Li Jintian

Dr. Joel Kopplin

ENG303
How to Be Literate in Teaching Spoken English
English countries are in leading positions and have spread their culture, economy,
politics, science and military affairs throughout the world, and its language has become a
world language. After two world wars, the globalization of world economy has increasingly
developed. English is the language of choice in intercultural and international
communication. In China, 90% of foreign language classes are English classes. Since the late
1980s, English is one of six subjects on the college entrance examination required for any
student who wishes to enter college. Whats more, people know that learning English can
cultivate different thinking, broaden their horizons, communicate with foreigners and study
abroad. It is not surprising that learning English has become very popular in China.
Almost every Chinese student starts learning English in elementary school. However,
the most apparent weakness for Chinese students is spoken English because of Chinese
educations emphasis on English grammar, reading and listening. In other words, Chinese
students only learn the conventions of sentence structure, write down answers according to
the readings and choose correct options regarding to what they listen. There is no speaking
practice at all. It is interesting that Chinese people call their English dumb English. As we
know, learning a new language at a very young age is much more efficient and effective than
when we get older. So how can Chinese primary school students be literate in spoken
English? What does being a good English teacher look like in practice? What does it mean
for me, as an English major student who is studying abroad and may be an English teacher in
the future, to be good at teaching elementary school students spoken English? How can I
overcome the difficulties that I encountered?

I began to think about my experience when I was teaching spoken English this
summer in China and how I can continue to make improvements so I can become more
literate at teaching spoken English. Throughout my experience this summer, I noticed that I
just stepped into the threshold of teaching spoken English and there are still many problems
that I need to confront and need to be fixed in the future. Recently, I have consulted those
teachers who guided me how to teach in the training school where I worked for this summer,
and I told them what problems I still have after this summer and how I can do to be a better
spoken English teacher. In the following, I will detail my struggles and problems from this
summers teaching and I will discuss how to make progress.
In May, it was my first time returning home after one years study in America. My
English has improved largely in reading, writing, listening and speaking. With such a long
summer holiday, I began to think about what I could do this summer. I realized that first I
needed to know what my advantages were and what I could do. After thinking it for a while, I
decided to be a spoken English teacher because I believed that my background of studying
abroad and my professional English level might be helpful for teaching.
I went to a local training school. However, I didnt know how to teach because I had
no teaching experience at all and I never taught English before. It was nice that the training
school allowed me to be an auditor in an experienced English teachers class before I started
teaching. I was sitting in the back of the classroom listening to how that teacher taught his
students. I noticed that at the beginning of the class, he wrote down the words and sentences
that he was going to teach and drew some cute pictures on the blackboard. Then he would
point to each word and speak them out loud, and students followed him. After that, he asked
one student to speak out a word or a sentence that they just learned. If the student spoke
correctly, he would add points to that student in order to encourage the student and others.
With those points, they could get prizes after class. I also found that the teacher played games

in the class. For example, he asked a student to choose a word as a bomb, and then he
asked another student who didnt know which word was a bomb to stand in front of the
blackboard. That student had to teach other students how to pronounce these words that they
just learned until he/she pointed to the bomb, which meat game over. How many words the
student taught correctly before the bomb meant how many points he/she got. I found that
playing game in class was excellent because it stimulated students interest and students also
learned English at the same time. The teacher also gave them homework after class. When
those students were familiar with those words and sentences, he asked his students to use
those English to communicate with their classmates.
After listening to that teachers class several times, I had some sense of how to teach
English. I knew that teachers had to teach students new words and sentences first, and adding
points and playing games could assist teaching to be better. When those students were
familiar with those new words and sentences, teachers should let students do some practice. I
mimicked the teaching method of that teacher in my teaching, but I was still confronted with
some problems.
I was also asked to use teaching materials I compiled, which meant my students
learned what I designed. I was also asked to speak English in the whole class so that students
could become familiar with listening to English and make progress in speaking. If kids
couldnt understand me, I had to explain in English, too. However, it was hard for me to do
that in this summer. My students were only in primary school and the English they learned
was very easy, so it was impossible for them to completely understand when I said in English.
Another problem was my students had different English levels. Some students were only in
second grade, which meant they havent learned much English in class since English
language learning doesnt begin until third grade. So it was also hard for me to compile
teaching materials. Some students thought that my teaching materials were easy, but some

thought that it was difficult. In my class, when younger students couldnt understand me, in
order to avoid speaking Chinese, I used body language to explain what I said. If they still
didnt understand, I had no way but to explain in Chinese.
Teaching that summer, I always used Chinese to explain what my students didnt
understand in every class. At the end, I found my students had some improvements but not
much. So I am still curious about how teachers can speak English throughout the whole class
and how they can fix this problem. The teachers I consulted told me I can use Chinese to
translate meanings at first but avoid using too much. After students English reaches a certain
level, it is time to speak English in the whole class. I think their suggestion is good, but I still
think that, since Chinese students are not living in an English environment and depend solely
on spoken English classes, they cannot understand English well in real life and cannot speak
fluent English inside and outside the classroom. In light of this problem, how can spoken
English teachers get over these hurdles? This is a new struggle for me. Next summer, I will
practice the suggestion the teachers gave while I will ask more experienced teachers who are
struggling or have fixed this problem successfully. In terms of teaching materials, those
experienced teachers said I can edit the teaching materials step by step along with students
level and improvement.
One time when I taught students new words, I found every one was following me well
expect one boy who was eating under the table and didnt listen to the class. I asked
everybody to sit still but he was still eating. So I added one point to those who had good
behaviors in the class except him. I thought this punishment would make him listen to the
class. However, he didnt. Then I swiped his one point and he was unhappy. His attitude
depended on if he could get points. I didnt know how to handle this kind of student. For the
rest of the class, I ignored his unhappiness because I didnt want to affect other kids by
stopping the class to talk to him. It was unfair to other kids.

When I talked to the English teachers working in the training school about how to
handle this type of situation, they said I didnt know how to handle this because I didnt know
about their mentality. They told me this kind of student is usually open to sugar-coated
bullets but not to punishment. They said at that time the appropriate way was to talk to him
after class to see what he thought. If he continued to be difficult in class, I should ask him to
answer questions in order to draw his attention. In this way, his self-esteem would not
become hurt. From the teachers suggestions, I know that students like praise instead of
punishment, especially those students who have high self-esteem. It is very important for
teachers to know about students psychology.
Next summer, if I have similar types of students, I will talk to them after class or to
their parents. I think it is a good way to know what they are thinking otherwise I dont know
how to deal with them and they wont learn English well. But what if I suffer other
unexpected situations in the future? For example, if some parents spoil their kids very much,
so they dont cooperate with teachers. What should the teacher do? There are other lessons I
need to learn in the future.
According to what I have discussed above, I find that we can relate my teaching
experience to the idea of literacy as a process. At first, I didnt know how to teach at all. Then
I listened to an experienced English teacher class and mimicked his teaching method. At this
point, I had a sense of how to teach. However, I still encountered some problems. When I
began teaching, I was asked to compile my teaching materials and speak English through the
whole class. The problem is my students were just in primary school and they had very
different English levels, so I had a hard time compiling my own teaching materials, and it
was impossible for them to totally understand when I spoke English and I had to explain in
Chinese many times. Even though teachers I consulted suggested that I could use Chinese
until they reach a certain level, the lack of a spoken-English environment is a bigger problem

for students. I need to work on this problem, too. I also had a problem that I didnt know how
to deal with a student who violated class rules. Next time I should talk to these similar kind of
students to know about their mentalities, which is important for teachers. The teachers
suggestions can be good references for me, but in practice, I still need to fix real problems
depending on the specific, unexpected and unique situations. I am not a master in teaching
spoken English, but I am in the process of being literate in my own way.