Introduction
There are thousands of languages in the world. English is one of the world‟s most widely used languages. It is spoken by nearly three hundred million people: in the United States, Britain, Canada, some Caribbean countries, and South Africa. As a second language, English is often necessary for business, education, information and other activities in a great many countries such as India, Pakistan and so on. It is also one of the working languages in the United Nations and is more used than the others. English has become the language of international trade and transport .It has been said that 60 percent of the world‟s radio broadcasts and 70 percent of the world‟s mail are in English. At international sports meets, at meetings of scientists from different countries and at talks of writers and artists from the corners of the earth, English is mostly used.
In recent years, more and more people have realized the importance of foreign languages study, especially English, which is one of the most common languages that are speaking in the world. According to the research, there is nearly one person in every ten people can speak English. We need to learn English because as our country's economy's development, there are more and more opportunities for us to visit other countries. And along with the development of the global integrating, mastering English has already become one of the qualities to be a successful people. So, all the people raised a study English upsurge. And children‟s English education in our country is being more appreciable. In order to comply with this requirement, many of the kindergartens now offer English programmers. But from the teaching way in our country , the children‟s Engl ish education has many problems. For the unbalanced econo mic development in urban and rural areas in china, the children‟s English education has the huge difference between urban and rural areas in china. In the English skills using, the children has the huge difference who from the rural areas .This article will first analyses the difference from the different points. And Then finding the reason forming the difference. And giving some advice to deduce the difference and promote the balanced development in children‟s English education in urban and rural areas in China.
1. A brief account of English education for preschool children Early childhood education is a branch of educational theory which relates to the teaching of young children up until the age of about eight, with a particular focus on education, notable in the period before the start of compulsory education.( Footnote
Anning,2004).
1.1The development of the preschool children’ English education
English is a widely used language around the world. So many of the people all over the world want to gain it，also the Chinese people. In China ,the development of the children‟s English education has through the long time. (辛凌，1995).It can be roughly divided into the following four periods:
The first time is “Cultural slavery period”, from the opium war to the early 1920 s. when the children‟s English education has the primary developm ent in Qing Dynasty .And it is mainly concentrated in the coastal port cities. Form the reports in November 1921, there are about 139 kindergartens in China , and about 4244 children learning English (付克，1986).
The second time is “ the mixed period” ,when china just started the “Self-Strengthening Movement”(洋务运动) ，from 1922 to 1949. After the May 4th Movement , the new education of China was mainly affected by the western countries ,especially the United States. But in the Mingguo period of China (from 1912 -1949 ), the government was not available for the development of the children‟s English educa tion. So official kindergarten didn‟t have a better development, but Kindergarten runing by the local people and foreigners do kindergarten has obvious development than the earlier period.
The third period is from 1949 to 1979, called the “English boom period “which is before the reform and opening. In this particularly important period, al kinds of situation both at home and abroad are complex for china government .One the one hand ,the imperialism counties cut off all commercial or financial relations to China .And other hand , China's politics, economy, education and so on followed Soviet model as its own model in that case ,the various schools put Russ ion as their second language. The English education faced a wealth of restrictions for the political element . The children‟s English education as the unimportant compulsory education didn‟t get the well development.
The forth period is form 70s or 80s of the 20th century since the reform and China's national comprehensive strength is enhancing greatly and China is asserting increasing influence over international affairs .and English has already become one of the qualities to be a successful people .So, the children‟s English education underwent great development.
1.2 The importance of the preschool children’s English education
As an international language, English lies in special important position in the world .If you can ‟t use English, you will face big barriers to keep space with the development of the world . At the same time the study also showed that learning a foreign language will promote the development of intelligence. A psychologist from the Yale University suggested that the children who gain the two languages education are more flexibility and have advantage of solving the problems than those who can only gain single language education through his analysis. The language stimulation are the important elements to promote the development of brain cell. The period of childhood is the criticalperiod of children's language development ,language education in this period plays an important impact on the development of human life. In this period , giving children the stimulation of the two languages, the coordination between the two hemispheres can promote children's brain, and strengthen the relationship between nerve cells. Therefore, early childhood English education is beneficial to children.
