A Reflection on Today's English Teaching & Learning
——From My Teaching Experiences in Only International Education School
I have been thinking about writing a short paper about English language teaching for years. But I always fail to do that because I held my teaching job on and off when I was a college student and did not get a stable teaching post. Therefore, I don’t know how to start my writing or what I shall illustrate in my paper.
Things do not always go like that. This summer, after being conferred an honor B. A degree on English literature, I was able to fully concentrate myself in teaching English and taught English as a part-time teacher at Only Education School. During my working hours, I tasted both sweet and delightful memory and bitter and hard experience. For my delightful memory, I had a wonderful time with my students, who are energetic and active, more exactly, lively and kicking. For my bitter experiences, actually not so bad that you can not be able to imagine how I can survive my tough teaching job. So what is the problem I have come across? That is what I want to share with you in this essay.
Maybe all the English teachers, including me, have the same, at least similar, experience that it is hard to make adult students or high teenagers do their independent-thinking and have a strong desire to express themselves both in oral and written English. On the other hand, teenagers do not find a good learning strategy in the process of learning and form a good habit of self-management and self-evaluation, self-reflection. It is a little difficult for children to do so, but necessary for the middle school students and high school students, for self-management can help to have self-control when they learn English in order that they design an appropriate time table for their learning and carry out the learning plan more effectively. Self-evaluation is going to lead students to setting a goal and trying to achieve it. It is a simple but meaningful task. Without a clear goal, students can not be highly-motivated and work hard on it. The last and the most important one is that the importance of culture in English language teaching and learning. From my limited experience with English language education, it would appear that teaching of the culture of English-speaking countries often determine the final result in learning English. However, it seems as if it is always something of a bonus, if the teacher manages to find time to introduce a bit of the culture of the foreign language into the classroom - some music perhaps, or a traditional dance, in the final lesson of the course. If learners are particularly lucky, they get a chance to spend a month in the foreign country to “immerse” themselves in the “culture” of the country. But is that one class session enough? Is one month enough? Is it necessary? Language is not only a symbol but also a culture. How can you illustrate that? We can say that ideas and thoughts (they are produced by culture) can only be expressed through language. But, culture will be the first, and language put it down in words. Without knowing the culture, you can not have keen insight into the way the native-speakers think and behave or act. Then, it is impossible to have a good command of English for you do not know how they think and how they use their mind to guide their language and action. When a person decides to learn French, for example, he or she is not merely absorbing the linguistics of the language, but everything to do with French and France. The result will be much better than the one that is acquired only through learning language symbols. By speaking the language, therefore, one automatically (to a greater or lesser extent) identifies oneself with the culture of the language. To speak a language well, one has to be able to think in that language. A person’s mind is in a sense the key to his identity, so if a person thinks in English in order to speak English, one might say that he sounds or looks like a native-speaker.
Too much ink has been used to demonstrate the theory, and we have to turn back to the main point—how to solve the problem. As I mentioned above, middle school students nowadays are facing difficulties in learning English in three aspects: ①they do not have a strong desire to use English; ② they do not have a good learning strategy (learning method); ③ they are unaware of the importance of learning the culture of English. That is where the shoe pinches. How can we change this situation? It is a big challenge in advance of us. As English teachers, we must be responsible for not only their achievement in English learning at present stage, but also their development in leaning a foreign language in the future. That is what we call a lifelong education. I don’t believe that lifelong learning only means studying all the time in one’s life because study has a long-term effect on your life. We all have the saying：
“Give a man a fish and he eats a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”
Real study means that you can teach students something that affects their whole life.
How can we help our students? First of all, make a point of having an effective communication with them in class in simple and plain English. We shall read their mind and try to arouse their interest in the process of learning. Secondly, tell them that working hard is not enough and they must set themselves a goal and make a well-designed timetable. Thirdly, try to learn some cultures of the language they learn. That is what a good teacher should do because students do not have much English and their thoughts are not so mature that they can have good insight into the culture. So teachers have to do that work to help students be aware of the gap between two different cultures (English and Chinese) when they use the language. Finally, the last but the most important one is that you have to tell your students English can be acquired if you are willing to make efforts in it. I believe that a good teacher would like to make his students self-confident.
Lawrence Lee
August 29, 2007 |
