The Kumon EFL Programme

Our EFL programme helps our students develop skills and confidence in English

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How old is your child?

The KUMON Instructor first observes how your child handles listening to the audio device and how they respond to small cues. This way, the KUMON Instructor knows how to motivate your child to start learning English and how to move forward.

Through English songs that awaken curiosity, your child hears words and sentences on a CD and repeats these. This is how listening skills are developed when learning English. Illustrated accompanying books ensure understanding. In this way, your child gains their first vocabulary and internalises sentence structures naturally, as they would learning their native language.

Printed hints and symbols encourage the children to work attentively and carefully. So, when learning English, they develop concentration skills and widen their attention span, as well as gain proper learning skills, which will be beneficial for them in school and other areas of life.

In the advanced levels of our learning programme, your child will learn to read, write and acquire grammar skills through compact and purposefully designed learning stages. They will listen to spoken texts on an audio device and expand their reading comprehension with increasingly demanding reading materials. Right from the start, and often accompanied by questions about the texts, they learn to approach exercises autonomously and  decipher texts competently.

At each level of the English programme, students further develop their skills gained at previous stages. In this way they build a solid understanding.

In the first interview, the current abilities of each student are assessed, and on this basis - regardless of age - a starting level is determined at which your child can start learning English in a motivated manner.

Each day the child works with a CD, where they repeat what they hear, and look at a companion book to enhance understanding. By way of intensive daily contact with the language - often called a “language bath” - the child internalises the vocabulary and sentence structures in a natural way, just like when learning their native language, and developing a feel for it. Printed hints and symbols (the “teacher” in the material) encourage the child to work attentively and carefully. So, they develop their concentration and attention span, as well as good study habits, which will benefit them in school and in life.

Then your child will learn grammar, which is offered in a compact format. Later, your child turns to reading texts that gradually increase in length and become more challenging.

At the most advanced level of the programme, your child reads original English texts. They continue to listen daily to CDs, and thereby continuously enhance their listening and reading comprehension. Guided by questions, they acquire textual competence: they learn to extract information from a text and to competently develop an understanding of it.

At each stage of the English programme, students continue to enhance their skills gained at previous learning stages and so develop a solid understanding.

The KUMON English programme helps students develop a positive attitude to learning English and master the language. They also learn to pay close attention, to get an overview, to extract information and to work in a structured manner.

Through daily contact with the language (listening, repeating, reading, writing) your child will quickly improve their English skills.

In the first interview, the KUMON Instructor assesses at what level your child joins the programme. Unlike conventional English tutoring, the starting point is where your child can work with ease. In this way, the child can develop momentum and gain the self-confidence that they need to progress further.

At each stage of the English programme, students continue to enhance their skills gained at previous learning stages and so develop a solid understanding and strengthen their ability to learn independently./p>

What's covered in the English programme?

Listening

The KUMON English programme starts at levels 7A, 6A and 5A.

At levels 7A, 6A and 5A, students listen to words, practise repeating them out loud. The pace set by the CD helps them to concentrate and to develop a proper work rhythm.

At level 7A, students first hear individual words. When the word “dog” is played, the barking of a dog is audible in the background on the CD; when the word “truck” is played, the humming of a motor becomes audible. In this way, their first encounter with the English language is as natural as learning their native language. This maintains the joy of learning and sparks curiosity.

At level 6A, numbers, colours and various adjectives are added.

Reading and Writing

In levels 4A, 3A, 2A, young children learn to read and write, and develop a learning rhythm, whilst older students gain confidence in spelling and pronunciation.

In level 4A, students predominantly trace words. In level 3A they write these words and practise them, and in level 2A they independently write complete sentences. They develop initial abilities to correct themselves. In all three levels, they practise their English reading comprehension by connecting words and illustrations by means of drawing lines between them.

The sequence in which the separate consonants, vowels and sound combinations are introduced is coordinated in such a way that allows students to internalise subtle differences in spelling and pronunciation - they are engaging all their senses. They continue to listen to two tracks on the CD per day, repeat these and read their writing exercises out loud.

First Daily Communication

In levels A, B and C, the students practise simple phrases and expressions that are commonly used in the English language, such as expressing wishes or make suggestions. Based on information given, they write sentences and complete dialogues. When learning English, these exercises fine-tune the ability to memorise and focus.

Students build up a solid vocabulary and can look forward to an increased ability to express themselves in a foreign language.

Sentence structures, which is a topic covered at more advanced levels, will be imprinted in their memory through daily use of the learning material. This includes listening and repeating what is heard, as well as writing and reading out loud.

Sentence Structure

The emphasis in levels D, E and F is on sentence structure.

Using a modular principle, students enhance their ability to frame sentences themselves. As the writing workload increases, students train their stamina when learning English. In level E, the past tense is introduced, and in level F, the children learn nuanced expressions through the introduction of modal verbs such as “can”, “may” and “should”.

Learning continues to be intuitive, with students imitating examples, and listening and repeating what they hear with increasingly longer dialogues. As a result, they develop a solid foundation for speaking freely.

By answering questions about the short stories they read, students train their memory skills and learn to search for specific text passages. Whilst learning English, they grow into competent readers and strengthen their ability to pay attention to detail and to work carefully.

Grammar

In levels G, H, and I, grammar is systematically presented and consolidated. Explanations and tabular overviews accompany the English learning exercises and make students aware of grammatical rules. Students will have intuitively practised many of these rules in earlier levels, others will be new (e.g. ‘Past Progressive’ in level G; ‘Passive’, ‘Present Perfect’ and ‘Past Perfect’ in level H; ‘Relative Clauses’, ‘Type 2 Conditional’ and ‘Indirect Speech’ in level I).

In order to internalise the grammatical structure effectively when practising English, students at this level will listen to two CD tracks per day, repeat what they hear and read their exercise sets out loud.

General Reading Comprehension

Once students have acquired a solid vocabulary and are confident in their grammar skills, they will further develop their reading comprehension when studying Level J and onwards. They continue to intensively focus on specific grammatical elements (such as ‘Type 2 Conditional’ and ‘Indirect Speech’).

The reading texts in levels J, K, and L contain content from world literature such as Pinocchio, Treasure Island, and Oliver Twist. However, students also read factual texts from a diverse range of topics.

Students study texts by answering questions about the content. They work in a structured manner that enables them to extract information from texts, to focus on crucial information, and to answer questions precisely and meaningfully. Students also internalise those structures, by listening to the same texts played on an audio device.

Reading Comprehension of Original Texts

The three most advanced levels of the programme (M, N, O) contain extracts from original texts of literature by renowned authors, such as, Anna Sewell, (Black Beauty), Roald Dahl (Matilda), Richard Adams (Watership Down), Helen Keller (The Story of My Life), and F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).

At these final levels, questions about the content will lead students to intensively analyse texts and grow their comprehension of content and text structures while practising English. Thus, students enhance their reading comprehension and occasionally practise extrapolating the meaning of an expression from the context. The programme concludes with an extract from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.

Exposure to the language does not have to stop here; KUMON graduates will feel confident reading any English text that presents itself to them going forward. They will continue picking up new words and expanding their language horizons as they continue through life - and that is a beautiful thing.

How does Kumon work?

Each student is assessed at the beginning of their Kumon journey to find their current level of ability. Assigned work is then set according to their ability, regardless of age or school year so they can focus on developing exactly what will benefit them most.   

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