1.3 The peculiarity of the preschool children’s English education When we talk about the preschool children‟s English education firstly, we must have the acknowledge of the preschool children. Many experts think there is a critical period hypothesis in second language oreigne originates in biology, this view is first proposed by neurobiologist Penfield (1975, cited in James, 1997) and Robert (1959), in their view, during the development of a particular life stage, one can learn a language easily and quickly in natural environment, no external intervention and no professor.(Fromkin and Rodman, 1983, cited Liu Zhenqian, 2003). In 60s, this view was accepted by Lenneberg and used in second language oreigne research, then he puts forth an influential critical period hypothesis. The theory which is in child development, there is a period during which language can be acquired more easily than at any other time is accepted by many scientists. According to the biologist Lenneberg (1967), the critical period lasts until puberty (around age 12 or 13 years), and is due to oreigne development. (Eills, 1994) ,Lenneberg suggested that language learning may be more difficult after puberty, because the brain lacks the ability for
adaptation. This, he believed, was because the language functions of the brain have already been established in a particular part of the brain, which is because lateralization has already occurred by this time. This leads to a large number of domestic and foreign researchers from different disciplines, different perspectives in all aspects of the use of various methods and experimental critical period hypothesis for in-depth study of this issue, the focus of the study will focus on the existence of second language learning problems and the critical period, that whether second language learning with the starting age is directly related to the final results of study.
And many experts think, early childhood, especially before the age of 6, is the optimal period to obtain foreign language. In this period, the young English learners have their own Psycho Characteristics.
The young English learners are those aged form 3 to6 years old in China kindgareden. We know there is a critical period to learn a foreign language, from3 to 6. And our children who gain the English education are just in this golden period. (Maria Montessori, 2002) It is the time that children are constructing their language structure.
At this time, children are learning language by imitation. They imitate the people who are speaking around them. The most important thing is that they are not only imitating the words, but also imitating the way others are speaking. That is how children learn the language structure of their mother tongue.
In this golden period, the children can build not only one language structure and they can build another language structure, so, it is easy for them to obtain English at the same time .
The young learners have aged from 3 to 6 years. At this age stag e , the young learners are very active and curious; they are easy to be attracted by the colorful things and the things they do not know well. And they will imitate the way other people do with those tings. They can easy follow the teachers‟ words and imitate it, use it. They can easily remember the things others told. They have the best memory and imitation. But they are also very easy to be disturbed: “the 4 to 9 years old children ‟s concentration can only last for 8 to 12 minutes.” (Maria Montessori, 2002.)
In this case , the teachers must have some specially was to make them interesting in their English class.
2. The present situation on English education for preschool
children in urban and rural areas in China
2. 1 Urban areas
In some big and medium–sized cities of China, almost all of the kinds gardens are bilingual education .The children have a specialized foreign teacher to teach them English. The schools often hold many English activities. Also there are many English training classes in urban cities, which can teach much English culture to children. So the children of the urban schools have a better opportunity to obtain English knowledge. And have more chance to use English in a good English atmosphere.
2. 2 Rural areas
In rural areas of China, there is litter bilingual education kind gardens , English is just treated a minor subjects for children. The children don ‟t have the specialized teachers to teach them. Therefore the children can‟t have a good foundation of English .The pronunciation of their English almost is nonstandard. They don‟t have the better chance to obtain English .So they have the big gap comparing to the urban children who like them learn English in the same age.
3. The comparison of urban and rural children’s English skills
Through the above present situations in urban and rural areas , we can know there is a wide gap in English using between the urban and rural children English learners .The next I will talk about this in three points from the three basic English skills ,that are listening , speaking ,and reading.
3.1 Listening skills
In 1991 the United States Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) identified five competencies and three foundation skills that are essential for those entering the workforce. Listening skills were among the foundation skills SCANS identified. Listening skills allow people, regardless of how they take in that information, to make sense of and understand what others are saying. To put it in the simplest terms possible, they allow you to understand what someone is "talking about"
From that, we can know the importance of the listening skill, if you don‟t have a
good listening skills ,how can you understand what others‟ saying . There is an obvious gap between the children form urban areas and rural areas in listening skills. The urban children can follow my class and understand my words because of their better listening. Except for the difference that the children from the rural can‟t get my words, for, when I say “I have 14 apples . The urban children can understand that it is 14 not 40. But the children from the rural always mix it .They can ‟t distinguish the phonetic alphabet .Also, when a say a long sentence, there is also gap in understanding between them.
As a word, the urban children have a better listening skill than those from the rural areas‟
3.2Spoken skills
Spoken skill is that the art of the communications ,and one of the 4 productive skill, that must mastered in learning foreign language .Good spoken skill is the act of generating words that can be understood by listeners .A good speaker is clear and informative.
When we learn a language, the most basic function of it is how to use it .When you use the new language, you must have the right spoken , especially ,in the binging of the learning . In China, the dumb English has become a language barrier in their scholastic careers.
