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INTRODUCING FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AT AN EARLY AGE
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5/3/2012
INTRODUCING FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AT AN EARLY
AGE
Nowadays it is not uncommon to start learning foreign languages
at a very young age, even in kindergarten. There is a strong ˝folk˝ belief
that young children learn languages better and more easily than older
children (Brewster; Ellis, Girard, 2004: 3). There has been a growing
trend for using English as a world language and English is learnt by
children in many countries of the world. Incentives for learning English at
an early age has often come from parents, who believe that being fluent in
English will help their children in many areas, especially in economic,
cultural and educational areas (Brewster; Ellis; Girard, 2004: 3).
Characteristics of young children
Compared to learning a foreign language at an adult age, when
people usually have a long-term goal (a wish to get a job where bilingual
skills are important, a wish to study in the country of the target language),
learning a foreign language at a young age has its specificities, the most
important being the fact that young children are not in control of their
lives and are thus ˝motivated˝ to learn a foreign language by their parents.
Following are the characteristics of young children (Brewster; Ellis;
Girard, 2004: 10):
- have a lot of physical energy
- are emotionally excitable
- are developing conceptually
- get impatient easily
- are developing literacy in their first language
- are excellent mimics
- tend to be self - oriented and preoccupied with their own world
- are developing conceptually and at an early stage of their
schooling
- can stay concentrated for a long time if interested
- can be easily distracted and also very enthusiastic
Children go through six stages of their first language (L1, source
language ) acquisition (Brewster; Ellis, Girard, 2004: 14):
1. Babbling (from birth to about eight monts): babies can hear and
produce a wide array of noises and sounds. Some of these sounds will be
rejected at a later stage.
2. The first ˝word˝ (about eleven months): children name objects in their
surrounding in their own ways. During the second year random
vocalizations begin to resemble genuine communication, thus some
sound combinations such as dada and mama, tend to be rewarded
positively, although they are produced by chance.
3. Two words (18 months to two years): children enter a synctactic phase
by putting two words together (there, look, want, more, all, gone) to
create a new meaning (look Daddy, Mummy gone, there, doggy)
4. Phonological, synctactic and lexical norms (age 3 and 4):
grammatical structures resemble adults´ structures, the phonological
system is acquired although children might have a few problems with
individual sounds and consonants (thrill, school, ship, church), children
use a vocabulary of several thousand words
5. Synctactic and lexical complexity and richness (between six and
twelve): children continue to expand their reading vocabulary and
improve their understanding of words; they are able to give more abstract
and less self-oriented definitions of words; they like learning poems, song
lyrics, tongue twisters and often create secret languages and codes
6. Conversational skills (12 onwards): do not hesitate to aks for
clarifications, try to identify the problem, suggest an alternative, more
able to take another person´ s perspective, better at using persuasive
arguments to get what they want.
Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2004: 15) opine that most learners
undergo through four phases during the process of acquisition of L1 and
L2 (target language):
1.Working out rules about how the language works
2.Generalizing the rules through a group of similar examples
3.Overgenaralizing (using rules where they are not appropriate, ex.
Simple Past goed and putted instead of went and put)
4. Using language items correctly
The acquisition of grammar
Vasta, Haith and Miller (1998: 425) point out that acquisition of
grammar encompasses the acquisition of syntax (word order), inflection
(conjugations, declensions) and intonation (stress). They distinguish
following stages of L1 grammar acquisition:
1. Opting for the symbol which they believe will be of greatest use to
them in learning the linguistic structure of their mother tongue,
selecting the symbols that are most accessible (Engl. word order in
a sentence)
2. Focusing on the most reliable symbols (those explaining the
structure of grammar in the most consistent way)
3. Noticing the symbols that are in collision, subsequently choosing
those symbols that best reflect the structure of the language
Lynne Cameron emphasizes that children create their own ˝inner˝
grammars, which they acquire individually, i.e. every individual acquires
grammar in his/her own specific way. Inner grammar is sometimes
referred to as interlanguage or linguistic competence. She distinguishes
three stages of L2 grammar acquisition (Cameron, 946: 108):
1. noticing: noticing structures and the connections between
form and meaning, children often notice chunks of language
(phrases they acquire and use later in speech, ex. I don´t
know, Come on)
2. structuring: children freely manipulate with a foreign
language (expressions can be splintered and combined with
other linguistic elements: ex. We don´ t know, I don´ t know
his name), grammatical mistakes are often made: children
apply the acquired rules in new situations: maked, taked
3. proceduralizing: automatization of the use of most
grammatical rules takes place; teacher´s role is very
important at this stage
Vidović and Drakulić (2011: 948) outline similarities in the
acquisition of L1 and L2 English grammar. They point out that mistakes
mostly occur in the use of the same grammatical categories (ex. plural of
nouns such as mouse – mouses and the Simple Past of irregular verbs
such as go – goed).
Mistakes mostly occur in a similar manner, i.e. excessive
generalization; the inconsistent use of regular and irregular word forms,
i.e. the same child may sometimes use the correct form, i.e. teeth or a
wrong form such as tooths (Vasta; Haith; Miller, 1998: 498).
Views on L1 and L2 acquisition
Brewster, Ellis and Girard give a brief overview of the main
theoretical views on L1 and L2 acquisition (2004: 16 - 19), i.e.
behaviorist, innatist, cognitive – developmental and social –
interactionist views.
Behaviorist views had a strong influence on the audio-lingual
approach. Behaviorists put emphasis on repetition in form of drills,
accuracy and avoidance of errors and base their work on Leonard
Skinner´s work ˝Verbal Behaviour˝ (1957). Language is learnt by
imitation, practice and habit formation. Correct learning behaviour is
rewarded by praise.
One of the biggest disadvantages of these views is the fact that
they do not explain children´s creativity in language. They neglect the
fact that children play with similar sounds and compare patterns and
meanings recognized from other words (ex. experimenting with the word
undressed: on dressed, off dressed, etc.).
Innatist views originate from the 17th and 18th century theories
whicha advocated the notion that there are universal characteristics of the
mind. These ideas revived in the 1950s by Noam Chomsky, who
suggested an internal (innate) Language Acquisition Device (LAD),
which led to Universal Grammar in 1959. Chomsky supports the notion
that children process the language they hear and produce own meaningful
utterances. However, one disadvantage of this view is that it neglects
social aspects of communication.
Nativists think that both L1 and L2 acquisition require the learner
to use past experience to structure new experience. According to this
view the child uses the language they hear selectively by building upon
what they already know.
Cognitive – developmental views see language development as an
aspect of general cognitive growth. They believe thinking skills mature
before a framework for early language development is created. R.
Lenneberg supported the notion of Critical Period Hypothesis, which
advocated the idea that there is a specific and limited time for language
acquisition.
The main disadvantage of these views is emphasizing age too
much at the expense on other factors suchas motivation and learning
conditions. Cognitivists believe there are significant differences between
L1 and L2 acquisition. In their view an L2 learner is more cognitively
developed than an L1 learner .
Social – interactionist views emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s,
when developmental psychologists emphasized the importance of social
factors and adult – child relationships in learning. They opine that
language is modified to suit the level of the learner. Jerome Bruner
introduced the idea of Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) and
stressed the role of scaffolding (providing a structure framework by the
person giving support to the learner). A few decades earlier Lev
Vygotsky suggested the˝zone of proximal development˝(ZPD), stating
that children can do much more with the help of someone more
knowledgeable/skilled then they would do if studying alone.
However, social – interactionists do not stress enough children´s
creativity.They emphasize that the social context varies significantly in
terms of the types and amount of the input provided/output produced as
well as the purpose for which the language is used. Thus they see L1
acquisition as highly contextualized with the learner being highly
motivated, whereas L2 acquisition is more decontextualized and the
learner is usually not so highly motivated.
13/2/2012
THE IDEAL AGE FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Mother – cat took her kittens for a walk on a nice sunny day.
Suddenly a huge dog appeared in front of them and started barking. The
kittens were terrified and started miaowing in panic. Mother - cat,
however, plucked up her courage and started barking at the dog. The dog
was astonished and disappeared. The cat said to her kittens: ˝You see,
children, how important it is to speak foreign languages!˝
Foreign language acquisition is a unique process, although it shares
certain mechanisms with the acquisition of mother tongue, as said in the
previous lecture. There has been a trend in Croatia (it is also a global
trend) to sign children into foreign language programmes at a very young
age. Thus it is not uncommon when a parent enrols his/her 3- year - old
son /daughter in a kindergarten which runs an English course. We can
pose a question: What is the ideal age for a child to start learning a
foreign language?
