Based on what I have seen, kids in the 3rd year of kindergarten can outspeak many Taiwanese teachers of English as a result of having around 6 hours per day with a native speaker of English. I really don’t think they would be anywhere near this level with the typical local.
[quote=“wolf_reinhold”]MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB
As recorded by Buddy Guy
(From the 1968 Album MAN & THE BLUES)
Recorded by Stevie Ray Vaughan
1983
Mary had a little lamb
It’s fleece was white as snow, yeah
Everywhere the child went
The little lamb was sure to go, yeah
He followed her to school one day
And broke the teachers rule
What a time did they have
That day at school
Tisket! Tasket! baby
A green and yellow basket
Sent a letter to my baby
On my way I past it
Class dismissed…[/quote]
Jeez! I have both those recordings and I sure as hell couldn’t sing either one of 'em. Kindergarten teachers must have more skills than I thought!
Wolf, after about a year of learning English from a local kindergarten teacher your average student will be able to say the following:
classroom instructions: stah up, sih dah
colours: reh, gree, purpow
animals: dogger, pigger, hoss
conversation: My nay izzuh _____
At least with a native English speaker as their teacher their pronounciation will be intelligible, but ONLY if they have more than an hour of English a day.
I will tell you what a foreign teacher who is a native speaker of English can do that a local teacher can’t. They can help the students learn a language naturally. Preschool kids are still young enough to learn another language perfectly with constant exposure to that language. Of course, a typical kindergarten program is not constant exposure - it’s about six hours a day. However, if you’ve met Taiwanese kids who have gone to an English preschool for several years, you must have noticed that their English is very good and much more natural than the English of other students the same age. If parents really want their kids to be able to speak English fluently with a natural accent, they are much better off to invest the money needed when their kids are preschool-aged than when they are in university.
A preschool-aged child sent to live in an English country for two years will be fluent in English, and possible indistinguishable from a native speaker, at the end of this period. A person in his or her early twenties sent to live in an English-speaking country for two years won’t be. I know a foreign family here where the 7-year-old daughter can speak Mandarin like a native, but whose father, who is studying Chinese every day, is struggling, and realistically will never achieve his daughter’s level. Exposure to a native speaker is exactly what a preschool child needs to learn a language, and this exposure is exactly what a non-native speaker, no matter how talented in other ways, cannot provide. If I wanted my child to learn another language, I would insist on a native speaker teacher.
I work at the school that got raided yesterday (although am fortunate enough not to have a valid ARC for that branch, so didn’t have to stick around to be photographed). A quick announcement before lunch told us that ‘they’ were on the way so perhaps it would be best for us to flee! flee! grab the kids and flee!
(“Okaaaay! Listen up! Who wants to go on an outing? Don’t forget to bring your jackets, water bottles, sleeping bags, books, markers, toys and anything else you can fit inside those little bags of yours!”)
The same thing happened at the same time last year, and we dealt with it in the same way - stuffing kids onto the bus and driving over the bridge into Yung Ho. Last year we had to wait a week before moving back into our building. This time we were back in this morning. Rumour has it that it’s all politically motivated, and the fact that the branch itself is located pretty close to either the MOE or some other official-type office makes it a convenient target. There is a kindergarten/preschool/day-care/sprog zoo belonging to another large chain (begins with ‘H’) just at the top of our street… Heads up!
have we all forgotten about Guanxi folks? that’s exactly what got me out of my predicatment last december 14th when my kindy was raided while reading a christmas story. actually, “raided” conjures up images of men in uniform toting guns, screeming like wild banchees behind gas masks. 3 men, who looked like fathers until it dawned on me that no father would come to their kids english school at 10:30 in the morning. well-dresses FLUENT ShiJr cops who were tipped off by who knows who. first thing they grabbed was my time card. then they asked for ID, and i only had my passport with a soon-to-be expired visitors visa (ARC was being processed for anchingban). told me to come back at 2 p.m where the owner and i would go to the police station to fill out a report. well, someone knew someone who knew someone who knew someone and it all got shredded. because they “needed” to fill out a report to “do their jobs as upholders of the law” the story that was given to them as to why i was there with 12 chong ban kids was, simply, that i was studying BePeMeFe with them because i was a personal friend of the chinese teacher who is from canada. End of story. no fine. no deportment, not even a slap on the wrist. time card returned. i now teach in a locked room with a video camera and an intercom. if they buzz through the intercom i’m not to come out. :?
