Helping Verb + Main Verb = Verb Phrase

Not every sentence will have a helping verb with the main verb.

When you see an "ing" verb such as "running", be on the lookout for a helping verb also.

Sometimes there is another word which separates the helping verb from the main verb. One common example is "not", as in:

• The boy couldn't find his socks.

The helping verb is could and the main verb is find.

A sentence may contain up to three helping verbs to the main verb. An example would be:

• The dog must have been chasing the cat.

The helping verbs are: must, have and been; the main verb is chasing. 

State-of-Being Verbs

State-of-being verbs can be the main verb of the sentence; as in:

• Sally is my best friend.

Or a state-of-being verb can be used as a helping verb; as in:

• She is going on a vacation.

Note that the verbs: be, being, and been always NEED a helping verb; as in:

• Pat has been sick all week.

State-of-being verbs can show time. The present tense state-of-being verbs are: am, are, is. Past tense state-of-being verbs are: was and were.

English Stories and Activities

Following my previous post on "Cultivating Reading Habits in Kids", I am sharing here some English stories and activities (relevant to each stories) that parents or teachers can easily use at home or as in-class activity.

To make kids interested in the story, we as parents first need to be engaged and enthusiastic about the story. Here are some easy ways to get the kids enjoy reading:

1. Read stories with lots of illustrations / pictures. These illustrations could be very good hooks in each story that capture your kids attention and memory.
2. Ask questions based on the illustrations.
3. Relate the stories to real daily life.
4. Don't hesitate to make silly sounds or imitate voices.
5. Ask prediction questions. Ask what your kid thinks will happen next and how he would tackle a particular situation.

The following are English Stories & Activities, suitable for very young learners (Beginner and Medium Level).

English Stories & Activities (Beginner) from IMSHA LEARNING

English Stories & Activities (Medium) from IMSHA LEARNING

Cultivating Reading Habit in Kids

Many researchers have demonstrated the importance of reading habit in your children. A wealth of studies show that cultivating reading can have a significant impact on children and their future. For example,

• “Extensive reading was linked to superior performance on measures of general knowledge, vocabulary, spelling, verbal fluency, and reading comprehension.” – Cunningham and Stanovich, 1998
• “It is clear that reading early in life are critical factors in student success,” – Anthony W. Marx, president of the New York Public Library, New York Times (2015)
• “Students not reading well in third grade are 4 times more likely to drop out.” – Students First, Statistics About Education in America 
• “Research consistently shows strong correlation to reading & academic success at all ages” – National Center for Educational Statistics

Reading is a critical skill that needs to be promoted since an early age. Ultimately, the purpose of reading is comprehension - the ability to understand the intended meaning from the text. It is straightforward to see just how reading leads to academic success. Most of a child's learning through reading the textbooks, workbooks, and teacher's writing on the whiteboard. If a child cannot read those things, how would he answer questions of science, math, or any subjects? Impossible!

Here I'm listing three simple and doable tips/approaches on getting a child to read.

1. Be a role model
• Action speaks louder than word, isn't it? Plus, kids learn best from their parents. Read whatever you like - newspaper, novel, magazine, etc. - and encourage your kid to join you with his own book while you are reading.
2. Discuss what your child is reading
• Show interest in what your kid is reading. For example, while my kids are still reading a storybook, I would usually ask about what happened so far, the characters, and their feedback on the plot. 
3. Visit a library or a bookstore.
• Oh, these are my favorite places to visit. Believe me, it is so much easier to make reading fun when we are surrounded by books and readers! Try to create a library card/bookstore membership and let your kids choose any book that catches his attention.
• Perpustakaan Awam Selangor, Shah Alam: http://www.ppas.gov.my/index.php/perkhidmatan/waktu-perkhidmatan
• BookXcess, Cyberjaya (Open 24 hours): https://www.facebook.com/BookXcess/

Perpustakaan Awam Selangor, Shah Alam



BookXcess, Tamarind Square, Cyberjaya

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Grammar: Question Tag

Question tag is a short question that we put at the end of statement. It is usually used to:

• confirm that something is true or not
• encourage a reply from the person we are speaking to

The rules are very simple:

1. If the main part of the sentence is positive, the question tag is negative
• positive statement --> negative tag
2. If the main part of the sentence is negative, the question tag is positive
• negative statement --> positive tag

Examples:

A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag.

1. Sam is from India, isn't he?
2. Roy can help, can't he?
3. We are traveling to Switzerland next month, aren't we?

A negative statement is followed by a positive question tag.

