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492METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS
N.B. Avezova1
It is fundamentally essential for children to learn English from a young age in this rapidly globalizing world. English knowledge will help to open many opportunities for them in the future and it will be invaluable in their future careers. However, teaching English to children is not an easy job. But it is also not difficult, if we already know how to do it. Many teaching positions involve teaching children - a unique experience that is both challenging and fun. Compared to adults, children are more energetic, have shorter attention spans, and learn language according to specific stages of development; these present planning challenges for the teacher. The key to teaching English to children is to understand the principles of language acquisition and apply it in ways that keep children motivated to learn. Children's world is playing and imitating. The present paper deals with the following subjects: what are the principles of teaching English to children, what are the characteristics of a language teacher, why do we teach children a foreign language, teachers social and psychological preparation , the emotional and physical aspects of young learners , the teachers main roles in class , a review of TPR , and finally some practical tips and teaching techniques for beginner teachers of English language.
Key words: Teaching approaches, teaching techniques, Total Physical Response, scaffolding, giving feedback, visual aids, coherence, teach teaching methods, creativity.
Introduction
Language as a means of communication plays very important role in social relationship among human beingsThe English Language is the first foreign language we teach to children at very early stages of schooling. The primary aim of teaching English in the early years of schooling is to motivate young learners to be ready and have self confident in learning English at higher levels of education. Some children are born to parents who polyglots, so they have to acquire two or three different languages. Some others learn second or third language because they are to immigrate to a new country. Nowadays language learning is essential needed for children who want to immigrate to other countries.
Definition of young learner
Philips (2002) revealed that young learners are the children from the first year of formal school (five or six years old) to eleven of twelve years of age. Scott (2009) points out young learners are divided into level one (5-7 years old) and level two (8-9 years old). Based on the level of class, Ytreberg (1993) divided young learners into two groups: lower class (students are in the 1, 2 and 3 grade), and upper class (students are in the 4, 5 and 6 grade). Based on the explanation above, it is concluded that kindergarten students are categorized at level one (5-7 years old). The characteristic of young learner
Scott & Ytreberg (1993:2-4) noted the characteristics of young learners as the active learners, learn through sensory and five senses, respond the language well through concrete things (visual things) rather than abstract things, interested in physical movements and real activities to stimulate their thinking. They will be enthusiastic if they are taught using fun activities or being involved in activities, love to play, and learn best when they are enjoying themselves; Teaching approaches for young learner
Phillips (1999) argued that the young learners are the holistic learner. They respond the language according to what it does and what they can do with it rather than treating it as the intellectual game or abstract system. The main purposes are placing the children's perspective on the practical activities and meaningful aims. Most activities for the young learners have to involve the physical movement and their senses. The
1Avezova Nigora Bakhtiyarovna - English teacher of school No. 82, Koson district, Kashkadarya region, Uzbekistan.
teacher needs to prepare a lot of visuals, pictures, objects and realia. Playfulness and meaningful should be the key word when describing the teacher's approach. Playing with the language is a natural way of language learning for young learners. Since the children's concentration and attention spans are short, especially at the early stages of language learning, the teachers have to created variety of activities, a variety of classroom organization, a variety of space, and of course a variety of techniques and methods.
Teaching techniques for young learner
Teaching technique is the implementation of teaching method in the level of procedure which is take place in the classroom. To some extent, different methods may have similar techniques even though they must have different techniques. Based on the various teaching techniques above, teachers can combine more than one teaching techniques in the class. It needs to observe the learners'needs, the goal of material and the classroom situation before applying it. From this principle the teacher may develop his or her own techniques, such as introducing songs and games to make their learning fun and natural.
This article focuses on the main trends and issues in teaching English as an additional language to young learners, a growing field of interest to both practicing teachers and researchers. By young language learners, we mean that learners fall within the age range between 6 and 14, although we are aware of a growing number of programs for younger children.
Main part
Young learners' interests and their age should be taken into consideration when choosing teaching strategies. More activities could be used for the purpose of the lesson more fascinating and exciting. The teachers' techniques in teaching English to young learners were singing a song, games, presentation practice and production, drilling, demonstration, story-telling, reading aloud, and dictation. The best teaching techniques implemented by the teachers were playing games, demonstration and presentation practice and production.
