1

TEACHING
ENGLISH TO
CHILDREN
A practical guide for the beginner teacher

- COURSE -

by lecturer

Daniela Popescu

CHAPTER ONE. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON

TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS
1.1. Foreword. Relatively little attention has been devoted in English Language
Teaching literature to the teaching of English as a second or foreign language to
young learners in our country; but after the revolution there was a revival of
interest in this matter.
Accepting the fact that young children are able to learn foreign languages
more naturally and therefore to some extent more easily than older learners, the
question arises from what age foreign language teaching is a feasible project for a
school or group of parents to undertake.
While the teaching of a foreign language can never match the natural
acquisition of the mother tongue from birth, it seems reasonable to suggest that
children start learning a foreign language as soon as they are old enough to accept
the social requirements demanded by group teaching. In our country the age of
three or four is generally accepted as being an age at which children can be
expected to play together.
Together is the operative word when we are talking about foreign language
learning for young children. A graded course with a child-centred approach is the
only way to achieve marked progress in the short time usually available. Group
learning enables children to learn from their peers, and group play can positively
support learning.
The earlier the better may be the ideal answer to the question of how early to
start foreign language learning, but in practice it will turn out to be as early as
possible.
This is a course based on our experience of working with young learners.
We hope that it will be of great help for teachers of two categories of young
language learners: four to seven year olds and eight to eleven year olds. We are
assuming that four to seven year olds are all at level one, the beginner stage. The
eight to eleven year olds may also be beginners, or they may have been learning
English for some time, so there are both level one and level two children in this
last group.
Both these periods cover some of the most vital years in a childs
development, so all education, including learning a foreign language English in
our case should contribute positively to that development.
1.2. The young language learner. There is a big difference between what children
of four can do and what children of eleven can do. Some children develop early,
some later. Some children develop gradually, others in leaps and bounds. It is not
possible to say that at the age of four all children can do x, at the age of eight they
can all do y, or that at the age of eleven they can all do z. But it is possible to point
out certain characteristics of young children the teacher should be aware of and
take into account in his/her teaching. As the teacher is the only one to see how far

up the ladder his/her individual children are. We can only draw your attention to
the characteristics of the average child which are relevant for language teaching.
The adult world and the childs world are not the same. Children do not
always understand what adults are talking about. Adults do not always understand
what children are talking about. The difference is that adults usually find out by
asking questions, but children dont always ask. They either pretend to understand,
or they understand in their own terms and do what they think the teacher wants
them to do. They will seldom admit that they dont know something either.
Young children cannot decide for themselves what to learn, but they love to
play and learn best when they are enjoying themselves. They also take themselves
seriously and like to think that what they are doing is real work.
1.2.1. The four to seven year old language learners. They understand situations
more quickly than they understand the language used and use language skills long
before they are aware of them. Their own understanding comes through hands and
eyes and ears. The physical world is dominant at all times. They have a very short
attention and concentration span. They sometimes have difficulty in knowing what
is fact and what is fiction: the dividing line between the real world and the
imaginary world is not clear. Moreover, they like using their vivid imaginations
very much. They can be very reluctant to share and sometimes dont want to work
together because they dont see the point. They are enthusiastic and positive about
learning; it is important to praise them if they are to keep their enthusiasm and feel
successful from the beginning.
1.2.2. The eight to eleven year old language learners. They can tell the difference
between fact and fiction. Their basic concepts are formed and they have very
decided views of the world. They ask questions all the time and rely on the spoken
word as well as the physical world to convey and understand meaning. They are
able to make some decisions about their own learning and have definite views
about what they like and dont like doing. They have a developed sense of fairness
about what happens in the classroom and begin to question the teachers decisions.
They are able to work with others and learn from others.
Finally, we may conclude that children of this age will learn better if they
have a positive attitude towards what they are doing and if they are motivated or
want to do it. Interest becomes a crucial factor in deciding on classroom practices
for teaching children. Teachers of English should start with what interests children,
stretches them and motivates them, and design appropriate materials that will allow
them to use language in order to explore their interests.
1.3. Introducing the course. Knowing all these will positively influence the
teaching, especially if the teacher does not neglect some methodological
characteristics. Words are not enough, so the teacher should not rely on the spoken
word only. Most activities for the younger learner should include movement and
involve the senses. The teacher will need to have plenty of objects and pictures to
work with (as we are going to show in chapter 6 on teaching aids), and to make full

use of school and surroundings. He/she should demonstrate what he/she wants the
children to do. The balance will change as the children get older, but appealing to
the senses will always help them to learn.
Playing with the language is very common in first language development. It
is a very natural stage in the first stages of foreign language learning too. Children
have an amazing ability to absorb language through play and other activities they
find enjoyable. How good they are in a foreign language is not dependent on
whether they have learnt the grammar rules or not. Very few of the pupils will be
able to cope with grammar as such, even at the age of ten or eleven. They may be
very aware and clear about the foreign language, but they are not usually mature
enough to talk about it. So let the children talk to themselves (even if they talk
nonsense), make up rhymes, sing songs, tell stories, experiment with words and
sounds (see chapter 8 on the role of fun activities in teaching English to young
learners).
Since, as we have already shown, concentration and attention spans are
short, variety is a must variety of activity, pace, organization or voice. Older
pupils can concentrate for longer periods and the teacher should allow them to do
so, but he/she still needs lots of variety.
Shared experiences are an invaluable source of language work and create an
atmosphere of involvement and togetherness; so make room for them. Most of us
enjoy the feeling of belonging and this is particularly true of young children.
Group the children together whenever possible. This does not mean that they have
to work in groups all the time, but most children like to have other children around
them, and sitting with others encourages cooperation.
The teacher should note the vocabulary, structures and grammar items which
he/she wants his/her children to learn as well as those they already know, but
his/her actual teaching should only include the barest minimum of grammar taught
as grammar, and then for the older children only. This does not mean teaching
grammar rules to the whole class. The best time to introduce some sort of simple
grammar is either when a pupil asks for an explanation, or when the teacher thinks
a pupil will benefit from learning some grammar (for more details see chapter 4 on
teaching vocabulary, structures and grammar).
Even though formal assessment may not be a compulsory part of a teachers
work, it is always useful to make regular notes about each childs progress. The
teacher may want to tell parents how their children are doing, and should be talking
to the children regularly about their work and encouraging self-assessment. From
the beginning this can be done in very simple terms, stressing the positive side of
things and playing down what the child has not been able to master (for further
details see chapter 7 on feedback and assessment).
1.4. Planning points of an English language course. In order to make teaching as
effective as possible, the planning of an English language course for these above
mentioned age groups should take into consideration the points listed below (the
term effective applies not only to the structure of the course and the language to

be taught, but also to the way the course is taught and the circumstances in which
the children are learning):
the teacher: long years of experience have shown that this is the most important
factor. Without a suitable tutor, teaching young children becomes
impracticable. First of all, a teacher of young learners has to have the ability to
communicate with them this seems to be an instinctive skill some people have
and some do not. The other essential skills, which can be acquired, are
competence in the foreign language and teaching experience. It is a common
mistake in choosing a foreign language teacher for young learners to look for
competence and teaching skill first, before investigating communicative skills.
The most highly motivated, highly qualified teacher sometimes simply fails to
get on with the children;
the size of the group: ideally, it should not exceed the physical reach of the
teacher sitting in a circle this will mean ten, at the most twelve children. This
could cause some teachers of older children and education planners to shake
their heads in horror, but it seems entirely natural to a teacher of young
children. In reality, of course, numbers may be far greater, as it is the case in
our primary schools;
the length of the lesson is another crucial factor. It is well known that children
cannot concentrate for long periods. From our experience, a maximum 30
minutes (for four to seven year olds) or 45 minutes (for eight to eleven) active
teaching at a stretch has been proved to be acceptable for both teacher and
children;
motivation: young children do not usually ask to learn a foreign language. From
their position in society they are not often confronted with problems of
communication with speakers of other languages. They are not motivated to
learn another language in the way that older learners might be. If they are to
take part in a foreign language course with success, the motivation has to come
from another source. First it comes from their parents who enter them for the
course, but above all it comes from the enjoyment and pleasure experienced in
the learning situation. The only way to teach a foreign language to young
learners is in a childlike fashion, in a course full of play, combined with
structured teaching, so that the children are only aware of the play content and
learn the foreign language almost without noticing.

What we hope to offer in this course is a general framework for more

detailed examination of specific problems but the value of such a framework
needs to be constantly tested against the experience of particular learners in
particular education systems, with particular groups of teachers.

CHAPTER TWO. CLASS MANAGEMENT

2.1. Some basic classroom techniques. Here are a few simple techniques which
are not difficult to remember but which few teachers manage to observe all the
time:
look at all the children in the class; those whom the teacher does not look at
will feel excluded, and may think that he/she dislikes them. When teaching,
switch your gaze evenly from one side to another, like a well-regulated
lighthouse. You will also have the advantage of knowing what is going on in
the class the whole time, who is paying attention and who is not, and you can
adapt your teaching accordingly;
vary your techniques for asking questions, as we advise in 2.3.4.;
do not go round the class. It is better not to ask questions or do exercises in rote
around the class. Otherwise, those furthest away from the questioning know
they can relax for some time before their turn comes, while those who have
already answered can sit back and dream, knowing that they will probably not
be asked again. Dart hither and thither and go back to someone you have just
questioned, so that everyone realizes he/she may be asked at any time;
include everyone equally;
make sure that the class is seated in the best possible way. Ensure that empty
seats are only at the back and that everyone is grouped as near the front as
possible. Ideally, everyone should be able to see everyone else, so that they can
all participate in what is being said;
limit teacher talking time: the more a teacher talks, the less will his/her
children be given the opportunity of expressing themselves. A teacher should
be a stimulator who gets his/her children to talk;
write clearly, as clear blackboard work is essential. If you have a lot to put on
the board, try and arrange it in an orderly and logical fashion, so that the whole
pattern is clear (also see chapter 6 on teaching aids);
encourage your children and remember that you can be encouraging or
discouraging simply with intonation. Also encourage the less advanced
children and find out if there are areas where they are good so that you can call
on them to show their knowledge;
take account of different levels within the class: ask difficult questions to the
brighter children and then ask the same question later to those who lag behind.
Get children to teach each other and talk about what they know to those who
do not. Sit a more advanced child next to a less advanced one so that he/she
can help;
deal with individual problems after the class. The child concerned will feel that
you really care about his/her progress if you spend additional time on him/her.

2.2. The physical surroundings. Young children respond well to surroundings

which are pleasant and familiar. If it is possible, the teacher must put as much on
the walls as he/she can calendars, posters, postcards, childrens drawings or
writings. He/she could bring in plants, toys, any interesting object, anything that
adds character to the room but still leaves space to work.
The children must be encouraged to bring in objects, pictures or postcards
and tell the rest of the class a little bit about them in English. Physical objects are
very important for young children, even the eleven year olds.
If the classroom is used for other subjects or other classes as well, the
teacher should try to have an English corner - with shelves for books or toys and a
notice board - or at least a section of wall that he/she can pin things on (also see
chapter 6 on teaching aids).
2.3. The ideal teacher. Teachers come to the job with their personalities already
formed, but there are abilities and attitudes that can be learnt and worked on. It
helps a lot if a teacher of young learners has a sense of humour, is open-minded,
adaptable, patient, etc., but even if he/she is the silent, reserved type, he/she can
work on his/her attitudes and abilities. For example, most of the teachers can learn
to sing or even play a musical instrument, to mime, to act and to draw very simple
drawings.
Two teachers using the same method can have different results. How then
can we assess the qualities a teacher needs to help in proving motivation? Denis
Girard attempted to answer this question. 1000 children between the ages of 12 and
17 were asked to put a list of a teachers qualities in order of preferences. They
showed what their learning priorities were by putting these qualities in the
following order: 1 the most important, 10 the least important. The result was as
follows:
1. makes his/her course interesting;
2. teaches good pronunciation;
3. explains clearly;
4. speaks good English;
5. shows the same interest in all children;
6. makes all children participate;
7. shows great patience;
8. insists on spoken English;
9. makes children work;
10. uses an audio-lingual method.
The children were also asked to list any additional qualities they thought
they were important. The most popular were: shows sympathy for children, is fair
to all children whether good or bad at English, inspires confidence.
Speaking about attitudes, we think that a beginner teacher should know
some golden rules. It goes without saying that a teacher must respect his/her
children and be realistic about what they can manage at an individual level. He/she
has to appear to like all the pupils equally. Although at times this will certainly
include the ability to act, the children should not be aware of it. Children involved

in the process of learning need to know that their teacher likes them. It is also
essential that a teacher feels secure in what he/she is doing. This security can be
built up by planning, reading, assessing, etc. Once children feel secure and content
in the classroom, once they feel that the teacher is in charge, they can be
encouraged to become independent and adventurous in the learning.
Constant, direct correction is not effective and it does not help to create a
good atmosphere. Correction has its place when working on guided language
exercises, but not when the language is used for communication; when a child is
trying to tell something the teacher has to accept whatever he/she says mistakes
as well.
One of the rules of the class must be not to laugh at others mistakes.
Children of all ages are sometimes unkind to each other without meaning to be and
are sometimes unkind to each other deliberately. They have to be told that
everyone makes mistakes when they are learning a new language and that it is all
right.
The teacher must establish routines; they build up familiarity and security
for both age groups. He/she could have a calendar with birthdays and dates, a
weather chart, etc., or could give the children the responsibility for doing practical
jobs in the classroom (making sure the calendar is right, sharpening the pencils,
watering the plants all genuine language activities which involve both taking
responsibility for learning and helping others to learn).
The teacher should not give children English names; language is a personal
thing and the child is the same person no matter what language he/she is using.
2.4. The teachers role at different stages of the lesson.
2.4.1. Beginning the lesson. The inexperienced or nervous teacher tends to start
teaching as soon as he/she enters the classroom. But there are several things to do
first:
check your equipment: make sure you have everything you need and have not
left something vital in the staff-room. Having to leave the classroom to get
something can be disastrous;
check the room equipment: see that the blackboard is clean, that there is
enough chalk and a duster. See that the windows are adjusted to suit the
weather or atmosphere in the room. Various children can do these chores
simultaneously;
make sure you will have access to every child in the class. Why is this so
important? Because during oral work you need to be near a speaker in order to
hear him/her clearly and, if necessary, correct him/her promptly. Because
during silent reading and writing you need to be able to answer individuals
without disturbing everyone. Because the least interested children tend either to
sit farthest away from you or to push movable desks into groups so that they
can chat;
remove distractions: see that children have on their desks only those things you
want them to have. Especially the children of four or five love to bring in their