There is no straightforward answer to this question. Research was
conducted in several European countries in the 1960s and 1970s, the aim
of which was to determine optimal conditions related to the introduction
of a foreign language in primary schools. The project ETML, which was
conducted in The United Kingdom during the 1970s, did not explicitly
indicate that younger children learn French faster and more easily than
older children. The main drawbacks of this project were a huge number
of students who participated in it and, related to this issue, the
inappropriateness of some variables for systematic control and checkup
(Vilke, 1991: 143). France in turn conducted an experiment to determine
how far primary foreign language learning might be successful (Brewster;
Ellis; Girard, 2004: 3). Thus a report by Girard provided a detailed
overview of several European FLL projects. These projects emphasized
the optimal or best conditions for teaching languages including: 1)
appropriately trained teachers, 2) proper schedule with appropraite
timing, 3) appropriate methodology, 4) liaison with secondary schools,
provision of suitable resources and integrated monitoring and evaluation
(Brewster; Ellis, Girard, 2004: 3). The findings of these projects
suggested that there is no theoretical optimum to start teaching. The
commencing age seems to depend upon the linguistic situation in a
particular country, although at that time the age of nine was often chosen
as the ideal age for starting to learn a foreign language.
It was also concluded that time is of essence, i.e. the more time a
child is exposed to a foreign language, the better the results. It was
determined that it is more beneficial for younger children to have regular
short slots during the week rather than longer more concentrated slots.
Different views on the ideal age to start learning a foreign language
Most research in this field has been conducted in the areas of
neuroscience and developmental psycholinguistics. Research as well
included the studies of the linguistic situation of children who acquired a
second language in the countries where this second language is spoken as
the first language as well as the studies which were conducted in
students´ homelands and included institutionalized learning of foreign
languages. The latter research will be addressed with more detail during
the following lecture.
Lenneberg´s research from 1960s indicated that the end of the
lateralization process, which takes place around puberty, marks the
domination of the left hemisphere in the brain. This process is
accompanied by a loss in brain plasticity. Thus in cases of aphasias
(which result from brain damage) that take place before the critical
period, i.e. before lateralization, the linguistic capability can be restored.
In that way children who are exposed to a foreign language during this
period of their lives can acquire a foreign language without an accent.
Lenneberg´s hypotheses were refuted by S. Krashen, who highlighted that
the process of lateralization starts before a baby is born and finishes
around the age of 5 (Vilke, 1991: 145). Cases like the 13,5 – year – old
girl Genie (the girl was found completely neglected, confined in a
basement by her brother and father) indicate, however, that linguistic
development is erratic and incomplete if started after the age of 6.
According to Piaget, the ideal age for foreign language acquisition
seems to be the stage of concrete operations, i.e. the age between seven
and eleven. He distinguishes two different concepts of language
acquisition: spontaneous concepts, which a child acquires with his own
mental efforts and non- spontaneous concepts, which a child obtains with
the help of others. Foreign language acquisition belongs to the second
category, while mother tongue acquisition belongs to the first. During the
stage of concrete operations a child commences to socialize with other
children, can be concentrated on an activity for a longer period of time
and behaves responsibly towards people surrounding him/ her (Vilke,
1991: 148).
L. Vygotsky points out that the development of spontaneous and
non- spontaneus concepts are strongly interrelated: the success in foreign
language acquisition depends upon the level of maturity a child has
reached in his / her mother tongue and the other way round, i.e. a foreign
language facilitates the acquisition of higher, more complex forms of
mother tongue (Vilke, 1991:150).
Vilke (1991: 148) points out that a child of ten is not yet
linguistically, cognitively and emotionally developed, therefore one
should be careful in selecting appropriate contents and forms to teach.
The author as well emphasizes the fact that children acquire some
structures in their first anguage around the age of 10 (ex. some forms of
demonstrative pronouns). It is therefore wrong, opines Vilke, to insist
upon the acquisition of foreign language structures which a child has not
acquired in his /her first language.
20.03.2012.
DOES YOUNGER AUTOMATICALLY MEAN BETTER?
The Zagreb Project
The research undertaken at the University of Zagreb focused on
(dis)approval of Lenneberg´s theses on the neuroplasticity in language
acquisition and, related to this phenomenon, puberty as the period in a
person´s life during which appear blocs in the language acquisition process.
Thus, Lenneberg claims, language is best learned by the age of 12 (Lenneberg,
1967: 36).
The first phase of the study, which lasted from 1973 to 1985, was
conducted at the Department of English of the Faculty of Arts in Zagreb which
examined sixty nine- year- old beginners and sixty beginners aged between 17
and nineteen. The examinees were exposed to approximately same language
materials, similar methodologies and techniques were applied and the studied
period was identical. The project was led by Dr. Mirjana Vilke. The findings
were following: most significant differences appeared in the area of
pronunciation: the younger group demonstrated a very high level of
pronunciation and used authentic English sounds and intonation while the
older group used Croatian sounds that are the closest to the equivalent English
sounds (mader/mazer instead of maðэ).
In the area of grammar there were as well considerable differences: the
younger group tended to provide the shortest possible answer (ex. Is the dining
room upstairs? Yes/No. ), which is in accordance with the strategies young
children utilize in their mother tongue, whereas the older group provided
complete short answers (Yes, it is./No it isn´t). The older group had acquired
the singular and plural forms of demonstrative pronouns, while the younger
group hadn´t (They provided different answers to the question What are
these?: This is apples; That is apples; That are apple; That´re apples; That is
apple). This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that pronominal
relations are not completely acquired in mother tongue either by the age of ten
or eleven (Vilke, 1991: 152).
The acquisition of lexical material depended to a large extent on
understanding the concept in the source language. Thus the noun bedroom
was easily acquired, while the nouns drawing –room and dining room were a
problem because the children were not familiar with the concepts these words
represented (this is due to the fact that children mostly lived in two – bedroom
flats which did not encompass dining rooms and drawing rooms).
The findings of the first phase of the Zagreb project indicated that correct
pronunciation and intonation is best acquired during the pre- puberty period in
a child´s life, while older students achive more modest results in this area. On
the other hand, older students understand the mechanisms of functioning of a
foreign language better because they have already acquired mechanisms of
their mother tongue. Moreover, they are at a higher level of intellectual and
cognitive development. Differences in acquisition of grammar and lexis were
significant but not crucial (Vilke, 1991: 153). The examiners´ conclusion was
that children should start learning foreign languages early enough to develop a
sense of self - confidence characteristic of a person who is aware of his correct
pronunciation and fluency in speaking a foreign language.
The second phase of the project focused on determining an ideal
age for foreign language acquisition. The starting point was Piaget´s stage of
concrete operations (which corresponds to the the age between seven and
eleven). The posed question was: If there is an ideal age for learning a foreign
language, would it be between seven and eleven? The second phase of the
project started in 1975. It was envisaged as systematic observation of seventy
children between the ages of six and nine. The children learnt English on
courses of the Institut za strane jezike Narodnog sveučilišta grada Zagreba
(today Škola za strane jezike). The children were interviewed in order to find
out which were the most relevant motivating factors for learning English.
These turned out to be a wish to communicate with people from other
countries due to the fact that English was one of the most important global
languages, a wish to communiocate in English during school holidays, a wish to
understand films in English and a wish to be able to get by when travelling
abroad (Vilke, 1991: 154). It was obvious that these were the parents´ wishes,
who transferred their positive attitudes to learning English onto their children.
Another significant factor of motivation was the strudents´relationship with
their English teachers. Learning English was viewed as fun, interesting, the
children felt well and relaxed in class. English teachers were described as
friendly and helpful. These findings indicated at the importance of motivation
in learning foreign languages at an early age.
Jayne Moon classifies various motivating factors which influnce attitudes
to learning a foreign language (Moon, 2004: 15 – 17). For younger, pre- puberty
children these include: parents´opinions, the methods used in class,
appropriate learning materials, planning interesting learning activities and
creating a positive learning environment. Moreover, the intrinsic motivating
factors include personal preferences, a wish to play computer games and to
socialize with friends. Older students, however, seem to be influenced by their
peers rather than by their parents ( they do not want to look foolish in front of
their friends) and are more aware of the usefulness of learning English (working
and studying abroad, being able to find a better job, to use the computer, etc.).
Let us answer the question posed at the beginning of the lecture: Does
younger automatically mean better? Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada (1993)
opine that learners who start learning a foreign language slightly later
(between the ages of 10 and 12) catch up with those who start earlier (at the
age of seven or below). They emphasize that young age itself does not seem to
be the sufficient factor for success at learning a foreign language, other factors
include levels of motivation and confidence, personality, aptitude and others.
