Survey Results Show 60% Of Parents  Reckon Learning English Should Begin Between 0 And 2 Years Old

70% Of Parents Spend Less Than Two Hours A Week  To Accompany Their Children For Learning English

HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach^[1] - 15 August 2018 - Founded by experienced educators, including founders of international schools, the former Regional Director of Oxford University Press, Chief ELT Consultant, and HR Director of Pearson Education Asia, D Mind Education aims to develop and provide quality English learning programmes catering local children's needs.

From left: Mr Ben Mak, Head of Contents, D Mind Education; Dr Paul Sze, Professional Consultant (Honorary), Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Faculty of Education; Ms Adeline Cheung, Lead Tutor of the programme, D Mind Education

In order to understand parents expectations towards their children's progress in learning English, and to examine ways to carry out these learning programmes, D Mind Education has recently interviewed some 500 parents via the parenting platform Baby Kingdom. Mr Ben Mak, Head of Contents, shared the survey findings.

The survey results reveal over half of the interviewed parents feel that the ideal age for children to start learning English is between 0 and 2 years old. However, over 70% of the parents admit that they could only spend less than two hours a week to read with their children or teach their children English. Overall, 90% of parents believe  that phonics is an important process in learning English. While 68% of the parents have received tertiary education or above, only 42% of them had learnt phonics themselves. Unsurprisingly, some parents are not confident in teaching their own children phonics as a way to improve their vocabulary. As a result, 58% of the parents prefer to enrol their children in programmes outside school to offer them that level of support. Most of them agree that phonics is useful in building  children's confidence in learning English and it enhances children's English language abilities in reading, writing, listening and speaking. When choosing an English language programme for their children, parents rank the quality of the programme, including the contents, teaching approach and learning outcomes as the key factors apart from location.

Mr Ben Mak said, 'Based on our findings, parents care very much about their children's English learning and they hope to cultivate their children's interest in learning English from an early age. However, at present, many parents can only spend less than two hours a week with their children to learn English. Therefore, a systematic and holistic English learning programme will definitely help resolve the dilemma for parents. Taking into account these factors, D Mind Education has introduced an English learning programme based on the pioneering concepts by the British expert, Ruth Miskin.'

Innovative learning approach advocated

by British phonics expert Ruth Miskin

Ruth Miskin's teaching method combines synthetic phonics with skills of sound blending, reading and writing. Through enchanting stories, the programme offers a systematic way to improve a student's English reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, with proven results. Widely used in many primary schools in the UK, this proven approach has been appraised as 'Best Practice' by the UK government. Ruth Miskin, author of the learning programme, has over 35 years of teaching experience and has served as an advisor to the Ministry of Education for a decade. Hailed as the 'Queen of Phonics', Ruth Miskin has substantial experience in training English teachers in local schools. D Mind Education is the first educational institution in Asia that Ruth Miskin collaborates with in order to provide teacher training and quality education.

To ensure quality of the programmes, the tutors must be trained by both Miskin and D Mind Education prior to classes. Moreover, they will receive coaching advice from Ruth Miskin's team on a regular basis, so as to ensure teaching effectiveness. As a mother of two, Ms Adeline Cheung, Lead Tutor of the programme, explains the importance of Miskin's teaching approach in inspiring interest among young children to learn English. In fact, Ms Cheung has travelled to the UK for five times for training at Ruth Miskin's and she is currently the ELT consultant most familiar with Ruth Miskin -- RWI in Asian region.

D Mind Education was set up in the summer of 2018 with an aim to promote quality English learning among young children, and has recently joined hands with Discovery Park to launch the project 'D Mind Education for D‧Park'. D Mind Education advocates children to start learning English from three years old using the English learning contents from Ruth Miskin -- RWI, so as to cultivate their interest in the language. To find out more about D Mind Education or Ruth Miskin -- RWI learning programmes, please visit the website www.dmindeducation.com^[2], or simply click to connect with and LIKE the Facebook page of DMindEducation^[3].

Please download the high-resolution images from the link below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DQjP6Ip2wom3ECbGTc1TVS-vkTR-Xc6W^[4]

About D Mind Education

An educational department of New World Development, D Mind Education is founded by several veteran educators. Its core members include founders of international schools, former Regional Director of Oxford University Press, Chief English Language Teaching Consultant, and the HR Director of Pearson Education Asia. The team is committed to bring in quality educational materials from overseas and develop contents for local students to learn English effectively. With an evidence-based approach, the team is keen to advocate internationalised and diverse contents to meet the needs of the local community. The key objective is to support local students to speak English as fluently as native English speakers, to inspire their interest in learning English as well as to enhance their confidence through the learning process.

References

1. ^{^} Media OutReach (www.media-outreach.com)
2. ^{^} www.dmindeducation.com (www.dmindeducation.com.hk)
3. ^{^} DMindEducation (www.facebook.com)
4. ^{^} https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DQjP6Ip2wom3ECbGTc1TVS-vkTR-Xc6W (drive.google.com)