what can a foreign teacher do that a local can’t? well, results will vary according to individuals.
i can explain to them WHY little “a” is “a” and not “6” (or any other random sign. with me they don’t have to write each letter over and over because the stories i provide makes such impossible to forget.
i can explain to them WHY many words have the names they have. why are “coin” and “key” and “door” and “zipper” the names they have? this information is presented in such a way that they don’t forget. instead of drilling it into em i try to present it as unforgettably as possible the first time.
as best i can, i try to instill in them the habit of not being afraid to ask questions. their inquisitiveness is a wonderful thing and it is gonna have to be some other teacher who is gonna tell em “bu yao ‘weisheme’. zhi yao zuo.” we want kids to ask “why?”, right? such is the exact opposite (oftentimes) of what the local methods nurture.
yes, they use my “standard” North American accent to imitate. i never call a “puppet” a “puppy.” in hearing my voice they can distinguish the difference.
i use the communicative approach to teach. i try not to use the chorus approach to any great extent. many times, chinese teachers just pound em with repetition over and over without telling them what they are learning. are they students or tape recorders?
there is no skill or art involved at all at being a good teacher. anytime you would like to try…
[quote=“skeptic yank”]
I can explain to them WHY many words have the names they have. why are “coin” and “key” and “door” and “zipper” the names they have? this information is presented in such a way that they don’t forget. instead of drilling it into em I try to present it as unforgettably as possible the first time.
.[/quote]
You’re joking, right?
Does you utilize hip hop in your communicative approach? I’ve heard that hip hop is the UNIVERSAL communication tool.
Yes, do tell us how you teach your students why ‘key’ is called ‘key’.
A key is called a key because its a turny thing.
A door is called a door because its an openy thing.
A coin is called a coin because its a pockety thing.
And a zipper is called a zipper because some people don’t realize that its really called a zip.
Really Spack! You HAVE been educated haven’t you?
I have recently come to the conclusion that kindys are going to die a slow and painful death. Sure, some of them will still do well but…
Methinks there will be a new niche opening up here within the next couple of years. Not sure yet, but that little voice inside my head is telling me, “Hey dipshit, you might want to look into this a bit further.” Hmmmm…
Any idea WHY the MOE doesn’t want foreigners teaching in kindergartens? Obviously the parents/citizens want it. Odd.
It is ludicrous of the MOE to recently allow foreigners to teach in kindergartens, then change the law bakc in September, just after teachers will have signed legal one-year contracts, then crack down on it after 5 months. Incompetent Taiwanese bureaucracy at its worst.
I have a JFRV. The law says I can do any work a similarly qualified Taiwanese can do. Once again the MOE is passing regulations against the law by saying that no foreigners can teach in kindergartens.
Brian
Well why don’t you explain why a key is called a key and not a door. I’d love an explanation. When teaching kindergarden you cannot seriously explain the words. Did your teacher explain them to you? Mine didn’t we just accept the word and that’s it. Although I could be wrong.
Foreigners have never been permitted to teach in kindergartens. The Buxiban industry successfully lobbied the MOE into opening a loophole in that prohibition whereby Buxibans could subcontract foreign teachers to kindergartens where the foreign teachers could assist local teachers but not teach the class. Of course, Buxibans and kindergartens took advantage of this to open total-immersion English courses for preschoolers. This was enormously lucrative but was putting local kindergarten teachers out of work and making it hard for traditional kindergartens and daycare centers to compete.
These disgruntled elements found some sympathetic education experts in academia who appeared in print and on TV saying that it was bad for children to learn English too early–allegedly childern who learned English at an early age failed master Mandarin and were absorbing ‘inappropriate’ cultural values. There was also a lot of hostile coverage in the China Times. I posted on this last year.
