Teaching Methodology

An English Teaching Methodology Suitable For Asia. By Andrew Davison.

There are a number of ways to teach / learn English. First off let’s establish that a different system needs to be employed (used) where the learner is not going to walk out of the classroom and put what they have learnt in class into use. This is nearly always the case here in Asia. In fact it can also be the case in a Western English speaking country.

For example Korean people for instance living in a place like Sydney Australia. Some Korean English students might live in a Korean household. Shop at Korean shops and work somewhere for a Korean boss. Chatswood for example is a Sydney suburb that this would be the case for many. Many Koreans have little chance to express themselves in English living in this suburb. It is hard to find a DVD rental shop that contains anything but Koreans DVDs in this suburb. So can you expect students to retain and be able to use what you have taught at a latter date under these conditions?

So the normal teaching method revolves around having students practice what you are teaching outside of the class. I call this “The Learn Forget Study System” for Asia. The teacher concentrates on teaching a few grammar points along with a bit of new vocabulary. Normally there is no system of built in revision in this style of teaching. Having one day set aside a month for revision is a joke as everything needs to be re-taught as nothing has been retained. This is except the standard “How are you?” “What’s your name?” “How old are you?” “Where do you come from?” Even with these questions standard answers are expected, for example. “I’m fine thank you, and you?”

The common Learn Forget Study System also in general requires no personal input from students. By this I mean that students are not even given the freedom to put together sentences of their own making that alone stories. Class sizes in public schools exclude conversation practice except with pair work on conversational scripted stories with the better behaved students. In Korea I used to do written conversations on class blackboards in the public school system with great success. Here in China I found that it worked well for me at Funing Teacher’s College but not with middle school students where I currently work.

Now before I go any further let me say that I feel that the use of foreign teachers like myself is overrated. In general we are allowed more freedom to teach how we like than local teachers. However quite often students marks drop after getting a foreign teacher. The main reason for this is that not that many foreign teachers are actually career teachers that have put real study / thought into learning how to get results from what they do in class. The other reason is that it is harder for foreign teachers to maintain class control especially without using some form of corporal punishment than local teachers. I have a good local Chinese friend called Frank Deng who got out of public school English teaching due to the constraints on how he could teach. He now works for an international company and mixes / socializes when time permits with the local expatriate (foreign) community.

What I have found is that students need to read a minimum of a two page story that they have enough interest in so they pay attention to the story content as a minimum a week. They should be able to summaries the story to you once they have read it. Normally there are about 300 words to an ordinary A4 sheet of written material. I currently give two to three pages of translated stories to beginners or four pages of un-translated stories to higher level students a week or more depending on how many classes I have with my different groups of students. Two pages of sentence building exercisers are given to beginners every class. This is later replaced with having student write about a one page story. Now this method can stand on its own; meaning take the student that has no English ability up to the stage where they can function in an English speaking environment.

I also like to utilize (use) DVDs that are of student interest for one on one teaching or with small groups of students. I use the stop start buttons on the hand control to pause and ask questions. I ask a lot of questions. It is very similar to normal conversation. It can be used with beginners or advanced students. You should at some stage incorporate reading and writing into your lessons. Once students have gained a Basic English vocabulary than letting them watch and listen to an English movie or cartoon once a week can be quite productive. For one thing their imagination for writing stories goes ahead in leaps and bounds. Listening comprehension also can be expected to improve quickly.

Story reading and DVDs plus story writing can offer an ideal way for students to revise in context what they are learning within normal English lessons. This in fact can replace the need for communication / speaking with foreigners outside of classroom lessons.

As you can see English teaching isn’t rocket science. It doesn’t have to be a complicated process.

The normal English lesson given in public schools here in Asia can be quite productive if they are supplemented with the above methods. In reality normal English lessons here in China don’t differ from what is taught in normal Western public schools. What changes of course is the out of class need to use what has been taught in class.

To summarize you need volume input of stories and to give your students the imagination to utilize what they are learning by expressing themselves by writing stories. DVDs can play an important support role. Students need to be reading and hearing sufficient enough English in context to maintain their memory of enough vocabulary to converse in everyday small talk. This amounts to volume input not just a chit chat on a few grammar points along with the introduction of a few new words in lessons.

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Before we go on I want to point out the site below. This site is extremely good for getting used to listening and pronouncing English. When you click on the link you will see at the top of the page what I have posted below. Click onto the listen link on the top line and when this opens then click onto listen and read.

http://www.stonesoup.com/

Stonesoup,com for young writers and artists

Home l Subscribe l Listen l Send Work l Site Map l Contact Us l

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To give an idea of what you should be aiming to teach or learn look at the list below from Wiktionary online dictionary. Once a student can pronounce, spell, translate into their home language where possible, plus utilize each word into a sentence of there own construction then you have succeeded in teaching English. Once a student has learnt the words on this list then they are capable of extending this basic vocabulary themselves by reading, watching DVDs and writing stories or attending English Corners and the like to practice conversation.

English readers that have the whole texts translated page by page by publishers like Oxford University Press can be one way for a student to extend their vocabulary once they have mastered a basic vocabulary. General reading requires about 3.000 to 5,000 words. Most native English speaking children have acquired around 5.000 to 7.000 word vocabularies before their formal educations start.

http://www.oupchina.com.hk/elt/oper/genre.asp

1000 Basic English words

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:List_of_1000_basic_English_words

This list originally was copied from Wikipedia:simple:Wikipedia:List of 1000 basic words. All listed nouns are in the singular form only. All listed verbs are infinitive except for irregular verbs (eg. to be).

List may be useful to teachers of English as a second language or for teachers or parents of young children learning to read and spell. Various writers may also find this list useful.

a, about, above, across, act, active, activity, add, afraid, after, again, age, ago, agree, air, all, alone, along, already, always, am, amount, an, and, angry, another, answer, any, anyone, anything, anytime, appear, apple, are, area, arm, army, around, arrive, art, as, ask, at, attack, aunt, autumn, away.