Original title: If you miss the critical period of language, will you not be able to learn English well?
Yangcheng Evening News reporter He Ning
In the stage of children’s preschool education, many parents are most concerned about their children’s English enlightenment. In order to grasp their children’s language sensitive period, many parents listen to their children’s ears in English from the moment they are born; However, many parents of primary school students find that preschool English learning seems to be futile. The words and sentences that children knew before are all forgotten in primary school. For the prospective primary school students who will enter the first grade in September next year, how should the English subject be well connected?
English learning should lay a solid foundation step by step
“Children’s language learning does have a ‘critical period’ or ‘window period’, but this time span is very long, from 3 to 9 years old. Children’s English enlightenment can be grasped, but parents should not be overly anxious. If they do not master the correct enlightenment method , it is very likely that children will become bored with English when they are in the middle and high grades.” Yi Min, the principal of the No. 1 Primary School of Guangdong Experimental Middle School, Shiliwan School, has found through years of English teaching experience that interest is the best teacher. In the process of learning, parents must be utilitarian, maintain concentration, and adhere to long-termism.
Yi Min said: “Children who start learning English from kindergarten are actually under a lot of pressure. These pressures often come from the high expectations of their parents. We all know that the price of English after-school classes, especially those with foreign teachers, is very high. It’s not cheap. Many families who value their children’s English spend a lot of money on English enlightenment since their children were very young. However, it is very important to learn English step by step and lay a solid foundation. If the mastery is not firm, once the vocabulary increases in the middle and upper grades of elementary school, the academic pressure will increase, and some children will lose their confidence, motivation and interest in English learning.”
It is not too late to start learning English in the first grade
Ms. Xie’s daughter is now in the second year of middle school in a prestigious school in Guangzhou. Her English scores have always been among the best in her grade. She did not learn English systematically before elementary school. Ms. Xie believes that when her daughter first entered primary school, her English was indeed lagging behind in the class. Many students had learned English in kindergarten, and some were still in bilingual kindergarten, and their speaking and listening skills were far ahead. Ms. Xie said: “In retrospect, I think the most correct thing I did at that time was to correct my mentality. We only started to learn English in junior high school at that time, but there were still many outstanding ones. The key to language learning depends on the dedication of time. It’s not too late to start learning in the first grade.”
Ms. Xie starts with cultivating her daughter’s study habits, and urges her daughter to earnestly complete the homework assigned by the teacher every day. Ms. Xie said: “The English homework in the first and second grades of elementary school is actually not much, and it is also very simple, but I ask my daughter to lay a solid foundation. The dialogues in the textbook must not only be read out, but also written out silently, and every word must be written out. Can’t make any mistakes. My daughter is very obedient, she memorizes the textbooks thoroughly, and can get full marks in every English test. This not only makes her develop a careful habit, but also greatly stimulates her interest in learning English. In the third grade, she can read simple English original storybooks independently, and her interest in learning is stronger.”
Reminder:
Parent-child relationship and interest in reading are much more important than mastering the number of words
“Learning a foreign language from an early age, for young children, is more about the improvement of learning ability, rather than the advantage of language ability. In the absence of context (communication, language environment for communication), premature, excessive, and unacceptable It will waste limited time and even kill interest.” He Ling, a senior English education expert and IELTS subject leader of the School of International Education of Guangdong University of Finance, reminded parents that children’s English enlightenment can be grasped, but they should not be overly anxious , 3-9 years old is a sensitive period for children’s language learning, and it is completely in time to start learning in the first grade of elementary school.
He Ling suggested that parents, in order to stimulate children’s interest in English learning, might as well use selected original English nursery rhymes and nursery rhymes for targeted pronunciation enlightenment, so that children can receive voice signals from an early age and cultivate a sense of English rhythm.
Parents with relatively good English foundation may wish to accompany their children in parent-child English picture book reading. “If the parents’ own English pronunciation is relatively standard, they can take their children to read together; if the pronunciation is not too standard, they can use audio. Parent-child reading has established A good parent-child relationship cultivates children’s interest in reading, which is far more important than how many words a child masters.”