1. He shouldn't say things like that, should he?
2. You haven't contacted her, have you?
3. Our family wont agree with this, will they?

Some of the very basic transformation of question tags:

• is → isn’t
• am→ aren’t
• are→ aren’t
• will→ won't
• do → don't
• does → doesn’t
• did → didn’t
• must → musn’t
• should → shouldn’t
• have → haven’t
• has → hasn't 
• can→ can’t

Here is an exercise on question tag:

Question tag from IMSHA LEARNING

English Grammar: Article

What is article?

• Article is word used before a noun (or adjective) to denote whether the noun is specific or not.
• A, an and the are articles.

There are two types of articles:
1) Indefinite Article

• Indefinite articles are used for non-specific nouns.
• "a" and "an" are indefinite articles.
• Article "a" is used before a countable noun that starts with a consonant sound. 
• Examples: a chair, a lamp, a month, a university, a camera, a car
• Example sentence: I want to buy a computer.
• In this sentence, we find the article "a". It shows us that the speaker does not need a specific computer. He can have any computer.

• Article "an" is used before a countable noun that starts with a vowel sound (any of these sounds: 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o' or 'u')
• Examples: an apple, an umbrella, an hour, an ambulance, an event
• Example sentence: I want to eat an orange.
• In this sentence, we find the article "an". It shows us that the speaker does not need a specific orange. He can have any orange.

Worksheets: Biographies of Famous People

Young students enjoy stories a lot, be it fictional or non-fictional. Incorporating stories in lesson is an effective way to engage them in learning. Say for example, we want them to learn certain vocabularies, we can include those words in the story we want to cover. As a result, they could better grasp the new vocabulary as they see how it is used in context. Also, the more elaborately students encode the new word during its initial lesson, the better they could recall the new word (if you're interested, you may want to look up the cognitive topic of "maintenance rehearsal vs elaborative rehearsal").

Undeniably, there are lots of other things students could learn by reading biographies - of famous people. Plus, true stories are more inspiring than fiction.

These are some of the objectives of the lesson and activities that we can expect our students to achieve:

1. To understand what is a "biography". 
• Explain that biography narrates a person's life and achievements, specifically those who have made a difference in the world. 
2. To acquire new vocabularies.
• Discuss the key and new vocabulary words from the biographies. 
3. To gain the benefits of learning biographies.
• Inspirational readings for students - students should understand that everyone has their own struggles but from biographies they learn how these inspiring people faced problems, overcame obstacles, but determined to succeed.
• Students learn that hard work and perseverance are the key elements needed in the process of being successful. 

Tips:

1. The students might feel burdened/bored if we directly dive into the biography, because the text might be long and some words might be novel to them. So, we should make them excited on what they are going to learn. How? One and the most practical way is to make your introduction relevant and relatable to their prior knowledge.
2. To keep their interest, understand them and bring the story to where they want to rather than expecting them to come to our level. We should be able to modify our lesson according to the student's needs.

Here are some of the biographies of important figures in history along with some related comprehension exercises. They are:

1. Neil Armstrong
2. Albert Einstein
3. Steve Jobs

UPSR - English (Quick Review)

Here, I've prepared a very basic note, special for students who will be sitting for the UPSR examination. It includes the major topics that are usually covered in the exam paper, especially in Section A of Paper 013 - Comprehension.

UPSR - English (Quick Review) from IMSHA LEARNING

Included here also the JPG version of the very same note as above. To save, right click on the image.

UPSR - English Review

The topics covered are:

• Noun
• Verb
• Subject-Verb Agreement
• Pronoun
• Adjective
• Adverb
• Preposition
• Conjunction
• Article
• Proverbs / Idioms
• Modal
• Past Tense
• Question Tag
• Who vs Whom

UPSR 2016 - English Paper (Actual UPSR Papers)

Key notes:

• There are 2 papers for English subject, 
• Paper 013 - Comprehension
• Paper 014 - Writing
• Both papers will be graded separately (if a student gets an "A" for Paper 013, he's not necessarily get the same grade for Paper 014, depending on his performance in each papers)
• Time allocated for both Paper 013 and Paper 014 are 1 hour 15 minutes each.
• Total possible points for both papers are 50 marks each.

Here is an analysis based on the actual paper for UPSR 2016:

UPSR 2016 - Analysis of Actual English Papers from IMSHA LEARNING

UPSR: Proverbs and Idioms

Although there's usually only one question on proverb or idiom (particularly in Paper 1 - MCQ), students have nothing to lose in learning new proverbs and idioms. The benefit is obvious when they come across those phrases later in life.

