Teach English in Yangkou Zhen - Weifang Shi

TEFL Summative Task Essay Topic: Teaching EFL in a Kindergarten Title: How to teach an EFL lesson to a kindergarten in China This essay will break down how to teach children (age three-six) in a kindergarten in China. It is very common in China for kindergartens to want native English speakers to teach and so with an over saturation of native English speakers applying for work, a high standard of lessons is expected. This essay will go over a straight arrow lesson plan which will included a warm up/ engage phase as well as lesson prep, a study phase and finally an engage phase. Throughout the essay there will be key things to remember during EFL teaching such as speaking English throughout and trying to be funny. Lastly, this essay should fully prepare a teacher for an ESL lesson in China. The lesson for the teacher begins as soon as they enter the classroom (which should be five minutes before the allotted time period) not when the students are ready. It is important for the teacher to have all of their visual learning aids, prepared such as flash cards, and it is their responsibility to check that technological aids are working such as interactive white boards and memory sticks. The teacher should have any objects ready and useable for the later, activate phase. When all the preparation is completed and the children begin to enter the class room it is key to greet them with a warm smile as well as wishing them a good morning or good afternoon. When all the students have entered the classroom and are seated the teacher should introduce themselves clearly to the class, then go round one by one to each student asking their names and saying “nice to meet you” or if the teacher has previously taught that class “good morning/ good afternoon”. This is to build a rapport with the students and give them confidence. It is important to remember that the teacher must not let the children speak in their native language throughout the lesson and not respond to them if they do. The next step will be getting the children to warm up, this will make sure they are not bored and the teacher will be more likely to hold their attention for the duration of the class. Activities such as singing songs and dancing are very effective. The “Hello” song by Super Simple is an example of a suitable song. After the song it is at the teacher’s discretion to decide whether the children are ready to move on to the study phase. If they are not ready it is useful to go over previously used material. An example of this could be showing the children, three activity cards with the words sunny, cloudy and rainy and ask the students which of these match the weather today. It is important to remember to keep smiling throughout all the phases and not to single children out as they may feel embarrassed. The teacher should not correct the students’ English during the engage phase as it will discourage the students from participating. The next stage of the lesson is the study phase, this is the point that the teacher introduces and teaches the new language to the students. It is important that the teacher makes sure the students are using the correct pronunciation of words in this phase. The new vocabulary which will be used as an example here is shapes. The teacher will introduce three shapes (as flash cards) to the class: circle, square and triangle, while slowly and clearly saying the word to the class. The class should then repeat the word back to the teacher several times. After this the teacher should use more flash cards with pictures which have the same shape as the shape, for example show a picture of a football and ask the class if it is a circle or not. The teacher can also do the reverse of this and show them a picture which does not match the shape. By doing this the teacher can check if the students can identify the shape and also check their pronunciation of the word at the same time. This process can continue until the teacher is satisfied with the results while making sure not to do it for too long otherwise the students will get bored. The final stage of the lesson is the activate phase, this is where the teacher can see what the students have learnt from the lesson (normally during a fun activity). It can also help the teacher determine future lesson plans, depending on how well the students have picked up the vocabulary taught earlier in the study phase. An example of an activity suitable for this phase would be a recognition game. The students stand in a line and hold a soft, small bean bag each, the students jump forward into a hula hoop and jump out of it, this action is then repeated with another hula hoop. Then the student must throw their bean bag into one of two hoops in front of them, each with a different shape inside. The teacher must tell them which shape they should throw it in and then the student will, hopefully, recognise the correct shape and throw the bean bag at the correct shape in the hoop. The teacher should congratulate the student with a “high five”. After all the students have completed this activity the students can repeat it until the end of the lesson with the teacher changing the shape each time. Lastly, the teacher could play the song “Goodbye” by Super Simple to signify the end of the lesson in a relaxing happy way. In conclusion, this essay has shown a sample language lesson for a kindergarten class in China. The class completed a basic straight arrow lesson plan, with the emphasis being on the children learning and having fun at the same time in a relaxed, stress-free environment as that is the best way for young children to learn.