Julie Ann Ludwig and Dr. M. Winston Egan, Teacher Education

Introduction

Last year I submitted a research proposal designed to make a structural analysis of early childhood education in a kindergarten in the People’s Republic of China and to determine how to best insert a new component into the already established curriculum. I participated in preparatory courses, and then traveled to the Wai Yin Sino-English Kindergarten in Shunde, Guangdong Province in China. This school, with 350 students ages 2-7, was where the majority of my research took place.

Procedure

During Fall and Winter Semesters 2001 I was involved in an Honors Program class where we researched and learned about Chinese educational philosophy, early childhood education, second language acquisition, and curriculum design. As part of this course, we began the development of an English curriculum and materials to take to the Wai Yin Kindergarten. The curriculum was designed to specifically lay out a plan for the first three months of teaching, and to set up a structure for the teachers to continue using throughout the year. During classes and meetings before leaving for China, we discussed cultural challenges, the specific details of our project, the materials developed, and methods of analysis in order to meet the needs of the Chinese students.

The curriculum was based on vocabulary and pronunciation rather than language structure. This was due to the young age of the students and the low level of familiarity that the teachers have with the English language.

During Spring Semester 2001, I traveled to Shunde along with four other BYU students to implement the curriculum and make an analysis of the effectiveness of the materials we developed. The curriculum was broken into six, two-week units with lessons and materials. We went into the classrooms and taught along with the Chinese teachers in order to introduce our curriculum and train the teachers at the same time. We taught six classes a day, six days a week. Three days a week in the evenings, we would hold English classes for the teachers at the school and other adults in the village to help familiarize them with the vocabulary and teaching methods.

Observations

Through our teaching and analysis in China, I have come to several conclusions about the curriculum and its implementation in the already existing curriculum in the Wai Yin Kindergarten in Shunde.

The American teaching style that was naturally included as part of our curriculum was extremely effective in China. The curriculum was aimed at compliance with the way the school was already run, but at the same time, introducing more successful teaching methods than were being used previously at the kindergarten. The curriculum included many interactive activities and class participation, which is very different from the strict, serious atmosphere present in most Chinese classrooms. The children at the school responded very well to the activities and opportunities to participate, and were eager to be involved in the lessons. Teachers and administrators from schools in surrounding towns and cities came often to observe the “American” teaching style to promote better focus and participation in their classrooms.

The curriculum also proved to be successful during our daily review sessions with the students. We assessed the rate at which students of different ages were acquiring English skills, and the amount of retention. At the end of each unit we held a review session to see how successful the particular unit had been. I was encouraged by the large amount of vocabulary that students were learning and retaining.

There were some obvious changes needed in the curriculum, however. Many of the materials were based on American culture, and the Chinese students had a hard time identifying with them. For example, when teaching about people we had pictures of men, women, boys, and girls. There is no distinction between men and boys, women and girls in the Cantonese language, so teaching this concept was a challenge. To further this difficulty, the pictures we used were of Caucasian people, and the Chinese children had a hard time seeing the age difference in these people that all looked so similar and foreign to them.

Also, the curriculum that had been developed as part of the Honors course was only partially appropriate for the ages and abilities of the students at the school. Many changes had to be made to the lessons and materials while we were in China in order to bring the level of difficulty down to where the students could understand what was being taught. The abilities of the teachers to teach the materials was also a major consideration, and we had to make several changes to better fit the teaching abilities of the teachers. It was quickly evident which elements of the curriculum were effective in helping the students to learn, and which elements needed to be revised.

Conclusion

There is still work to be done. After spending two months in China, I am now more equipped with the knowledge and experience I need to help improve and expand the English curriculum. Changes in the curriculum and materials need to be made followed by more analysis in order to create the best learning experience possible for the Chinese students.

Through my research and analysis at the Wai Yin Sino-English Kindergarten in the People’s Republic of China, I have been able to help produce and revise an English curriculum that provides Chinese students with learning experiences that will be helpful to them and provide long term benefits for their education. At the same time, I have been able to gain useful skills in teaching, curriculum development, analysis, and adaptive thinking that will have long term benefits in my own plans to be an elementary school teacher. This project has been a learning experience for me that will help me to be more effective not only in teaching, but in life in general.