biography learning english

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• Teaching primary

Working with biographies

The biography section of portfolios is a documentation of the learners' personal language learning history and can include, for example, a short narrative about the summer camp they attended and for which they may include a certificate of attendance in the passport section.

This biography lends itself well to ‘show and tell’ sessions when learners can talk to the class about their own experiences. In this section too, learners may include any plans they have for taking an English exam, visiting an English-speaking country, or having English-speaking visitors at home.

Age:  Older primary

The type of things which learners can include in their biography are:

• Learner checklist
• A narrative about a trip to an English-speaking country
• The day an English-speaking friend came to stay
• Plans for the future
• I start the class by putting some pictures on the board and tell the class I’m going to tell them about my trip to an English-speaking country. The pictures include some famous landmarks, photos of my friends there and a picture of myself on the trip.
• I ask the class to guess which country I visited and then brainstorm any information they know about the city. I put vocabulary on the board which will help in the following task. This activates top-down knowledge, personalizes the task and gives the group time to think about their own experiences.
• We then read the story of my trip to Liverpool together. At this stage I point out that the story is in the past, that it is divided into three parts and that each part is a paragraph.
• There are lots of ways to check comprehension, sometimes I ask questions as we go along, or ask the class to answer questions at the end of the reading task.
• Finally, using my story as a model I ask the group to write about their own trip.

Of course there are many children in the class who won’t have visited an English-speaking country or were too young to remember the trip. I tell them they can write about someone they know who went abroad or about an English-speaking visitor to their home.

One of the objectives of working with portfolios is to raise learners' awareness of the many different ways English can be learnt and practised. It tries to move away from the idea that it is a school subject and that it is useful and necessary outside the classroom.

Finally, it's always a good idea to put work up around the class for the group to read at the end of the activity. It’s a valuable activity for children to share their experiences and find out about what others do. Also, reading about their own classmates’ stories in English is useful for reviewing grammar and vocabulary.

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How to Write a Biography in English With Example

At some point in your education career, you will be asked to write a biography about yourself or someone else. Writing a biography is not a difficult task if you know what biography is then you can easily write. If you don’t know how to write a biography in English, read carefully the following article.

How to Write a Biography in English

A biography is a detailed description or account of a person’s life. It entails more than basic facts (education, work, relationship, and death). A biography also explains the subject’s experience of these events. Like a profile or curriculum vitae (resume).

A biography presents a subject’s life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of a subject’s personality.

Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person’s life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Biographical works in diverse media—from literature to film—from the genre known as a biography.

Biography of General Muhammad Musa

General Musa Khan Hazara (H.PK., HJ, HQA, MBE, PSC 1908 – 1991) was the commander in chief of Pakistan Army. He succeeded Filed Marshal Ayub Khan, who assumed the presidency of Pakistan.

He was the eldest son of Sardar Yazdan Khan, born on 20 October 1908 in a Hazara Shia Muslim family in Quetta. He was from the Sardar family of the Hazara tribe in Baluchistan, Pakistan. He was a Naik (Junior Non-commissioned Office) in the 106 th Hazara Pioneers, went to the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun as a cadet, and graduated with the first batch of British Indian commissioned officer on 1 February 1935.

He was posted to the 6 th Royal Battalion, the 13 th frontier Force Rifles as a platoon commander in 1936. He took part in the Waziristan Operations in 1936-1938 and in World War 2, where he served in North Africa. He served with distinction in the Pakistan Army and rose to the rank of the commander in chief of Pakistan Armed Forces during President Muhammad Ayub Khan’s regime (1958-1969).

His promotion to commander in chief saw the suppression of two seniors: Major General Sher Ali Khan and Major General Latif Khan, both Sandhurst graduated in 1933.

General Muhammad Musa commanded the Army in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 and had overall responsibility for operations throughout the conflict. As army chief, he was criticized for not anticipating an assault across the international border. However, he was given credit for blunting the Indian offensive towards Sialkot during the Battle of Chawinda.

He has narrated the events and experiences of the war his book” My Vision”. In the book, he was given accounts of the secret war that was going on in Kashmir between the two countries, long before the real war actually began.

General Musa is the author or his autobiography, “Jawan to General” in which he describes his life experiences from a simple foot-soldier rising to the rank of a general.

After the retirement from Pakistan Army, President Ayub Khan appointed him as the Governor of West Pakistan (now Bangladesh) from 1967 to 1979. After serving for few years, he retired and settled in Karachi.

