As experienced teachers and administrators in Yungwing International Kindergarten, Ms Xiaohua Liu and Ms Pam Cassidy gave a talk on “A Path to a Developmentally Appropriate English Curriculum Model for Young Chinese Learners: Challenges and Strategies” in UIC on 7 November.
Yungwing International Kindergarten, like many other international schools in China, hires many native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) to teach young children English. The two speakers shared the benefits of NESTs that stand out in terms of their teaching practice comparing to non-NESTs, as well as the undesirable results in regards to their teaching quality.
With a thorough investigation into challenging situations Yungwing was facing, Ms Liu and Ms Cassidy have developed a constructive curriculum with their colleagues to improve their teaching and learning effectiveness. For example, they strategically suggested all teachers develop lesson plans together and tailor their curriculum in which more shared reading are encouraged for Chinese young learners with their teachers and promote interaction among faculty members in and out of class.
Furthermore, Ms Liu illustrated with examples of how to give constructive feedback to colleagues in order to dissolve any culture conflict between NESTs and non-NESTs. Timely and proper policy support, according to the speakers, is also needed to put into consideration at the managerial level for smooth inter-cultural communication.
From their two-hour speech, TESL and ELLS students realised that the importance of a sound language curriculum that involves teachers’ professional qualification, inter-cultural communicative skills (both between teachers and students and also among teachers) and the policy support from the higher managerial level. They also raised questions regarding the development of bilingual education beyond early childhood education, the issues of language acquisition at home and the career prospects of early childhood education.
Reporters: Lily Liu and Kayla Huang (ELLS)
Photographer: Wang Keyan (ACCT, Year 3)
Editor: Samuel Burgess (MPRO)
