preschool academic consultant

[shadia abdel azim]

Dear teacher,
I am an Egyptian teacher. I have 25 years of experience with elementary Ss. I didn't face any problem in communicating with them in English. This year I took another job. I am like an academic consultant for a preschool. I asked my staff to speak only English with the kids. Teachers reported that children understand but refuse to answer in English. Am I wrong to ask my staff to speak only English. Is it OK to use mother tongue when introducing new vocab. words? How can I help my kids speak English?
Please help

[ugp]

I am british and speak Japanese, I have recently completed a CELTA, so I a very new teacher (so this isn't really from my experience). But when I asked my trainer what they thought about me speaking in Japanese to the students. They said that it should only be used at elementary level so give instructions for exercises and nothing else. I know this is a different situation but I agree with you, they need to hear as much English as possible. My French teacher use to speak French and English to my at School and I can't remember a word, stick with it and they will get use to it.

[Tdol]

Speaking English to them, even if they don't answer in English, is still beneficial because they will be hearing English and have, at least, to understand to reply. There are many arguments for using translation with vocab items with a monolingual class, though I would use it where it is ore efficient rather than as a n easy way out. Where possible, I would recommend trying to explain in English, then using translation as a back-up. however, translation can be useful-imagine trying to explain, say, different types of fish- it would be much quicker and more accurate to give a translation rather than trying to explain the difference between a herring and a trout.