favourite toys. Do not allow them to keep those toys on their desks, as at some
time during the lesson they will begin playing or even talking with them.
Persuade the children to place the toys somewhere they will be out of their
reach, but make sure to find best arguments to motivate your action (the toys
will have a better view of all the activities that are going on, they will be
admired by all the other children in the class, etc.);
do not begin until there is silence, and attention is focused on you.
2.4.2. During the lesson the teacher will have to:
keep on the move: for the first five minutes you may find it necessary to stay at
the front. But as soon as you can, move. Get used to teaching on the move;
keep the channels open making the best use of interest, challenge and
enjoyment. Do not put all your cards on the table. That is, whenever possible,
withhold an outcome from the class until the right time comes. Challenge the
children to deduce the meanings of words from their context in a passage to
formulate their own grammar rules, given a set of examples. And most of all do
not forget that there should be a little fun in every lesson, however simple it is;
never say anything important while children are looking at material you have
brought in for the lesson: they will probably not take in what you say. Give
clear instructions before issuing materials, opening books or starting written
work. Sight can easily block out sound.
2.4.2.1. During the production stage. Whatever the lesson type and skill focus,
there should be ample opportunities for creative language use. During the
production stage, teachers usually abandon the centre floor, but they are still busy.
At the side or the back of the class, they must be ready to adopt any of the
following roles:
manager: the teacher is a manager, ready to introduce a new aspect or raise a
question to keep interaction going. There is no need to intrude if discussion is
continuing, even if it is moving away from what was expected. The teacher is
also identifying children who are not making a contribution, and can gently
elicit remarks from the shy or less extrovert children, ensuring that everyone is
involved;
censor: the teacher must ensure that intolerance and prejudicial statements are
not allowed to go unchallenged;
educator: the teacher will find opportunities to bring in information about
everything that might arise the childrens interest in studying English. Such
input is valuable in enriching the linguistic environment;
facilitator: the teacher creates learning situations where children must use the
target language structure but are also challenged;
investigator: the teachers themselves will want to develop their own skills and
they will hope for a gradually deepening insight into the best ways to foster
language learning. The best way to do this, besides to go on teacher training
courses and to attend teachers seminars, is by investigating what is going on,

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observing what works well in class and what does not, trying out new
techniques and activities and evaluating their appropriateness. Teachers who
do not investigate the efficiency of new methods and who do not actively seek
their own personal and professional development may find the job of teaching
becoming increasingly monotonous. On the other hand, teachers who
constantly seek to enrich their understanding of what learning is all about and
what works well will find the teaching of English constantly rewarding.
As for the other roles the teacher might assume in the process of teaching,
see section 2.5. on grouping the children.
2.4.2.2. During question time. Teachers who nominate a child before phrasing a
question risk having the majority lose interest. Why should the children bother to
think if the question has already been assigned to someone? The same chance to
drop out occurs in classes where children compete for the teachers attention by
calling Teacher! Teacher! or by snapping their fingers. It is easy to observe
children who win all the attention and those who make no attempt to work. Less
obvious are those who cleverly snap their fingers at the teacher just at the moment
another child is designated, to make it look as though they are participating.
Inexperienced teachers think, wrongly, that their lesson is going well. By working
almost exclusively with volunteer children, they are neglecting part of the class.
Another bad practice is to direct questions only at those children who will be
able to answer quickly and correctly. Usually this is because the teacher wants a
brisk lesson, with no awkward silence. This teacher too is ignoring the needs of
many members of the class.
The teacher must stop all calling out and finger snapping and ensure that
everybody makes some form of oral contribution during every lesson, using one of
the following nomination strategies:
the surprise nomination: the teacher names a child who is to answer but only
after a question has been asked so that all children prepare a response. It is
important to scatter the nominations, not neglecting the back and the corners of
the classroom;
the shotgun nomination is similar, but this time the teacher walks up and down
the aisles while talking, with the children looking as well as listening. After
asking a question the teacher snaps his/her fingers at a designated child who
must provide the answer. This keeps things moving very swiftly and the finger
snap keeps everyone alert. The teacher can point across intervening rows or
spin around to shoot in any direction;
chorus responses: after asking a question, the teacher pauses and then calls out
Class?. This can only be done with short-answer question types;
written answers: the teacher tells the class to write down their answer instead
of answering orally. The check is random, but instead of expressing approval or
disapproval, the teacher asks Is that correct?. This gives everyone the chance
to contribute orally as well as in writing. There is no need to write the answers
on board or to check the spellings. This is a strategy to involve everyone, not a
writing test.

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2.4.3. Ending the lesson. Maybe it is hard to believe, but this is the most important
part of the lesson, as children have to go home with a good impression on what has
happened in class, with the desire or better the impatience to come again. So the
teacher will have to pay special attention to these last moments of the lesson and
try to:
finish clearly: teacher and children alike find it unsatisfactory to stop in the
middle of something. If you see that time is running out stop at the cleanest
break in activity. To fill the remaining time, you should have at your fingertips
a number of brief, enjoyable activities;
observe the bell: do not go with the lesson after the bell has gone. It is better to
be ready a minute early than to arouse resentment in the class. Learning is just
as tiring as teaching, and the children need their break;
clean the blackboard. This is quite important for the new teacher. It is not just
that it is courteous to ensure that nobody else is forced to clean up your mess; it
is also a way of ensuring that no other member of staff sees any mistakes you
may have made!
2.5. Grouping the children. Teachers can multiply the opportunities for practice
for creative language use by introducing pair and group work. It is important to
keep in mind that not all children will take to pair and group work at once.
Particularly four to five year olds are often happiest working alone and are not
willing to cooperate and share yet. They will want to keep all the cards, read the
books alone, play with all the toys in the English corner, etc. Cooperation is
something which has to be nurtured and learnt, fact that may not be a problem at
all in kindergartens or primary schools.
2.5.1. Pair work is a very useful and efficient way of working in language teaching.
It is simple to organize and easy to explain, and group work should not be
attempted before the children are used to working in twos first.
2.5.1.1. Guiding lines in using pair working. Here are some clues on pair working
meant to help the beginner teacher:
let children who are sitting near each other work together; do not move desks or
chairs yet;
establish a routine for pair work, so that when you say Now work in your
pairs the children know what is expected of them;
pair work means that everyone in the class is occupied, but even if everyone is
working on the same thing, not all pairs will finish at the same time. Do not be
tempted to let the pair work continue until everyone has finished. As soon as
you see that several of the pairs have finished, ask the others to finish off;
if you do not have an even number of children in the class then let one group
work as a three. If a teacher always partner the odd child then he/she will not be
able to help the others;

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be on the lookout for children who simply do not like each other it is unlikely
that they will work well together. This is more of a problem with eight to eleven
year olds than it is with four to seven year olds;
go through what you want children to do before you put them into their pairs.
Additionally, the teacher must make sure that his/her children understand the
following rules:
pair work time is not to be used for chatting;
when they finish the set task they can change roles and do the task again;
if they have not quite finished when the activity is stopped by the teacher, this is
not serious they will have done a lot of talking and that is what it really
matters;
they can ask for help if they need it; there will be a check on their participation
afterwards.
2.5.1.2. Steps in using pair work. The following steps are only suggestions. The
teacher may use any teaching method he/she thinks appropriate for his/her class:
Step one: preparation. The teacher must prepare carefully, by means of
presentation and practice, so that everyone is confident in using the language:
any visual support must be left at sight.
Step two: teacher-student model. The teacher will call upon a child to stand and
take one part himself/herself and go through the whole task.
Step three: public pairs. The teacher designates two children who are sitting
well apart (fact that will make them speak loudly enough for all to hear) and
gets them to repeat the task, as a second model.
Step four: private pairs. The teacher tells everyone to begin and he/she goes
around the room to monitor and assist. There should be little need to interfere if
the preparation has been enough.
Step five: public check. The teacher stops the activity, chooses one pair at
random to stand and do the task again, publicly. This will be easy and quick if
the children have indeed been practising. Then the teacher chooses a second
and/or a third pair to do the same. This stops children chatting in their mother
tongue during pair work. They will work harder if they know they may be
checked afterwards.
2.5.1.3. The teachers role during pair work. The teacher has two roles: one is to
act as a monitor, listening to a few of the pairs and noting any persistent errors.
Pair work should not be interrupted unless absolutely necessary; serious errors will
receive attention another time, perhaps at the start of the next lesson. The second
role is that of a resource person, providing help, information and feedback upon
request. In a resource person role, the teacher is viewed as being an authority, not
simply as someone in authority.
Perhaps most important of all, the children will come to view the teacher as
someone who is sensitive to their learning, someone to whom they can go for
advice. Relationships with children can be transformed for the better.

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2.5.1.4. Suitable activities for pair work. We confine ourselves to enumerate some
of the most suitable activities, as most of them will be described in the next
chapters. In the early stages of teaching English it is best to use such activities as:
dialogues, substitution drills, describing pictures or providing titles drills, question
and answer work.
2.5.2. Group work. Everything that has been said about pair work applies to group
work too. But there are certain particularities that are going to be pointed out
further on.
2.5.2.1. Introducing group work. A teacher cannot put children into groups, give
them an exercise and assume that it will work. He/she must introduce children
gradually to group work. He/she could follow the steps below:
start by having teaching groups groups that the teacher teaches separately
from the rest of the class. This allows the teacher to give some children more
individual attention;
go on to introducing self-reliant groups groups that are given something to do
on their own with the teacher only giving help when needed;
start with just one group; tell them clearly what the purpose is (I want you to
solve this exercise) and why they are working together (If there are four of
you, you can help each other and share the work);
go through this process with all the groups before you let the whole class work
in groups at the same time.
2.5.2.2. Group work number and structure. It is better to limit numbers in the
group to between three and five. Children should not be allowed to choose their
groups, partly because this takes a lot of time, but mainly because it usually means
that someone is left out. Particularly with the eight to eleven year olds, the teacher
might want to put them in mixed ability groups some of the time, but sometimes
group them according to ability. Clever children can and do help the not so clever
ones if the groups are mixed, but sometimes the teacher wants to give extra help to
either the clever or the not so clever on their own.
It is usual to have one member of each group acting as a leader or secretary.
This is the child who will come to the teacher with any difficulties or with a final
completed task. This makes class management much easier. The teacher can
appoint the leaders by choosing the most able linguists or can allow the groups to
select their own. The teacher may even insist that the job be rotated, so that
everyone gets a chance to be the leader. Whatever the teacher decides, he/she must
be sure that the children know exactly who their group leader is. As a result, they
can begin work at once without waiting for a nomination.
2.5.2.3. The role of the teacher in group work. The teacher is the manager of the
activity and must plan it, organize it, start it, monitor it, time it and conclude it.
He/she should not be afraid to assume the role of participant, since this will
probably improve the atmosphere in the class and will give the children a chance to

14

practise English with someone who speaks it better than they do. The danger here
is that the teacher will tend to dominate and the children will both allow and expect
this to happen. It will be up to the teacher to make sure it does not.
During group work activities the teacher should stay mainly at the front of
the class, perhaps making a rapid check on a group or two to see that all is well.
The leader-secretaries report to the teachers desk with assignments or queries.
Corrections are made on the spot and any new instructions issued to the leader.
The corrected copy and the instructions are carried back to the group by the leader.
The teacher must be active, marking, remaining sensitive to the atmosphere
and pace of the groups and noting persistent errors for remedial teaching. He/she
has to learn to be tolerant of errors that do not impede the message that is being
conveyed. Children should be encouraged to be adventurous with words.
If the task goes wrong the teacher will stop it and revert to some form of
practice before starting group work again.
The teacher must try to speak English as much of the time as he/she can,
using mime, acting, puppets and any other means he/she can think of to get his/her
meaning across. The children are unlikely to have the opportunity to hear English
all day so the teacher should let them hear as much as possible while they are in
class. He/she must keep his/her language simple but natural, at his/her childrens
level.
The teacher will also have to decide for himself/herself how much mother
tongue language he/she uses it depends very largely on the individual class. The
teacher must remember that he/she can very often convey the meaning of what
he/she is saying by the tone of his/her voice and body language he/she doesnt
always have to switch languages.
2.5.2.4. Suitable group work tasks. Group activities tend to be freer and more
interactive than pair work. Several types of activity are collaborative and easy to
use, even by inexperienced teachers. They could be games, question constructions,
guided practice, dictations, role play, guess ahead activities or speculative
questions. Once again we are not going to discuss them in detail as most of them
are to be described in the next chapters of this course.
2.6. Dealing with teaching problems. Unless the children are angels, the teacher
must be prepared for things to go wrong or just not as he/she has planned. Young
children are spontaneous and do or say whatever comes into their heads. If they are
interested in what they are doing they will show it. They cannot concentrate for
long on one activity and, of course, they will find other things to do if their
concentration goes. Unless a child is actually being destructive, then the teacher
must try to make the things went wrong into something positive. Sometimes the
lesson where nothing goes as the teacher planned can be very successful!
2.6.1. Showing incorrectness: the teacher indicates to the child that a mistake has
been made. If the child understands this feedback he/she will be able to correct the

15

mistake and this self-correction will be helpful to him/her as part of the learning
process. There are several techniques for showing incorrectness:
repeating: the teacher asks the children to repeat what they have just said by
using the word again. This, said with a questioning intonation, will usually
indicate that the response was unsatisfactory, although it could be
misunderstood as only indicating that the teacher has not heard the childs
response;
echoing: the teacher will be even clearer if he/she repeats what the child has just
said using a questioning intonation, since this will clearly indicate that he/she is
doubting the accuracy or content of what is being said. Another possibility is to
echo the childs response but only up to the point where the mistake was made;
denial: the teacher simply tells the children that the response was unsatisfactory
and asks for it to be repeated. It may be a bit more discouraging;
questioning: the teacher can say Is that correct? asking any child in the class
to answer the question. This has the advantage of focusing everybodys mind
on the problem, though it may make the child who made the mistake seem
somewhat exposed;
expression: many teachers indicate that the response was incorrect by their
expression or by some gesture. This is very economical and can be quite funny,
but it can also be dangerous if the student thinks that the expression or gesture
is a form of mockery.
In general, showing incorrectness should be handled with tact and
consideration. It should be seen as a positive act, not as a reprimand.
2.6.2. Classroom language. If cooperation and communication are to be part of the
process of learning a language as well as part of the process of growing up, then
the sooner the children learn simple, meaningful expressions in English, the easier
it will be. A very important way of helping children progress from dependence on
the book or on the teacher to independence is to give them the necessary tools. One
of the tools is classroom language.
For example, few children of four or five will admit that they do not know
the answer to a question. Nor will they ask for more information if they do not
understand what they have to do. Very often they will just do what they think the
teacher wants them to do. So teaching them phrases like Im sorry, I dont know
or I dont understand helps their development, their language and their ability to
communicate meaningfully in the classroom and elsewhere.
Here are some phrases which all a teachers children should learn as soon as
possible (and they should be taught as phrases, not as words or structures): Good
morning/afternoon; Goodbye; Can I please?; Sorry, I dont know/dont
understand/cant; Whats this called in English?/Whats the English for ?;
Whose turn is it to ?; Whose book/chair/pencil is this?; Its my/your/his/her ;
Pass the , please; Thank you, etc.

