Teach English in Qiujiadian Zhen - Tai'an Shi

Learning difficulties can arise when the student fails to understand what is being presented because the information is too complex, there is too much information being disseminated at one time, the proper foundations for building on the lesson have not been established first, or the way the information is presented is not clear. These issues can be particularly exacerbated when someone if trying to accomplish learning an entirely different language. The things we tend to rely on when learning something new such as association techniques, cultural cues, or mimicking, may not work as well when trying to learn English. This essay focuses on the latter cause for learning difficulty, information not being presented clearly, and gives some insight for the use of different presenting styles to ensure understanding in the student. There are many fundamental differences in teaching children English versus teaching adults. In the former, children need a slightly more nurturing environment that attends to not only their academic needs, but their developmental needs as well. While their minds more easily grasp the nuances of a different language, they might get bored more easily or they might not be as motivated to do the work. With adults, the art of andragogy all but demands “buy in” from the participant if they are to be receptive to the lesson and succeed in understanding. Pride and the desire not to be embarrassed might become an issue, however for the most part they are very motivated to learn. Whether teaching children or adults the English language, establishing a teaching methodology will help to ensure the learner succeeds in his or her goals. But regardless of whether or not one is teaching children or adults, if the individual is not kept engaged throughout the lesson, with different parts of his or her brain being stimulated, there might be difficulty in mastering the tasks. Although we now know that a person doesn’t actually adhere to just any one learning style when learning something new, what does remain clear is that a person often needs to have information presented many different ways in order to be able to grasp it. Visual presentations include the use of graphs, charts, pictures, or anything that demands the use of the visual cortex and spatial awareness. Auditory styles involve listening to things, choral work, and engaging in dialogues. Reader/writer learning tools require being able to read the work silently and writing down what is being learned. Lastly, kinesthetic or tactile presentations means that the students have the chance to move, touch, manipulate, or engage the body when working with the material. Combining all of these presenting styles gives the lesson variety and helps to keep the brain (and therefore the student) engaged the entire duration of the activity by showcasing the subject in a host of different ways that all build upon and support one another. This idea fits easily into the ESA teaching methodology that is so inherent to TEFL and TESOL coursework. When developing an engage-study-activate lesson sequence, an instructor should pay special attention to using each presenting style at least once throughout the lesson to make sure each student has a chance to interface with the information in many different ways. For example, in an ESA grammar lesson on present participles, the lesson could include discussing aloud what types of things each likes to do (engage-auditory). Then, using pictures of people doing different things that have been projected on a blackboard, the students can complete a short sentence exercise explaining what they see (study-visual-reading/writing). Then the students could pair off and discuss what they came up with in their short sentences and compare them to one another (study-auditory), and last the class can then be divided into two teams where each side has to act out a present participle verb and the other team has to guess what they are doing and articulate it in a complete sentence (activate-kinesthetic). Completing this type of lesson could have easily been accomplished by just using the blackboard and handouts, however having the students talk out loud, talk to one another, read, write, view things on the blackboard, and act things out, the lesson works through all of the different presenting styles and makes for a more holistic experience. Being totally immersed in the language in this way should help both children and adult learners of the English language develop their skills, and give the instructor plenty of ideas to choose from when developing lesson plans. It is one of many powerful tools to help overcome learning difficulties.