Rural kids face up to fun in English classes
Print Edition
Zhao Minghui, 11, is picking up English words through making faces. As a fourth grader of a rural primary school in Laiyuan County, north China’s Hebei Province, Zhao, together with her classmates, is having a unique English class.
This was the scene this week, when a special language-learning program saw visiting volunteer teacher Liu Wei, a former member of a national English research group, use a story-based approach to encourage kids from Dongtuanbu Central Primary School (DCPS) to actively participate in the class.
Some 160 kilometers from Beijing, Laiyuan is officially classed as one of China’s most poverty-stricken counties. With many people struggling for daily necessities, education is far less developed than in cities.
The Hope Project continues to work to improve the situation. Initiated in 1989 by the China Youth Development Foundation and the Communist Youth League Central Committee, it aims to bring schools to poverty-stricken rural areas of China, to help children of poor families complete elementary school education. DCPS is covered in the project.
Though teaching facilities in DCPS can hardly meet the standard of urban schools, English classes are compulsory for third to sixth grade pupils.
Liu uses word cards and slides to tell a story of making faces and involve children with interactive games — far removed from dry grammar and drills.
In class, pupils raise their hands and giggle, their eyes beaming. Some race to the platform to pose in different expressions of “fierce,” “frightened,” “sad,” “hungry” and “good,” while others make guesses, shouting the words.
The 40-minute class is filled with laughter. Afterwards, pupil surround Liu and bombard him with questions.
“The game of making faces is so much fun,” said Zhao Minghui. English class is Zhao’s favorite and she often scores high in English exams.
Liu has been very impressed by his young students.
“I was concerned about the difficulty of the textbook and worried the kids wouldn’t be able to follow me. But their performance is fantastic, way above my expectation,” said Liu.
Zhang Weimin, a young female teacher who teaches English in DCPS describes her young charges as “thoughtful, frank and thrifty.”
Zhang’s wish is that someday a foreigner may come to the school and communicate with the children in English. “They have never met someone from another country,” she noted.
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