Teach English in Wenquan Zhen - Lianyungang Shi

“My child is not getting good results at school!”, “Are you sure he is making any progress?” , “I know he is not good at English, do what you can”. These are some of the comments that you will hear when teaching English to children from parents that are too demanding or parents that don’t care much about how the child is doing as long as they get good results. Nowadays many parents think that education is not of their business that is why schools are for. And it get worse when it comes to language academies or private lessons since they usually pay a lot of money to get results. The process of learning starts at these places, that is true, but parents have an important role when it comes to helping the students to go through all the process. First of all, parents should think about what is the main purpose for learning English? It is only a matter of prestige? Or they just want their child to get good results at school, maybe they see the importance of learning a language that will help them to live in a globalised world. Evidently the reason and motivation will be different depending on the culture background of the parents and the urgent need for it. But whatever the reason is, once they have the objective clear they should act accordingly. Now, what can parents do to help their children to succeed in learning English? Give support to them from the very beginning. Let the children know that they need to try their best and enjoy the process. Parents need to take the lead so the children don’t view English class as another extracurricular activity and, as a result, never be fluent in the language. Exposure is crucial. Today is easier than never before. Parents can use television so children can watch their favourite programmes in English. They can also use other kind of entertainment like travelling to English speaking countries and let them practice whenever they can. Or if parents have English knowledge they can practice with them. Parents can encourage the use of English not only in the class but also outside, in their daily routines, motivating them to point at things and asking “how do you say this in English?” or asking “what was the lesson about today?” so they can explain it in English showing the activities or the pages from the book. Any kind of exposure will be in behalf of the student. They can even try to encourage listening to music in English. There are websites where you can listen to songs while you fill the gaps, you choose the difficulty so they can start from beginners’ level and progressively advance to other levels. Another key aspect that parents can do to help their children is not to expect too much about them from the beginning. They should be realistic; every child is different and makes progress at different pace. Even when it seems that the child is stuck with his progress, parents should be always positive and never give up. Progress can be very subtle and will not always be evident on the reports from the school or academy. It can be frustrating from both sides that is why is very important for parents to show their support through all the process. The more they encourage the use of English outside the classroom, the more confident and fluent the child will be. It does not matter if they make grammatical mistakes; the point is to encourage the use of the language and get a sense of accomplishment. Many parents do not have knowledge of English at all so they cannot force or expect their child to be fluent and perfect from the first lesson. If that is the case they can even use it to the child’s advantage, asking the child to teach them what they have learnt. Good communication and collaboration between parents and teachers is also an important aspect. Parents should feel free to approach teachers and ask about the children but always in a respectful manner and with the intention of making the process enjoyable and effective for both sides. There are many other things parents can do in order for their children to learn English and be successful but the most important thing, in my opinion, is to give unconditional support and be involved through all the process despite the reasons for learning. Taking advantage of every occasion to congratulate their children and show them how proud they are of them. This will contribute not only to how successful in learning English the children will be but also will create a happy and healthy relationship with the parents. Children need their parents in all aspects of their live to build up their confidence. If they do, their children will accomplish anything they purpose in life!