Friday 15 May 2009

English For Young Learners: The Student Standard Website

Hi there! My dear blog chasers!I suppose that many of you from my classes know that I give theStandard.com.hk huge credit for their free English news service and the appropriateness of their level of English used. However, just as I thought that was about all for the website, I realized that I was only half way through my feast of knowledge!For those of you who have children in primary and secondary school, you have got to check this part of the Student Standard out!

http://www.student.thestandard.com.hk/student/index.asp 

Here you can find listening and reading practices for your children relating to the latest news, so you can kill “three” birds with one stone!

There is also the VIEWPOINT section which you can read what some of the students have to say about the new articles from the previous issues, thus your children will get to know the English level of some other children and hopefully motivate them to learn better English after seeing what others can write.

The VOCABULARY section will allow you to revise some of the words that appeared in certain selected article. It comes with meanings and you can even listen to the pronunciation of the word by the click of a button!The Goodies page is more or less another linking page to the previous one, but a bit more colourful, and it also comes with the a selected article on Liberal Studies. Why not getting your children to learn a bit about the politics of Hong Kong? That should give them more ideas as to what social responsibility is!

http://www.student.thestandard.com.hk/goodies/index.asp

Here is one example of the listen and read from the goodies page.

http://www.student.thestandard.com.hk/goodies/lr_content_vpdf.asp?id=777

You will realize that the pace is slow for the speaker and it is suitable for children even at a young age. It is advisable that you can read it with your children instead of letting them practise on their own so that you can provide them with a bit more information of the topic. It also enhances your bond with your children and you both can learn English together (trust me, there are things you can learn from there too), why not?Enjoy the fun of learning!