Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi, I am new to this forum, but would really appreciate it if someone could help me out. I am a new ESL teacher in a Chinese elementary school, teaching oral English, and I need ideas and/or activities to teach 4th - 6th graders. The school has given me no real direction...and the few ideas I have tried have not gone so well. I am finding it hard to keep their attention. Any ideas??? Maybe Roger...he seems to have a lot of input on this subject?

Thanks

Hello!

Have a look at this non commercial site maybe you will find some useful ideas.

http://www.kico4u.de


Best wishes
Siân

To CHinaenglishteacher,

in my view, "oral English" is hardly the right thing for beginners, but we have to put up with Chinese demands. However, I had a lot of good vibes when I was not being interferred with by my Chinese colleagues. SO let's hope you are faring the same.
Here is what could help you and your learners:
- Write up some 5 to 10 RELEVANT topics that you want to cover with your students. I have done reasonably well using the following: 1: Weather and climate (China offers a huge variety in both!);
2: Seasons (again, a very suitable topic as your students may hail from different parts of China, with some knowing what snow is, while others only have fairytale indeas about it!); 3: Geography (ditto!); 4: CLothing (climates condition your choice of how you dress!); 5: Time (the concept of time needs a good grounding in its aspects - there are years, months, weeks, days; numbers play a significant role, as does mythology in the English names; once you have talked your way through all these terms, you can focus on students' birthdays and their age - I finally managed to enable students to express "Iam ... years old"/"I WAS (sic!) born on.../in...").
This gave me the opportunity to reinforce good grammar - the use of the appropriate tenses and SV-agreement as each student had to speak for himself/herself, and the class had to repeat "he/she..."!
My instruction depended to a considerable part on their taking notes; this is new to your students as they are used to getting textbooks for practice, and never have to write down new information.
But it helped them get things in order, as well as getting a better grasp on spelling and pronunciation. Besides, taking notes worked new words better into their conscience than merely repeating them orally after me! I had to check each student's writing, but they were cheerfully taking part in this kind of lessons.
The only problem I can anticipate is colleagues and your superiors not respecting your efforts!
I can tell you my grade 4 to 6 students were sunshine for a long time!

As an alternative, I suggest try to teach them the names of certain objects belonging to the same order - animals, buildings, household appliances, etc. Use visuals!
Later, have them go on "shopping sprees" buying items in a supermarket or shop. PUt a catalogue,. or better still, put several copies of a catalogue in strategic locations (possibly outside the classroom!). Once students have to move around, their keenness increases!
You will succeed quite well if you transform the school in some fairyland, a shopping mall, a home... Students love it when they virtually get transported on a different plane!

Check out www.genkienglish.com for some curriculum ideas - this site has some free downloads of songs and lots of free game ideas and flashcards to print out. www.bogglesworld.com also has a lot of good worksheets and flashcards that you could base some lessons around.