Many students take lessons before reaching school age

Chen Yilin, who turned 3 in November, was sitting alongside six other children on the floor of a kindergarten classroom at an educational institute in Shanghai that caters to Chinese youngsters learning English.

"Who has a lizard?" the teacher from Canada asked the children, all of them younger than 5. Several shouted one after another, "I've got a lizard."

They each had a card with six pictures, and the first child to collect six objects from the teacher corresponding to the pictures on their card would be the winner.

Chen's mother, Zhou Moyi, watched her daughter through the classroom window.

"She has made huge progress since I decided to let her start learning English by sending her to classes twice a week eight months ago and by trying to talk to her in English as much as possible," Zhou said.

Many kindergarten pupils are learning the language before they start school, and an increasing number of educational institutions are holding English lessons.

Each claims to have the best teachers who are native English speakers. Some promise that their students will acquire an impressive English vocabulary within months.

Adele Bai, president of Kids & Teens at EF Education First China, said 40 percent of Chinese children now start learning English before school age, and many of them are from first-tier cities.

Children in big cities are only 3 when they first attend classes, younger than those taking lessons five or 10 years ago, Bai said.

"Back then, many parents would say, 'We may consider sending our children to learn English at 5 or 6, or when they lag behind in school tests'," she said.

Bai added that with the introduction of the second-child policy, parents do not want their children to miss the opportunity to learn English. She also believes the market will continue to grow rapidly.