Rod Ellis (1994) suggested a compromise: the critical age for native – speaker-
like pronunciation is six, while for learning grammar the critical age appears to
be puberty onwards ( Brewster; Ellis; Girard, 2004: 36): Lightbown and Spada
point out that shorter slots are likely to be more effective with younger
children, with preferably more than two periods a week.
Jayne Moon emphasizes that not only in-school, but also out- of – school
influences play a role in motivation. Apart from already mentioned in – school
influences (teacher, teaching methods, the learning process, school culture,
teaching materials), out- of –school influences are as well of importance. These
include:, parents´influence, peer influence, the media and local youth culture,
with the last three affecting mainly the puberty + students (Moon, 2004: 17).
¸
26/3/2012
WORKING WITH CHILDREN WITH DIFFERENT ABILITIES
Working in class full of children with different abilities certainly
poses a challenge for a foreign language teacher. Moon distinguishes
almost a dozen differences amongst pupils related to foreign language
acquisition. Thus children may differ in following (Moon, 2005: 26):
- perception of the language
- relationship with the teacher
- family background
- types of intelligence
- interests
- gender
- attitude and motivation for learning English
- experience of the world
Apart from children with different interests and characteristics, foreign
language teachers will have had experience with dealing with differences
in abilities. Moon names possible strategies of dealing with children of
different abilities (Moon, 2005: 28):
1. planning differentiated activities (it is a good idea to collaborate
with other teachers in order to develop a materials bank)
2. giving enough time to different groups (it makes students more
independent and relieves the teacher of the need of constant
attention to the whole class, which enables him /her to spend
time with individuals/groups who need extra help)
3. catering for all the different needs (this can be done in several
ways: by preparing a bank of self – access materials in
particular problem areas at different levels, by getting children
to help in making practice activities, by pairing children off
with thier buddies in order to practice a particular skill or a
problem area)
4. Aiming the lesson at the right level (initially this can be done
with the whole class so that the teacher demonstrates what is
required involving pupils in the demonstration and giving them
time with observing the procedures and working out what they
have to do)
5. Catering for pupils´ lack of interest or ability (lack of interest is
usually an indicator that a child has a problem in a particular
skill/apect of language, thus it is important to first find out why
the pupil is not interested and eventually adapt activities to
his/her level or provide more support and create more time with
that particular student)
TEACHERS´ EXPECTATIONS OF PUPILS
Teachers´expectations of their pupils strongly affects their
motivation and influences their behaviour during foreign language
classes. Some teachers give ˝neutral˝ names to different groups, which
they have formed on the basis of their capabilities. However, children are
very quick in finding out how they have been labelled by thir teacher (ex.
the teacher has assigned the group of children with low abilities a
˝neutral˝ animal name like the Monkey group, but the children soon
realize that those are the ones who are ˝thick˝).
How to avoid labelling children?
Teachers tend to label children according to their abilities and this
categorization tends to accompany them throughout thier schooling.
Moon emphasizes that children should be given a chance to show that
thier skills and abilities vary according to sitiation, topic and activity
(Moon, 2004: 30).
The author points out that middle – range children are hardest to
describe because we tend to notice the extremes (the ones who always
answer and the naughty ones) because they affect our teaching more. In
that way we tend to neglect children in the middle range or quieter
children.
It is very important to approah children with an open mind and
expect the best from them, which will in turn help them raise their
expectations of themselves. Barbara Steel, a primary teacher in America,
conducted an experiment with her class, which consisted of 35 12 - year -
old students. There were a number of ˝problem ˝ children, who were not
interested in school, were underachieving and came from difficult home
backgrounds. Barbara let children choose what they wanted to learn, thus
giving them a greater responsibility for their own learning. She helped
children draw up their own work contracts for each day. At first it was
difficult for some children to work without being directed, but at the end
most children in her class were able to work independently. This
experiment showed that success strongly influences children´s ideas
about themselves. The ˝problem˝ children had built up low opinions of
themselves through years of failing or being blamed for misbehaviour. In
Barbara´ s programme these children got a new chance to show that they
could be successful, which in turn changed their self – image and their
behaviour.
Strategies for responding to different needs
Moon suggests three different strategies to deal with this problem
(Moon, 2005: 32):
1. differentiating by support
2. peer tutoring
3. group teaching
1. Children with high abilities do not need to get as much support
as children of low or middle - range abilities. In the context of
learning a foreign language, an exercise in which children have
to match different parts of sentence is certainly less demanding
than a task in which students have to create sentences
themselves. One of the disadvantages of this strategy is that
slower children may not get a chance to deal with more
complex activities due to the pressure that the class should
move on to a new unit (according to the curriculum). The
advantage of this strategy is that slower children can proigress
at their own pace and complete activities which are similar to
the rest of the class andbe successful in doing that.
2. Slower or weaker pupils can be paired with a stronger partner
for doing some language activities in class. The teacher should
pair students based on her/ his knowledge of students. As the
school year goes by, students may express their preferences or
the teacher may feel the need to make changes if she /he feels
that the ˝buddies˝are not working well together. Some
advantages of this strategy (Moon, 2005: 37): it involves pupils
in helping each other, pupils become more involved in the
learning process, pupils are learning to become more
independent, pupils are given an opportunity to be ˝buddies˝ for
areas where they have particular strengths. The disadvantages
include the difficulty to pair pupils appropriately, stronger
pupils my feel less challenged and may not necessarily be very
good at helping their peers, while the strategy my reinforce a
lower status for weaker pupils, some pupils try to dominate their
buddies, it is time – consuming in the sense that it takes time to
train pupils to work effectively as buddies.
3. If a class is very big, if, for example, there are 50 students in
class, this may pose a formidable problem to the teacher. Group
work requires good organization of work and good planning on
the part of the teacher, a good system of monitoring and
checking work, while the teacher also has to train his/her
students to be independent during a significant part of the
lesson, i.e. she/he has to get pupils check each other´ s answers
and help each other. The advantages of this strategy: it helps
students become more independent, it enables teacher to spend
more time with different groups of learners, it encourages
students to collaborate and help each other, it allows students to
work at their own pace and be successful at what they do. There
are as well a few disadvantages: it takes time to train students to
be independent, pupils that are uninterested in the activity may
disrupt the work of the whole group or other groups, it needs
careful planning and preparation by the teacher, there is a
possibility that some students may get labelled according to the
group they belong to and thus it may be more difficult for them
to progress to another ability group.
2.4.2012.
BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM
Vilke (1991: 89) outlines that the definition of bilingualism varies
from author to author, however, most authors aggree that bilingualism
refers to an individual´s ability to use two languages at an approximately
the same level, with the use of L2 approaching the level of a native
speaker. Others stress that L2 can be used at a receptive level only, using
only some, even one of language faculties (speaking, reading, listening
and writing).
Simultaneous bilingualism occurs in families with mixed
nationalities, where children acquire two languages from birth. There are
indicators that childen face the use of two languages from birth use two
language systems as one language. The more conscious the child
becomes of the existence of two languages in his /her surrounding, the
more separate these languages become.
Successive bilingualims occurs when children and their families
live in a country where their mother tongue is not spoken as the first
language.Thus they use theri first language at home, while they start
speaking the language of the majority later, when attending nursery/
kindergarten or a similar institution. Some children move to another
country when they have acquired their mother tongue, thus in these cases
the problem of language systems separationis not an issue (Vilke , 1991:
104).
Multilingualism occurs in situations when there ay be an official
language, a language used as a medium of instruction in school and
another language spoken at home (Brewster, Ellis and Girard, 2004: 21).
There has been a great demand nowadays that all children be given
a bilingual education so that children´s ability to learn languages easily is
capitalized. In many European countries there are bilingual schools,
where children are taught more or less in two languages. An excellent
example of trilingualism is Luxembourg, where national Luxembourgian
is spoken at home, German is introduced in the first year of primary
school and French is taught from the beginning of the third year of
primary school. Moreover, English is introduced in secondary school,
which makes the language situation in this country even more complex.
However, there have been some problems with introducing bilingualism/
multilingualism. These include (Brewster, Ellis and Girard, 2004: 20):
1- Differences in language learning opportinities and exposure to
target language (rural / urban divide)
2- Diffeences in attitudes related to urban / rural divide
3- Limitations on time and number of pupils
4- Conflicting claims of other subjects.
