Please critique my ESL teaching program

我的低龄英文授课流程，欢迎指点反馈

I’m trying to write up my teaching program, as part of a possible expansion of our little teaching organisation. One of the key processes in my teaching is reading authentic English texts, for which we use a Californian 1st grade textbook called Wonders. Below I’m pasting a document I just finished about how to read the texts. If anyone with teaching experience has any comments on the program itself, or how readable my explanations are, I’d very much welcome the feedback!

Text in English:

Procedure for reading texts

Reading texts is a repetitive process that involves the students in reading, translating, listening, and note-taking.

At first, students will find the listening and note-taking part of the process very difficult, and you should not expect them to do it well. Remind them frequently of the importance of listening, assist them with their note-taking, and accept that their attention will wander when they are not actively speaking.

Over the course of two years, students will develop the ability to concentrate while others are reading the text.

Procedure

Every text is read multiple times. During reading, one student reads a full page; the next student translates the page just read into Chinese, and then reads out the following page, and the reading progresses around the class. In the early phases, when students are not yet practiced at listening to each other’s reading, it will be useful to ensure that every student reads and translates every page. To achieve this, have the students sit in the same positions each class, and begin the reading with a different student each time. Once a full reading has been completed for every different starting student, the whole group will have read and translated every page. By the time you study Unit 2, it should not be necessary to complete quite so many readings.

Select a more confident student to start the first reading, and ask them to read out the title of the story. Ensure that all students understand the title. The same student then reads out the first page of the story. Correct mistakes and ask them to reread sentences as they do. It is important that the students read the words, and do not memorise the sentences. As they read, check that other students are following the text. It may be necessary to ask students to follow along with their fingers. During the first couple of readings, there will be many unfamiliar words. Ask the whole group to sound out and practice saying the words. Where necessary, ask the whole group to make annotations in their books for difficult pronunciations. Then ask the reader to repeat the entire sentence.

When a complete page has been read, the next student will translate the page into Chinese. The student should translate word by word. During this process, when unfamiliar words are encountered, teach the student good processes for guessing the meaning, and ask them to apply the processes. Confirm their correct guesses, and give the correct meaning if they do not guess it. All students should make notes of the meanings of new words in the textbook. They usually pencil in the Chinese word above or below the English word. Sometimes they will need assistance because they do not know how to write a particular character. Encourage the use of pinyin, because use of pinyin supports their understanding of phonics.

Once the meaning of the words is clear, students should rearrange the words or adjust the translation so that it makes sense in Chinese. This can be very challenging because of the students’ immature grasp of Chinese. Often you will need to simply tell students the answer, but they should be given the opportunity to think about how the grammar differs in the two languages. For example, in U1W1, students will read the sentences “Jack can” and “Can Jack?” The first sentence makes sense when simply translated word for word: Jack可以. The second sentence comes out as 可以Jack, which makes no sense in Chinese. You can invite the students to notice the question mark, which suggests that it is a question, and ask them how questions are made in Chinese. Most students will not be able to work it out, so you can then teach that this sentence means, Jack可以吗? Another example: in U1W2, students encounter the phrase “go up,” which they will translate as 去上. Invite them to notice that this is not good Chinese, and to think about how we might say it in good Chinese. Most students will not be able to work out that the characters should be switched around, so teach them that it means 上去. Once the meaning is clarified, make sure that the student can say the meaning of the sentence in full, and relate this sentence to the pictures, or to the flow of the story, to ensure that the entire group understands.

During the first couple of read-throughs, translation will be slow and stilted. In later read-throughs, students will become able to translate entire sentences first time, without first translating word-for-word and readjusting. Permit this, but make sure that other students are still following, and understand the relationship between the English text and the Chinese meaning. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT STUDENTS DO NOT MEMORISE CHINESE TRANSLATIONS. They should translate afresh every time. If a student sounds like they are reciting a memorised Chinese version, ask them to translate word by word again.

After 3 or 4 read-throughs, the students will start to become familiar with the text, and the process will be much quicker.

Skills to reinforce

Throughout the process, you should take every opportunity to reinforce good phonics, grammatical understanding, and effective strategies for guessing new words.

Phonics

When a student reads a word, particularly an unfamiliar word, teach and expect them to use phonics to sound out the word.

For example, when students first encounter the word “rest” in U2W3, they should sound out the four letter sounds: “r-e-s-t rest.” If a student tries to read a new word without sounding it out, even if they get it right, ask them to go back and sound it out; optionally, ask the whole class to sound out the word.

