本帖最后由 西瓜乐园外教 于 2011-3-9 13:47 编辑
1.Why does your program seem so difficult?
Difficulty is a subjective opinion. What seems difficult to you now probably won’t after a year of practice. After that, you will be on a whole new level and seeing completely different things as difficult and easy. A new skill always seems difficult to acquire in the beginning, but this is nothing to be concerned about. Everything is difficult at first, yet becomes easy with practice. Does it seem difficult to walk or feed yourself now? Just look at how wobbly and messy a baby can be though.
A lot of students feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable with the English language when they first encounter it. These feelings can be a real hindrance to a student’s progress, so it’s no wonder that many schools and teachers seek to soften the introduction of English into the students’ lives. However, they may not be considering the whole picture.
The problem is that softening the program often prolongs the students’ resistance and uncomfortable feelings toward English. Instead of helping the students, they are actually retarding the students’ growth. We believe that it’s best to tackle those uncomfortable feelings head on rather than seek ways to ease the students into the English language with as little pain as possible. In the West, we have a saying: no pain, no gain. Anything worth achieving is going to require hard work and discipline. If you try to reach your goals by avoiding all pain, you will probably never reach them.
Students must polish their skills in the fires of difficulty in order to become sparkling diamonds. What we try to do at Watermelon Kids is teach the kids how to have fun while overcoming the difficulties that a foreign la
2.Why do you teach so many words?
The biggest reason for this is because we CAN teach a lot and, furthermore, most students are ABLE to learn a lot. So, why shouldn’t we give the students what they have come to us to receive? Students are often capable of more than adults believe and we know this from experience.
The real question is: why don’t other schools & teachers teach MORE? There are various reasons for this. Many of them possess a limited pool of knowledge from which to draw their lessons. The amount of information we wish to share at Watermelon Kids is vastly superior to theirs. So basically, we have more to teach from the very start. Not only do we teach more, but we teach it in a shorter amount of time due to the efficiency of our program.
Another reason that other schools and teachers teach fewer words is due to pressure from their customers. Parents often have a difficult time accepting or understanding new ways. They expect English to be taught according to the ways they have been taught or understood themselves, without considering the fact that a professional teacher may be aware of things they had not even considered. Trust must be given to the teacher whose capabilities are far beyond those of the customers, but it is difficult to trust someone or something you don’t fully understand. At Watermelon Kids, we are willing to sacrifice the enrollment of some customers in order to preserve the quality of our program, but a lot of other places do not do this. They take their financial gains very seriously. It’s easier for them to give the customers what they want rather than what the students really need. Besides, if the students never reach a high level, they will still be in need of more instruction and that means more money for the schools and teachers.
We also teach a lot of words because we believe that a broad exposure and familiarity are very important for the student who wishes to communicate. If your child was sent to an American school for six months, do you think he/she would be able to speak some English when he/she returned? It’s almost certain that he/she would! That student would be bombarded with English at every turn and some of it would likely stick in his/her mind. Not all of it would stick in his/her mind, but some of it would. The words that would not be fully learned or remembered would still hold a great deal of importance though. That is the point that a lot of people are missing. You see, even the words we don’t fully learn become somewhat familiar to us in our minds and affect the way we listen and understand. So, it is likely that a six month excursion to a foreign country would impact a student’s ability to learn in many immeasurable and lasting ways. The same principle applies to our classrooms. We seek to expose the students to as much of the English language as possible in order to change the way they listen and learn.
The power and existence of the subconscious mind is a scientific fact, yet it is still very mysterious and often overlooked by the general public. However, when students pay attention (as much as they are able) to what is spoken and demonstrated in our classrooms, they are learning on many different levels. A real teacher understands this, but many everyday people do not notice it. Do not underestimate the power of the human mind and you will see new possibilities.nguage presents. In this way, kids achieve a whole new attitude toward English. Perhaps this attitude can be applied to other areas of their lives as well and they won’t be so prone to give up when they face other difficulties.
3.Why don’t you spend more time making sure that every word is memorized and understood?
At Watermelon Kids, we believe that practice, exposure, and attention are more important than understanding. This may seem strange to some, but it is a very natural approach and should seem logically familiar to those who have observed the development of a baby.
Some people have voiced the concern that students who parrot a teacher don’t really learn. Yet, this is precisely how humans learn a language in a natural environment. We repeat words even when we don’t understand. The important thing is to keep paying attention even when there are things we don’t understand and trust that understanding will come in due time. That’s difficult for older people to do, but babies do it all the time. Students can do it too, if they are taught such habits by a teacher.
4.But English is my child’s second language!
Of course, it is! In reality, we believe there should not be much difference between acquiring a first or second language. The same principles apply. The fact that you may have learned your second language in a less natural and communicative manner could be seen as a flaw in your own education. The level and methods of teaching English in this country have begun to change since you were a student. Students in today’s society have more opportunities than ever before and it seems a shame to miss out on that. As a result, your child could be much smarter and better off than you if given the chance.
The fact that your child gets little exposure to the English language on a daily basis only intensifies the need to immerse him/her more fully in our program. Students need all the help they can get and we’re here to provide it. You might want to think of us as a little piece of the outside world within China. That’s definitely something worth exploring since there is so much out there awaiting the arrival of adventurous people.
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