Make or do?

Do you sometimes have problems knowing whether to use make or do? Do you know for example, if you have to make or do exercise or a wish? If you cannot always be certain, I have a fantastic and simple technique to solve this problem for ever!

All you have to do is put make and do words in a different place. Think of your left hand as ‘Make’ and your right hand as ‘Do.’ When you pick up a new word, put it in the appropriate hand. Let’s take an example.

Exercise is a ‘do’ word.

Write the word on a piece of paper and hold it in your right hand. Move your head to the right, squeeze your hand, close your eyes and think of actually doing some exercise. Now you have placed ‘Exercise’ on your right, ‘doing’ hand. Whenever you want to be sure, just recall where you put the word.

Wish. Let’s make a wish!
Do exactly the same, only this time, place the word in your left, ‘Make’ hand. Remember to move your head, squeeze and close your eyes as before. Make a wish!

This might seem a bit strange at first but if you do this with every such word, you will find that you remember correctly every time and you will never be confused again. If you do it, you will make progress!

Now for fun, are the following words ‘Make’ or ‘Do’?

Exercise
Wish
Progress
Money
Homework
A job
Housework
An investment
Dinner
The washing

Answers on next post.

Seven habits of effective learners

A man called Stephen Covey wrote a bestseller called, ‘The Seven habits of Highly Effective people.’ It made me think about what habits successful language learners have, so I have come up with some suggestions.

LOVE! Good language learners love to learn and are very open minded. They take an interest in business and general English. They want to learn more about culture and traditions too and recognise that this will help them to understand the language.

ENQUIRE. Good learners ask questions all the time. When a new word is learnt, they ask extra questions to understand how and where to use it. This is very important because many problems are caused by learning new vocabulary but using it wrongly.

ACCEPT. They accept mistakes and do not punish themselves if they make them. They do not get depressed if something is hard or say 'I can't do this' but accept that some things take longer to learn than others. Fear of making mistakes is a big barrier to learning so go out, make some language mistakes today and learn something new!

RECYCLE. When good learners get a new grammar skill or word they try to get it into their conversation and recycle it straight away. This is a really useful thing to do. The more immediately you try out new learning, the better the chances are that it will stick in your memory.

NEXT STEP. Effective learners have a plan. They know why they are learning English and have a goal to work towards. They set targets such as exams or work goals. This way, they are not learning aimlessly but with a purpose and a deadline.

EXTRA Organised! Effective language learners are well organised. They always make notes in lessons, are systematic, keep their work in order and know where to find it.

REGULAR. The key to language learning is regular work as often as possible. It is important to try to do something everyday even if it is just 10 minutes reading. A little and often is better than doing a lot of work in one day and then nothing for a month. Regular review of the well organised notes helps too!

So now you know what it takes to be a highly effective LEARNER! How many of the habits describe you?

Match the following activities to the correct one of the seven habits.


Action - (Habit)
Keeping notes (Love learning)
Using new learning straight away (Enquire)
Asking questions (Accept)
Being open to all types of English (Recycle)
Having a clear plan (Next step)
Daily learning and review (Extra organised)
Having a positive attitude about errors Regular (learning)