Job Discussion Forums

almuze · Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 125

Most private schools these days offer 20 hr english/wk starting in kindergarten and continuing on. This means (usually) a full half day, every day, in english instruction.

Given that Turkey is not really a bi-lingual country (like people say, Norway is, everyone knows Norwegien and English. or Quebec. Canada...)and that many turkish primary englsih teachers are not really fluent either, but just teaching from the text, this 20 hours a week seems kind of pointless to me. Even more than pointless, a really bad educational choice, big waste of time and resources. It seems like just one more ploy to get parents to shell out too much money for private schools.

So what is the justification, anyway? there must be someone on this site who gets to make planning decisions for primary schools? why'd ya do it? And then, anybody know how they do the whole bi-lingual thing in say, Norway? when do they introduce the 2nd lang.? how many hours?

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

Mark Loyd · Joined: 13 Sep 2005 Posts: 517

Who told you that Norway is a bilingual country?

tekirdag · Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 505

I envy children. They learn so easily. Aren't young children learning about half a dozen new words in their first language EVERYDAY? Their minds are like little machines. (Wish my brain worked that well. Very Happy

) From the age of three most children are mentally ready to learn a second language.

In Korea, I had 6 year olds in one of my classes that, because they had attended English kindergartens, spoke rockin English. I was well impressed. They didn't just bark out vocab for flashcards(FISH!) as most children do, they communicated with me.(That's very easy, teacher. It's a fish.)A beautiful thing!

Last school year I was sent to pre-school Turkish kids. It was just 20 mins a week but those little critters(very sweet critters-I enjoyed it) actually learned something!

I think a foreign language Kindergarten/pre school can really lay a good foundation(plant seeds, if you will) for future language aquisition. Of course, the kindergarten year should be followed by further classes in primary school... Anyhoo, it has been said that learning a second language can help improve overall school performance and problem solving skills.

crashartist1 · Joined: 06 Jun 2004 Posts: 164

In Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland the television programs are all in English. I was speaking to a man from Norway about this very subject on a plane 2 weeks ago. From preschool onward they start using English as the main language of communication. I was shocked by this, but the man I spoke with told me that since most if not all the television programs were already in English, it isn't that dificult for the children. I don't know anything about hours of instruction or percentage.

crashartist

almuze · Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 125

hmmmm, to sum up, I think early exposure to a second lang. is a good thing, yes, children learn more easily, fluently, faster (maybe?) than most adult learners.....

My issue is really the number of hours, fully half thier school hours every week, and then the quality of said education. And then, the sort of pointless question - to what end are they spending so much time and engery to learn english? (yes, the world is a small place, and second langs and cultures widen yr horizons, but still, here in Turkey, what are you expected to do w/ so much english?)

20 hours/wk for K. seems like its time that could be better spent. Especially since the lang. teaching here in Turkey is mostly boring repetition (a side note: my daughters ESL teacher got snippy w/ her because she said "can I go to the bathroom?" instead of the book phrase "May I go to the toilet?" my kid got a mark on the board under the frowny face.)
What I worry about happening in Turkey is- Turkish children will learn ESL well and fluently at such a young age, have no where to use it and no new level to advance to.
And then: how to incorporate kids who transfer in? everyone else has had english since K., and you just moved here from the farm, or a state school, how are these kids brought up to speed? And - what about the sorry kid who just doesn't learn a second lang. very well from a book and a not fluent teacher? half their grades are based on something they suck at. usually people only suck at one or 2 subjects at school.... so.
It seems I think this current primary school ESL set up is kind of like the worst of everything. could be better. eh?

tekirdag · Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 505

You've made some very good points, Almuze. Quality of instruction is very important, and if the work isn't continued after kindergarten what is the point?

That reminds me of the recently dumped Turkish "prep classes". Between grade 8 and highschool there was one year of English instruction. (Highschool, of course, was as usual with a reduced amount of English.) Everything was in English but the group I visited couldn't even mutter "this is a pen". Everyone knew it was a wasted year and, luckily, it was scrapped.