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Abstract： this article mainly introduces primary English education in Norway and their teaching goals and philosophy. The lecturer provides many useful methods to whet our students’ learning appetite. Their ultimate goal is to motivate all students to produce language which could shed light on how can we improve our primary English education.
Key words： English education; teaching material; teaching method; teaching goal;
Professor Anne-Mette Bjru came to Hainan University and gave students a lecture on Teaching English through Art on December 4th 2013.
At the beginning， she briefly introduced English education in Norway and their teaching goals and philosophy. The ultimate goal is to motivate all students to produce language. Their teaching philosophy is to use English to learn it instead of learning to use. There is no unified textbook in primary and secondary English education so teachers are free to choose teaching material.
In Norway， English education has to be adapted to all students in a mixed class which means teachers have to teach students at different levels at the same time. Every student should be included. Teachers are expected to ensure that every student is active and can learn something. In primary school， the maximum class size is 28， and for the lower secondary school， it is 30. The average class size is 20.2 which is much lower than its Chinese counterparts. Although teachers have the freedom to choose teaching material， how and where to select teaching material impose a difficult task on every teacher. Professor Anne-Mette Bjru shared her insights on how to use websites， books， museums， albums， magazines to find art works for teaching.
Teachers may choose to use a famous painting in a primary classroom. At the first level， you may ask students to name the colors and objects in the picture. Then you may ask students to describe what is happening in the picture. Next you may ask what had happened before and what will happen next. Finally you may invite students to tell a story according to the picture. Colors， nouns， adjectives and some simple verbs will be needed to fulfill these tasks so students’ appetite to learn these words will be whet.
Professor Anne-Mette Bjru also introduced a game which can be used in class. Teachers are required to flip a picture quickly in front of students for once and students are expected to tell what they have seen. Answers will vary greatly from person to person. There is no fixed answer so students will not be afraid to respond and it is not necessarily to be correct or wrong because it is just personal opinions. By doing this， students’ imagination will be stimulated greatly.
Teachers may ask students to choose pictures to make their own cartoon strips. They are required to add easy dialogues and simple stories in English to the pictures. They are free to cut off pictures from magazines and arrange them to make their own stories or just copy pictures from the internet. The goal is to make full use of students’ imagination and motivate them to produce language. Teachers can even ask students to make an advertisement to promote a product. She set an example by using the mineral water bottle in her left hand. The slogan goes like this “You should drink this because it’s healthy”. She was posing like a professional model while she was saying this slogan. By doing this， students will be actively involved in the whole process so they may not feel bored.
Family albums can be of great use in teaching too. Teachers could encourage students to bring their private albums to school and ask them to tell the stories behind each picture. It is much easier for them to do so because they are talking about their real life. Of course teachers could provide help when it is necessary. If students’ minds went blank， teachers could give hints by asking some questions such as what were you doing at that moment and what happened before and after that.
Nowadays even primary students have their own smart phones so it is quite easy for them to take some pictures. Teachers can take advantage of this by advising them to bring their own photography works to class and tell the stories behind the pictures in simple English.
As students’ English competence rise to a certain level， teachers can impose more challenging questions such as what is the tone of this painting and what are the intentions of the painter of this work and what is the historical and cultural background of this painting. Teachers can use some strategies to boost children’s learning interests such as competing for prizes or choosing the topics they are keen on such as toys to boys and dolls to girls. If one student is completely indifferent or not interested at all， teachers need to find reasons instead of scolding him or her directly. Maybe the student can not follow you and is lost completely. Maybe there is something wrong with his or her family. Teachers should be sensitive and be curious to find reasons for children’s behaviors.
Through art works， teachers can create a starting point of vocabulary for their students and help their students to develop English competence which will enable each of them to produce language to some extent.
After listening to this lecture I start to realize that it is urgent for our Chinese English educators to find approaches to gain students’ attention， boost their interests， and make the learning relevant to student’s daily life and future careers. Our teachers need to use more interactive activities and group works to engage more students. Currently， the English education in China pays too much attention on complicated grammatical points and allocates much less attention to the practical use of English. The only goal for most students is to get high scores in the national college entrance examinations. One of our biggest challenges in developing English education in China is to improve our students’ speaking competence. Spoken English is extremely important for effective communication which is almost neglected in our English test system. Listening skill is also very essential if one wants to communicate with English speaking foreigners. Our students’ weak points mostly lie in speaking and listening.
Norwegian’s teaching philosophy also works for us in terms of using English to learn it instead of learning to use. Most importantly we should learn their teaching goal to motivate all students to produce language. Only by doing this can we ensue a sound development of the English education in China.