If a word has irregular spelling, still ask the students to sound out the word. For example, when students first encounter the word “front” in U1W5, they should sound out the five letter sounds: “f-r-o-n-t frOnt.” At this point, they should read the word with a short O sound. Praise them and say that they have read the letters correctly, but this is a bad/irregular word, and in fact, in this word, we don’t read the O as “o” but as “u”. All students should make a note in their textbooks (probably just a letter u above or below the letter o in the word – allow students to develop their own notes) to remind themselves that this word is pronounced with an irregular u vowel sound.

If a word contains phonics combinations which a student has not learned yet, a student may get stuck and need assistance. For example, the word “out” is encountered in U1W2, at which point students probably do not know how to sound out the diphthong ou. At this point, teach the new sound: the two vowels OU together make the sound “ow,” so this word is ow-t out. Understand that it will take many repetitions for students to remember phonics rules introduced this way.

Finally, if a word cannot be sounded out, simply teach the pronunciation. For example, students learn “there” in U2W1, and this word cannot be read using any reliable phonics methods. Tell the students: this is a bad word; we can’t sound it out. I will teach you the pronunciation, there. But do draw connections to other words that the students know, to help them remember. For example: there is spelled differently from bear, but these two words rhyme/sound the same (many Chinese elementary students are unfamiliar with the concept of rhyme; use it if they understand it).

When practicing phonics in the text, always be patient, and remind other students to be patient. Sometimes students will laugh at others who make mistakes. Remind them that everyone makes mistakes, and that we are working together as a team to learn better. At the same time, humour is an important teaching tool. Students can laugh when you teach the English th sound, particularly if you use exaggerated movements and tell them to stick out their tongues rudely. This is a positive way to overcome the difficulties of learning.

Grammatical understanding

Reinforce students’ understanding of word endings, parts of speech, and sentence structure.

When students read words, they will often fail to read the endings, particularly final -S. Always correct the student, and ask them to read the word again with the ending. Also ask them why this word has the ending. Students should quickly become accustomed to recognising plurals, then the -s on third-person singular verbs, then the apostrophe ‘s on possessive nouns, then other verb endings as new tenses are introduced. Their grammatical knowledge need not be precise, but it should be solid. For example, students often use the wrong technical term for the present continuous tense; this does not matter, so long as they recognise the tense and know what it means.

As students read sentences, ask them to explicitly recognise verbs, nouns, and subjects. For the first two years of instruction, this is enough. You can mention adjectives, but don’t expect students to recognise them instinctively. But in a simple SVO sentence, they should recognise the subject and verb, and know that the object is another noun. (You may introduce the term object if you prefer.)

As students read sentences, ask them to recognise the SVO sentence order, and particularly point out where it differs from standard Chinese sentence order. For example, Chinese will often place adverbs and phrases of time or place between the subject and verb; usually in English, the subject and the verb are next to each other. Frequently point out this standard sentence order in sentences in the texts. Say: First in a sentence we have the subject, then the next thing is the verb.

A common problem when teaching students about SVO word order in English is that they do not understand word order in Chinese. For example, they may read a sentence with an adverb, such as “I can run fast” and translate it word for word as 我可以跑步快, but then find it difficult to reformulate this sequence as 我可以快速跑步 or 我可以跑得快. The Chinese teacher should encourage students to try to reformulate for themselves, and explain the changes. Do not use grammatical terms, simply direct students’ attention to the differences in word order.

Sample script:

In English, the word fast goes at the end of the sentence. But in Chinese, this doesn’t sound right. In Chinese we can put the word fast in the middle of the sentence, like this: 我可以快速跑步. But in English we can’t say “I can fast run”! The two languages are just different.

Effective strategies for guessing the meaning of new words

As students read the texts, they will frequently encounter unfamiliar words. Teach them to make educated guesses about what these words mean. This involves strategies like noticing capitalisation; looking at the pictures; recognising parts of speech; properly translating a sentence with an unknown term in it; and reading ahead.

Noticing capitalisation: Students should come to understand that if a word is capitalised, it is a proper noun, and probably a name. Whenever capitalisation is encountered, ask the student to explain the rules for capitalisation (names and first letter of a sentence).

Looking at the pictures: Encourage students to use the pictures in the texts intelligently. Explain any culturally unfamiliar images (e.g. yellow school buses). With younger students, it is often helpful to explicitly direct them to look at the faces of characters in the images to understand their emotions. As students get better at interpreting the pictures, it will sometimes be possible to clarify a student’s understanding simply by pointing to a relevant part of the image at the right moment. Throughout, encourage the students to look at, enjoy, and think about the images. They will often laugh at the images, which is fine.

