TSEP Stepping Stones:
A step in a new direction

The English program at Thewphaingarm School has been growing older although the students are getting younger. Anuban 3 has now joined the fold as an English medium classroom in an effort to help students learn English faster and better.

Research in the field of language acquisition has consistently shown that children learn languages better than adults. In fact, children don’t even have to try to learn a new language; they do it automatically. Take a young child anywhere in the world and he or she will learn the local language within a short time. Responding to this fact, TSEP has introduced a new program: Stepping Stones. Native English-speaking teachers are now teaching English and mathematics to Anuban 3 through games, songs, and activities. Because the children are having fun, they don’t even realize that they are learning a new language. The teachers create an environment that encourages the children to acquire English quickly and provide meaningful opportunities to use English.

For children, these opportunities are in the form of fun activities. Young children are naturally curious and like to have fun. They have instant motivation for acquiring the language of the activities. Words and phrases do not need to be translated because the children understand them quickly in context and do not worry about grammar. They simply repeat what they hear and know that it will work.

Additionally, young children can pick up a native-speaker accent rather than a Thai-English accent. Rather than spending months and years in Prathom and Matayom unlearning the Thai-English accent that they learned, students of the new Stepping Stones program learn their first bits of English from native speakers. The games that they play include phonics and pronunciation games to help train their mouths and tongues to easily pronounce the sounds that most Thai speakers of English find difficult.

It’s an opportunity not to be missed. Research shows that as children get older, their ability to automatically acquire language diminishes quickly. Stepping Stones allows an early exposure to English and will provide a strong bridge to success in Thewphaingarm School’s EFF or TSEP programs.

Stepping Stones provides students with one hour each of English and mathematics instruction each day After completion of this new program, students should have a firm foundation in English pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar that mimics English speaking children in Western countries. From early on, they will learn to use English as a tool for communication rather than an endless series of sounds to be memorized and repeated.

It’s an ambitious project that will hopefully blossom to encompass Anuban 1-3. There will also be some growing pains as the program is refined and tailored to meet the needs of the students. But in a short time it should become the most essential, and fun, step for learning English at Thewphaingarm School.