Teaching in Pre-school, Primary and Middle

Teaching in Pre-school, Primary and Middle

Pre-School Children

Although most Chinese students are first exposed to the English language once they reach elementary school, many parents hire private tutors or send their children to preschools; you may be teaching English to babies and toddlers. When it comes to learning a second language, the younger a child is when he or she begins, the easier the process will be. Of course, a baby or toddler’s exposure to English will, in most cases, be limited. You may well be the students’ first exposure to the language. Children at this age will generally learn the English words for objects or actions in much the same way they are learning the Chinese words at home. When they hear a word associated with a particular object or action repeatedly, they will learn to associate the word with what it describes.

Primary School

Chinese children are required to attend school for nine years, which is divided into six years of primary school and three years of middle school. Parents contribute to the costs of their child’s education by paying fees, though there are allowances built into the system for children of lower income families.

A foreign language is generally introduced in second or third grade. English is the most common secondary language taught, though other languages are taught as well. Children who were exposed to English as toddlers will have a bit of an advantage over children who are just starting to learn the language, but you will find that even those who have had no previous exposure to English will pick up language skills remarkably fast.

When teaching English to primary level students (typically aged 4 through 9), much of your focus will be on teaching the names of various objects and commonly used verbs. Language teaching to this age group is generally very organic, without much focus on ideas like conjugating verbs. In general, you will be teaching them to learn English much as they learned Chinese: through associating the words you are teaching them with the objects or actions they represent.

Middle School

The last three years of compulsory education in China are middle school. By the time Chinese students have reached middle school (age 10 through 12), they have been exposed to a good deal of English. They won’t generally be fluent, but you may be pleasantly surprised at just how much English they understand. Often, teaching during this period begins to focus a bit more on learning to read and write English, particularly focusing on verb conjugations and the finer points of grammar. Most students will have at least a rudimentary understanding of English grammar and sentence structure by the time they finish middle school.

Learning English at this age is especially important for students who are on track to attend an academic high school, particularly those who desire to attend the better schools. Parents of such students will want to make sure that their children are doing well in their English studies, as English plays an important role in the annual testing used to determine high school admission.