1. Talking about yourself I am an Indian boy. My name is Sanjay. I am fourteen years old. I live in the town of Klang.

I have three sisters and two brothers. My sisters are older than I am. My brothers are younger than I. they all go to school. My father is a teacher. He is not very old. My mother works at home. She is a very nice lady. I love her very much. I go to a school in the town. It is a large school. I learn many lessons in school, such as English, Bahasa Malaysia and many others. Of all these lessons I find English is the most difficult to learn. But I enjoy learning English. It is a beautiful and important language. I play all kinds of games. The game I like most is football. I play football with my friends every day. football is a very interesting game. When I grow up I wish to be a teacher. If I become a teacher, I can teach hundreds of boys and girls. I can help them to read and write and become cleverer. At the same time, I too can learn many more things. I hope that I will get my wish. My friends are of many races. Some are Chinese, some are Malaysian and some are Indian. I like my friends very much. I am indeed a very happy boy. I hope that I shall always be happy. 2. What difficult do you often have when learning English? Writing is the most difficult skill Men who learn English as a foreign language often say that writing is more difficult than any other skills. As the fact of the matter, most native speakers of the language have to make their efforts themselves to write accurately and effectively even on what they are well aware of. Needless to say, it is not easy at all for a non-native speaker to do something that an average native speaker usually considers a difficult job to do. Here are three reasons which, in my opinion, can answer the question why writing becomes the most difficult skills. Firstly, writing requires good grammar. A non-native person has to remember a large number of rules in structure which are quite different from their own language. This is a very big problem if he or she learns the grammar with an English native teacher at the

beginning. The teacher cannot help to point out the distinct differences between the two languages. In this case, the learner must figure out the differences themselves and even outline some rules to convert from their own language to the target language. Secondly, people are often known to spend less time to write than to listen, to speak and even to listen. Learners learning the language in their country are proved to read more than any other skills while learners learning overseas must listen to the language most of their time. In any cases, they spend little of their time for writing. It is clearly known that an average person spend the most for listening, the second most for speaking, then reading and finally writing. Thirdly, when students of English as a foreign language write something, they have a big question in mind whether what they write is correct or incorrect. Who can answer the question for them and help them recognize the mistakes. It is, in many cases, the teacher who is teaching them and is ready to give them a hand. The problem however I want to mention is that the teacher does not have enough time to correct for all of them if there are more than ten students in the class. When the teacher corrects the writing for just some of them, the other students cannot recognize their own mistakes. Without correction, the mistakes may be repeated many times and become bad habits which are hard to adjust. In conclusion, writing is the most difficult skill that learners of any foreign language may face. To be good at it, learners must give much effort. 3. What are the advantages of learning English? The advantages and disadvantages in teaching English to Adult Learners in the Current Situation in Vietnam A brief look at the current English language teaching and learning context in Vietnam will show that the demand for English learning is very great. This is clearly seen in the multitude of institutions and centers that offer English courses as well as in the great number of learners who go to English classes. Among these learners adult learners form a big special group. Due to some of their characteristics the teaching of English to this group of adult learners has some advantages and disadvantages as follows. The first advantage is that adult learners have some degree of extrinsic motivation. They may study English for a variety of reasons but they all do so because they want to or need to. For some students, the motivation may

