Teacher's free online resources is helping those living in remote areas learn English.

At a breakfast stall in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, a sixth grader had her eyes fixed on the mobile phone. As customers went in and out of the stall owned by her mother, the girl continued to be focused, watching the online English lessons on the mobile phone, unperturbed by the noises around her as she confidently practiced aloud. When Du Shu saw a video of this scene, she was impressed.

The online lessons are the work of Du, 36, in which she offers free educational resources, especially to those living in remote areas and who have little access to quality resources in school.

A native of Shenyang in Liaoning Province, Du received a master's degree in English at the University of International Business and Economics in 2010. Now, she works as an English teacher at education consultancy Just Show English in Beijing.

In 2014, she started writing English books for children, especially picture books with interesting stories. Du and her colleagues wrote the stories, and award-winning illustrators were invited to create content based on the plot. They also made accompanying videos for the books, along with original music.

"Our books mainly cover topics about everyday concerns. In one story, a group of monkeys obtained cellphones one day. All of them looked at their cellphones all the time without talking to others, and their family relationship nearly broke down as a result," Du says.

"We want to tell students of today that we still need to pay attention to the happiness with our family members, instead of focusing on electronic products all day."

Their works were exhibited at the 2016 Bologna Book Fair, and one of their series Just Show Rhyme Books won a prize at the 2017 Nami Island International Picture Book Illustration Concours for its illustrations.

"Our books were prominently displayed at the book fair, attracting many foreign publishers. And we felt really excited to gain recognition from the international community," Du says.

When online lessons became increasingly popular in 2019, Du started a program to make free English lessons, so as to offer quality educational resources to students living in remote areas.

Having worked as an English teacher for years, Du studied the learning methods of many students of English in Beijing, and found that many of them achieved progress through repeated practice. She says a similar practice pattern can also be effective for other English learners, so she designs online lessons helping students complete such practices every day, and hopes those who live in remote areas would benefit from such a pattern as well.

"I believe through such daily practice, students can have a good foundation on which they can improve their English-language abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and thus improve their English proficiency," Du says.

She also says she has made more than 1,500 classes on social media platform Sina Weibo, enabling students to learn English for two to three consecutive years.

"The lessons can help a student with zero knowledge in English learn until they can read English easily," she says. "In future, I will make more such lessons to help them continue improving various English abilities, and finally form a learning system that enables students to achieve a high level of English proficiency."

Nearly 320,000 people follow Du on Weibo, and some people show her their progress in the form of videos. Sometimes, Du responds to them by giving them suggestions.

"I used to feel anxious as I couldn't find a proper way to make my children start learning English, but Du gave us some effective suggestions," says Sina Weibo user Ningmengxiaoxian'er, a mother of two children from Laixi in Shandong Province. "Although my children don't have access to international schools, reliable training agencies or foreign teachers as we live in a less-developed city, they can still learn English from Du and see a more colorful world."

Du says she can contribute to achieving equality in education. "Through this program, we want to tell students who live in remote areas that even though they have little access to quality education resources, they can still learn with my free lessons."

She devotes a lot of time to the program, and uploads up to two online lessons each day.

"I find my value in this program. My existence has benefited more people, and helped some children open the door to the outside world," Du says. "This is the happiest thing for me."

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)