What Makes ESL Kindergarten so Challenging for Teachers?
Any kind of teaching is always a big challenge itself, no matter who you teach what you teach and where you teach. Teaching has been one of the most important and still complex processes for the teachers and students at the same time, especially teaching languages, as it is a sensitive and hard job. Teaching different subjects requires different approaches to it, so does teaching languages, particularly teaching foreign languages. English is one of those demanded languages being taught ages in foreign countries as a second language in educational institutions such as schools, university colleges, kindergartens, etc.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Muhayyo N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Through the lens of my experience
Moreover, I would specifically concern teaching EFL in kindergartens, clearly say the challenge of it through my own experience basis from my 7 years teaching English in various educational institutions in China. During these years I have taught English as a second language starting from kindergarten ending up in high schools and private training schools. What I have observed, teaching any age, any category, any level of children is challenging but the most challenging are the young learners the kids in the primary section the kindergarten goers.
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Rapport
Building relationships with the kids in the second language without utilizing their mother tongue requires quite wide and lots of work, therefore teaching kids from different backgrounds once should firstly get aware of their culture, traditions and their nation in general, as there are always existing cultural differences. Once it is all learned by the educators than approaching kids will get easier in the first attempt.
Deeply and more detailed to talk about challenges in the classroom I could say that the most important part is the teacher being accepted by the children themselves, furthermore her/his job would be much more relaxed. To achieve that status a teacher should go through many stages, challenges. Teaching kids in the kindergarten must be motivating. Teachers, first of all, must consider the kid's ability their level of learning, their psychology, their progress, therefore the classes should be more active, interesting to bring confidence in them.
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Confidence
The most important of learning languages at any age is to feel the confidence not to be shy, not being afraid of making mistakes, work on once mistakes to become a fast learner. So being active and motivated is vital. Once the teacher and the kids feel the confidence in the classroom than the teacher should focus on bringing joy in by teaching the language through games, activities, songs and different visual aids and most important using the body language to learn fast and much progressive.
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Common Problems for Kindergarteners
Taking a look at my own experience of being among those young learners I observed few challenges ,as I mentioned above firstly being accepted by the teachers, once the kids like you as a Teacher and happy in your very first class You win, because it is very hard for the teacher no matter how experienced You are, as children are very sensitive. The second part is to grab their attention in all steps of the lesson as the kids have a very short attention span and they are also luck of motivation sometimes, therefore bringing joy into the class is very necessary. The importance of building a good relationship in the classroom is obligatory. Children in the kindergarten, in general, are innocent due to their wants and fears, therefore the teacher should care about them communicate with them, support them and praise them when they succeed.
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Finally, I could say that educating kids in the kindergarten is the foundation of their education their life that would lead them to their future goals, achievements and this knowledge should be given to them thoroughly.
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