ESL - Teaching English in China: Grade 1 ( Demo lesson)

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  ESL - Teaching English in China: Grade 1 

The recorded lesson is a 14-minute video, which contained around 20 students in Grade 1 of a primary school in China. The whole lesson was well-organised, and the teacher had great energy and controlled the room very well. All of the kids listened to her, and they seemed to enjoy the lesson.

Ss firstly got ready by cleaning the desks and prepared the necessary stuff for the lesson with a song, which they were familiar with. Interestingly, the song must have been used many times because one student said "the song again?". I can see some traditional elements of the class of China-Students stand up, bow, and sit down to greet the teacher. I have not seen it in some other countries yet, so I think it is the Chinese tradition. Before the real aim of the lesson, which is the sentence pattern "What do you do in the morning?", T helps Ss revise the class rules by eliciting. I liked the point the most because they are young children, and this kind of reinforcement is beneficial not only for Ss but also for teachers (even future teachers of these children) to conduct classes smoothly without too much interference in the discipline. As for discipline, in order to get Ss attention, T asked Ss to clap their hands by saying "clap 1, clap 2 and clap 3", which is brilliant. About giving instructions, in the "gallery walk" activity T asked Ss "Do we write in the box?" to check if Ss know how to do the task correctly. In addition, which is significant and effective. I also liked the "action song", since it made Ss act out after Ss sat on their chairs for a little long time (stir and settle).

Possible changes/I would do smth. different if I were the teacher

Firstly, there were many whole-class activities, such as the "gallery walk" and "mingle and swap". It is difficult for students to showcase their knowledge when they are not familiar with the sentence pattern, especially for very young learners, though they might be familiar with the vocabulary. In my opinion, if T wanted Ss to output the question sentence "What do you do in the morning?" in the end, Ss should get enough practice on making similar question patterns as well, so that it will not be disappointing to Ss. 

Secondly, the appearance of the Chinese teacher was not appropriate sometimes, in that Ss could understand the foreign teacher but the Chinese teacher also said smth. in Chinese to remind Ss, which is not that good. Ss should rely on their L1 when they really need, so that they may not be that dependent on their L1.

Last but not least, I do appreciate the teacher because she conducted the class in a way that could work almost perfectly in a spacious room with fewer Ss in such a crowded classroom with more Ss. It couraged me to make some changes in the English teaching of China if I will teach English in my country in the future. 

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBeBPusip-k&t=581s

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