Brewster, Ellis and Girard emphasize that, generally speaking,
children from urban areas, i.e. from big cities such as Oslo or Stockholm
usually start school with positive attitudes to learning English and a
higher sense of motivation and interest in learning English due to the fact
that they are more exposed to English before starting school. They come
to school with a solid knowledge of English, unlike children from rural
areas, who have fewer opportunities to learn English (Brewster, Allis and
Girard, 2004: 22). These children meet English speakers more rarely than
children living in urban areas and do not hear English – speaking
televison, radio, films and music as often as their peers in big cities.
9/04/2012
MANAGING PUPILS´ LANGUAGE LEARNING
It is very important to set up favourable condidions which will
enable children to learn foreign languages.
The foreign language teacher can significantly help establish and
manage these conditions (Moon, 2005: 41):
1. (s)he creates positive teacher – pupil relationships and learning
environment
2. creates and maintains effective organization of pupils and
resources
3. creates and maintains effective comunication between teacher
and pupils
4. provides appropriate support for children´s language learning
5. provides interesting and stimulating learning materials and
resources
One way to reflect upon one´s teaching is to give students a grid to
complete. Students can be asked to identify the qualities of the teacher
they liked the best and the qualities that their least favourite teacher.
Foreign language teachers can also insert more qualities and ask their
students to do the grid. In that way they can get feedback on how his/ her
students see his/her teaching, realize which qualities the students would
like him/her to change and take correspondin actions.
Positive Negative
Strict 1 2 3 4 5 Lets
learners
do what
they like
Kind 1 2 3 4 5 Cruel
Has a
sense of
humour
1 2 3 4 5 No sense
of humour
Interested
in
learners
1 2 3 4 5 Not
interested
in learners
Patient 1 2 3 4 5 Impatient
How to develop a positive classroom atmosphere?
Moon stresses the importance of working in a friendly atmosphere,
which results in us feeling secure and happy in our working environment.
The same goes for the classroom atmosphere. If it is warm and relaxed, if
the people around (the teacher and other students) provide support to
every individual student and behave friendly towards him/her, the student
feels secure and happy. If, on the other hand, the teacher and pupils
behave rudely and ignore each other, the result is the feeling of insecurity
and unhappiness.
In order for students to feel secure, it is important to establish
classroom rules. Jayne Moon thinks that it is difficult to decide which
attitude teachers should take when handling the problem of their students´
misbehaviour. The problem can be ignored, the children can be punished
for bad behaviour on the spot or the teacher can address the problem at
the end of the lesson and refer to the previously agreed upon classroom
rules. Moon favours the last response and emphasizes the relevance of
negotiating some basic rules, so that the students, who have taken part in
establishing these rules, know what to expect in the future.
Developing pupils´ self - esteem
Students´ sense of self – esteem is developed through their
perception of how other people see them (Moon, 2005: 49). If the teacher,
for example, compares a student with his/ her sibling who is better at
learning English, the child is likely to develop low self – esteem. If ,
however, a student is praised for his work and been listened to, he will
feel that he is worthy and valuable, which will result in high self –
esteem.
There are several ways to help children develop their sense of self
– esteem. One is to establish some basic classroom rules such as No
laughing at each other; No speaking when someone else is speaking;
Everyone must listen to each other; Everyone has a turn; No – one is
forced to speak, if he/she doesn´t want to (Moon, 2005: 49).
Sharing hopes and fears is another possiblity for developing self –
esteem. Students can be asked to say how they feel after doing, for
example, drama work. It helps them express their feelings in a supportive
atmosphere and gives them an opportunity to share their feeling with
others, which will give them confidence. Students can also talk about
their achievements which make them they feel proud of themselves.
Moon emphasizes that it might be difficult to find time for these activities
and opines that some children may be too shy or reluctant (especially
older students) to share their feelings. The teacher also needs to prevent
students making fun of each other.
Group and pair work
Young children find it more difficult to understand the reason for
working in a particular way. In that sense they may not understand the
point of group work and pair work. Still, children are likely to cooperate
if this kind of work is related to, for example, their previous experience
of stories.
Moon states the main benefits of goup – and pairwork: increased
language input, pupil practice and greater involvement in language
learning (Moon, 2005: 53). One way to form groups is to play the game
called Musical Circles. The teacher draws a number of circles on the
floor. Children walk around the room and when the music stops, they
must stand in the circle. Only six children can stand in a circle. Each
circle forms a group (Moon, 2005: 54).
Pairwork and groupwork provides children with more opportunities
to get language exposure and practice. Moon outlines several things
which a foreign language teacher should have in mind when organizing
their students in groups or pairs (Moon, 2005: 58):
1. Children must be carefully prepared for the activity.
2. They should be organized in ways appropriate to the goal of the
language – learning activity
3. Children should be shown how to do the activity.
4. They should be involved in demonstrations.
5. Teachers should be positive about their efforts.
6. Teachers should loosen their control of the activity gradually.
7. Activities should be meaningful and should engage students´
interests.
16/4/2012
SUPPORTING CHILDREN´S LANGUAGE LEARNING
Children need assistance to handle activities that they would not be able
to cope with without assistance. This support helps students to gain
adequate knowledge, abilities and confidence to eventually function more
independently (Moon, 2005: 73).
The support provided depends on the child´s current level of English, his
familiarity with the language and with the activity itself (Moon, 2005:
75). Following are some general ideas on providing support to students
by adjusting the teacher´s language:
1) repeating pupils´ answers, which confirms the answer and gives
reinforcement
2) rephrasing answers (ex. by adding missing parts such as articles)
3) prompting through a rise in intonation
4) framing sentences and using movements in order to encourage
students to finish sentences (T: While they were walking, Yanni
saw a big...Pps:...elephant)
Moon as well names various techniques and resources a foreign language
teacher can resort to when providing support to her/his students:
1) using pictures of the characters involved in order to help and make
the meaning clear to the students
2) activating background knowledge about the topic so that pupils can
connect new knowledge with what they already know
3) responding positively to pupils´contributions
4) creating a meaningful purpose for using language (ex. referring to a
familiar context such as a zoo when discussing animals)
5) encouraging pupils to predict (What do you think will happen
next?), which enables students to draw upon their background
knowledge, introduces new vocabulary and makes students more
actively involved in thinking about the topic
6) confirming answers so pupils know if they were right or wrong
7) providing the written forms of the questions and answers as a
visual reinforcement of what has been said.
Additional support can be given by choosing contexts which are familiar
to the pupils (ex. visit to the zoo), providing clues to the meaning of the
language , beginning with the concrete and moving onto the more abstract
(ex. from a dialogue acted out orally with visuals ont a written dialogue
on the board).
The language
When giving support to children, it is important to use appropriate
language. Moon states several things foreign language teachers should
have in mind when talking to students (Moon, 2005: 79):
1) using language at children´s level, i.e. words and structures they
can understand
2) adjusting the language to help children understand by repeating,
rephrasing, extending what a child wants to express
3) adjusting speed and volume and using pauses in order to give
children enough time to think
4) using gestures, actions (ex. elevating your hand in order to show
that something is high, nodding for ˝Yes˝, facial expressions,
making noises, etc.)
Assessing the support needed
When foreign teachers select learning activities, they need to determine
what kind of support is needed for pupils to complete the activity. While
for some students initial whole – class preparation may be necessary,
others need support in doing the activity. Moon gives some general ideas
on providing support to the whole class (2005: 80):
1) giving a clear purpose for doing the activity (Let´s try to solve this
puzzle. We have to guess the mystery words )
2) putting an example of exercise on the blackboard (the teacher has
to make sure that the example on the blackboard is not the same as
the one in the book)
3) checking with pupils if they know what to do
4) filling in one or two examples with the students´ help on the board
5) encouraging students to think about where they can look for help
(ex. dictionaries in which they can check the spelling)
In order to enable students to gradually become independent in their
work, a foreign language teacher has to think about how to adjust and
reduce support. While doing TPR activities which involve familiar
actions, the teacher can gradually reduce the amount of gestures so that
children have to rely more on following the teacher´s words. If support is
not reduced when that is necessary, children are not challenged and they
may not be making adequate progress. Reducing support is a matter of
trial and error. The teacher has to judge when children are ready to
receive reduced support. If the children are doing an activity confidently
and if they are successful, they are probably ready to get less support.
Moreover, in big classes it is very diffucult for a teacher to provide
support to each and every child. What can be don is put chidren in mixed
ability groups where stronger pupils can give support to the weaker ones.