16

2.6.3. Surprises in class. Several types of things can go wrong:

an external disturbance: a fly buzzing around the classroom or a number of
noisy cars passing the window. In cases like this, either get rid of the
disturbance (kill the fly or get it out of the room) or make use of it (Oh, look at
this fly! Isnt it ugly!);
an internal disturbance: children burst into tears, or two of them start fighting.
The teacher must take the child(ren) aside. If the class is already working
individually or in pairs, then he/she can simply tell the others to get on with
what they are doing and hope that they do. If this happens in the middle of a
class activity, the teacher should give the children something quick, easy and
quiet to do (like Think about/write three words beginning with p or What was
the most difficult new word last week?). Of course, once the teacher has sorted
the problem out, he/she then has to hear the words. This must be done as
quickly as possible in order to get back to the previous activity;
the class is out of control: in this case the teacher can use a calming activity
(like telling a story or filling in the words in a text read to the whole class). This
means that the teacher always has to have what we might call emergency
activities ready;
an activity is taking too long: the teacher can tell the children that they do the
activity so well already that there is no need to do it anymore. Or he/she can ask
them to finish it for homework. If the activity is really enjoyed by the children,
then the teacher will say they can do it again another day (and in this case
he/she must remember to do so);
the teacher has extra time: then he/she can use one of the emergency activities
mentioned earlier, but he/she has to remember to choose one that suits the mood
of the class and try to adapt it so that it fits in with what he/she has been doing.
Of course, the teacher can always say to the pupils, All right, today youve
been so clever that were going to play a game/listen to a story/add to our
rhyme book. That leaves him/her free to do whatever he/she wants;
an activity does not work: the teacher must finish it off as soon as he/she can
and move on to something else;
an activity is too difficult: if an activity does not work because the language is
too difficult for the children, the teacher must stop it gently and move on to an
easier activity which he/she knows they can do.
2.6.4. Disruptive behaviour is hostile to the teacher or to the other children and it
can be difficult to deal with, as it is not confined to one age group. One way of
avoiding it is by making sure that all a teachers children of whatever age know
where he/she stands. Somehow the teacher and the children have to agree upon a
code of conduct.
A code of conduct involves the teacher and the children in forms of
behaviour in the classroom. Certain things do not comply with such forms of
behaviour as arriving late, interrupting other children when they speak, bringing
food into the room, forgetting to do homework, not paying attention, etc. Where a

17

code of conduct is established both teacher and children will recognize these acts
as outside the code.
The teachers role in the first few classes with a new group will be to
establish the code through discussion and example. If this is done it will be easier
to show children where they are going wrong later on.
2.6.5. Causes of discipline problems. Several factors may cause discipline
problems during the teaching and learning act. We are going to discuss them
further on:
2.6.5.1. The teacher : his/her behaviour and attitude is perhaps the single most
important factor in a classroom and thus can have a major effect on discipline.
Here is a list of things that teachers should probably not do if they want to avoid
problems:
do not go to class unprepared: children automatically identify teachers who are
not sure what to do in the classroom. So the teacher has to appear to be well
prepared and knowledgeable about the subject;
do not be inconsistent: if the teacher allows children to come to class late
without taking action one week, they cannot be reproached for doing the same
thing again the week after. Teachers have to be consistent about what the code
of conduct is. Otherwise the children will lose respect for it;
do not issue threats: teachers who threaten children with terrible punishments
and then do not carry them out are doing both the class and themselves a
disservice;
do not raise the voice: this almost always has disastrous consequences, for it
contributes to a general raising of the level of noise in the classroom. Very
often a quiet voice is far more effective;
do not give boring classes: boredom is an important cause of indiscipline.
Interested children do not misbehave in the same way;
do not be unfair either to the class as a whole or to individuals. Teachers should
always try to avoid having favourites or picking on particular individuals. Most
teachers, of course, have children that they like or dislike more than others, but
a major part of their job is not to show these preferences and prejudices in the
classroom;
do not have a negative attitude to learning: a teacher who does not really care
and who is insensitive to the childrens reactions to what is happening in the
classroom will lose the respect of the children the first step to problems of
disruptive behaviour;
do not break the code: if part of the code is that children should arrive on time,
then the teacher must too. If homework must be handed on time, then it must
also be corrected promptly.

18

2.6.5.2. The children: there are a number of reasons why children behave badly:
the time of day: the attitude of the children is often affected by when the class
takes place. If they are all tired after a long day of study they may find exacting
classes too challenging. If the class takes place just before lunch they may tend
not to pay too much attention as they are hungry. Early morning classes may
cause children to be sleepy; classes after lunch are often full of drowsy children.
The teacher must take these factors into account when planning the class;
the childrens attitude: a lot depends on how the child views the class, the
teacher and the subject being learnt. All these must be seen in a positive or at
least neutral light. Where a child starts with a negative attitude, however,
much can be done: if the class is interesting, if children can become interested
even against their better judgement, a lot of problems will disappear;
a desire to be noticed: most teachers are familiar with children in their classes
who demand attention and who are quite prepared to be disruptive in order to
gain the recognition they need;
twos company: two children being disruptive together are far more effective
than one. They may encourage each other in their anti-social behaviour and
gradually influence the whole group. Action in such cases has to be taken fairly
rapidly and much can be achieved if children are reseated, if the troublemakers
are separated and if particularly disruptive children are made to sit at the front.
2.6.6. Action in case of indiscipline. There are a number of things a teacher can do
when children behave badly:
act immediately: the longer a discipline problem is left unchecked, the more
difficult it is to take action;
stop the class: this will be a clear indication to all the children that something is
wrong. The teacher may then tell the children who are behaving badly what is
wrong;
reseating is an effective way of controlling a child who is behaving badly. The
teacher should make that child sit in a different place immediately;
change the activity: particularly where a majority of the class seem to be
gradually getting out of control, a change of activity will often restore order.
Thus a quick writing or drawing task will often quieten children down and, at
the same time, will provide good writing practice. The same effect can often be
achieved by a reading task or a listening exercise. In general, anti-social
behaviour can usually be cured if children are given something to do which will
involve them;
after the class: where one child is continually giving trouble the teacher should
probably take that child to one side after the class is over. It will be necessary to
explain to the child why his/her behaviour is anti-social. At the same time the
child should be given a chance to say why he/she behaves in this way. The
teacher can also clearly spell out the consequences if the disruptive behaviour
continues;

19

using the institution: when problems become extreme it will be necessary to use
institution to solve them. Many schools (where young children are concerned)
will then seek the help of the childs parents. This seems a reasonable thing to
do since it is important for parents to be involved in their childrens education.
They may be contacted in cases of continual lateness, truancy, forgetting to
bring materials and bad behaviour.

20

CHAPTER THREE. TEACHING LANGUAGE SKILLS

Learning a language usually has a practical aim: to enable learners to
communicate in that language. It is essential therefore that every minute of every
class be directed to equipping learners with the language skills they really need.
There are four primary language skills: listening, speaking, reading and
writing. It is important to distinguish between them as they demand varied
abilities, particularly as English pronunciation is so different from its written form.
Thus, giving a talk requires different abilities to understanding a talk given by
someone else, to presenting the same information in written form or to reading
what someone else has written on the subject.
3.1. Teaching listening. It is quite clear that listening is the skill that children
acquire first, especially if they have not learnt to read yet. When they start to learn
a foreign language, it is going in mainly through their ears. And what the children
hear is their main source of the language.
3.1.1. Difficulties with listening. Listening is a skill that many children find
difficult, even in the mother tongue. The amount of concentration that a child can
bring to a listening activity depends on his/her attention span and the stimulus
given. With foreign language learners, difficulties with sound discrimination,
speed of delivery, length of utterance and time allowed for assimilation, make
listening an even more demanding task. It is worth remembering too that once
something has been said, then it disappears. If you are reading you can go back and
check or you can re-read something you do not quite understand. This is not
possible when you are listening. The work as teachers of young learners is much
easier if the learners are motivated and enjoy what they are doing. It is up to the
teacher to ensure that the activities they are engaged in are interesting and/or fun.
Studies of classroom interaction show that children spend a large part of
their time listening (to the teacher, to each other or to pre-recorded material). Each
time the teacher uses English to explain something, give instructions, tell a story or
praise someone, he/she is making listening demands on the pupils. Problems are
likely to arise if teachers do not teach children how to listen, so that they can cope
effectively with these demands.
3.1.2. Listening activities. Some listening activities will wake the children up,
make them move about, create noise. Others will calm them down, make them
concentrate on what is in front of them and create a peaceful atmosphere. So there
are several types of such listening activities:
3.1.2.1. Listen and do activities:
instructions: giving genuine instructions from the very first moment of the
lesson will ensure a two-way communication. The teacher can see very easily if
his/her children have understood the message or not;

21

moving about: the younger the children, the more physical activities they need.
As well as the moving about activities connected to doing ordinary things in the
classroom, the teacher can ask children to do all sorts of crazy things (e.g. Hop
on your left leg to the window.). The advantage with this type of activity is that
if some of the children have not understood the first time, they will still be able
to do the activity by watching the others;
put up your hand: the children must put up their hands whenever they hear a
certain word. Or, in order to calm them down a bit, the teacher whispers the
numbers from one to ten or twenty and asks them to put up their hands when
he/she misses a number;
mime stories: the teacher tells the story and the children do the actions. Here is
a very simple example of a mime story: We are sitting in a car, a big car. Lets
drive. We drive and drive and press the horn. It goes beeeep-beeeep. Now
whats that over there? A bird. A small bird flying over the car. And we drive
and drive. Can you see the boy? Hes riding his bike. And those girls over there,
what are they doing? They are picking flowers. We stop the car and begin
picking flowers too. We pick, and pick Were tired. We are sleepy. We close
our eyes and shhhh were asleep. Whos snoring?, etc.;
drawing is one of the childrens favourite activity and encourage them to draw
while listening to a description. But the teacher must remember that it takes
time, so he/she should keep the pictures very simple. It is useful for checking
object vocabulary, prepositions, colours and numbers, but it is not useful for
actions, since drawing people doing things is quite difficult for the children;
quick questions are suitable when the teacher wants to train children to
understand and respond quickly to the sort of language they are likely to
encounter in normal use. So now and again the teacher should ask the class
simple questions in English as fast as he/she can: Who are you?; Whats your
name?; Whats the time?; Whats two and two?, etc. The object is to train
children to listen with concentration and accustom them to English spoken fast.
This is invaluable if done regularly as part of revision, perhaps at the beginning
or end of a class. It is surprising how soon this kind of practice can improve the
childrens concentration and powers of deduction;
comprehension passages: from time to time the teacher should try to make
children work on a previously recorded text, in order to train them to
understand different English accents. To begin with, the children will say it is
too fast. However, if the teacher perseveres, they will find it as easy or as
difficult as the English really is. This activity will be suitable for ten or eleven
year olds;
dictation is like a bridge between spoken and written English. The simplest
form consists of short sentences containing elements the teacher wants to
revise.

22

3.1.2.2. Listening for information activities are used to check what the children
know or to give new information:
listen for the mistake: the teacher reads a text (perhaps the one in the childrens
book) and makes mistakes while reading. The children will have to listen for
the mistakes;
putting things in order: children have a number of pictures which illustrate a
text but are not in the right order. They listen to the text and put the pictures in
the order they think is right;
listen and colour: children love colouring pictures and any picture in their
workbook can be used. They will have to follow either their teachers
instructions or their partners;
filling in missing information: children will fill in the missing words of a wellknown song, rhyme or story.
3.1.2.3. Listen and repeat activities are great fun and when done in combination
with movements, objects or pictures, they can also help to establish the link
between words and meaning:
rhymes are repetitive, have natural rhythm and they also have an element of
fun, of playing with the language. For example the children could be asked to
replace the word dentist in the rhyme I love coffee/I love tea/I hate the
dentist/and the dentist hates me. Listening to rhymes can also be used to
develop a sense of rhythm by encouraging children to clap to the beat (for
further information also see chapter 8 on the role of fun activities in teaching
English to young learners);
songs too are repetitive and can be used especially for learning structures or
tenses, and there are lots of books on the market with songs for children (also
see chapter 8);
exercises: the teacher or one of the children says something and the others
repeat what has been said; it may be a drill, or a word with special sounds, a
short dialogue or a message to give to someone else.
3.1.2.4. Listening to stories should be a part of growing up for every child. The
teacher must make sure the children get the maximum benefit out of listening to
stories in English by the creation of a friendly and secure atmosphere: the seating
should be rearranged so that the teacher can have eye contact. Many teachers have
their children sitting on the floor. If they are relaxed and comfortable, then they are
more open to what they are about to hear. Here are some story-linked activities:
telling stories to children of all levels means that the teacher can adapt the
language to their level, can go back and repeat, put in all sorts of gestures and
facial expressions, change his/her voice and keep eye contact most of the time.
Traditional fairy tales are the best, as they have a clear structure, with a special
type of beginning, middle and end. The story is told in episodes that have
consequences. One set of consequences leads to another event. There are
goodies and baddies and the goodies always win;

23

creating stories is another exciting form of story telling which the teacher can
do with children. First they establish the setting (and the teacher must accept the
first answer that comes), then the events and the characters and finally the end,
which may be rather unconventional most of the time;
reading stories: children like to have their favourite stories repeated, and they
will very often be able to tell the story word by word, so they do not like
changes being made.
3.2. Teaching speaking. Unlike listening, talking is something that most children
need little prompting to do. But speaking is perhaps the most demanding skill for
the teacher to teach.
3.2.1. Difficulties with oral work. The children will often naturally insert their
native language when they cant find the words in English. What is important with
beginners is finding the balance between providing language through controlled
and guided activities and, at the same time, letting them enjoy natural talk.
Most of the children have little opportunity to practise speaking English
outside the classroom and so need lot of practice when they are in class. When
working with controlled and guided activities, the teacher will want children to
produce correct language. If they make mistakes at this stage, then they should be
corrected at once. However, when children are working on free oral activities, the
teacher is trying to get them to say what they want to say, to express themselves
and their own personalities. Correction in this case should not be done. While the
activity is going on the teacher can note what he/she thinks it should be corrected
and take it up in class later. Of course, if children ask what is correct or what the
English word for x is while they are talking, then the teacher should give them an
answer.
3.2.2. Strategies used in teaching speaking. As demanding as the speaking skill is,
there are several strategies teachers can use in order to overcome difficulties:
3.2.2.1. Presenting new language orally. When children start learning English,
they obviously need to be given language before they can produce it themselves.
Here are some of the ways the teacher can present new language orally:
through the children: the teacher knows what his/her children can do, so he/she
can say Listen to me, please. Maria can draw. Paul can ride a bike. Andra can
play the violin. The sentences should be true and accompanied by the
appropriate actions or sounds;
using a mascot: having someone familiar constantly on hand with whom the
teacher can have conversations about anything and everything is a wonderful
way of introducing new subjects and new language to young children. Once the
teacher has given the model using the mascot, children can ask it all sorts of
questions and the mascot can provide all sorts of answers. In this way the
mascots name, address, likes, dislikes, etc., will be built in cooperation with
the children, so that the mascot belongs to everyone in the class.

