Unik Edu Solution

We use language for communication. But language is more than just a tool for communication - it has implicit social and cultural elements. Merely learning the linguistic aspects of English cannot successfully engage learners in real-life communications. Learners also need to acquire pragmatic competence - the capacity to incorporate cultural knowledge into language use and choose appropriate language in different sociocultural contexts. The communicative language teaching approach that we employ focuses on teaching learners to efficiently use English in different contexts. By involving learners in a wide range of meaningful interactive situations, we can expect them to be progressively fluent when communicating in English.

One other purpose of this communicative approach is to create more comprehensible input. Through meaningful communication, learners have opportunities to notice the linguistic gap between their own first language and English. It is a long-held belief that this kind of gap-noticing can help learners know what is still needed to be learned, and this benefits the learning process.

1. Developing your confidence

You build your confidence through practice. But what should you practice? To improve your listening and speaking skills, you should practice listening and speaking, obviously. Use the situational contexts in each lesson for your practice. Listen to the dialogue or narration, and try to understand what is being said. Then, see the text-only version, and read along with the character in the dialogue or the narrator. Keep doing this until you can read smoothly without hesitating.

Another section that you can use to develop your confidence is the Speaking Section. Here, you can record your voice and compare it with the pre-recorded reference. The audio tool that we provide is ideal for you to practise your pronunciation, enunciation, modulation, intonation etc.

Some activities in the Speaking Section involve a dialogue between you and a virtual character. These activities provide the setting for you to interact with another ‘person'. Use these activities as listening and speaking exercises for developing your listening and speaking skills.

2. Increasing your vocabulary

Every lesson will have words that may be new to you. These words are listed in the Vocabulary Section. The meanings of these words are given both in English and in Malay. Listen to how the words are pronounced, and use the words in different contexts. Know what part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) each word is. If the word is a noun, change it to an adjective (for example), and use it in its new form in a sentence. If it is a verb, use it in different tenses in sentences.

Many words have multiple meanings. The definitions given in the Vocabulary Section are the meanings of the words in the context of the respective lesson. You are encouraged to use the dictionary for other possible meanings.

3. Understanding grammar

Grammar is the whole system and structure of a language. Grammar states the rules of how that language should be spoken (or written). Each lesson has a section on grammar; however, the content varies in the number of grammar items introduced. To help you understand the grammar items introduced, practice exercises are provided for you to do. Understanding grammar helps you to write and speak English correctly.