23/04/2012
LESSON PLANNING
Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2004: 231) point out that a lesson is not
a haphazard collection of items, but a ˝progression of interrelated
activities which reinforce and consolidate each other in establishing the
learning towards which the teacher is directing his or her efforts.˝
A good lesson, continue the authors, is ˝flexible and adaptible; it is
a back – up system; has clear objectives; has a variety of activities, skills,
interaction, materials; caters for individual learning styles; has interesting,
enjoyable content; has an appropriate level of challenge and is well –
prepared, well planned and well - timed.˝
The reasons for planning are numerous and include ther following
categories (Moon, 2005: 101):
Practical: Planning gives support to teachers, it helps them prepare
for their lesson, organize time and address different students´ needs. This
reason is particularly important for less experienced teachers, since they
define what to do at which stage in the lesson. It is also important to
teachers who are changing the teaching level or those who are teaching
new materials/curricula.
Personal development: Having a plan enables teachers to monitor,
assess and improve their teaching. A plan enablles us to define our
intentions or, in other words, what we expect learners to achieve. With
planning teacher can compare the intended outcomes with th actual
outcomes. If these do not match, there is something wrong.
Public proof/accountability: This category of reasons is related to
public accountability or a public record or proof of what has been done,
which is shown to school authorities, inspectors, other teacher and
parents. Thus teachers demonstrate their ability to do the job. Planning
makes teaching more transparent and open to public.
Confidence: This group of reasons relates to the affective aspect of
teaching. Planning gives teachers more confidence about their teaching
and makes them more sure about what they are doing.
The organization and content of a lesson plan
There is no standard way of writing a lesson plan. Every teacher develops
his/her own format which suits his/her needs. New teachers tend to write
longer lesson plans. Moon emphasizes that it is a good idea for teachers
who start teaching a new group of learners or who use new materials to
plan lessons with more detail at the beginning in order to clarify their
ideas (Moon, 2005: 105).
The first part of the plan contains information about what the teacher is
going to teach. A good language lesson plan should define the following
(Moon, 2005: 106):
1) objectives: what the teacher wants his/her pupils to achieve at the
end of the lesson
2) functions: the way sentences are used in particular situations, such
as to describe, to apologize, to inquire, etc.
3) language skills: these are abilities related to the four main language
skills, i.e. listening, reading, reading and writing (ex. reading for
detail, guessing from context, etc.)
4) vocabulary: the known and new words pupils will use in the lesson
5) language structures: these can be receptive (language patterns
pupils will read or listen to ) and productive (language patterns
which pupils will be expected to produce (ex. write or speak) at the
end of the lesson
The second part of the lesson describes how the teacher is going to
teach, it defines the procedures or sequences the teacher will be using in
teaching. It encompasses two sections: the teacher´s activity and the
pupils´activity. The time planned for each of the procedures is also
defined (in minutes). The typical structure of most lessons contain three
main stages/sequences: a beginning, a middle and an end. The middle
part of a lesson can consist of one, two or more activity cycles (Brewster,
Ellis and Girard, 2004: 234).
The beginning can take the form of an informal chat, it can be related
to an event celebrated on that day, talking about the weather and similar.
A song or a chant related to the topic of the lesson can be introduced.
This helps students get in the mood. Another way to start a lesson is to
revise work covered in previous lesson. In this way students can reflect
upon what they have learned, which gives them foundations for new
knowledge.
The middle part includes one or more activities that are interrelated
and share a purpose. The first activity usually sets the context of the
lesson. A variety of techniques can be used at this stage including
elicitation, showing a picture, playing a guessing game, etc. Students
should have a clear picture of what they are going to do and understand
the language they are going to practice and learn. The following stage(s)
enables students to use the language practiced at the previous stage. If
there are any problems with the students´ performance, the teacher can go
back and reinforce the language before moving forward. The review stage
of the middle part consist of exercises which help children to consolidate,
extend and personalize language that was introduced and practiced at
earlier stages. There is usually a concrete outcome such as produce a
labelled picture, complete a worksheet and similar.
The review part of a lesson rounds up and summarizes the lesson,
confirms its aims and reviews students´ performance. Teacher can give
homework to their students and they usually explain it earlier in the
lesson if it is related to a particular aspect they have been working on.
Following is the example of the second part of the lesson plan (Moon,
2005: 108):
Time Teacher´s activity Pupils´ activity Notes
5-10 mins. Warm –up
1. Brief revision
of colours using
a team game
Pupils stand in
lines behind
flags of different
colours. As
teacher says a
colour, pupils
behind the flag
of that colour
crouch down
10 mins. 2. Bring in
goldfish or
picture of fish to
introduce topic
to pupils
Discuss fish –
what it looks
like, its colour,
its parts. Check
who has a fish at
Pupils gather
round tank and
contribute what
they know about
fish. They tell
about their own
fish.
NB Remember
to bring in fish
and arrange
classroom.
home.
3. Tell pupils
you are going to
tell them a story.
Get them to
predict what will
be in the story.
Pupils try to
guess what will
be in story
Arrange pupils
on mat for story.
NB remember
picture of eel or
black sock.
4. Explain the
activity, i.e.
pupils have to
colour their fish
as the little fish
in the story
requests. Give
out colours and
blanks of fish
drawing.
Group
leaders/monitors
give out crayons
and blank
sheets.
Get pupils to
shareif not
enough.
If warm-up
revealed
problems with
colours, spend a
few minutes
revising as
crayons are
given out.
10 mins. 5. Tell first part
of story with
actions and
pictures.
Continue story
with instructions
for colouring.
Pupils colour in
fish following
instructions.
Check that
pupils know
what to do.
5 mins. 6. Get pupils to
compare
drawings.
Pupils compare
to see if they
have the same.
Go round and
see if drawings
are the same.
5 mins. 7. Go around
class getting
different pupils
to describe the
colours of the
little fish. Use
sentence
prompts,eg His
face is...
Some pupils say
the colours of
the fish, eg. His
face is...
5 mins. 8. Ask pupils
what they
thought about
the story in L1,
if necessary.
Ask whether the
Pupils give their
opinions.
big black eel
was right not to
give the little
fish colour for
his lips.
9. Display
pupils´coloured
fish on the wall.
Pupils write
their names and
help teachet to
display.
The little fish who wanted to be beautiful
Once upon a time there was a little fish. He lived in a big river with many
other fish. But he was not happy. All the other fish were very beautiful.
Their bodies were of many different colours, red, blue, green, and so on.
His body was white. He felt very sad. ˝I want to have a beautiful body
like those other fish,˝ he said.
So one day he went to see the king of the river, a big black eel who lived
in a big black hole atthe bottom of the river. He swam down and down
and down to the bottom.
˝Who´s there?, ˝said a loud voice.
˝It is me, little fish,˝said the little fish.
˝What do you want, little fish?, ˝said the big black eel.
˝Please, sir,˝ said the little fish, ˝make me beautiful like the other fish.˝
˝Hmm, hmm,˝said the big black eel. ˝Alright. What colours do you
want?¨
˝Please make my body red,˝said the little fish.
And his body became red.
˝Please make my tail yellow,˝said the little fish.
And his tail became yellow.
˝Please make my fins green,˝ said the little fish.
And his fins became green.
˝Please make my face orange,˝ said the little fish.
And his face became orange.
˝And make my lips red˝, said the little fish.
˝You rude little fish. You did not say please, ˝said the big black eel. ˝I
won´t give you any more colours.˝
And so the little fish had white lips. But he was very happy because his
body had many colours.
He was very beautiful.
30.4.
TPR GAMES FOR DEVELOPING LANGUAGE SKILLS
All described games develop at least one language skill, most of them
more than one. They have been classified according to the skill that is
practised the most.
Games for developing listening skills:
CHINESE WHISPERS
The pupils compete in two or more teams by standing in lines. The
teacher whispers a simple sentence to the first child in the line who then
whispers it to the next child standing behind him/her. The last child in the
line says the sentence aloud. The teacher can whisper a different sentence
to each team.
SIMON SAYS
It is a good idea to revise all the actions that the teacher wants to practise.
If the teacher says Simon says:Jump!, the children perform the command.
If the teacher says just Jump!, the children should not move. The children
who perform the command although the teacher did not say Simon says ,
drop out. The winner is the last child to remain in the game.
FRUIT SALAD
The students take a chair to sit and make a circle. The teacher occupies
the central position in the circle and assigns different kinds of fruit to
children: a banana, a cherry, an apple , an orange, a strawberry...Thus
there wiull be a few bananas, apples, etc. When the teacher says
Bananas!, all the bananas stand up and change seats. The teacher does not
have a chair and treis to sit on an empty chair. The child who did not get a
chair on time stays in the circle and calls out another fruit. If the teacher
wants all the children to change seats, (s)he says Fruit salad! Instead of
fruits, the teacher can assign the names of animals to children. If (s)he
wants the children to change seats, (s)he says Zoo!
