CHILDREN TEACHING (II)

Disciplina: Psihologia educatiei; Pedagogie;

WAYS OF TEACHING ENGLISH TO KINDERGARTEN PUPILS

By Mihaela Moldoveanu, Director: Teddybar Kindergarten

We as teachers will want to teach our students how to use language functions and we may well decide which ones are more important for each level.
In 1973, R. Brown published the results of a longitudinal study on the way the children acquire language in their first pre-school years.
The study was a close look at three children and their speech was recorded for hours every month, throughout their first five years. By getting a set of recordings at regular intervals, in this way, Brown wanted to be able to see the way the children’s speech gradually developed and the stages that the children went through.
He found that the children’s language development could be roughly divided into five stages, and at each stage the children would say different types of sentences, gradually increasing in difficulty. In the first stage, children tend to say two-word sentences which might involve possession: “my ball”\“mingea mea”, absence: “all gone ball”\ “nu mai este mingea”, or a simple description of an action: “Adam hit the ball”\“Adam a lovit mingea”. The things that they say tend to relate simply to objects around them.
During the second stage, the language is beginning to get more complicated. They might say things like “that a book”\“aceea (este) o carte” or use a verb in the past tense “Adam walked”\“Adam a mers”. Although the sentences are still simple two-word ones for the most part, they have started to use endings on words, instead of just saying the simple word on its own “I walking” or “Adam’s ball”.
At the third stage, they have begun to ask the “wh” questions: what, where, why, and so on. They have also started to ask other kinds of questions too, like “Does Eve like it?” and “Where did Sarah hide?”\”Unde s-a ascuns Sarah?”
The fourth stage is even more complicated: they will tend to use simple sentences involving more than one clause: “Who is that playing the xylophone?”. Before this stage, if they wanted to ask the same question, they would have probably made two sentences: “Who that?” “Play xylophone?”. But by this time they can join the two sentences, together, into one sentences.

2.1 DEVELOPING SPEAKING

Teachers should speak at normal speed. It will take the children a little longer to start hearing separate words, but soon they will be able to understand English spoken at normal rate. We as teachers should use normal stress and intonation. Remember that children at this stage learn by imitation.
I as a teacher use English whenever possible. All my instructions are just as important as what I want to teach.
e.g.: “Make two groups?”
“Do not cheat”
“Wipe your nose”
“Where is Raul?”
“Is he ill?”
Teachers use full sentences or phrases. When the pupils are describing pictures I insist that children use full sentences, too.
e.g.: “What is this?” (they should say “It is a ball”, not, just ball).
If a teacher is teaching colors, he could teach like this.
e.g. “a yellow banana” or “ a red apple”
Some children may answer “red” to the question “What color is the apple?” but they will quickly correct themselves as they learn unconsciously to place the article and the adjective in front of the noun. By using full sentences, children get a sense of context, they fill in sentences or phrases, they assimilate different syntaxes and structures which they will be able to use later when begin creating their own phrases and they would find it easier to use a sentence or a phrase.
Children learn at different rates. Strangely enough, it is accepted that children are allowed a period of silence before they start using their first language yet they are usually expected to start speaking straight away when they are learning a foreign language. The teacher will find that, in fact, some children will begin using their English right away (especially if they already speak a second language). The difference in maturity among very young children of the same class can be enormous. Here the teacher should be more patient. Children will speak! Usually girls, musical children and children who already speak more than one language, learn a new language more quickly and more easily than the others.
Teaching children to speak a foreign language can be very rewarding, as they are less self-conscious than older learners.
Children also respond strongly to music and rhythm, and the teacher will find that they are more easily able to learn a song than a spoken text. However, teachers often find speaking a difficult skill to teach, because learners have to master several different elements of language in order to say what they want: vocabulary, pronunciation, structure, functions and so on. Children used to the sound, feel and rhythm of language, are able to speak, without having to worry too much about how to formulate what they want to say.
As children get older they become more able to use and manipulate the language, and the teacher can add less tightly controlled activities such as storytelling, or information gathering.
It is important to bear in mind that children need to see the reason for doing the activity-for example, to complete a picture, to find information in order to make a graph, or to put on a performance. This end-product is an important motivating factor, often more important than the topic itself.
The second basic principle is:

