まゆの部屋

a shorter speech of English educatuon fo

my speech "When ?What? and How?"

"You should speak in Japanese.

Otherwise you'll forget Japanese."

Megumi's mother shouted when Megumi and her sister were talking in English.

I read a story about Megumi aged 7. She has been studying English since she was 6 months.

Megumi's mother and father can't understand their daughters' conversation in English.

When Megumi was 6 months old,they bought English education materials worth about 500,000yen. The materials included campact discs ,videos of English songs and stories and a machine that reads aloud English words printed on cards.

She understood 100 English words when she was three and entered a special kindergarten where she could learn English with native English teachers .

After that parents decided to make her watch TV programs in English.

When she began to speak in English ,her English teacher encouraged her to write a diary in English. At first she just wrote "I ate a meal." So her teacher asked her "With whom? Where?" Then she tried to write a longer sentence . Her teacher also checked her grammatical mistakes.

She passed the second grade Step Test last autumn. She'll challenge the pre-first Step Test soon.

She has a special ability to learn language.

One teacher at her kindergarten says some children feel stress when they have to speak in English. Megumi likes to speak English better than Japanese.

It is her good point but it will be her weak point in the future. She can't commmunicate with people around her in Japanese well , even though she's in Japan.

I believe communication among family members and friends is more important for children than passing the Step Tests.

Some companies of English education materials advertise their products with exaggerated praises but actually we don't know when to give ,what to give and how to give those materials to children.

When I tought English to children aged 3 ,I used cards . Children could listen to English and copy their voice using these cards. They imitated correct English easily.

They learned English using their bodies . I told them "Let's go to a zoo together. We can see many animals here. I'll be a big elephant .I have a long nose and big ears. Let's do it together. Now we are rabbits. We can hop.Hop,hop,hop!!"

I sometimes said to myself "Are hopping and pretending to be animals good for them ?" after sweatting in my class room. Now I think children learn a lot through playing in English. They are high school students now. Some of them want to go abroad to study English more as they know studying English is fun.

Parents can give their children good places and materials to learn English but it is very dangerous for children to learn English hard before speaking mother tongue well.

Young mothers in Japan don't know real imformation about English education for young children. They should teach their children beautuful and polite Japanese before teaching English."

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