In 1987, he was once again involved in politics. He was appointed as Governor of Baluchistan Province by then president General Zia-ul-Haq. In Baluchistan, Governor General (Retd) Musa dissolved the provincial assembly in December 1988. However, the Baluchistan High court restored the assembly amid public condemnation of Governor’s move. The step towards dissolving the assembly was believed to have been taken with the consent to the president and prime minister.

He died on 12 March 1991 at Governor House in Quetta.

Conclusion:

I hope now you know how to write a biography in English. If you have any question please don’t hesitate to comment it in the comment section below.

Also, read:  How To Write An Autobiography In English

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LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

Level: Intermediate (B1-B2)

Type of English: General English

Tags: Celebrities and historical figures business people business skills people and places 16-18 years old 18+ years old Incredible Stories Video talk Speaking

Publication date: 22/11/2022

This audio-aided lesson tells the life story of visionary and entrepreneur Steve Jobs (1955-2011). The lesson focuses on vocabulary, listening comprehension and speaking, and includes a short look at expressions with went . There is also an optional extension activity featuring a short authentic video of Jobs sharing some of his personal philosophy.

by Stephanie Hirschman

Steve Jobs_be.mp3

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Worksheets in Biographies course plan

Type of English: General English Level: Intermediate (B1-B2)

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Biographical Learning

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• Mette Krogh Christensen 2  

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Agency ; Life course ; Lifelong learning

The term “biographical learning” is used to describe the study of the relationships that exists between learning and biography, the influence of biography on learning processes and practices, and biography as a mode of learning (Tedder and Biesta 2007 , p. 3). The word bio means life , and it comes from the Greek word bios . The word graphy means written or told , and it comes from the Greek word grafia and grafein , which means a record , a note , or a memorandum . A biography is most often referred to as the story of a person’s life written or told by somebody else, for example, “The Education of John Dewey: A Biography” by Jay Martin. In this way of understanding the word, a biography is a literary genre and a style of writing like the novel and the poem. Yet, the biographer (the subject) who is writing the biography (the object) is likely to prefer facts about a person’s life history instead of fiction even if biographies may...

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Alheit, P. (1994). The “biographical question” as a challenge to adult education. International Review of Education, 40 (3–5), 283–298.

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Alheit, P., & Dausien, B. (2002). The double face of lifelong learning: Two analytical perspectives on a ‘silent revolution’. Studies in the Education of Adults, 34 (1), 3–22.

Alheit, P., Bron-Wojciechowska, A., Brugger, E., & Dominicé, P. (Eds.). (1995). The biographical approach in European adult education . Wien: Verband Wiener Volksbildung.

Bale, J., Christensen, M. K., & Pfister, G. (2004). Writing lives in sport. Biographies, life-histories and methods . Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

Biesta, G., & Tedder, M. (2007). Agency and learning in the lifecourse: Towards an ecological perspective. Studies in the Education of Adults – Special Issue, 39 (2), 132–149.

Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical reason. On the theory of action . Cambridge: Polity.

Christensen, M. K. (2005). Experience as biographical learning: Inspirations for physical education. Moving Bodies, 1 (3), 21–42.

Christensen, M. K. (2007). Biographical learning as health promotion in physical educations? A Danish case study. European Physical Education Review, 13 , 5–24.

Elias, J. L., & Merriam, S. B. (1980). Philosophical foundations of adult education . Huntington: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company.

Goodson, I. F. (2003). Professional knowledge, professional lives: Studies in education and change . Buckingham: Open University Press.

McLean, M., & Abbas, A. (2009). The ‘biographical turn’ in university sociology teaching: A Bernsteinian analysis. Teaching in Higher Education, 14 (5), 529–539.

Smilde, R. (2008). Lifelong learners in music; research into musicians’ biographical learning. International Journal of Community Music, 1 (2), 243–252.

Tedder, M., & Biesta, G. (2007). Learning from life and learning for life: Exploring the opportunities for biographical learning in the lives of adults. Working paper 7, Learning Lives Website , www.learninglives.org . Learning Lives Website.

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Institute of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230, Odense M, Denmark

Dr. Mette Krogh Christensen

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Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Education, University of Freiburg, 79085, Freiburg, Germany

Norbert M. Seel

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Christensen, M.K. (2012). Biographical Learning. In: Seel, N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_799

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