Recognising parts of speech: When guessing the meaning of a new word, it is helpful for students to clearly recognise whether the new word is a noun or a verb. Point out features such as articles and word position which can help them determine which it is. (Nouns and verbs only; for other parts of speech simply explain the meaning.)

Translating around an unknown term: Students encountering an unfamiliar word will often stop dead. Encourage them to work around the unknown word by simply leaving it in English as they translate the sentence. For example, in U2W2, students will encounter the sentence “We could use mud,” and may well not yet be able to recognise the word “could”. Encourage students to form a translation like “我们could使用泥巴,” and then to guess. (They may well guess that could means should or will; praise them for giving good guesses in context, and provide the correct understanding, “可以.”

Reading ahead: Particularly in later, more complex stories, reading ahead will help with the deciphering of unfamiliar words.

All of the strategies above should be used occasionally, and in the context of clear understanding of the meaning of the text. The objective is for understanding of the text to help embed the vocabulary and grammar in the students’ minds. Questions about grammar and vocabulary should never impede a clear understanding of the text.

Ineffective strategies for guessing words should also be noted and discouraged. Common ineffective strategies are: (1) Simply stopping dead and staring at the word. Students should be encouraged to notice that this strategy does not work, and to be more proactive in understanding the text. (2) Guessing based on the first letter. (3) Guessing based on bad phonics. Example: a student encounters the word “ride” for the first time, and asks if this word means “red”. In these cases, the student should be told, no, these words are different. (4) Guessing based on Chinese word order. Students may guess a noun meaning instead of a verb meaning or vice-versa, because in a Chinese sentence that part of speech would come next. Point out the mistake as you give the correct answer.

If a student tries to use an effective strategy but makes a mistake, their effort should be praised. For example, a student encountering the phrase “the black pig” may guess that black means animal, because they have noticed it comes after a “the,” and therefore must be a noun. This kind of logic should be encouraged, even though it produced the wrong answer in this case.

Text in Chinese:

课文朗读流程

读课文是语言学习的核心环节，在这个过程中，学生进行朗读、翻译、倾听、做笔记等学习活动。

早期，学生不擅长倾听和做笔记，对早期学生老师不应该有过高的要求，只能不断地提醒学生倾听同学的朗读，帮助他们做笔记，理解学生经常走心的现象。

经过两年左右的学习经验，可以培养学生专心倾听同学朗读的习惯。

课文朗读流程

每篇课文要朗读多遍。第一个学生用英文读一面；第二个学生把刚读完的那一面翻译成中文，然后用英文读第二面；第三个学生翻译第二面，再读下一面，等等。早期，最好保证每个学生朗读和翻译每一面，因为年幼的学生听别人朗读很难专心学进去，只有自己念和翻译才真正理解。让学生每节课坐同一个座位，每一轮朗读由不同的学生开始读第一面，这样多轮读完，可以保证每个学生读过和翻译过每一面。保持这样的模式完成第一单元Unit 1，到了第二单元Unit 2，学生的听力和专心能力已经提升了，不一定要读那么多轮，不必讲究每个学生有没有朗读每一面。

每次开始读新课文，先选比较自信敢说话的学生先读，让他念课文标题，让全组学生一起翻译和理解标题，再让同一个学生继续朗读课文的第一面。朗读中的错误或发音问题该纠正，然后让学生重读整句话。在朗读时，应该保证学生边读边念，不能背诵；同时，引导其他学生跟踪朗读，可以要求他们用手指一个一个地指单词。第一二轮朗读中，会遇到比较多生词，生词可以让全组学生一起拼出来，保证大家熟悉，不规则发音的，让全组学生在课本上做笔记。生词发音学完了，让读者重读整句话。

读完第一面，由第二个学生来翻译。翻译应该先一个单词一个单词翻译，遇到生词时，引导学生用有效的策略来猜意思，然后确认猜对了或者告诉学生正确的意思，让全组学生都把生词的意思几下在课本里。学生通常用铅笔把单词的中文意思写在英文单词上面或下面，如果汉字不会写，鼓励学生用拼音写，因为拼音能力和自然拼读能力是相辅相成的。

