Teach English in Nan'an Zhen - Luliang Shi

When teaching English as a foreign, or even second language to students of any age, one may be inclined to consider grammar and spelling to be the biggest hurdles. However, reading and writing skills have the benefit of allowing for the use of cross-references in the form of dictionaries, thesauri, and simple re-reading. Listening and speaking skills, on the other hand, rely directly on fluency and are more likely to overwhelm students as they need to process input and generate output on the spot. Another aspect to consider when comparing text-related and speech-related learning is that as individuals, students will likely have the same difficulties with text-related skills both in their native language and English. For this reason, the focus of this essay will be centered around listening and speaking skills. The first and most important to consider the students' English level. The less experienced the students are, the more recommendable it is to stick to more formal English and avoid idioms, slang, and other forms of regionalisms to begin with while at the same time avoiding highly formal language (business and diplomatic style). In other words, with less-experienced students, it is best to keep the language as practical and unadorned as possible. Bearing this in mind, the students' native language will be the most common cause of most learning problems. For starters, lack of fluency will typically result in students thinking in their native language and having grammatical issues resulting from translating word for word instead of translating sentences as a whole. While knowledge of the students' native language can be convenient to provide reverse examples where translating word for word from English will result in nonsensical speech, as a teacher, one should learn not to rely on this as a teaching tool as it would become a limiting factor when faced with students whose native language is unknown. That said, if possible, it is recommendable to do some basic research on the students' native language's grammar in these cases in order to know what linguistic conflicts to expect. Either way, this is why the Engage phase should be centered around getting the students thinking in English, and why the class should ideally be carried out completely in English. Expanding on the aforementioned hurdles, the amount of off-class exposure to English that the students receive is another important factor to consider. In that sense, TESOL students will have a certain advantage over TEFL students. Depending on this factor, it may be necessary to find ways to convince students to seek out other means of exposure to English in their free time, such as playing their games in English, watching subtitled versions of movies and shows instead of dubbed ones, looking up the lyrics of popular songs in English (and having them on-screen or even writing them down to read while listening to said songs), and other ideas relevant to the students' daily lives (such as reading the English version of instructions for a new toy or device). Also, if the parents are known to speak English, it is wise to find ways to recommend that they speak as much English as possible to their children. While grammar and vocabulary are certainly influenced by the students' native language to varying degrees, the strongest effect will more often than not wind up being on pronunciation and intonation. These difficulties will be inextricably tied to the muscle memory developed by students as they grow up mastering their native language. For example, the "u" and "e" sounds in "butter" are relatively simple to master for most Western Europeans as their own languages have said sounds, whereas Spanish speakers very often simply replace them for a hard "a" sound ("bahttahr"). Also, certain consonant combinations are relatively unique to English, with variations of "th" and "z" being commonly problematic, albeit less damaging to a student's overall accent and ability to be understood. Of the consonants, English's "r" sound may be the most problematic globally speaking, unintuitive as this may seem. While being a sound that most students can pronounce without difficulty, the problem arises when students become, so to speak, stuck on the sound, resulting in a rather unintelligible continuous background "r" sound for the rest of the word and, in some cases, the entire phrase. This is where tongue twisters and drilling can be particularly useful and necessary as this shortcoming, from personal experience with colleagues, results in the most common difficulty to communicate clearly. In the most extreme cases, it may become necessary to turn a deaf ear to the students' use of their native language's "r" until their fluency has improved. Bearing all this in mind, it is important to remember that people of all ages can become highly self-conscious about their accent, which may deter them from practicing their English outside the classroom. For this reason, it is important, as a teacher, to clarify to students that even native speakers will generally have some form of accent, and that it is nothing to be ashamed of. This will not only encourage students to use their English but to unconsciously switch from trying to lose the bad accent to trying to improve their English. After all, everyone responds better to positives than to negatives in the very general sense of the word. At the end of the day, with apologies for the clichéd proverbs, practice makes perfect, and quite often, it is necessary to cleverly go the extra mile. For example, one may help students develop fluency by randomly catching them off guard and addressing them in English in the middle of recess. Also, as mentioned above, knowing one's students to guide them toward focusing their entertainment into unofficial English practice may be as valuable as time spent in class. And, most importantly, constantly find ways to show students how a good grasp of the English language will benefit them throughout their entire lives. In other words, motivate students to not only learn English, but embrace and master it.