How do young people learn best? This is something I think a lot when I am teaching foreign languages to young people. I often 1 that traditional teaching 2 are hardly effective for young brains to learn a foreign language.
After moving to southern Italy, I was 3 to have had the chance to run a private course teaching English to children under 7. I 4 children liked singing and enjoyed games so I wanted to use these tools to help my students 5 English conversation skills. I found some fun and 6 songs online, which they loved very much. I also found the English version of some nursery rhymes(童谣) they once were familiar with. All of them were very entertaining and helpful but 7 could still not have a basic conversation in English.
I wanted these students to be 8 in the language I was teaching and I also wished them to speak it. I was eager to deliver 90% of my lessons in English. 9, I knew it would be difficult to get them to talk in a foreign language they 10 speak outside our lessons. So I had to 11 a simple yet effective plan.
One day I decided to prepare a dialogue in English and rather than simply getting students to repeat the phrases, I got them to chant(反复唱) 12. I discovered that chanting was a practical way to get students to speak in English—it 13!
So when teaching English to young people now, I 14 them to make up their own chants to help them remember 15 or complex sentences.
