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Teach English in Bagong Zhen - Jincheng Shi

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Bagong Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Jincheng Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.

When I was in high school it was required of the students to take a foreign language for at least 2 years. I was excited about this opportunity as I have always had an interest in different cultures and thus different languages. My teacher, an American, gave herself a new title for this class - Señora Martín. The first couple of weeks focused on vocabulary learning. My teacher taught primarily in English by translating. We practiced in drills. When it came time to learn verbs, that’s when things went wrong for me. As a student at the age of 14 my language was concrete in my mother tongue and I didn’t have an understanding of how language functioned. To me, it made sense that there would be a word for word translation for everything. I took 4 years of Spanish without completely wrapping my brain around language. Still feeling that I had an interest in language learning but not feeling capable, I vowed to move to a different country - where I would be forced to learn. It wasn’t until my junior year in college when the opportunity arrived to be a foreign exchange student to Spain. The plane landed. I was given the address to the home where I would live and it was my responsibility to get to this home. It became quickly apparent that all my formal language learning left much to be desired. I remember every person asking me “¿Estás bien?” which means “Are you good?” in Spanish, but all I was hearing was “tambien” which means “also.” It took me days to understand this small phrase. Andalusians are notorious for chopping off parts of words and as a result “¿Estás bien?” became “eta bien.” Little by little, my ear became adjusted to the way a native speaker spoke. During those 3 months I learned more about the Spanish language than all 6 years of formal instruction. I quickly caught on to phrases that were commonly used and recognized (with demonstration) what was being asked of me. I would repeat back exactly what I thought I heard although I didn’t really understand the significance of each word. Things like “siéntate” while patting a seat meant “sit down.” I would sit and satisfy the person saying “siéntate.” It was in that moment that I realized how learning a new language reverts a person back to becoming like a child. And I arrived at a possible conclusion – learning in the same manner a child learns their mother tongue may be the best method. Now that I am a mother with 3 children I have observed them learning their mother tongue the same way my adult self was trying to learn a second language. Let’s take a look at how children learn a language: Babies/children are completely immersed and hearing sounds (phonemes) of their mother tongue. This stage is called “phonemic awareness.” The next stage is word learning in which babies/children learn how sounds in language go together to form a meaning - learning word boundaries (where one word begins and ends). Rather than learning words exactly, they are learning “morpheme” which is a sound or sounds that have meaning. There can be more than one morpheme in a word which children can recognize (for example, “mommy” is a being that cuddles me, “s” means more than one, therefore “mommies” means more than one mommy). The next stage is learning sentences by learning how to place words in the correct order. These 3 steps take a period of about 18 months. And from then children are adding to their vocabulary, recognizing how language is attached to time. The need to express time develops as the child grows and understands the concept of the past, present and future. It’s not until much later in life when those 3 tenses are broken down to give further meaning. https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-do-children-learn-language-1449116 What if we as teachers followed this same method for teaching a new language? What would that look like? The first notable component in child-like learning is immersion in the target language by a native speaker. When one is removed from their mother tongue and forced to communicate in an alternate language they listen to sounds, they watch mouths and how they move very closely to duplicate. They find the one word they know and use their predictive skills to infer what one may be saying. They repeat the pronunciation and intonation in which they hear words spoken. By using immersion techniques you are also creating a motivation to learn as the need to communicate with others is imperative. Another component of learning like a child is repetition. Hearing words over and over allows one to attach meaning to words and phrases and solidifies vocabulary. Repetition of words and phrases within new contexts can be even more beneficial as it can bring to light new uses of the same word or phrases. Contextual learning happens naturally for children as they are toted around by their mom to various locations – the grocery, library, pool, park etc. When contextual learning is not possible, visual aids that take one to those places can be equally beneficial. Start at a beginner level and progress forward. Babies don’t begin watching adult movies, they begin by watching shows that have few words and a lot of pictures and songs. Children then move to have an interest in shows such as Sesame Street and then begin to show interest in shows with a plot arc. Likewise, if an adult switches their TV to their target language and watches all the adult programs they likely will become frustrated. But following the pattern of a child they will learn progressively. The same is true of books—starting with books made for babies and progressing forward. After a good foundation of vocabulary and pronunciation are developed, then the next step is to move in to teaching sentence structure and some grammar rules. Grammar, in simpler terms is recognizing a pattern used in language and adapting to that same pattern to communicate. But re-establishing a new pattern is easier said than done. Students tend to relate grammar to their mother tongue and when grammar differs from their mother tongue it is more challenging to understand. After working on “easy grammar rules” it would be natural to progress into expressing time with language (tenses) and introducing the patterns (grammar) needed to do that. It should be noted that children take from 7-10 years to speak with good grammar in their mother tongue. While the hope would be that the language learning process would take less time for an adult, looking through the lens of how long it takes to learn a first language can be insightful and encouraging for students -- It is all part of the natural process.


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