In the kind garden of the urban areas, the teacher is very concerned about the children's oral English ability. In class, the teacher usually give the children a topic, for “what is your dream? ”, in this way ,the children have the chance to talk the English with their classmates in a happy atmosphere . And they like to express their thoughts in English.
But in the rural areas, the phenomenon is not optimistic. The children won ‟t open their mouths in the class .And the teachers usually just read the words and sentences again and again .It can ‟t attracted the attention of the children .And after class ,the children don‟t have the chance to say English . Because he is afraid of the laugh from his classmates, and the teachers don ‟t have the specialized training of spoken English. So many students can ‟t have the right pronunciation. In this case, how can the children from the rural areas learn English better than those from the urban areas.
3.3 Reading skills
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message. Comprehension is a "creative,
Multifaceted process dependent upon four language skills ; phonology ,syntax, semantics, and pragmatics Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. It is also determined by an individual's cognitive development, which is "the construction of thought processes". Some people learn through education or instruction and others through direct experiences.
Good reading is a more important life skill than ever before and the printed word continues to be the cornerstone of both higher education and better positions in the job market.
For students, almost all studying involves reading. For adults, reading is day to day, either a stumbling blocker a smooth path to pleasure and opportunity. This is why good reading habits are not only an important study skill for the student, but also an important life skill for anyone.
Good reading skills can make benefits for the children all his life , l was once a English teacher both at a kind garden ( called Jangling Center Kind garden ) countryside and kind garden (Huaqiao Center Kind garden) in city . When I taught them reading, I gave them an English book Snow White , the student form the countryside can ‟t understand it ,they can only read some easy words .But , the children from city can read it to me . I was so amazing .After the class , the students tells me the reason that there are many English stories books in the kind garden ,they can borrow the books and let their parents teach them , as time passes, they form a good reading habit ,and obtain the good reading skills than those from the countryside.
So , there is wide gap in English skills between the between the urban and rural children English learners . The next l will analysis the reasons for it.
4. The reasons for the gap between the children’s English skills
As the same age, and the children have the same starting line. But there is the obvious difference. What makes the different in their English education? I will analysis it in the following passages from the different points.
4.1 The learning environments
Though the same language , it is fundamentally different when it is taught as a native language between as a foreign language .In a native language environment, people always response to acquire language through constant stimulation, but Learning English is not, no matter how we to create context, also have certain distance and the actual. So the environment is the crucially important for English education .By my own teaching inexperience in the urban and rural kinder gaden. There is obvious difference in those different areas .The next, l will talk about these from the two points. .
4.1.1 Hardware facilities
The hardware facilities are what we can see and touch in the classroom, like the furnishings in the classroom and the teaching materials. But because of the different development in economy between the urban and rural areas, the kinder gardens have the differences in the hardware facilities. According to the characteristics of children and want to directly activate the young learners‟ interests of learning, the kinder garden of the cities pay more attention to the furnishing in the classroom, paint the wall with some bright colors and some cartoon pictures. Moreover, the furnishing in the classroom must be finely designed. All the furnishing in the classroom needs striking words to show the children what a certain piece of furniture is. These words can be painted in colors so that the young learners can pay attention to them. By this kind of way, teachers can teach the students how to read these words on the furnishings. Once the students have learned these words, they will not only remember the pronunciations and spellings but also get a deep impression of the objects in their mind. Every time they see the object, the right word will occur to their mind and every time they see or hear the word, there will be an object in their mind. That means they can understand these words with no translation in their mind and the children are trained to think in English. This kind of environment is very helpful for their future English study. But in the countryside, the kinder garden usually is a rent room. The teachers don‟t focus on it too much. The classroom for them is just meaning a place for children to stay in. Besides, the hardware facilities for class are different .In the cities, the teachers often use the TVs. DVD, computers ,and projects to have class . It can attract the attentions of the children .They will to have the class. But you can hardly find these in the class
of the countryside kinder gardens.
4.1.2Software
A good condition of English learning should be the language used in the teaching process. The English program designers need to provide a „complete-English ‟ environment for the English teaching: all the tapes and children‟s songs should be English. In this way, we can have the young learners to learn in a „complete-English ‟ environment. That will be helpful for the young learners to imitate the language they are exposed.
But, in fact it is difficult to make it true for the various reasons. But in whole, the cities kinder gardens do better than those from the countryside.
