Q: As parents, what do we need to do?

A:  Please remember to send your children to our school on time! From now on, your children will be following good habits! Prepare well at home, arrive 5 or 10 minutes before the class begins and your children will have a complete class and have more friends.

    Every native teacher and TA is responsible. No matter your child is an extrovert or an introvert, we will take care of him very well. Parents are the best teachers to children. We hope you can have a little more time to help out your children with their works. Homework is very important, especially to children who are studying CL; please make sure your children complete it. Children always learn and  quickly forget what they learn, so revision can help them out. You only need to take a minute or two to talk and play with them, they will be glad to receive it. Even more, you can let your children teach for it give them more confidence. You can also create a language environment at home, try to change a little and your children will benefit from it.

  The stricter the school system gets, it will train more talented students. In order to create a better learning environment, we need your support and coordination.

Q: What does the TA  do for us?

TA plays an important role just like a bridge between teachers and children for children to master English. The main duties of TA is to maintain the discipline in class and to know children's displays in classes. Teacher's advices about children's study will be sent immediately to their parents through TA.

After class, TA will do phone teaching to your children (it doesn't apply to all levels) to review the English.

In addition, the role for TA is to manage the discipline in class, not teaching, so the change of TA won't rise any disadvantage for the whole teaching system.

Parent O: I’m now going to arrange for my child to learn English. What do you think he should learn, American English or British English?

Jennifer:

Well, I'm a little biased here, because I'm British!  My American colleagues would say American English is better, as there are more people who speak it.  Other people (me included) prefer British pronounciation.
In reality, there isn't that much difference between them.  There are a few differences in usage, and of course many different slang expressions, but the main difference is in spelling - for example "color" in American English, "colour" in British English.  In some ways, American spelling can be a little easier, as it tends to be more phonetic.  The most important thing is to choose one and stay with with it - don't mix the two.  As far as pronunciation is concerned, students generally pick up the accent of their teacher - so for most children in Shanghai, their English accent will be Chinese.  You can also try to bring your child's accent closer to British or American by sending your child to study with a native speaker, and by giving them access to listening materials with native speakers' voices.

Parent A: Shall I help my child’s English study at home? What can I do if my English is not good enough?

Jennifer: Yes, you should definitely help, in whatever way you can! I can always tell when parents help students review at home, it makes such a difference to their progress.

Your English does not have to be perfect in order for you to be able to help your child study.  You can of course take lessons yourself, so that you and your child learn together, but not everyone can or wants to do this.  Here are some things you can do:

1.  Practice simple vocabulary by pointing to things outside or at home and asking "what's that?" (don't worry if you don't know the answer - maybe your child does!)  You can extend this, too, with questions like "what colour is it / how many are there, and so on.

2. As your child's vocabulary gets wider, you can learn some simple questions that you can ask them, to help them practice (you can ask your child's teacher to help with this).  It's important to practice speaking the language outside the classroom, and using the language at home makes it more natural.  Some children are also very nervous of speaking in front of their classmates.  Practicing with you at home can improve their confidence.  For example, you could ask your child: what did you do at school today / what do you want for dinner / what homework do you have to do?  Again, don't worry if your child's English seems better than yours.  My mother used to ask me questions like this when I started to study French, despite only having learned French in middle school (about 25 years earlier) herself.  I didn't know it at the time, but she has since told me that she sometimes only understood about half of what I was saying, and couldn't always tell if I made mistakes.  The most important thing was that I get used to speaking French  - my teachers would correct the mistakes when I was in class.

3. Ask your child to read to you - either from their textbook or from a book of simple English stories (look for books marked ESL [English as a Second Language].  Reading aloud will help them become more familiar with the sounds of English, and can also improve their vocabulary.  You can then ask them to explain to you in Chinese what they are reading, or discuss it with with them in English if you are more confident.

4. Buy a dictionary!  A good medium sized one costs around 70 RMB, and is a worthwhile investment.  This should solve most problems of missing vocabulary (yours or your child's!)  It's also very useful to have around when your child is doing their homework.

