Teaching English with foreign students

In Qiqi Kindergarten, there is a 15-minute English class every week, which is taught by China. When she came home, she murmured, and sometimes she took the initiative to tell me about English lessons. The length of 15 minutes per week was obviously not enough. Coupled with some strange pronunciation, I began to embark on the road of investigating foreign teachers' courses.

after more than two years, Qiqi is currently in the third foreign teacher class. The previous one was in an educational institution, with a teaching assistant, and each class was about 14+,one class a week; The other is in a foreign teacher's home, without a teaching assistant, 7 per class (later increased to 8), once a week; What we are attending now is that we invite foreign teachers ourselves &; Rent a venue and work as a teaching assistant, 7 per class, twice a week.

At first, we just wanted to meet foreigners without fear. We thought it was fun to learn English, and we could have simple interaction in English when we were exposed to pure English pronunciation. So at that time, sending her to a foreign teaching class was just a matter of sending her in, and she didn't review after going home, just for fun.

Now, I think that teaching foreign languages is not just for fun, but a gradual process is needed, so that we can climb up systematically and see the accumulated effect. I don't know whether it is because Qiqi has grown up, or because we have paid more attention to her English study. The effect of foreign teachers' class this semester is more obvious. We have accumulated a lot of vocabulary, learned to make some simple sentences, and sometimes popped up a few English expressions that surprised us.

friends often ask questions about foreign teachers' courses. I'll choose some that ask more questions and tell you my opinion.

1. Is it necessary to teach as a foreign language?

In the article "China Children's English Roadmap", I wrote about my neat English enlightenment, listening to English nursery rhymes to sharpen her ears. If we can insist on listening to English nursery rhymes and reading English stories with her, we should be able to meet the requirements of pre-school English enlightenment.

however, there are two difficulties.

first, it is difficult to persist. The environment at home is more casual. Listening to English nursery rhymes and reading English stories, I often have one build and one build, so it is difficult to finish it regularly every day or week. If you sign up for a foreign teacher's class, you must go to class regularly and force us to insist, so that your child's time investment in learning English is more secure.

second, the pronunciation is not accurate. Although many experts encourage their mothers to read English stories to their children, they will emphasize that it doesn't matter whether they pronounce them correctly or not, but we know that they don't pronounce them correctly, so we don't have the confidence to teach them English words over and over again as we taught our children to learn to speak. Foreign teachers have this confidence, and let the children see her mouth and listen to her pronunciation. I am afraid that I will lead the children astray and it will be difficult to correct them.

In fact, after attending foreign teachers' classes in order, my pronunciation is often corrected, and the tone of many sentences is similar to that of foreign teachers. In the sensitive period of language learning, learning English with a foreign teacher whose mother tongue is English is believed to lay a good foundation for her English listening and speaking.

2. which English institution does Qiqi teach as a foreign language?

Qiqi is now attending our own foreign teacher class. She invites foreign teachers and rents the space herself, and the expenses are shared equally. Because we think that although children's English education institutions are worry-free, the cost performance is too low.

among the English training institutions for children of all sizes that I have listened to, Disney English is the best, and it is obviously superior to other institutions in terms of hardware environment, teachers and curriculum. Therefore, the tuition fee is also considerable. If you calculate that one class is 2-3, you must attend two classes a week, and the cost of English training alone is more than 2, a month, which is really expensive. (We didn't choose Disney, of course, not only because it was too expensive, but also for other reasons, which will be discussed later.)

EF is a little cheaper, but only half of it is a foreign teacher's class, and the other half is a teacher from China. Isn't the original intention of teaching our children as a foreign teacher to expose them to the accent of pure native English speakers? I don't think it's worth the cost of teaching Chinese.

Reese's characteristic is subject English, that is, teaching mathematics, science and other subject knowledge in English, and she is China's teacher. Foreign teachers' classes are free, and only a dozen classes a year are foreign teachers. This obviously doesn't meet my needs.

Qiqi's first foreign teacher class is located in Zhujiang New Town. It is a small educational institution, and the price is much cheaper. The cost of a class is only half that of Disney English. Rao is still twice as expensive as hiring a foreign teacher himself.

3. How many children are there in Qiqi's foreign teacher class 1 * *?

six children. Foreign teachers must have small classes to ensure that every child has a chance to practice.

The class I auditioned in Disney was a normal class, not a specially organized audition class. A dozen children, the teacher can't take care of every one. Those children with a higher level and initiative will obviously have more opportunities to practice.