But, first of all, what's the difference between proverbs and idioms? Here, I quoted the definition of both according to Merriam-Webster:

An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning of its own that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words. 

Here are some examples of idioms:

• break a leg
• over the moon
• a little bird told me

If translated literally, "break a leg" means to break a person's leg with a stick or anything. But, the idiomatic meaning is to wish someone good luck before any event, exam or performance. So, the meaning should be taken figuratively and can be understood only as a whole since the combination of words when taken together has a meaning different to its literal interpretation.

A proverb is a short popular saying that gives advice about how people should behave or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true. Here are some examples:

• Curiosity killed the cat. 
• Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. 
• A stitch in time saves nine. 

Compared to idioms, a proverb can stand on its own, meaning the words mean what they define. For example, "Curiosity killed the cat" means being curious can get you into trouble. In short, proverbs are wise sayings based on comon sense or practicality. Every culture has it. In Malay culture, for example, we have, "Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya jatuh ke tanah jua" which means no matter how cunning you are, you'll finally get busted.

UPSR 2017 - English Paper 013 & 014 Exercises

UPSR is approaching very soon! So, here I've uploaded some exercises students can do on their own. These files can be easily downloaded (if you have SlideShare account) within few seconds. Answers for multiple choice questions (Paper 013 - Section A) are included at the very end of the document. I purposely segregated the papers into their respective sections, so as not to massing all in their one formatted paper, hence easier for students to practice sections they feel/think need to focus on.

So, there are 5 documents in total. The last document is exercises for Paper 2 - Section C, with sample essays at the back.

UPSR 2017 - English Paper (Sample UPSR Papers)

There is a new format for English paper starting from 2016. Now, students have to take 2 papers, well they are not actually taking additional papers, but rather English subject will now be graded in 2 papers, just like the Bahasa Melayu papers. The 2 papers are;

• English Paper 1 - Paper 013 (Bahasa Inggeris Pemahaman)
• English Paper 2 - Paper 014 (Bahasa Inggeris Penulisan)

Here is an analysis based on a sample paper for UPSR 2016.

Analysis of Sample UPSR Paper (2016) from IMSHA LEARNING

Pronoun, Possessive Adjective & Possessive Pronoun

What is Pronoun?

• Pronouns are words that substitute nouns. 
• We use a pronoun often to avoid repeating the noun that has already been mentioned or that is already known.  
• Example: 
• Ali is a kind boy. Often, Ali helps people in need.
• Example with pronoun:
• Ali is a kind boy. Often, he helps people in need.
• 'He' is used to replace Ali in the second sentence.
• A different pronoun is used depending the function that noun has in the sentence. 
• At its most basic level, there are 2 types of pronoun:

• Subject pronoun 
• I, you, he, she, it, we, they
• subject pronoun are pronouns that perform the action (verb) in a sentence
• Example: 
• Ali is a kind boy. Often, he helps people in need.
• In the second sentence, 'he' is the actor performing the 'help' action

• Object pronoun
• me, you, him, her, it, us, the
• object pronoun are pronouns that receive the action in a sentence
• Example:
• Abu is hurt because Nick kicks him.
• In this sentence, 'him' is the noun receiving the 'kick' action.

How to Write A Formal Letter

What is a formal letter?

- A formal letter is letter written in formal language with a specific structure and layout. 

- We write formal letters to a teacher, a bank, a company or the local council. 

- It’s commonly used to seek permission, to request, to complain, to apply for something, etc.

Take a look at this example letter for ideas on how you should approach writing a formal letter.

Question: Write a letter to Mr Adam, the manager of Xendra Toys, complaining about a car you have bought.

Example of an Informal Letter

Below is an example of an informal letter. You will see that it follows the same format as discussed in the previous post. Hopefully you'll get better understanding of how an informal letter can be written.

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Question: You have just transferred to a boarding school. Write a letter letter to your friend telling him about new school. 

Here are some exercises you can do to assess your understanding:

1.   Write a letter to your brother who has transferred to a boarding school. 

2.   Write a letter to your favorite sport person. Tell him/her about yourself and what you like about his/her profession. You may want to ask this athlete some interesting questions too.

3.   A friend of yours who lives in another country wants to spend a holiday in Malaysia for a week. She has written asking for information and advice. Write a letter to her.

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You may download the example of this informal letter here.