be in the form of integrative motivation because they wish to integrate themselves into the culture of an English-speaking country like Britain, America, Canada or Australia. For others, the motivation is instrumental in the sense that the mastery of the English language is seen as an instrument that can bring them a better job or position. When these adult students go to class with some motivation they are easier to teach than those who bring no motivation to the classroom. The second advantage is that adult students can transfer those study skills and learning strategies they have acquired in their first language to their study of English. Unlike children and adolescents, adults are autonomous in some way. They have finished their studies or have undertaken at least some in their own language, so they must have gained some basic skills like reading, summarizing, identifying and applying formulae and information and such critical thinking skills as analyzing, synthesizing, hypothesizing, speculating, etc. Moreover, they may also have some well-established strategies for learning. Therefore, the English language teacher can make his job easier by creating conditions for adult students to reactivate these study skills and learning strategies and apply them to their study of a new language. One more advantage is that adult learners can make use of whatever kind of knowledge they have accumulated in their own language. Again this advantage cannot be seen in other groups of learners like children and adolescents. First, adult learners have extensive experience of using a language, which is their mother tongue. Now that they start learning English, they can remember the new langue system better by making use of what they know about their own language. It is not uncommon to see learners comparing and contrasting their first language with the foreign language they are learning to find out areas in which the two languages are different or similar so that they can learn the new language more quickly. Second, adult students life experience, world knowledge and specialist knowledge can contribute much to their learning a foreign language. It can help them a lot when they have to read about or discuss complex or controversial topics in English. So the English teacher can engage adult learners more easily if he knows how to tap the knowledge they have gained over time. On the contrary, there are some disadvantages to the teaching of English to adult students as well. The first disadvantage is that English learning makes a strong demand on adult learners in terms of time. As a matter of fact, it is

really difficult for adult students to make time to learn English. As most institutions and centers teach English in the evening adult students have to study after work. Three one-hour-and-a-half sessions or three three-hour sessions a week seem not to add up to a lot of time but not all adult students can manage to set aside that much time for study purposes. The simple reason is that they all have their own lives to live outside the classroom or they all have other commitments in life than learning English. As a result, some students fail to invest as much time and effort in learning as they should. Of course, teachers will have difficulty in monitoring the performance and progress of those students who cannot attend class regularly. Another factor that can interfere with or even impede adult students learning English is their fear of failure and frustration with lack of progress. As can be seen, some adult students are very successful professionals or have a high status at their work place. And now, at school they are just normal students coping with tasks, assignments, examinations, etc. as they have been successful in their career, they do not want to fail to achieve their desired goal of mastering English. They may therefore put themselves under unnecessary stress if they do not give themselves enough time to achieve their goals or if they set themselves unrealistic goals. Other students may be hard on themselves in a different way. For example, adult intermediate and advanced students, those who already know a lot, may find progress difficult to perceive. In this case, the teacher has more work to do: they must help these students get the level of challenge right or view success in a broader sense. In addition, the lack of well-qualified teachers and the poor physical conditions of the classrooms at some English language schools and centers can be damaging to student motivation. Currently, in Vietnam a great number of institutions and centers provide English courses and they range form universities and their satellite centers, joint-venture centers, privatelyowned centers to privately-run home-based classes. Such proliferation of schools and centers is useful in the sense that it offers students a wide variety of programs to choose from. However, because of a lack of quality control, the reality of some schools and centers may fall short of student expectations. Some teachers are untrained or inexperienced, delivering boring or uninteresting lessons; the physical classroom conditions and resources for learning are just basic. All this cannot of course supply students in general and adult students in particular with any intrinsic

motivation, a crucial factor for successful language learning. In general, this analysis of the current teaching context for adult learners of English in Vietnam in general and of the characteristics of this group of learners in particular partly reflects the increasing need for English language learning and mainly shows the advantages and disadvantages that adult students have in their English study. Both teachers and students need to be aware of these findings of the analysis so that they can find ways to maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages. Only in this way can teachers deliver quality English language programs for students to benefit from. 4. DESCRIBE THE HOUSE YOU ARE LIVING IN
Describe the house you are living in. Why do you love it? The house we are living in is situated in the suburb of HCM city, within thirty minutes drive off the central city. We have lived there for more than twenty years. This is a fairly large house surrounded with a luxuriant garden. My house consists of four bed-rooms, a living-room, a bathroom with a shower, a dinning-room, a kitchen and a toilet. It is air-conditioned and well-furnished. The living-room is decorated beautifully. Paintings by famous artists are hung on the walls. At night, the color neon lights increase the beauty and coziness of the room. There, on Sundays and holidays my father usually spends his time playing chess or drinking tea with his friends. My mother and my two sisters are diligent and hardworking women. They often keep the house clean and tidy. On suffocating days of summer, we usually take meals in the garden. It is fairly cool and quiet here. We enjoy our meals amid the melodious twitters of birds. On stormy and rainy nights all whole family members gather in the living-room, watching television or telling each other about their daily activities. I love my house very much because it is the place where I was born and have grown up in the education of my father and in the tender loving care of my mother. I have spent my whole childhood in the love and affection of my dear ones with so many sweet memories.