I sat inside and saw a little girl playing all the class with my own eyes. I didn't listen to what the teacher was saying at all, and no one cared about her. What would it feel like if her parents knew that they spent two or three hundred dollars each time just to send their children to play? Anyway, I feel bad about that tuition.

Of course, there are also some exceptionally good children in the class. But I really can't guarantee that Qiqi is the great one, not the one who played the whole class.

The three classes in Qiqi are all small classes of 6 people organized by their classmates in kindergarten. At first, she was a little introverted when she was in a small class. When she saw that the children next to her didn't know each other, she immediately ran out and dragged her back, and she cried. Several times, the foreign teacher auditioned and returned without success. But she enjoyed the audition class with her classmates, so we had no choice.

For six children, the teacher can also take care of everyone. During the one-hour course, there is full time to correct each child's pronunciation, and no child will play all the time.

In this foreign teacher class we are attending now, sometimes there are five children in a class, and the practice time of each child is obviously increased. At the beginning of the class, there were still children who wanted to join, so the mother in charge of the organization insisted that six children were the limit and refused the one who wanted to join. It is wise to think about it now.

4. Send your child to a foreign teacher class, and English will be fine, right?

Children's English learning can't be completely handed over to foreign teachers, so they should practice at home.

In the first two foreign teachers' classes, parents didn't have to go in. When the children were in class, we chatted outside, but we made a group of good parents and friends. But we have no idea what the children learned and how they learned it, and we haven't reviewed it since we got home.

After two years, Qiqi really doesn't care about foreigners, and she thinks learning English is fun, but her vocabulary and English expression ability have not improved much. In this class, we used an organization textbook. At her age, she should have reached the second level, but she didn't master many words and expressions in the first level. It is too simple to teach only the first level, so the teacher has to teach only the first level and the second level together.

This time, because we hired teachers and rented space ourselves, I volunteered to work as a teaching assistant in the classroom to help teachers keep order and watch how teachers teach children.

Just like learning Chinese at first, learning English is about learning pronunciation from words to sentences. Teachers will teach them to learn words by playing games, and check and correct their pronunciation one by one. I will also write down the contents of each class and send them to other parents to review at home.

The textbook used this time has matching word cards. In the evening when I don't go to the foreign teaching class, I will use these cards to review for Qi Qi, and practice making sentences with a few cards. Qi Dad also lamented that he felt that the effect of this foreign teaching class was much better.

5. what are the contents of foreign teachers' classes? What textbooks are used?

Every foreign teacher institution will have its own teaching materials. Foreign teachers who start their own classes generally use textbooks such as Cambridge and Longman. And if we invite our own teachers, we can adjust the course content according to our needs.

I also think that today's foreign teacher class is better than the previous two, although it took me a whole night to communicate with teachers who can only speak English because of various twists and turns in the initial class formation. Oral English is too poor, but fortunately there is WeChat, which can be translated and sorted out by Baidu before sending it out, haha!

After such communication, the teacher understood our needs, adjusted her original course content, devoted all the time of writing words in the audition class to teaching listening and speaking, and the theme of each class was relatively concentrated, which also increased the time of learning English nursery rhymes and reading English graded books, with rich content.

Of course, teachers also have their own specialities, and they don't follow my suggestions completely. Instead, they take the form of new lessons and review. One topic needs to be taught five or six times, and the children are sure to master it before moving on to the next topic. I obviously feel that Qiqi has mastered these themes in a down-to-earth manner this time, and when I ask her again after a long time, I can still say it and be right.

6. where can the foreign teacher be invited?

At present, there are special foreign teachers' brokers as the intermediary between parents and foreign teachers, and we contact foreign teachers through such brokers. Many school teachers will know brokers in this field. There are several parents in Qiqi Kindergarten who are primary school teachers, and they all have access to this information.

7. Are there any precautions when organizing classes?

Pay attention to children's personality and gender collocation when organizing classes.

Because the foreign teacher in the last class didn't tell us in time that he wouldn't come back after he returned to the United States, two children in the previous class joined another class, and there are only two girls in our class this time. I have to remind those naughty boys to listen to the teacher quietly every time, otherwise the class will be a mess.

Fortunately, these four little boys are not too lively. A little boy with great sports talent joined in the audition, which was really shocking. There was not enough time to walk around him alone. Maybe he is more suitable for one-on-one foreign teacher classes.

Learning needs atmosphere, and many children are strong when they are strong. Why not organize some better study partners for your children by organizing your own classes?

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English learning is a long-term task, interest is the best teacher, and persistence is also essential. Exploring a suitable learning method, I think I will continue to stick to it, accompany Qiqi together, work hard a little every day, master English as a powerful tool, open the door of western culture and see a more colorful world!