24

In addition, the teacher could use very simple line drawings on the board,
silhouettes or puppets. He/she could also mime/act situations or use realia (clothes,
animals, fruit, etc.).
3.2.2.2. Controlled practice goes hand in hand with presentation since it is
important that children try out new language as soon as they have heard it. Here
are two examples of controlled practice:
telling the time: child A asks Whats the time? and child B answers Its .
The teacher may use drawn clock faces or he/she can bring in a real clock with
movable hands;
whats he/she doing?: child A asks Whats he/she doing? and child B answers
Hes/shes ing. Once again the teacher can use drawings or can ask the
children to perform some actions in front of their mates.
Activities like these provide the basis for oral work, but do not always
produce real language at once. Their purpose is to train children to use correct,
simple, useful language within a situation or context. They may have to repeat
sentences, be corrected and go through the same thing several times. Familiarity
and safety are necessary to help build up security in the language.
3.2.2.3. Guided practice follows on directly from controlled practice and will often
be done either in pairs or in small groups. It usually gives the children some sort of
choice, but the choice of language is limited. Here are a couple of guided activities:
whats the time? would follow on from the controlled practice above. Both
children have clocks with hands that move. The situation could be that child
As watch has stopped and he/she wants to ask child B the time. This puts the
language into context and the guided practice can become a mini-dialogue;
chain work uses picture cards or word cards. Here is the procedure: all the cards
are put in a pile face down. Child 1 picks up a card on which there are some
apples. Turning to child 2 he/she asks Do you like ? Child 2 then picks up
the next card on which there are some pears and answers No, I dont like
apples, but I like pears. Child 2 turns to child 3 and says Do you like pears?
and so on.
3.2.2.4. Dialogues and role play work. Dialogues involving some sort of action or
movement are the ones that work best with young children. Intonation is terrible
important too, and children love to play around with this. After the children have
heard the dialogue a couple of times and the teacher has done it with some
individuals, with he/she giving them their parts, the children all repeat it with the
teacher who has to make sure that it does not become a chant. Then half of the
class do it with the other half of the class and then the children do it in twos.
Dialogues and role play are useful oral activities because the children speak
in the first and second person (while texts are often in the third person). They learn
to ask as well as answer and to use short complete bits of language, to respond
properly. Additionally, they do not just use words, but also other parts of speaking
a language (tone of voice, stress, intonation, facial expressions, etc.).

25

Here are examples for both activities:

using objects is an activity that shows how physical movements or objects make
a dialogue come alive for young children, and give it an amusing
communicative purpose. The teacher asks the children to bring in something
unusual in their pockets, making sure that each one knows what the word for
his/her object is in English. Then, the children can go through a dialogue like
this:
Child 1: What have you got in your pocket?
Child 2: Im not telling you.
Child 1: Oh, please?
Child 2: All right. Its a dinosaur.
Child 1: A dinosaur?!
Child 2: Dont be afraid! Its only a toy ;
role play: in role play the children are pretending to be someone else. With the
four to seven year olds the teacher can give them a model first by acting out the
dialogue with the mascot, and getting the children to repeat the sentences after
him/her. With the older children the teacher can act it out with one of the
cleverer children. Here is a possible model:
Child 1: Good morning. Can I help you?
Child 2: Yes, please. Id like some candy.
Child 1: Here you are.
Child 2: How much is it?
Child 1: 45p. Thank you. Goodbye.
Child 2: Goodbye.
The teacher can ask the children to act the dialogue in twos, replacing candy
with other things.
3.2.2.5. Free activities focus attention on the content and not on the language as
such (although the language will usually be limited by the activity itself). They are
one step nearer real life (as there is genuine communication even though the
situations are sometimes artificial) and they let the teacher know that the children
can communicate in the English language.
Free activities concentrate on meaning more than on correctness, so formal
mistakes do not really matter too much unless it means the children cannot be
understood. Correction must be left afterwards. The teacher will try to get the
children to use the language with natural flow, with what is called fluency, and so
fluency is more important than accuracy at this stage.
Most of these activities are based on the information gap principle that A
knows something B doesnt know, and B wants that information and there is often
a game element in the activity. The teachers control is minimal during the activity,
but he/she must be sure that the children have enough language to do the task. The
atmosphere should be informal and non-competitive. All the children win.
The range of free activities is endless, so we have chosen to look at just a
few of them we know, from our experience, work well in classes of young
children:

26

pair work: the teacher gives the children a picture of a boy and a girl, then puts
the children in pairs and asks them to colour their pictures in order to match
each partners description or to find out differences and/or similarities;
group work activities are easy to arrange and fun to do. The teacher will take
any pictures from a textbook or a workbook, will cut them and give one to each
member of the group. Each child then has to describe to the others what is in
his/her picture without showing it to the others. When the children have heard
what is in all the pictures, the group decides on the correct order of the pictures.
Another suggestion is for the teacher to mime a simple story or event and ask
the children to tell what is happening in correct English. This focuses the
childrens attention because they are trying to decipher the teachers actions. It
is used essentially for consolidation and the children should know most of the
words and structures the teacher is eliciting. The miming must be well
prepared: the teacher has to decide which language area he/she wants and
practise the sequence of actions beforehand, making sure that they are clear and
unambiguous. Here is a very simple example: He opens the door. He calls the
dog. He goes outside. He calls the dog again. The dog isnt there. He goes back
inside. He shuts the door. He goes into the bathroom. He washes his hands. He
looks into the mirror. He looks surprised. The dog is there, taking a shower.;
whole class activities: in these activities the children get up and walk about. The
first example is a matching activity, which is very useful for prepositions,
colours, actions and all sorts of object vocabulary. The teacher will have two
sets of cards. Each child gets one card, which they look at, memorize and leave
face down on the desk. Everyone then walks around trying to find the person
with the identical card just by talking to each other. Another activity is using
questionnaires: the teacher may ask the children to find out about favourite
food, toys or sports, favourite television programmes or hobbies. Here is an
example of such a questionnaire meant to find out the childrens favourite jobs:
Name
Victor
Maria

Actor

Doctor
x

Teacher

Engineer Gardener

Pilot

It is a structured activity but it involves communication and doing something

with the information. It can also involve a little bit of arithmetic and the setting
up of tables.
3.3. Teaching reading. As children become better and better in the foreign
language, the printed word becomes the main source of expanding and
strengthening the language. Through reading, children widen their vocabulary,
meet and become familiar with new grammar structures.

27

Reading is also the language skill that is easiest to keep up. Books open up
other worlds to young children, and making reading an enjoyable activity is a very
important part of the language learning experience. Many six to eight year old
children are in the process of learning to read in their own language. Whether or
not they have mastered the skill in their own language will have an effect on the
initial stages of teaching reading in English. The majority of eight to eleven year
olds will already be able to read in their own language and most of them seem to
have little difficulty in transferring their reading skills to English.
The childrens ability to write well and accurately will improve in direct
relationship to the amount of reading they do.
3.3.1. Approach to reading. There are a number of different ways to approach the
introduction of reading in English. The look and say approach seems to be the best,
as it is based on words and phrases and makes a lot of use of flashcards (that
children enjoy using very much). It is usual to start by teaching everyday words
that are already familiar to the children. The teacher shows the children the word
and says it while pointing to the object. The children repeat the word. This happens
several times with each word. The introduction of the words only takes a short
time and goes quite quickly. To fill in the remaining time of the lesson the teacher
can make use of a lot of word recognition games: matching words and pictures,
pointing to the object on the card, guessing which card the mascot has picked out
of the hat, etc. So this approach encourages recognition of a range of words and
phrases before reading the text.
3.3.2. Attributes of real reading. The more children read, the better. Reading need
not always be of passages: shop signs, headlines, labels and advertisements offer
examples of authentic texts. Silent reading should be the norm; reading aloud by
children is at best unnecessary, at worst harmful.
It is misguided to allow too much time for reading. The teacher should
constantly urge children towards greater reading speeds, but bearing in mind the
nature of the text and the task.
The teacher must also resist the temptation to explain every new word and
let the children learn to cope with passages that include lexical terms and grammar
structures that they have not met yet. Children must realize that they can enjoy a
text without the help of a dictionary or teacher. If they persist in reading a lot and
in reading through any difficulties, their reading will gradually become more fluent
and the difficulties will diminish of their own accord.
3.3.3. Reading strategies. The teacher who wants his/her children to perform and
enjoy reading activities will have to get accustomed to the strategies we describe
further on:
3.3.3.1. Starting off. The teacher has to choose a suitable book, preferable a small
one, with beautifully coloured pictures and a text that uses very simple language.
He/she will read the book so that all the children can see it and points to the words

28

as he/she says them. This is very important if the children are to understand the
connection between the spoken and the written word. It also helps them to
understand what a word is.
The first time, the teacher reads at just under normal speed, keeping his/her
intonation correct and allowing children to point and ask questions if they want to,
but not so much that it interrupts the flow of the story. Then the teacher encourages
children to talk about the story, asking them questions (in their mother tongue if
necessary) and leaves the book in the English corner. The children will read it on
their own if they want to. The next week, the teacher will read the same story
again, calling children to give some of the words this time. If possible, the teacher
can hand the children a copy of the story, asking them to follow it while he/she
reads to them. The children must be encouraged to point to the words as the
teacher reads.
Instead of reading from a book the teacher might want to use a class story as
starting point for reading. This has the advantage that he/she can copy it freely,
making sure that everyone has a copy and the children can colour their own copies.
Theres also the point that shared stories are always a good starting point simply
because they are shared.
3.3.3.2. Reading aloud. Traditionally, reading aloud is often thought of as reading
round the class one by one. Although many children seem to enjoy it, this type of
reading is not to be recommended, as it is of little interest to the listeners. It also
encourages stumbling and mistakes in tone, emphasis and expression, it may be
harmful to the silent reading techniques of the other children and, in short, it is a
very inefficient way to use the lesson time.
However, reading aloud is a useful technique when used slightly differently.
Done individually or in small groups, the reader has the teachers full attention.
He/she may ask about meaning, about what the children think of the book, how
they are getting on with it, and smooth out any language difficulties which may
arise. The teacher can use reading aloud as a means of training and checking
rhythm and pronunciation. He/she can read a sentence or a phrase and the class or
parts of the class can read in chorus after. This is particularly useful if the text is a
dialogue, but should mainly be done for a very short time, as choral reading can
easily become a chant. It is also an efficient way of checking homework: the
children can help each other with words they find difficult to pronounce.
In conclusion, listening to a child reading aloud should be a treat for the
whole class. If children are going to read aloud for the rest of the class, they must
be well prepared and the others should want to hear what is going to be read.
3.3.3.3. Silent reading is what remains with most people for the rest of their lives.
Nobody can guarantee that all a teachers children will love books, especially
nowadays, when computers became so popular, but a positive attitude to books and
reading from the beginning will help. The teacher must make as much use of the
English corner as possible, have print everywhere, put up jokes on the notice
board, give children messages in writing, try to give them their own books and

29

listen to what they are saying about their reading. A good strategy is to use the
textbook to concentrate on conscious language development but, at the same time,
let children read books for understanding and for pleasure too.
The teacher has to spend some time building up confidence with the whole
class about silent reading. He/she can give all children a story that they have
listened to before and allow them to read it silently for, say, two minutes to see
how far they get. Then they all talk about the story, clear up difficulties and the
teacher will let them finish the story at their leisure.
Another method is to give children only half a story to read and then discuss
what might happen next. The children will then read the whole story to see if they
were right. From the beginning the teacher must encourage this type of
anticipating. Good stories put the reader in the mood of wanting to know what
happens next.
For the eight to eleven year olds who are beyond the beginner level, the
teacher might want to use silent reading as the starting point for role play. If the
book is written in dialogue form the children may want to act some of it out for the
rest of the class. If the book is a story, then the children will have to work out their
own roles and lines.
During silent reading the teacher will be very active, ready to help both
individual learners with their particular difficulties and the whole group if a
general difficulty arises. The teacher will very likely be asked the meaning of an
unknown word in the text and he/she may be tempted to give an instant translation.
In certain circumstances he/she may be justified in doing so, but he/she will
usually wish to train his/her learners to derive the meaning of the word from the
context itself.
3.3.3.4. Finishing reading. It is always a good idea to find out what children
thought of a book. Book reviews help the teacher decide on the suitability of a
book, gives him/her some indication as to the progress the child is making, help
other children to decide about the book. They help all children to develop a critical
approach to reading matter. As children become older and more critical the teacher
can encourage them to write real book reviews. He/she himself/herself could
keep a record of the childrens opinions concerning the books they have read,
completing a very simple grid:
Name