4.2 The parents’ factors
The family is the second school .The children may learn more in the family, for the children ‟s English education, the urban parents may be more motivated. They know the importance of the English education for the children ‟s future. And they prefer to spend time and money on the children ‟s English education .For the urban families, they more follow suit. For the other children learn English, they send children to learn English as well, and less of them care about whether the children do well or not. Even some parents send the children to kinder gardens for they don‟t have time to care for the children.
4.3 The teachers’ factors
The other important reason having influence in children ‟s English education is the teachers‟ teaching methods. The young learners have aged from 4 to 9 years. At this age stag e , the young learners are very active and curious; they are easy to be attracted by the colorful things and the things they do not know well. In this case, the teaching method is the particularly important .There usually are five main steps in urban teachers‟ lesson: warm-up & review, sing together, new friends, let me try and package.
The teachers always give the young learners some time for free activity before everyone arrives. In the free activity, they can do anything they like. They can talk with their friends or play some games with other students.
When the teachers walk into the classroom, the students maybe are still playing
their games and speaking in Chinese, so he has to catch their attention. The teachers usually spend several minutes exchanging greetings with every student. And call every child‟s English name. And take out the cards writing in English words. Let the child to find the words. The purpose of this step is to catch every student‟s attention, and arouse his or her interest in English learning. In addition, reviewing what has been learnt serves as a transitional phrase to new points.
After several minutes‟ break, the teachers will play the word passing game .In this process, the teacher can bring in the new learning matters through games and songs. That will be easier for these young learners to accept the new lessons, and they are kept in a happy atmosphere. After this, the children will have some minutes break to have a rest .
At the fourth stage, the class will be in dived some groups, and then is time for the role-play game, for example, the teacher will give a story ,and let child chose a role and say the actor‟s lines in English .
And in the last part , the teacher will give a song to review what the children have learned in today .In the Package process, we cheer on what students have achieved and the most important is that we will let the students finish their learning in a happy mood.
Rather than, the “spoon-feeding ” is the main character in the rural teachers room from the end to end. The children are so tired and out of interest in the class .How can they learn well. And teachers in rural areas usually don‟t have a good knowledge in English. They don‟t have the new education ideas, lacking of innovation consciousness, and the innovation ability is not strong. There are quite a few English teachers having not get rid of the exam-oriented education model, education thoughts and ideas can't keep up with the pace of the quality-oriented education. Education methods and backward teaching means, knowledge is not wide Some teachers still use the traditional pattern of rote, not take the student as the main body, teacher as the leading method Bound by this student's innovation ability and the ability of independent exploration, it is bad for students' future development
They don‟t know how to teach .what they do is read the words and sentences again and again .
5 Strategies for the balanced development
Balanced development of the English education is important for the development of the children. Observed from reality between urban and rural education gap existing
in many ways, in order to realize the education fair, avoiding make rural and underdeveloped areas children lose on the starting line, we should actively looking for solutions
5.1 The way to resolve the Learning Environment problem
The kinder gardens can exchange and cooperate with each other, sharing high quality teaching resources between urban and rural areas. At the same time the government can increase the spending on rural kindergartens. Do more propaganda, let the more loving people pay attention to children's English education in the countryside. And the schools can donate some learning equipment for rural kindergartens.
5.2 The way to change the parents’ expectation
From the point that the family environment can affect children ‟s development, that the English abilities and the English atmosphere and conditions of the family members is crucial to the children ‟s English learning. On the one hand, the kindergarten should fully arouse the enthusiasm of parents, let parents to participate in the activities of the kindergarten English education and play the English games together with the children. On the other hand, the kindergarten should help parents create family English environment, make full use of all aspects of daily life, let the children will learn English and experience in daily life at home together, guiding English activities with the parents and children.
Only in this way can the parents do know the importance of English for their children future development.
5.3 The way to promote the teachers’ teaching methods
In promoting the teachers‟ teaching methods dispatch more urban teachers to the countryside to have the demonstrations class. The teachers can exchange the teaching experience with each others .And the teachers can more use the new way to teach English, for, using the TVS, computes and so on .By singing the English rather than reading the words. Usually we should encourage the children to speak English in class, even though he makes a mistake.
Only after we solve theses problems can we promote the balanced development
of the English education.
Conclusion
The field of preschool education is constantly developing. We must pay attention to children's English education together. For education is the founding of a country, we promote the fair education, and want to give every child the same education condition and the chance to accept education. But owing to various difficulties and in the society there are many phenomenon of unfair education. If we want to make our children have the equal starting line. We should try to strive for it. For the fair education need a lot of time.
