Hello, Class! This is Towako from MEL School.
How are you doing?
This week, we practiced an important Advanced-level reading skill: understanding unfamiliar words from context instead of stopping every time we see a new word.
In ELST, we read about seals in the Arctic and used the content of the text to understand vocabulary and the relationships between ideas. In Bridge Work, we reviewed relative pronouns and looked more closely at how we choose a/an or the. Rather than memorizing rules separately, we focused on what the speaker or writer actually wants to communicate.
See you next week!
Towako
<Lesson Review>
ELST Reading B2.1 #8 — Seals
We read a text about seals and their lives in the Arctic. While checking the translation, we looked at vocabulary such as blubber, abundant, scarce, and opportunity, and used the surrounding information to work out what unfamiliar words meant.
At this level, you do not need to know every word before you can understand a text. When you meet an unfamiliar word, first ask:
What is happening here? What meaning would make sense in this context?
We also explored how the condition of the ice affects seals and how people have used seals as a resource. Understanding these relationships helps us move beyond translating individual sentences and understand the content of the text as a whole.
After reading, you discussed:
Would you like to visit the Arctic someday?
The goal is to use what you read as a starting point for your own thinking and conversation.
Bridge Work -3
Chapter 34 Unit 1: Ron has a bike he bought last year.
We reviewed relative pronouns such as who / that, which, and whose and practiced writing sentences in English.
We also discussed the difference between a/an and the.
A useful way to think about articles is:
a/an — introducing something that is not yet shared information
the — referring to something the speaker and listener can identify from the context
The relative clause itself does not automatically determine whether we use a or the. What matters is whether the information is already identifiable in the conversation or situation.
This is an important shift at Advanced level: instead of asking only,
What is the grammar rule?
also ask,
What exactly am I trying to say, and what does the listener already know?
Lesson Review
