Every year, international students from all over the world come to Canada to study and improve their English while pursuing advanced degrees. However, students need to make sure that they study in the right way to kill two birds with one stone. Today, let’s take about how to improve students’ English at Huron International School to help students to grasp the limited time, improve their English, and become top students!
- English is hard? I can’t understand.
Can’t understand the English class? First, ask yourself why you don’t understand.
If the content is spoken in a different language by the teacher, can the students understand it completely? Most classmates can’t give a definite answer, right? If the class content takes time to understand, it will be difficult for students to overcome. And don’t think you’re the only person in the classroom, many new students are struggling to understand new knowledge.
In addition, Huron International School is equipped with bilingual classrooms. Students can listen to the lectures of teachers from famous schools and understand the content, so it will be easier to understand the English class.
- Develop a good habit of preview.
Canadian instruction requires students to preview each class. It’s not too late to start if your don’t have this habit.
The course design of the Canadian teachers is strict; the first lesson will introduce the course schedule of the whole semester. Students should read the schedule carefully and arrange to read articles according to the content of each lesson. If the teacher wants to talk about the content, check the words you don’t know in advance and listen to the knowledge you don’t understand, it will improve the efficiency of the class.
- I have never previewed before; what should I study?
According to the curriculum issued by the teachers at Huron International School, there are two types of materials that students should focus on.
Syllabus.
The syllabus for the semester is carefully prepared by the teachers of Huron International School, specifying the core of each lesson and even outlining the main points, the time of submission of assignments, the grading criteria, the weighting, the time of exams, etc. are displayed on the schedule. Students will study before each lesson according to this schedule – this is the shortcut the teacher gives, so you will know which way to think when you listen to the lecture and master the central idea.
Reading material.
Many courses will have a textbook, but many will also require you to read additional materials, which are uploaded to the platform weekly. Download it, open it, and read it. It is important to know that the materials uploaded by the teacher are closely related to the classroom knowledge, so reading the requested work from the teacher will be more beneficial to help students understand the classroom knowledge.
- How can I make myself better at listening to lessons?
Huron International School is a small classroom, so teachers can easily accommodate each student. But students also need to be actively involved in the classroom, thinking more, and answering more questions to truly be included. Also, sitting at the front of the class will be another good choice.
Students who want to listen to what the teacher is saying repeatedly can also use a recorder to record the main points of the teacher’s lessons. This will not only review what the teacher has said but also improve the student’s listening skills and adapt to the teacher’s speech rate.
Students should not use the recording as an excuse to slack off in class. Staying in sync with the teacher is an important part of the classroom experience and reviewing recordings do not make up for that.
- After class, do you find that you didn’t understand the lesson?
A lot of students leave class with mixed feelings with what the teacher said for the last hour. That’s when you need to rationally review what you didn’t hear.
If a teacher makes a joke you didn’t catch, then don’t worry, let them laugh it off, Westerners don’t have the same laughing points as Asians, we can’t laugh when we hear a joke until we understand the Western culture in depth.
If it’s a concept mentioned repeatedly that you didn’t respond to, then you do get frustrated because it could mean that you didn’t do a good enough job on the preview. At Huron International School, however, there are solutions to these situations.
- Ask the teacher. Our professional bilingual teachers offer free after-school and pre-test tutoring programs to help students solve problems and improve their performance.
- Seize the evening study time, do the preview and review the class content.
In addition to this, Huron International School increases non-classroom English communication for students from all angles: more English-only social activities are offered, and all faculty members talk to students in English, including in the cafeteria and dormitories. Allow students to improve their English skills in everyday conversation and get through the language transition as quickly as possible.
So, be sure to relax if you hear English that you don’t understand in class. But before relaxing, students are advised to try these methods mentioned in this article. It is believed that with your own efforts and the help of the school, you can improve your English proficiency significantly.