With the emphasis on early intellectual development, people are more and more interested in learning English. Many parents want their children to be exposed to English from an early age, so they send their children to kindergartens with English teaching. For a time, English teaching began to heat up again, showing a scene of "vigorous development". Public opinion has different opinions on this, and the author also has opinions on this.
1. What is the purpose of bilingual teaching?
It is clearly pointed out in the Kindergarten Regulations that kindergartens carry out the education of all-round development of children's body, intelligence, morality and beauty, and promote the harmonious development of children's bodies. All the work in kindergarten should be carried out around this task. At present, under the condition of market economy, some kindergartens have not seriously implemented the requirements set forth in the Regulations. In order to meet the requirements of parents, to follow the fashion, to attract students, and even more directly to generate income for kindergartens, the long-term goal of promoting children's development is neglected. The concrete manifestations are as follows: in order to highlight English teaching, some kindergartens add English classes in addition to the teaching of various subjects, and some classes are more, which increases the burden of children's English learning and affects their physical and mental health; Others occupy the time of other teaching and game activities, interfere with normal teaching activities, and are not conducive to the all-round and harmonious development of children. These practices essentially violate the purpose of early childhood education. Therefore, English teaching should take children's all-round development as the starting point.
Second, how to treat the critical period of children's foreign language learning?
The so-called critical period refers to a period in an organism's life, during which some external conditions may have more influence on the organism than can be achieved at other times. However, further research shows that the critical period is not so clear in time, and the stimulus effect of this period is not irreversible. For example, according to the materials of Penfield and Roberts, based on the study of early and late unilateral brain injury and language development of mentally retarded children, Lanneberg put forward the hypothesis that the language acceptance period lasts from 2 years old to 12 years old. However, people who advocate bilingual education in China shorten the critical period to preschool, which is a one-sided understanding of the critical period. In fact, the critical period proposed by Laneberg is not limited to the preschool stage, but should last longer. In addition, recent studies on language deprivation and second language acquisition deny the view that the adverse effects on the critical period of language are absolutely irreversible to some extent. Some people think that if a 2-year-old child learns to speak a foreign language, it will take about 20 years to reach the language ability of the university graduates in the country where he is learning the language, while a 18-year-old youth can complete it in only 4 years if he has the best environment. Therefore, if you miss the critical period of language development (in this case, preschool period), the view that it will be quite difficult for preschool period to accept a second language after that is somewhat alarmist.
Third, what conditions should bilingual teaching meet?
Bilingual teaching must have certain conditions in order to achieve good results. The author believes that bilingual teaching should meet the following conditions:
1. There should be certain environmental conditions.
Language must be acquired through long-term practice in a certain environment. Language learning is very difficult without specific situations. Therefore, kindergartens should set up a simulated bilingual environment (including material environment and interpersonal environment) when teaching foreign languages. For example, the activity room has a Chinese area and an English area, and the items and wall decorations placed in the English area are marked in English. You can also put some English books to expose children to two cultural backgrounds. Through observation and comparison, they can finally identify and understand two different cultures. At the same time, it is necessary to create a simulated Chinese-English interpersonal communication environment, so that children have the opportunity to feel and use two languages. This requires China to communicate with children in English within a certain period of time, otherwise the English that children learn in English classes will not be strengthened in time.
2. Teachers should have certain conditions.
High-level teachers are the guarantee of high-quality preschool education. To improve children's English teaching level, there must be teachers who are proficient in English and know how to teach children. At present, most bilingual kindergartens do not have such conditions. If some kindergarten teachers' English level is not high, during the teaching process, children will be caught off guard by asking questions about unprepared content. Some teachers have poor pronunciation and strong local accent. Once a child has received the wrong pronunciation training, it is difficult to correct it. Some parks hire college English teachers or English majors with high salaries. Some don't understand children's psychology and adopt adult teaching methods. Classroom teaching is dull and featureless, which makes children lose interest in learning English.
3. There should be a scientifically researched English teaching content system for children.
English teaching for children must conform to their physical and mental characteristics and promote their development. At present, China does not have its own set of systematic bilingual textbooks. Kindergarten teachers choose or create their own teaching materials at will, and the content is profound and shallow, without taking care of children's acceptance level. Even some kindergartens only teach children some words or a few spoken words for several years, and children forget them soon after learning them.
There should be a set of English teaching methods suitable for children.
Because children's thinking is vivid, adults should be avoided in English teaching. Kindergartens should pay attention to oral English teaching, mobilize children's learning enthusiasm through various activities, and let children learn to use the language through comprehensive training such as listening, speaking and reading in activities to avoid forced rote learning. For example, introduce teaching AIDS to children in English, introduce the name and characteristics of food and the color and shape of tableware when eating. When children ask teachers for help, they must use the right language to get help. In this way, children can get in touch with specific situations and get practical language. After repeated imitation exercises in daily life, children can inadvertently master the use of language in specific situations.