2.2 DEVELOPING LISTENING AND COMPREHENSION

Listening tasks are extremely important in the kindergarten language classroom, providing a rich source of language data from which the children begin to built up their own idea of how the language works. This knowledge forms a base or a resource which they eventually draw upon in order to produce language themselves. Teachers should let children listen to language which is a little above the level they are already familiar with. Teachers should make the meaning clear by using pictures, mime and body language, and they will understand it and expand their language horizons just a little bit further.
It is almost always true that language learners understand more than they can say, and when children learn their first language they respond to language long before they learn to speak. Second language learners also have a “silent period” in which they listen to language around them, internalize it, and formulate their own personal grammar, which they adapt and expand as they are exposed to more language.
There is a tendency to think that “doing listening” is listening to the cassette that comes with the course book. Cassettes are useful for providing a different voice and accent, but the teacher is also a very important source of listening material.
Teachers can also give instructions for making things, or tell stories and because they are actually there in the classroom, the children can see their face, gestures and body language while they listen, which is after all how we listen in real life.
When a teacher teaches a new structure or vocabulary item, he should let his children listen to him and watch him as he speaks and mimes, or points. This activity should be done several times if necessary. Then, teachers should get the children to copy their gestures while they repeat the structures or words. Finally, it is extremely important to remember that children need a long time before the language they understand becomes language they use. It is easy to say “Do you understand?” “Good” and then go on to something new, forgetting that your pupils need to practice the language a lot more and to hear it used in different context before they can assimilate it enough to use it.
The third basic principle is:

2.3 DEVELOPING DRAWING AND WRITING

The question of when to start teaching English to children to write in English is closely linked to that of when to start teaching them to read. Similar criteria apply:
1. How well can the children read and write in English at this stage?
2. Do they need to be able to write in English at this stage?
3. Do they show an interest in writing?
4. Will the English spelling system interfere seriously with what they are learning in their own language?
5. Are the teachers going to ask them to copy or to be creative?
6. To write words, sentences, or stories?
In general, it is best to introduce English through listening and speaking first, then reading, and writing last. It is important to evaluate the needs and abilities of your own children.
For young children, pictures are very important. The teacher could ask them to draw a picture and then to write a short caption of it. It is usual to ask them to copy words and short sentences first-to practice their handwriting as much as their English. These short sentences and words should reflect themes connected with the children’s schoolwork or daily lives, and be linked with pictures and posters around the room.
But writing is much more than the simple mechanics of getting the words down: it also involves being creative, spelling, grammar, punctuation, choice of appropriate words, sentence linking, and text construction; and, for older children, having ideas and content, and the ability to be self-critical and to edit their own work. The children learn some of these skills when they learn writing in their first language, but others have to be taught explicitly in the English class.
The fourth basic principle is:


2.4 VOCABULARY & GRAMMAR

Young children are quick to learn words, slower to learn structures. This may be because words have tangible, immediate meanings whereas structures are less obviously useful. After all “Pencil!” often obtains the same result as “Can I have a pencil?”. They also seem to learn phrases wholistically: for example, “I have got” is learned as a single item “I’ve got”, rather than analyzed into its separate parts. So, in order to teach structures to young children, we need to repeat the same structures over again in different meaningful contexts, using a variety of vocabulary.
Vocabulary is best learned when a picture, an action or a real object illustrates the meaning of the word, for example. Then, the children should meet and use the words in relevant contexts, in order to “fix” them in their minds. This helps them to establish their relationship to other words, so that a vocabulary network is built up.
Both vocabulary and grammar need to be taught in context and children should always be given plenty of opportunities to use the language in class. This means that they do not just learn the rules superficially, but put them into practice in order to communicate.
But when we think of vocabulary, we think of the following questions:
“How do I select vocabulary to teach?”
Before teaching children new vocabulary, it is essential to carefully select the word or words within a particular word group that you want to teach. There are some things to bear in mind when choosing this vocabulary:
We as teachers should remember that there is both active and passive vocabulary (“active” vocabulary is what the children both understand and use; “passive” vocabulary is what they understand but are not able, or required to use ). Obviously most of the words we use in class will only be passive vocabulary for young children.
We should choose vocabulary that is relevant to the age of our pupils.
We should keep our expectations realistic. We should have a basic group of words that we want to teach the whole class, the number of which will depend on their age group. We can teach some extra words to the quicker pupils and the slower ones may absorb them passively, but we should not expect the slower ones to use them actively.
We should try to see if there are any words that have almost the same pronunciation, words that resemble the Romanian equivalents. E.g.: Banana is an easy word for most children.
We should think of what they already know which might be easy to build on. E.g.: If they know flower and toy it is easy to teach them flower shop and toy shop when they are learning names for shops.
When playing a game with the whole class, we should take care to choose the right level of vocabulary for each pupil: we could challenge a quicker pupil with a difficult word and encourage a slower pupil with an easy one. Vocabulary can be taught in interesting and effective ways. It can be easily understandable to young children and very enjoyable at the same time. We can teach vocabulary through pictures, stories, crafts, picture dictations, videos, card games. Pictures are simple and easy to teach vocabulary. If they are attractive, children will love them. Stories are an enjoyable way to teach vocabulary to children. A story can be illustrated on the board with pictures, drawings and \ or with actions. But we, as teachers, have to know some things on how to do this. Young children do not need complicated stories; on the contrary, the simpler the better. The stories must be read loudly, calmly by the teacher. For a story to be interesting, the teacher must read it with mimicry and gesture. The stories for young children must be full of actions and interesting words, not full of descriptions because they can be very bored by them.
E.g. 1 “Once upon a time, there was a wicked witch who lived in a big and ugly tower…”
E.g. 2 “Here comes the prince with his beautiful princess!” said the King.
The teacher should keep the children’s attention by illustrating as he goes along so they are eager to see what is coming next.
There are two kinds of stories:
the stories from books or magazines
the stories invented by the teacher or by the children – who are full of vivid imagination.
The second type of stories suppose that the teacher can combine drawing with telling a story. If he has drawn pictures on the board he should point to them and get the class to tell a story, gets them to draw it in their notebooks, and while they are drawing, he goes around the class and gets individual pupils to tell him something from the story. He could draw part of the story in a different order and get the children to say the corresponding sentences or express the ideas. The teacher should not be worried about his artistic abilities. Children think anything a teacher draws is great and at the most, they will have a good laugh and associate what you have drawn with what it is supposed to be.
e.g.: Nature vocabulary:
target vocabulary: tree, forest, sky, sun, moon, star, mountain, river.
This is the witch (draw).
The witch lives in a tree (draw).
The witch lives in a tree (point) in the forest. (Here the teacher could draw two or three trees. He may encourage the children to say tree, and other new words when he points to the pictures)
The witch lives in a tree (point), in the forest (point), in the mountains (draw).
The witch is hungry! (Rub your stomach and mime hunger).
She’s going to fly (mime) through the sky (point). She’s going to fly (mime) through the sky (point) and visit the stars (draw), the moon (draw) and the sun (draw).
Some children live in a house. Here is the river (draw). Here is the house. Here is the river. Here are the children! (Draw a face in the window of the house).
The witch is hungry (mime). She’s going to eat (mime) the children!
A bear (draw) lives in the mountains. The bear likes the children.
Here is the witch. She’s going to eat the children. The children see (mime) the witch. Help! Help! (The children cry out, “Help! Help!” and mime with them).
The bear (point) runs and catches (mime both actions) the witch. He throws the witch into the river (mime and point to river).
Goodbye, witch! (The children say goodbye with you and wave).
If the teacher tells a story or does some drawings with his pupils in them, he can be sure to have his pupils complete attention.

