Today I taught English which consists of watching the kids ages 4-5-6 point with a giant stick and recite "capital letter A and little letter a" through the alphabet and then letting the next one start, we jazzed it up with a few animal noises. After 45 minutes of this I asked the teacher if there was anything else she wanted to cover. She sent them all to the bathroom and my partner did maths for the same amount of time and again asked to stop. Out buddy in the next room did not get the memo on asking to quit and talked about animals for 2 hours- counting feet, wings, horns, tails.
But our speaker on education today explained it somewhat. He said understanding did not matter. The sounds and the exposure to English matter. English speakers learn from the cradle the sounds in rhymes and songs, long before they can understand. Most Tanzanian children are raised in home where the traditional tribe language is the norm. They at age 7 they switch to totally Swahili. At 14 if they pass a test they switch to totally English. So for ultimate success, they need to build on any English they have heard.
On the play ground, I did a Hokey Pokey AND Mulberry bush!
But our speaker on education today explained it somewhat. He said understanding did not matter. The sounds and the exposure to English matter. English speakers learn from the cradle the sounds in rhymes and songs, long before they can understand. Most Tanzanian children are raised in home where the traditional tribe language is the norm. They at age 7 they switch to totally Swahili. At 14 if they pass a test they switch to totally English. So for ultimate success, they need to build on any English they have heard.
On the play ground, I did a Hokey Pokey AND Mulberry bush!
No comments:
Post a Comment