A few days ago, the reporter investigated some children's English training institutions and found that in the face of a children's English course that costs more than 100 yuan or even several hundred yuan, parents should not only "give money to their children", but also polish their eyes and make a good screening.
Can blondes be foreign teachers?
"This foreign teacher is Spanish, and his first language is Spanish. He has learned English in the past two years. But you can rest assured that his language learning ability is particularly strong, and he speaks English very well, which is more than enough to teach children. " In a shopping mall in Chang Ying, Beijing, a sales consultant of a children's English training institution introduced to the reporter.
Like most children's English registration process, parents first make an appointment online and then take their children to the audition. The reporter noticed that most of the students in the audition class are five or six years old, and there are also four-year-old or even younger children. Although the institutions are different, the audition classes are largely similar. Most of them were attended by a foreign teacher and a teacher from China. Most of them greet their children by "high-five". Most of them draw stars on the blackboard as a reward for their performance in class. Even about the teaching content, four of the five institutions have determined the theme of the audition class as "knowing colors", which is simply "coincidence".
After the 20-to 45-minute listening class, the teacher asked the children to play games and watch cartoons, while the parents were pulled aside by the sales consultant. "The consultant is very enthusiastic. He took out the price list and said that the price would rise soon. This is the last opportunity for low price, and he urged me to register on the spot. He said that if you sign up on the day of the audition, there will be additional benefits. " Ms. Sun, a parent, told the reporter that when her son was 5 years old, she saw that many children began to learn English and wanted to sign up for a class quickly.
Expensive tuition is the same feature of the current children's English training market. According to the reporter's investigation, many children's English training institutions spend more than 100 yuan per hour, and some even reach 300 yuan, with an annual course cost of 10,000 yuan.
In the face of parents' questions, different training institutions have different "educational ideas". If parents ask why foreign teachers have short teaching time in formal classes, the consultant will say that domestic teachers know more about the cognitive laws of young children; If parents ask why the price is much higher than other institutions, the consultant will emphasize that all foreign teachers in this institution are more conducive to children's "immersion" in the English environment; If parents suggest that the English teacher's pronunciation is not standard, the consultant will argue that pronunciation is not important and "the tree is big and straight". The key now is to stimulate children's interest in learning English. ...
The reporter's investigation found that there are quite a few foreign teachers of English for children from non-English speaking countries. A beautiful white girl is the head teacher of a class in a children's English training institution. "She is Russian. She has taught herself English in the past two years. We are worried that parents will have opinions, so we will generally blur the specific situation of foreign teachers. Many parents don't know much English and can't hear the sound. They are very satisfied to see that they are white foreign teachers. " An insider who asked not to be named told reporters.
The reporter saw from the notice of recruiting foreign teachers in a children's English training institution that the requirement was "native English or having studied in Britain and the United States", but it did not require foreign teachers to have teacher qualification certificates and no criminal record. Due to the "low threshold", some "foreign teachers" who have no work visas but only study abroad or tourist visas have successfully taken up their posts, which not only has various hidden dangers such as teaching quality and safety, but also causes the frequent flow of foreign teachers. "My children changed four foreign teachers last year," a parent told reporters.
Many training institutions do not agree with this problem. "Qualification is not important, what is important is to see how the children learn." The head of a training institution made no secret, "Some of our foreign teachers are unqualified, but their solid teaching ability has attracted many students, and the children like him very much."
"Ice and Fire" before and after sale
"After paying the money, I know that the customer service has changed face so quickly." Ms. Wang, who lives in Chaoyang District, Beijing, spoke to reporters. Her troubles come from the "ice and fire" before and after the sale of a well-known online English training institution.
Considering that it takes too much time and energy to pick up and drop off children, after visiting several offline training institutions, Ms. Wang focused her attention on online English. "My favorite online English organization offers one-on-one foreign teachers and classes twice a week. After I filled out the application for the audition class online, I received a call from the institutional consultant in less than 3 minutes. It' s really enthusiastic and' obedient'. " Ms. Wang said that once because of the equipment failure at home and once because the child suddenly fell ill, the two scheduled audition classes were temporarily cancelled, and the customer service was still very enthusiastic and there were no complaints, which made her very sorry.
