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In MiraTutor's classes, students are non-native English speakers. Many ESL students are used to 'translating' when they use English, both literally and mentally. When students read a passage in English, their first reaction is often to figure out what each word means in their native language and then string together the meanings of the words in their native language to understand what the passage means. When they have a conversation in English, they often do the same thing – first make a draft in their native languages, and then think, ‘What does this sentence look like in English?’, and lastly speak out the sentences. MiraTutor does not recommend this for ESL students. A translation and grammar-based approach should not be the right way to go because it does not give students the ability to communicate in English in the real world.
An English mindset is to think in English, or use English to think. Simply put, it means avoiding translation, skipping the intermediate step, thinking and expressing directly in English.
For example, when you see an image of an apple, a child with English mindset will think of ‘apple’ directly, instead of thinking of the native language of ‘apple’, and then transitioning to the English ‘apple’. You have to establish a direct relationship between the language and the images, experiences, and emotions. Only then will you be able to avoid the intermediate step of translating in your native language.
MiraTutor uses the following steps to develop students' thinking in English.
- Create a direct connection between language and images.
In MiraTutor's class, when students see images, the tutor gives them the English equivalent directly. This is different from what parents do when they teach their children English at home: they use a wall chart, or some word cards, and ask their children to read along with them over and over in switching between their native languages and English. During review, they would ask questions like, ‘How do you say apple in English? How do you say banana in English?’ In this way, the child learns to match the native language to the English language. So when he sees the word ‘apple’ and wants to say it in English, he will have to go through the translation step first. This is the wrong approach. The right approach is to make a direct connection between language and images. As happened in the MiraTutor class, the students are able to point out the picture of apple with their hands when they heard the English ‘apple’ .
- Making direct connections between language and actions
In MiraTutor's class, children do not have to sit completely still. Tutor will find ways to get children act out English; for example, by giving them movement instructions in English that allow them to connect English to movement:
- Raise your arms.
- Clap your hands.
- Take a piece of paper.
- Put it on your head.
- Turn around.
This process is very engaging and interesting for the students. With enough repetitions, the action words and expressions are quickly understood and remembered. When they hear these instructions, they can do the actions directly without any translation from their native language. This is English thinking.
- Simultaneous mobilization of all senses (multi-sensory) to learn English
Learning a language is a multi-sensory process: sight, touch, taste, smell.
MiraTutor will guide students to associate words with colors, smells, forms, etc., and to use their senses to correspond some things or scenes to English. Over time, students will forget their native language in the class and gradually no longer need a native translator when they use English outside of the class.
Come for classes specially designed for ESL students with MiraTutor!