5. The "word a day" system is another good way to improve your child's English.  You can buy calendar-style books of words, or you could make your own if you prefer, using your child's schoolbooks.  This acts as a small, regular practice, reinforcing English every day and making it part of the child's routine.  It also gradually widens vocabulary - one new word and one sentence every day means 365 words and sentences every year - so if you start it when your child is 5, by the time they go to high school they will have learned nearly 4,000 words and sentences just from this (plus all the other words they learned in school).  Don't forget to review the words at the end of the week and/or month!

 Parent B: My child has already started to learn English in kindergarten. I’m planning to let him learn French at the same time. Do you think he’ll mix up the two languages?

Jennifer:  It's possible, but I'd still advise you to try it.  Every child is different, some can keep two or more foreign languages separate in their heads, others find this very difficult and start to mix them together, or can't remember which word comes from which language.  Try it for a month or two, and see what happens.  If French and English start getting jumbled, I'd suggest he stop learning one of them for a year or two, and then try again once the other language is more advanced.  He will also be a little older by this point, which might also help.

Parent C: My daughter is learning English at her Kindergarten with her Chinese English teacher. I’ve found her pronunciation is not really up to standard. My concern is that, from kindergarten to high school, her English will be mostly taught by Chinese teachers, what should I do to deal with this kind of problem?

Jennifer:  This is a common concern, as children tend to pick up the accent of their teacher(s).  If you have the means, you can arrange for your daughter to attend extra speaking classes with a native teacher.  Giving her access to media with native speaker's voices (for example films; TV programmes; story, song and poetry CDs) is also a good way to improve her English overall, and hopefully she will start to copy the pronunciation she hears, rather than the accent she hears in school. There are also some CD-ROMs available which focus on improving pronunciation, but you'll need to shop around to make sure you get one with a good accent.  When she's older, a school exchange or a stay at a language school in an English speaking country could also help her spoken English a great deal (both fluency and accent), but you need to start earlier than this - it's easiest to correct pronunciation at the beginning, before the patterns get too engrained. 

Parent D: My child is a primary school student. He is not  diligent when learning English and perseverance is always a problem for him. How can I tackle this problem?

Jennifer: Firstly, you need to identify the cause of the problem.  Is English very hard for him? If so, which part?  If it's spelling, you can do extra practice at home - perhaps in the form of a quiz, if he can get 20 words right, maybe he gets a small reward (this makes it less of a chore and gives him an incentive to study).  If the problem is comprehension, you could ask him to read aloud to you from a book of children's stories, or listen to an audio-book and then tell you in Chinese what happened in the story (you can find simple stories in English for young language students on the internet).  You could also ask his teacher if she/he knows which specific aspects of English are giving him most trouble.  Sometimes problems in one area can block a child's progress and leave them with the idea that this thing is "too hard", so they get frustrated and lose interest- if you can help them over that one particular hurdle, they'll get the idea that they can do it, and they'll find their enthusiasm again.

The most important thing about learning, especially for young students, is that children should want to do it, it should be fun. If a child doesn't want to learn, it's an uphill struggle for teachers, and the child's progress will be mediocre, at best.  So if the problem for your son is lack of interest, then you need to find ways for him to learn that are interesting for him. 

If you were to walk into my classroom, you'd notice lots of pictures - in the books, on the walls (the children draw pictures, then tell me in English about what they drew, and maybe write too - depending on their age). Pictures attract a child's attention, more so than words.  You'd see us playing simple guessing games (for learning vocabulary), interviewing each other ("I like tennis, do you like tennis?"  "No, I like basketball, do you like basketball?") or more complicated games for older students (inventing stories or trying to convince the rest of the class of something). 

Some of these activities need a few people - perhaps you could talk to a few of your son's friends' parents, maybe they could practice together (you'll need to make sure they don't just chatter in Chinese, though!)

You can also buy teaching games - whether simple card games, or CD-ROM sets - this could be another fun way to practice.

You could get some simple English stories and ask him to read aloud to you - you should be able to find some on the internet, or you can look for story books aimed at young students of English.  You can then talk about the story together (in English or Chinese, depending how confident you are in English). 

Lastly, it's quite common that people learning a language, particularly in the early stages, have a much lower opinion of their level than is actually the case - they focus on the mistakes they make rather than on what they know.  Try to point out to him the parts he got right as well as the parts he got wrong.  He'll need lots of encouragement.  You could make a progress chart for him at home, so that he can see when his marks are improving (this is will build his confidence) and he will have a target to aim at (incentive). 

