The Beat December 2002

By Jason Renshaw
Chapter President, KOTESOL Busan-Gyeongnam
www.englishraven.com

Why is English instruction in Kindergartens often so frustrating and seemingly unsuccessful? I don‘t have all the answers on this score, but I can try to put the issue into perspective.

It is my opinion that, in general, a Korean parent‘s decision to enroll their child in an English kindergarten program has less to do with having them naturally “acquire” English and more to do with giving them a “jump start” in the hotly contested race through the Korean education system. Parents tend to think of clearly defined levels of linguistic proficiency rather than stages of communicative development, the premise being, “if my child studies English for two years in Kindergarten, they will be two years ahead of the other children in Elementary school.” However flawed that outlook may seem, we have to learn to live with it until the market matures enough to incorporate more contemporary views on language instruction for very young learners.

There is something I refer to as a prevailing “recipe for disaster” being administered at the vast majority of Korean private language institutes. This recipe consists of native speaking English teachers with no Korean language ability, no experience teaching very young children, and no training scheme to fall back on, in combination with very young children with no experience in a classroom environment, little or no experience spending extended periods of time away from their mother, and little experience behaving appropriately with an adult that is not a member of their family. The classroom “stew” that develops from this naïve mismatch of ingredients is something that both teacher and students have considerable trouble digesting, much less munching on happily.

So if you are struggling your way through your kindergarten classes and coming out with your hair standing on end, you needn‘t give yourself too much flack for it. The odds are stacked against you. Nevertheless, you might find some of the following recommendations helpful:

(1) Come to terms with your limitations. This will have a lot to do with the sort of Kindergarten system you work in, what sort of support, training and feedback you get, the materials you have at your disposal and the experience and/or talent you have relating to very young children. Those factors will vary, but as a basic rule it is worthwhile to base your teaching goals and learning objectives on what you can do and what your institution‘s set up and philosophy will allow you to do.
(2) Learn basic classroom Korean. If your institute is not willing to help you out with this, do it yourself (with the help of your learners if necessary!). Whether or not it is beneficial to push the kids into an English-only environment from the get-go, the facts of life are that your Korean ability has massive implications for your ability to both manage the classroom effectively, and to help the students understand why and how they are learning things, as well as what constitutes “right” and “wrong” behavior.
(3) Create a positive reinforcement system. The sooner you do this the better. All human beings are basically motivated to do things with the expectation of a reward, whether it is created intrinsically or administered externally. Rewarding very young learners is actually very simple; they love little stickers, gold stars, and signatures on their work. But it needs to be systematically applied so that students will learn to start working toward short-term objectives, adjusting and developing their behavior in the process.
(4) Find language learning games and use them well. You need to create an enormous bag of tricks to teach young learners well. Intricate lesson planning and preparation is worthless compared to an ability to read the mood of a classroom and pull out just the right activity for that very moment. Build up a stock of games or fun activities that you know the kids enjoy, and always use them as a reward or concluding activity after they have successfully completed other tasks you set for them.
(5) Create routine and rhythm. Get the students used to following your instructions instinctively. This could be as simple as lining up or sitting up straight. TPR (Total Physical Response) is a pre-requisite teaching style for this age group, and when done well can yield amazing results.
(6) Remember: They‘re just kids. If you‘ve been forced to teach kindergarten when you don‘t want to, or you can‘t get them to respond in ways you‘d like to, don‘t blame the children for that. Unacceptable behavior is most often a result of what they get away with at home, or how they are coming to terms with a classroom and social interaction for the first time.