Teaching young learners

What are ‘young learners’? In methods there is no concord as to the age limits – it could be anything from 5 to 12. In practice there are attempts to train in a language at the age of 4, and even 3. If we are to take a traditional classroom mode 5 is as early as could be. The techniques and tips I’m about to provide can be used in the first year of language schools and for 8-year-olds in regular schools.

With any other group of learners who form a newly assimilated group entry testing is a must. Should it be applied to young learners if we know that they are absolute beginners. The answer is ‘yes’ as no other group would differ so greatly in physical, psychic and mental development. Developmental objectives are focus in such classes anyway. But it is to be decided how much of a focus. There should be diagnostic testing for: ~ ability to grasp meaning by full use of gesture, intonation, demonstration, actions and parallel instructions whether young learners are trained in listening and are able to follow instructions and imitate;

~children’s creative use of limited language resources: activities should be encouraging to use the language actively for themselves/ Do they invent words?

~ children’s capacity for indirect learning (not focused) – whether they can pick up things easily;

~ children’s instinct for play and fun; how imaginative they are with toy playing; imitating sounds? Telling stories, inventing them; even child’s lies; can they invent a character, see pictures in an ink blot, plan ahead?

~the instinct for interaction and talk: how easily they interact among themselves and adults. If present, these qualities testify for readiness to ELT courses. If absent, these qualities become prime targets for developing, but language acquisition in this case will be impeded. In any case, with ELT for young learners there should be a focus on content and attitude goals, with the latter having priority. Attitude goals comprise building up pleasure and confidence in exploring the language, willingness to have a ‘go’ – the children should want and dare to communicate. I.L. Bim, for example speaks anbout subject and its processing+ experience – emotional and assessment experience of learning-teaching interaction participants.

What language is to be used in class? English can be counter-productive in giving complicated instructions; in a feedback session where the aim is for children to express their feelings and attitudes it would be counter-productive as well. There should be clear guidelines when to use English and where the first language is permissible. English should be used for classroom routines, but it should be accompanied by gesturing.

What textbooks are to be used? In Russia there are 2 course-packs which are complete and allow for continuity: Зинаида Николаевна Никитенко for 1-4 grades and 2-4 grades One teaching technique constructed by Е.Н. Негневицкая makes it unique: a ‘problem story’ which is told in one’s native tongue and aims at conscious awareness of lexis and grammar; kids ‘discover’ rules themselves in the course of this story (How plural forms are built? What is ‘and’ for, find mistakes, etc. Мириам Забатовна Биболетова “Enjoy English” for 1-4 and 2-4 grades is learner-oriented and task-oriented. It extensively uses role-play, group and team work, differentiated tasks etc.

Classroom organization and planning a lesson: Classroom management and discipline: When children arrive, they put their coats on pegs, bags on the floor at their table places and then join you round the board. Only books and pencil cases on the tables. Avoid clutter - very young learner classrooms need to be very organised.

Use two areas of the classroom. For presentation of new language, practice activities using individual children, storytelling and opening and closing of lesson, the teacher sits on a stool next to the board and half-faces the children. Children should sit on the floor at their teacher's feet, with a further row of children behind on chairs to form a closed circle. This avoids sitting on the floor and makes you feel more in charge. For activities, three or four children should sit at each table. Colour-code the tables. When children move from the board to the tables, get them to move group by group, not all at once. Children keep to the same places.

Present new language at the board. Use lots of flashcards. Involve all pupils - ask individuals to perform a small task: pointing to something, choosing a picture or sticking it on the board. Children like to be picked, so make it fair. Ask the whole class a question, get them to repeat or drill.

When changing activity, try using a rattle (e.g. rice in a box) rather than raising your voice to attract attention. This becomes a signal that children recognise. Start the activity, even if not all children are attentive. They will eventually join in with the others.

Be aware of what sort of work children are doing at school. The teacher I observed worked on the skills of matching, comparing and classifying. These are all things we can develop and adapt.

When children are working at tables let them finish as much as possible. Fast finishers can do another drawing, or colour in. As children finish, write on their worksheets to explain what they have drawn, stuck or classified etc. questioning them at the same time.

Use ‘open pairs’; select 2 children to do part of the activity while the rest of the class watches. Physical organization of the classroom is important: there should be a display section for students to take pride and interest in what they do. You may introduce a system where each week a group of children summarizes the week’s work on a poster on the ‘English’ wall. As to planning, adhere to a rule: keep the lesson simple. Sometimes we think that a lesson is varied when we begin with 5 minutes of greetings, then revise numbers, then do a quick introduction of colours and finish with a song about 7 days of the week. This is not helpful, since children’s minds are required to jump from one theme to another with little time to let things sink in: we don’t help children to develop their capacity to concentrate, rather the contrary. As to integration of 4 skills, if your group cannot write, there are other types of paper and pencil activities they can do (developing special skills, managing a copybook systematically, numbering, sorting out, differentiating, drawing, colouring by numbers, making use of the ruler). There is an important principle connected with lesson planning – to reuse materials. For instance two sets of pictures can be used as basis for a grid:

	Apples	Bananas	Grapes	Oranges
Pete	+
Jane			+
Kate				+

The table, in its turn, can be used for listening activities (marking true-false), for simultaneous pair work and as a story-telling prop. Second principle is to create routines that the children recognize; they help the children to feel secure and at the same time save a lot of time and explanation. The core of the lesson will vary, but there should be routines for finishing activities. Early finishers should always have some reserve activity to do, e.g. an extra worksheet with a word game or a puzzle. If they are doing a messy activity, there should be some time left for a clear-up. You might appoint different children to be responsible for pencils, colours, scissors, etc. In general it is better to present new language in the first part of the lesson and dedicate the last part of the lesson to quieter, individual activities. Recycle the language as much as possible in different activities, contexts and using different skills.

