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English in Use

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  English Learning Approach and Strategy     The Background of English Learning in Primary Schools in 1960's until now      English has been taught in Malaysian Primary schools for as long as I could remember. There's not much that I could recall but I can safely say that English lessons in class revolves around the teaching of grammar and vocabulary. So, Grammar and Vocabulary is English! I could still remember that our grammar handbook was Practical English Grammar with graded exercises published by Times Educational Ltd. Singapore. If you are lucky, you could still get them from the book stores which sell text books. Apart from that, I will have the Primary and Structural English Readers or Modern Readers (the harder version) as reading materials.      The exercises in the Grammar books are graded and specifically arranged according to grammar topics such as Subject Verb Agreement, The Proper Nouns or Adverbs of Dergree and as such. There were tens of grammar topics to cover

Food - Oriental versus Western

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Embracing the Oriental Cuisine   Tracking down the mall food outlets elates me. They seem to be well-furnished and lighted with the concept portraying their food culture. What surprises me is that the western fast food outlets such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds seem to be losing their grip on the customers lately. The perpetual change in peoples' taste bud is giving signal to these western delicacy franchises. There is a strong sense of fondness towards this new kind of taste; the eastern or oriental cuisines. Down the aisle, we are greeted by Japanese Hazukido and Sukiya or the Korean Bing and Soul Garden, to name a few. The western cafes are hoping to draw patrons through their coffee huts like The Starbucks and Coffee Beans and Tea Leaf.