Part 1: Mr Hua teaches his
students how to recite a short poem.
You
may have already come across the poem ‘Smile’ on our website. Here it
is featured again, as a practical example of how our Balanced Approach
is successfully applied in the classroom. At the start of this learning
process, students timidly mouth each word with great difficulty; by
the end, they can read the whole passage through fluently, even managing
to spell individual words with seemingly little effort. (This is not
due to the fact that they have learnt each word off by heart, but rather
that they have committed the meaning of each line to memory.) This is
the process that we emphasize in our Balanced
Approach when we begin with sound exposure, then introduce linguistic
competence, which leads to communicative competence.
There
is no magic formula to learning English, only hard work - a slow but
consistent accumulation of language skills and knowledge. When you have
the correct approach to learning English, diligent students and the
added support of close parental supervision, success can only be around
the corner. Considering that only a year ago, these students could not
even say the 26 letters of the alphabet, seeing all that they are capable
of now only leads us to look on with pride and admiration.
Part 2: Mr Hua teaches on nouns and pronouns.
For
most Taiwanese learners of English, understanding what nouns and pronouns
are when the explanation is given in Chinese is hard enough. And if
you can actually use them correctly then your English must already be
quite good. However at Hua, the Balanced
Approach employs English as the sole medium of instruction, with
sound exposure as the central focus. Unlike most other schools, we use
only English to teach the structures of English. At first, our young
students may fully understand everything that is taught in class. However,
over a period of time, what they will have acquired is not merely a
list of grammar rules learnt off by heart, but an understanding of the
structure of English that can be applied in real contexts.
If you are interested in finding out more about these students’ progress,
or about the Balanced Approach itself, please contact
us. We would be happy to be of service.