5. Pollution
Is the air that we are breathing killing us? In this speech you will learn all that you need to know about air pollution. First I will give you the causes of air pollution, then I will list the effects of it, and finally I will tell you how we can prevent air

pollution. The average person takes about twenty thousand breaths a day, obviously air is essential to life. Well imagine that the air that you are breathing may be killing you, many diseases are aggravated by air pollution. Scientists believe that all cities with populations exceeding 50,000 have some degree of air pollution. Burning garbage in open dumps causes air pollution, and also it smells pretty bad. Air pollution comes from many different sources. One of the major sources is carbon monoxide which manly comes from automobiles, but also burning of fossil fuels, CFCs etc. Air pollution does not leave the Earth it all gets trapped up in the atmosphere. This doesn't bother most people, and they think that it will not harm them. People burn down forests and people burn fossil fuels, and CFCs from aerosols. Every bit of this harms our atmosphere. Factories and transportation depend on huge amounts of fuel billions of tons of coal and oil are consumed around the world every year. When these fuels burn they introduce smoke and other, less visible, by-products into the atmosphere. Although wind and rain occasionally wash away the smoke given off by power plants and automobiles, the cumulative effe! ct of air pollution poses a grave threat to humans and the environment. A big example of smog is LA you can see the smog just hovering above the city. I don't think any human alive should be subject to that kind of environment. Scientists believe that all cities with populations exceeding 50,000 have some degree of air pollution. Burning garbage in open dumps causes air pollution Scientist have discovered that over the South Pole the ozone has a high level of ozone depletion. Those diseases include asthma, chronic sinusitis, bronchitis, and allergies. Pollution also has been linked to pulmonary problems in developing fetuses, and damage to the immune system in adults. Those that are most vulnerable to problems of air pollution are the elderly and children, along with people who work and exercise outside frequently and those with chronic respiratory ailments. Due to the fact that children inhale more air per pound, and that the elderly lose important defense mechanisms as they age. Working outdoors may cause you to breathe at a faster rate and inhale deeper. Which causes high student absences and missed days of work, along with higher health insurance cost. There are many causes of air pollution, but the main causes of pollution are motor vehicles. Motor vehicles contribute 40% of pollutants to react with sunlight to cause ground level ozone also called smog. Ozone causes burning of eyes, nose, and tissue in lungs, like sunlight burns your skin. Another cause being a lawn mower, a gas-powered lawn mower can cause the same amount of air pollution as driving a new car three hundred and forty miles. Other causes include that of factories, wood burning, and human error. Now after you have heard about air pollution and all of its dangers I will tell you how you can help prevent air pollution. First you can start by conserving energy everywhere that you go such as your home, work, and school. Be careful not to spill fuel while filling up gas tank and to tighten your gas cap tightly. Keep your car, boat, and other vehicles tuned up according to owner specifications, and carpool, ride a bike and walk as much as possible. Along with using environmentally safe paint and cleaning utensils. You

can conserve energy by turning up your air conditioner up higher. In your vehicle try to refill your tank after dusk, combine trips and errands, and limit engine idling. In conclusion I believe that we can stop air pollution and ground level smog be being more efficient in the way we live. I hope that after you heard about the causes, effects, and solutions to air pollution you will want to help prevent it. So do what you can and conserve the air today

