At my school I see virtually no concern for the big tests (e.g., Basic Competency/High School Entrance, IELTS, TOEIC). The oldest kids here are junior-high students, and they’re in the minority.
The school used to make a fairly big deal out of the Elementary Level GEPT, but that changed when we got the rule barring children under twelve.
My role here is minor.
Chinese and English are from two different language families, and the negative transference (interference) from Chinese is strong. This includes phonological transference. Standard Mandarin has only three final consonants that I know of, but among some speakers here, Mandarin seems to have as few as one final consonant, n. There is a strong tendency here to reject final consonants.
Then there are affective considerations with regard to children, and prudential considerations with regard to parents, who are also customers.
I guess I sound quite negative, but my post is not meant to discourage the OP or to discourage Loretta from offering advice. Also, I understand that regardless of the issues at the younger end, the challenges at the older end (IELTS, Basic Competency, TOEIC) are probably not going to go away or change. So this thread has given me some things to think about.
Thanks, Loretta, and thanks for bringing up the topic, trubadour. And trubadour, I hope you won’t be discouraged by anything I’ve written. I’m an old fart and tend to be too negative.