Статья "Methodology guide to young learner teaching and learning"

Methodology guide to young learner teaching and learning

There is a variety of learning characteristics that show some of the main differences between the child and the teenager and allows us to see some of the areas where you can focus in your teaching.

CHILD	PRE-TEEN	TEENAGER
Learns most by doing things	Becoming aware of learning and studying as a separate skill, but still responsible to holistic teaching rather than details	Learns in a variety of ways, including by doing
Learns faster, forgets fast: needs constant reinforcement, recycling	Growing motor skills - (an ability to use their hands and co-ordinate at the same time)projects can be more skilful etc.	More criticism, complaint and a sense of superiority inhabits - teacher has to win enthusiasm
Mainly oral-based learning	Can concentrate for longer but still needs frequent change of pace	Increasing ability to analyse and draw conclusions
Total physical response (games, songs, mime etc) promotes learning	TPR can help channel energy if used routinely it helps learning but may cause embarrassment	Maturing, though adolescence can slow up social skills development
Enters into a fantasy world willingly, loves bright colours, cartoon characters	Growing knowledge and awareness of world outside home, school and family	Engages more willingly with reality, fears childishness

So, this means to teachers that those students still respond to techniques developed for younger children: TPR; oral-based teaching; fantasy world; bright colours; etc., but they are beginning to develop more adult learning patterns. This means that if you are teaching this "in between' group you can use a new range of techniques to engage students developing cognitive, emotional and motor skills.

In order to differentiate the syllabuses prepared for primary and secondary work, it`s important to describe the difference between content and/or attitude goals. It`s also important to establish a good working relationship with the children in your class and to encourage them to do the same with their peers. Speaking English requires your children to take risks because to make mistakes in front of many others can be terrifying experience for them. Until they feel comfortable and safe in their learning environment, that is, the classroom, they may learn very little. Establishing this sense of security takes time and needs to be developed throughout the year and so your lessons should incorporate activities which encourage and develop group support, fun and friendship. "It`s our experience that group formation within any learning community needs contiual reinforcement and that group-formation activities lead to a positive learning environment. Conversely, learning sessions that don`t include group-formation activities may develop into a completely different learning atmosphere and be less effective in terms of results of the learner." (Vale D., Feunteun A.)

So, we should  highlight the term "activity based learning" as opposed to language based learning. Having expressed the fact that learners at this age group love to be involved in activities, it would be a good idea for all of us to decide what the advantages and disadvantages of this approach are in order to know where to use it.

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

o   provides "whole learning" context for language o   suits mixed ability groups o   allows for a rich language input o   allows for pupils to develop their own language texts from the results of practical tasks o   provides a highly motivating context o   motivates children to take risks with language and to look for language they want to use rather than repeat predetermines language from a textbook o   encourages social interaction and peer teaching o   encourages success at the individual child`s own cognitive and language skill level

o   may be difficult to organise in the language clsssroom o   requires a lot of preparation time o   requires confidence to take risks with discipline o   activities take up too much time so there is little time left for language focus and practice o   needs language confidence and fluency from the teacher o   activities need to be carefully selected so that the language generated can be matched to that of traditional EFL curriculum o   requires a lot of planning in order to maintain a consistent progress in terms of language development o   may require co-operation from other teachers

Some useful methods for teaching English

TPR activities: Total Physical Response (James Asher): This is a theory or methodology that facilitates learning new language through actions. Students respond physically to the teachers instructions. It`s learning by doing and is meant to mimic the natural learning process of a child. An example of a TPR activity is to play the game " Simon says" or the song "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes";

Elicitation: rather than tell the students answers or solution and expect them to learn by listening to you, let them tell you. Ask questions that encourage talk.

Language Chunks (Michael Lewis): these are fixed expressions or language wholes that occur frequently in language. Learners should learn these and not focus on analysing grammar or language content. Instead they learn the context in which phrases or questions should be used.

Concept Checking: teacher uses questions to check students understand the meaning of a language or activity. It can also be used to aid understanding.

Drilling: teacher demonstrates language to class for them to repeat. This can be done chorally or individually. Other types of drill include chain drills where students carry out an activity that requires them to keep repeating the target language of the lesson.

Syllabus and lesson planning

Quite old and criticised over the years, PPP is the probably the most commonly used lesson structure in TEFL today. It’s also still widely taught to new teachers, and seen on initial teacher training courses. So, there are 3 stages of a task-based lesson:

·        pre-task/presentation: use of pictures, eliciting, presenting, revising vocabulary, brainstorming in pairs, small groups;

·        task/practice: pairs, groups, individuals do the task, teacher monitoring, encouraging, helping etc.;

·        post-task/production: presentation, feedback, product of task, plus revision, extension, homework activity.

              Let`s focus on the lesson plan - important points to highlight.

- Demonstrations and checking understanding of the instructions before any activity/task (actual demo, eliciting of instructions);

- Feedback/concluding activity shows results of activity in some way (students write on the board, make a graph and put it on the wall);

- Personalisation - authentic communication between students and teacher, increases students` interest/motivation, builds up student - teacher relationship;

- Eliciting/checking/presentation of vital vocabulary needed for task/activity, allows for students involvement and to show their prior knowledge;

- Short practice activity that focuses on revision of vital vocabulary allows students for whom the vocabulary is new to practice its use;

- Students are actively involved in all stages of the lesson, not only in the task/ activity stage, this helps motivate students;

- An extension activity is provided - the open-ended nature of the task means thought must be given to what students do after;

- The rounded/holistic nature of the lesson, in that the lesson builds on students` knowledge and has an identifiable product; and that all four language skills are practiced together;

- The language presented and practiced in the lesson is derived from the demands of the task - rather than first deciding on the language and choosing a task to fit the language:

- The brainstorm/contextualisation helps students to access their own background knowledge, both individually and as a group.

        Planning your work with young learners we should remember the most important aspects:

·        the most important thing to remember when teaching young learners is that they respond to language according to what they can do with it, rather than it as an abstract system to be learnt. In terms of the classroom, this means using a task-based approach - where the main focus is on completing an enjoyable task, rather than presenting a piece of language.

·        the young learner teacher should aim to develop all four skills which incorporate tasks which allow the students to "discover" grammar rules for themselves. Wherever possible activities should be relevant, fun and communicative. Apart from skills, tasks that work well include games, songs, quizzes, problem-solving activities, project work and anything that gets the students moving around the class such as running dictations and reading races.

·        don`t forget the need to calm your students after exciting tasks with quieter activities which "cool" the students down (reading, writing or vocabulary work). A cooling task at the beginning of the class often works well, particularly when waiting for late-comers.

·        try not to under-estimate the language ability of your students. Children are great mimics and they are far less inhibited when it comes to using the language than adults.

·        don`t always expect all the class to finish a task, but think about extension activities for those who do finish fast.

·        think about mixing weaker and stronger students in group or pair tasks, so the stronger can help the weaker.