English in Action

A fun way to learn a language

By Julia Martinovic

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Last week we got to spend four days with three native English speakers. They taught us about Britain today and how to properly speak English.

Ken, Sara, and Louis used fun activities to teach us. We played games, watched videos, held presentations, and so on. They have implemented the phrase “learning by doing” correctly.

The thing I learned in this week is that you learn things more easily when you study in a fun way. Listening to native English speakers improved my English a lot. But I didn´t only learn, that I also gained a lot of knowledge about the UK. They introduced us to their traditional foods, music festivals, TV shows and a lot more.

My favorite lessons personally where the ones with Louis. He was very motivated and influenced us with his positive energy. Sara´s and Ken´s classes were funny too of course. The most inviting topic for me was the British food. I love food, and so it was interesting to hear what people in the UK eat. Unfortunately, I have to say, their food doesn´t look the most appetizing. But it still looks better than Scottish food.

I really enjoyed that week with them and would most definitely do it again.  

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“English in Action” came to town!

By Annika Mayer

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Three English speaking teachers called Sara, Ken and Louie visited our school in the course of a project called “English in Action”.

Ken, Louie and Sara showed us how to present a presentation properly and confidently, for example without filler sounds. Filler sounds are sounds you accidentally or unconsciously make to fill the silence between your sentences. With the help of filler sounds you also provide yourself with time to think, but in many instances, perhaps even in most cases, those noises make you seem unprofessional. To avoid using them, prepare a key word slip and practice the presentation at home.

My favorite lesson was with Sara, we talked about our celebrity crushes for like half an hour and showed each other pictures of them. In that lesson we talked a lot and thereby practiced our English communication skills without even realizing it.

Through this course we have learned to try and dare to communicate in a language that is not our mother tongue and that we cannot speak fluently. At the end we received a special certificate and candy for our achievement.

All in all, “English in Action” was a great experience, it did not feel like regular school lessons, but more like a "study group" with friends.

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