In my lesson titled ‘Short Stories: Reading, Comprehension & Conversation’, I’ll show you a short story based on your English level (beginner, intermediate or advanced). We’ll read through the story and check your understanding, answer questions, and have a relaxed conversation about some of the topics in the story so that you can express your ideas in English, in real time.

Here is an example of a beginner short story (taken from the book ‘English Short Stories’ by Camille Hanson):

My House

I (Camille) live in Portugal. Portugal is in Europe, next to Spain. I live in a small city by the sea. There are many cars that drive on our street. I live in a big house. It is yellow and white. My house has two floors. It has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. There are many windows. I like my house. My house has a yard with a lot of trees. There is an orange tree. There is also an avocado tree. I like to eat the fruit from the trees. The fruit is very good. I like to sit outside and watch my children play. We have a small pool. In the summer, my kids swim in the pool. They have fun. We have a garage, and we park our car in the garage. Our car is blue. We are happy here. We like our house, our yard, and our car.

First, we’ll read the story. You can decide between:

-            Having me read the story aloud first, so you can hear the pronunciation of the words.

-            Reading the story silently before reading it aloud yourself.

-            Reading the story aloud yourself, without any practice first.

While you read the story, I will take notes on your pronunciation, and any words that you seem unsure of. But I won’t interrupt you unless you need help.

Next, I’ll check if there were any parts of the story you didn’t understand, and work with you to figure out the meanings of those parts. I’ll use pictures to help you understand the meanings of new words.

We’ll also look at the words that you struggled to pronounce, and work together to improve your pronunciation.

From there, I’ll ask 10-12 comprehension questions about the story. Some examples of these questions are:

1.       True or False: Camille lives in Portugal.

2.       What colour is the family’s car?

3.       Where do the children swim in the summer?

These questions check your understanding of the story and also test your memory.

After these questions, I’ll ask more personal questions related to the story. For example:

1.       Did you watch TV a lot as a child?

2.       Do you like swimming?

3.       Tell me about a childhood memory you have.

These questions allow you to speak spontaneously, practice natural conversation and express your thoughts in English.

As demonstrated, this lesson helps you develop many different skills in English, including:

·       Reading

·       Pronunciation

·       Grammar

·       Vocabulary

·       Speaking

·       Listening

·       Confidence

·       Conversation

There are many different stories to explore. With each new story we do together, we’ll build on these skills. I also include a short revision section at the start of each new story so that we can check how much you remember from the last story. There are higher level stories for intermediate to advanced level English learners too.

I take a patient and gentle approach to all of my lessons, giving you enough time and space to think and answer questions in your own time. I believe that my role is to guide you to answers rather than giving you the answers. This helps foster a sense of empowerment in your language learning journey. And this makes you a more confident learner and English speaker!