Teaching Chinese Kids English

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my opinion, a parent should learn English too. Learning English is a long trip for every kid. Taking China, for example, Chinese parents let their kids accept English language education when they are two or three years old even earlier. Chinese parents want their kids to get more vocabulary, fluently speaking, and get familiar with the English-communication environment. But this situation only happened in language training school which has foreign teachers(English native speakers) and use English during the class. It means that parents pay a lot of money to let their kids have the environment. But most kids only have one-hour of the environment per week. How does the environment work? How can the kids get...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I came to China 4 years ago to teach English. I have not managed to learn Mandarin in that time frame but I did learn quite a bit about the differences in pronunciation between Mandarin and American English. The most common errors made by Chinese students generally come from the habit of translating to their native language. English and Mandarin share some similarities such as word order and sentence structure which also complicate the issue. In this essay, I will discuss teaching pronunciation, the problems that can occur when teaching pronunciations, and the issues that occur with Mandarin speakers learning English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Paris S. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have been working in China for more than six months now and it’s been a very interesting time for me not just to learn more about the country and its people, but also to enrich my teaching skills and grow professionally as a teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Evgeniya S. When I arrived in China, I hardly knew anything about specific features of teaching in that country, so I thought that the knowledge I had was quite enough to handle the classes in kindergarten or primary school. But since my first working day, I have often been surprised and even sometimes perplexed by what I have seen at kindergartens and schools in China. Many teaching techniques and methods that Chinese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Every learner of a foreign language may face pronunciation problems now and then. Languages that belong to one language group have more in common in phonics and are usually easier to learn to pronounce correctly. But such languages as English and Chinese are so different, that Chinese learners (and I bet English speaking learners of Chinese too) often have many difficulties in pronunciation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Evgeniya S. I have been working in China as a teacher for more than six months now. When I arrived in this country, I hardly knew several words in Mandarin. I was hoping that won’t be a problem, as I had traveled a lot before, and my English knowledge had always...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The majority of children turning 5 years old attend kindergarten for two years in preparation for primary school. Some kids enter kindergarten earlier at the age of only four. This actually varies according from state to state and also from country to country. In China, most kindergartens combine childcare with teaching so that the children will develop physically, morally, and intellectually in a harmonious way to get ready for their formal school education. A good environment is assured for the kids to have a conducive place to learn actively. Teaching English in China can be overwhelming considering that English teachers are also assigned to teach kids as young as one year old or even younger. Chinese parents...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Destinations The Chinese education market has been growing for the recent ten years. As the country is getting more and more open towards the rest of the world, the demand for proper English training becomes ubiquitous. Compared to the Russian system, where English starts to be taught in primary school, in China, they try to include English as early as the nursery. The difference in culture, language structure, and the lack of proper training of the school staff open the doors to expats. If you find a position for an ESL teacher in China, chances are you get into a kindergarten. Two years ago, I found a teaching job in a private bilingual kindergarten chain in China. There were two main branches: a multiple intelligences...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In China, Parents realize learning English is essential to their child's future. There are many reasons why Chinese have to speak okay English; they also know that the best time for one to master another language, the earlier the best. The biggest challenge we face in China is that parents are reluctant to use English in daily life. It is easy to understand why most Chinese are unwilling to speak English if you know our culture, "Saving Face," they are afraid to make mistakes in front of others, take "English" as a complicated subject, only teacher and school can handle it. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mengru W. Please note that this blog post might...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Working as an English teacher in the kindergarten is very entertaining and challenging, as the teacher will deal with the children who don’t have even a basic knowledge of English, have the very short attention span and very different in terms of their behavior. Before I moved to China, I haven’t prior experience in teaching the kindergarten level students, because I always thought that teaching the young learners would be annoying, hard to discipline and far too energy-consuming. So what I had learned was just through my own experience. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nasiba Q. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. My decision...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Many Chinese students face the common problem that although they spent 10 years studying English at school, they can't pronounce an English sentence correctly, and they are not confident enough to communicate in the language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mengru W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Our students struggle to speak in English, they are good at writing and reading, but cannot speak, even though they studied the language from third to 12th grade. Most of the students also study English at a language center, but they still find it hard to completely reach the goal, even when they go to college, speaking English...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Many texts on this subject begin primarily by defining the term 'classroom management'. I equally think it is not out of place to begin a discussion on classroom management from the same perspective. Classroom management refers to the variety of skills employed by which teachers and schools to curtail disruptive behavior of learners so as to create a congenial environment for teaching and learning. It is the case from the definition that the classroom setting may not always be as well-ordered and peaceful for teaching and learning as it should be and may require certain organizational skills and the ability to create of a friendly and disciplined atmosphere in order for teaching and learning to be effective. In...