A fun and enjoyable journey of language acquisition at WASNJ

For generations, Chinese parents' favorite subjects have been Maths, Physics and Chemistry. This has formed a consolidated perception that a child's success relies heavily on their performance in these three subjects. While putting this concept into the context of a contemporary world of globalization, another key factor that contributes to a child's success might be their language skills. Because language is a bridge through which bilingual or multilingual people can express themselves.

Weeks ago, Vice President of WAS Group Mr. Dez Yuan, shared with upper school students his own language learning experience. The language acquisition journey is fundamentally about how to communicate and express. It should be a fun and enjoyable journey that helps to expand someone's understanding of the world, by acquiring new knowledge and broadening horizons.

Mr. Dez Yuan

Vice Presidentof WAS Group

Graduating from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Mr. Dez Yuan once worked for an internationally renowned consulting company, and then devoted himself to the education industry. He  has been leading the establishment and development of WASCZ, WASHK, WASHZ and WASNJ.

1. Dez participated in a 4-month Canadian exchange program and then worked overseas for over 6 months in Chicago, USA.

Recalling his days of learning English, Dez feels impressed by his own Walkman and English cassette, as well as his friend who always carried an English vocabulary book.

There was one person in his class who always carried an English dictionary, he was obsessed with competing with others to see who could memorize the most English words. 

"Remembering words without really understanding them or knowing how to use them is not my way of learning English." Dez addressed the students who attended his speech. To him, the key to mastering a language lies not in the language itself, but in how the language is learnt. 

Dez's way of learning English is to think about a scenario. He would have his English cassette running in his Walkman as his bedtime story. Using this routine, he found himself speaking English in his dreams.

Dez's dedication to learning English earnt him a lot of opportunities as soon as he began his studies at university. Due to his excellent English language skill, Dez was enrolled in a 4-month Canadian exchange program. After he graduated, he spent over 6 months in Chicago, USA.

Dez admittedly benefits a lot from his overseas learning and working experiences. What he gained from this is not only exposure to multi-cultural diversity, but most importantly, a mindset on how to communicate with people from different backgrounds. With this firm belief in the power of contextual language learning, to create an immersive language learning environment for students is pinned as one of the founding ideas for WASNJ.

2. Thick-skinned is the attitude needed to learn English well.

Do you like English? What's your way of learning English? When asked by Dez these two questions, most students admit that one major reason hindering their motivation to learn English is the pressure of memorizing vocabularies. Using his experience, Dez highlights that curiosity and courage are two essential elements when learning a language.

Every child speaks before they know how to write. Children are always curious about everything happening around them. They are good at observing details and they can always ask unexpected questions. Such curiosity can be developed into active thinking when they are growing up to be teenagers, when they can associate everything, they see into another language learnt. If they see information on a poster in the corridor, they can think about how to express this in English. When they are going down the stairs, they can think about how to say the word handrail in English...

Online resources are always helpful. Movies, TV shows as well as video games can also be seen as good chances to learn. Using the subtitles available can also be beneficial. Watching English series repeatedly is also a method adopted by Dez. To some extent, language learning needs repetition. Any quantitative change will eventually lead to qualitative change. With one more language mastered, one more way of thinking acquired, and when we can think more deeply, we can learn more language.

While talking about courage, Dez shared another story with the students. Back to his days of Grade 11, the English class welcomed a British teacher coming from UK, which surprisingly made the majority of the class shy away from speaking up. "Shy-away was not my style, I was probably the cheeky type at the time. I asked her a lot of questions and used every opportunity to talk to her. This not only resulted in my English improvement, but also a friendship between my teacher and I."

Thick-skinned is the attitude needed to learn English well. "You should never be afraid of making mistakes. I know that there are always words I don't know when I communicate with my foreign colleagues. Like couple days ago when I talked with Carlien, I have no idea how to say asphalt in English. So, I asked my colleagues then a new word learnt."

Dez's experience of learning English might sound familiar to each of us, which confirms the essence of obtaining a language is to always be open-minded, curious and explorative.

3.Cultivating "language courage" is an important thing.

When we learn a new language, it takes 1 to 2 years to develop basic interpersonal communication language skills, while cognitive academic language skills in second languages take about 5 to 7 years. Mrs. Maria Dunbar, Head of Upper School English, mentioned that the students of WASNJ have different English ability due to their past learning experiences. Therefore, in the classroom, she also focuses on cultivating the courage in using English in the founding students.

One of the actions is to create an English environment in the classroom. Walking into Mrs. Dunbar's English classroom, you will find a variety of English books, posters of English works pasted on the walls, so that the students can sit in a familiar environment.

Secondly, create a variety of interactive learning tasks to guide students to speak in the class. For example, students will write down their ideas about the Olympic Games on sticky notes and speak out boldly. A word hunter game in which students are scrambling to guess the letters is helpful too, and the winner can get important House Points.

Thirdly, in order to know better about the true level of the students, Mrs. Dunbar also assesses the students' English ability through the GSE, to collect the data and analyze. Based on the assessment results, students are provided with three types of courses: courses for native speaker of English, courses of English as a second language and courses of English Literature. She groups students of similar levels to maintain a consistent learning rhythm and generate positive motivation towards friendly competition.

Moreover, Dez's sharing also originated from Mrs. Dunbar. She told me: "Compared to a stranger, students often see Dez on campus. He is fluent in English, a successful person who we are familiar with. I hope that through the sharing of his own experience, he can inspire the initiative of students."

After listening to Dez's sharing, Tracey and Millie from G9 wrote down their thoughts: 

I learned a lot from Mr. Dez's speech. He talked about How and Why we learn English. For all ages, being courageous, curious and patient is important for learning English. He said he had graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. And he went to Canada for an exchange for four months during school life. So I think his language environment was also important.

The reason "Why" we learn English is quite a hard question for me. And I thought maybe just for expanding my horizons. It was really an effective speech and I think everyone had a rich gain.

——Tracy

 From the presentation of Mr. Dez, I have learned that it is fine to fail. Mr. Dez said that he was rejected by 4 different colleges, however he did not give up planning for his future. Many people in this case will feel despair, but he did not. This kind of quality is what is worth learning. To never give up for anything, no matter what happens. This is not only important to us teenagers, but also important in every life stage. We will face many difficulties, yet stick to your dreams and never give up. 

——Millie

After a semester of learning, Mrs. Dunbar was pleased to find that the students had gradually become familiar with expressing more in English. This is consistent with Dez's view that with English learning, you can never start until all the green lights are on. You can just master the language through the accumulation of daily life.  

Finally, on the topic of language learning, I would like to share with you a famous quote by the Israeli linguist Guy Deutscher. "We see the world differently because we speak differently. We use language to express thoughts and emotions, but at the same time, the language is shaping and changing the way we see the world."