6. Travelling
There are many reasons for travel. When it involves a short trip or a vacation away from home, it is generally for the purpose of building up health resistance, or for relaxation, or to escape, temporarily, from the monotonous rounds of a daily existence in which there is very little time for change from regular schedules. The human being realizes that variety adds zest to living. Travel supplies variety. Travel can have its other values. When you travel you see new faces and talk to strangers. Such experience is a challenge to your ability to mingle with various kinds of people, especially if they are not of the same type as those to which you are accustomed in your own local environment. You will meet people about whom you have only vaguely read or heard. It is prophesied that such experiences will erase many of the misunderstandings and criticisms. Real acquaintance often dispels petty jealousies, unreasonable, dislikes, intolerant attitudes, and silly prejudices.

6. Entertainment
How do you relax when you are tired, nervous or angry? How do you relax when you are tired, nervous or angry?
To let off steam is the best thing a person can do when he is tired, nervous or angry. There are ways and means for a person to do that. Usually it depends on the persons nature. For me, relaxing when I am tired is a must. To start with, I would take a long, luxurious warm bath and wallow in the warmth of the water. The stickiness on my body would be gone by then and I would finish it off with a cold shower, which will leave my skin soft and tingling. Bath completed, time to get myself into a loose fitting garment and theres nothing better than curling up, with a good book in hand. With the radio on, playing sentimental music and a plate of fresh fruits besides me, I would then take a bite or two between every few pages of reading. Snacks have to be by my side in case I run out of food. Full and contented, taking a nap is the next best thing. Lowering my head, propped with two fluffy pillows, I will be off in dreamland for the rest of the day. When I wake up, I would switch on the television for my favorite shows, stretched full length on

the sofa eyes fixed to the set. Sometimes when none of the good shows are on television, my next relaxing routine is just to feel the cool breeze on my face, teasing my hair, relaxing in a park near my house. Life is so beautiful at times. Tiredness is one thing but nervousness is another. Although I feel nervous at times, especially during examinations, I am not that bad. However, I find that nervousness is something which is difficult to conquer. Some people bite their nails, others twirl their hair around their fingers and a few shift from foot to foot. But for me, to curb nervousness I go for a jog around the evening when the weather is cool and crisp. After which a cold chocolate sundae would top it off. Screaming is the next best thing on my list. Then Ill have a pillow fight with my sister because with Screaming I would feel I had got rid of the tension which is thick enough to cut with a knife. Tension is something that would drain me out if I dont do anything about it. But when I am not that hysterical, I would go window shopping browsing thoroughly in a particular section I like and if my cash is sufficient, I will buy a few things. If not, browsing wont hurt. At least it can help me forget my nervousness. It also helps me to enjoy my life while it is still there. Some people are gluttons. I do that sometimes myself and believe it or not, it helps! A lot. Counting till 100 is my best weapon against anger. I would count very slowly till my anger melts away. But if counting doesnt help, crying does. It is with crying, you show what you really feel, and when I cry, my anger is washed away by my tears. Crying helps me to relax because I do not keep my feelings bottled up and feel like a nervous wreck deep down. I scream too loudly sometimes so that I throw away my anger at everything especially the walls. As walls cant fight back, I would feel much better and satisfied like cat getting a saucer of cream. When I am angry, I like to be alone. I cant bear the sight of anybody and I feel rotten. So the place I would go to is the beach. Listening to the sound of the waves, watching them curl and lap at the beachs edge, my anger will subside I feel that the beach is a place which symbolizes tranquility, serenity and beauty. I can let my feeling dance with the white horse riding in the water, while I away my time writing poems, day-dreaming. Anger is a very strong weakness which many cant fight but, no matter how strong it is, it is no match for a thing of beauty. The easy way to get rid of anger is to look at mirror, the wrinkles in forehead, and hardening of cheekbones which is being reflected will immediately bring own anger, you may even try it for good result!