BACK TO BACK
With this game parts of the body can be revised. The teacher pairs off the
children and says a command: Back to back! The children touch with
their backs. If the teacher commands Forehead to forehead!, the children
touch with their foreheads. The children can be encouraged to give the
commands themselves.
WHAT´S THE TIME, MR. WOLF?
The children stand in the back of the classroom. The teacher turns his/her
back to them. The children ask: What´s the time, Mr. Wolf? The teacher
says: Five steps forward, turn around!¨and turns around fast. The
children who get caught moving, drop out of the game. The winner is the
first child who touches the teacher.
Games for develping speaking skills:
SAY IT WITH FEELING
The teacher prepares flashcards with different feelings (ex. happy, sad,
hot, cold, etc.). The teacher shows a card with a (for ex. happy) feeling
and children repeat the words if they are happy.
GUESS MY WORD
The class is divided in two teams. The teacher describes an animal on a
flashcard (e.g. A horse- It is big and beautiful. It lives on a farm. It eats
grass.). When children guess the animal, the teacher puts the
corresponding flashcard on the board. When the board is full of
flashcards put under two columns, the teacher asks the children to repeat
as many things about animals as they can remember. The teacher puts a
tick for each correct sentence next to the corresponding flashcard. The
team that has the most ticks wins.
WHO HAS MORE CARDS?
The class is divided into two teams. The flashcards with the vocabulary
that the teacher wants to revise are in a box. The teams take turns to draw
flashcards and say the corresponding word. If they say the word correctly,
they can keep the flashcard. The team who wins the largest number of
cards is the winner
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE
The board is full of flashcards or word cards. The teacher says: I spy with
my little eye something sweet and brown. The children answer:
Chocolate. The children can eventually assume the role of the teacher and
ask questions of their own.
Games for developing reading skills:
CHARADES
The teacher writes a sentence that the children have to mime on a piece of
paper. A child approaches the teacher, reads the sentence and mimes it to
the rest of the class, who have to guess it (e.g. I´m reading a book.)
TEACHER STOP!
The teacher writes words onto word cards. (S)he shows the word cards
and children nod their head if they recognize the words they have learnt
in their written form. If they do not recognize the word, they say: Teacher
stop! The teacher reads the word, and the children repeat after the teacher.
CHINESE WHISPERS
The teacher can put flashcards or word cards on the board and whisper a
word to the first child in the line. The last child in the line approaches the
board and takes down the corresponding flashcard or word card.
SIMON SAYS
Instead of saying the command, the teacher can show pupils word cards
with commands written on them. The children read the word card and
perform the command written on it.
Games for developing writing skills:
The first two described games develop writing as much as reading skills.
RUNNING DICTATION
The teacher writes some words/simple sentences on slips of paper. (S)he
sticks the papers around the classroom. The teacher divides the class into
two teams Each team chooses a runner. The runner runs towards one of
the papers, reads what is written on it, runs back to her/his team and
dictates the words/sentences to the children in his team. The winner is the
team with the fewest spelling mistakes.
FALSE DICTATION
The teacher writes the sentences (s)he wants to dictate all over a big sheet
of paper/on the board in random order. The (s)he dicates the words from
the sentences, points to them one at a time on the board/sheet. Children
look at the board and write complete sentences by remembering the order
in which (s)he showed and dictated the words.
FLASHING DICTATION
The teacher chooses word cards with simple spelling ( cat, dog). (S)he
flashes the card, but not too quickly. Children write the word in their
notebooks. Upon finishing the dictation, the teacher puts the word cards
on the board and checks for mistakes. The children can also swap
notebooks and check each other´ s mistakes.
WHOI HAS MORE CARDS ?
The rules of the game are the same as when it is played with flashcards.
Instead of flashcards, the teacher can use word cards.
7/05/2012
USE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
There are considerable differences amongst teachers when it comes to the
use of first language while teaching English to young learners. As
emphasized by Moon, there is a discrepancy between what teachers
would ideally like to do and the reality (Moon, 2005: 62). Using English
to teach English to young learners has numerous advantages:
a) it increases the amount of students´exposure to English
b) It develops pupils´confidence in language
c) It gives students real reasons for using English to communicate (ex.
to give instructions, get information from pupils, etc.)
d) The repetitive pattern of classroom language in the form of , for
example, instructions, can be easily picked up by pupils, without
them being aware of the fact that they are actually learning a
foreign language
e) It can motivate pupils to learn
f) It develops greater fluency due to the fact that pupils are
encouraged to think in English at an early stage.
Moon as well states the disadvantages of using English to teach
English:
g) Explaining things can last long, resulting in possible loss in interest
or concentration
h) Weaker or slower pupils may feel put off English since they may
lose confidence
i) Teachers with limited English or inappropriate foreign language
education may provide incorrect models to their students.
j) It may be difficult to do reflection on learning or discuss pupils´
opinions about their learning in English because of students´limited
English
k) For students who are not motivated it may involve a lot of effort to
understand.
l) It may take longer to cover the syllabus.
Generally speaking, it appears to be the best solution to use English for
teaching English since students are more exposed to English. The factors
that should be considered when reflecting upon using English or the
students´first language include studentságe, their motivation and previous
experience with the foreign language, the teacher´s own confidence in
using English, etc.
There are some situations, asserts Moon, when it is appropriate to use the
L1. These include the situations when (Moon, 2005: 66):
a) the child is upset – by using L1 the teacher soothes the child and
demonstrates his/her sympathy and closeness for the child.
b) The child knows the answer to a question in his/her mother tongue
but not in English – some teachers insist on their students
providing an answer in English, which might result in negative
attitudes to either L1 or L2
c) The child wants to share an experience /real information with the
teacher/pupils in an English lesson but has limited English – the
reason for using L1 is to communicate a message to friends or the
teacher
d) The teacher or the child wants to tell a joke – the reson for telling a
joke in L1 is in most cases to develop rapport/ closeness with
teacher/pupils
e) Teacher wants to introduce a new game which has complicated
rules – the reasons for using L1 in this situation is to save time
needed for explaining the rules of the game and to help
communication of a message
f) Teacher does not know if children have understood – the reason for
using L1 is to check if children have really understood
g) Teacher wants to get children to think about the reasons fore
learning English or to be aware of strategies to help learning – the
reason for using L1 in this situation is to aid in language learning
when students do not have sufficient levels of language to discuss
through the L2.
Ad e) Vrhovac emphasizes the amount of time teachers use to explain,
correct, warn and evaluate his / her students, which may result in
dedicating more time to the stated functions than to discussing the topic
of instruction (Vrhovac, 2001: 59).
Ad 2) Moon opines that it is advisable for teachers to accept an answer in
L1 from their young learners and to parallelly introduce the answer in
English. In this way, claims the author, the teacher lets her students know
that she has accepted the meaning of her students´answer, but at the same
time introduces the English form. By acknowledging that the meaning of
the answer in L1 is correct and by rephrasing an answer in English gives
students confidence to respond to their teacher´ s questions in the future
and helps form positive attitudes to learning English.
14/05/2012
SELECTING AND EVALUATING MATERIALS FOR LANGUAGE
LEARNING
Teachers´ situations differ regarding teaching materials. While
some teachers have access to a wide array of textbooks and
supplementary materials to choose from, some have to follow one
prescribed textbook.
There are many advantages of textbooks, as pointed out by
Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2004: 152): they identify what should be
taught/learnt, the order in which it should be done, they indicate
methodologies that should be used, they provide all or most of the
materials needed, thus relieving the teacher´s workload.
Most teachers have access to at least one textbook. Many teachers
use materials from several different textbooks. However, they
occassionally adapt these materials and supplement them with the
materials they themselves produce. The main problem about textbooks is
that they address a general audience, a ˝general international market˝
(Brewster, Girard, Ellis, 2004: 153) and may not completely meet our
students´ particular needs (Moon, 2005: 46). In order to satisfy their
students´ specific needs, many teachers select supplementary materials
which include graded readers, storybooks, songs, rhymes, chants,
posters, flashcards and selected technology including video, CDs, the
internet, etc (Brewster, Ellis,Girard, 2004: 156). Supplementary materials
will be the topic of the following lecture.
