The definition of Focussed Learning is: Learning by linking grammar and vocabulary to specific, useful situations.

A "useful situation" might be "shopping". The grammar and vocabulary we can link to this could be "numbers".

Telling a story linking "numbers" to "shopping" would be an example of focussed learning, such as the following:

Yesterday I went shopping. I bought a pair of shoes for twenty-two thousand yen. Also, I bought a skirt which cost a bit more than ten thousand yen. I bought some other things. In total I spent a hundred and twenty thousand yen!

Another situation could be "what I did yesterday". This could be linked to the grammar and vocabulary of "telling the time". For example:

Yesterday I got up just after seven. I then read the paper until five to ten. I then watched the news, which started at ten and finished at half-past ten. After that, I had breakfast and had a quick shower, and left home at exactly eleven.

Certainly "he/she/it + ~s" is a huge problem for Japanese learners of English. One way to overcome this difficulty is to adopt the focussed learning approach. For example, the situation can be "my dog" and the grammar is "he/she/it + ~s":

I love my dog, and he loves me. He enjoys going for walks, and especially likes playing in the park. When we come home after a walk, he goes to sleep for a long time.

I am not saying that practising this just once will enable you to master it. But if you use a focussed learning approach to this one grammar point, say over a period of a year, you will certainly master it.

The important thing to remember about focussed learning is that the examples of language are created by you -- not memorized from textbooks.

This raises the question: How can a learner of a language (whose level is perhaps not very advanced) create his own original examples of language? This is a point which I will take up in the next Column.

There is nothing wrong with practising and memorizing example sentences from textbooks or dictionaries. However, we only really start to learn a foreign language when we start to make our own original examples of language (as I discussed in Columns 40, 41, and 42).

Based on example sentences in textbooks and dictionaries, it is possible to make our own original and interesting, and correct, examples of language, even if our English language ability is not so high.

I have listed below some ways in which this can be done. The first sentence is similar to one we may find in a textbook or dictionary. (The sentence which follows the arrow is an example of a sentence which has been developed from the textbook/dictionary example.)

1. By expanding a noun, and changing the verb and other words if necessary:

Peter is my friend. >> Peter and Mary are my friends.

2. By using a similar, but more advanced noun or verb:

He is my brother. >> He is my nephew.
I cooked the meat. >> I boiled the meat.

3. By adding extra information about a noun using "…, who…, …":

My brother is very kind.
>> My brother, who lives in Sendai, isvery kind.

4. By using vague language (see Column 7):

I arrived at ten. >> I arrived at about ten.

5. By using an interesting adjective, instead of a basic one:

The ship was big. >> The ship was huge.

6. By adding modifiers:

It was raining. >> It was raining heavily.

7. By changing the tense, and other words if necessary:

John came yesterday. >> John will come tomorrow.

8. By using joining words:

John came into the room. He sat down on the chair.
>> John came into the room and then sat down on the chair.

9. By using “time words”, and changing the grammar as
necessary:

John came into the room. He sat down on the chair.
>> After coming into the room, John sat down on the chair.

In the next Column I will continue to talk about the points raised in this Column.

The examples of original language which I gave in the previous Column can be produced by a learner of low English ability, based on simple example sentences in textbooks or dictionaries.

Let us imagine that the following is from an English language textbook:

Peter is my brother. He will come to Tokyo on Monday. He will arrive at Tokyo Station at ten a.m. He lives in Sendai with his mother and father. They live in a large house. They want to go sightseeing in Tokyo. I have to think of some sightseeing spots.

Based on the 9 points I mentioned in the previous Column, a learner of English should be able to create his own original story.

To illustrate what I mean, I have made a story based on the six of the nine points mentioned in the previous Column.

Peter and Paul (1), who (3) are (1) my nephews (2), will come to Tokyo on Monday. They will arrive at Tokyo Station at about (4) half-past ten (2) in the morning (2). They both live in Sendai with their parents, in a huge (5) house. They say that after (9) they arrive in Tokyo they want to go sightseeing, so (9) I will have to think of some famous (5) sightseeing spots.

We can say that the second story is original and interesting, compared to the rather simple and boring first story. Even a junior highschool pupil should have the ability to produce something like the second story.

As I have said, it is by producing one's own original examples of language that one learns a foreign language. This is especially true if you follow the system of focussed learning.