Chester's English Speech

Chester placed 5th in the 2006 Yonghe City Mayor's Annual English Speech Contest (Yonghe, Taibei, Taiwan). He was one of four students from Pacific English Institute in the competition. PEI's students ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• ESL
• EFL
• Taiwan
• Taipei
• Yonghe

[wotan20]

but your previous comments have already explained that. The remaining question in my mind is this: How typical this development level at this age?

Or, is he more like a little adorable genius, prepared to us as an 'exhibiton piece', who is far ahead of the majority behind him?

[BigNoseForeigner]

For this event, we helped the students make "idea webs" (or "mind maps" or "brainstorms") so they could generate content for their speech (all speeches were "My School Life"). We taught them "Intro, Body, Conclusion" and helped them order their sentences. Then, we recorded mp3s of us reading their speech so they could here it from native English speakers. That was about all we did, other than giving them a few practice runs and tweaking some pronunciation.

[wotan20]

For an average westerner, the Eastern educational method, vaguely associated with emphasis on rote learning, and maybe brings up faint notions of more team co-operation versus endorsing 'excessive' individuality. I fear, that both ideas may be crude and outdated, thus my incomprehension, what's your phrase really meant to be.

[BigNoseForeigner]

I agree with your hesitations regarding the terms. I would have similar reservations if I heard it from some random person on the internet, too. My wife and I, who are the first teachers and curriculum developers for PEI, are also in the last semester of our M.A.'s in Intercultural Studies. So we're definitely sensitized to the complexities involved in intercultural interaction. but for YouTube, I don't bother with much academic nuance.

[BigNoseForeigner]

Even with the complexities acknowledged, the plurality of cultural influences in any one place, and the ever-changing nature of cultures, I'd still say that there are real differences in worldview orientation *generally* between East Asians and North Americans/Western Europeans. And that despite all the exchange of influence, these differences manifest in the education scenes of the various societies.

[BigNoseForeigner]

We deal with this reality weekly - sometimes daily and hourly, trying to explain to skeptical parents why we're doing things different. It's a tough sell, until we get results like this.  Tons of factors help perpetuate the differences - economic, competition, and even differences in the respective natures of Mandarin and English (alphabet vs. characters) require different skills to be developed/emphasized.

[wotan20]

Well OK, the term 'advertisement' was more or less a rhetorical tool, a veiled accolade. The only phrase, which didn't ring a bell to me, is the 'blending of Eastern and Western educational methods' Nowadays, after so many half thought-out educational reforms, (showing worse and worse results), I'm not even sure what is a Western educational method. I wish I could say, it is still based on the classic Socratesian philosophy, but I digress.

[BigNoseForeigner]

For PEI's part, I think what makes us so different from all the other buxibans is our curriculum package and our educational philosophy. We've blended Eastern and Western educational approaches, and we use North American curriculum that is heavy on phonics, word building, and comprehension.

[BigNoseForeigner]

We put the video up here for the parents and the students - it's not meant as an advertisement. This student placed 5th, and he was so nervous he actually forgot some of his speech. I guess that adds to the cuteness! PEI seems to attract above average students, but being above average in English in Yonghe isn't saying that much.

[wotan20]

If this was some sort of convincing advertisement for this new method, then I think it has resoundingly succeeded. That intelligently handsome boy, (just look at his forhead) in my opinion, spoke better a vastly more complex text, with an amazingly clear pronounciation, than the majority of native English speakers at that age in NA. I was going to ask, if it was the result of some rote learning, (even then, it would be a remarkable accomplishment)