Anyway the kindie teacher association sued the MOE in the Control Yuan and won. The MOE closed the loophole in September and issued a letter to all jurisdictions in Taiwan telling them it was illegal to hire foreigners to work in kindies. Taipei City has announced that it will now enforce this. No other jurisdiction has done so yet although Taipei City says it will try to get Taipei County to ‘cooperate’.
Yesterday’s China Times says that the City is now requiring kindergartens and Buxibans that call themselves ‘Quanmei2yu3’ (Full Immersion American English) to change their names. It didn’t mention anything about busting foreigners for teaching yet.
The MOE does not care if foreigners signed contracts. It would be interesting to have a lawyer look at those contracts. It may be possible that some kindies/Buxibans may have to compensate foreign teacher for lost teaching. A Taiwan lawyer would need to look at this though. PM if you are interested.
It also seems possible that the MOE might have some liability for changing its regulations. There is some principle of administrative law that that makes administrative agencies liable when they make arbitrary changes in regulations like this. Again a lawyer (which I am not) would have to look at this issue.
On the work permit issue:
Technically the law says that you are not bound by the same restrictions as other foreigners. The effect should be what you are describing–you can do any work that a similarly qualified Taiwanese can do. The MOE, which regulates teaching, does not see it this way. It believes that it the right to say who can teach in Taiwan, and it believes it can deny this privilege to foreigners. They will not stop this policy until someone challenges them in the administrative courts. This will be expensive, so unless foreign teachers get together and sponsor a test case, it ain’t gonna happen.
This probably all be moot in a few years anyway. The MOE just announced a big new set of regulations for kindergartens and daycare centers that will require everyone who works in those places to be licensed. Foreigners will then need to get those licenses even if they have an open work permit.
[quote=“sandman”]A key is called a key because its a turny thing.
A door is called a door because its an openy thing.
A coin is called a coin because its a pockety thing.
And a zipper is called a zipper because some people don’t realize that its really called a zip.[/quote]
I can just imagine skeptic
well…so much for your imagination. every lesson has vocab. most chinese teachers just whip out the flash cards and grind away. not me.
walk into the classroom. get them all to be quiet. reach in your pocket. take out your keyring with a handful of keys. hold the keys and keyring up. clink them around a bit. in an imitative voice of the keys hitting one another simply say “key, key, key.” do it a few more times. the kids aren’t stupid. they all want to touch. they all know “give me” and thus shout out “gime me” or “i want” to which i reply “what do you want?” and redo the imitation of the keys clinking. “key, key, key” sez me. they all shout “give me the key!” (since they are baby class, plurals can come later.) the students simply never forget such an approach.
yeah, it sounds simple and trite but none of ya’ll with “serious jobs” quite figured out the approach.
the term for such words is onomatopaeic (sp?) and knowledge of which words derive their origin from such is a great resource.
door: get them to be quiet. after awhile they start to anticipate teacher doing something “huopo” (clownish) and settle down quickly. when they are semi-calm and your crowd management skills have them rapt simply walk over (big motions) and using a closed fist knock on the door (hollow core doors work best). say “zhe ge men shuo sheme?” to which they all chirp “qiao, qiao, qiao!” you say “no, listen!” and they listen. knock a few more times. sooner than later someone will imitate the dull thudding on the door and say “duh, duh, duh” to which a lay on the ham big time and give em a big ol “very goodAH!” that student gets to come up, pound on the door and say "door,door,door. " everyone else is jealous and wants their turn, BUT to have the priviledge of knocking on the door they have to tell me what they want IN ENGLISH. once you know, it is easy as pie.
So a key is called a key because it makes a “key” sound and a door is called a door because there’s a “duh!” sound when you hit it?
As Micheal Caine might say: “Not a lot of people know that.”
Reminds me of the joke about soldiers being trained without equipment – how does it go again? Can’t remember, but the punchline is one guy pushing all the others over saying “Tank, tank, tank.”
:offtopic: :saywhat:
Feiren,
Please post a link if you have one for the article that you read. That is unless you :shock: :shock: read the PAPER :shock: version of the news. :shock:
I received a letter from the MOE here stating that the teachers could finish off their contracts. Or did I dream that? 
I lost the damn letter, bloody stupid thing to misplace, I may need it one day.
:mrgreen: