Teaching English to 11 year old Chinese students

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cueball0791
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Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 3:49 pm

Teaching English to 11 year old Chinese students

Post by cueball0791 » Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:05 am

Hi,

I just need your suggestions on what materials I should start with for teaching kids as written in the subject. I was thinking about starting with begginer level material such as introducing oneself etc. Then incorporate a game using basic grammer structures. Does this sound reasonable?

Would appreciate your help!

Callum

Sally Olsen
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Post by Sally Olsen » Fri Oct 07, 2011 10:54 am

What do 11 year olds do in China? or are they Chinese students in another country?

11 year old boys in general here in Canada like video games, TV shows with lots of action, Bay Blades, Pokemon cards, movies with lots of action, action figures from the movies, comics and sports. Of course, there are differences so you have to find out from your students.

The girls like clothes, fashion, books, sports, dancing, music, movies but not always the same ones as the boys, comics, magazines, and maybe even are starting to like boys.

You could look over their school books to see where they are and what they know already if they take English at school.

Get them to talk about their day, their families, their friends, who their favourite singers are, etc.

You can give a brief introduction of who you are and where you come from, with pictures if possible and maps. Try to think of things in your life at that age and what you did and liked.

I used to write my simple story on the board and then rubbed out my name, my age, my family's names, and so on but left the sentence structures on the board for them to fill out for themselves. I had pictures of my favourite singers, movie stars, sports stars and wrote down the titles of my favourite books. Then they copied if they needed: My name is ______. I am _____ years old. There are ___
people in my family. My mother's name is ___. She is a _______.

Sheila Collins
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Post by Sheila Collins » Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:39 pm

In school, the kids will have already learned to introduce themselves (though they'll sound like little robots), and they'll learn basic grammar structures, too. They'll be well-versed in Chinglish.

To get their attention, play a computer game like Plants Vs. Zombies (a common favourite) while describing it in English. Write a few key sentences and phrases on the board. Let the kids shoot a zombie only if they can say it in English.

Play Hangmouse.

Sing Michael Jackson songs; Thriller works well with Plants Vs. Zombies. It's okay if they don't understand the whole thing. You can pull words or phrases from the song lyrics and put them into context ("What do *you* do at midnight?").

Teach them slang words. They're very proud of themselves when they tell their friends, "That's a sick shirt, dude."

They love Greek mythology. I use Mr. Donn's website (google "Mr. Donn Greek Mythology") because it has all the free PowerPoint slides. When the kids have read most of the slides, I usually take them straight into reading Magic Tree House: Hour of the Olympics or Time Warp Trio: It's All Greek to Me. If their reading level isn't quite up to it, you can go on to other types of mythology.

At this age, they'll only have written a couple of words at a time. It's important to get them writing full sentences and paragraphs as soon as possible. I usually start with funny photos (clip art, or something thieved from the internet) that they need to describe. If the majority of the class is making the same grammar mistake, we usually work on correcting that mistake in everyone's writing. I don't sweat the small or inconsistent mistakes.

At this age, their most common tests are the GESE and BETS, if they live in Beijing. Speaking without a Chinese accent is of the utmost importance to these tests.

cueball0791
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Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 3:49 pm

Post by cueball0791 » Fri Oct 07, 2011 10:50 pm

Thanks very much for you input!

julia-njh
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Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:54 pm

Re: Teaching English to 11 year old Chinese students

Post by julia-njh » Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:23 am

cueball0791 wrote:Hi,

I just need your suggestions on what materials I should start with for teaching kids as written in the subject. I was thinking about starting with begginer level material such as introducing oneself etc. Then incorporate a game using basic grammer structures. Does this sound reasonable?

Would appreciate your help!

Callum
Hi, Callum,
Your plan sounds workable. And I think the practical action is that you may share your ideas with your colleagues who do the same job with you, since they will know exactly the students' background and their needs. How do you think? :)
julia

cueball0791
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Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 3:49 pm

Post by cueball0791 » Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:51 am

@julia-njh

Yeh, it all sounds good! Actually, I've already had a couple of lessons with the students and the feedback from the parents is great! In fact they have booked another ten classes in advance! How cool is that?

The classes are private outside of school. I just supplement their learning by bolstering their pronunciation and other oral features. Fortunately, they are three well-behaved little girls! Needn't focus too much on games. Bless them! Don't we just love you girls! :wink:

julia-njh
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Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:54 pm

Post by julia-njh » Tue Oct 18, 2011 12:29 pm

It sounds great. Congratulations! I used to teach English songs to a ten-year-old boy, he likes them very much. But I also gave him some quiz, and he did not bad.His parents thought I was reponsible. See, we have to satisfy both the kids and their parents, don't we? Help them learn happily, we will be happy,too. :D

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