Victor

Maria
..

x
x

3.3.4. Class reading tasks. Knowing and using strategies to train children to read is
not enough. The teacher has to master and handle a set of activities meant to
develop the reading skill. Here are some of them:

30

find new words for old: the teacher asks the children to find synonyms or
antonyms, giving the clues in words that they already know;
shopping lists: the children note all the products on a long shopping list that
would be bought in a specified shop;
select the title: the children have to choose the most appropriate title for a text
they have just read;
reorder sentences: the children read a jigsaw sentence passage and decide the
order of the sentences in the original;
fill in gaps: the children read a gapped passage and provide suitable words for
each gap;
select a summary: the children have to choose of several summaries of a
passage, all written by the teacher, but with slightly different emphases.
3.3.5. Reading materials. Once the children are on the road to reading, it is
important that there is as wide an individual choice of reading materials available
to them as possible. These materials could be:
reading cards: it is very simple to make a collection of reading cards which tell
a story and can be read quickly. A one-page story still gives a sense of
achievement, and the teacher may add questions about the story on the back of
the card. Some of them can have easy nursery rhymes on them;
home-made books: these may be different verses of a song the children are
already familiar with or class stories written down by the teacher;
easy readers for foreign language learners: most of the major publishing
companies publish series of easy readers. The age range and the word level is
often specified in the publishers catalogue;
picture dictionaries: to begin with, children can just look at them in the same
way they look at picture books. Later on, they will learn to use them to find
words, check spelling, expand their vocabulary, etc.;
books with tapes provide useful listening and reading material both for slow
readers and for those who progress quickly. However, the teacher must keep in
mind that some children become lazy readers if they listen to too many
speaking books.
3.4. Teaching writing. The ability to write accurately is not the most important
skill for the general learner of a foreign language, but this is not to say that it
should be neglected as a tool for learning. A written response of some sort can
demonstrate comprehension and all the children can write the responses that cannot
be made orally by everyone in large classes. The wise teacher will regard writing
as a skill that is to be neither overvalued nor ignored. Moreover, he/she should not
overlook the relationship between reading and writing. The more children read, the
more fluently they will write.
3.4.1. Difficulties with writing. Writing has certain characteristics that seem to
make it difficult for children to get to grips with, especially for young ones. In

31

teaching writing, the teacher can make the same use of body language, intonation,
tone, eye contact and all the other features which help him/her to convey meaning
when he/she talks.
Many children take a long time to master this skill. Moreover, writing in
English is all too often associated with correcting errors. Handwriting, grammar,
spelling and punctuation are often given priority over content. If the teacher tries to
make childrens writing meaningful from the start, with the emphasis on content,
then errors can be gently corrected and re-written in cooperation with the teacher.
The main problem with writing is for the teacher to get the children used to
English ways of expressing themselves. So he/she must get the children
accustomed to writing in short sentences. Later, they will be taught to join
sentences with conjunctions such as so that, while, then, etc. The teacher has
to be meticulous about spelling and punctuation, and get the children to copy out
words they have mis-spelt, making sure that writing consolidates what he/she has
done in class.
3.4.2. Importance of teaching writing. Even if there are difficulties in writing in
English, it is still a useful, essential, integral and enjoyable part of the lesson. It
adds another physical dimension to the learning process: hands are added to eyes
and ears. It lets children express their personalities, as even guided activities can
include choices for the children.
Writing activities help to consolidate learning in the other skill areas.
Particularly as children progress in the language, they allow for conscious
development of language. Lots of structures in the language appear more
frequently in writing and when we write we have the time to go back and think
about what we have written.
Written responses are often a natural follow-up to what has been read.
Unlike oral work, writing can be done outside the classroom, increasing exposure
time, but without encroaching on precious teaching time.
3.4.3. Writing activities. There are a lot of such activities a teacher could use in
class but we have selected only those that seem appropriate for developing early
writing skills for young learners:
3.4.3.1. Controlled writing activities are being done to practise the language and
concentration is on the language itself. One good thing about such written work is
that it is either right or wrong, so it can be corrected quickly by the children
themselves, in class. Another good point is that everyone is involved and an
occasional written task offers a change of pace. The bad thing is the predictability
and lack of original expression. Here are some examples of such activities:
straight copying is a fairly obvious starting point for writing. It gives the
teacher the chance to reinforce language that has been presented orally or
through reading. It is a good idea to ask children to read aloud quietly to
themselves when they are copying the words because this helps them to see the
connection between the written and the spoken word;

32

matching: the teacher can vary straight copying by asking children to match
pictures and texts, or to choose which sentence they want to write about the
text;
jigsaw sentences: this is straight copying, but done thoughtfully. The children
must match the halves of several sentences and write them out. Here is an
example:
A
Ski lovers
Animal lovers
Bird watchers
Pilots

B
get to visit many countries
enjoy the countryside
enjoy game park safaris
prefer winter holidays

The exercise is simple, but the sentences are not always easy to contrive. The
teacher has to ensure that all the endings can go with all of the starters
grammatically, leaving semantic distinctions alone to make some sentences
unlikely;
copying with corrections: the class rewrites sentences, changing incorrect
details. These can be made nonsensical to add some amusement to the exercise,
as in the next example:
The mouse is the biggest animal on land.
Winter is the hottest of the four seasons.
Babies drink tea and whisky only.
And so on and so forth;
find and copy is an excellent vocabulary expanding exercise. As well as
allowing the teacher to bring in new words and expressions, it gets the children
focusing on the parts of the text that merit special attention. The writing can be
of words (e.g. Write out the words in the passage that describe the weather in
winter.) or of whole sentences (e.g. Write out the sentences that describe
childrens holidays activities). The assignments can be given orally;
gapped illustrative sentences: when teachers present new vocabulary they often
write the new words in an exemplifying sentence to give them a meaningful
context (see next chapter on teaching vocabulary). At the end of the lesson, all
of this is copied. But there is no reason why the illustrative sentences should not
be gapped. After all, the children will all have heard the full sentences more
than once during the lesson. When the time comes for copying, the teacher
erases a few words in each sentence. In this way the mechanical task of copying
becomes more challenging;
re-ordering: the children are asked to put some sentences in an order which
makes good sense, using and and then where convenient, and leaving out
any unnecessary repetition. The sentences might be as it follows:
He arrives there at 8 oclock. He puts on his clothes. John wakes up
at 7 oclock. He has his breakfast. He cooks his breakfast. He leaves
for work. He washes his hands and face.

33

The language function being practised here is simple narration, using the
present simple tense in the third person singular;
copying book: it is useful for children to have a copying book where they can
copy new vocabulary, a little dialogue, something they want to remember or
whatever. Most children will keep to what the teacher asks them to copy but
they should be free to copy things from the textbooks, the notice board and
from other children too;
delayed copying is fun to do in class in order to train short term visual memory.
The teacher writes a short, familiar sentence on the board, gives the children a
few seconds to look at it, and then rubs it out and sees if the children can write
it down. It must be remembered that this type of activity should not be used as a
test;
organizing and copying can be a good introduction to structured writing. In the
example above, the children are asked to complete the letter with the structures
given by the teacher:
196 Palmtree House
Miami
August 1st, 2002
Dear Mike,
Miami is fantastic. .

Yesterday

Tomorrow..

Love, Lucy
we went to the cinema.

Its got beautiful beaches.

There are a lot of hotels and restaurants.

Then we went to a restaurant.
were going to visit a famous museum.
The water is very warm.

We saw a very good film.

dictation is a very safe type of exercise if the teacher keeps the language
elementary and simple and because he/she is providing the actual language as
well as the context. For young learners, dictations should be short and made up
of sentences which can be said in one breath. They must have a purpose and be

34

connected to work that has gone before or comes after. They must be read or
said at normal speed.
3.4.3.2. Guided written activities are very suitable for beginners:
fill-in exercises are useful activities which do not require much active
production of language, since most of the language is given, but they do require
understanding. They can be used to focus on specific language items, like
prepositions or question forms too;
dictation: the teacher might like to try dictating only half a sentence, asking
children to complete it in their own way. For example,
I like .
I dont like .
I hate .
I love .
The teacher can either ask children to complete each sentence before he/she
reads the beginning of the next sentence, which encourages quick writing, or
he./she can give them time to do the completion afterwards;
picture description: the picture to be used can be taken from a magazine or
drawn on a poster. The subject could be a famous person, a domestic scene, a
well known building or place, and so on. A good way to begin is by having the
children build up a few questions about the picture. These can be answered in
writing in the form of a description. Any needed vocabulary can be introduced
at this time;
half dialogues: one speakers lines are written onto a worksheet. As the pairs
copy them, they compose the speech of the missing speaker. When they have
finished, they can compare their version with that of their neighbours, check it
with the teacher and try speaking their parts. Afterwards, a few pairs are
nominated at random to come out to the front and act out their parts. The
worksheet could be as it follows:
ARRANGING A MEETING
A: ?
B: Im afraid not, Im visiting grandma.
A: ?
B: No, tomorrow I must see the dentist.
A: ?
B: Very well, Sunday it is. What time and where?
A: .

35

letters/cards/invitations: letter writing seems to be a popular language class

activity, and it is indeed a useful way of getting children to write short
meaningful pieces of writing. Ideally, letters are written to be sent, but the
teacher can have children writing to each other and sending their letters via
the classroom postman. Here is a very simple guided exercise which can be
used quite early on (the teacher will give the children the possibility to choose
their reply):
Dear ..,
Id love to go to the ..
with .. on .. .
Thanks.
Dear ,
Love, .
Are you free on ? ..
going to the .. Would
Dear ..,
you like to come with .. ?
Im sorry I cant go to the
Love, ..
with . on .
Thanks anyway.
Love, ..
3.4.3.3. Free writing activities. In free activities the language is the childrens own
language, no matter what their level is. The teacher should be the initiator and
helper and, of course, is responsible for seeing that the task can be done by the
children at that level. The more language the children have, the easier is to work on
free writing activities.
With free writing activities the teacher has to spend a lot of time on prewriting work and try to make sense of whatever the children have written, saying
something positive about it. The material should be displayed whenever possible
and the teacher will keep all the childrens writings. He/she will not announce the
subject out of the blue and expect children to be able to write about it and will not
set work that is beyond the childrens language capability.
Now let us look at some examples:
talking about the subject is a short simple conversation which can be enough to
get ideas going and collect thoughts. The teacher might be of help asking
questions and writing some of the answers on the board: What are you doing
next weekend? Im
watching TV/playing
football/reading
a
book/riding a bike,
etc.;
vocabulary charts are
simple drawings or
pictures
with
vocabulary
collections. They are

36

fun, easy to make and always useful reminders of the words. For example, the
teacher can ask children to build up and write sentences using the words in the
picture on the right. He/she
can use a photo, a story, a song or a shared
experience for the same purpose. The aim is to give the children as many words
and ideas as possible before they start on the actual writing task;
speech bubbles can also be very useful. After giving children a model, the
teacher can cut images of different people in a childrens magazine and draw
empty bubbles the children have to complete according to the situation. Or,
he/she might erase the original text in the bubbles and ask the children to match
the words with the pictures. In the example above, the original text is: Whats
the matter? Now I need riding boots, a riding hat, and a saddle. I dont need
riding lessons, I need a new horse! Happy birthday, Daisy! Thanks, mum.
She doesnt need a horse. She needs a rhinoceros! Wait! You need riding
lessons! Here you are, Miss. Hooray!:

Most pre-writing activities prove to be fun. The difficulty with them seems
to be going from nothing to something. Even children with lots of imagination
do not always know what to write about. Their vocabulary is limited and they are
still not confident about the mechanics of writing. All children need to spend time
on pre-writing work warm-up activities which are designed to give them
language, ideas and encouragement before they settle down to the writing itself.
3.4.4. Correcting written work. Correction of free writing work should be done
while the children are still working on. The teacher should try to look at the work
being done, perhaps at the rough copy stage, correct mistakes and suggest possible
ideas, words, etc. Children should write in pencil and use a rubber. The teacher
will not have to correct all the mistakes. The aim is to produce a piece of written
work that is as correct as he/she can expect from that child. Older children should
be encouraged to re-write their work, so the final product is not what they hand in
for correction, but the result of working on the piece of writing.
The correcting procedures below could serve for most of the activities
described in this chapter:
spot check: the teacher will circulate when children are writing, making spot
checks. He/she ticks the exercise books that he/she looks at, so that there is
evidence of interest. If necessary, he/she underlines errors for self correction,
telling the children how to make the correction. The teacher might also write

37

good in the margin next to a neat piece of work, so that children and parents
can see evidence of an interest in the quality of their work;
peer marking: the teacher has the children mark each others work whenever
possible, under his/her direction. Checks can be oral for most written work, as
an occasional uncorrected spelling error does no harm. Alternatively, one child
can write the model version on the board;
pair work: the teacher has some written tasks done as a pair task, thus reducing
errors as well as cutting down the number of notebooks to be checked. He/she
can get neighbouring pairs to monitor and correct each others work;
group secretaries: where a writing activity is free, the teacher has alternate
pairs turn around and consult with those on the desk behind, creating small
groups. This reduces the number of pieces of work he/she has to check. The
creative work is done on rough paper. One child from each group acts as the
secretary, coming to the teacher for advice and corrections every two or three
sentences. As each part is corrected, the group members make a fair copy in
their exercise books before going on to produce the next one.
When the teacher has to correct short compositions, he/she can divide up
mistakes into categories and use abbreviations in the margin to indicate them: G
for grammar, SP for spelling, WO for word order, P for Punctuation, V for
vocabulary, etc. Whatever the symbols are the children should understand clearly
what they mean. When the teacher first uses the system of symbols he/she may
underline the word in the text and put the symbol in the margin. Later it will only
be necessary to put the symbol in the margin for the children to identify the error.

