Post by ellen on Nov 5, 2016 0:40:40 GMT 8
Lack of motivation is a problem we can face while working with students of any age. However, for training centers and schools like i2, this problem is particularly acute when having classes with young learners and teenagers.
Having a group of 3-4-year-olds who are unaware of improvements that English can bring into their lives and of purposes of spending 40 minutes with a teacher who doesn’t understand Chinese or even of what ‘Chinese” and ‘English’ are is not so discouraging as it may seem at first sight. In fact, one of the concerns listed in Task 4 (p.20) which says “My pupils only enjoy English lessons when I am doing games or songs” is actually a solution. Small kids are very unlikely to understand the aim of learning, but they do appreciate the time when they can have fun and activities they enjoy. But children tend to get bored with games and activities. Needless to say, it’s not an easy task for the teacher to generate a dozen of shiny new activities for each couple of lessons. That’s when we understand that to change the existing game and adjust it to our students’ preferences and interests is easier and more effective. We have only to find out what our young students like. Only?! Easier said than done. We can probably find some things that the like simply through observation (like one of my students likes to run screaming “I’m a dinosaur!” - difficult not to notice), but it’s not so easy as we spend with our students only 1-2 hours per week. I was thinking about possible ways to get this kind of information (talk to parents, ask Chinese teachers for help) and then I saw the 1st solution in Task 5. It is a great idea! Just let children bring something that they like to the classroom. My 3-4-year-olds naturally like to do this, and I usually ask them to leave their small precious things outside the classroom. Instead of this we could take it under control just a little bit and ask children to bring for the next class their favorite… (Animal, toy, hero, etc.). I’d probably ask them to bring pictures or cut-outs to make collages later on. This way we see what each child likes and children have a chance to play with a ‘toy’ they chose themselves for this class. We can use this choice in various activities during the lessons. For example, in one of my groups children like to joke and answer the question “What’s your name” differently every time, e.g. “My name is Cat!”, “My name is Butterfly!” It gave me an idea, why not to give students funny nicknames for one lesson according to the pictures/cut-outs they brought? Or to use it for behavior control as well, maybe to draw little dinosaurs instead of stars. Or sometimes I use the system when I draw a happy face at the beginning of the class, and it can become sad if the student misbehaves. So I could draw this dinosaur and use it for the same purpose but more effectively. “Look! Your dinosaur is sad!” probably will work better =) I like giving a task to make a collage and then explain what it shows. Even very young students can do this and no doubts they will like it more if they are telling a story about their ‘hero’ they brought from home.
I have an idea about teenagers as well, but I’ve already exceeded the words limits(((
Having a group of 3-4-year-olds who are unaware of improvements that English can bring into their lives and of purposes of spending 40 minutes with a teacher who doesn’t understand Chinese or even of what ‘Chinese” and ‘English’ are is not so discouraging as it may seem at first sight. In fact, one of the concerns listed in Task 4 (p.20) which says “My pupils only enjoy English lessons when I am doing games or songs” is actually a solution. Small kids are very unlikely to understand the aim of learning, but they do appreciate the time when they can have fun and activities they enjoy. But children tend to get bored with games and activities. Needless to say, it’s not an easy task for the teacher to generate a dozen of shiny new activities for each couple of lessons. That’s when we understand that to change the existing game and adjust it to our students’ preferences and interests is easier and more effective. We have only to find out what our young students like. Only?! Easier said than done. We can probably find some things that the like simply through observation (like one of my students likes to run screaming “I’m a dinosaur!” - difficult not to notice), but it’s not so easy as we spend with our students only 1-2 hours per week. I was thinking about possible ways to get this kind of information (talk to parents, ask Chinese teachers for help) and then I saw the 1st solution in Task 5. It is a great idea! Just let children bring something that they like to the classroom. My 3-4-year-olds naturally like to do this, and I usually ask them to leave their small precious things outside the classroom. Instead of this we could take it under control just a little bit and ask children to bring for the next class their favorite… (Animal, toy, hero, etc.). I’d probably ask them to bring pictures or cut-outs to make collages later on. This way we see what each child likes and children have a chance to play with a ‘toy’ they chose themselves for this class. We can use this choice in various activities during the lessons. For example, in one of my groups children like to joke and answer the question “What’s your name” differently every time, e.g. “My name is Cat!”, “My name is Butterfly!” It gave me an idea, why not to give students funny nicknames for one lesson according to the pictures/cut-outs they brought? Or to use it for behavior control as well, maybe to draw little dinosaurs instead of stars. Or sometimes I use the system when I draw a happy face at the beginning of the class, and it can become sad if the student misbehaves. So I could draw this dinosaur and use it for the same purpose but more effectively. “Look! Your dinosaur is sad!” probably will work better =) I like giving a task to make a collage and then explain what it shows. Even very young students can do this and no doubts they will like it more if they are telling a story about their ‘hero’ they brought from home.
I have an idea about teenagers as well, but I’ve already exceeded the words limits(((