There are, however, some barriers to teachers producing their own
materials (Moon, 2004: 87):
1) lack of time to design materials/activities
2) cost involved in making/photocopying
3) lack of handbooks or reference books from which to get ideas
4) lack of skills/expertise to design their own activities
Teachers can solve the problem of lack of time if they engage their
students in helping them cut, stick and copy the materials or do
illustrations for them. While they use the languge, they also help their
teachers in creating teaching materials. The photocopying cost can be
solved by teachers within the same school getting together and sharing
the cost. Ideas can be obtained from magazines for teachers or
exchanging ideas with other teachers. Finally, for a young teacher who
has not yet had expertise in creating his/her own materials, it is most
important that he /she has confidence and willingness to try. One way to
do that is to adapt activities from textbooks in small ways (Moon, 2005:
88).
In order to adapt/design materials to their students´ needs the teacher
has to have following in mind about language – learning activities:
1) (s)he need to have a clear goal (purpose, aim), in other words the
teacher has to know what (s)he wants to achieve through the
activity
2) they need to define input, i.e. the material that children will work
on such as text, oral instructions, etc.
3) The teacher has to determine what the children do with the input,
they have to define procedures
4) Must have a clear outcome fo the learners, a result of the activity
(these include product outcomes, something tangible like a set of
answers, a drawing and similar and process outcomes or skills,
attitudes which develop during the learning process, for example
ability to work together)
5) Teacher and learner roles have to be determined: a drill requires the
teacher to control and direct the children, while a communicative
game requires the teacher to establish the task and step aside and
monitor
6) The teacher has to determine the organization of the activity
(whole class, pair or group work)
When reflecting upon how to select activities for language learning,
the teacher misht ask herself/himself a series of questions including Will
it be difficult for children to carry out?; How long will it last?; Is the
language suitable for the level?; Does it take a lot of preparation?; Will
my learners like it?; Does it create a good atmosphere? and many more.
By doing this teachers make the criteria which help them choose
activities explicit (Moon, 2005: 90).
Teachers should think about the reasons for producing their own
materials: the coursebook does not provide enough practice, the activities
in the coursebook may not be very interesting or appropriate for their
students, they want to provide their students with activities which will
enable them to work at their own pace, etc. (Brewster, Ellis, Girard, 2004:
186).
The materials created by teachers can include worksheets, flashcards
or picture dictations. Worksheets are exercises and activites that are
drawn, written, word processed or photocopied. Picture dictations consist
of a line drawing: pupils listen to descriptions given by the teacher and
add them to the drawing. Flashcards can be drawn by teachers or pupils
or imported from clip art or photocopied (Brewster, Ellis, Girard, 2004:
161).
21/05/2012
ASSESSMENT
Teachers spend a lot of time on assessment. Moon defines assessment
as ˝a way of providing feedback on learning and teaching˝(Moon, 2005:
148). The purposes of assessment include monitoring students´ progress
and checking on students´ achievements. Moon outlines that every
particular teaching situation and school policy determine the manner
asssessment is conducted. Thus in schools which require teachers to
provide regular reports to parents it is necessary to monitor and record
students´ progress quite frequently. Moon distinguishes the following
reasons for assessment (Moon, 2005: 149):
1) to identify a pupil´s progress in learning English
2) to identify what pupils have learned, i.e. achievement over a term
or year
3) to check pupils´ use of a specific skill or language structure in a
lesson or unit
4) to find out whether a student has achieved the teaching objectives
5) to identify the skills/language/attitudes, etc. that pupils have
already developed
6) to find out whether pupils like/dislike some activities and why
7) to diagnose problems and/or strengths pupils have in a particular
language area, e.g. writing, reading.
Assessment can be on – going (summative) and overall (formative).
The first type of assessment is a continuous process during which the
teacher gives feedback to students on their progress in order to help them
develop. It is done on a daily basis and it gives immediate results because
it helps us compare a pupil´s progress with the set objectives. The second
type of assessment occurs periodically, usually at the end of a term or a
school year. Pupils usually take tests or exams and the teacher checks
whether they have achieved the set goals or targets.
Record keeping can be a formal or informal process (Brewster, Ellis
and Girard, 2004: 248). Most schools have official forms which teachers
have to complete for each child. The teacher comments on the students´
language skills and they can focus on grammatical categories,
vocabulary, listening or reading. Teachers usually conduct informal
record – keeping in their notebooks, where they write comments about
each student´s progress, his/her strong and weak points.
Following are the points which the teacher can observe in order to
assess the four basic linguistic skills (speaking, listening, reading and
writing), thereby entering comments in students´ record cards (Breewster,
Ellis and Girard, 2004: 250):
SPEAKING: intelligible pronunciation, use of classroom language, use of
communication strategies, participation in oral activities and efforts to use
new language, participation in story telling and repeating key words and
phrases
LISTENING: showing a global understanding of a story as well as
listening for a specific information, predicting a story line, ability to infer
meaning, recognition of words in context, ability to follow instructions
READING: reading for specific information and gist, ability to infer
meaning, predicting a story line, recognition of words in context,
matching simple dialogues with characters, following simple written
instructions
WRITING: producing a set of logically connected events, producing
grammatically correct sentences, using simple connectors (then, and),
producing a story with a beginning and ending
Moon states that children seem to believe the results of assessment are
inevitably negative. It appears that students get negative assessment more
frequently than positive one (Moon, 2005: 150). Moreover, students may
not always feel involved in the assessment process – for them ˝ it is
something done to them by adults˝ (Moon, 2005: 150) and they feel that
they have no control over it. The results of such a perception of
assessment can lead to lowering of self – esteem in some children and
development of negative attitudes about assessment, which can in turn
affect their ability or willingness to benefit or learn from the feedback
provided by the results of assessment. In order for children to perceive
the benefits of assessment, the teacher can do the following:
a) ask students about their view of assessment
b) develop students´ awareness of the purpose and benefits of
assessment
c) provide more information about students´progress and how they
can use the information to improve
d) encourage them to assess themselves so that they can be active
participants in the process
e) examine their own beliefs about assessment and how they might
affect the manner we represent assessment to students
Self – assessment is an important part of learning to learn (Brewster,
Ellis and Girard, 2004: 256). The authors point at the importance of
students being encouraged to be responsible for their own learning and
assessment, which results in their understanding of what is expected from
them and trying hard to achieve that. Moon considers learning diaries a
good way of self – assessment. She points out that younger children are
able to state what they have learnt and indicate whether they have
enjoyed the lesson, whereas older children are able to reflect upon their
own learning in more sophisticated ways (Moon, 2005: 160).
In peer – group assessment the students become involved in
monitoring others´ progress. Brewster, Ellis and Girard consider peer -
group assessment more appropriate for 10+ age groups, since older
children will have had more experience with assessment in other parts of
the curriculum and will have studied English for a longer period of time.
Pairs of children working together should be selected carefully and the
teacher has to explain carefully to his/ her students how to conduct this
type of assessment in order to avoid humiliation and possible bullying on
the part of the assessors.
CORRECTION OF MISTAKES
The teacher´s right and duty, as defined by his/her function, is to
correct his/her students´ mistakes (Vrhovac, 2001: 104) In practice
students often correct themselves or get corrected by their peers.
However, points out Vrhovac, young students have not developed either
the awareness of making mistakes or the value system related to the
relevance of producing correct utterances. Instead of paying attention to
correcting mistakes, they focus on demonstration of their communication
skills (Vrhovac, 2001: 104).
Opinions vary on when it is appropriate to correct a student,
immediately after (s)he makes a mistake or upon the completion of the
student´s oral expression. Some teachers believe that interrupting a
student while (s)he is talking can result in the student´ s loss of readiness
to talk in front of other students in class. Putting off correction to the end
of the period or even next period is, on the other hand, not always
effective. There is no straightforward answer to this problem, claims
Vrhovac. The teacher has to find the right moment for correction, the
moment when his/her feedback on the student´s error is most beneficial
for the student (Vrhovac, 2001: 107).
28/5/2012
NATIONAL PROJECTS RELATED TO LEARNING A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE
During the times of Austrian – Hungarian monarchy German was
the most important foreign language and was, alongside French and
Latin, part of the curriculum of every respectable secondary school in
Croatia. Foreign languages were taught through the Grammar Translation
method and the main aim was that students obtain a wide general
knowledge. The foreign language instruction focused on helping students
understand foreign languages rather than speak them.
