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https://www.meetmandarin.com/articles/chinese-pronunciation-guide.html#:~:text=Even%20though%20all%20of%20the,as%20if%20it%20were%20English

https://excelenglishinstitute.com/challenges-of-learning-english-as-a-second-language

https://www.britishaccentacademy.com/most-common-english-pronunciation-errors-made-by-mandarin-speakers/

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Overall, my experience of teaching in China has led me to believe that pronunciation is one of the biggest struggles for second language learners. It is our job as teachers to do as much as we can to combat these struggles using a variety of pedagogical methods. Incorporating multi-sensory activities, putting circles under phonemes, watching videos, making chants, continual practice, levelled reading books and peer work can be used in classrooms to help ESL students. Differentiating instructions and scaffolding the lessons will help students not be too overwhelmed when learning a new language.

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With developing reading and comprehension skills, it is important to scaffold information. Teachers need to make sure to choose books that are at a suitable level for their students, it is on topic with what they have already learnt, and student’s interests and hobbies into account to make their learning more personal. I like to introduce the story and ask students to look at the front cover and discuss what they see. Then I do a short background on the story, for example, if the story is about dogs, I will discuss what kind of animal a dog is, if students have a dog or if they would like a dog and ask what kind of body parts dogs have. I will put the keywords in English, Chinese and pinyin to make sure students can visually see the languages together. Then I will ask students to predict what the story will be about based on the front cover. I will start reading the story so students can follow along and listen. Then give the students a brain break where students can discuss the story with their friends. The students will then read the story in pairs (alternating pages), and then I will ask the class to choral read some pages, and then individually choose students to read whilst asking levelled questions about the story as we read. Scaffolding this lesson, as well as differentiating instructions will then lead to students being able to answer comprehension questions successfully. I will put written questions from a worksheet on the board along with a vocabulary box that will help students be able to answer and write the questions.

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The differences between pinyin and English have confused some of my students and their ability to pronounce some words correctly. One example is pronouncing English words with ‘ir’ spelling as it makes the same sound as the pinyin spelling ‘ri’, so students often pronounce and write words like ‘girl’ and ‘bird’ as ‘gril’ and ‘brid’. I always try and give my students as much exposure to English, and continuously use these difficult words orally and within written passages so students can get used to seeing and pronouncing these words.

Some vowels in pinyin are pronounced slightly to English (picture 1), and different words such as:

·      hēi sé (which means black in English) is pronounced as ‘hey sir’

·      ‘qī’ (the number seven in English) is pronounced like ‘chi’ (picture 2).

Similarly, there are some physical differences in ESL learners. Chinese people use their tongue and mouth structure differently than native English speakers. The mouth is a muscle, and if we grow up not using certain muscles, we will not develop how to use them when pronouncing certain words. There are some phonemes in Chinese that I cannot pronounce properly as my mouth and tongue are not accustomed to doing them.

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When I started learning Chinese, I noted down the differences and similarities in the Romanized form of pinyin, and it allowed me to change my lessons to help my students more and use the similarities in the classroom. As I began to understand my student’s perspectives and it resulted in me incorporating Chinese and pinyin into my lessons. For any new word I introduced, I include the word in pinyin, the Chinese characters, a picture, and the word in an English sentence. Then I put small circles under each phoneme so that students can build up their phonemic awareness, and then build up to students being able to read the given sentence and eventually make their own sentence with the word.

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When teaching, it is very important to incorporate the student's first language in their learning. When I taught grade 1, I had a mix of students ranging from students who came from a private kindergarten and had at least two years of prior English knowledge, to students who came from another city or a public school with no prior English experience. The mix of abilities, as well as learning English as a second language made me observe my students and assess their levels thoroughly. Teachers need to be sure to have a range of activities, use differentiated instructions, and take students’ choices into account. The teacher can use a range of methods with informal methods such as peer work, using whiteboards, building blocks with letters on them, flashcards, and real-life props to create a multi-sensory experience for the learners and scaffold their learning.

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As I have been teaching English as a second language for the past seven years, I have observed some of the difficulties that students have faced with learning English. When I first started teaching, I was unsure about how to help students proficiently. However, once I started learning Chinese, I began to identify with my students with learning a new language and it put me in a different frame of mind with how I can approach concepts with my students. The struggle I found with learning another language was that my teacher didn’t fully understand my level. I was brand new to Chinese as I had no prior experience, but my teacher wasn’t used to teaching beginning at that point. It took time for her to readjust her teaching to my level, but when I told her that I am a visual learner, she made accommodations for me and began bringing in flashcards to help me learn more. I reflected upon this experience, and it made me realise how there are different learners in the classroom, and how valuable multi-sensory activities are important to retain information.