On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:45:38 -0500, cavelamb
wrote:

Ignoramus967 wrote:
My 9 year old got his report card scores today. His percentile rank is
at 99% in math, but only 92% in English.

I think that he can do better than than on English. I got 90% on GMAT
verbal part, after just one year of living here, and he's lived in the
US for 9 years, out of which he spoke English for 6 years.

My question is how do we improve his English, given his age of 9. My
first thought is that he needs to just find something that he likes to
read about and read a lot more. I think that simply reading good books
(good as in, giving some examples of good use of the language) is
already a big help.

My second thought is maybe he just needs to find some fun club, group,
discussion forum, theater, tutor or something like that that would
somehow make him more interested in learning English. He has a math
tutor who tries to keep him interested in math, maybe we can find some
equivalent of that for English.

I never studied English formally, so I am not very experienced in such
matters.

i

My first try hasn't shown up yet, so I'll try again.
It said...


"To teach is to learn".

Have him teach you.
Not that there is anything wrong with your command of the language, ig.
But it is a good tactic.

Someone mentioned diagramming sentences.
That would be an excellent place to start.

I think that's a horrible place to start!
Let that formality and discipline happen at school if it happens at
all.

There is much more to language than structure and rules. Language is
about communication. The best way to learn language is to be exposed
to many good examples of that language well used. It is more likely
to "connect" if reading well-written material becomes an enjoyable way
to spend liesure time. I define "well-written" here as material
that communicates effectively, engages the reader. Most novels are
fraught with grammatical violations. These violations are not usually
accidental; editors are very good at catching grammatial gaffes. They
are used for emphasis or effect or to be colloquial. Davy Crockett
probably said "ain't" now and then, and (horrors) may have even
regarded prepositions as acceptable words to end sentences with...