I have been working on a series of bilingual English-Chinese educational books based on characters created by my daughter when she was between 18 months and 3 years of age . These Magic People books are a little rough around the edges because they began life as drawing sessions for my daughter and child’s scribble remains in some of the pictures (even in print). These books are nevertheless entertaining for children and the English-Chinese bilingual educational concept has proved successful; they are for sale at http://mushroom-bilingual-education.v90.us/blog/books/.
Experimenting with those Magic People books gave me the experience I needed to move from screen to print in order to raise the standard of the graphic design work, and I have now finished my first professional quality book – Trolls Drool.
This book draws on my twelve year experience of teaching English to Chinese students, using the European cultural concept of trolls as a way of introducing specific English language learning points. Although it is primarily aimed at helping Mandarin speakers to learn English (with a particular focus on the correct pronunciation of l, r, w and v), it can be used by any English language learner whatever their mother tongue.
Each page features extra discussion questions on the topics raised and these target different levels of English language proficiency (from conveying basic personal information through to exploring abstract concepts and social issues). At the back of the book the intended learning focus is explained along with a few ideas for teachers to extend the learning activities.
Or for those in China, click here to watch it on Youku
🙂 I’ve already received positive feedback on the video from an experienced English teacher in China:
