If I were the parent of the children, I think I would not buy Imagine Learning English program. It is attractive that the program consists of various activities and audiovisual curriculums which are in accordance with different proficiency-level learners, but , in my opinion, there are still some disadvantages as following :
Honestly, I was really nervous when I saw the flick in which those little kids grasping the big mousse, sitting and staring at the screens for so long. It does no good for their health. I think children in their growth should experience lots of things which can only be known by touching, smelling, hearing, eating and seeing by themselves, and naturally and gradually build the concept toward the outside. For instance, they may get the knowledge and the real experiences they need for real by playing with their neighbors.
On the other hand, children living in computer-assisted surroundings seem to be troubled with writing. I believe part of the program may be emphasized on teaching kids to spell out or get familiar with the word structure, but it would be a question whether the children can “write” something themselves later, unless we really do not use our handwriting anymore in the near future.
Besides, even though everything in this program looks colorful and well-designed that learners can understand the content and enjoy the game-like activities, it might generate the gap between the realities and those kids’ lives because they gain most of the language knowledge（or other things）from the computer. Furthermore, we can say learning a foreign language is not only to look on the side of language itself, but also to comprehend the cultures and customs through constant interactions with foreigners, by which children could pay heed to the skills of building good relationship with others at the same time.
In conclusion, I do not agree on relying on Imagine Learning English program for kids’ early language learning because it might inhibits balancing children’s overall development.
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1 則留言:
First, in fact this kind of English learning program may be not so good for children’s health. But the learning pace and time’s arrangement of the program are almost long as we go to cram school learning English. If the children themselves couldn’t control their time well then their parents could act the role of teachers to administer children’s time. Therefore they still can have extra time to do and experience other things. In fact, it’s difficult to have such surroundings which full of audio and visual stimuli that can always attract children’s attention in teacher center classroom. I consider that sometimes teacher can use computer to assistant their teaching, not only use tape, CD, or VCD.
Then, at the stage of learning, children may have not built a cognitive concept about the letters of the alphabet. It may too early to let them learn to write the letters without reasons like the rote learning and let them remember the letters through writing. I have to say, it’s not the bad thing to let them writing. But I think if we can establish their cognitive concepts through visual stimulus at the beginning, what the shape of the letter look like, maybe some kind of animals. After the building procedure, children can learn the letters more easily. And it will help them in learning writing. Even though the time of practice may not too much, nevertheless their learning efficiency will be better.
Finally, in my opinion, not only classroom activities but also the Imagine Learning English program all has their advantages and disadvantages for learners. Maybe we could try to find out the solutions like combine their advantages together and create something new which is more suitable in children’s learning.
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