Author: Msomi Bora

TOPIC 3: ASKING FOR SERVICES Services is the supplying or supplier of utilities or commodities such as water, transport, telephone, electricity, or gas, required or demanded by the public. Asking for services is the need of that service. Services are intangible commodities. When you go for services you pay money but not all services are seen in physical form, if you buy a voucher for telephone calls, you just get minutes to speak, or if you go to the hospital the commodity you get is the medicine to cure your health. In this topic we will talk more about making…

TOPIC 2: TALKING ABOUT EVENTS Narrating What Took Place in a Given Event When you are talking about an event, you have to know what took place in that event. The events took place either at home, in your street, school or nation wise. The event might be a celebration, an accident, elections or a sport match or game. When you want to Talk about an Event you have to Note the following: 1. The place where the event took place. 2. The date and time of an event. 3. Participants of that event; examples are the president, vice president,…

TOPIC 1: LISTENING TO VARIOUS SIMPLE ORAL TEXTS Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication. When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to read, and finally to write. These are called the four “language skills”. Listening Speaking Reading Writing As you can see, listening is the first language skill. It is perhaps the most important skill of all, and forms the basis for the other three. Listening is key…

TOPIC 16: WRITING A VARIETY OF TEXTS Complete this Visitor’s Card Name of visitor: Address: Arrival date: Destination: Flight no……………………………… Flight arrival time…………………… Writing Things/Notes in a Diary Diaries or journals are books where you write what has happen each day, year, month, week, etc. It is written to help the writer to remember important events and thoughts. In their diaries, writers comment on what they have seen recently or previously. They also describe their thoughts and feelings. They record the reasons for doing or liking certain things. The language used in diaries is usually informal and the writer will…

TOPIC 15: TAKING NOTES This is the process of taking notes, either from spoken or written text. For example, from radio, television broadcasting and different stories or speeches or in the papers. Important Points from Oral Texts What to consider when taking notes from different sources: 1. To note down important information. 2. Write in short phrases, not long sentences. 3. To use dashes and other marks to separate points. These marks are used to separate the noted points to avoid mingling and/or redundancies. Activity 1 Listen carefully from the text and take notes: Early marriage puts girls at great…

TOPIC 14: WRITING A PERSONAL LETTER Friendly or personal letters are means of communication through letter. We normally write letters to loved ones, including mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, lovers, wives, husbands, teachers, friends, etc. We normally use statements such as ‘Dear mother’, ‘Dear father’, ‘Dear sister’, ‘Dear friend’, ‘hi daddy’,’ hi mummy’, ‘hi aunt’. in the greeting (introduction part). We use expressions such as ‘your loving daughter’, ‘your loving son’, ‘your loving………’, ‘missing you……..’in the closing remarks. Components of a Friendly Letter 1.…

TOPIC 13: ANALYSING INFORMATION FROM MEDIA Facts from Media Facts are pieces of information regarded as truth beyond reasonable doubt that can be proved or verified. Activity 1 Read the article below extracted from a newspaper and identify factual information from it: It is a shame that many girls do not know how to say no to boys who make sexual advances on them. Some girls say no yet still use non verbal actions that suggest a ‘yes.’ What do you think the boy will believe? ‘Boys assume that ‘no’ is a half hearted yes’, said the minister for social…

TOPIC 12: INTERPRETING LITERARY WORKS This involves comprehension and summary while reading a class reader (books) its chapters, the following activities should be done. 1. Understanding the writing and pictures on the front cover, usually they summarize or give a piece of information of what is in the class reader (book) 2. Title of the class reader (book) – A name or topic which is discussed in the chapters 3. Author: A person writes a book must be memorized. 4. Main or chief character(s) he/ she is the main actor 5. Minor character persons or animals in the story 6.…

TOPIC 11: READING A VARIETY OF TEXTS (INTENSIVE READING) Intensive Reading refers to slow and careful reading in details which specific learning aims and tasks. Intensive reading involves reading for composition. Read the following composition then answer the question. “A Foolish Customer” One day Mr. Juha seat in a hotel drinking some coffee. A boy come to him that he was selling afternoon papers. “Which papers do you have? Juha asked. “I have the Daily news and The Guardian”, the boy said. “Well, give me both. How much do they cost?” Mr. Juha asked. “One thousand two hundred for both. The Guardian…

TOPIC 10: EXPRESSING FUTURE PLANS AND ACTIVITIES This topic enables students to express and talk about future plans or activities at school, home, street, market, shop, hospital etc situations. Talking about future plans/activities is normally done using words and expressions such as ‘will’, ‘shall’, ‘next’, ‘tomorrow’, ‘are going’ to’, ‘about to’, and infinitives such as can, may, could, should, would, might, etc. EXPRESS FUTURE PLANS There are four common ways to talk about future activities: 1. Future simple tense (I will do) 2. Future progressive (I’ll be doing) 3. Present continuous tense (I…