Crafts

It is an excellent way to teach a language:
e.g. Making a sandwich. These are all interesting, authentic activities that involve children as well as teach them English.
In a picture dictation, children simply listen carefully and draw what you tell them. It is an excellent activity for developing listening and comprehension skills as well as a useful way of evaluating our pupils’ understanding.
Young children like watching videos but only in short session, otherwise they get bored.
There are few important steps concerning teaching English through videos:
The teacher:
should teach the main new vocabulary items before he shows the video. That way children understand or at least catch words or phrases so they are encouraged to listen and they get the satisfaction of seeing that they can understand something.
should stop the video after an example of some new language and ask “what did he/she say?”. If they cannot repeat what was said, rewind the tape and get them to listen again.
should stop the video at an interesting scene and ask “what is that?” “where’s…….?” “how many…..?”
after showing the video he could describe a character and ask the children to guess who is.
could get the children to draw a picture from the video and tell you or the class about it.
could play the same video often. Children must learn to hear, and the more they listen to a video, the more they will understand.
Cards with pictures are extremely interesting and can be used in many games which are very popular with children.
Getting the children to make their own picture cards makes an excellent lesson and saves the teacher’s time, too.
For some games, the children will need a set of cards each. For other games, he will only need a set for all the children.
If he wants to ask the children to make the cards, remember that young children have trouble in managing scissors and can get upset if the picture that they have cut is not well cut. The teacher could make it easier for them by drawing the pictures in squares of dotted lines so they can cut along those lines.
The fifth basic principle is through

2.5 RHYMES, SONGS, AND DRAMA

Music and rhythm are an essential part of language learning for young learners. Children really enjoy learning and singing songs. A chant is like a song without music, or a poem with a very marked rhythm. There are many different songs and chants, from traditional ones to specially written material for young language learners. Some songs are good for singing, others for doing actions to the music, and the best ones are good for both ! A teacher can use songs and chants to teach children the sounds and rhythm of English, to reinforce structures and vocabulary, or as total physical response activities – but above all to have fun. He can use a song or chant at any stage in a lesson: at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a lesson. Songs can be also used as background music while the children are working quietly or doing another task – it is surprising how much they absorb unconsciously.
Rhymes and songs are fundamental procedures for teaching young children a language for the following reasons:
They develop the “ear” which is the first, and one of the most important steps, in learning a language;
They teach pronunciation, intonation and stress in natural way
They teach vocabulary
Rhymes and songs are a good way of giving children a complete text with meaning right from the beginning;
They are always well accepted by children and they are fun. Children enjoy the rhyming sounds and also the strong rhythm used in most rhymes and songs. Children love anything rhythmic and/or musical, and because they enjoy it they assimilate it easily and quickly.

REFERENCES:
1. Dunn, O. 1979 – Beginning English with Young Children, Longman.