Not a Typical English Class

[Niko]

Teaching Culture and Manner

When teaching abroad, you will soon find out that there are a wide range of class types on offer.

• company classes
• senior citizen classes
• toddlers that can't speak a word of anything
• high-school classes
• and my favourite - culture and manner classes

Consider yourself lucky if ever you are given the opportunity to teach the local culture and manner skills to children.

Let me explain about the culture and manner classes I teach.

Overview

The classes are 90 minutes long, with 3 teachers and 4~5 students per class. Student range from 2 to 3 years old. The 3 teachers comprise of myself being the only foreigner, 1 piano teacher and 1 main teacher.

Objectives

The main objectives of the class are to teach:

• Human relationship skills.
• Shape recognition.
• Cultural events by means of art and craft.
• Counting skills.
• Communication skills.

The 90-minute class is broken up into 5 teaching strategies.

Teaching Strategy 1

The first 15 minutes of the class, all teachers and students sit on the floor playing with blocks and other learning toys. During this time, we share our creations, mingle with each other, move around from toy to toy, and basically have fun.

Most children rarely have this opportunity to mix with other children the same age.

Teaching Strategy 2

Students, myself and the main teacher sit in a circle on chairs. The main teacher will sing songs, read nursery books, and teach simple activities like shaking hands and helping each other.

My role is to sing the ABC song, rainbow colour song and asking each student:

• What is your name?
• How old are you?

The piano teacher plays the songs being performed. This gives the children a better appreciation of music rather than listening to pre-recorded CD's etc.

Teaching Strategy 3

Students push their chairs over to a large table and sit around it with a small plate of nutritious snacks in front of them. Each student will pull out their drinks and wipe their hands with a wet towel. Students then eat together smiling and talking.

Teaching Strategy 4

Students learn the basic characters of their language, do some art and craft, learn how to use scissors and glue etc.

Teaching Strategy 5

Time to clean up, put chairs back and sing songs whilst doing activities like walking around in circles playing on a tambourine. The students will try to keep in rythym with the piano teacher.

Conclusion

These class types are truly remarkable. Lots of fun, and are the best classes I teach now. The mothers signup their children for 12 months, and I am very fortunate to see the progression made by these students over this time. The very last class, we all have an excursion at the local zoo or park.

The class is in the local language, so cannot be really termed an English class. The main objective is not English. As the English teacher, it's not really necessary to understand the local language. Body language is enough to communicate with this age group.

By the way, I am a male, 33 years old and have never taught children before. Anybody can do it as long as you truly care for the children you teach.

Bernard H.
(English Teacher - Taipei, Taiwan)