English appeared only sporadically until 1945. As long ago as the
end of the 19th century, English was taught at the Nautical Secondary
School in Bakar by Aleksandar Lochmer. He taught English for special
purposes to students of nautical orientations, which was an isolated case
of English instruction. After 20 years of discontinuity following
Lochmer´s death, English was re – popularized by Josip Torbarina, an
Oxford scholar. After the Second World war there was a growing
population of English teachers, which was also a result of political events
of the time (e.g. ex Yugoslavia ´s split with the Soviet Union and the fall
of pupularity of the Russain language). Rudolf Filipović conducted a
comparative study of the phonetic systems of English and Croatian and
introduced the International Phonetic Transcription in his textbooks. The
1960s, 1970s and 1980s were marked by an excellent cooperation of the
Department of English of the University of Zagreb, the Ministry of
Education and the British Council. Internationally reknowed experts were
engaged to teach in seminars in Croatia, scholarships were granted to
promising teachers, donations of books an journals contributed to the
quality of teaching of English. There was a growing number of doctoral
studies and students from different parts of Croatia researched processes
of learning and teaching foreign languages in school environments.
PROJECTS
The first international project was organized and conducted by
Rudolf Filipović. It was a contrastive analysis of English and Croatian
grammatical systems, the aim of which was to indicate which areas
presented difficulties for the Croatian learners of English. The project
was organized in all linguistic centres of the ex – Yugoslavia, its name
being YSCECP (Yugoslav Serbo – Croatian English Contrastive Project).
In 1991 four languages were introduced on experimental basis in the first
grade of primary school. The project was initially supported by the
Ministry of Education but, unfortunately, in the middle of the project the
head staff in the Ministry changed and the climate suddenly turned
unfavourable for the project. However, thanks to the enthusiasm of the
teachers who worked for the project and the project researchers the
project continued gaining outstanding results. More about this project will
be said during the following lecture.
The Early Language Learning in Europe (ELLiE) addressed
attitudinal development. The main aim of the project was to find out what
can realistically be achieved in state schools, where relatively little time is
available for L2 learning. It involved simultaneous research in several
European countries including Croatia, The UK, Italy, the Netherlands,
poland, Spain and Sweden.1200 learners from 6 to 8 schools per country
took part in the project. The findings showed that English was
increasingly popular, while the popularity of other languages varied over
the years.
In 2003 L2 has been a compulsory school subject of the primary
school curriculum from grade 1. More than 70% of first graders start with
English, while the second foreign language in the first grade of
elementary schools is usually German. The Croatian part of the ELLiE
project monitored students who started learning English in Grade 1 and
continued to learn it for three years. The findings of the three – year
research indicated that young learners start learning L2 with positive
attitudes to classroom activities. All initial activities are liked and enjoyed
by first graders. However, game – like activities appeared to be their
favourite activities. Nevertheless, for some students L2 became only
another school subject, while some even started developing negative
attitudes to L2 learning, which was caused by several factors: learning in
large groups, having only two periods a week and the fact that some
teachers were not fully qualified or trained to work with children.
23.4.2012
NATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL PROJECTS RELATED TO THE
POSSIBLE INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH AS AN OBLIGATORY
FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE SECOND GRADE OF PRIMARY
SCHOOL
Until 1977 children started learning English in the fourth or fifth
grades of primary school. A pilot project was launched in Zagreb in 1977,
the aim of which was to research whether earlier introduction of foreign
languages leads to better results in later years. 150 pupils from suburban
Zagreb and Osijek primary schools were selected to take part in this
project. The children were taught by specially trained teachers, i.e. the
teachers who had completed a training which enabled them to teach
English to children of a young age. Similar projects were planned with
the introduction of German and French, but these projects were not
completely realized due to the lack of governmental subsidies as well as
diminishing enthusiasm of the teachers involved (Vilke, 1991: 162).
Second graders had two periods of English weekly. The
experimental groups were compared to the control groups, namely the
children in the same schools who started learning English in the fourth
grade. The introduction of English into the second grade of primary
school faced some obstacles at the beginning: parents of some children in
suburbian areas of Zagreb thought that it would be more beneficial for
their children to commence learning German rather than English. These
views can be explained by the massive emigration of Croatian workers to
German – speaking European countries in the previous decades (Vilke,
1991: 163). The concerned students were, understandably, not
particularly interested in learning English, but were, however, curious to
see what the instruction would look like. The children could not see the
benefits of learning English at an early stage. Despite all these
difficulties, the experimental groups showed enthusiasm during all seven
years of learning English in primary school. Thus the teachers who were
involved in the project as well as students of English who observed the
English classes as part of their English methodology examination stated
that the experimental classes were more enthusiastic than the control
classes, were highly motivated for work and could communicate in
English better than the children in the contol groups (Vilke, 1991: 165).
Their motivation could be attributed to strong, emotional bonds which the
children established with their English teachers. The teachers taught the
students in shorter slots and paid special attention to the involvement of
physical activities in tasks (Vilke, 1991: 165).
The findings of this project highlighted the extraordinary listening
abilities of young children and their ability to acquire a perfect intonation
and pronunciation. The students complained of ˝difficult˝ words. These
words were either the words which contained consonantal clusters that do
not exist in the Croatian standard language or the words whose concepts
could not be related to children´s culture and everyday life (fireplace,
kettle). Vilke explains this phenomenon with Piaget´s spontaneous and
non – spontaneous concepts: thus children transfer the concepts which
they acquire within their culture via their first language onto a foreign
language, providing a new name to these concepts. Unlike these
spontaneous concepts, children have to acquire new concepts and
remember their names via their teachers (non – spontaneous concepts).
Thus Croatian children do not experience kettle directly, through
observing a family member filling it with water and putting it onto the
stove, but indirectly, with the help of their English teacher. Vilke suggests
introduction of these words at a later stage, when students are more
mature and when they are ready to be additionaly motivated for learning a
foreign language through concepts related to the culture of the nation
whose language they are studying. Grammar mistakes (ex. the incorrect
use of plural) were tolerated in order not to disrupt children´ s
expressiveness.
A similar project to the Zagreb pilot project was conducted in
Osijek in 1980. The leader of the project was Elvira Petrović. The project
focused upon studying listening abilities of young children, the function
of visuals, errors in speech amongst young learners and comparison of
learning outcomes of after eight, six and five years of learning Englsih
(Vilke, 1991: 174).
There were fewer errors related to identifying words from English
with words in Croatian that sounds similarly (rooster – luster) if these
words are practiced more often. Visuals proved to be a good way of
explaining new vocabulary, however, confusion occured when the
teachers wanted to explain the qualities of an item through a picture
(model plane – mali avion). Younger students seemed to make mistakes
related to the interference from their mother tongue (On the cake is seven
candles) and simplifying the grammatical system of the foreign language
(Helen two shoes).
The Osijek experiment proved once again that longer exposure to a
foreign language results in better listening skills and that students who
learn a foreign language for a longer period of tiem tend to use the
language more creatively and freely (Vilke, 1991: 178).
Both projects articulated a need to start with foreign language
instruction at an earlier stage, preferably the second grade of primary
school. Vilke stresses that it is difficult to determine the exact ideal age
for commencing to learn a foreign language. In the author´ s opinion it is
more important for the government to ensure a continuous and successful
instruction of foreign languges rather than determine the ideal age for
starting to learn a foreign language (Vilke, 1991: 186). She envisages the
need to train primary school teachers to teach English (and possibly other
foreign languages) in junior grades of primary school.
Literature:
1. Brewster, Jean; Ellis, Gail; Girard, Denis: The Primary English
Teacher´ Guide. (2004). Penguin: Hong Kong.
2. Cameron, Lynne (2001): Teaching Languages to Young Learners.
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
3. Čajo, Kristina; Knezović, Ankica (2005): Building Blocks 3:
Teacher´s Book, priručnik za učitelje/učiteljice engleskog jezika za
3. razred osnovne škole uz udžbenik Building Blocks 3. Profil:
Zagreb.
4. Mihaljević Djigunović, Jelena ( 2005): Attitudes of Foreign
Language Young Learners: A Follow – up Study, Children and
Foreign Languages 1. Faculty of Philosophy: Zagreb.
5. Moon, Jayne (2005): Children Learning English. Macmillan:
Thailand.
6. Prebeg Vilke, Mirjana (1991): Vaše dijete i jezik: materinski, drugi
i strani jezik. Školska knjiga: Zagreb.
7. Vasta,R.; Haith, M.M.; Miller, S.A.: Dječja psihologija. Moderna
znanost: Zagreb.
8. Vidović, Ester; Drakulić, Morana (2011): Teaching the Concept of
Singularity and Plurality of Nouns within English Lessons to
Children of an Erly Age. Metodički obzori 15: Sveučilište Jurja
Dobrile u Puli.
9. Vrhovac, Yvonne (2001): Govorna komunikacija i interakcija na
satu stranoga jezika. Naklada Ljevak: Zagreb.
Recommended