Listening, Predicting, Phrasal Verbs and Informative Writing

1. Active Listening to Media

Audio-visual texts include news broadcasts, documentaries, speeches, adverts and videos. They combine words, sounds and images, which all carry meaning. Passive viewing just lets it wash over you. Active viewing means asking what the message is, who made it and why. It also means noticing how music, camera angles and tone are used to affect your feelings.

2. Stages of Listening

3. Key Information

4. Language and Figures of Speech

Speakers use language to make their message stronger. A radio advert for clean water might say, "Water is life. Protect it." The short sentences, and the metaphor, make it memorable. A sports commentator's voice speeds up as the tension rises. A documentary may use serious music behind its narrator. When you respond, use words from the text: "The speaker's phrase 'a ticking time bomb' suggests that the danger is close." Support each idea with a detail.

5. Note-Taking While Listening

You cannot write every word, so focus on main points. Signal words such as "the main reason" and "in conclusion" tell you that something important is coming. In the B.E.C.E. and later studies, this skill helps you to follow lessons and lectures.

1. Making Predictions

Prediction: A reasoned guess about what will happen.

Predicting keeps your mind active as you read. Use clues from the title, pictures, headings and what has already happened. Add your own knowledge. Then read on to confirm or change your prediction. A prediction does not need to be correct to be useful. It simply has to be supported by evidence.

2. Reading Passage: The Letter

The envelope lay on the table for three days. Afia walked past it every morning, her eyes on the floor. It carried the stamp of the Ministry, and she knew what that might mean. Her mother had stopped asking about it. On the fourth day, the rain came early, and a drop fell through the old roof, landing on the paper. Afia picked it up, and her hands shook.

3. Patterns in Texts

4. Relationships Between Ideas

Writers link ideas in order to develop meaning. In the passage, the envelope, the old roof and Afia's fear are all connected. Without saying so directly, the writer suggests that the letter could change the family's life. We infer these connections from clues. When you are analysing a text, ask how each detail connects to others, and why the writer put them in that order. Repeated images, such as the leaking roof, can carry a deeper meaning.

5. Testing Your Predictions

After reading, look back. Which predictions were correct? What misled you? A surprise ending often works by making you predict one thing, then giving you another. Good writers play with what readers expect. Thinking about this can help you to enjoy stories more and to write better stories of your own.

1. What Are Phrasal Verbs?

Phrasal verb: A verb combined with a preposition or adverb, creating a new meaning.

The meaning of a phrasal verb cannot always be guessed from its parts. "Break" means to destroy, but "break down" can mean to stop working, or to start crying. Native speakers use phrasal verbs constantly. They are especially common in speech, and they are often tested in the B.E.C.E.

2. Useful Phrasal Verbs

3. Separable and Inseparable

Some phrasal verbs can be split: "Turn down the offer" and "Turn the offer down" are both correct. With a pronoun, it must be split: "Turn it down", not "Turn down it". Others cannot be split: "Look after your sister", not "Look your sister after". Note that "look forward to" is followed by a noun or an "-ing" form: "I look forward to seeing you", not "to see you".

4. Formal and Informal Use

In formal writing, single-word verbs may sound better: "The committee postponed the meeting" is more formal than "put off". In conversation, phrasal verbs sound more natural. Keep a list of those you meet, with an example sentence, and practise them. Ghanaian English sometimes adds words, for example "pick up the call" is fine, but "cope up with" is wrong. Say "cope with".

1. What Is Informative Writing?

Informative writing: Writing that gives facts or explains how or why something happens.

Informative writing is objective. It aims to inform, not to persuade. It is based on facts, and it uses clear language and a logical order. You might write about a familiar topic, such as how to prepare fufu, or an unfamiliar one, which requires research, such as how vaccines work. In either case, your aim is to help a reader to understand.

2. Structure

3. Features of Language

4. Model Text

How Water Is Treated. Clean water is essential for health, but water from rivers contains dirt and germs. Treatment plants make it safe to drink.

First, water is pumped from the river into large tanks. Next, chemicals are added, which make dirt particles stick together. These heavier clumps sink to the bottom. The clear water is then filtered through sand. Finally, chlorine is added to kill germs. The clean water is stored in tanks and piped to homes.

This process removes most harmful substances. However, pollution from illegal mining makes it harder and more expensive.

5. Researching a Topic

Avoid opinions, such as "I think". Name your sources if you can. For an unfamiliar topic, ask a teacher or an expert. Do not copy text from books or the internet. Explain ideas simply, using examples, and define difficult terms. Your reader should finish with a clear understanding of the topic.