Yuwei, China
Hello all! I’ve been teaching in Chengdu Foreign Languages School for six years. It’s a secondary school in Chengdu, the biggest city in southwestern China. As the name suggests, it gives top priority to English learning, so students have English classes in a group of 25. In contrast, all the other classes have 50, a typical classroom capacity in China. A smaller class allows student engagement in class – almost everyone has the chance to answer questions or share their ideas, and the weaker students feel included, too.
The coursebook we use is English in Mind published by Cambridge University Press, which guarantees students have access to authentic English language and culture. It contains a clear layout, rich materials and attractive artwork. Students love the coursebook so much that even years later, they still remember some details from it because this is their very first key to the English world. During the three years of secondary school, students cover the Starter Book, Book 1 and Book 2 reaching B1, and then enter high school.
The biggest problem for Chinese students is that the two language systems are entirely different. Our students have trouble memorising words and vocabulary; some even do this in great pain. To solve this, I always tell them to do memorisation in context, and the other way is to repeat, to review regularly – day by day, week by week – and gradually the form, pronunciation and meaning will combine to become part of the word bank in their minds.
Lacking a natural English-speaking environment is observed to be another challenge for English learning. Unlike European students, Chinese students have little access to the English language in their daily lives. Ordinary Chinese hardly ever talk to a first language English speaker their whole life, let alone young teenagers! Consequently, the 80 minutes a day in English class is extremely valuable. I try my best to provide an English-only class with English-only PowerPoints and classroom materials, and, most importantly, I encourage my students to speak and communicate in English as much as they can.
Chinese students have made great efforts to learn a foreign language since it was made a compulsory course in schools and universities (other languages like Japanese and Russian can also be chosen, but the vast majority choose English). The young generation is doing better and better. Many of my students are keenly interested in English learning due to today’s pop culture. The internet and smartphones also help them learn even when they leave school. I hope they keep to their lifelong learning and, one day, they can use the English language as a tool to promote our traditional customs and culture to the world, just like we did on the Silk Road thousands of years ago.