Parent E:I've bought CD-ROMs and DVDs to help my young daughter learn English, but she doesn't seem very interested, and her English isn't improving as much as I hoped. Can you suggest some methods to help her learn?

 Jennifer: The most important thing about learning, especially for young students, is that children should want to do it, it should be fun. If a child doesn't want to learn, it's an uphill struggle and the child's progress will be mediocre, at best.  The key here is to find ways of learning which appeal to your daughter.

CD-ROMs are useful, but each child is different - it could simply be that these particular programs don't "work" for your daughter - if she has others which she likes, you could try to get some English ones which are similar.

Cartoons or children's TV programmes are a good idea, but if she's very young, it may be hard for her to follow the English - cartoon characters tend to speak rather fast, and unlike real people, their mouths don't move (this is more important than you might think - children work out how to copy sounds not just by listening, but also by watching how your mouth moves to shape a sound).  If possible, try using either something she has already seen in Chinese and likes, but play it with English audio - this way, she'll already know the storyline.  You can also get programmes made specifically for children who are learning English (look on the internet - I think the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation - a bit like CCTV in China] have some.

You can buy or make picture cards to help her learn - for example colours, food, animals etc.  You can then use these to play simple games with her (one of you takes a card and hides it, the other tries to guess what it is; or you can spread the other cards out on a table - she tries to work out what's missing).  If she likes to draw, you could make posters too.  Ask her to tell you about what she's drawing, with wahtever words she can.  Don't worry if she makes mistakes, expecially in grammar - vocabulary is the most improtant thing at this stage.

You can practice simple vocabulary by pointing to things outside or at home and asking "what's that?" or "what colour is it?", "how many are there?" and so on.

Lastly, don't worry if she has occasional "off days" - days when she just doesn't want to study, or when everything seems to come out wrong. It happens, and as a parent or teacher it's frustrating, but there's not much you can do about it - forcing the issue is likely to leave you both tired and less inclined to study tomorrow.

Parent F: My son is a primary school student. Can you tell me please by which ways I can help him enrich his English Vocabulary?

Jennifer: There are lots of ways you can do this, you just need to find which ones appeal to your son's interests.

First and foremost: Buy a dictionary!  (a good medium sized one costs around 70 RMB)  This will hopefully solve any immediate problems of missing vocabulary.

Get some simple English stories and ask him to read aloud to you - you should be able to find some on the internet, or you can look for story books aimed at young students of English.  You can then talk about the story together (in English or Chinese, depending how confident you are in English). Dual-text books (books with facing pages of Chinese and English text) are also a good way to practice, but these are harder to find (you also need to make sure he doesn't just read the Chinese version!)

If he likes watching TV, you can try to find some English-language cartoons or children's programmes for him to watch - again, you can find these on the internet.  I'd recommend the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation - rather like CCTV in China], they have some very good educational TV and radio programmes including (the last time I checked) some programmes made specifically for children whose first language isn't English. Films in English might be a little hard for him, as the characters often speak very fast - it's best to try this with a film he has already seen in Chinese.  Using English subtitles on DVDs can also help, more so than using Chinese subtitles and English audio (it's too tempting to just "read" the film instead).

The "word a day" system is another good way to improve your son's English.  You can buy calendar-style books of words, or you could make your own if you have the time.  This acts as a small, regular practice, reinforcing English every day and making it part of his daily routine.  It also gradually widens vocabulary - one new word and one sentence every day means 365 words and sentences every year - so if you start it when your child is 5, by the time they go to high school they will have learned nearly 4,000 words and sentences just from this (plus all the other words they learned in school).  Don't forget to review the words at the end of the week and/or month!

You can also buy, or better make together at home, bilingual posters to put on the wall.  First, choose a subject - for example animals. Then draw or cut out pictures from magazines of twenty different animals  Then have him write the English names for them (you might need a dictionary for this part).  You can also write the Chinese names for them if you want.  you can then put this on the wall, and use it to practice (by asking "what's that?" (it's an elephant), "what does it look like?" (it's big and grey, it has a long nose and big ears) or "what does it like to eat?" (it likes grass and peanuts) and so on.  You can repeat this for as many subjects as you want.