I knew it would be difficult

Today I had my fourth English session with a group of 8 - 10 year olds. I'm finding it very challenging and frustrating and not sure if it's a good idea to continue beyond the end of the year. I think my teaching style is too laid back and 'open' for them. In the class, I expect their answers to my questions, not my questions followed by my own answers, which they then copy into their books. I know why this is so.

The kids here are spoon-fed every subject as soon as they enter Grade One. They are not required to be creative in any way, except for colouring - and even that is 'taught'. Worksheet after worksheet, textbook after textbook, year after year. They can't help it, it's not their fault, but it's making my job bloody difficult.

This month, the class I had tonight managed to create a story. I count that as an achievement. The children worked in groups to come up with a story about a puppy who went for a walk. For a first effort, they did really well, but I held their hands the whole way. We went through the structure of the story - start, middle, ending, we did helping words, helping phrases and finally we created the ending together. This was preceded by no less than 3 worksheets about animals, pets and puppies to give them the language they'd need in order to be able to come up with ideas in the first place. They did good. I was proud of them. In small groups, they created four similar sounding stories, which were then corrected and published in small 'books' and illustrated. The illustrations were great - kids love doing that. They were proud of themselves - I think. I was proud of them and even better, the other kids were very interested in what they had produced.

One of the major problems these kids face is that they translate directly from the chinese thoughts in their head. It's probably unfair of me to call them uncreative, because I don't know what kinds of stories they could produce in chinese. However, when they do think of something to say, they translate from the chinese, toss out all the English grammar rules they know, add in some Manglish (malaysian english) and come out with a sentence that hasn't got a hope of making sense. ie Teacher, you want write answer complete or don't want? Translated into good english that means Teacher, would you like me to answer the question in complete sentences? And that's how their stories come out, unless you give them 70% of what they should be writing. This is what I'm up against. At least I know the enemy.

My two kids came along with me tonight. Ex is out of town and they wanted to come. They participated in the class too. Son even completed the worksheet almost by himself. The one thing I have made sure of with my kids is literacy. Both of them could read by the time they were 4 or 5. Daughter was reading kiddie novels by the time she was 6 and now son is reading those same novels. I feel for anyone who can't read, there must be so much they miss out on and I know I was never going to leave my kids reading skills to someone else. No way. Too important.

One part of my approach to teaching English here, is that if they are exposed to good English and they are forced to use it, they will eventually master it. Their brains are still young and have that sponge-like quality that has enabled my daughter to pick up Mandarin in 6 months, so I'm hoping that the same applies to this group. They are already getting better - their confidence is growing every day, but I know that one and a half hours twice a week is no substitute for the 'all day-every day' situation that daughter was exposed to.

So I combine that approach with a little spoon feeding, a little fun and a lot of practice (is that the right use of practice? I have no idea) and hope that it gets a little easier for them and is not a complete waste of time.

I guess we'll see next month.

G'night from the tropics. And to you Mr Scorpio (who I know reads but sends emails with comments for which I'm eternally grateful for), thanks again for the ego boost!