The audition effect is very good. The foreign teacher is a male teacher from America, with standard pronunciation and lively class. Ms. Wang is very satisfied. On the fourth day after the audition, she bought a three-month class bag worth nearly 5,000 yuan. The change takes place at the moment after payment. "Your favorite teacher is only once on Tuesday, which can't meet the requirement of having classes twice a week." The consultant informed Ms. Wang and repeatedly promised that "the level of teachers in the trial class and the formal class is the same", and Ms. Wang readily agreed to change teachers.
13 After the payment, the teacher finally made an appointment. "I didn't expect the gap between the formal class teacher and the audition class teacher to be too big. I read the 26 letters and words one by one, without explanation, dialogue or extension. Even if the child is sad and crying, the teacher can't stop it once. " Ms. Wang is very angry: "At least respond to the child's crying and laughing. This is the basic skill of the teacher. Otherwise, why choose such an expensive one-on-one foreign teacher? "
However, when Ms. Wang wanted to renew her contract with the teacher who auditioned for the first time, even once a week, she was told that the teacher didn't have time for a class. "Since then, I have never received any news about the appointment. A reminder is' I am going to take a week off'. Ask next week, or' I am making an appointment, it will take a week'. " Ms. Wang was angry and introduced the ins and outs of the matter in the agent APP "I want to complain". Unexpectedly, when you click "Submit", the system displays "The information you submit must not exceed 500 words".
There is no news left and right, and the left urges the right to rush the thunder. In desperation, Ms. Wang suddenly thought of a "trick" and continued the class with the child's father's mobile phone number. As expected, full of enthusiasm. The consultant contacted him and arranged the course on the same day. Moreover, he is an excellent teacher, and the children especially like him at once. "If the teacher in the audition class is excellent, the level of the teacher who can make an appointment after the real registration is extremely poor, and the excellent teacher is always' no time'. Is it suspected of fraud?" Ms. Wang wants a statement.
"Only recognizing money" is not conducive to long-term development.
Similar to Ms. Wang's experience, many parents are full of expectations for payment, but they are "stuck". "Audition class is a game-based teaching. When you sign up for a formal class, it becomes a' full house irrigation' that the teacher talks and the students listen to. Really boring. " Ms. Cheng paid in an offline training institution, and her daughter didn't want to go again in less than a month.
"Refund if you are not satisfied." This is a promise made by many merchants to customers, but it is very difficult to get a smooth refund. "The teacher tried every means to persuade us to continue our study. After several times of communication, the teacher reminded me that' the agreement stipulates a proportional refund, and the longer the time, the less the refundable ratio, and no refund can be made after the deadline'. However, during repeated communication, I missed the deadline for refund. When I first paid the money, the other party did not tell me that there was such a rule. " Ms. Cheng said.
The reporter's investigation found that "difficulty in refunding" is a big problem in the current children's English training market. A person familiar with the matter told reporters that many training institutions are accustomed to "kicking the ball" for refunds, such as refusing on the grounds that parents "can't produce evidence of poor education quality" because "accepting students" is the top priority.
The White Paper on the Investigation of English Learning Status and Trends of Children and Adolescents in China released by China Youth Research Association and the English Education Research Branch of Beijing Education Society in 20 16 shows that among the nearly 12000 children and adolescents interviewed, more than 60% began to learn English before the age of 5. Under the strong market demand, the chaos in the vigorous development of children's English training can not be ignored.
"For example, in terms of teaching methods and textbooks, there are homogenization problems such as low-end plagiarism. As far as teaching materials are concerned, most of them follow foreign teaching materials, or are appropriately localized on the basis of foreign teaching materials, and a few of them are independently developed according to European and American testing standards. Foreign textbooks are designed for local children, but they don't take into account the needs of children in China. The effect of "takenism" needs to be investigated. The future direction should be to improve the ability of independent research and development and design a set of teaching materials that are really suitable for children in China. " The head of an English training institution pointed out.
In view of the chaos in children's English training market, some education experts have warned that education is a slow industry, and this nature will not change because of the development of technology and the influx of huge capital. "The inflow of capital has promoted the rapid development of children's English, but if the capital only focuses on the level of interest and is committed to how to get huge returns quickly, and does not give educational institutions enough time, space and funds to improve and upgrade, parents will gradually lose confidence in children's English education after frequent problems in the content end and service end, which will have an impact.
Without control, chaos is normal.