Journal I

Suppose your younger brother, 9 years old, did not read in ENG yet, so your mother decided to send him to Hakwon. But 3 months later he ended up feeling that English was simply nightmare. He hated doing phonics workbook and memorizing words. He didn’t want to go to Hakwon anymore. Your mother was now anxious and worried about her son. You mother asked for your help. How would you help your brother enjoy reading in English?

The situation stated in a question reminds me of my personal experience. A year ago, I had a chance to tutor 8 year-old boy. His parents were very educated. Both were doctors. It means they had high expectations for their child, but not enough time to support the child. Instead of investing time, they spent a lot of money. The boy was studying at international school in Singapore and had two other tutors who were teaching Math and Science in English.  And, I was his English tutor.

Actually, I had to go through an interview before getting that job. While interviewing me, they mentioned some words such as ‘emotional bond’, ‘strong relationship’, ‘interactions’ and so on. They told me that they believe that I would be a good tutor for the child since I have both backgrounds in English education and early childhood education. Ironically, right after empathizing the importance of student-teacher relationship and interactions between the two, they brought 3 books on the table which, in my point of view, looked too hard for elementary level students. One was for composition; the other ones were for grammar and readings.

I tried to calm myself though I did not expect myself teaching composition to the 8 year-old boy. I thought the boy would be very smart. But he was not the kind of kids that I was expecting. His attention span was relatively shorter than the same age group. He was not interested in what he had to do. He seemed almost overwhelmed by all the things that he has to do in one week. Of course, the time I spent with him was one of the hardest in my life.

Because of this experience, I believe that it is important to select materials that are age appropriate. We should keep in mind that the child is only 9 years old. We have been learning English over 15 years and we still face a lot of difficulties. Just imagine that you were asked to memorize 50 sentences in a week. It does not mean that you have 1200 hours to memorize those sentences. You have to other things as well; you eat, sleep, meet your friend, and have other assignments as well. There would be tons of other things that you have to do. Children have a lot of things to do as well. At their age, playing soccer can be a more valuable experience than learning ‘a’ is ‘ㅔ’.

What really matters is not memorizing words or phonics. I am not saying those things are not important, but it is more important to let them to whatever drags their interests. As a teacher, my role would be making English interesting.

In order to keep the child interested, I will be my job to find materials that are age appropriate. Composition books, story books with many sentences are not age appropriate. It would be better to choose a book with fewer words, but more pictures. Children can make a good guess with unknown words if pictures are provided. Just like the microteaching today, we can also help children to make their own story book. They can tell a story about themselves, and the teacher can write them down in English. After then, children can draw pictures about that story. Children learn best when learning materials reflect their experience. In this way, children would be interested in the book, and they would love to read the book.