Causes of Ineffective EFL Teaching in Chinese Early Childhood Education

The purpose of this essay is to assist early childhood EFL teachers in China to evaluate and reflect their teaching practices. There are an increasing number of children in China who are exposed to English before the school age, which arouses a debate whose key point is whether it is effective to teach English to children in their early childhood. This essay reviews and analyses the supportive and opposing opinions in the debate and draws a conclusion that EFL in Chinese early childhood education should be successful theoretically but it is ineffective because of some problems in the implementation. The problems pointed out by the opponents, including unreasonable teaching purpose, contents and methods are exactly the reasons for its ineffectiveness. The causes of the unsuccessful EFL teaching in Chinese early childhood education will be discussed in detail.

The purpose of this essay is to assist early childhood EFL teachers in China to evaluate and reflect their teaching practices. There are an increasing number of children in China who are exposed to English before the school age, which arouses a debate whose key point is whether it is effective to teach English to children in their early childhood. This essay reviews and analyses the supportive and opposing opinions in the debate and draws a conclusion that EFL in Chinese early childhood education should be successful theoretically but it is ineffective because of some problems in the implementation. The problems pointed out by the opponents, including unreasonable teaching purpose, contents and methods are exactly the reasons for its ineffectiveness. The causes of the unsuccessful EFL teaching in Chinese early childhood education will be discussed in detail.