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Introduction
There are thousands of languages in the world. English is one of the world‟s most widely used languages. It is spoken by nearly three hundred million people: in the United States, Britain, Canada, some Caribbean countries, and South Africa. As a second language, English is often necessary for business, education, information and other activities in a great many countries such as India, Pakistan and so on. It is also one of the working languages in the United Nations and is more used than the others. English has become the language of international trade and transport .It has been said that 60 percent of the world‟s radio broadcasts and 70 percent of the world‟s mail are in English. At international sports meets, at meetings of scientists from different countries and at talks of writers and artists from the corners of the earth, English is mostly used.
In recent years, more and more people have realized the importance of foreign languages study, especially English, which is one of the most common languages that are speaking in the world. According to the research, there is nearly one person in every ten people can speak English. We need to learn English because as our country's economy's development, there are more and more opportunities for us to visit other countries. And along with the development of the global integrating, mastering English has already become one of the qualities to be a successful people. So, all the people raised a study English upsurge. And children‟s English education in our country is being more appreciable. In order to comply with this requirement, many of the kindergartens now offer English programmers. But from the teaching way in our country , the children‟s Engl ish education has many problems. For the unbalanced econo mic development in urban and rural areas in china, the children‟s English education has the huge difference between urban and rural areas in china. In the English skills using, the children has the huge difference who from the rural areas .This article will first analyses the difference from the different points. And Then finding the reason forming the difference. And giving some advice to deduce the difference and promote the balanced development in children‟s English education in urban and rural areas in China.
1. A brief account of English education for preschool children Early childhood education is a branch of educational theory which relates to the teaching of young children up until the age of about eight, with a particular focus on education, notable in the period before the start of compulsory education.( Footnote
Anning,2004).
1.1The development of the preschool children’ English education
English is a widely used language around the world. So many of the people all over the world want to gain it，also the Chinese people. In China ,the development of the children‟s English education has through the long time. (辛凌，1995).It can be roughly divided into the following four periods:
The first time is “Cultural slavery period”, from the opium war to the early 1920 s. when the children‟s English education has the primary developm ent in Qing Dynasty .And it is mainly concentrated in the coastal port cities. Form the reports in November 1921, there are about 139 kindergartens in China , and about 4244 children learning English (付克，1986).
The second time is “ the mixed period” ,when china just started the “Self-Strengthening Movement”(洋务运动) ，from 1922 to 1949. After the May 4th Movement , the new education of China was mainly affected by the western countries ,especially the United States. But in the Mingguo period of China (from 1912 -1949 ), the government was not available for the development of the children‟s English educa tion. So official kindergarten didn‟t have a better development, but Kindergarten runing by the local people and foreigners do kindergarten has obvious development than the earlier period.
The third period is from 1949 to 1979, called the “English boom period “which is before the reform and opening. In this particularly important period, al kinds of situation both at home and abroad are complex for china government .One the one hand ,the imperialism counties cut off all commercial or financial relations to China .And other hand , China's politics, economy, education and so on followed Soviet model as its own model in that case ,the various schools put Russ ion as their second language. The English education faced a wealth of restrictions for the political element . The children‟s English education as the unimportant compulsory education didn‟t get the well development.
The forth period is form 70s or 80s of the 20th century since the reform and China's national comprehensive strength is enhancing greatly and China is asserting increasing influence over international affairs .and English has already become one of the qualities to be a successful people .So, the children‟s English education underwent great development.
1.2 The importance of the preschool children’s English education
As an international language, English lies in special important position in the world .If you can ‟t use English, you will face big barriers to keep space with the development of the world . At the same time the study also showed that learning a foreign language will promote the development of intelligence. A psychologist from the Yale University suggested that the children who gain the two languages education are more flexibility and have advantage of solving the problems than those who can only gain single language education through his analysis. The language stimulation are the important elements to promote the development of brain cell. The period of childhood is the criticalperiod of children's language development ,language education in this period plays an important impact on the development of human life. In this period , giving children the stimulation of the two languages, the coordination between the two hemispheres can promote children's brain, and strengthen the relationship between nerve cells. Therefore, early childhood English education is beneficial to children.
