How to Practice Your English Skills With Home Tutoring

English skills can be practiced at home with a tutor.

Home tutoring is a good way to develop and build on English speaking and listening abilities. Expanding activities to writing and reading increases proficiency and advances English skills quickly. A tutor can help to build conversations, ask questions and answer them. Using the Internet to locate practice exercises and every-day reading materials found in the home are some simple practice methods to begin with.

Things You'll Need

• Internet access
• Local newspaper
• Notebook or composition paper
• English dictionary

Instructions

1. Pick up a local newspaper. Go to the classifieds ad section, and find ads in each of the following areas: one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for rent. Locate three cars for sale: a Ford, a Chevy and a Toyota.

2. Write down the details for each ad along with the price. Explain to the tutor which car would be your choice, and why. For example, the Chevy might be less expesive than the Toyota, or the Ford might be newer than the Chevy.

3. Write up your own ad for something to sell. Include all details, such as contact information and price. For example, you might sell an antique lamp for $30 that was originally $150, or a car with 25,000 miles on it for $1,000.

4. Locate an article about a local event. Read it once to yourself and a second time out loud. Your tutor can correct your English as you speak or help you if you get stuck on a word.

5. Write three questions about the article. Ask your tutor these questions. Use them to build a conversation about the article. Questions might include why a baseball player did poorly or where the next game will be played.

6. Locate any homophones (the same word used with a different meaning) in the article. If there aren't any, locate another article that contains homophones and circle them. Look up each homophone in the dictionary and write down its meaning.

7. Write your own newspaper article. For example, if you read an article about a local sporting event, think of an event you attended recently and write about it.

8. Begin the first sentence with "I," the second sentence with "This" and the third sentence with "The" to practice simple tenses using positive phrases and sentences. Speak your article aloud and make changes to it if necessary.

9. Read your article aloud to the tutor, and have the tutor ask you three questions. Use these questions to start a conversation in English.

10. Practice grammar exercises using an online practice site, or print materials off of The Internet TESL Journal, a free website with practice materials for English language learners. Practice materials can be found in listening and speaking, reading, writing, grammar, kid English, dictionaries and games.

    TESL: Activities for ESL Students
    http://a4esl.org/

References

• Activities for ESL Students: Practice English Skills
• English Language Tutoring: Resources