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have 3 years of experience in teaching English in a few kindergartens in Beijing, China and some experience in teaching adults in a training center. When I started in kindergarten, it was very difficult because I didn’t have enough information about how to make a proper lesson plan. I didn’t have enough materials, games, songs, and it took me a lot of time to collect all the necessary information for teaching and creating my teaching plan. Without experience, it wasn’t easy for me to build a good rapport between me and my students. It took me a while to build a connection between me and the kids. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lidiia L. Please note that this blog post might...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Nowadays, more people are learning English. There are many private English-teaching companies like New Oriental, Meten, Wallstreetenglish and more. We can also find many public schools in countries like China that teach English from people’s childhood. This essay tries to make the potential of English clearer. As a result, people who are absolute beginners of English or who are going to teach those beginners will have a map and a compass in mind to refer to about the motivation for language learning on their way to the future. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Carpenter L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As we know,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As a part of receptive skills, reading is so important that children start to read both English and Chinese books at the very beginning of their lives. Reading is a beneficial way to learn English well, especially for young learners. They can accumulate more and more vocabulary as well as the way native speakers communicate with each other by reading various kinds of books. As we all know reading a good book just like talking with a great author. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiangnan G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Here I will share my experience of teaching English reading to young learners. I worked in an...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Education is one of the most important and complex processes of all humans achievements, especially early childhood education. It requires good attention and hard work. Learning language is one part of those big achievements, once the language is given as a second language for young learners, therefore teaching English as a second language in primary institutions like kindergartens is a great challenge itself as for the students so for the teachers. Building a relationship with the children in the second language without utilizing their mother tongue demands great work. Teaching kids in the kindergarten must be motivating. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Safarmo M. Please note that...  [Read more]

Gaia Oliviero TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Working as an ESL teacher can be difficult if you live in a Western country and you haven't undertaken a certain path during your university studies. As far as Italy is concerned, if you want to teach in a public school, you need to hold at least a Master's Degree in pedagogical studies and/or educational sciences. No matter how good an English speaker you are, you are required to own those specific degrees. If you want to teach in a private school, you have to take into account the fact that they prefer to hire native speakers – which is totally licit, to a certain extent. In addition to that, if you have no experience whatsoever in teaching in front of a class, you are basically...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences I chose to take a TEFL course to make me more professional. I am an English teacher and I teach young kids from the age of 4 to 12 in China. I have been teaching kids for around 7 years. I was teaching kids from Grade 1 to Grade 5 in a public primary school in China. Now I teach young kids in a language training center. Teaching in a Chinese public school is totally different to teaching in a private training center. In a public school, what the teacher does everyday is giving the questionnaire to the students and have them complete as many questionnaires as possible. The goal is for students to remember the grammar rules and know how to give correct answers so that they can do well in their tests. So in a public...  [Read more]

Nadiia Dovbnia Destinations Alumni Experiences I have been working in China as an English teacher almost for half a year. When the outbreak began, I decided to stay in China. At first, I thought it would be like a seasonal flu quarantine back in my country, Ukraine, when schools are closed for just a week or two. However, the situation got worse and I realized that it might be safer to stay inside my city than to go through the train stations and airports. Shops gave no signs of opening after the New Year, busses were just passing by the stops on their way to the bus park, communities were closed for the non-residents, in one day you got more temperature checks that in a few months. Every movement has been noted down from the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Family, in general, has a main role in affecting a child's early childhood, growth, development, and most importantly education. More specifically; the parent-child relationship is very important because the child spends most of his time with his parents, and while many factors affect the child's education, the learning environment at home and parents' attitude toward education contributes most to shaping his development. The child's learning process begins at home and the early years are a good opportunity for parents to build a solid educational phase that can lead to proper education. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Razan A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The most widely used language throughout the world is English. Some countries use English as an official language. English is a major subject In China. Most of the Chinese students start to learn English from primary school or middle school. In recent years, more and more students start to learn English from kindergarten. They put a lot of time and effort into learning English. The majority of Chinese students learn English for over 10 years. But there is a strange situation. They still can’t speak English fluently, even though some simple English conversations. But they can get high scores in the exam. Why is it? Because Chinese students are too stupid? Or not hard-working? No!!! The biggest cause is that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I chose this topic because I have first-hand experience with my trilingual child. She is 3 years old now, we are a couple of Romanians living in China, and my husband is a middle school English teacher. My daughter was born in China and I can both speak Chinese. ‘What language will my daughter learn first?’ Was one of the questions that haunted me and I thought it would be the greatest challenge of motherhood. Well, the reality proved me wrong – it was the easiest task and now my daughter can speak perfect English, she can understand and speak Romanian very well and she understands Chinese and can speak when she has to. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lenuta M. Please note that this...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Nowadays, English is becoming more and more popular and significant in China because of globalization. In big cities, parents send their kids to all kinds of organizations/schools to study English in their early three years. Some capable parents even use English as their communicative language from the first day the baby was born. No matter how early Chinese starts learning English, it’s still not our mother language and the atmosphere is still in Chinese, which makes learning English not as easy as those in English countries. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yixun C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In my point of view, here...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Since the opening of China to the Western world, Chinese society and economic prowess have both continued to grow at exponential rates. This has led to its status as a rising power, culturally and economically, and an international power increasingly interconnected with many parts of the globe. As Chinese educational infrastructure tries to match pace with the rapidity of the country’s progress, one educational mandate that has persisted in importance over time has been that of English learning for all young learners across the country. The government sees English proficiency as a matter of national economic competitiveness, in fact requiring that English is taught as part of the public school curriculum as...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I’m a young ESL teacher in China, and I is Chinese. English is a compulsory subject for all Chinese students and reading skills have gained raising importance in the national tests for English subjects. Besides this, reading itself is fun and beneficial. I always try to let my students “learn through English” instead of “learning English”. From my experience, a successful reading class for young learners should consist of the following steps: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Fang W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. If the book is about animals. I may ask the students some questions like “what animals do you know?”...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Throughout this course, there have been many interesting lessons and tips that I have found useful in different academic settings. For instance, in my tenure teaching middle school students in China, I found that it is better to help the student like a partner as opposed to just giving her or him a worksheet and watching them complete it by themselves. I have also haven’t had a great deal of pair-work that I am trying to implement even now in my Kindergarten classes, though to a lesser degree. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jonathan A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Kindergartens tend to be much more flexible in how...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Destinations Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Teaching in a foreign country is a dream for many people who are passionate about education. However, it can be confusing and scary thinking about teaching in a country with a culture and language that you are not familiar with. However, as long as you are a qualified, professional and patient teacher, you should have nothing to worry about. Teaching in a country like China might seem like a big challenge at first, however, there are many techniques and teaching methods that a professional teacher can apply during the lesson to ensure a successful outcome. So, the question is: How can a teacher apply what they have learned during a TEFL course in a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The above is a topic that I want to particularly used to teaching reading to young learners. There are some points given below, they are. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Angeline J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children's songs and nursery rhymes aren't just a lot of fun—the rhyme and rhythm help kids to hear the sounds and syllables in words, which helps them learn to read. A good way to build phonemic awareness (one of the most important skills in learning to read) is to clap rhythmically together and recite songs in unison. This playful and bonding activity is a fantastic way for kids to implicitly develop the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The first job as an English teacher abroad is a challenging change, especially if the country you are choosing to work is culturally different from your home country. There are so many differences between one country and other but usually, those differences look bigger when the place you move belongs to another political and social organization mode. My experience as an English teacher in China has allowed me to see these huge differences between western culture and the Asian world. In the following essay, I will try to point out the main cultural challenges that a teacher I had to face and how this may become a sensitivity source inside the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Maria...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Growing up I always had an interest in learning and teaching a language. Of course, English was my best subject and I always made sure I was part of the drama club playing one of the big roles. During my kindergarten days, our teacher used to play musical chairs as we waited for our parents to come to pick us up. It's interesting that now as a teacher I really love using it for my lessons and have tried to upgrade it just a little bit more. I am currently teaching at a kindergarten in Shanghai, China. I really love my job and my workmates who have become more like family and friends. When I started working there, like any other teacher, I was scared, felt vulnerable and wanted to do my best. I kept asking...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas China is one of the leading countries in the world that has been in the search and quest to learn the English language. In recent years the demand to learn English has been on a rise. Every school tries to have a teacher who can teach the language to the learners. However, in this process of learning, many learners encounter a series of problems which make the language learning process not an easy task both for teachers and students. However, we are going to be looking at very common problems students learning English as a foreign language face in China. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Shey Violette B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences My biggest takeaway from my TEFL certification course with ITTT is the topic of learning techniques. Learning techniques vary depending on race, gender, age, cultural background , past experiences and several other variables of the students involved. I will describe my personal past experiences in regards to the subject at hand. I would like to take a moment to thank the ITTT staff for putting together this highly informative and enlightening TEFL program. It is well written, easy to understand and well organized for new and experienced ESL teachers alike. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Svetlana V. One of the first things I learned during my 60-hour TEFL course was that children are divided into two...  [Read more]