Job Discussion Forums

[joey2001]

I've been teaching a kid (aged 8 or 9 I think) in a one-on-one class for over half a year now. We are using the book her mother chose, some kind of "Cambridge" book for children. I'm not happy with the book, as besides being full of mistakes and Chinglish, it's also mostly boring. It seems it's been put together by Chinese people only, without any help from native speakers. I can't imagine how a well-known publisher can sell this kind of junk, so my guess is that it's just another Chinese fake under a famous brand name.
I've pointed out the more serious errors to my student, but am getting tired of using material I need to correct all the time. I suggested using a different one, but have no idea if there is any available for that age group in China. I don't really have any experience teaching kids, as I used to teach mostly adults or older kids in the past. I wouldn't mind playing games in class either, but my student is really shy and doesn't say much other than doing the lessons in the book. So I'm not sure if games would work with her. I'd really like to make the lessons more interesting as well as effective.
Are there any suggestions from teachers more experienced in teaching young children? Is there any material in China at all that is both fun AND uses correct English?

[xiao51]

Have you seen the Oxford Young Learners' Series? They use this series in many of the Shanghai primary schools and there is even a Junior Young Learner's Series. It must be a great series because EF quite frankly appropriated most of the material and incorporated it into their "proprietary" young learners' series. I have used these books in most of previous places of employment and it is really a teacher-friendly, children-friendly series. It makes every effort to avoid dealing with unrelated cross-cultural issues. It is of course British by nature and some of the words that are taught have completely different and even vulgar meanings in North American English so the North American teachers simply irradiated those words out of the series and replaced them with standard North American usage, the British terminology for the word eraser being the most case of flagrant delicto. It''s a great and pleasant little series, otherwise I am sure that the Shanghai Bureau of Education would have never deployed it in its classrooms, or at least those schools and classrooms with which I am familiar.

I was also constrained, at one place of employment, to use the New Oriental New Parade series for children. This is the most content-poor, over-glossy, silly, uninspiring set of ESL materials for children that I have ever been forced to use. So that is one series which I would strongly suggest that you avoid using. The children, I am sure, found it laborious at best. Personally, I am appalled its uninspired academic paucity. So put this series in your "avoid" category.

[Hansen]

Joey, How about having a trip to a local bookstore with a large selection of English teaching materials? Have a look at what is available. Surprising amount of material there, much of it useless, but you might find something suitable.

[eddy-cool]

In years past I was asked by employers to follow a Longman-Cambridge textbook prepared in Britain (or so the preface claims) and published in China, adapted with illustrations that show Asian features. English? No! Chinglish? Certainly. And the contents are laughably stupid.

But frankly, do kids want to read books that foist a foreign tongue on them? No. Certainly not this series of childish materials!

What alternatives are there? Why not comic strips?

Of course, your student no doubt needs to practise what little she has acquired so far; maybe you can practise dialogues with her using the vocabulary her class textbooks use, without using her textbook(s). A good chance for her to acquire the reflex to make her verbs (predicates) agree with her subjects.

[Boofalonius]

I also think you could go to the bookstore and look through the selection. You can always make up your own stuff as you go along. Just buy a bunch of books and photocopy yourself a packet.

[joey2001]

[Sonnibarger]

Give "American English Primary Colours" a try... full of great activities, songs, chants, flashcards, and a colourful activity section for kids to play games, draw pictures, solve problems, ect... there is a teacher book that is packed with useful stuff aswell... its miles ahead of any other book ive used... believe me I've been forced to use a couple gems... can anyone tell me why a 4yr old kid needs to learn the word credit card?!? maybe shanghai kids but thats a different topic

[kev7161]

I really enjoy what was once called "New Parade", now called "New Oriental" (I think, the cover is in Chinese now, but the inside content is exactly the same as before). It incorporates songs, chants, games, art activities, of course grammar and speaking and writing, math, social studies, geography and more. A very student-friendly and teacher-friendly book with a regular full-color book for use within the classroom setting and then a black and white workbook that reflects the lessons you have just given for the students to do on their own. Even the most novice of teachers can teach from it as each page from the teacher's edition has another page mirroring it with many, many ideas as well as "how to" teach from it. Also, you don't have to stop with just what's in the book; any teacher worth his/her salt can easily come up with extra ideas beyond the book that ties in with what is given. My 4th graders are currently enjoying the dialogues they get to perform. Gives them a chance to ham it up from time to time. Sadly, in my particular department, we are pretty much surpassing the content of New . . whatever due to the curriculum we teach. Most of my students seem to genuinely enjoy the twice-weekly lessons, but I think their English skills are far beyond what is being presented in the book (esp. the vocabulary). But by the 4th level, the writing is becoming more of a focus and my kids really, REALLY need that so I'll stick with it for that area alone.

[theincredibleegg]

[xiao51]

[joey2001]

Thanks for the input. I'll check out the largest bookstore in town for that Oxford book. Seems like it's the best choice for kids.

[kev7161]

[xiao51]

Here is the complete URL mentioned above:

http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/isbn/0-19-437195-6?cc=gb

Additionally, as the authors and editors of this series mentioned, in stark contrast to what the poster above writes, language acquisition is the basis and essence of all learning.

As for the above-poster's reference to "practical" or something thereon, "practically" is a quintessentially middle class normative train of thought.... a la "Pilgrims Progress". What is "practical" for a first grade learner, let's say in Topeka, Kansas (a site chosen purely at random) may have nothing or little to do with what is practical for a Chinese young learner in Shanghai, China (again a site chosen purely at random).

And I for one would never demonstrate a lack of educational modesty by even claiming to impose rigid, middle-class hyper-practically on small children. To do so, IMHO, just demonstrate a rather limited knowledge of the psychology of small children and their learning habits.

Nonetheless, to the OP, to return to the instant subject, New Parade is so full of egregious errors of normative grammar in parts that it would set off alarm bells in most countries' educational systems if it were to be used as a language-acquisition textbook. One little gem "give me much milk please" and related phrases thereto.

I even saw a brilliant little gem like this "if I was in the forest, I would see bears", a sentence which probably should read something like "If I were in a forest, I might see some bears".

New Parade / New Oriental was written for China by, if the above-poster had fully noticed, by non-native speakers educated in English in their respective non-English speaking countries. I do not say that there is anything inherently wrong with this but I will say that the deployment of the English language in this book is far from normative in many places.

The activities and all the rest that this poster mentions are extraordinarly very banal, very venal and overwhelmingly quite trite.

[kev7161]

It's like shooting fish in a barrel, isn't it folks?

[xiao51]