teaching childr

8/6/2019 Teaching Childr

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/teaching-childr 1/4

Name: Thang Thi Dang Course: AL 6760 Instructor: Prof. Jean Kirschenmann Date: October 15, 2009

WHY DO VIETNAMESE CHILDREN NEED MORE PHYSICAL MOVEMENTS?

Why don’t we give children fun when teaching English? I have found out little by little

about the interesting and mysterious world of children through watching them and from this course.

I have learned how to make English more understandable, creative, and enjoyable to children.

Learning another language is hard for children when they have not had the full consciousness of

their mother tongue. Therefore, learning should be enjoyable and playful. As I have seen in

Vietnam, children often have stress at school because of the test-driven program and the traditional

ways of teaching. In class, students are required to sit neatly, quietly, and seriously crossing their

arms on the table (Picture 1, page 4). I do not mean these are not good, but I always wonder if there

are other possible ways to teach children to reduce students’ stress and enhance their learning. In

this paper, I will discuss two reasons why Vietnamese children need more physical activities when

learning English: The nature of child development and learning through playing.

One of the reasons that children in Vietnam need more movements in English classroom is

because of their natural development. I found an interesting article which emphasizes “Children

need to move! Not just for the sake of their physical selves, but also for social, emotional and

cognitive development. Movement benefits the whole child” (Pica, 2006). I fully agree with Pica

about the importance of movement to children as I can see all kinds of fun that children have in

their lives (picture 2, p. 4). Moving around makes them more relaxed and reduces stress from the

workload in the classroom. Therefore, it is not easy to have them sit still for a long time. I found my

Professor Jean Kirschenmann’s example in class interesting that a mother sits on the bus playing

with her mobile phone typing a message or playing games, but she wants her child to sit still by

saying “Shshsh!” Why? Children need more play than adults (Personal communication, 2009). In

addition, children need socializing. I have learned from watching children and my own children that

they need somebody to play with them. Whenever I took my children somewhere, they very quickly




found some other children to play with and they made friends easily as well. Through interaction,

children’s emotional and cognitive senses develop. They learn how to sympathize and help each

other in their lives. They learn from their peers and friends many concepts that they miss from their

parents or teachers such as language, good behaviors, and other life skills. All of these support their

learning. Thus, there are no reasons to have children sit still and neatly like the class that can be

seen in the picture 1.

Another thing that I really would like to focus on this paper is children can learn through

playing in many ways. I have the same opinion as Rae Pica about children learning preference:

“Research shows that movement is the young child’s preferred mode of learning – because they best

understand concepts when they’re physically experienced” (2006). Truly, playing is a very effective

way for children to learn English because learning another language is not easy for children.

Therefore, during the learning process, fun, joy, and games would be very useful. When practicing

physically, children acquire skills and language with their long-term memory. Taking these

advantages, I would bring fun to Vietnamese children in my classroom and create different kinds of

games for children when teaching English. Some of the physical movements involved in learning

process can be Total Physical Respond such as “Listen and Do”, “Movement Mimic”, “Do as I

Say”, and others. When students involve in these activities, they think that they are playing, but

actually they are learning.

In conclusion, movements, fun, joy, and games are very important to children when learning

English. They can help reduce stress and promote child language proficiency. I would very much

like to apply what I have learned from the course to the children in Vietnam. I know that changing

something that has been existed for years and years is not simple, but at least I can apply it to my

classroom and then spread the ideas to my colleagues. I would like English not to be a hard subject

that children have to tolerate.




References

Picture 1: Students are required to sit neatly in the classroom

Picture 2: The nature of children with all kinds of fun




References

Pica, R. (2006). Moving and Learning . Retrieved October 11, 2009, from http://www.

movingandlearning.com/

Pica, R. (2006). More Movement, Smarter Kids. Retrieved October 11, 2009, from http://

www.movingandlearning.com/Resources/Activities.htm

http://www/

http://www/

teaching childr

Documents