38

CHAPTER FOUR. TEACHING VOCABULARY, STRUCTURES

AND GRAMMAR
4.1. Teaching vocabulary.
4.1.1. Importance of vocabulary teaching. A good store of words is crucial for
understanding and communication. A major aim of most teaching programmes is
to help children to gain a large vocabulary of useful words. In every lesson, the
teacher has to introduce new words and practise them, making clear the meanings
and the ways in which each can be used.
4.1.2. Choosing vocabulary. The vocabulary the teacher introduces is to some
extent conditioned by the books he/she is using, but he/she may choose to bring in
other areas of vocabulary that he/she feels are relevant for his/her children. A
distinction needs to be made between active vocabulary (words which the child
understands, can pronounce correctly and uses constructively in speaking and
writing) and passive vocabulary (words that the child recognizes and understands
when they occur in a context, but which he/she cannot produce correctly
himself/herself).
There is also a need to limit the vocabulary that is introduced; if this is too
much, the children will be impeded by the need to absorb too many words. So the
teacher has to exercise judgement in deciding how many words to present in a
lesson. There is no firm rule, but most teachers feel that 6 to 8 (maybe 10 to 12 for
the eleven year old children) new words are enough for formal attention
It is also important to choose words that are commonly used or that children
need. Any unusual word the teacher introduces will take the place of a useful one
in the childs mind. If teaching planning is based on a textbook, the teacher will be
helped by that textbook, where the vocabulary is graded and lists of the commonest
words are available.
It would be wrong to present every single new word in the text. An
important part of the teachers task is to prepare children for the real world, where
they will have to cope with spoken or written language containing words they do
not know. It is well worthwhile not to introduce words that could be guessed and
spending time on any sentence that has an unknown word in order to develop the
childrens guesswork strategies.
The teacher must be critical of texts. Sometimes, there are words in reading
passages it would be a waste of time to teach because of their low value. In such
cases it really is best not to lose time on them. The teacher will just throw in a
quick explanation or translation of the word when he/she reaches it in the text.
If a child wants to know a special word, it is usually worth teaching it to
him/her because motivation will ensure that he/she remembers it. However, such
words will not be taught to the whole class unless they will all find it useful.

39

Many structures demand their own vocabulary. Thus, if the teacher

introduces going to he/she is likely to introduce a vocabulary connected with
plans.
4.1.3. Presenting new vocabulary. Before presenting vocabulary in class, it is
helpful to remember the following:
- whenever possible, teach the words in spoken form first, and only when the
children can pronounce them well, introduce the written form. Otherwise, the
children will always try and pronounce English words as if they were written in
their own language, and it will be difficult to break this;
- it is in the childrens interest that they meet and use new words as often as
possible if the words are to pass into their active vocabulary; so get them to
keep their own separate vocabulary book, to write up at home from their copy
book;
- try to present new words in context;
- revision is essential: blend words you have presented into later practice;
- if you introduce new words which are not in the textbook you are using, note
them down in a notebook so that you can bring them up again.
There are many ways of presenting vocabulary. Here are some of them:
4.1.3.1. Ostensive means are widely used with beginner classes. This procedure
implies showing. Obviously, the teacher can hold up things or point to objects in
the classroom. But he/she must not limit ostensive techniques to only those things
that can be found in the room. There are also ways to show the meaning of words
and concepts from the world outside the school, as described below:
realia are real things which can often be brought to school: a piece of fruit, a
whistle, a stick, toys and so on are easily carried. They also create interest. The
teacher must use his/her imagination too: puddles are found in the street when it
rains, but the teacher can bring in a small bottle of water and create a puddle by
pouring some water onto the floor;
pictures: objects that are not easily carried or which are unavailable can be
represented pictorially. Pictures from magazines always interest children. But
for presentation purposes, simple pictures are better because the focus is clearer
and the meaning is less ambiguous. The teacher might also use the blackboard
to make rapid sketches of simple things such as a wheel, a bike, a car or a cat. It
takes more time to draw more complex items (such as woods, beach, town,
etc.), so these should be drawn at home on a flashcard (see chapter 6 on
teaching aids). If the teacher uses his/her imagination he/she will be surprised at
what he/she can contrive visually to help the children to understand;
outside the classroom: the teacher can take his/her class out and introduce
words for things seen in a shop window or in the street. Close control and
plenty of revision is needed here but it is a vivid way of teaching and new
vocabulary is taught in a living context;
body: the teachers body and those of the children can be used to get meaning
across. Facial expressions can be used to show feelings, gestures (using hands

40

and arms) to show a range of meanings (e.g. fast, small, wide, fat, etc.), mime
and actions to show verbs and some adverbs (e.g. to eat, to slip, to wake up,
slowly, angrily, etc.).
4.1.3.2. Verbal definition. There are several ways to define the meaning of a new
word using teacher talk (the sort of language used in the classroom, reduced
grammatically in order to facilitate comprehension and that is different in many
ways from natural speech). Obviously, a linguistic approach cannot be suited to
beginner classes as they do not have a large enough vocabulary to understand the
teachers explanation. So the teacher will use any of the following means to help
comprehension:
word sets are related words, such as child, baby, boy, girl, teenager. The
teacher can use the words in a set that the children already know in order to
introduce new related words. A concept such as clothes can easily be conveyed
by giving different examples of items of clothing. The same would apply to
other general words of that sort (transport, furniture, vegetables, etc.). The
teacher can work in reverse to present a more specific word. For example, to
present the word canary he/she would start from the already known concept of
bird;
synonyms are words that mean more or less the same thing. They are best
shown on the board using the mathematical sign for equals;
antonyms are words that have an opposite meaning. The sign to indicate an
opposite meaning is an equals sign crossed through ;
cognates are words in the childrens own language that have the same, or very
similar, form as the English word (e.g. taxi, actor, doctor, musician, violet,
transport, restaurant, cinema, etc.). Some teachers are fearful of using
cognates because of the false friends (words which resemble each other in the
two languages but which do not share the same meaning: magazine, library,
phrase, etc.). But it would be wrong to exaggerate this danger, as there are
many times more cognates than there are false friends;
illustrative sentences: the teacher can contrive a sequence of sentences to
create a linguistic context in which the meaning of the unknown word is
illustrated, it becomes clear. Most words that cannot be explained in the easier
ways above can be presented in this way:
My father hates carrots, but he loves tomatoes. He likes
potatoes, onion and most other vegetables, but he refuses to eat
carrots. He hates them.
The meaning of to hate has been made clear by contrasting it with to like;
translation can be used when no easy alternative suggests itself. Faced with a
grammar word or a formulaic expression like Have you by any chance ?, it is
sometimes better to give the mother tongue equivalent, rather than to spend a
great deal of time trying to define or show the meaning. The time saved can be
used more profitably on other teaching points.

41

4.1.3.3. Audio presentation is a very much under-used way of signalling the

meaning of a word. Many words are more easily presented by a tape recording than
by the ways already described. The noises of an argument, a jet plane, an engine, a
horse galloping, children splashing in water and so on, are easily obtained or
created. The presentation procedure is simple. The teacher just tells the class to
listen to the sound of ... . They will easily link what they hear with what their
teacher pronounces.
4.1.4. A step by step presentation procedure. There are four steps to follow for
each word the teacher presents:
Step one: sound and meaning. The teacher says the new word two or three times,
pronouncing it clearly. Then he/she indicates its meaning, ostensively or verbally.
Step two: repetition. The teacher gets the class to repeat the new word a few times
and checks the pronunciation carefully. If he/she is using a visual he/she must keep
it in front of the children to ensure that they associate sound and meaning.
Step three: written form. The teacher writes the new word on the board and has the
class read it aloud, without distorting the pronunciation. Or first, the teacher may
choose two or three individuals to say it, then gets a chorus repetition so that
everyone in the class has the opportunity to associate the written form with the
pronunciation. With eager to learn children, the teacher can use phonetic script to
indicate the pronunciation. But this must be done with discretion: it is unnecessary,
for example, to indicate the pronunciation of sing or pink, as the spellings cannot
cause confusion.
Step four: illustrative sentences. The teacher puts a short illustrative sentence on
the board so that the meaning will be clear to anyone reading the notes afterwards.
The children will enjoy trying to build up good illustrative sentences themselves,
but the teacher must prepare his/her own short ones in case the childrens are too
wordy or not clear enough for the blackboard example.
The teacher must keep in mind that it is not enough just to present words and
have them repeated. The children must use words if they are to internalize them. It
is a simple matter to ask some extension questions, before the text is seen. The idea
is to make the children hear a word more frequently and to make them use it. More
exposure to the new vocabulary will occur as the class works on the text.
4.2. Teaching structures. A structure is a pattern of words that make a meaningful
utterance. The aim of teaching structures is to get children to internalize dozens of
useful phrases, but with a sensitivity to the generative power of each one. The
meaning is changed by a process of substitution, but the basic shape of the phrase
remains the same.
4.2.1. Presentation of a structure. As in the presentation of vocabulary, the teacher
shows the form, meaning and use of the structure. He/she also uses the same
ostensive, verbal or audio techniques to indicate meaning.
Before presenting the structure, it is a good idea to go through the text and
underline all the structures that have a functional value. Then the teacher should

42

imagine how each would be used in a realistic way. What would be the likely
situations? What would be the most probable language contexts? Where can
substitutions be made in the structure? What words will be prompted for
substitution practice? How can this practice be continued in a meaningful way,
with the children providing their own fillers? The teacher should not be limited by
the content of the textbook and must be ready to supply useful words and
additional structures that enable the learners to practise the key structure
realistically.
4.2.2. A step by step procedure. This is only a suggestion. The teacher could add as
many steps as he/she thinks suitable for his/her children to understand and practise
the new structure:
Step one: presentation of form and meaning. Let us suppose that the structure in
the text is Theres a lamp on the table. The teacher will present it using one of the
ways indicated in the teaching vocabulary section. Repetition of the structure will
follow, enough to familiarize the children with the sound but not enough to bore
them. Then the teacher could show how the basic structure generates other
utterances: Theres a pillow on the bed. / Theres a ball on the floor. / Theres a
picture on the wall., etc.
Step two: blackboard example. Now the teacher can write the structure on the
board, underlining the key features or highlighting them with coloured chalk. With
more advanced classes, the teacher might explain that this structure has the
function of describing, or perhaps giving information. The bones of the structure
might be:
Theres a + noun + prep. + noun
Step three: guided practice. A substitution drill is the usual follow-up to this step.
The teacher calls out the new elements: he/she might introduce the plural (There
are flowers on the table.) or ask the children to change preposition (Theres a book
in front of the clock.). Or he/she prompts them by means of visual aids. These
might include pictures, flashcards, blackboard sketches or word cards. The children
chant the resulting sentences, referring to the blackboard for support if necessary.
The teacher could sketch half a dozen pictures and pin them on the board. In
pairs the children can take turns in describing one picture while the partner tries to
identify it from the description. The task can be made more complex, but
linguistically simple nevertheless, by having several objects in each picture, often
the same but in different positions. Later, the children can be asked to use the
structure to describe a room in their house.
An optional final step is to check if the children can give the equivalent in
their mother tongue. It seems well worthwhile to elicit at least one sentence in
order to ensure that everyone in the class thoroughly understands the structure.
4.3. Teaching grammar. The body of rules that underlie a language is called its
grammar. This grammar includes rules that govern the structure of words (suffixes
and prefixes) and rules that govern the structure of words to form clauses and
sentences that are acceptable to educated native speakers.

43

4.3.1. Methods of teaching grammar.

4.3.1.1. The deductive method is the academic one. The approach is very simple.
First, the teacher writes an example on the board or draws attention to examples in
the textbook. The underlying rule is explained, nearly always in the mother tongue.
Finally, the children practise applying the rule, orally and in writing. Special
attention is paid to areas of conflict between the grammar of the mother tongue and
that of the target language. Little attention is paid to the value of the message.
4.3.1.2. The inductive method. To induce means to bring about, to cause
something to happen. Teachers following this method induce the learners to realize
grammar rules without any form of prior explanation. These teachers believe that
the rules will become evident if learners are given enough appropriate examples.
When teaching a grammar point, their first step is to demonstrate the meaning to
the class. For example, they will hold up a book, saying This is a book. They will
do the same showing other objects. Then they will hold up several books and say
These are books. After giving several examples of the plural form they will
contrast the two forms.
Their next step is to get the children to produce the two grammatical forms,
working with the same set of objects. They say nothing through this stage except to
correct if necessary. Other objects the children can name will then be brought into
the practice. They follow the models and they may produce grammatically correct
utterances.
The grammar point is shown on the board only after extensive practice.
Explanations are not always made, though they may be elicited from the children
themselves (in such cases, the mother tongue might well be used). Then the model
is copied and the class may be required to write sample sentences from the model.
In our opinion, the inductive method, requiring the children to identify the
rule for themselves, has the advantage of involving them much more. Such
learning is more effective with young children, as they might not have studied the
same points of grammar in their mother tongue.
4.3.2. An example of grammar teaching. Teachers should not expect miracles to
result from grammar teaching of any kind. Even easy grammar points are only easy
because they are easily explained. Internalization may take years. With this
warning in mind, the teacher should go on to explore ways in which grammar can
be taught effectively and enjoyable, helping children to produce correct forms in
speech and writing. We shall look now at an example of presenting tenses.
The present continuous tense is often the first one met in a language course.
It can be presented and practised meaningfully by physical actions. In this way the
children are provided with a comprehension aid while they become familiar with
the sounds of English. In the early stages, there is no need to force the class to
speak at all, as in the following example:

44

Teacher: Go and touch the wall, then write your name on the
blackboard (the nominated child obeys). Look. Dan is walking
towards the wall, he is touching it. Now he is writing his name on the
board. Well done, Dan. Who will be the next?
Describing a scene is a natural use of the present continuous tense. Pictures
offer another good way to practise the tense. The teacher could draw simple
pictures himself/herself if the textbook does not have them. A magazine picture is
often less suitable, as it may have too many unwanted details.
Practice can be made into a game. The teacher uses a set of half a dozen
simple flashcard drawings of the verbs he/she is teaching and gets the children to
use the question forms in a guessing way. Then the structure is written on the
board to offer support (e.g. Are they ing?). The teacher will then shuffle the six
flashcards and hold one so the children cannot see it. They call out in turn until a
winner is found as in the following example:
Child 1: Are they eating a sandwich?
Teacher: No, they arent.
Child 2: Are they listening to music?
Teacher: No, they arent.
Child 3: Are they watching TV?
Teacher (showing the picture): Yes, theyre watching TV.
Mime is another way to get children to use the continuous form. The teacher
gets one child to the front and whispers a task (e.g. Pretend you are playing the
guitar.). The others then guess what is being done.
To conclude, the activity will undoubtedly be successful if the teacher
ensures that the children understand the concept, especially where it is expressed
differently, or not made at all, in their own mother tongue. Visual aids will offer a
good support practice.
4.3.3. Conclusion. Undue stress on grammar can be boring and counterproductive
to fluency and communication. Only those rules that are simple and do not have
too many exceptions should be taught. Grammar points that do not appear very
useful are best avoided. The teacher will just draw attention to their presence in the
text and move on. When working with young children it is better to use the
inductive method.
When the teacher himself/herself is talking, he/she must not be afraid to use
grammar forms that the children have not met. Provided the context makes the
meaning clear, the teacher is giving them valuable exposure and real life practice
in decoding utterances which contain forms they do not know.
Above all, the teacher must not imagine that because he/she has taught a rule
it is now known and will be applied. It takes weeks and months of exposure to a
grammatical form for internalization to take place. It is the work of moments to
teach a class that an apostrophe s is added to a proper noun to show ownership. It
may be many years before the learners use it consistently in speech.