每个单词的意思理清楚之后，翻译的学生需要重整语序或者调整句式，形成通顺的中文句子。因为一二年级的学生对中文的认知尚比较薄弱，所以这个任务挑战很大，经常需要直接告诉学生怎么重整。尽管如此，应该给学生思考的时间，让他们开始理解英汉语法的不同。举例：在U1W1的课文中，学生读Jack can和Can Jack?两个句式，第一个逐字翻译出来就能理解：Jack可以；第二句逐字翻译就出现“可以Jack“这种病句。引导学生注意到问号，让他们想想中文问句怎么说。大多学生无法想清楚，这时候直接教”Jack可以吗？“ 再举例：在U1W2的课文中，学生读go up这个词组，逐字翻译成”去上“。引导学生注意，”去上“不算是通顺的中文，让他们思考一下，中文应该怎么表达？大多学生无法想清楚，这时候教他们调换两个字，说”上去“。在意思理清楚之后，让学生再次把整句话的意思说出来，引导学生发现课文句子与图片的关系，或者与上文的关系，保证全组学生都明白课文的意思。

在课文的第一轮第二轮朗读过程中，翻译过程比较满，但后续会越来越轻松，学生可以一口气把整句话翻译出来。这时候要特别注意，全组学生是否保持读课文，是否记清楚每个单词的意思，是否理解英文句式和中文句式的区别。非常重要的是：学生不得背诵整篇课文的意思，纯靠记忆来翻译。课文朗读的翻译环节中，每次必须读课文重新翻译。如果听到学生背诵中文句子，要求学生先一个单词一个单词地翻译，再调整，保证他理解透了整句话。

在三四轮朗读之后，学生开始很熟悉这个课文，朗读和翻译过程会越来越快。

语言能力建设

在课文朗读的过程中，老师应该不断地培养学生三个方面的学习能力：自然拼读、语法、有效猜测生词的意思。

自然拼读

在朗读过程中，特别是读生词的时候，老师应该引导学生用自然拼读法把生词拼出来，进而准确读出来。

举例：在U2W3课文中，学生首次遇到生词rest，应该先把四个字母的语音分别发出来：r-e-s-t再连读rest。如果学生不拼，直接念单词，就算他能读对，老师依然应该引导他用自然拼读，也可以叫整组学生集体拼读，多练拼读能力，习惯用自然拼读读单词。

如果遇到拼写不规则的单词，仍然要求学生用自然拼读法拼出来。举例：在U1W5课文中，学生首次遇到生词front，应该依次频出f-r-o-n-t front。这样拼出来，单词中有短O的音，与正确读音不相符。这时，老师应该夸学生拼读拼对了，再教大家这个单词是“不规则的”或者“不乖的”，在这个单词中，这个O字母不读o而用短u音。应该引导每个学生在自己的课本中做笔记（通常是在o字母上面标一个u字母，但学生可以用自己的笔记法），在随后的朗读中可以凭自己的笔记来读对这个不规则的单词。

在遇到不熟悉的字母组合时，学生很可能无法拼出来。比如，在U1W2的课文中遇到out，这时候学生还没有学过 ou 双元音的发音，无法朗读。这个时候，老师应该教ou的发音，让学生正确地拼出单词；但同时要接受，学生会容易忘记，不能指望学生能快速吸收这种课文中顺便介绍的发音。

在遇到完全不规则的单词时，只得教学生本单词的发音。举例：在U2W1课文中，学生首次遇到生词there，这单词不能用自然拼读规则拼出来，只能记住它的发音。告诉学生：这是一个不规则/不乖的单词，我只能教你们发音：there。同时，用已经熟悉的单词帮助学生理解语音，比如there和bear两个单词，虽然拼写不一样，但有押韵/相同的语音（很多国内的小学生不理解押韵，酌情使用）。

在练自然拼读时，需要保持耐心的心态，并且提醒学生互相支持互相包容。学生往往会嘲笑同学，可以提醒说，大家都会犯错，我们通过团队合作和互相帮助，让大家的英文越来越好。同时也可以运用快乐笑声来推动学习，比如在学习英文的th音，舌头要吐出来，学生往往觉得很逗，叫他们夸张拉鬼脸吐舌头可以营造快乐气氛，帮助学生客服困难。

语法

在课文朗读的过程中，引导学生理解语法的三个方面：词尾、词性和句式。

词尾：在学生朗读的过程中，经常不读词尾，特别是词尾-S。这个问题一定要抓，叫学生重读，把S词尾读出来，另外还应该问学生，这个单词为什么有-S词尾？学生需要熟悉名词复数-S，接着理解动词三单-S，再来名词所有格的’S，随后理解动词的其他词尾。在语法学习中，不追求学生能精确使用最高端的语法术语，但必须基本理解每一种语法形式和意思。比如，学生经常把现在进行时说成“正在进行时”；这种错误没有关系，只要他们能认得这个时态，理解它的意思。