1.3 The peculiarity of the preschool children’s English education When we talk about the preschool children‟s English education firstly, we must have the acknowledge of the preschool children. Many experts think there is a critical period hypothesis in second language oreigne originates in biology, this view is first proposed by neurobiologist Penfield (1975, cited in James, 1997) and Robert (1959), in their view, during the development of a particular life stage, one can learn a language easily and quickly in natural environment, no external intervention and no professor.(Fromkin and Rodman, 1983, cited Liu Zhenqian, 2003). In 60s, this view was accepted by Lenneberg and used in second language oreigne research, then he puts forth an influential critical period hypothesis. The theory which is in child development, there is a period during which language can be acquired more easily than at any other time is accepted by many scientists. According to the biologist Lenneberg (1967), the critical period lasts until puberty (around age 12 or 13 years), and is due to oreigne development. (Eills, 1994) ,Lenneberg suggested that language learning may be more difficult after puberty, because the brain lacks the ability for
adaptation. This, he believed, was because the language functions of the brain have already been established in a particular part of the brain, which is because lateralization has already occurred by this time. This leads to a large number of domestic and foreign researchers from different disciplines, different perspectives in all aspects of the use of various methods and experimental critical period hypothesis for in-depth study of this issue, the focus of the study will focus on the existence of second language learning problems and the critical period, that whether second language learning with the starting age is directly related to the final results of study.
And many experts think, early childhood, especially before the age of 6, is the optimal period to obtain foreign language. In this period, the young English learners have their own Psycho Characteristics.
The young English learners are those aged form 3 to6 years old in China kindgareden. We know there is a critical period to learn a foreign language, from3 to 6. And our children who gain the English education are just in this golden period. (Maria Montessori, 2002) It is the time that children are constructing their language structure.
At this time, children are learning language by imitation. They imitate the people who are speaking around them. The most important thing is that they are not only imitating the words, but also imitating the way others are speaking. That is how children learn the language structure of their mother tongue.
In this golden period, the children can build not only one language structure and they can build another language structure, so, it is easy for them to obtain English at the same time .
The young learners have aged from 3 to 6 years. At this age stag e , the young learners are very active and curious; they are easy to be attracted by the colorful things and the things they do not know well. And they will imitate the way other people do with those tings. They can easy follow the teachers‟ words and imitate it, use it. They can easily remember the things others told. They have the best memory and imitation. But they are also very easy to be disturbed: “the 4 to 9 years old children ‟s concentration can only last for 8 to 12 minutes.” (Maria Montessori, 2002.)
In this case , the teachers must have some specially was to make them interesting in their English class.
2. The present situation on English education for preschool
children in urban and rural areas in China
2. 1 Urban areas
In some big and medium–sized cities of China, almost all of the kinds gardens are bilingual education .The children have a specialized foreign teacher to teach them English. The schools often hold many English activities. Also there are many English training classes in urban cities, which can teach much English culture to children. So the children of the urban schools have a better opportunity to obtain English knowledge. And have more chance to use English in a good English atmosphere.
2. 2 Rural areas
In rural areas of China, there is litter bilingual education kind gardens , English is just treated a minor subjects for children. The children don ‟t have the specialized teachers to teach them. Therefore the children can‟t have a good foundation of English .The pronunciation of their English almost is nonstandard. They don‟t have the better chance to obtain English .So they have the big gap comparing to the urban children who like them learn English in the same age.
3. The comparison of urban and rural children’s English skills
Through the above present situations in urban and rural areas , we can know there is a wide gap in English using between the urban and rural children English learners .The next I will talk about this in three points from the three basic English skills ,that are listening , speaking ,and reading.
3.1 Listening skills
In 1991 the United States Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) identified five competencies and three foundation skills that are essential for those entering the workforce. Listening skills were among the foundation skills SCANS identified. Listening skills allow people, regardless of how they take in that information, to make sense of and understand what others are saying. To put it in the simplest terms possible, they allow you to understand what someone is "talking about"
From that, we can know the importance of the listening skill, if you don‟t have a
good listening skills ,how can you understand what others‟ saying . There is an obvious gap between the children form urban areas and rural areas in listening skills. The urban children can follow my class and understand my words because of their better listening. Except for the difference that the children from the rural can‟t get my words, for, when I say “I have 14 apples . The urban children can understand that it is 14 not 40. But the children from the rural always mix it .They can ‟t distinguish the phonetic alphabet .Also, when a say a long sentence, there is also gap in understanding between them.
As a word, the urban children have a better listening skill than those from the rural areas‟
3.2Spoken skills
Spoken skill is that the art of the communications ,and one of the 4 productive skill, that must mastered in learning foreign language .Good spoken skill is the act of generating words that can be understood by listeners .A good speaker is clear and informative.
When we learn a language, the most basic function of it is how to use it .When you use the new language, you must have the right spoken , especially ,in the binging of the learning . In China, the dumb English has become a language barrier in their scholastic careers.