A number of principles can inform the following approaches to teaching young learners.
1.Build teaching around activities and physical movement.
Link language learning to physical activities by having children use and hear English for making things, drawing pictures, completing puzzles, labelling pictures, matching words and pictures, playing games, acting out movements in response to instructions and other activities that involve hands, eyes and ears. Teachers often make use of TPR activities (activities based on linking language with actions, drawing on the method known as total physical response). Many listening activities for young children use this principle, such as activities in which children listen and respond to commands (e.g. 'sit down', 'turn around', 'touch your nose'), listen and choose a picture, listen and draw a picture or listen and number a sequence of actions in a picture. Similarly, speaking activities with young learners may involve use of songs, dialogues, chants and fixed expressions that students can practise in different situations.
2.Build lessons around linked activities.
Since young learners have limited attention spans, it is important to include several short activities in a lesson and to move quickly from one activity to another. Activities of five to ten minutes in length are most successful. A balance between the following kinds of activities is often useful:
•Quiet / noisy activities.
•Different skills: listening, talking, reading / writing.
•Individual work / pair work / group work / whole-class activities.
•Teacher-pupil / pupil-pupil activities.
3.Build lessons around tasks.
A task is a meaning-focused activity that requires learners to draw on and use their existing linguistic resources to complete a task, such as drawing a picture from oral instructions, or working in pairs or groups and sequencing a series of pictures to complete a story. The key features of classroom tasks for young language learners are:
•They have coherence and unity for learners (from topic, activity and/or outcome).
•They have meaning and purpose for learners.
•They have clear language-learning goals.
•They involve the learner actively.
4.Provide scaffolding.
Scaffolding refers to how a child learns through collaboration with a more knowledgeable partner (a parent, a classmate, a teacher). When children work collaboratively on tasks (such as sequencing pictures in a story, completing a puzzle or completing an information-gap task), more proficient learners can often provide the scaffolding less proficient learners need.
5.Involve students in creating resources that support their learning.
Learners can draw pictures of the characters they hear in a story or create puppets to help retell a story. They can colour pictures of items and characters from stories. They can find pictures in magazines, related to a theme or topic in a lesson, and bring them to class. In my Quebec primary classes mentioned earlier, we did not use a textbook. The children created their own coursebook, as the course developed, using the resources that formed the basis of the course.
6.Build lessons around themes.
Lessons can be built around topics or themes, such as animals, friends, food or family, for very young learners; and for older learners, themes can be drawn from subjects in their other classes and the community, such as transport, country life, travel and famous people. Theme-based lessons provide continuity across activities and enable English learning to be connected to the children's lives.
7.Choose content children are familiar with.
Teaching can also be built around familiar content from the children's culture, such as stories and events (e.g. national holidays or cultural practices). Since the learners will be familiar with talking about these topics in their native language, it will be easier for them to connect with how they can talk about them in English.
8.Use activities that involve collaboration.
Children enjoy socializing with other children, and activities that work best with young learners are those in which children are working with others in pairs or groups, rather than remaining in their seats, listening to the teacher. Activities that involve collaboration require careful preparation to ensure that children have the words and expressions they need in order to carry out an activity.
9.Create a supportive learning community in the classroom.
A class of young learners needs to become a community of learners - that is, a group of learners with shared goals, needs and concerns. Thinking of a class as a community means seeing it as a place where each child in the class cooperates and collaborates to achieve the class's common goals. This leads to more productive learning. Children who interact and collaborate with other learners develop a more positive attitude towards learning and a greater sense of self-confidence than those in other learning arrangements.
10.Use enjoyable activities that children can accomplish without frustration.
Young learners enjoy taking part in activities that they can successfully achieve,
but which also offer some kind of challenge. Activities of this kind depend on the teacher providing language input and modelling for young language learners, where the teacher and the materials are the primary source of language.
11.Provide rich language support.
Since the learners will have little knowledge of English to call upon, they need careful language support for learning activities. Success will depend on the teacher providing language models, demonstrating the way the activities can be carried out in English and providing the language support an activity depends upon.