45

The metalanguage of grammar is for professionals, not for learners.

Teachers need to know terminology in order to find helpful pages in reference
books, but children do not need to know words like auxiliary, preterite or gerund
in order to speak fluently. Titles on blackboard examples should be simple and
meaningful, showing the communicative value of the grammar point whenever
possible.

CHAPTER FIVE. PLANNING

5.1. Planning, textbooks, syllabus. The syllabus is presented in terms of the main
textbook to be used. By a certain date teachers are expected to have covered a
certain number of units in the book. At the same time teachers are often provided
with a list of supplementary material and activities that are available. Whether or
not the course is tied to a particular textbook, its syllabus will generally have a list
of language items at its core. The assumption being made is that these language
items will be new for the children and should therefore be introduced to them in
the order of the syllabus.
Where a textbook is involved there are obvious advantages for both teachers
and children. Good textbooks often contain lively and interesting material, they
provide a sensible progression of language items, clearly showing what has to be
learnt and in some cases summarizing what has been studied so that children can
revise grammatical and functional points that they have been concentrating on.
Textbooks can be systematic about the amount of vocabulary presented to the
children and allow them to study on their own outside the class. Good textbooks
also relieve the teacher from the pressure of having to think of original material for
every class.
But textbooks can also have an adverse effect on teaching for a number of
reasons. They tend to concentrate on the introduction of new language and
controlled work. They also tend to follow the same format from one unit to the
next (and there are good reasons why this should be the case: they are thus easier
to get to know and to handle, both for teachers and children and they are also
easier to design and write). But this similarity of format generally involves a rigid
sequence. Almost all the textbooks at the elementary level start, for example, by
introducing new language and they then follow a sequence of practice combining
the new language with language the children already know. Reading and listening
generally have a set place in the sequence and each unit looks more or less like
those that come before and after it. Discerning teachers with time to spare can
move around the material selecting what they want to use and discarding parts of
the units that seem to them to be inappropriate.

46

Most teachers, though, are under considerable pressure both because they
are obliged to complete the syllabus and because they teach a number of classes.
They are also influenced by the attitude of the institution, their colleagues and the
children who sometimes see the textbook not just as the provider of a syllabus but
also as a programme of study and activities that has to be closely followed.
There are two major reasons why such an attitude may not be in the best
interests of either children or teachers. Teachers who over-used a textbook may
become boring over a period of time for they will find themselves teaching the
same type of activities in the same order again and again. Textbooks are not
written for a teachers class; each group of children is potentially different from
any other. Children may not conform to the general pattern (which most published
books are written for) and they need to be treated individually.
In conclusion, the textbook rarely has the perfect balance of skills and
activities that the teacher is looking for. In other words, the textbook is an aid and
not a sacred text. Teachers will have to work out the best ways to use their
textbooks; they should never let the textbooks use them, or dictate the decisions
they take about the activities in which the children are going to be involved.
5.2. Importance of planning. Young children are usually full of enthusiasm and
energy and the language lessons will be full of variety and changes of activity.
There is very little time available during a short lesson for the teacher to actually
think. So, if the teacher and the children are going to get the maximum enjoyment
and the maximum learning out of a lesson, then the lesson must be carefully
planned. All good teachers plan, just as all good teachers are prepared to adapt
their plans and know that they have to be prepared for emergencies.
Proper lesson plans are essential. The teacher will be more relaxed and
confident if he/she follows a clear plan, fact that is passed on to the children. As
children get older, they become more aware of how well prepared the lessons are,
and they like to have well-prepared lessons.
As the teacher finishes one phase, a glance reminds him/her of the next. So
he/she will be able to use more of his/her energy and enthusiasm to enjoy what
he/she is doing instead of worrying about what to do next, planning the next
activity in his/her head or looking at the next page of the book. He/she can
sometimes sit back and observe what is going on.
The plan will enable the teacher to improve his/her timing, too. By
comparing the estimated time with the actual time taken for different types of
activity, the teacher soon learns to judge lesson stages and phases with great
accuracy both in planning the lesson and in executing it.
In addition, the plans are an aid to continuing improvement. After the lesson
the teacher can add an evaluation to the plan, identifying those parts which went
well and those which were less successful. This plan with comments and
corrections provides a useful, timesaving reference when the teacher next plans the
same lesson.

47

5.3. Planning stages. Planning can be divided into three stages: long term
planning (which may be for a whole semester), short term planning (which might
be for a unit of work) and lesson planning (for individual lessons).
5.3.1. Long term planning will take place before or at the beginning of the school
year, and the teacher can do it before he/she ever sees his/her children. If a
textbook is to be used, the teacher has to look through the list of contents and the
teachers guide. If the book is topic-based, he/she might decide to change the
order, or to miss out something that is not suitable (there is not a good idea to talk
about Father Christmas in May, for example). If the teacher is not using a
textbook, then he/she has to decide roughly what vocabulary, structures and
grammar points he/she wants to cover and how long it will take him/her for each
unit, topic or language item.
A semester plan for the four to seven year old children may look like this if
there is no textbook involved:
September

Me and my family

October

November

December/January

The classroom

The body

Clothes

Colours

What we look like

Food

Outside school

Puppet work on Look, feel, taste

preceding topics.
Revision

Numbers

5.3.2. Short term planning is much easier to do once the long term planning was
done. The teacher may plan the lessons on one topic, the lessons for one unit in the
book or the lessons for one week. A short term plan usually covers from three to
ten lessons.
If the teacher is using a textbook, then much of the work is done for him/her
at this stage. Most textbooks are written by experienced teachers and the lessons
are carefully thought out. A beginner teacher may follow them as far as possible.
The more he/she teaches, the easier it gets to change other peoples plans. After a
time, he/she may find that he/she has different timing, problems and lessons from
the ones the textbook is written for.
After the teacher had decided what language items he/she is going to teach,
he/she must make sure he/she knows how they are used and must find activities
that suit them.
Assessment is part of teaching, so the teacher will include it into his/her
plan; both teachers and children like to know how they are doing.
The short term planning must not be too detailed. It is only a rough guide
that clearly shows where the teacher is going and what he/she hopes to cover.
Let us look now at a broad topic which might take about twelve lessons in
all, but which should perhaps be done in two blocks of six lessons:

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Food: beginners
Materials: lots of pictures collected by the teacher and the children, menus, lists
of prices, actual food, tins, packets of food, cups, saucers, recipes, listening texts,
stories about food, songs and rhymes.
Situations and functions: to be able to describe local food as well as some
foreign food they may be familiar with, to follow simple recipes and give
instructions on how to make simple dishes, to be able to behave politely at table
in English, to express likes and dislikes, to do simple shopping.
Structures: I like/dont like; Would you like ?; No, thanks!; Yes, please!;
Can you pass the , please?; Here you are!; Have you got ..?; Ive got ; Can I
have , please?; Id like please!; How much is it?, etc.
Vocabulary work:
- presenting vocabulary: flashcards or realia;
- practising vocabulary: card games and listening comprehension work (e.g.
children have to place the right food in front of the right person as they listen.
Dialogues and role play:
A: A bottle of juice, please.
B: Here you are.
A: How much is it?
B: 20 p, please.
A: Here you are.
B: Thank you.
Free activities: the teacher brings the mascot into the topic and sets the children
to work in groups, with one group making up what the mascot would have for his
birthday party, another working on the mascots picnic, another on the mascots
favourite breakfast/lunch/dinner, etc.
Stories, songs and rhymes: the Turnip Story, Hot Cross Buns, One potato two
potatoes.
Recipes and making food: sandwiches and salads.
Clearly, there are many other things a teacher can do with the topic
food, we have only given a few suggestions. As we said in the beginning, one of
the exciting things about working with topics is that the teacher can adapt them to
his/her own class, teaching style and the childrens interests.
5.3.3. Lesson planning. In our country the teachers of English generally work
without a textbook with the four to seven year old children. That is why we chose
to look at both ways of lesson planning, with or without a textbook.
5.3.3.1. Lesson planning with a textbook. Most new teachers start off by writing
very detailed plans, which become less detailed with time. This is not because

49

teachers become lazy, but because planning becomes easier with practice and so
experienced teachers do not have to note all the details.
There are three basic steps in making a lesson plan:
decide the aim of the lesson: if there is a teachers book with the textbook, an
aim may be stated there. Commonly, the aim will be to practise one particular
language point or to introduce a few new words. The teacher is under no
obligation to adopt the same aims. The writer was not writing specifically for a
certain class and the teacher may wish to modify the aim and the approach;
select the key language: the teacher must not feel restricted by traditional
guidelines and should introduce as much or as little as he/she needs, in order to
treat the passage in the way he/she wants to treat it;
choose the approach: the teachers pedagogy should be in harmony with his/her
aim.
Consequently, there is no single method (a method is a fixed sequence of
activities, rather like a recipe) that will suit each lesson. If the aim is to offer
fluency practice, clearly the teaching strategies will be quite unlike those of a
lesson that has a grammar practice focus.
Like everything in teaching, this 3-stage lesson structure is not absolutely
fixed. Nevertheless, it is a helpful framework when a teacher first begins planning
lessons. And of course, the lesson is not an inviolable 50 minutes whole, either.
Rather, the teacher should think in terms of lesson units. There will be days when
he/she wants to cover two short lesson units in a single teaching period, or when
the three stages of one lesson unit have to be spread over two periods.
Each stage will be filled with a selection of activities that are suited to the
lesson aim. Supplementary activities (like setting and checking homework,
conducting revision, giving a test, playing a game or singing a song) can be viewed
as a fourth stage, even though such elements are scattered across the other three
stages. A warm-up activity has to be at the start of the lesson, then the teacher
might go straight into a homework check afterwards, before beginning the
presentation stage. A relaxing game or a song might come after any formal work
on the text. At the very end of the lesson the teacher could set homework or even
conduct a short test.
The master plan should be written on one sheet of paper and carry an
absolute minimum of detail. This does not mean that the teacher will have only
that one page on the desk. There are supplementary pages, numbered on the
sequence that they will be needed. These pages, too, should be self-contained, for
ease of handling. The first may carry the illustrative sentences for the lexical items
being introduced, a miniature sketch of a needed blackboard drawing or the prequestions for a listening session. The second page of notes may have the layout of
a grammar point to go on the blackboard, together with a few prompts or
substitutions to use when practising. A third page may have short-answer
questions, another the longer-answer questions. Yet another may have discussion
points or prompts for a role play, and so on.
It may seem wasteful that an entire page is used for the layout of a structure
when it could easily be fitted at the bottom of, say, a page that carries only a few

50

illustrative sentences. However, it really is much simpler to work with selfcontained notes and the teacher is less likely to lose his/her place. Also, he/she can
write more clearly, using bigger and more easily read print. This makes it easy to
snatch a glance as the lesson proceeds. The added bonus is that the plan, notes and
any visuals are used again, when this lesson is next taught. So, it is important that
they be user-friendly.
The number of supplementary pages and their nature will depend on the sort
of lesson being conducted. In his/her main plan, the teacher just marks the page
number of the supplementary notes he/she will need at that point of the lesson (e.g.
Note 2). Just one key word in the plan or in a page of supplementary notes will
remind him/her when to produce a wall chart, a clock, number cards, or any other
visual aid.
Annex 1 shows the skeleton plan that gives an overview of the shape of a 3stage lesson. This, or something similar, could be photocopied in hundreds, to use
for the teachers own planning. Such a blank master plan to complete as the lesson
takes shape will save time and prod the teachers memory.
A completed plan for a dialogue-based lesson is shown in Annex 2.
The space for comments at the foot of the page of the master plan, or
overleaf, is most important. This is completed after the lesson. The sooner the
better, while the teacher still has an impression of what was successful and what
might have been better. Each time he/she teaches this same lesson, he/she can refer
to those notes to create a fresh master plan, incorporating any need changes. It may
be necessary to add a new page of supplementary notes or to revise a page in some
way. The whole lesson package is kept for future use. The teaching methods will
improve continuously because of this process of self-evaluation; the teacher will
grow professionally over the years. An investment of time this year, planning all
lessons in detail, will result in improvements and real economies of materials and
time in the future.
When working with more advanced classes, the plan may look as the one in
annex 3.
5.3.3.2. Lesson planning without a textbook. The emphasis of the lessons may be
on a topic or on an activity. In our opinion, when dealing with young learners,
topic-based teaching is a useful, helpful, practical and exciting way to teach either
all of the time or some of the time. Here are some of the reasons why:
- when concentrating on a particular topic, the content of the lessons
automatically becomes more important than the language itself. This means that
it is easier to relate the lessons to the childrens experiences and interests;
- working on topics can help the learning process. The children can associate
words, functions, structures and situations with a particular topic. Association
helps memory, and learning language in context clearly helps both
understanding and memory;
- topic-based teaching allows the teacher to go into a subject in depth and brings
out reactions and feelings in the children which are not always covered in a
textbook. It follows from this that children will usually need more and different

51

vocabulary than a textbook provides. This in turn brings the learner and his/her
needs more into focus;
- the amount of time that the teacher spends on a topic can be as long or as short
as he/she likes, depending on how much interest it arouses, how much language
work he/she gets out of it, how much time and material is available;
- since the emphasis in topic-based work is on content, the work in the classroom
naturally includes all the language skills, as well as guided and free activities.
The teacher first has to choose a topic that is appropriate for his/her
particular group of children. The topic must be wide enough to appeal to varying
interests and levels of ability and perhaps both boys and girls. The school
environment or locality will, to a certain extent, dictate the topic choice (for
example, studying boats in an area where they are never seen would be difficult).
The following list features topics which should be widely suitable: Colours,
Numbers, School Objects, Home and Families, Jobs, People, Buildings, Shops,
Toys, Clothes, Food, Friends, Pets, Transport, Music, Hobbies, Weather, Books
and Stories.
Having chosen a topic, a quick brainstorm is a good idea. It may produce a
topic web as it follows, which is a free exploration of ideas (the teacher will be
unlikely to attempt to cover all the ideas first noted):
power

helicopters

parachutes

danger
kites

SPEED

gliders

AIR

planes
radar
cars
buses
LAND
STRENGTH

TRANSPORT
trains

Load cargoes
bikes
BRIDGES
Seat belts

SAFETY
Paddle boats
sailing
SPACE

WATER

astronauts

ships
rockets

PASSENGERS

ice skating
floating/sinking

By laying out ideas in this way the teacher can check for balance and
identify the structures, activities and resources required. At this point it is valuable

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to glean from the children (in their mother tongue if necessary) what they would
like to find out about the topic. Their questions will reveal much about what they
already know and where their interests lie, providing a framework for the topic and
generating ideas for activities.
There are several kinds of activity. If children are to understand the nature of
a task, the teacher will first need to be clear what the activity is demanding of the
child. Activities can include one or several of these cognitive skills: describing,
identifying and recognizing, matching, comparing, making connections,
sequencing, solving problems, etc.
Once the teacher has some idea of possible topics, he/she should start
looking for materials at once all sorts of written and spoken texts, pictures,
objects, cards, etc. When the teacher finds something, he/she must make a note of
it at once. We always think well remember our brilliant ideas, but we do not
unless we make a note of them. The children can often help to find pictures and
objects in connection with a particular topic.
As working without a textbook also implies using a lot of games in class,
here is a way a teacher could keep a record of all such activities he/she finds
suitable:
HANGMAN
Level
Age
Players

beginners to advanced
7 to Adult
challenger + whole class
challenger + competing teams
challenger + small group
Timing 2 5 minutes each challenge
Location classroom

Main language points

spelling develops
awareness of acceptable
letter sequences in English
words; names of letters of
the alphabet.

