看看外教是如何给孩子创造别样的英文环境的？

看看外教是如何给孩子创造别样的英文环境的？
 
‘The teacher must be an actor, an artist, passionately in love with his work’. With a long background in performance, it has always been of great importance to me to create a fun and lighthearted atmosphere. When I first arrived at the kindergarten I was nervous to meet my new students, fearing that I wouldn’t connect with them due to my limited Chinese. I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

Language, though very important, isn’t vital to creating a strong bond between teacher and student. Creating a warm and enjoyable atmosphere was a priority for me and through this, the bonds created have been incredible. When you have a certain level of understanding, trust and love, it’s amazing to see their motivation grow. When my class first arrived, some occasionally used English outside of class time but nearly 2 years on, not only is English constant in our class but the children are always asking for translation so they can learn and use more. I constantly find myself in disbelief by how far they have come. Creating a silly and enticing classes is very important for my teaching. Learning can be hard when it’s tedious and not engaging so I make sure to be my silly self and plan lots of activities that will allow my children to be active and laugh with me. 
 
Creating an English speaking environment has been crucial part to the students success in my class. While our classes expand some of their vocabulary, I add importance to personal expansion. Ensuring that they can expand their language into hobbies and passions that the curriculum may not cover. I find that when they can talk about something they love, their retention of a subject is much better. Some children have even come into school, having learned a new word, asking to talk about the subject so they can flash off their language skills. It keeps them ever interested in learning English. One student of mine has a passion for reading. I noticed very early on that he had a good English foundation and that even as young as 3 could read English stories. I found that in classes, he was already way ahead of his classmates and very rarely challenged by the vocabulary. Through working personally with him, I found how much he enjoyed reading and learning new words. I decided he needed something to challenge him as to ensure he can also develop, settling on picking a novel for him to read. Since story books for young students were easy for him, we chose the book Harry Potter to read. At first I was very sceptical at how he would manage. He is only 4 years old and this has some big words, as well as words that are unique to the story. But he has amazed me with how well he has adapted. Naturally there are struggles with the words but he is able to use techniques that help him read, as well as my help. He takes in these new words almost instantly and now I see him get excited to read this story with me. 
 
A priority for me is leaving a lasting impression on the children I teach, hoping that this can motivate them as they grow up and move on from kindergarten. I want them to look at English as a fun subject to explore, even using it out of habit in daily life. I think that constant exposure to the language will ensure language development. Learning from a young age, it becomes second nature, understanding and using the English and Chinese counterpart as equal. Last year I had a student who turned to me and said she wanted to use more English. This naturally made me feel very happy and I from that moment encouraged her to talk as frequently as possible in English. About a year on, her language has grown significantly to the point where I can quite easily have free conversation with her and on the off chance that she doesn’t recognize a word, it can be easily explained to her. We started to talk about her life plans during K2 and she had decided that not only did she want to fly to England to visit but she also has the desire to study there when she grows up. 
 
For me, teaching is more than just a job. I hope that I can inspire my students, just as much as they inspire me. Everyday I strive to be better than the day before and give all of my students the tools to not only speak but love English language. I hope this is just the beginning of a long English speaking journey and that they will look back at this time fondly when they grow up.