In my field, there
are some more trends in ESL teaching, such as early start in ESL learning in
China. More and more kids are forced to study English when they are just born. Lots
of Early English Teaching Institutes have sprung up everywhere in China and
their businesses are quite thriving. Why? The reason for this phenomenon is
that considerable Chinese parents pay great emphasis on their kids’ study,
hoping their children could compete with others not only in math, handwriting,
music etc, but also English speaking ability. Therefore, many public or private
kinder gardens, even the nurseries are equipped with foreign teachers. Definitely,
this is an obvious trend in early ESL teaching.
For adult ESL
teaching trend, the content of English course and the test design have to be
changed to adapt to the need of social development.
Looking back to several
decades ago, ESL teaching in China was chiefly focusing on grammar study. We
pay much attention on teaching tenses, voices, or subordinate clauses, etc.
Then, we suddenly found that it was not good enough for just focusing on
Grammar teaching because it was so boring for Chinese students just practicing
and learning those questions.
And it was easy to observe that we have changed
our key point to reading and writing several years ago. In English test,
Reading Comprehension part has accounted for nearly 40% of the whole test. We
forced our students to read fiction and non-fiction stories pinning our hopes
on increasing their vocabulary and subsequently, their writing ability would be
improved as well.
Until today, we suddenly find that oral English and listening
comprehension parts are quite important not only for the daily use but also for
the career development. It is an interesting phenomenon that most Chinese
student can write and read well with large amount of vocabularies while their
communicative ability is quite poor. So, we now encourage our postgraduate
students to do oral presentation bravely one by one each course. Thus, our test
paper has to be redesigned to evaluate the speaking and listening ability of
our students.
Third, for the
technology part, I firmly believe that E-learning is a trend. Nearly all the students
have some sort of smart phones or tablet computers. Advanced technologies have
made it possible for students to learn anywhere and anytime, which is quite
convenient and cost-saving. Without any doubt, more and more e-learning methods
will be definitely used. In addition, for searching the information, the
traditional library will be challenged.
I ‘d like to
response the trend in ESL teaching by using different practical approaches. I ‘d
like to use game-oriented method to help students study English actively and
vividly. Sometimes we can simulate some real occasion to force them to express
themselves. Watching movie is another good way to improve the English speaking
and listening ability, meanwhile, students can learn lots of native words and
expressions.
To answer the
e-learning challenge, I have to follow the latest technology closely. The skill
of how to search valuable materials and how to communicate with students by using
my smart phone and computer is urgent. With the advanced technology, I can
share the information I valued with my students through micro blog, website,
and then I can get their feedback soon, which could realize the dream of
studying anywhere and anytime.
On one hand, I am
an ESL teacher for adult; on the other hand, I am a lifelong learner as well.
Reference:
Deena Boraie's blog Writing assignments Retrieved March 1st, 2014 From http://blog.tesol.org/8-current-trends-in-teaching-and-learning-eflesl/
Reference:
Deena Boraie's blog Writing assignments Retrieved March 1st, 2014 From http://blog.tesol.org/8-current-trends-in-teaching-and-learning-eflesl/
