On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:51:59 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:24:42 -0500, 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

Take hiim to a public library and introduce him to books. There is a
lot of good children's fiction. Enjoyable reading from good authors
will improve his English skills by osmosis, while being an enjoyable
activity. Summer is an excellent time to do this.

SciFi is a good starter for kids. Lots of younger SciFi out there.
Early Heinlein is a Great starter for kids.

I was hummm 6-8, couldnt read a word, had no use for it. Then Mom
brought home a Tom Swift book from the library. By the time the summer
was over..Id read the entire set, was up to 7th grade reading level.
This was when I was just into kindergarden /1st grade somewhere about
that age. By the time I was in 5th grade, I was reading at
graduate/college level.

And Ive been a book junkie ever since. When I went into the military in
71..I took a refridg shipping box..fullsized upright kitchen fridge,
filled with books to the library and donated them before shipping out.
A ton of Ace doubles etc etc..nearly all SciFi

Gunner, with about 6000 here at the homestead


One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that,
in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers
and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are
not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.
Gunner Asch