Teaching a nine-year-old

[Buntaro]

Hi everybody!

I live in the USA, and a friend has brought their Japanese-speaking nine-year-old child to the USA for the summer. I have been 'chosen' to give the child English lessons.

Help!

I have a great deal of experience teaching English to Japanese adults, but I am at quite a loss as to how to approach teaching such a young child. Does anyone have some great ideas? I do not think the child even knows romaji.

Everyone, please feel free to throw out any kinds of idea.

[Soloistic]

Well I am not sure how much a nine year old would know about English from schooling and other sources but to start you could do what most people do and begin with simple words and phrases like "Hello", "Good day" etc.

Counting is always great as well since you can easily compare 1 through 10 and so forth with the Japanese equivalents which she would already know.

I think the real question here however, is how much the expect this child to learn during her/his stay.

[Uncle Frank]

and let peer pressure and play fun be part of his learning. Also, vid games designed for young people to learn English from. Maybe watching certain TV shows would help. Maybe they would take to some American style comic books, lots of them to choose from. Kids seem to learn languages way faster and easier then adults I believe.

Uncle Frank

:-)

[hideway]

I would advice making up word, sound and association games.

For example, having three cards with drawings of lets say one sheep, two sheep and three sheeps. Another three cards with the "one", "two", "three" written. And finally having "1", "2", "3" on them (which I'm sure the child understands). The child would have to group the drawings on the correct pairs. You could provide a copy of those cards to the child and let him/her experiment at home.

Another one, lets say you were trying to teach the child about the various common objects like pen, pencil, desk, chair, etc. You could use sticky notes with the names and ask the child to place them on the objects.

Basically games are great for memorization. And try not to be too abstract, a child usually have way more difficulty to memorize something abstract than an adult, so if it was me I would try to be as objective, and as down to earth (did I get the right expression? :p) as possible.

[Buntaro]

Hi everybody!

I want to thank everyone for their help. Also, I would like to let everyone know how the first couple of lessons went. She is very intelliegent, but is rambunctious. It is hard to keep her attention. (She does not want to study, she wants to play.)

She knows more English than I expected. She is in the fourth grade, and she says she has been learning English "little by little" since second grade (which surprised me).

The downfall has been romaji. I was hoping to write out words for her to read in romaji, but that is just not happening. Alas, we are writing everything out in katakana. Well, let me restate that. We write everything three times in her notebook. I write out a sentence in English (romaji), then she writes the pronunciation below it in katakana, then she writes the meaning out below that in Japanese. (Obviously, this will only work for a 'sensei' like me who speaks both English and Japanese.) We then go over the sentences, practicing them aloud, etc.

This is working out better than I expected. However, there are a couple of issues. First, she will not speak a sentence unless I let her read it off of the paper. (I think a lot of teachers in Japan have to deal with this.)

Second, because every sentence is written out for her in katakana, of course, she pronounces everything in a horribly think Japanese accent. As it just so happens, I am a big stickler for correct pronunciation of English, so I am starting to teach her phonetic symbols for English sounds. For example, I taught her the ǽ (without the accent mark) symbol for the sound of 'a' in 'cat', and the ^ symbol for the sound of 'u' in 'lucky.' She is having trouble using these symbols, and does not like using them. (No surprise!) For example, I have stopped letting her write the word 'does' in katakana, and I am forcing her to write it as phonetically as d^z, and she just does not like this at all. Also, she is also unhappy to find out that there are so many difficult sounds in English that do not exist in Japanese. This is one of my big bug-a-boos in teaching English, and I will not let her get away with constant katakana pronunciations.

Third, I agree with hideway that games are a great idea. Just reading and repeating sentences is really, really dry for her. Unfortunately, making up such games takes time, something I do not have a lot of right now.

Well, that's it. If anyone has anything else to share, please jump right in.

[epigene]

I think teaching a nine-year-old the IPA is impossible. Kids don't like that, and the approach may result in the child not liking the lessons at all.

Since the child lives in an English-speaking environment, she will acquire pronunciation of a native speaker effortlessly if placed with other American kids (i.e., a school or day care environment). If you need to teach her pronunciation, teaching songs is the best way. Children love songs and will learn to enunciate with the natural flow rhythm of the language very quickly.

Just my two cents.

[Buntaro]

Yes, Epigene, I agree the child is not enjoying it, and may get turned off entirely to learning English as a result. The trick is to find things like songs, etc., to use. Unfortunately, the child is resisting the singing of songs. She is quite stubborn, and will not do things unless she enjoys it -- and singing does not seem to be something she likes.

[epigene]

Yes, Epigene, I agree the child is not enjoying it, and may get turned off entirely to learning English as a result. The trick is to find things like songs, etc., to use. Unfortunately, the child is resisting the singing of songs. She is quite stubborn, and will not do things unless she enjoys it -- and singing does not seem to be something she likes.
Hmmm.... tough, isn't it?
In my experience, people who love music, esp. music/songs in English, have always been best in acquiring good English pronunciation and listening comprehension.

Find the things she likes, and play games involving speaking, maybe?

But, she has the advantage of being in the US already, so I won't worry much about it. :relief:

[Uncle Frank]

Unfortunately, the child is resisting the singing of songs. She is quite stubborn, and will not do things unless she enjoys it

You could tell her you will take her up in your plane to teach her sky diving without a chute, LOL.

Uncle Frank

:blush:

[Tomii515]

Oh, wow.

I would give you some advice, but everyone basically said what I would have.

Good luck. o.o;

[Buntaro]

"You could tell her you will take her up in your plane to teach her sky diving without a chute, LOL."

http://users.ez2.net/nick29/laughing.gif