Diversified Creative English Activities Practice to Improve English Ability

St. Antonius Primary School Focuses on the cultivation of English listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, focuses on extended learning and independent learning, and breaks through the boundaries of class time and extends to after class. The school cultivates students' independent learning habits through daily teaching arrangements, technological resources, etc., and cultivates students' interest and motivation in learning through interesting forms, activities, contexts, different learning experiences, etc. Principal Li Weifeng hopes to use this to create a good learning atmosphere, build students' interests, abilities, habits and confidence in using English, and accumulate experience to gradually consolidate their language foundation.

Special English Pinyin Course

Lower grade students attend class in English Wonderland, which is a rich English learning environment, and are taught by three teachers at the same time. The two foreign teachers focus on the Phonics Pinyin course and integrate the contents of six storybooks (Readers) each year into the Pinyin course, allowing students to learn and use it, making learning Pinyin more interesting.

In the classroom, three teachers conduct different group activities and teaching according to students' abilities in English Wonderland at the same time, such as reading books in the reading corner, using tablets to study in the e-learning zone, and using smart boards in the activity zone to engage in interesting English activities with students, thereby enhancing the interest of learning and taking care of individual differences.

Incorporate reading elements to comprehensively develop comprehensive language skills

Integrating reading into the curriculum is a highlight of the school's school-based English curriculum. Three storybooks (Readers) are included in the formal curriculum each semester. Students complete at least 6 reading tasks throughout the year. The school also encourages students to borrow books independently to increase their reading volume. In addition, the school promotes thematic reading, selects two key topics at each level, introduces storybooks on related themes, and integrates reading, writing and oral expression training through various forms such as shooting short films to form a complete learning system and comprehensively develop comprehensive language abilities.

Senior English Conversation Course

In the upper grades, local teachers take the lead in course teaching, while foreign teachers focus on oral training and design topics closely following the course theme. The school adopts the "from speaking to writing" strategy. Students need to complete the oral expression first, then convert the content into written expression, and record the oral assignment and upload it to Google Classroom for mutual communication among classmates.

Make good use of technology to enrich learning styles and personalize learning to accommodate differences

The school makes good use of online learning platforms to assist English teaching, which not only takes into account the individual differences of students, but also effectively stimulates independent learning motivation and comprehensively improves comprehensive English ability. The platform can recommend storybooks and supporting exercises of corresponding difficulty levels based on students' English proficiency. After students complete their studies, the system will dynamically adjust the difficulty of the content based on their performance, not only catering to the learning needs of those who need to improve their abilities, but also meeting the improvement needs of those who have room for learning. In addition, the school assigns diverse tasks through Google Classroom and guides students to use the Book Creator platform to create electronic storybooks and complete tasks such as writing, reading aloud, animation production, and subtitle addition to enrich their English learning experience.

Guided writing strategies to develop writing skills

The school adopts guided writing teaching strategies for grades one to five to allow students to develop their writing skills step by step. The teaching team will subdivide writing into different tasks and implement step-by-step teaching. The teacher first provides sufficient input, and then guides the students to gradually transition from sentence making to paragraph writing and chapter construction. After students complete the first draft, they need to proofread each other with their classmates to finally improve the work. Under step-by-step guidance, students gradually master the framework, techniques and details of writing. By the sixth grade, they have the ability to independently complete an English composition.

Create an English context and promote life-oriented communication

The school is committed to creating a rich English context and encouraging students to use English flexibly in daily interactions. There are three foreign teachers in the school. They chat with students in English before morning meetings every day. They interact with students during lunch and get closer through games and reading storybooks together. The English room is also open at noon, and English ambassadors and foreign teachers jointly organize interesting activities. The playground also has English experience booths and reading corners to promote English communication in daily life through school-wide activities. In addition, the school holds an English week every semester, designing different game experiences, such as treasure hunts, themed readings, etc., and designing extended experiences based on classroom content. For example, on the food theme of third grade, students are arranged to make Christmas-related snacks in the foreign teacher's class, allowing students to immerse themselves in the English environment.

Diverse extracurricular activities to extend English learning

The school designs a variety of English extracurricular activities for students of different grades to extend English learning beyond the classroom. The high school has launched an English ambassador training program, allowing students to serve as English ambassadors after receiving training, responsible for assisting in English morning meetings, open days and other activities. The school will arrange English ambassadors to have real-time communication with children from foreign schools through Zoom, and conduct pen pal writing to experience language and cultural exchanges in real communication. For lower grades, the school offers a "Master English" course for second and third graders to participate. In addition to learning English and introducing stories, this course also incorporates STEAM elements to cultivate students' learning motivation and interest in English through interesting English experiments.

The school also offers an English hand puppet class, allowing students to create their own scripts and dialogues, and then perform performances with hand puppets. They are even encouraged to participate in off-campus competitions to develop their language and artistic potential. The school also offers an English drama troupe, allowing students who are good at English to step onto the stage to showcase their learning achievements through on-campus talent shows or off-campus drama festival competitions. In addition, the school organizes various inter-class English competitions, such as English poetry recitation competitions for first and second grade students, storytelling competitions and book introduction video production competitions, etc., so that every student has the opportunity to show off and take the stage. A series of rich extracurricular activities allow students to extend their English learning through fun interactions and build confidence in using English.

Overseas English exchange, comprehensive care for English development

In order to broaden students' horizons, the school organizes overseas English exchange activities, such as the Singapore English exchange group previously organized for senior students, which covered English knowledge in multiple fields such as culture, history, and science. The entire trip is conducted in English, and students visit local science museums and other places to broaden their international horizons and experience exotic customs. After returning, students must write down their reflections in English to share with their classmates to further consolidate their learning results and comprehensively promote the development of English listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities.

Organic combination of Chinese and English, fusion of culture and English

In addition to English activities, the English subject group also carries out cross-subject collaboration with the Chinese subject to organically combine English and Chinese culture. For example, an English booth was set up on the "Chinese Costume Day" to introduce Chinese specialties, Chinese zodiac signs and other unique culture; activities such as Mid-Autumn Festival English lantern riddles and cross-subject quiz competitions were held; English books related to Chinese culture were recommended to students; Chinese cultural content, such as traditional programs, etc. were integrated into the English morning assembly to allow students to understand English words, sentences, etc. about Chinese culture. While improving their English expression skills, they also learned to use English as a bridge to promote Chinese culture.

English transition support to help adapt to the new stage

In order to help primary school freshmen adapt to the new English curriculum smoothly, the school has distributed English learning booklets with pictures, text, Chinese explanations and QR codes before the summer vacation. Students only need to scan the QR code to listen to the foreign teacher's recording and understand in advance the English terms commonly used in primary school. In terms of classroom arrangements, the first grade adopts a double class teacher system, with the English teacher serving as the main class teacher to help students gradually build their confidence in English communication. In addition, the first and second grade students set up "homework-free reading days" every other week, and arrange students to read in the library so that they can enjoy reading without the pressure of homework and develop reading habits.

In addition, the school provides English teaching support starting from the fourth grade. For example, English interview training from professional institutions outside the school is introduced, allowing fourth- and fifth-grade students to participate freely, and all sixth-grade students to participate for free; foreign teachers are arranged to carry out targeted intensive training to help students build interview skills and confidence. At the same time, the school has also opened an additional English mathematics class for sixth grade students to help students connect with English and Chinese courses and prepare for further studies.