Abstract:Along with the development of China’s economy, English becomes more and more important in people’s daily life. However, many young learners know nothing about English when they begin to learn it in schools. English learning takes them to a broader world and this will mean special to children both in behaviors and in mind.
Psychologically, children are all curious about new things and pure in thought. They are most moldable in childhood, during which time they are active and good at imitating but cannot concentrate their attention for long period. Therefore, teachers, in view of young learners’ psychological features, should try to regulate their affection, arouse their interest and intensify their motivation. Besides, fun-based, activity-oriented and student-centered approaches should be adopted.
Among the approaches, enjoyable teaching including situational teaching and game teaching is the most effective means to arouse children’s interest of English learning; it also can make them concentrate on what they are doing. Therefore, students will get deep impression of what they have learned and gain long-term memory of the content. By the use of enjoyable teaching, teachers can meet the needs of teaching demands in the new era.
Key Words:Children's English Teaching; Psychological Perspective
English, as a second language in China, is a major subject from primary schools to universities. It is an essential stage for children in primary schools to acquire pronunciation and memorize basic vocabularies. However, children’s English learning is a very complicated course, which involves lots of factors. Through lots of research investigations and my own experience in teaching practice, I find that the learner's own psychological factor is the most direct and main factor.
The studies of children’s English teaching at home and abroad focus on children’s natural ability of language acceptance and the dull memorizing. Vygotsky, a famous Russian psychologist, considers that children before the age of 12 mainly depend on their excellent memories to recognize new words and grammar (Liu Yuxin 96). Because they do not have a complete system of cognition, and lack self-judgment and the ability to think abstractly; therefore, children just intend to memorize what they have learned rather than to understand them (Liu Yuxin 96). He believes that children fail to realize some methods in learning a foreign language. Nevertheless, presently, there are few studies from the psychological point of view. In addition, now in China primary schools adopt many kinds of teaching methods; however, there is not a perfect system, acceptable by most teachers and students.
