by Ng Ka-yu

The five weeks’ service ended with a wonderful English Day Camp at PolyU SPEED. It was really a meaningful experience, and I have learnt a lot through the five service weeks. I am glad that I have taken this course as one of my elective subjects.

Regarding language use in lessons, I've learnt that bilingual instructions, in both English and Chinese, are necessary when teaching young children. Our initial approach of English-only instructions for the first two weeks proved ineffective. The students would nod in understanding but fail in execution. For instance, during the “Telephone Game”, we instructed them to convey the meaning of a word rather than the exact wording. Despite clear instructions in English, they continued to repeat the exact words to their peers. This situation kept going for two lessons. We discovered that the children did not follow the instructions correctly because they could not fully understand the instructions in English. In the following few weeks, we used both Chinese and English while giving instructions. We still kept English as the main teaching medium, but we supplemented the complicated rules with Chinese. For instance, we only used English when we asked them to repeat the words with us. Then, we repeated the rules in Chinese before playing games since game rules were difficult for them to understand. After we adopted bilingual teaching, the students could follow our instructions easily and the lesson ran more smoothly than the previous weeks. We also found that the children were more engaged in both the game time and lesson time. It was pleasing for us to see their change.

In terms of classroom management, I found that using imperatives to manage primary students did not work. They were always hyperactive except for the first lesson because they were not familiar with their classmates and us. From the second week on, it was hard to manage the classroom since they always played with their neighbors and they would scream all of a sudden, especially during the break.  As we were worried that their behaviour would disturb other classmates, we used imperatives to stop them.  At first, they were more controllable because they were a bit scared of us. However, they went crazy again as time went on: they kept screaming, playing with chairs and under the tables. Such scenario was very dangerous and they might get hurt badly, so we needed to stop them immediately. However, the students were not controllable. Some of them would stop for a few seconds and they went on. We found that it was difficult to manage the classroom.

Therefore, we decided to use another teaching approach. Instead of standing in front of them, we sat with them during the lessons. In the following weeks, as I sat with them in the lessons, I found that it was a little easier to manage them because I could immediately stop them with a closer distance when I observed dangerous behaviour. Still, classroom management was an aspect that our group needed to practise.

It was also essential for teachers to manage the time of each activity to keep our students interested. Since the children were Primary 1-3 students, they might not be able to stay focused for more than 25 minutes. Therefore, all activities on the teaching plans were within 20 minutes to keep their attention. However, the time management of our lessons did not always go well. In the first week, the self-introduction activity overran and the time left was only enough for one more activity. Also, the children were active in the first 15 minutes, but they started to daydream. Therefore, we shortened the self-introduction part in the second class. Students from the second class stayed focused for the whole lesson because we managed the activity time based on the given teaching plan. Moreover, better time management allowed more variety of teaching activities and children enjoyed them thereafter.

When engaging with students, having lively and colourful teaching materials really helped a lot. The children loved to see something colourful and animated. We designed some eye-catching materials to maintain their attention. For example, we inserted a lot of GIFs on the PowerPoint slides to teach vocabulary about sports. The result came out great: students loved to see the GIFs, learnt the vocabulary quickly, and even followed the GIF actions. By contrast, when we did not have engaging materials, the children got distracted and were not in the mood of learning. They even forgot what they had learnt when we did revision in the class. This showed how teaching materials with visual elements could attract students.

Over five weeks of teaching, I realised my strength lies in communication, particularly in engaging children and fostering relationships with them. Their presence brought joy to my life, and despite occasional management challenges, I found interacting with them exhilarating. However, I struggled with creating engaging teaching materials, particularly PowerPoint presentations. Recognising this as an essential skill for my future teaching career, I'm committed to improving in this area.

My service-learning experience reinforced the importance of teaching English to children. English enhances their competitiveness in academics and careers, and as a global language, it is vital for international communication and business. As a future English teacher, I view educating the young as a social responsibility. I also appreciate NGOs in Hong Kong for organising workshops in collaboration with various institutions, fostering essential skills like presentation and problem-solving among children and university students.

In conclusion, this service-learning experience is fulfilling and meaningful. I am glad that I have taken this course. Through this experience, I found that I love working with children and it has helped me recognize that becoming an English teacher is the right choice. Moreover, the most precious thing is the time I spent with children. The relationship with them turned out to be worth all my efforts. The English Day Camp was the finale of the course and many kids said they would miss us. To my surprise, some students from other classes also said the same, making me feel so good!

I look forward to becoming a primary school teacher.  

LCS4573 Teaching Primary School Students English as a Service-Learning Experience

As the title of the course suggests, students gained knowledge and skills for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in class and applied what they had learned to design interactive English activity workshops for underserved students from the New Home Association community center in Hong Kong.

Throughout the seven weeks of English class activity workshops, our students formed precious bonds with the children and gained a better understanding of the Sham Shui Po neighborhood. Not only did they become better teachers by learning how to listen, provide instructions, and manage even the most mischievous children in the class, but they also realized the power of affective teaching in the classroom. Standing there, using body language to convey knowledge and emotions, they recognized the value of face-to-face learning. Three years of online teaching during the recent pandemic deprived many children of the opportunity for in-person learning. We are pleased that through this service-learning experience, our students were able to serve the community while learning how to become better individuals and teachers. In their reflective journals, our students wrote that this was an enriching experience that helped them better understand themselves and their roles in society. 

Author’s Bio:

Ng Ka-yu

I am a graduate from BA (Hons) in Bilingual Studies with Translation. The initiative for me to take this course was to experience teaching primary students in order to prepare for my future career. The overall experience of the course was amazing for me.