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In the past years EFL has boomed in many countries and it is a lucrative business in most kindergartens in Asian countries. I am going to focus on my experience in the past year of teaching English as a Foreign Language in China. I will explain the challenges and how I managed to overcome them. The teaching of foreign language is related to a type of instruction strategy and is an art for making acquired language proficiency by learners easier. However, it is therefore important to note that; the mother tongue language is the first lingual practice of a child starting learning at home and increasing vocabulary through the surrounding community. Walt Whitman (1900); put it in a poem showing that the need for words to describe objects that become a part of that child experience is part of learning. EFL learners refer to English as foreign language learners, Perception: A belief or opinion often held by many people and based on how things seem. (Perception, N.D), Listening Strategies: a careful plan or method to get towards a goal (British Council), TPR: Total Physical Response, According to (Asher, 1982) it is based on the theory that memory is enhanced through association with physical movement where children respond physically to commands. (Teaching approaches). When I started teaching English as a Foreign Language at a kindergarten China I faced a number of challenges as I had little experience in this field. My classes were comprised of learners aged 2 – 6 years old. One of the main challenges I faced was how to make the children understand what I am saying. It has been a difficult task to introduce new foreign words to learners who do not understand what it means. Kindergarten children are not exposed to or practice in English language in their daily life activities. It requires a double time that we spent in class for children at this age to get familiar to a foreign language. Ashworth and Wakefield (2004) stated that: “When young children aged three to seven who speak a home language other than English, enter an English-speaking school, they may be at risk. Suddenly the flow of comprehensible language they’ve encountered at home is unavailable and a new and incomprehensible language is substituted in its place. Understanding now becomes very difficult unless early childhood educators know how to create situations in which meaning becomes clear.” (Ashworth and Wakefield, 2004, P-9) During this stage of kindergarten, I have also noted that the children have to acquire any listening skills it therefore is a problem to learn a new foreign language. I also noted that they is a huge communication gap which exists between an ELF teacher and students because of the different environments that we come from. As an ELF teacher you will be coming from an English speaking background which means each would have her/his own way of using strategies and activities to draw the interests of young children in those early ages. The use of TPR activities is important when teaching EFL in a kindergarten. This process mimics the way that infants learn their first language, and it reduces student inhibitions and lowers stress. In my classes I prepare flashcards and make use of the TPR Simon says. The TPR Simon says where I command my students to do what I only command. This has been effective in helping my students to understand and remember the vocabulary we learn in our classes. In class activities are an effective tool that an ELF teacher can use in his/her classes. At this age children are easily distracted by simple things. I have noted in my other class that when they is movement by Chinese teachers I lose my class they will divert their attention. To make my classes interesting we play a lot of games such as musical chairs and the hot flashcard. The activities only do they gain you attention of the class but also help in practice of vocabulary. I also every week prepare songs and send them to parents so that children can review when they are at home. This ensures a learning process outside the classroom to assure continuity of exposure to the language. Above all teaching ELF in a kindergarten is more fun because of the wide fun activities that it in cooperates and it requires a teacher who is kind and patient to be able to take up to the task.
