A NEW WORLD FOR CHINESE STUDENTS

Teacher: Ms. Fu Haiyan
School: Peng’s English Training School
City: Hengyang - Hunan province
Country: China
Project: How to efficiently use E-BLOCKS to practice students' spelling skills.

China is opening up to the world, as demonstrated by the perfect organization at the last Olympic Games and the population’s growing interest in learning foreign languages, especially English.

However, only 11% of the population is satisfied with the English teaching method used in the Chinese schools.

Another factor that hinders learning is that the population has little contact with the language. Moreover, there is notorious difficulty among students to spell foreign words. Having perceived this, Fu Hayan tried out an interesting experiment with her students at Peng’s English Training School. She divided the class in two and applied different teaching methods for each group.

Group A focused on the sound of the letters and the ability of students to spell with the help of the E-Blocks Learning Panel. Group B worked only on the name of the letters, the pronunciation of words and recognizing images without focusing on the ability to spell.

A rule was established in both groups: both the teacher and the students would speak only English during the classes.

After one month, group A showed a better capacity to recognize words phonetically and to spell them. The students developed skills to speak in English, as well as a team spirit, competitiveness and leadership. So much so that at the end of the experiment group A was able to use the Learning Panel without the help of the teacher.

The classes became more interesting and the Chinese students, through their teacher, Fu Hayan, showed they are more and more prepared to live in a global world.