In the kind garden of the urban areas, the teacher is very concerned about the children's oral English ability. In class, the teacher usually give the children a topic, for “what is your dream? ”, in this way ,the children have the chance to talk the English with their classmates in a happy atmosphere . And they like to express their thoughts in English.
But in the rural areas, the phenomenon is not optimistic. The children won ‟t open their mouths in the class .And the teachers usually just read the words and sentences again and again .It can ‟t attracted the attention of the children .And after class ,the children don‟t have the chance to say English . Because he is afraid of the laugh from his classmates, and the teachers don ‟t have the specialized training of spoken English. So many students can ‟t have the right pronunciation. In this case, how can the children from the rural areas learn English better than those from the urban areas.
3.3 Reading skills
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message. Comprehension is a "creative,
Multifaceted process dependent upon four language skills ; phonology ,syntax, semantics, and pragmatics Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. It is also determined by an individual's cognitive development, which is "the construction of thought processes". Some people learn through education or instruction and others through direct experiences.
Good reading is a more important life skill than ever before and the printed word continues to be the cornerstone of both higher education and better positions in the job market.
For students, almost all studying involves reading. For adults, reading is day to day, either a stumbling blocker a smooth path to pleasure and opportunity. This is why good reading habits are not only an important study skill for the student, but also an important life skill for anyone.
Good reading skills can make benefits for the children all his life , l was once a English teacher both at a kind garden ( called Jangling Center Kind garden ) countryside and kind garden (Huaqiao Center Kind garden) in city . When I taught them reading, I gave them an English book Snow White , the student form the countryside can ‟t understand it ,they can only read some easy words .But , the children from city can read it to me . I was so amazing .After the class , the students tells me the reason that there are many English stories books in the kind garden ,they can borrow the books and let their parents teach them , as time passes, they form a good reading habit ,and obtain the good reading skills than those from the countryside.
So , there is wide gap in English skills between the between the urban and rural children English learners . The next l will analysis the reasons for it.
4. The reasons for the gap between the children’s English skills
As the same age, and the children have the same starting line. But there is the obvious difference. What makes the different in their English education? I will analysis it in the following passages from the different points.
4.1 The learning environments
Though the same language , it is fundamentally different when it is taught as a native language between as a foreign language .In a native language environment, people always response to acquire language through constant stimulation, but Learning English is not, no matter how we to create context, also have certain distance and the actual. So the environment is the crucially important for English education .By my own teaching inexperience in the urban and rural kinder gaden. There is obvious difference in those different areas .The next, l will talk about these from the two points. .
4.1.1 Hardware facilities
The hardware facilities are what we can see and touch in the classroom, like the furnishings in the classroom and the teaching materials. But because of the different development in economy between the urban and rural areas, the kinder gardens have the differences in the hardware facilities. According to the characteristics of children and want to directly activate the young learners‟ interests of learning, the kinder garden of the cities pay more attention to the furnishing in the classroom, paint the wall with some bright colors and some cartoon pictures. Moreover, the furnishing in the classroom must be finely designed. All the furnishing in the classroom needs striking words to show the children what a certain piece of furniture is. These words can be painted in colors so that the young learners can pay attention to them. By this kind of way, teachers can teach the students how to read these words on the furnishings. Once the students have learned these words, they will not only remember the pronunciations and spellings but also get a deep impression of the objects in their mind. Every time they see the object, the right word will occur to their mind and every time they see or hear the word, there will be an object in their mind. That means they can understand these words with no translation in their mind and the children are trained to think in English. This kind of environment is very helpful for their future English study. But in the countryside, the kinder garden usually is a rent room. The teachers don‟t focus on it too much. The classroom for them is just meaning a place for children to stay in. Besides, the hardware facilities for class are different .In the cities, the teachers often use the TVs. DVD, computers ,and projects to have class . It can attract the attentions of the children .They will to have the class. But you can hardly find these in the class
of the countryside kinder gardens.
4.1.2Software
A good condition of English learning should be the language used in the teaching process. The English program designers need to provide a „complete-English ‟ environment for the English teaching: all the tapes and children‟s songs should be English. In this way, we can have the young learners to learn in a „complete-English ‟ environment. That will be helpful for the young learners to imitate the language they are exposed.
But, in fact it is difficult to make it true for the various reasons. But in whole, the cities kinder gardens do better than those from the countryside.
