At this stage, English tutoring has become something that many children have to face since childhood. The children’s English training market is extremely hot, because all parents understand the importance of English and do not want their children to lose at the starting line. However, some children do not particularly like English, most of which are related to the unscientific or unsuitable learning and guidance methods during the enlightenment period. The following are the most common questions in the process of children’s English enlightenment, and I hope they can help parents.
Concept
Q1. Where should I start with English enlightenment?
Answer: English enlightenment, listening is the foundation and the key to cultivating children’s comprehensive English ability. This is like building a house and laying the foundation. If the foundation is not well laid, the house will not be built, which shows the importance of listening input. Listening input (commonly known as ear grinding), on the one hand, comes from the repeated playback of various audios such as nursery rhymes, picture books, and animations; on the other hand, it also comes from the parent-child reading of the original picture book. The process of parents reading aloud is also the process of children’s listening and absorption. . For children who don’t reject English, you can start with listening, “listening” + “reading” together. After the age of 2 you can get access to animation; and for children with obvious Chinese advantages, if “listening” is not enough to raise interest, you can try to start with animation (After 2 years old), after familiarizing with the plot of the animation, turn it into audio for the child to listen to, and add the lesson of “listening”. At the same time, choose the picture book of interest for parent-child reading together. As time goes by, the child’s reading ability will gradually improve , Slowly transition to independent reading.
Q2. How to coordinate the relationship between Chinese and English?
Answer: There is no doubt about the importance of mother tongue. For Chinese children, the dominance of Chinese is unshakable. As a foreign language, English cannot be as important as the mother tongue. Encourage and advocate early contact with English, not to replace the mother tongue with English, but to hope that children can feel the beauty of different languages, and gradually master the two languages while enjoying the story and enjoying reading, and thus stand on a higher level On the steps, see a wider world through diversified languages. In reality, some families do not hesitate to abandon Chinese learning in order to let their children learn English well. Such extreme practices are not desirable. The use of the two resources should be kept in a relatively balanced state. In the case of limited time, both languages can be studied at the same time. In the early stage of enlightenment, when parents are leading the choice, resources can be allocated according to the proportion of Chinese and English. After the learning habit is formed, the child’s self-control stage does not require strict equalization of the daily learning volume, as long as the medium and long-term balance is maintained. .
Q3. Do I need to learn grammar?
A: As mentioned in Chapter 2 of this book, there is a fundamental difference between adult language learning and children’s language acquisition. Adults pay more attention to rules—”Why is this?” while children only focus on results—”It is What’s it like?” The process of mother tongue acquisition is the same. At the babbling stage, parents only tell us what the correct expression is, and teachers at the elementary school level will teach you why. Therefore, preschool children do not need to deliberately learn grammar. The non-learning mentioned here does not mean not being exposed to grammar, but rather that enlightenment resources should not be used as grammar textbooks to learn. In fact, grammar permeates every link and every resource of English enlightenment. Original picture books, graded readings, bridge books, and animation language. Every sentence reflects grammar, generally past tense, present perfect tense, master-slave composite Sentences, inverted sentences… Children with a large input volume and good absorption, most of the language output naturally with a sense of language, can conform to the grammatical rules, for example, when the rain stops, the children will directly respond “The rain stopped”, but no Think of “The rain stops” or “The rain is stopping”. Imagine once I saw Crescent Moon and blurted out: “The cresent is shining in the sky, but it only shines at night. It looks like a banana.” The three sentences use the present continuous tense and the general present tense. It is not that he understands the difference between the two tenses, but that he has never heard the expression It looks like/looked like. It looks like is automatically “loaded” in the brain during the process of inputting the original resources. Therefore, in the enlightenment stage, as long as possible to let the children feel the authentic expression as much as possible, the advanced stage can briefly introduce the grammatical rules while reading, for example, the sentence “Away she went”, you can tell the children that this is an inverted sentence, go ahead At the beginning of the sentence, the meaning is equivalent to “She went away”, but the sentence will be more vivid after inversion, so the explanation will be easy for children to understand and grasp.
Q4. Does “Sandwich English” matter?
Answer: First of all, parents should put an end to “sandwich English”. If they are unclear or unsure of how to say the whole sentence in English, just say the word. Instead of pointing at a puppy and saying “this is a dog”, it is better to say “dog” directly. Secondly, English enlightenment is also a process of accumulating vocabulary and sentence patterns. Parents now only know “This is a dog” and children only know “dog”. It doesn’t matter. Keep reading and you will soon know “It’s a dog, It’s a white dog”. , Children grow faster than their parents. Finally, under the premise that the parents have not input Sandwich English, the child’s sandwich expression is for thinking limited by language. This is a necessary process. Once the listening vocabulary is fully accumulated, the spoken vocabulary will be raised to a higher level.
reading articles
Q5. Can graded reading materials replace picture books for enlightenment?
Answer: Children aged 0-6 are Absorbent Mind. They can absorb a lot of information from the surrounding environment effortlessly. Therefore, the quality of the input language is very important. What kind of language and language quality are input The level of the child directly affects the child’s language ability. From a nutritional point of view, graded readings are still far behind the original picture books. This is the reason why the use of picture books instead of graded readings is advocated for enlightenment. The original picture books are the first choice for the English enlightenment of preschool children, and graded reading materials will be added after the children enter the independent reading stage. Of course, if parents do not have the ability to read with their children or cannot spare enough time for parent-child reading, they can only start with graded reading materials, and then slowly transfer to bridge books and picture books.
Q6. If my mother is not good at speaking, can she not do parent-child reading, but only read and listen to audio with her baby?
A: Studies have shown that if a 9-month-old baby listens to a tape or watches a video with a new language, the baby will get enough information and learn to distinguish the sounds in this new language (in some Under circumstances, babies can also learn through tapes or videos, but it takes more time than learning with real people). In layman’s terms, babies can learn by listening to audio alone, but the effect is one-tenth of what the mother tells. Parent-child reading focuses on parent-child reading. The purpose is to cultivate the pleasure of reading in English. The task of correcting the pronunciation can be completed by grinding ears after reading together. So as long as mothers can speak, they might as well prepare before reading and try to give them personally. The child reads.
Q7. How do you take the first step in English reading for children whose Chinese is dominant and who reject English?
Answer: Children who have only learned Chinese without enlightenment in English generally begin to show their advantages in Chinese at around 2 years old. They are not easy to accept unfamiliar English. The initial training of a sense of language adaptation is a prerequisite. Parents can start from two aspects. Aspects cut in: One is hearing adaptation. Choose the children’s favorite children’s songs audio, especially the English children’s songs with the same tune as his favorite Chinese children’s songs, such as If You’re Happy, Happy Birthday to You, Happy New Year, etc., expand from these children’s songs to other children’s songs, and adapt to the language Then transition to reading. If your child does not accept pure audio, you can also consider sign language videos or cartoons such as “Language Sense Enlightenment” and Baby Signing Time. After being played several times, they will be converted to audio for the child to listen to. The second is to strengthen reading. Choose picture books with interesting themes, interesting shapes, and simple text, such as flip books, hole books, touch books, etc., so that the children will slowly accept and like them. In short, the English enlightenment after Chinese predominates requires more effort. Parents need to be more patient and meticulous. Give the children a period of adaptation. They can’t rush for quick success and quick gains. When the children perform well, they should give positive encouragement in time. The child shows resistance. Perhaps what he doesn’t like is just a certain type of resource. It cannot be simply attributed to the dislike of English. Don’t give up easily. Be firm and persistent until you find the resource that your child is interested in.
Q8. After reading the picture book, the child likes to make up words by himself, how should the mother respond?
Answer: English learning is mainly encouraged. Any willingness of children to actively output, especially this kind of creative output, should be fully affirmed, such as “this expression is really creative”, “this term is wonderful” and so on. When I was 1 year and 8 months old, I was obsessed with giving English names to my family, saying that my mother’s name is Cocomart, my father’s name is Cocobart, my grandmother’s name is Cocowight, and my grandmother’s name is Coconice. Every time there is a new “creation”, we actively encourage him, which greatly stimulated his “creative desire”. From the initial nonsensical adaptation to the adaptation of children’s songs, the ability to skillfully adapt the picture book paragraphs at 22 months, and then to tell stories in English at the age of 3, this is inseparable from the role of positive motivation.
Q9. The child’s English expression is wrong, do you want to point it out?
Answer: Be affirmed first, repeat what the child said while praising, and express the correct statement without leaving a trace. For example, the child said: “Look! There are so many sheeps on the grass!” In response to the “sheeps” error here, the mother can answer: “Great! There are so many sheep on the grass!” The child often repeats it, correct The expression was printed in his mind. Therefore, errors in expression can be pointed out, but they need to be pointed out strategically and artistically on the basis of maintaining the children’s enthusiasm and enthusiasm.