12.Give clear goals and feedback.
Children like to be successful at things they do in class. In order to achieve this, it is important to set clear goals for children and to let them know when they have been successful, or if not, why not. Praise for success is very important for young learners, for example, by using stars, stickers, points or smiley faces.
13.Use English for classroom management.
Use English for instructions, for routines such as forming groups, for introducing activities, for giving feedback and for other teaching processes.
14.Use the mother tongue when needed.
While the goal of teaching young learners is to use as much English in class as possible, when teaching homogeneous classes, it is quite appropriate to use the mother tongue when necessary to explain the meaning of words and expressions and to help explain activities. Occasional use of the mother tongue provides a comfort zone for young learners, though the teacher and students should not become over-dependent on it.
15.Bring speakers of English to class.
Where possible, it is useful to invite speakers of English to class to meet the learners. These could be children from an international school or older children who are now quite advanced in English. They can ask and answer simple questions, take part in a role play and do other activities that will interest and motivate the learners.
Young learners' is a term that is used to refer to children from their first year of formal schooling (usually somewhere between 5-7 years old) to when they are 11-12 years old, or to when they move on from primary to secondary school. They enjoy learning through playing. Young learners learn best when they learn through games. They will be enthusiastic if they are taught using fun activities or being involved in activities, love to play, and learn best when they are enjoying themselves. This combination means that you'll have to pay particular attention to the way you present information and engage students. Engagement and fun is key to setting a strong foundation for their future education.
1. Turn lessons into songs
Every English learner, both native and not, is familiar with, at the very least, one classic jingle. Yes, the ABCs are what we turn to for a reminder of what letter comes after Q. Although the middle part (something about eliemenopee?) requires a bit more brain power, the song offers English speakers a comfortable reference point for all their alphabetical needs.
Turning vocab, grammar, and dialogues into catchy tunes is a fabulous method for teaching English to young learners. If you're reviewing common material, try turning to YouTube to see if there's already a suitable song out there. Otherwise, you can hone your inner Beethoven to compose a musical masterpiece using the tune of another easy song, such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
1. Create visual diagrams to illustrate new vocabulary
Fig. 1. Kids with chalk in haiti
Use color and visual aids to keep kids' attention longer.
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes. These are a whole lot easier to point out on a smiling stick man than to write out in a vocabulary list. Visual devices provide a double whammy, too. Students can enjoy coloring or even adding on to pictures, while also absorbing what the new words they are learning look like.
Highlighting, underlining, and circling are all common visual tricks adults use to recall snippets of information. Creating visual diagrams is the same basic idea, so that the little ones can start to visualize what English looks like. As a bonus, students can more easily locate learning aids with distinct colors and illustrations among their folders of messy papers.
3. Encourage mnemonic devices to memorize grammar rules
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, or PEMDAS, is a popular mnemonic device for recalling the order of operations in math. When it comes to teaching English to children, memory aids make it easier to remember hard-to-spell words or complex grammar points. Whether that means creating a mnemonic device in students' native languages or breaking it down into simpler English words, the goal remains the same: better memory!
A useful mnemonic for all levels of English learners is "-i before -e, except after c". Once you can get your students to recite that phrase on command, expect those pesky i/e spelling mistakes to poof away! (If all else fails, turn to essential ESL resources to gain even more insight on how to teach English to children.)
4. Weave in spontaneous or consistent dialogues throughout the lesson
What did you do this weekend? By kicking off class with an expected question, you can get your students thinking about what they'll say long before class even starts. Natural dialogue also introduces students to everyday vocabulary relevant to their own lives and interests.
If you're working with a class, rather than a single student, you can also sprinkle in some side conversations with students as they work diligently on differentiating between I and me. Ask what's for lunch, how the last soccer game went, or anything at all that gets them excited to share!
5. Break up solitary study sessions with games
Childhood education without games is like chicken wings without seasoning or sauce. You simply can't have one without the other. Games are especially effective teaching methods for young learners (or for any kind of learner — think back to your own TEFL certification program!), because kids are able to learn without realizing it. Active games let them expel some bottled up energy and quiet ones challenge and require concentration.
What are some games to try? Think of some you played as a kid!