词性：在课文朗读的过程中，在介绍名词、动词、主语等理念之后，应该经常问学生，哪些单词为名词、哪些为动词、主语在哪里。目标是，读主谓宾简单句式时，学生应该可以准确地认出主语和谓语，应该知道谓语是动词，应该知道主语和宾语是名词。在前面两年的学习中，主语、谓语、名词、动词这四个术语已经足以支撑他们的学习，不需要介绍更多词类；宾语、形容词等可以提，但不要求学生清晰理解。

句式：在课文朗读的过程中，引导学生注意标准SVO主谓宾顺序，特别是应该指出英文与中文不同之处。举例：中文的副词往往出现在主语和谓语之间，而英文的标准句式要求谓语紧贴在主语后面。应该不断地强调这个标准句式，引导学生注意“主谓”的排序。可以说：句子中，首先有主语，那就是做事情的人；接下来下一个是动词。

学习英文的主谓宾句式的过程中，一个常见的问题是：学生不理解中文句式，因而对英文句式的理解很模糊。比如，二三年级的学生遇到英文句子I can run fast可能把单词都翻译出来了，得出“我可以跑步快”，但没有能力调整这些单词的排列，形成“我可以快速跑步”或者“我可以跑得快”等合格的中文句式。中教应该引导学生尝试进行单词重组，需要时用简单的表述来解释中英句式之间的差距。

授课讲解范例：

英文句子中，fast这种单词放在句子最后的位置，但是中文不是这样说的。用中文说，我们把这个快放在句子中间，比如：我可以快速跑步。但英文不能这样，英文的I can fast run是病句！中文和英文就是不一样，没办法！

有效猜测生词的意思

在课文朗读中，学生不断地遇到生词，应该培养学生猜意的能力。有效的猜测策略有：注意大写字母；看图；注意词性；翻译完整句式；读下去再回头理解。

注意大写字母：学生应该理解到，大写开头的单词是名字，往往是人名。遇到大写单词时，请学生完整地说一遍大写规则（包括名字和句子首字母）巩固理解。

看图：引导学生有效使用课文的配图。针对一二年级的学生，经常需要解释图片内容，包括引导他们看人物的脸情理解心情，看动作等，还有澄清一些国外特有的现象，如黄色的车为校巴等。学生解读图片的能力上来了之后，在读课文过程中可以用图片轻松扶持学生理解文，只要读到生词手指指图片，顿时就清楚了。Wonders的图片编得比较精彩，很吸引孩子，可以鼓励学生多看多欣赏图片，包括笑图片，保持快乐的气氛。

注意词性：猜测生词，一个重要的前提条件是先认出名词和动词。遇到生词，引导学生从冠词、词尾、句式/顺序等方面去界定词性（仅限于动词和名词，其他词类不要求知道）。

翻译完整句式：遇到生词时，学生往往直接停下，盯着生词，不知道该怎么做。引导他们先把整句话翻译出来，再来想想生词可能有什么意思。举例：在U2W2的课文中，学生读 We could use mud，这时候很可能不知道could的意思。引导学生说出整句话，熟悉的单词用英文说，如：我们could使用泥巴。这时候来猜could 的意思，不一定能猜对，但应该可以猜相关的助动词——如果猜“应该”或者“会”等意思，应该夸他正确理解句式，再教正确的意思：可以。

读下去再回头理解：一般适用于比较长的课文，有时候再读下一句可以帮助学生理解生词。

猜生词不能每句话都要猜，如果生词太多的话，老师应该直接把意思解释给学生。要对整个课文/整句话形成比较清晰的理解，才能有效猜测生词意思。学生理解课文中的故事，就能更有效地学会和记住新的词汇和新的句式，因此首要任务是，帮助学生理解清楚课文的思路。

有时，学生会用一些无效的猜测方法，应该注意到这些错误的策略，引导学生不再用，如：（1）沉默发呆。很多学生在不知道答案的情况下不知道做什么好，因此不说话，盯着课本一动不动。应该跟学生说，不知道没关系，但沉默没有用，应该主动去找陌生单词的意思。（2）凭首字母猜意思。（3）凭不准确的拼读猜意思。举例：学生遇到ride，猜这个单词是red红色的意思。应该提醒学生，ride跟red听起来不一样，不能混淆。（4）凭中文的句式猜。往往学生会根据中文的句式去想，下一个单词可能是动词还是名词，与英文的句式相背，遇到这种问题时，应该提醒学生英文的句式。

在学生应用好的策略但得出错误答案时，应该予以表扬。比如，学生读到the black pig时可能会以为black是名词，因为前面有the，进而猜black是动物的意思。虽然答案不对，但应该赞成和鼓励学生的这种思考。