My Story
When I was in school back in China, from grade 4 to university, I was constantly a "typical" successful ESL learner, who knew every grammar rule in the text book, knew many meaning of every words in the text book, got very high mark in every English test, but did not know how to communicate with English. I suffered as my enthusiasm in learning English is to use it in everyday life! I was eager to be able to communicate in English with native speakers, but I did not know how. I received a lot of compliment as "His English is very good" while was frustrated inside as I knew I was not.
This feeling continued as I became an ESL test preparation course teacher after my graduation from university. I was still considered successful as my course could help many students get high scores in test while my teaching style was very welcomed by them. I was promoted, I earned money, I was invited to the online shows to give advices and comment of the test. But I did not feel successful as I gradually realized that I was fostering many "good" students like years ago me! Every senior colleagues of mine were used to and satisfied with that kind of non-practical English education so I felt helpless. I thought I need to go board to study and learn for a while.
My chance came in 2012, when the department of global study tour invited me to work as the tour leader during winter and summer time. In the next 2 years . I, with students from grade 5 to university, went to Hong kong, US, UK and some west European countries for short time English study and tour. It was the first time in my life that I could fully immerse in the authentic English environment, to communicate with English speakers, to experience the life in western country, and to learn the western history and culture in person. My spoken English was significantly improved during those periods as I grasped every chance to speak with local people and asked them to correct me whenever I made mistakes. My understanding of learning and teaching English was also starting to change. Those experience confirm me that I need to live in an English environment for longer time to experience more and to receive systematic education for English teaching and learning. I chose OISE as my first preference and luckily I got the admission.
Throughout the past year, I have been learning both inside and outside classes, through class discussions, literature reviews, course paper writing, activity and conference audit and everyday conversation etc. My questions that existed in my head for years started to be answered.
The steps of process of second language learning should be similar to first language acquisition, which start with listening and speaking, then mix those with reading and writing. The ESL learning in China is mainly domestic test-oriented and the domestic tests all emphasize too little on speaking and listening. Taking the national matriculation English test, which is the most important one in China, for example, this test is composed of 30% of grammar and word questions, 45% of reading questions, 17% of writing questions, 13% of listening questions and 0% of speaking questions. In this way, students start and spend majority of time learning English by just remembering words' meaning and grammar rules, which violates the natural way. And more importantly, this boring and exhausting learning way kill many students' interest of learning English from the beginning.。
TOEFL and IELTS is helpful but used in a wrong way. This two tests have high validity for test takers to adapt themselves to live and study in English speaking environment while significant amount of students in China are taking them every year for abroad living or studying. In this situation, preparing for these tests should be a good chance for many Chinese students to really improve their English from all aspects. However, as most teachers of the preparation course for these tests only care about if their students can meet the minimum score requirement to apply for either immigration or study in an English-speaking country, while don't care about if they can really improve their English proficiency at all. The instructions focus mostly on predicting the possible test questions using "question pool" with statistic analyze and according make template for the students to remember without understanding. Students would like to accept this learning way as their interest of learning English are already killed by the public system. They won't feel regret until they arrive at the school or community in their desired English speaking countries and find they still can not communicate with English.
For myself, since 2012, I am making process with my English must faster than before. I think this phenomenon happen because a) I have been learning in an real English speaking environment since then so I don't need to doubt if the English I see and hear are not authentic. When I was learning English in China, I alway suspect if the sentences made by the teachers are what native English speakers use. And my concern was proven to be right later. Since I am in Canada, all I need is just to read, to hear, to understand, and to digest. 2) My English learning start to base on my interest. Since I am fully immersed in English speaking environment, I can communicate with native english speakers with my interest topics and activities, observe their expressions and language uses and imitate, ask friends and classmates to correct me whenever I make fault and to explain why it is wrong . The way to learn language is just like this: learning basic words and grammar rules, observing, imitating and practising, being corrected and explained why, then practice to completely master it. In China, that most topics are not made out of students' interest make them lose incentive to observe and imitate, while lack of the useful feedbacks and chances for practise thoroughly close the door for their improvement.
I am now just starting to work on a "English coffee" project in my home church, to help new comers to Toronto, most of whom are Chinese, to have chance to know local culture and life, to access to God, and most importantly, to improve their English proficiency.
The holistic concepts and projects I have learned and done in the CTL1799 have inspired me with the "English"project design. Topics about local life, immigration and so forth are new comers interest while IELTS scores are their biggest concern for staying in Canada. Mixing the content of those topics with IELTS format would maximumly arouse their interest and incentive to involve in the project at the beginning, while the feedbacks and practise chances from the kind native English speakers in the church community would help them get effective improvement and increase their interest and keep their involvement. One point I very much like from the holistic concepts is that the interest aroused by the content of the topics make language learners care less about the error they would make so they would be willing to express more. And Focusing more on the content not the language itself makes the learning process more natural and desired, then more efficient. I can not wait to launch the project and see the real result. At last, another thing on the top of my head now is that, if the project goes well and new comers become more and more subjective, I would like to ask them to design some topics and activities related to Chinese culture and life, which are interested by many of those native English speakers in our church community. Then the "English coffee" project would be not just an access for new comers to Canada, but a bridge between east and west. I am looking forward to see this happen in the future.
