Why should children learn English well?
Why should children learn English well?
Parent’s name: Shermyn
Child’s name: Sky, 7 years old
The previous post mentioned that environment is one of the important factors in learning English. In this post, let me share at what age did my child start to learn English? Actually, my kids have been exposed to English since before they started kindergarten. Therefore, their English background is not too weak, they belong to the middle level !
On the contrary, I didn’t have a good foundation in English when I was in school, and without tutoring, I did very poorly in English when I was a student. I used to think that as long as I graduated, it didn’t matter whether my English score was good or not. But what I didn’t expect was that because I didn’t have a foundation in English, not only did I have problems in my studies, but I also found out after I came out to work in society that I was too poor in speaking and listening in English, not to mention that I would be too nervous to speak up when I met a foreigner, and that even communicating with my bosses and colleagues in the company was a big issue.
Exposing children to English at an early age
I have attended a parenting seminar, parenting experts say: ” 0-6 years old is the fastest brain development is also the best absorption ability stage.” That’s why I let my children start to be exposed to English illustrated books from the age of 3, and audio illustrated books from the age of 5-6 [to sharpen their ears]. Ear-sharpening is also known as listening practice. A toddler’s memory is like a sponge that can absorb what it sees and hears into its mind. At present, the word recognition and listening of Sky’s English is at a good stage.
However, I soon realised that we were talking to them in Mandarin at home and my own English teaching methods were not professional, so my children’s spoken English was poor. Not only did they speak English with poor pronunciation, their sentence grammar was all wrong. So I finally realised that it is still necessary to choose the right and professional English courses for them to learn through the right channels.
In addition, our national education policy also uses Dual Language Program (DLP) in secondary schools. For example, key subjects such as maths and science are taught in both English and Mandarin. In some schools, only English is taught. If English is not good enough, children will have a more difficult time absorbing maths and science. Poor performance in English will bring down the level of performance in other subjects.
The process of learning English must not only be fun, it must also be vivid. It is only when we can apply it to everyday life
In our online 1-to-1 English programme, Sky recently finished his second lesson in 51Talk Level 4. The topic of the lesson was I Want To Be A Team Leader, and this week his older brother, who is studying in high school, brought good news – he has been chosen to be the president of his high school’s Anti-Drug Society. Afterwards, Sky also mentioned to Teacher Armani that he was a team leader, and Teacher Armani told him that President is the first leader, and Vice President is the second leader. Sky memorised a lot of words in this lesson. I also found that 51Talk’s English courses are very close to life. The children can finally use English in a more practical way than they have been used to learn by reading from the book.
Teachers are key personnel
If you want your child to love learning, you must first love the teacher. Since 51Talk’s online 1-on-1 English courses are taught by foreign teachers, and every foreign teacher holds 100% TESOL international teaching qualification, I was confident enough to let Sky to choose his own teacher, and also let him make his own appointment. After choosing his own time and listening to the teachers’ self-introductions, he finally chose a male teacher named Armani, who was very expressive and encouraging of his progress, so Sky was quickly attracted to his teacher. he interacted with his teacher in pure English for the entire 25 minutes, and didn’t let us interrupt him.
We, as parents, were once a child ourselves. I don’t like duck-filling education. If even the parents only treat English as an examination subject, the children will consider memorising spelling and essay writing as a burden. Invisibly, children will also generate psychological pressure, especially for children who are very resistant to learning English.
English is a very important language when only those of us who have been out in the world know it. Learning English is not just about getting A’s, it’s about getting good language skills and not letting your child go down the same road we did.
I believe that if you give your child an enjoyable and fun way to learn, you will definitely see a different progress. That’s why choosing 51talk’s online 1-on-1 English course is your best choice!