Listening for Key Information, Pronouns, Personal Narratives and Summarising

1. Active Listening

Active listening: Paying full attention to a speaker in order to understand and remember the message.

2. Key Information to Listen For

When you listen to a story or announcement, listen for the 5 Ws and H: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? These questions help you pick out the main facts. For instructions, listen for the order of steps. For opinions, listen for reasons.

3. Listening Text (read aloud by the teacher)

"Good morning, everyone. This is an announcement from the Ghana Meteorological Agency. Heavy rains are expected in the Greater Accra, Central and Eastern Regions from Thursday evening until Saturday morning. Residents in low-lying areas, especially near the Odaw River, are advised to move valuable items to higher ground. Drivers should avoid flooded roads, and parents should keep children away from open drains. The National Disaster Management Organisation, NADMO, will open emergency shelters at public schools. For more information, call the NADMO hotline. Thank you."

4. Notes on the Listening Text

5. Expressing Ideas After Listening

After listening, you should be able to retell the key points in your own words and give your opinion: "The announcement warned that heavy rains are coming from Thursday to Saturday. I think it is important because floods in Accra have destroyed many homes in the past."

6. Barriers to Listening

Several things can stop us from listening well: noise from outside, tiredness, hunger, thinking about something else, or deciding that the speaker is boring before they have finished. Some barriers can be removed, for example by closing a window or sitting closer to the speaker. Others need self-control, such as putting away a phone and focusing on the speaker's message.

1. Types of Pronouns

2. Subject and Object Pronouns

Use subject pronouns before the verb and object pronouns after verbs and prepositions. Correct: "Kofi and I went to the farm." "The teacher called Kofi and me." A simple test is to remove the other person: "The teacher called me" (not "called I").

3. Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and object are the same person: "She dressed herself." They can also add emphasis: "The headteacher himself came to see the match." Do not use them in place of personal pronouns: say "Ama and I", not "Ama and myself".

4. Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns join a clause to a noun. Use "who" for people, "which" for animals and things, "whose" for possession and "that" for people or things: "The boy who sits near me is from Tamale." "The book which I borrowed is interesting." "The woman whose child was lost thanked the police."

5. Agreement

A pronoun must agree with the noun it replaces in number and gender: "The girls finished their work." "Each learner must bring his or her book." Collective nouns usually take "it" when the group acts as one: "The team won its match."

1. Features of a Personal Narrative

2. Planning a Narrative

3. Model Narrative: My First Trip to Cape Coast

I will never forget the Saturday our class visited Cape Coast Castle. We left school at six o'clock in the morning in a big blue bus, singing all the way.

When we arrived, the castle looked enormous and white against the bright blue sea. Our guide led us down narrow steps into the dungeons. The air was cold and damp, and it smelled of old stone. As he described how enslaved Africans were kept there for weeks, the whole class fell silent. I felt a lump in my throat.

Finally, we walked through the "Door of No Return". On the other side, waves crashed against the rocks. I stood there for a long time, thinking about the people who never came back.

On the way home, nobody sang. That trip taught me how important it is to know our history so that such cruelty never happens again.

4. Techniques for Interesting Narratives

Start with a strong opening sentence that catches attention. Use time words such as "early in the morning", "suddenly", "after a while" and "finally" to keep events in order. Show feelings through actions ("my hands were shaking") instead of only saying "I was afraid". Use some dialogue to bring characters to life.

1. Main and Supporting Ideas

Main idea: The most important point the writer wants to make in a paragraph or text.

Supporting ideas: Details, facts, examples and reasons that explain or prove the main idea.

2. Steps in Summarising

3. Reading Passage: Plastic Waste in Our Towns

Plastic waste has become one of the biggest environmental problems in Ghanaian towns. Every day, thousands of sachet-water bags, bottles and polythene bags are thrown on the streets and into gutters.

This waste causes serious harm. Blocked drains lead to flooding during the rainy season, as residents of Accra know too well. Stagnant water in choked gutters also becomes a breeding place for mosquitoes, which spread malaria.

However, there are solutions. Some companies now buy used plastics and recycle them into bags, paving blocks and furniture. Communities can provide bins and organise regular clean-ups. Most importantly, every citizen must stop littering and dispose of plastic properly.

4. Summary of the Passage

Summary in one sentence: Plastic waste is a serious problem in Ghanaian towns because it causes flooding and malaria, but it can be reduced through recycling, clean-ups and responsible disposal.

5. Writing a Good Summary

Keep to the number of words or sentences you are asked for. Use your own words as much as possible instead of copying sentences, but keep important technical words such as "recycle". Join related ideas with linking words such as "because", "but" and "therefore". Do not add your own opinions or new information that is not in the passage. Finally, read your summary again and check that someone who has not read the passage would understand the main message.