Before learning difficult English, every student in Japan should master the correct use of articles and prepositions. And they must be able to ask and answer easy questions right away. I made the following test. Students must get a perfect score. English learned in junior high school is sufficient. However, even though nearly everybody in Japan learned English for 6 years in junior high school and high school, many will not get a perfect score. This indicates a very weak foundation. And a strong “English” house cannot be built on a weak foundation.
I recommend that high school English teachers try this test with their students. Then check the results and teach the points where they made mistakes to them again. I truly believe to do so is essential to strengthening their foundation for the study of English and without it, they will never have sufficient confidence to speak English.
You see, these things such as correct usage of articles, prepositions and compass directions along with the handling of countable and uncountable nouns, plurals and singular and the infamous need to add “s” to verbs in sentences having third person present tense are things that cannot be learned merely by drilling grammar rules. These things require a lot of practice until they are “felt” when they are correct. But they can be assimilated with much practice and the confidence gained through this can make the difference between a student deciding to become a skilled speaker or one who says “I was always poor at English in school” or “I always hated English”.
The teacher’s dedication to giving students confidence makes all the difference. That dedication can be contagious and inspire students to actually try to do what they need to do to succeed. At every Smith’s school this is our primary goal: coaching confidence.
Al Bartle (Smith’s School of English – Okamoto)
Test (Part 1) 30 points : fill in the blanks.
- There is ___ book on the table.
- ____ book is ___ dictionary.
- There is ___ball___the floor _____the table.
- ____table has ____legs.
- ____book is closed.————————————————————-
- ___ is _______ a newspaper.
- ____is ______ a letter ____ a pen.
- They are ______ ____ the table.
- He is ________ glasses.
- The newspaper is ____ his hands.
- The paper is ____ the table ___ _____ ____ her. ——————————————————————-
- This is a _____ of the U.S.A., Canada and Mexico.
- Canada is ______ of the United States.
- The U.S.A. is in ______ America.
- New York is a city ___ the east coast __ the United States.
- ___ U.S.A is _______ Canada and Mexico. ———————————————-
(Part 2) 50 points: write answers for the following questions.
1. What’s New York?
2. Where’s Paris?
3. What are there in a library?
4. What’s France?
5. Where is your handkerchief?
6. What’s a cat?
7. What’s bread?
8. What nationality are you?
9. Who is the prime minister of Japan?
10. What’s a pen?
(Part 3) 20 points: Write questions for the following answers.
1. Question:
Answer: I get up at 6:30 a.m.
2. Question:
Answer: I live in Ikeda City.
3. Question:
Answer: It’s used for writing.
4. Question:
Answer: I can speak two languages.
Have your teacher check, score and correct your test.
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