Learning English at Home

With the world being on self-isolation, the demand for learning English at home has increased considerably. Schools are doing their best to provide a service that is accessible and efficient online, but it cannot replicate the results from a traditional classroom. The question I get asked the most is how can a child learn efficiently at home.

Motivation

This is the biggest concern of mine, the motivation of students. I have been teaching online for the last two months and it has affected my desire to teach. Staring at a computer screen for multiple hours on end, teaching to a virtual audience is not encouraging. I want to be able to interact with others physically and be able to express myself more freely.

What I have seen in the last month is that students are now facing the same problem as I am. They are getting tired of staring at a screen, focusing their attention on a fragment of a screen. Cases have shown that young learners only have minutes of concentration per hour. Asking them to focus for 30 minutes is very demanding when they can’t freely express themselves.

Another major problem are the parents unfortunately. Parents are always nearby and pressurizing their child to do well by answering the most ‘perfect’ answer. Under these pressures children will not learn, as they will just be reliant on the parents and develop anxiety over not knowing something. I understand that parents want the best for their child and want to be involved, but let them take it upon themselves to try and be independent in their learning. Learning English at home should be fun and encouraging.

Learning

As I have mentioned before many times, the learning environment at home must be set up to the learner’s needs. There are many different types of learners and parents must understand that some methods of teaching are more effective than others. If a child is better at learning through auditory methods, get them to listen to more. If they are visual learners, expose them to new videos.

Their work space to learn at home is vital. With self-isolation, it is important to try and prize them away from the adults are doing. Parents should focus on them being in a setting that facilitates their learning, putting the main focus on them. Having background activities like watching the TV will only distract them.

The biggest mistake I have seen from parents is just letting their child watch Youtube videos on repeat. This will do nothing for them. Yes it gives them exposure to the language, but they are most likely just looking at the visuals and not taking the audio into account. There is no real context unless they are interacting with the video.

Exposure

We tend to forget the most important aspect when learning a new language, exposure. The best way to learn a second language is getting more exposure in your daily routine. Households that are multi-lingual tend to be more effective when it comes to fluency. You cannot become fluent in a language by just learning through videos and worksheets, you must indulge yourself in the language.

Not every household has the luxury of being multi-lingual. This however is a great opportunity for parents to learn with their child! It is encouraging for a child and it will also allow the parents to get a deeper understanding of the obstacles the child has.

I recommend that parents introduce a system which emphasizes when a specific language should be used. For example, English in the morning, Cantonese in the evening. This will help with the child’s thought process in both languages. Learning

Online Lessons

Are online lessons effective? In a nutshell, for older students yes, for young learners no. As mentioned previously, young learns have short attention spans and online lessons are not engaging enough to capture their full attention. No matter what is being presented on the screen, a child’s interest simply may not be towards a screen that requires such focus.

In my opinion, online lessons are too limiting for young learners. It can only be effective if the lesson is low in capacity (1-4 students) and if the student is not next to their parent. I suggest that parents don’t both with online lessons if their child is below the age of 5. Let them play rather than trying to interact with a screen. Young learners are practical learners. They need to touch things and interact with the environment around them.

If you are interested in online lessons, visit: http://www.mrgregenglish.com/lessons/

Final Suggestions

• Take note of what methods have proven to be effective for your child. Are they a visual, auditory or a kinaesthetic learner.
• Set up a learning work space for them, providing them materials that will encourage them to interact with.
• Ensure that they get a high level exposure to English from not only resources, but through daily communication as well.
• Do not pressurize the child. Let them go at their own pace. Encourage them, don’t push them.
• Learning English at home should be fun and not a chore!

For more Mr Greg blogs: http://www.mrgregenglish.com/mr-gregs-blog/