On July 20, the six-day “2018 Qianxinan (Anlong) English teacher training program” of Guizhou Province has been officially finished, and 53 teachers from rural areas in Anlong County, Qianxinan Prefecture returned to their hometown from Beijing. They will bring the English teaching theories, methods and skills learned in Beijing thses days, as well as advanced teaching modes to the children in their hometown.

Teachers took group photos together

Teachers were Reluctant to Finish the Class

Fu Xuejun, a retired teacher from Beijing Institute of Education, and a special lecturer of Beijing Foreign Studies University, was singing English songs and showing off his demonstration with a smile. Under the platform sat the “students”, aged 20, 30, even 40 and 50, who were all singing happily with the tune and following Fu’s motions.

Teachers in class

“Class is over, I’m sorry for the delay.” Fu said, but none of the “students” left the classroom. “Tell us more, Mr. Fu.” At the request of the teachers, Fu Xuejun said, “OK, I’ll see you at 6 pm”.

At six o’clock, the teachers returned to the classroom to study. Class was taught in small games of English teaching skills, where teachers were immersed in the game, either in a whisper, or on stage. Fu Xuejun stepped aside from the platform, stood by and smiling.

From July 15 to 20, the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund held the “2018 Qianxinan (Anlong) English teacher training program” at Beijing Foreign Studies University to help teachers in rural areas of Qianxinan County improve their teaching skills and help more students there.

The teachers were learning games in class

All Useful Stuff

It’s impossible to cover all the teaching contents in a few days’ training. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the combination of concepts and skills. “Learn it and use it” was the requirement of China Children and Teenagers’ Fund for this training.

Teachers were learning teaching skills

Teachers started from English listening, speaking, reading and writing of primary schools, to close to the needs of primary school teachers, the training content covered the main topics of primary school textbooks. Zhang Nan, a teacher from Chaoyang Institute of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, brought in the method of “spelling and reading”, by teaching words by pronunciation, students can master them quickly and memorize them by using. Jin Lin, a senior teacher at Shijia Hutong Primary School in Beijing, advocated integrating traditional Chinese culture into English teaching. Professor Li Jingchun taught the “simple brushwork” method, using the changeable form and image thinking to deepen the memory. Qiu Yaode used homemade teaching tools, such as origami, stereoscopic books and cartoon books to enhance learning interests. In addition to professional English teaching methods, in order to further improve teachers’ abilities to interact with students, psychology teachers were also invited to the training to teach class management skills.

Classroom interaction

One of the teachers who attended the training said that the everything in the lecture was useful. “It is not how your class looks like, it is what your students want to learn in the class that really matter”, he said. He used think only about how he would finish his teaching plan, but today, he has learned the real teaching.

One English Teacher, Hundreds of Students

Wang Chengzhang, age of 26, working at the No.1 Primary School of Qianxiang Street, Anlong County. He is an English teacher of four classes, with more than 50 students per class. Wang Chengzhang was not alone in teaching so many students: Wang Yongke, age of 30, has teaching experience for 9 years, working at the No.1 Primary School of Zhaodi Street, Anlong County, teaching 328 students in 5 classes. Chen Zhengxia, age of 31, has teaching experience for 6 years, working at the No.1 Primary School of Qifeng Street, Anlong County, teaching 4 classes, and the largest class has more than 70 students. 

The main reason of this situation is the shortage of English teachers. There are only 5 English teacher at No.1 Primary School of Zhaodi Street, where the No.1 Primary School of Qifeng Street only has 3. Many schools in rural areas only have part-time English teachers who also working as teachers in other subjects.

Teachers received the certificate of completion

One can imagine that the effect of teaching professional English by “laymen” is bad. The English teachers’ backward teaching concepts also restricts their own professional development. Some scholars pointed out that teacher growth = teaching experience + teaching reflection. The development of teachers is a process of constantly summarizing teaching experience and reflecting on teaching practice. Through teaching reflection, teachers can realize the deficiencies in teaching experience and make up for them in time, and teachers training with external help is a good opportunity of “reflective learning”.

The “Outline of the national program for mid-term and long-term reform and development of education (2010-2020)” points out that education is based on teachers. Moreover, we should focus on teachers in rural areas, to improve the quality of primary and secondary school teachers, and strengthen the construction of weak discipline teachers in primary and secondary schools in rural areas. Nowadays, the facilities in schools of rural areas have been greatly improved. Many schools have built plastic playgrounds and spacious classrooms, as well as modern teaching facilities, but the soft infrastructure has yet to improve.

“2018 Qianxinan (Anlong) English teacher training program” is just a start, in the future, there will be more training sessions for teachers in rural areas to benefit more students, said the leader of China Children and Teenagers’ Fund.