You should realize that no textbook covers your children’s needs exactly, its necessary to supplement it with other related activities (handicraft, physical education, gaming, etc.) The core principle here is integrating and different entry points; theme can be ‘entered’ through maths, geography, art, craft, music, history, technology, drama, PE + other ideas. What topics are suitable for young learners? E.g.: insects, vegetables, fruits and plants, islands, cars, fairy tales, festivals, houses, institutions (school, hospital, police, circus,shop) – in fact, anything at all so long as it is concrete enough, has a fascination for young learners and can cement various activities together.

Forming the 4 skills. Listening: For young learners it is a dominant skill and first to be trained in; kids should be trained to respond non-verbally or use minimum of the language, e.g. listen and arrange action dictation (go to the door, take the picture and give it to Jane)Other suggestions as to what can be dictated: classroom commands, body parts, verbs in general (for miming, prepositions, abilities (if you can swim, clap once); physical descriptions can be dictated for drawing what you hear; also general knowledge (if a spider has 8 legs, clap eight times); or ‘battleships’ based grids, which are to be dictated and entered (have a stack of simple images: cars, flowers, trees, etc.); the above said grids with likes and dislikes, that can be cross-dictated.

A	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
B
C			+	+	+
D	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
E	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
F		+				+
G
H
I

As to telling a story, there are many with a spiral structure, like ‘Gingerbread’; they can be supplied with pictures which reflect part of the story; the children describe the pictures to each other and put them in order; also use miming and dramatizing a story. The next useful tip is imitation listening activities when you show children what to do and they copy you at every stage, e.g. “fortune-teller”(«корзиночка» или любая другая игрушка – оригами).

Speaking: first thing to bear in mind is that children need to see the reason for doing the activity, e.g. to complete a picture, to find information in order to make a graph, to put on a performance. The end product is an important motivating factor, often more important than the topic itself. If the children know that at the end if the task they will be able to have a couple of minutes’ ‘relaxation’ in their language, they are more likely to try to do the task in English. Tips to suit many occasions here are: tongue-twisters, based upon repetition of the last consonant; children compose them by themselves by using rhyming groups of words:

Sad black mad bad

Fat bat man cat

Each student should say his tongue-twister to the class for everyone to try. The tongue-twisters can later be displayed on a poster. The idea of interview grids is that all children in the class conduct a class survey by interviewing each other. Children can exchange information about likes and dislikes, have’s and have nots, hobbies, times and events, seasons, asking for personal details. If a question and answer on that is forever done by a teacher, it is unsatisfactory, because: a) only one child at a time is involved in answering; b)children only produce the answers; c) a child is only likely to answer once at the most. Interview grids on conducting a class survey go through certain steps:

1. Build and fill in a grid on the board interviewing one child;

2. Interview a second child;

3. Do a third interview, this time getting one of the children to ask the questions and fill the answers;

4. Get kids to draw their own grids;

5. Let them interview each other. To avoid confusion, each child is allowed to interview 3 classmates and then he sits down.

“Can you remember” games are intended to show that we can use memory to create real communication. The main concern is to increase mental engagement by giving children a good reason to remember what we are saying, hearing, reading or writing. Create a sequence of prompt cards for which the children say the appropriate phrases (e.g.: Bu, Su, F, Gr – it is to do with shopping; try to guess what it might mean). Make children write sequence prompts by memory. Fantasizing with pictures (photos)-Who? When? Why? Family? Hobbies? Pets? is one more useful tip. You can also encourage imagining a conversation or the forthcoming events (When? Why? What is going to happen). Flashcards can prove invaluable here as well. Why use flash cards?

Howard Gardener's multiple intelligence theory reminds teachers that there are many types of learners within any one class. Gardener's research

indicates that teachers should aim to appeal to all the different learner types at some point during the course. It is particularly important to appeal to visual learners, as a very high proportion of learners have this type of intelligence. Flashcards can be bright and colorful and make a real impact on visual learners. Many of the activities outlined below will also appeal to kinesthetic learners.

For children at reading age, flash cards can be used in conjunction with word cards. These are simply cards that display the written word. Word cards should be introduced well after the pictorial cards so as not to interfere with correct pronunciation.

Flashcards are a really handy resource to have and can be useful at every stage of the class. They are a great way to present, practice and recycle vocabulary and when students become familiar with the activities used in class, they can be given out to early-finishers to use in small groups. Sometimes get the students to make their own sets of mini flash cards that can be taken home for them to play with, with parents and siblings.