Teach English in Tang Zhen - Shanghai Shi

Teaching EFL in a kindergartenTeaching kindergarten can be very rewarding and very loud compared to other age groups. With this group of children teachers need to be extremely patient, very active, energetic and fun. The reason for this is because children at this age have a very short attention span and they get bored extremely easy so for this reason they must have a lot of different activates. A typical day in the kindergarten is to start your day off with a fun engage phase. This will most likely include a song and or some kind of body movement. After this this stage the teacher and students go into what is called ?circle time? (study phase) which is where you teach new or existing material. During this time a teacher should use a lot of pictures, body language and props to represent the vocabulary they are teaching. Children really need to see pictures and it?s even better if they can see the real object to feel it, smell it or even hear it. During the study phase there will be some drilling and the students will also practice forming verbal sentences with the vocabulary they just learned. Circle time is then closed with a song. Teaching ideas: ? It is always good to have what is called a "wow effect" to get them really interested in the material. One example is if you are teaching bugs in garden, you can go over the vocabulary using picture flashcards. Then you can bring out a pre-made garden which you buried the insect in it. One child at a time can go to the garden box and dig until they find a insect. When they find the insect they must say what it is and what tool they used to dig it up with. When teaching new or existing material it is always good to have a game to go with it which can be done during the study and or activate stage but it needs to be related to the material. Some different techniques for teachings for teaching vocabularies are: ? Find it in the classroom ? Which object is missing? ? Hot potato ? Musical vocabulary chairs or dance ? Guess what it is using the 5 senses Kindergarten is focused on themes not grammar. At this age and from my experience, the students are just learning how to hold a pencil and how to write their name. They are just beginning to learn how to write by practicing wrist movement and sharpening their motor skills. If a teacher wants they can have worksheets but this worksheet should have a lot of pictures and should contain one very simple exercise. After circle time we move onto the activate stage where you can play a game or make a craft associated with the theme where they can still practice what they just learned while improving their motor skills. Teaching ideas: ? If you are teaching bugs, the children can make a bug craft or even their own bug garden. A teacher needs to be cautious on the students? abilities not making it too easy or too difficult. You always want to motivate them but also challenge them a little. In kindergarten a teacher must have a lot of patience and must make their students feel comfortable. It?s very hard for these students to express themselves because they are often beginners and have never been exposed to the english language. They will often Use their native tong and will often cry if they get frustrated or don't know how to express themselves and sometimes even hit each other. For this reason a teacher must have great classroom management. Rules need to be established and it?s up to the school and teacher on what the rules are and what the disciplinary action should be taken keeping in mind that the students are young. In my opinion teaching kindergarten is a lot of fun and most rewarding. This is the age where a teacher can really see the effect that the english language has on the students and how quickly they learn and start to use the language. It is also the age where a teacher can really be a kid again and really have fun with the students.