Reasons for inefficient English teaching in Yanjin County and possible solutions

陳安品

Introduction：Yanjin County is one of the least developed areas in Yunnan province. A large number of the farmers leave their children to earn money working in east China. Therefore there are many left-behind children in this place. According to my fifteen-year teaching experiences and the information I collect concerning English teaching here，I find students here have much trouble in learning English and the English teaching here is very inefficient. So its really urgent for us to do some lesson and find the hiding reasons and thus help improve English teaching level in this area. To begin with，let us dig out the hiding reasons leading to this situation.

Abstract：reason?change?inefficient?English teaching

Reasons leading to this situation. First of all，a large number of students did not learn English in primacy schools because many remote primacy schools cant provide English teaching for students. I was very surprised to find that even when students can study this subject in some primacy schools，the teachers think the other subjects，Chinese and math，are more important than English. Secondly，many students didnt receive good enlighten education from their families when they were children. Many students work hard to study English in middle schools，but they cant learn efficiently. Thirdly，therere not enough professional English teachers here. Additionally，English as a foreign language is not easy to learn. Another important reason is that many children in Yanjin are left-behind children. Their parents leave them at home living with their grandparents and go out to work in east China to earn money for their families because it is very hard for them to earn enough money in their hometown. Left-behind children cant get enough love from their family and they cant take good care of themselves. Finally，we must take it into account that in this very poor area，for some reasons its very common for parents to get a divorce. This is really painful for the children. Children from divorced families are not so confident and they also have other mental problems. As a result，its very hard for teachers to discipline them in schools. They dont focus on their study and they dont want to follow the instructions from their teachers. So as you can see，there are so many reasons，historically，economically and socially. Now its time for us to think of efficient ways for a good change.

What can we do to change this situation？ Its very useful for us to find ways to solve this problem. English as a very important subject must be paid enough attention to. First of all，the government must play an important role in this project. Its commonly believed that the most important reason is that it is hard for them to earn enough money in their hometown. Life is really so hard in this area that many women choose to divorce and start new lives in other places. I am really happy to see that the central government has realized this social problem and has been doing a lot of things to make a change. More and more money has been spent to help improve the education in these poor areas so this problem can be solved in coming years. Good news is that now there are more and more teachers coming to work in this area because the government has raised the salary of the countryside teachers. How to help the left-behind children get enough love from the society and live a happy life is a very important issue we must take into account. There must be enough psychological teachers working in schools in order to provide psychological guidance for students. Additionally its very necessary for the government to find ways to help the farmers to be able to earn more money in their hometown. Its also very urgent for the government to take this into account，that is，how to develop the countryside quickly in west China. Secondly，as I talk to teachers from primacy schools，I find that its because teachers of the primacy schools are mainly evaluated for their teaching jobs in Chinese and math. Because the students cant receive good education on English in primacy schools，they find it hard to catch up with the normal learning process in middle schools. As a result，middle school teachers have extra job to do. Its very common many middle school students even find it very hard to remember the pronunciation of the new words，say nothing of getting high scores in all kinds of exams. Thirdly，we must help the parents to pay enough attention to the family education，especially in poor families. I teach English in a middle school. I find it hard to discipline the students. The parents must work together with the teachers to try their best to educate the students to be polite and thankful. The parents must play an important role to help their children to be polite，to be able to appreciate their teachers love for them and to be responsible for their study. For these students，its very necessary to provide psychological education as well. As a foreign language，English is not easy to be mastered. There are a lot of words to be remembered. The grammar rules are really different from that of Chinese. Reading is always a difficult job and they often make lots of mistakes in their writing. All these require English teachers to change their teaching ways to be efficient. Here based on my personal teaching experience，I have some suggestions for the English teachers. To encourage is always a good way to teach the students. All students have an extremely desire to be praised，the more，the better. Dont always teach grammar rules at school. There is one thing need to be emphasized，the most important job for the teachers is to teach students be able to use the language in their daily lives. As the saying goes，interest is the best teacher. In order to make our class to be interesting，we can think of changing our teaching methods. We can use multi-media to assist our teaching，for instance. We can use pictures to help the students remember new words. We can try to do some games in our English classes. Encourage the students to find a pen pal in English-speaking countries. They would fall in love with their English writing. Teachers should not forget to tell the importance of learning English. Knowing the importance of learning English can help the students study hard. Encourage the students to ask questions whenever they need help from teachers，there's no shame in asking questions. Songs are a really effective way to learn new words and improve pronunciation，especially songs with actions. Inspire them to want to learn，try to make it the individual student's responsibility to learn，not only yours. Error correction is a thing we must pay special attention to，if teachers correct every mistake when student speak English，we would probably easily destroy a student's confidence in English study. Another important thing is that no matter how angry you are，you should never tell students they are stupid. Get to know your students in all aspects can help you teach efficiently. It is a good habit to create a variety of tasks to suit different students in the English class. Mark the homework as quickly as you can，dont leave it on your desk for weeks. Education takes a lot of time and money. To improve poor education in poor areas takes even more time and money. Its a very hard and big project，but where there is will，there is always hope. Chinese people have very good traditions. They are very responsible to their children and are willing to spend money on their childrens education. Patience and faith are always important. More and more teachers get training to improve their teaching skills. All kinds of facilities，for example，computers，overhead projectors are being provided to help improve English teaching in schools. Education is very important for those left-behind children. Let us work together to help improve the education in poor areas. I hope what I share in this paper can help enhance the English teaching level in this place.

Conclusion The state council has pointed out that one of the major contradictions of our country is the contradiction between the growing needs of the people for a better life and the unbalanced and inadequate development. Kids are the hope of our nation. Education is the fundamental project of a country. People have strong desires for better education. The English teaching level in Yanjin County needs to be improved immediately. We can be fully confident that under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China，with the effort of the government，the teachers and the parents，the English teaching level in Yanjin County will be improved quickly.

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（作者單位：云南省昭通市鹽津縣第二中學(xué)）