5 Ways to Improve English Language Skills for Secondary School Students

Watch the News

Students who watch the News twice a week can develop greater understanding of world events, complex issues and the human condition. This is helpful for GCSE English Language when the student is asked to form and argue opinions for or against a topic. It is also helpful for the student to start to make links between general knowledge in the world to ideas they read about in novels.  This connection helps to develop a depth of understanding when they read and will eventually flow into their creative and analytical writing.

Read a Newspaper

Buy a broadsheet newspaper (The Times or The Guardian) once a week. Reading these papers online is also good, however, it is helpful to create a reference notebook. Cut an interesting article out and stick it in a notebook to build up a bank of articles. Choose articles with images/statistics/charts, which can help to further the understanding of the article.  Underline new words and create a vocabulary list in the back of the notebook with definitions. This will provide excellent exam practice for the unseen section of the GCSE English Language paper as well as increase vocabulary.

Read Short Stories

Students today are very busy, as are their parents/guardians. Many students say they do not have time to read a whole novel. Instead of insisting they read a novel, suggest a short story. They are easily managed in one or two sittings and the student can feel a great sense of accomplishment quickly. It is also easy for the parent/guardian to read as well and the story can then be discussed as a family. Here are some short story suggestions you can access on the Internet.

• The Landlady by Roald Dahl
• Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
• The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
• A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys
• To Build a Fire by Jack London
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
• Araby by James Joyce
• The Fly by Katherine Mansfield

Read Poems

If your time is even shorter, then a quick poem works just as well. The goal is to get a general idea for what the poem is about and be able to say what you like or don’t like about the poem. Here are some classic poems that all students should know:

• The Tyger by William Blake
• A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
• Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
• Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
• The Song of Mr Toad by Kenneth Grahame
• Invictus by W.E. Henley
• Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
• Daffodils by William Wordsworth
• The Soldier by Rupert Brook
• Love and Friendship by Emily Bronte

Dinnertime discussions

Aim to sit down to dinner twice a week. At one dinnertime everyone comes to the table prepared to talk about something they read (including the parents/guardian). It can be a novel, short story, poem, newspaper article or something read online. At the second dinnertime, focus on story telling. Everyone tells a story from his or her day. If the family is short on anecdotes, you can start a round robin story. One person starts with a sentence and each person has to build up the story adding a sentence as the round progresses.

Example story starters:

He/She thought it was going to be an ordinary day but then…

He/She turned and wasn’t expecting to see…

It was darker than he/she thought…

There was a crash downstairs and then…

At first it was shocking, then it was just funny…

These five easy ideas can kick-start your child’s English Language adventure!