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English Teaching Methods to Be Reformed
With the help of their young teacher and her articulate gesticulations, a class of 25 seven-year-old primary school students read aloud together: "Rabbit is fast, fast and very fast."
The children go on to answer the teacher's questions, "Which is bigger, elephant or rabbit?" and to sing children's songs. They are doing everything in standard English.
This is how they teach English at the primary school attached with Qinghua University. Last year, the school adopted a new English teaching model to keep the students interested and make the atmosphere in the class more relaxed.
Instead of simply requiring pupils to memorize their lessons mechanically, as was done in the past, each pupil is now required to participate in the class activities and to practice speaking English freely, according to Yang Liru, headmistress of the school.
By using visual aids, pupils in the first grade can learn more than four words, such as the names of animals, in one class, said Fan Yacheng, the teacher of the class, who is also an English Language graduate from China's prestigious Qinghua University.
What impressed some 50 visiting teachers and education experts most was that all the pupils can understand their teacher's classroom instructions when she says them in English.
The experts were attending a one-day seminar on integrated English teaching reforms, which cover all levels, and they spoke highly of the model school's achievements.
Having viewed the new teaching methods at work in the classroom, the experts said the reforms were bound to prove highly effective at improving the standards of students' English at primary and middle schools.
Instead of simply relying on the teacher to explain each new word and the ability of the pupil to memorize and recite vocabulary and sentences, "the new model has paid much attention to the cultivation of pupils' ability to communicate in English," said the experts in their report released this week.
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