Yiqi
August, 2015
When I was in school back in China, from grade 4 to university, I was constantly a "typical" successful ESL learner, who knew every grammar rule in the text book, knew many meaning of every words in the text book, got very high mark in every English test, but did not know how to communicate with English. I suffered as my enthusiasm in learning English is to use it in everyday life! I was eager to be able to communicate in English with native speakers, but I did not know how. I received a lot of compliment as "His English is very good" while was frustrated inside as I knew I was not.
This feeling continued as I became an ESL test preparation course teacher after my graduation from university. I was still considered successful as my course could help many students get high scores in test while my teaching style was very welcomed by them. I was promoted, I earned money, I was invited to the online shows to give advices and comment of the test. But I did not feel successful as I gradually realized that I was fostering many "good" students like years ago me! Every senior colleagues of mine were used to and satisfied with that kind of non-practical English education so I felt helpless. I thought I need to go board to study and learn for a while.
My chance came in 2012, when the department of global study tour invited me to work as the tour leader during winter and summer time. In the next 2 years . I, with students from grade 5 to university, went to Hong kong, US, UK and some west European countries for short time English study and tour. It was the first time in my life that I could fully immerse in the authentic English environment, to communicate with English speakers, to experience the life in western country, and to learn the western history and culture in person. My spoken English was significantly improved during those periods as I grasped every chance to speak with local people and asked them to correct me whenever I made mistakes. My understanding of learning and teaching English was also starting to change. Those experience confirm me that I need to live in an English environment for longer time to experience more and to receive systematic education for English teaching and learning. I chose OISE as my first preference and luckily I got the admission.
Throughout the past year, I have been learning both inside and outside classes, through class discussions, literature reviews, course paper writing, activity and conference audit and everyday conversation etc. My questions that existed in my head for years started to be answered.
The steps of process of second language learning should be similar to first language acquisition, which start with listening and speaking, then mix those with reading and writing. The ESL learning in China is mainly domestic test-oriented and the domestic tests all emphasize too little on speaking and listening. Taking the national matriculation English test, which is the most important one in China, for example, this test is composed of 30% of grammar and word questions, 45% of reading questions, 17% of writing questions, 13% of listening questions and 0% of speaking questions. In this way, students start and spend majority of time learning English by just remembering words' meaning and grammar rules, which violates the natural way. And more importantly, this boring and exhausting learning way kill many students' interest of learning English from the beginning.。
TOEFL and IELTS is helpful but used in a wrong way. This two tests have high validity for test takers to adapt themselves to live and study in English speaking environment while significant amount of students in China are taking them every year for abroad living or studying. In this situation, preparing for these tests should be a good chance for many Chinese students to really improve their English from all aspects. However, as most teachers of the preparation course for these tests only care about if their students can meet the minimum score requirement to apply for either immigration or study in an English-speaking country, while don't care about if they can really improve their English proficiency at all. The instructions focus mostly on predicting the possible test questions using "question pool" with statistic analyze and according make template for the students to remember without understanding. Students would like to accept this learning way as their interest of learning English are already killed by the public system. They won't feel regret until they arrive at the school or community in their desired English speaking countries and find they still can not communicate with English.
For myself, since 2012, I am making process with my English must faster than before. I think this phenomenon happen because a) I have been learning in an real English speaking environment since then so I don't need to doubt if the English I see and hear are not authentic. When I was learning English in China, I alway suspect if the sentences made by the teachers are what native English speakers use. And my concern was proven to be right later. Since I am in Canada, all I need is just to read, to hear, to understand, and to digest. 2) My English learning start to base on my interest. Since I am fully immersed in English speaking environment, I can communicate with native english speakers with my interest topics and activities, observe their expressions and language uses and imitate, ask friends and classmates to correct me whenever I make fault and to explain why it is wrong . The way to learn language is just like this: learning basic words and grammar rules, observing, imitating and practising, being corrected and explained why, then practice to completely master it. In China, that most topics are not made out of students' interest make them lose incentive to observe and imitate, while lack of the useful feedbacks and chances for practise thoroughly close the door for their improvement.
I am now just starting to work on a "English coffee" project in my home church, to help new comers to Toronto, most of whom are Chinese, to have chance to know local culture and life, to access to God, and most importantly, to improve their English proficiency.
The holistic concepts and projects I have learned and done in the CTL1799 have inspired me with the "English"project design. Topics about local life, immigration and so forth are new comers interest while IELTS scores are their biggest concern for staying in Canada. Mixing the content of those topics with IELTS format would maximumly arouse their interest and incentive to involve in the project at the beginning, while the feedbacks and practise chances from the kind native English speakers in the church community would help them get effective improvement and increase their interest and keep their involvement. One point I very much like from the holistic concepts is that the interest aroused by the content of the topics make language learners care less about the error they would make so they would be willing to express more. And Focusing more on the content not the language itself makes the learning process more natural and desired, then more efficient. I can not wait to launch the project and see the real result. At last, another thing on the top of my head now is that, if the project goes well and new comers become more and more subjective, I would like to ask them to design some topics and activities related to Chinese culture and life, which are interested by many of those native English speakers in our church community. Then the "English coffee" project would be not just an access for new comers to Canada, but a bridge between east and west. I am looking forward to see this happen in the future.
Yiqi
August, 2015