Something about Teaching English to Children

SOMETHING ABOUT
TEACHING ENGLISH TO CHILDREN

Very young learners (VYLs : 3-6 year olds)
• Acquire through hearing and experiencing lots of English in the same way as they acquire L1
• Can imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately
• Love playing with language sounds
• Learn holistically (whole child needs stimulation)
• Still developing (a great need for physical exercise)
• Have a very short attention and concentration span
• Very unstable emotionally & egocentric
• Learn through doing things and playing
• Limited motor skills (Clumsy control of pen / scissors/crayons, etc.)
• Are not able to understand grammatical rules and explanations about lg (exposure to chunks of language)
• Are comfortable with routines & enjoy repetition
• Understand situations more quickly than they understand the lg used
• Limited reading/writing skills in L1
• Love stories, fantasy
• Learning = having fun

Young learners (YLs : 7-10 year olds)
• Longer attention span
• Are learning to read & write in L1
• Ask questions all the time
• Rely on the spoken word as well as the physical world to understand meaning
• Can work with others and learn from others
• Have a developed sense of fairness about what happens in the classroom
• Beginning to be logical and analytical
• Developing knowledge of the world around them
• Have greater control of emotional ambivalence
• Are enthusiastic and positive about learning
• Like to experiment with the language

Tips for teaching English at primary level

• Words are not enough (realia, flashcards, gestures, senses)
• TPR (Total Physical Response) – children listen and follow a whole sequence of instructions, doing what the teacher says, (e.g.: TPR with clothes vocabulary, An action routine, A pointing rhyme, Miming a morning routine, Physical break chant, Right or wrong, ‘Simon says’)
• Variety in the classroom (activity, materials, pace, organisation, voice)
• Keep their hands busy!
• Enjoyment
• Motivation
• Content
• Cooperation
• Assessment (traditional tests , observation , conferencing , projects , peer-assessment, self-assessment, portfolio)
• CALL (teaching & testing programs)

Teaching aids

• Toys
• Building blocks
• Cuisenaire rods
• Posters
• Readers/stories
• Games
• Puppets
• Class mascot

Cuisenaire Rods – description

The rods (numbers in colour, coloured numbers) are named after their inventor, who initially used them to teach arithmetic. In the system, there are 10 rods measuring 1 cm to 10 cm (one square centimetre in cross section). Rods of equal length are assigned the same colour. Most Cuisenaire rods follow this system:

Selected lexical areas where CRs can be used

• colours
• numbers
• the alphabet
• time specification
• body parts
• family relations
• buildings & furniture
• animals
• food
• abilities

Aspects ...