Job Discussion Forums

[Anda]

Um, I thought I'd post this as I just finished writing it to explain how I teach and why to some parents.

How would you summarize your own teaching methods and why?


.......................................................................................................

How Can Your Child Learn To Speak And Use English! By Anda.

I will try to make this as simple as I can. Let�s start with a child�s first language. Children usually have about 5,000 words by the time they are five years old. Children that have parents that read books with them and point to pictures to explain things do best.

I have found that children start to learn well in a group during the last two years of elementary school before they move on to middle school. Before this stage in their lives they need one on one contact where they are the center of attention to learn fast / well. So expecting big results from sending little kids to group classes is usually being overoptimistic.

Now why is it that despite years of English teaching in public schools and most institutes most children still cannot as a rule speak English? The reason is simple actually. Nearly all the teaching is out of context, meaning not part of what is happening in the student�s life or a story. Children are not given exercisers that help them to make their own sentences instead they are trained to remember sentences usually in the form of answers to set questions. They learn to recognize where words go in sentences to pass exams but not how to make the sentences. The other thing is that children are taught just a few things in a lesson but what is taught is seldom revised. The students can come home and say I learnt this today in class. The rest of the sentence should go �but I forgot all of last week�s lessons�

Now how can say a child in the last two years of elementary school or middle school learn English! Well the way I do this is too use DVDs as flashcards by using the pause button. First I get my students to say statements like �He is running� �She is eating� Oh, look it�s a cat. After a month or two I start asking questions like �What is he doing?� �What is she doing?� �What is she eating?� �What�s that?� So first I teach answers and then I teach how to ask a question and answer it; that is conversation.

When children can speak the language then I can start to teach how to make sentences by themselves by giving them the first few words in a sentence and asking them to finish it off.

Examples:

I feel

Can you

Let�s go

I also get stories written in English by children around the world about the same age as my students as the topics / stories. Children are interested naturally in stories written by other children. These stories I get my students to read after me on. Reading in context strengthens grammar skills and is the start for learning to write essays that count for about 50% of the marks in most universities where English is in use.


Now what I aim for is to get my students vocabulary up to around 3,000 words which is about where students can read stories written by other children and watch children�s movies on DVDs and make fairly accurate guesses on words that they don�t know the meaning of. At this stage provided a student watches movies and reads then they can self learn and progress in their English ability. The only real need they have after they have started to self learn is for someone to guide them / assist them in developing their writing skills or to talk to in English to practice spoken English. This requires very small classes to be practical.

[eddy-cool]

A defining characteristic of Chinese classroom dynamics is their communitarian learning approach: Students acquire no autonomy whatsoever but function as members of a closely-knit unit that follows their teacher as sheep follow their herder.

That is why a mere 1 to 5 students out of a class of 45 to 50 may become self-reliant enough to not need the benefits of having their teacher or a colleague 'translate' for them.

[killian]

yep. visuals, visuals, visuals. did i mention visuals?

remember learning chinese from "practical chinese reader"? one picture per chapter.hated it. defrancis was even worse. zero pictures in the whole two volume set. give the kids something to talk about. give em pictures.

in small groups, get a bunch of flash cards. give each kid 1. then 2. then 3. go slow. make it fun . model for them. encourage them to make up stories. things get better as they learn not to fear more cards and "make up stories" on the fly. (yes, i think that the foreign teacher should know the chinese term for the items on the cards as well. great chance to study up for you as well.)

next thing you know, you'll have 100 flash cards jumbled in the middle of the table. take turns. each kid gets 3 seconds to take one. it is sheer joy to see them calculating their stories on the fly. let them pick X amount of cards. sometimes allow them to discard and/or trade but not always. gotta learn to play the hand you are dealt.

visuals. and peace, love and understanding.

[un]

RE: