Teach English in Xigu Jiedao - Tianjin

Problems for learners in ChinaThere are many differences between the chinese and english, both in the culture and the language. chinese learn to read and write chinese through repeated practice, memorization, and text books, and so a teacher who presents activities that involve games, and are fun, may not initially be seen as being appropriate. The teacher will need to prove the validity of such activities to the students. Students are also inexperienced at questioning, risk taking and interaction, and so, while these skills are very important in an ESL class, the teacher needs to introduce these activities in a non-threatening environment, in order to gain the most from the students. The english and chinese languages are from two very different structural bases, and so chinese learning english have difficulty in all areas. Because the phonological system is very different, chinese have trouble hearing and pronouncing sounds in english. With vowels, there are many more contrasts in vowels in english, and so the chinese have trouble distinguishing between them. Consonants and consonant clusters are also difficult to distinguish, but one of the most difficult problems is words that end with consonants or consonant clusters, as this is very rare in the chinese language. As a result, they tend to either add another vowel at the end, or drop the consonant and use a soft sound. chinese students also have difficulty hearing the difference between l and r, and also l and n. This causes confusion, and the well known joke about ?flied lice.? Stress and intonation are also areas that differ. chinese have variation within a word, and this means that it might be the same word, like ?ma? but depending on the tone used, whether it is raised, dropped, or stretched, it could mean hello, mother or horse! They do not, however, have tonal differences within a sentence, or to alter the meaning of a sentence, eg, He bought that hat? He bought that hat? The chinese language is also very monosyllabic, and so students have trouble joining sounds, with the resulting speech being very staccato. Students will require a great amount of practice in the area of fluency. In the area of reading and writing, chinese do not have an alphabet. They instead use symbols (logographic system) that represent the total word or idea. english, therefore, seems cumbersome, and their eyes are not trained to take in such long spaces to read one word. Spelling words correctly is also a challenge to them. However, they quickly learn how to hand-write our alphabet. There are some grammatical similarities between chinese and english, and some major differences. Students have great difficulty with tenses, made more difficult for them by the number of irregular verb tenses in our language. While the chinese language uses modals, they do not have the range of meanings that the english language does, and so, because modals are important in conveying levels of formality or politeness, students can often appear abrupt. The chinese language has no gender distinction, and so he, she and it are often confused. Plurals are another area where they have trouble, instead saying ?How many game did you play?? These are just a few of the grammatical differences that students struggle with. There are many more. For everyone learning english, idioms present a problem. The problem for the chinese is that, if they directly translate their greetings, they may be heard to say ?Have you eaten??, ?Where are you going?? or ?You have come.? Because of the high value that chinese society puts on education, students are generally highly motivated, enthusiastic and diligent with their studies. It is important for the teacher to be aware of cultural differences and language difficulties in order that the students make good progress with their learning. References Learner english ? A Teacher?s Guide to Interference and Other Problems, by Michael Swan and Bernard Smith Websites The differences between english and chinese Problems chinese speakers have learning spoken english Difficulties Faced by chinese EFL Students Changing Practices in chinese Cultures of Learning