Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

"Three score and ten," said Chuffey, 'ought and carry seven. Some men are so strong that they live to four score - four times ougjht's an ought, four times two's an eight - eighty. Oh! why - why - why - didn't he live to four times ought's an ought, and four times two's an eight, eighty?"
(from 'Martin Chuzzlewit', Charles Dickens).

So that's how English did their maths in thew 19th century - mentally multiplying the zeroes and the twoes, and arriving at eighty. Compared to our modern times' fashion - I hear, students have to memorise arithmetics, is that true?

It wasn't true for me when I attended school, but I was not much interested in maths. However, we are talking about the acquisition of English in this forum, not maths, and I only felt the above little passage might shed some light on how retro "modern" teaching and learning styles may be!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a most fascinating experience:
Walking into a classroom of our kindergarten unannounced, I immediately had the impression something was DIFFERENT.
All the twenty three-year and four-year olds were seated at their little tables, poring over white sheets, murmuring.
It was eerily quiet. The murmuring sounded like some muffled prayer coming from a group of worshippers in a temple.
Then I noticed they were mumbling sounds on cue, the cue coming from the video machine.
With their eyes focussed on the paper in front of each child, they were "reading" aloud the phonetics of Chinese characters!
With their index finger, they would follow a line on the paper, jerking it to the next character every time the video gave a new cue!
It looked like a well-orchestrated exercise.

Immediately, I remembered other kindergarten classes where I taught English, with the parents insisting their progeny learn "to read THIS book..." (a Cambridge Young Learner's English) without first learning how to write and read.
Memorising, memorising, memorising.

But why on Earth do they also have to make-believe that they are actually READING? Why do preschoolers have to memorise a text while pretending they are decyphering it?
Since their parents insist it has to be this way I assume Chinese WANT to be deceived and deluded!

Maybe this is one reason why the comprehension and reading skills of many CHinese are so poor!

[Anne-Marie Gregory]

In Ghana (where English is an official language), a major criterion for telling whether a child is 'ready' to move up from nursery school to primary school is being able to recite the alphabet. 99% of them have no idea what they are saying (at that stage) but they can mutter it following the cue of how quickly their teacher is moving the cane across the alphabet poster.
Schoolchildren can also recite 'How are you? I am fine, thank you. How are you? I am fine too' in a sing-song voice.....not really knowing what they are saying.....'Are you OK?' Really throws them
In China my diploma students had a question in their final writing exam asking them to invite a foreign businessman to a local festival. 1 in 3 included a phrase, in beautifully ornate English. suggesting that the businessman should consult his calendar, see when he would be free and then notify them of a convenient date. Very sad to see reliance of stock phrases with so little thought given to their suitability. I blame the teacher
I love walking into the classroom in the morning and seeing all the students leant over CET word lists, rocking back and forth muttering the same word over and over again......those who watch Crazy English shout the word ....this must be what a madrassa is like
Mind you...my idiot's Chinese is pretty similar.

[Minhang Oz]

As the father of a four year old in kindergarten it is interesting to observe as well as be a part of what's going on.
James spoke only a few Mandarin phrases when we arrived from Australia 18 months ago. Now, his Chinese is roughly equal to his English, in terms of vocab. and the kinds of language situations he can handle. He knows who to speak which language to, and is infallible in this area, never using English with Aiyi or his playmates. My wife and I get both, but they are never mixed together unless he knows a vocab item in one, but not the other.
He could name the letters of the alphabet when he was two, and will correctly spell out English signs he sees. However, he shows no curiosity or interest whatsoever in Hanzi, even though he's surrounded by it.

ps, Anne Marie, maybe one saving grace of CET 4/6, whatever we think of it, is that it's generally possible to hold a proper conversation with some one who's passed it. Not sure why or how, but it happens.