The eclectising English is being delivered eclectically. Eclectic is the best method for example, our English is divided into six which are:
Comprehension: the word comprehension means understanding. Without reading comprehension, reading loses its main purpose to help us learn and acquire knowledge. Supporting your child’s reading comprehension is really a gift that keeps on giving throughout your child’s life span. In addition to acquiring knowledge, oral and written language skills will continue to develop with exposure to innovative ideas and vocabulary development in academic success and also it creates enjoyment in reading for pleasure. The best gift of all is allowing your child access to unlimited new experiences and emotions by getting lost in some great books eg The Novella ‘‘Animal Farm’’ written by George Orwell described that all animals are equal but some are born with higher status than others while some inherited it.
Grammar: This is a set of structural rules which influences the composition of clauses, phrases and words in any given language. Grammar skills are very useful in every aspect of life from education to leadership and social life to employment opportunities. Proper grammar is also essential for understanding English as a second language as well as for learning a new language, since all languages follow grammatical patterns for example:
Don’t say: when I was small, I used to cry a lot but you say when I was young/little I used to cry a lot.
Don’t say: we need a globe to light the dark room but you say; we need a bulb to light the dark room.
Don’t say: please, can you repeat yourself? But you say, I beg your pardon.
Verbal Reasoning: This is the ability to analyse information and solve problems using language based on reasoning, which ultimately may involve reading or listening to words, conversing writing or even thinking, eg let’s rearrange these letters:
Fried – fired
Sadder – dreads
Gainly – laying
Listen – silent
Academic point – I’m a dot in place
Dormitory – dirty room
Debit card – bad credit
Stone age – age one
Creative Writing: This is a vital way of expressing oneself. Creative writing is a wonderful way for children to use their creative mind and use their imagination to make something out of nothing. It broadly develops their creativity by bringing out the best in them (their ingenuity or hidden potential). It therefore facilitates their thought processing skills, allowing them to think outside the box and put their ideas while they are dreaming up characters and story scenery they are actually exploring their own feelings and morals as well as learning enterprise. This all helps to develop their social skills. An English author Edward Bulwer Lytton in 1839 once wrote a metonymic adage which says, ‘‘the pen is mightier than the sword’’ which implies that a pen is extremely powerful. Even though it’s meagre in size, it has the power to accomplish things that a mighty sharp edged sword cannot accomplish. The peaceful act of writing with a miniaturized pen can above all have a bigger impact than the act of violence carried out by a sword. With our interest in creative writing, we have been able to produce budding authors from our programme on Young Genius Authors at Pivot Model Academy which include: ‘‘28 Days’’ by Soremi Mutmoinnah and ‘‘The Hunter and the Wolf’’ by Ajayi Faisal.
Diction: It implies mannerism at which a word is articulated. When a word is pronounced correctly, we say, the word is pronounced with good diction. ‘‘Good Diction’’ in this context has to do with using the appropriate or proper accent just like the native speaker would articulate such expression or words. However, when it’s incorrectly pronounced, it’s called bad diction. Quite often, foreign speakers of English like you and I are prone to articulate some English words incorrectly due to the interference of our dialect or idiolect or simply put as linguistic interference. Words that don’t have similar sounds in our accent seem to be difficult to pronounce thus we are poised to localize the word for easy pronunciation, examples include skirt, first, shirt, etc. The letter ‘ir’ in the following examples gives the sound /3:/ an alien sound from our language so we simply replace that sound with an easier articulation/utterance in dialect which is /e/ as in bread, bed, so sound skirt /sket/ instead of /sk3:t/. For example homophones like:
Key – quay
Gaol – jail
Words with French origin such as bouquet, ballet, sachet, beret the ‘t’ in these words are silent.
Spelling: It facilitates reading. It increases the child’s scope or frontiers of learning basically for rich vocabulary and also to be able to understand symbols that connote letters and sounds. Take a clue from the example below: sesquipedalian words which means long words such as supercalifragileisticexpialidocious which means wonderful, fantastic. Hippopolomonstrosesquipedilaphobia which means someone who is scared of long words and lastly ploccinaucinihilipilification which means the value of something as worthless.