Note：Anne-Mette Bjru is a professor from the Arctic University of Norway
作者简介：苗学光，海南大学，外国语言学及应用语言学专业研究生.
Key words： English education; teaching material; teaching method; teaching goal;
Professor Anne-Mette Bjru came to Hainan University and gave students a lecture on Teaching English through Art on December 4th 2013.
At the beginning， she briefly introduced English education in Norway and their teaching goals and philosophy. The ultimate goal is to motivate all students to produce language. Their teaching philosophy is to use English to learn it instead of learning to use. There is no unified textbook in primary and secondary English education so teachers are free to choose teaching material.
In Norway， English education has to be adapted to all students in a mixed class which means teachers have to teach students at different levels at the same time. Every student should be included. Teachers are expected to ensure that every student is active and can learn something. In primary school， the maximum class size is 28， and for the lower secondary school， it is 30. The average class size is 20.2 which is much lower than its Chinese counterparts. Although teachers have the freedom to choose teaching material， how and where to select teaching material impose a difficult task on every teacher. Professor Anne-Mette Bjru shared her insights on how to use websites， books， museums， albums， magazines to find art works for teaching.
Teachers may choose to use a famous painting in a primary classroom. At the first level， you may ask students to name the colors and objects in the picture. Then you may ask students to describe what is happening in the picture. Next you may ask what had happened before and what will happen next. Finally you may invite students to tell a story according to the picture. Colors， nouns， adjectives and some simple verbs will be needed to fulfill these tasks so students’ appetite to learn these words will be whet.
Professor Anne-Mette Bjru also introduced a game which can be used in class. Teachers are required to flip a picture quickly in front of students for once and students are expected to tell what they have seen. Answers will vary greatly from person to person. There is no fixed answer so students will not be afraid to respond and it is not necessarily to be correct or wrong because it is just personal opinions. By doing this， students’ imagination will be stimulated greatly.
Teachers may ask students to choose pictures to make their own cartoon strips. They are required to add easy dialogues and simple stories in English to the pictures. They are free to cut off pictures from magazines and arrange them to make their own stories or just copy pictures from the internet. The goal is to make full use of students’ imagination and motivate them to produce language. Teachers can even ask students to make an advertisement to promote a product. She set an example by using the mineral water bottle in her left hand. The slogan goes like this “You should drink this because it’s healthy”. She was posing like a professional model while she was saying this slogan. By doing this， students will be actively involved in the whole process so they may not feel bored.
Family albums can be of great use in teaching too. Teachers could encourage students to bring their private albums to school and ask them to tell the stories behind each picture. It is much easier for them to do so because they are talking about their real life. Of course teachers could provide help when it is necessary. If students’ minds went blank， teachers could give hints by asking some questions such as what were you doing at that moment and what happened before and after that.
Nowadays even primary students have their own smart phones so it is quite easy for them to take some pictures. Teachers can take advantage of this by advising them to bring their own photography works to class and tell the stories behind the pictures in simple English.
As students’ English competence rise to a certain level， teachers can impose more challenging questions such as what is the tone of this painting and what are the intentions of the painter of this work and what is the historical and cultural background of this painting. Teachers can use some strategies to boost children’s learning interests such as competing for prizes or choosing the topics they are keen on such as toys to boys and dolls to girls. If one student is completely indifferent or not interested at all， teachers need to find reasons instead of scolding him or her directly. Maybe the student can not follow you and is lost completely. Maybe there is something wrong with his or her family. Teachers should be sensitive and be curious to find reasons for children’s behaviors.
Through art works， teachers can create a starting point of vocabulary for their students and help their students to develop English competence which will enable each of them to produce language to some extent.
After listening to this lecture I start to realize that it is urgent for our Chinese English educators to find approaches to gain students’ attention， boost their interests， and make the learning relevant to student’s daily life and future careers. Our teachers need to use more interactive activities and group works to engage more students. Currently， the English education in China pays too much attention on complicated grammatical points and allocates much less attention to the practical use of English. The only goal for most students is to get high scores in the national college entrance examinations. One of our biggest challenges in developing English education in China is to improve our students’ speaking competence. Spoken English is extremely important for effective communication which is almost neglected in our English test system. Listening skill is also very essential if one wants to communicate with English speaking foreigners. Our students’ weak points mostly lie in speaking and listening.
Norwegian’s teaching philosophy also works for us in terms of using English to learn it instead of learning to use. Most importantly we should learn their teaching goal to motivate all students to produce language. Only by doing this can we ensue a sound development of the English education in China.
Note：Anne-Mette Bjru is a professor from the Arctic University of Norway
作者简介：苗学光，海南大学，外国语言学及应用语言学专业研究生.