•Hangman
•Memory game with card pairs
•20 Questions
•I Spy
•Simon Says
•Charades
• Review vocabulary through role playing
The best teaching methods for young learners require creativity.
Think theater class with an English twist. Picking up the role of a police officer or elderly neighbor on the spot can be intimidating to any aged student. However, if you have some fun with it and create a more relaxed expectation for students to act out roles, they'll be less stressed about making mistakes.
After all, teaching English to children should be about building up speaking confidence and a solid foundation. The perfect subject-verb-agreement and conjugations can be fine-tuned later!
Pick up some wacky wigs, sunglasses, and hats to help students step into character and feel more like they're acting, not just presenting a dialogue. Once they really embrace their character, you might be shocked to find just how creative the little Shakespeares can get with their new vocabulary!
7. Repeat previous lessons in every class
Assuming the average class duration is only an hour or less, that leaves a whole lot of time in the day to forget everything a student just learned. Children won't retain as much information as adults, so repetition is key in English for young learners.
Rather than calling case closed at the end of a lesson and moving on after a test, be sure to pack every class with tons of repetition from lessons before. This also helps students to use vocabulary and grammar points all together, rather than depend on the same example sentences and templates they learn isolated in each lesson.
8. Get out of the classroom!
If you're a first-time English teacher, the idea of leading kids out into the big, wide world and outside the safe classroom walls may sound like a disaster waiting to happen. But if you're teaching English to young learners in-person and have permission to do
so, take the kiddos out on a stroll. The change in scenery opens up a whole new box of situations to practice new vocabulary in its natural habitat.
You don't have to constantly come up with new teaching methods for young learners. If you find your students respond well and enjoy a set of games, go ahead and continue to use them!
You can always modify the content and difficulty of each round. And, once you find your teaching groove, you'll have all your lesson plans and games sorted out to use for each new set of students.
Conclusion.
Those techniques are effective to be implemented in teaching English to young learners because they can help the students to have a good English learning experience. Those strategies are worthy for teachers conducting a learning process that is fun and suitable for young learners. Moreover, it is better for the teacher to create other creative teaching strategies (such as in-pair activity, group activity, and outdoor activity) so that the students as young learners are more engaged in the learning process. Tedious lessons should be skipped and interactive ones should be set that will both raise young learners' mood and enhance their language performances. To strengthen the taught lessons teachers can opt for activities rather than just questioning. One thing is sure, even adults till like being educated with the practice of games and activities.
The study is concluded that in order to vary the teaching techniques in teaching English to young learners, particularly at schools and nurseries, the teachers apply singing a song, playing games, presentation practice and production, drilling demonstration, storytelling, reading aloud, and dictation. However, the teachers faced some problems in teaching but they can tackle the problems by provoking and inviting the students' interest in playing games, demonstration and presentation practice and production.
References:
1. Brown H.D. 2007 Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Longman
2. Bland, J. (2015b). Oral storytelling in the primary English classroom. In J. Bland (Ed.), Teaching English to Young Learners. Critical Issues in Language Teaching with 3-12 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
3. Emmer, E. T., & Stough, L. M. (2001). Classroom management: A critical part of educational psychology, with implications for teacher education. Educational Psychologist, 36(2), 103-112.
4. Larsen-Freeman D. 2000 Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (2ndEdition). Oxford.
5. Harbaugh, A. G., & Cavanagh, R. F. (2012). Associations between the Classroom Learning Environment and Student Engagement in Learning 2: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach. Australian Association for Research in Education (NJ1).
6. Hashemi, M. & Azizinezhad, M. (2011). Teaching English to Children: A Unique, Challenging Experience for Teachers, Effective Teaching Ideas.
7. Philiphs, S. (1996). Young Learners. New York: Oxford University Press.
8. Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Language to Young Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Smith, V. (2011). Words and pictures: Towards a linguistic understanding of picture books and reading pedagogy. In Ellis, S & McCartney, E. (Eds.), Applied Linguistics and Primary School Teaching. London: Cambridge University Press.
10. Zein, S. (2015). Preparing elementary English teachers: Innovations at pre-service level. Australian Journal of Teacher Education.
© N.B. Avezova, 2022.
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