F2F Class Notes (Vicki)

The Multilingualism and Multiliteracy (MultiLila) project was a four-year research study (2016-2020) whose aim was to identify whether children who learn through a medium language which is different from their home language have different levels of learning outcomes than those children whose home and school languages are the same. The outcome of this project is that if English, different from a home language, is used as a medium of instruction, it will be an obstacle to learning for young children from a socioeconomic background.
There are some reasons for this. First, teachers cannot adequately support and maintain English in the classroom and there will be difficulties in conveying knowledge. Second, students are not familiar with English, and thus cannot fully understand their learning materials well.
Therefore, teachers’ training is urgently required and teachers should be familiar with English if they are asked to teach in English. Also, the state governments need to urgently acknowledge the shortcomings of blindly imposing English as medium of instruction on learners. They should make sure that English is first taught as a subject before it is used as a medium. At least the students should be familiar with English as well.
These findings have changed some of my opinions about teaching. I, as an English teacher, always thought that it would be good if I teach in complete English. Therefore I always blame myself if I speak too much Chinese when teaching. But there are occasions when I found the students didn’t understand me and I was forced to speak Chinese. I admit that Chinese is effective in explaining complicated grammar points, but I still want to provide my students with more English learning environment. After reading this article, I have learned that it is nature and unavoidable for teachers to speak Chinese in English classes, especially for young students with no basic knowledge about English. Misconceptions can only be corrected by experiments and data. In my later teaching experience, I will continue reading articles about experiments and will even do my own experiments.

Vocabulary

origin family – yuan sheng jia ting

the world is my oyster – I can rule the world

when the world gives you lemons, make lemonade – when you are facing difficulty, accept it and adapt

dog-eat-dog world – cruel world

hypnosis

hypnotise

Reflect on the news or any other studies that you find