Teaching primary school students

[Emily Jia]

Now I am teaching a girl who is in grade 4. She is such a naughty girl and makes me very tired. When I teach something to her, she can’t listen to me carefully. It seems that she is not interested in English. So every time, I just talk to myself. She hasn’t made any progress until now. I don’t know how to motivate her and make her concentrate on her study. Do you have some good ways?

[ZhuSha]

I think you can try your best to find her interests first by chatting with her. For example, if she likes listening to the music, you can prepare some suitable English songs for her, and gradually shift her attention to English. Besides, you are supposed to teach her English with games to make her feel that it is the interesting playing rather than dull learning, which is a key. And which games should be used is also determined by her interests and personality.

[sarah_lou]

I don't know how old grade 4 is but... if this is a one-to-one class it may be a good idea to just play games with her, while talking in English (eg. memory games with picture cards). If you try and repeat the same English words over and over during the games, she may at least remember those.

Try and let her associate English with something fun.

I had a similar situation with a four year old I once taught. She was too young to 'learn' but I think she picked up a few words from the games we played.

[yaaaaaaaan]

I think you can try your best to find her interests first by chatting with her.

That's quite right. Don't push her so hard, you might begin with discussing sth. favored by her age, and what kind of an english teacher she's got at school, the crucial thing is what she likes/dislikes about this teacher, if she were given a chance to change him/her, then ideal figure of teacher should be like what? -- that helps you know her taste of a better learning environment, then move on to it~~

Every beginning is difficult, wish you good luck:)

[Sally Olsen]

Can you speak her language? It seems that she will be about 9 years old? Does she have English at school? Why is she taking private lessons? Is she good at other things in school? Are there problems with learning other things? Who is bringing her to lessons and why do they want her to learn English? What does she like to do in her free time? What subject does she like at school? Have you interviewed her parents, her teachers to find out more about her? How long have you had her as a student? Was she keen at first?

These are just a few questions to add to yaaaaaaaan's excellent ones about her English teacher at school. The more you know the better you will be able to help her or pass her on to another teacher who will find her a "perfect" student. It is rare teacher who can teach everyone successfully.

[yaaaaaaaan]

Is she good at other things in school? Are there problems with learning other things? Who is bringing her to lessons and why do they want her to learn English? What does she like to do in her free time? What subject does she like at school? Have you interviewed her parents, her teachers to find out more about her? How long have you had her as a student? Was she keen at first?

Totally agree. These detail questions might get you much more closer to her initial mind, cope with this kinda student, go directly to the point might not be a nice move.

Try if it's possible to mingle her interest with what she actually should learn. One of my experience with a boy as stubborn as mule, who only cared about NBA, i aim at arousing his interest in english and help him do better job at school. Here comes two strategies i once used and got rather good responses.

while we learn animals, i collected the logos of each team in NBA, you surely know some of them took animal feature as their logos, the good point is, the "carrier" is what he liked ( no matter what the content is), while taking abou the logos,we recognized a load of animals and their families( mammal, reptile....)

Another time we were put in front of several faces with different facial expressions(happy, sad,nervous.....), i collected a great deal of pix of Kobe( his idol) with different mood, no more to say, we definitely got a nice coorperation that time.

Don't make him/her think you're a teacher only aim at infusing loads of stuff into her mind, you learn and explore together, that would work out better.

[liuyanli]

I sympathy with you. Because I have the same experience. In my class, I have 3 naghty boys, one likes laughing at everything, one is always not listen to me, one usually chats with others in class. I will be crazy.At last, what I only can do is asking them come to the front, so they can listen to my teaching better!