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While working as an English language tutor in Singapore, my aim was to ensure that all of my students were engaged with their learning, achieving their goals, and improving their levels of English and confidence, all whilst having fun, and that is where I think there is a difference between the ideologies of certain cultures and learning.
Now, I’m not here to generalise, only to share information based on my experience, but based on this experience, I can tell you that the majority of my Asian clients wanted to get as much done in a lesson as possible using textbooks, grammar, worksheets etc. ensuring a lot of homework was left for students to complete before the next class, and parents were often a little sceptical of a lesson if there was ‘too much’ fun going on.
I’m not saying it as a generalisation or as a negative, as I also know Asian clients who loved their little ones to be playing games, singing songs and making crafts, but from what I have heard of education, in China especially, it is common for students to be learning at a desk in drills, or doing lots of writing over and over, but this is something that I don’t necessarily think is beneficial in education.
In my opinion, learning is much more effective if firstly, it is relatable to reality, secondly, done in a relaxed environment, and thirdly done through the use of games, activities and, in younger learners, crafts and songs. As a tutor, I taught a class of Chinese ladies who wanted to improve their conversational skills, and not once did we sit and look at a textbook. Instead I made the most of our environment, using maps and giving them locations around the office, for which they needed to ask passers-by directions of how to get there. We used magazines to discuss appearance, and cooking videos to help improve cooking vocabulary, and I know, that my students appreciated this approach and excelled in their ability as a result of this varied teaching.
I taught a lot of younger students around the ages of 3/4/5, and again, if I had sat them down for a whole hour, or in some cases for an hour and a half, I know they would have switched off after five minutes, and who can blame them! Instead, I ensured that my teaching was full of games and different activities, to keep them engaged and learning all whilst having fun, and their progression really showed that this was possible.
So the next time, you want your child to do some extra learning at home, why not help them in their journey and try and make it fun. If they’ve got a test to revise for, why not make revision cards and play games with them, or sing songs with your younger learners. If they can have fun learning, education will become a lot easier.