4.2 The parents’ factors
The family is the second school .The children may learn more in the family, for the children ‟s English education, the urban parents may be more motivated. They know the importance of the English education for the children ‟s future. And they prefer to spend time and money on the children ‟s English education .For the urban families, they more follow suit. For the other children learn English, they send children to learn English as well, and less of them care about whether the children do well or not. Even some parents send the children to kinder gardens for they don‟t have time to care for the children.
4.3 The teachers’ factors
The other important reason having influence in children ‟s English education is the teachers‟ teaching methods. The young learners have aged from 4 to 9 years. At this age stag e , the young learners are very active and curious; they are easy to be attracted by the colorful things and the things they do not know well. In this case, the teaching method is the particularly important .There usually are five main steps in urban teachers‟ lesson: warm-up & review, sing together, new friends, let me try and package.
The teachers always give the young learners some time for free activity before everyone arrives. In the free activity, they can do anything they like. They can talk with their friends or play some games with other students.
When the teachers walk into the classroom, the students maybe are still playing
their games and speaking in Chinese, so he has to catch their attention. The teachers usually spend several minutes exchanging greetings with every student. And call every child‟s English name. And take out the cards writing in English words. Let the child to find the words. The purpose of this step is to catch every student‟s attention, and arouse his or her interest in English learning. In addition, reviewing what has been learnt serves as a transitional phrase to new points.
After several minutes‟ break, the teachers will play the word passing game .In this process, the teacher can bring in the new learning matters through games and songs. That will be easier for these young learners to accept the new lessons, and they are kept in a happy atmosphere. After this, the children will have some minutes break to have a rest .
At the fourth stage, the class will be in dived some groups, and then is time for the role-play game, for example, the teacher will give a story ,and let child chose a role and say the actor‟s lines in English .
And in the last part , the teacher will give a song to review what the children have learned in today .In the Package process, we cheer on what students have achieved and the most important is that we will let the students finish their learning in a happy mood.
Rather than, the “spoon-feeding ” is the main character in the rural teachers room from the end to end. The children are so tired and out of interest in the class .How can they learn well. And teachers in rural areas usually don‟t have a good knowledge in English. They don‟t have the new education ideas, lacking of innovation consciousness, and the innovation ability is not strong. There are quite a few English teachers having not get rid of the exam-oriented education model, education thoughts and ideas can't keep up with the pace of the quality-oriented education. Education methods and backward teaching means, knowledge is not wide Some teachers still use the traditional pattern of rote, not take the student as the main body, teacher as the leading method Bound by this student's innovation ability and the ability of independent exploration, it is bad for students' future development
They don‟t know how to teach .what they do is read the words and sentences again and again .
5 Strategies for the balanced development
Balanced development of the English education is important for the development of the children. Observed from reality between urban and rural education gap existing
in many ways, in order to realize the education fair, avoiding make rural and underdeveloped areas children lose on the starting line, we should actively looking for solutions
5.1 The way to resolve the Learning Environment problem
The kinder gardens can exchange and cooperate with each other, sharing high quality teaching resources between urban and rural areas. At the same time the government can increase the spending on rural kindergartens. Do more propaganda, let the more loving people pay attention to children's English education in the countryside. And the schools can donate some learning equipment for rural kindergartens.
5.2 The way to change the parents’ expectation
From the point that the family environment can affect children ‟s development, that the English abilities and the English atmosphere and conditions of the family members is crucial to the children ‟s English learning. On the one hand, the kindergarten should fully arouse the enthusiasm of parents, let parents to participate in the activities of the kindergarten English education and play the English games together with the children. On the other hand, the kindergarten should help parents create family English environment, make full use of all aspects of daily life, let the children will learn English and experience in daily life at home together, guiding English activities with the parents and children.
Only in this way can the parents do know the importance of English for their children future development.
5.3 The way to promote the teachers’ teaching methods
In promoting the teachers‟ teaching methods dispatch more urban teachers to the countryside to have the demonstrations class. The teachers can exchange the teaching experience with each others .And the teachers can more use the new way to teach English, for, using the TVS, computes and so on .By singing the English rather than reading the words. Usually we should encourage the children to speak English in class, even though he makes a mistake.
Only after we solve theses problems can we promote the balanced development
of the English education.
Conclusion
The field of preschool education is constantly developing. We must pay attention to children's English education together. For education is the founding of a country, we promote the fair education, and want to give every child the same education condition and the chance to accept education. But owing to various difficulties and in the society there are many phenomenon of unfair education. If we want to make our children have the equal starting line. We should try to strive for it. For the fair education need a lot of time.
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