Q10. What should I do if my child still does not accept plain English after three times of English translation?
Answer: Normally, as long as it is a picture book whose plot difficulty meets the children’s perception, there is no difficulty in understanding the plot after listening to the audio after three translations. If the child still requires translation, it means that the child is still repelling pure English. In this case , You can try to reduce the amount of translation, such as the translation of keywords, difficult sentences, or individual new words. As the number of reading increases, gradually transition to no translation. In order to further strengthen the correspondence between specific situations in the children’s brain and English, in addition to increasing the amount of repetition in reading, audio grinding should also be used to further strengthen.
Q11. For picture books with CD, should I show my children the picture books first or listen to the audio?
Answer: Whether to cut in from audio or picture book depends on the child’s listening level. For children with a high level of hearing and able to listen to audio in the nude, both methods can be used. For children with average hearing level, they need to use a picture book to familiarize themselves with the plot of the story, and listen to the audio based on the context and understanding of the text. , The effect will be better. Of course, except for audio with novel forms (such as singing version audio, audio with onomatopoeia that children are particularly interested in, etc.), you can try to listen to it naked before reading the picture book.
Q12. A picture book rich in onomatopoeia and rhyming sentences, do I need to translate when reading it?
Answer: Picture books such as onomatopoeia and rhyming words are quite special, so translation is not recommended when reading. For onomatopoeias, you can use performances while reading English. Like the picture book Duck on a Bike, you can imitate the sounds of each animal mentioned in it; while rhyming sentences need to be done in one go. Pausing to translate will destroy the rhythm and beauty of the text. If necessary, you can explain individual words after reading them. In Dr. Seuss’s works, there are many new words created for rhyming. The words themselves have no meaning, and his works do not require translation.
Q13. Which picture books should I buy the original version, and which picture books should I buy the imported version?
Answer: On the premise that you have a certain amount of original picture books, there are two types of picture books you can consider buying imported editions: one is the original edition published in non-English speaking countries, such as works in Japan, South Korea, and Germany; the other is the original edition that is very expensive. Choose to purchase the imported version and search for the original audio and animation at the same time. After reading the imported version and understand the storyline, copy it to the children to listen to and watch. The original version of other picture books is the imported version, and the parents can choose flexibly according to the language structure of the family book collection. But it needs to be pointed out that there are two types of picture books that are only suitable for purchasing original editions: one is text rhyming picture books, which have a lot of flavor after translation, and are far less comfortable to read than the original; the second is word game picture books, in English A humorous story with text as a carrier, the introduction version will be more obscure.
Q14. Do you want to memorize a picture book?
Answer: Picture book reading is not for the purpose of recitation. The child understands the plot of the story, understands the correspondence between the language and the situation, and knows the language that can be used when the situation reappears. Follow-up reading and recitation should be based on the child’s wishes As a prerequisite, you should not force yourself and respect your children’s interests in order to maintain your passion for English for a long time. Of course, some extroverted children or children in a sensitive period of imitation will take the initiative to follow, imitate and recite, and enjoy the sense of accomplishment of “I can read” and “I can speak”. For example, think about it and like to say the sentences you learn. I like to sing the nursery rhymes I learned, which is another matter.
Q15. My child used to read five or six books a night, but now the amount of reading has dropped. What should I do?
Answer: Children’s reading has stages, not only reading picture books, but also listening to audio. The amount of reading has decreased significantly. Usually, mothers have to reflect on the resources provided. Are the resources too difficult to make the child feel afraid? Or the selected resources have not kept up with the children’s interests? Or have not changed the resources for too long? If the above problems do not exist, then It is the periodic low ebb of reading. You might as well give your children some time to relax. In addition, there is no need to deliberately pursue the “quantity” of reading. “Quality” is more important. With the increase in the difficulty of reading, lengthening of the length of the reading, and the need for communication and discussion during the reading process, the decline in reading volume is also reasonable. Read with high quality One or two books is far better than five or six books of low quality.
Q16. Is it necessary to have the same book title and different authors’ version?
Answer: Many fairy tales and folk tales have multiple versions. Different authors have more or less adapted the content of the story, with different expressions and endings. Different illustrators have different styles of painting. Among the many works I have collected, there are many original editions with the same title, original+imported editions with the same title, and even original editions with different titles but similar storylines, such as Henny Penny and Chicken Licken, and Henny Penny ends in animals. We are all reduced to foxes’ meal, and at Chicken Lick
