English should be the only language when teaching Chinese students English essays? Agree or not agree? Why?

Answer 1

If you are teaching English essays, I would presume that the Chinese students must already have a basic command of the language. In that case, it may not wise to teach it with another language.

However, if your students have a very poor grasp of English or they are beginning students, it helps to use their mother tongue, assuming it is Chinese in this case, to help them understand certain simple concepts. For instance, I would use 非常 to help explain 'very' to them, on top of explaining the use of 'very'. It helps them understand and remember it better.

However, please note that though researchers generally agree that the use of first language helps with the learning of second languages, there are no comprehensive studies done with two languages as different as Chinese and English. (Chinese is logographic and English is alphabetic). There could be negative transfer instead of positive reinforcement when using Chinese to aid the teaching of English.

Answer 2

I never used Chinese when I had Taiwanese ( Mandarin speaking ) students.
Students should have quite a command of English before doing essays in English.

Answer 3

Well having studied much ancient Greek and a lot of ancient Hebrew I would say that it may be wise, at the start at least, to use Chinese with English.

Answer 4

Well it makes no sense to use French when teaching English does it.

Answer 5

I agree. Because otherwise you get big supplies.