The GIA Program with my students

                                        李凤莲老师

   Last year I took turn to start a new school year form Senio1 after sending some students to colleges and universities. I am so lucky that some of my new students are involved in the GIA Program while they are in Primary and Junior years. I realized their outstanding abilities in listening, speaking and reading in English after a few days’ teaching from the very beginning of the new term.

   One of the best students is called He Haosen. He told me when he was in Huamei primary school, his parents chose the GIA Program class for him. All the program English teachers are native English speakers. So it is easy for him to learn English in this kind of circumstance. Not only are the native teachers strict with them about their listening, speaking and reading, but they have a high demand to them all that no one can speak Chinese in class. It pushes them to think in English and express themselves in the same way.

Every week, they have an average of 4 periods of English classes per day. And in each class, the students are absorbed in English study and inspired to communicate only in English. Step by step, they are used to talking in English both in and out class.

During the six-year GIA Program, the students finished reading “Odyssey” and some other famous pieces of literature in a way acceptable for them. Their teachers also assigned some projects for them to explore. For example, they were expected to do research on computer to find out the information they needed in our history class.

He Haosen also told me that there were some differences between the GIA class and our traditional English class. In the GIA class, teachers are intended to build a highly activated class so that every student can practice English willingly and confidently. They even have chances to interact with some students from other class to cooperate on the same project, which undoubtedly give them a lot of experience on teamwork and leadership.

Now he is in senior high school and is one of my students. Although there is no more GIA Program class, he has benefited a lot from the earlier learning experience. He has got some tricks of learning English and obtained the abilities about how to learn English in an efficient way. So in English class, he can think critically and independently. And he is always working in cooperation with others and learning collaboratively.

As far as I’m concerned, in Huamei School, there are many students like He Haosen, who are not only excellent students in English but also have some other talents, such as a perfect host both in English and in Chinese, a good performer on the stage. In addition, they are good helps to teachers. They can organize various kinds of activities in diverse activities. I think what they have maintained in the GIA Program does make a difference.