Description The challenger draws a number of dashes corresponding to the

number of letters in a word that he/she secretly thought of. The other players
call out suggestions of what letters may be in the word. If they are correct the
challenger writes in the letters. If they are wrong he draws in part of the
scaffold or the hanged man. The stages in the drawing are like this:
The aim is to try to guess the word before the drawing is complete.
If players fail the challenger can have another turn. When
Someone succeeds he/she takes the place of the challenger.
Options If the traditional drawing is too gruesome or frightening other
scoring methods could be substituted (e.g. the word must be guessed within
10 suggestions).
Materials blackboard + chalk or pencil + paper.

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5.4. The place of revision and homework in lesson planning.

5.4.1. Revision. This is a term used to describe the process of reactivation that
helps assimilation and learning. Many teachers start every lesson by revising a
grammar point from the previous lesson or by reviewing the reading passage used
in that lesson. This is usually done by means of questions, with full-length answers
to force the regurgitation of key phrases from the text. Such revision offers
continuity but it is somewhat limited and it is in the wrong place.
Teachers should begin lessons with some sort of warm-up activity. When
classes are settling in, children need a few moments of relaxation to retune their
ears to the sounds of the English language. It is better to start with some listening,
a chat, a game or a song. Revision can then follow the warm-up, but there are times
when it should be delayed until later. If the review is simply a factual one and the
new passage is a continuation of the previous days reading, then it is best done
just before the new passage is seen. In this way, the review becomes a sort of prereading activity and assures continuity of the story line. At other times, the review
can be self-contained and can be put almost everywhere in the lesson plan to offer
a short change of activity.
5.4.1.1. Revising grammar points. Revision should go quickly, as the grammar
points will already be familiar to the children. The teacher has to try to make the
process enjoyable. For example, the teacher may use realia (a few children brought
in front of the class, a bag of small objects, the childrens belongings) to revise
prepositions, ordinal numbers, degrees of comparison, possessives and
demonstrative pronouns.
5.4.1.2. Revising vocabulary. The simplest way to do this is to arrive every
Monday with all the previous weeks visuals for a comprehensive review stage
immediately after a warm-up. However, there are other ways to do it:
vocabulary networks: the teacher chooses a topic area (e.g. sports, hobbies,
school, pets, etc.) and writes the key word in a box in the centre of the board. In
the example below, the topic is the kitchen. The teacher asks the children what
furniture is in the kitchen. As items are called, they are strung out from the
centre box and underlined to act as head-words. The board will look something
like this at the end of that short first stage:
Cooker

Shelf

Chair

Kitchen

Table

Fridge

Cupboard

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Next, the class suggests what might be found in/on the items of furniture, and
lists are built up;
illustrative sentences: the class can be challenged to recall the exact sentences
they copied a few days earlier. More challenging, and perhaps more valuable
linguistically, the class can create new illustrative sentences for the words as the
teacher calls them out. This is probably best done orally. In this way lots of
words are reactivated in a short space of time and given contexts;
vocabulary tables are less exciting visually. Here we have the topic of shops,
revised in the same brainstorming fashion but listed in a more traditional style:
SHOPS & SHOPPING
Bakers
White bread
cakes
rolls
brown bread
muffins
buns

Grocers
sugar
flour
tea
coffee
rice
spaghetti
jam

Butchers
tins
beef
mutton
pork
chicken
sausages
chops

Diary
cheese
milk
yoghurt
cream
eggs

scrambled sets: the teacher dictates a mixture of topic words and then asks the
children to group them, providing their own head-words;
alphabetical revision: the teacher can choose a letter of the alphabet and ask the
class to write or call out words beginning with that letter.
5.4.1.3. Conclusion. Revision assists the learning process so it needs to be done
regularly. If learning is to be effective, then what is met in class must be revised.
Revision should be of more than just the most recent lesson. What was taught
weeks or months ago is often pertinent to the next text or grammar point.
5.4.2. Homework is another form of reactivation. During out-of-school time
children work material or engage in practice activities. Classes that get homework
usually reach a higher level of achievement and do better in examinations that
those that are denied extra learning time.
Unlike other subject teachers, language teachers cannot get children to learn
from the textbook in advance of the lesson. They are not normally required to learn
language that has not already been used in class.
5.4.2.1. Attributes of good homework. Homework should not be a heavy workload
on the teachers own shoulders. Whenever possible, the teacher must assign
homework that can be checked quickly in class. The public check acts as yet
another review and has the advantage of allowing learners to identify and correct
any mistakes. The children can normally check their own work, but the teacher can

55

have them exchange their notebooks and correct each others if this is preferred.
Misunderstandings are then cleared up on the spot. There is no need to give a mark
out of ten, since the aim is to offer additional exposure to English, not to test the
children.
5.4.2.2. Kinds of assignment. The teacher can always make use of a range of
homework activities that may not be available in a textbook but which are quickly
assigned and easily corrected:
drawing activities: the children often draw in their exercise books to show the
meaning of the sentences they copy. All this sketching, labelling and colouring
should be done at home. In this way the teacher ensures that they re-read the
sentences, remembering the meanings. Children also enjoy drawing and
labelling pictures such as a street, a market place or a park. The teacher must
encourage them to design some attractive posters for the classroom walls;
babylonian writing is a picture spelling assignment. The teacher gives one
starter word, for example pen. The children go home and spell the word in
pictures. To do this, they draw something beginning with the letters p, e and n.
The good thing is that, in this way, they reactivate all their past vocabulary at
home in order to find the objects. In class, the public check gives massive
coverage, as all the objects are called back;
using worksheets: it is well worth investing time in the production of
worksheets for homework. This allows the teacher to break away from the
textbook and to offer much more variety. Worksheets are not disposable. The
children hand them back so they can be used again and again. Many types of
worksheet activity are possible, depending on the level of the class. Matching
halves, gapped texts, multiple choice, true-false items, parallel writing, guided
writing, task reading are all activities we have already talked about in the other
chapters of this course.
5.4.2.3. Conclusion. By giving homework, teachers can increase the time spent by
children in contact with the English language. Homework assignments should be
made as interesting as possible. They should not invite error making. Any
correcting work is best done by the children themselves, especially where the
classes are large. In this way the children get feedback and can ask for
clarification.

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CHAPTER SIX. TEACHING AIDS

6.1. Introduction. Language learning can be dull, especially if the learners feel
little real need to be learning the foreign language anyway. The difficulty is to
catch and rivet their attention. The personality and enthusiasm of the teacher is
probably the most important single factor in enlivening a lesson, but the learning
process itself should be exciting and enjoyable. A large variety of teaching aids is
necessary in the foreign language classroom. Lessons will be much easier and
much more exciting for the children if the teacher makes use of things and objects
as well as language to get his/her meaning across. Time can be saved by passing
pictures or objects round the class and getting group work going; revision can
derive from the reintroduction of visual aids; tempo can be accelerated because
showing or pointing is a more rapid process than speaking or explaining.
Before we present visual aids we think it is necessary to address language
teachers the following warning: naturally, you choose aids for specific purposes.
Objects can be more evocative than pictures. On the other hand, some pictures can
be more evocative than objects and easier to handle (e.g. food displays, fashion
pictures, etc.). Wall charts bring more ideas or things together than simple pictures,
and are useful for extensive descriptions and provoking dialogues, situations and
stories. Do not, however, become intoxicated with visual aids. Once they have
been produced, there is sometimes a regrettable tendency to use them for
everything. They can deteriorate into poor substitutes for preparing a lesson. They
have to be combined with other teaching techniques to fulfil immediate and long
term aims.
Aids must be regarded as servants, not masters. We do not favour the
approach of starting out with a bag of tricks cassette recorder, overhead
projector, slides, videos, video-tape recorder, etc. and then looking for ways of
using them just because we have them. The need has to come first, and the need
decides the manner of use.
6.2. Materials for the teacher and children to make or collect:
realia: the teacher should never waste time drawing real objects that can be
carried to class. He/she can find bus tickets, food labels, stamps, and so on.
Empty packets and tins (or simply the labels) are much better than pictures for
teaching shops and shopping, especially if the foreign price stickers are still
attached. Children will be fascinated by a railway ticket or coin from the target
language society. If the teacher cannot get hold of realia from the foreign
country, he/she may use tickets, labels, timetables, coins or any other material
from Romania. A real drivers license or passport is far better than a picture of
one;

57

puppets can be made out of paper bags or old gloves. The teacher could also
use hand or finger puppets. In addition, a simple stage is very useful if the
goal is to perform dialogues and sketches;
class mascots: these can be Teddy bears, rag dolls or any special puppet,
maybe something of local significance;
paper dolls are very useful for teaching clothes, but unfortunately they have a
very short life and have to be regularly replaced;
clocks with movable hands are invaluable in the language classroom, not only
for telling the time, but also for setting the scene and changing time from the
here and now. To teach the time the teacher must not make the mistake of
working round the face in a clockwise direction; he/she has to practise hours
out of order, then contrast past and to for the minutes. The teacher has the duty
to teach the modern way of telling the time too, even if it is not included in the
textbook. As well as being more current, it offers good number practice;
calendar: it should show the day, the date, the weather and the childrens
birthdays or special days. In order to complete all these the children will have to
produce a lot of English, fact that will definitely improve the process of
learning;
English corner: the teacher will encourage children to collect anything which
is in any way connected with the English-speaking world and will display the
material in that corner, changing it whenever it is necessary;
cardboard boxes: the teacher can use shoe boxes and all other sorts of boxes
for filling (the ones with lids are more useful). They can be covered with paper,
decorated and labelled. Boxes can also be used as building bricks to make
shops, houses, castles, etc.;
flashcards are probably the most widely used visual aids in language teaching,
except for the blackboard. These can be drawings, cutouts from magazines,
photos, etc. It is easiest to sort these according to size really big ones for class
work, and smaller ones for individual/pair/group work. Then they can be put
into themes or subject areas. The advantages of flashcards over a blackboard
drawing are several: class time is saved, they are motivating and eye catching
and because they are done at home, carefully, the quality of the drawing is
higher than that of a blackboard sketch. They can also be colourful and can be
used again and again. They are useful for presenting, practising and revising
vocabulary or as prompts for other activities for example to illustrate the
characters in a dialogue, to help children improvise, etc. They are also useful
for identifying verbs of action. The teacher can introduce the verbs with mime
one day and revise them with flashcards the next. Cards can be used to revise or
introduce prepositions or verb tenses, or to indicate a sequence. The teacher can
link more cards together to get a sequence long enough to elaborate a short
story, practising a variety of points and getting the class to help build up the
story together, ask and answer questions, and so on. Moreover, they can be used
for a variety of games. They are simple and effective, but they also require
careful thought and preparation in advance;

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number cards are used to present numbers. When the teacher introduces
numbers for the first time, he/she must not make the mistake of presenting the
numbers in sequence. The children will then rote learn them like a chanted
phrase and will always run through the sequence mentally before answering.
The teacher should introduce and practise them out of sequence, beginning with
numbers to five (3, 2, 5, 4, 1, 0, 2, 4, etc.). The same must be done with 6 to 10
and, later, with numbers to 15 then to 20. So numbers should always be taught
and tested out of order. Even when the numbers have been well learned, it is
better to go backwards before going forwards. If the teacher does this, the
children will always be able to produce the correct number on sight. Another
challenging way to use the cards is to use them for mental arithmetic. The
teacher may hold up any two cards and tell the class to add, to subtract or to
multiply the figures. With a pack of number cards in his/her briefcase, the
teacher will always have a warm-up activity or time-filler game available;
letter cards: single letters are put on smaller cards and are used to introduce the
alphabet to children to whom it is unfamiliar;
word cards are useful for displays. They also combine intensive listening and
early reading skills. The teacher uses a set of related words (that are already
known) and the learners have to select the words that the teacher indicates. The
procedure could not be easier. Here is an example: the teacher first shows a few
word cards, one at a time, holding each one up in silence for two or three
seconds. Then the cards are put face down on the table and the teacher asks
questions about them. The children are answering from memory. Or, the class
has to identify the card that does not belong in the set. Wh-question word cards
are used after rapid silent reading of any text in order to prompt questions from
the class, avoiding the need for any kind of talking on the teachers art. He/she
will hold up the question prompt in silence and then nominate a child who has
to phrase a question, which another child then answers. The card looks like this:
WHO ?
Games with word cards are also effective. A game that can be played in small
groups is to have each child taking a card in turn from a pile, until he/she can
form a sentence. Whoever forms most sentences wins (also see chapter 8 on the
role of fun activities in teaching English to young learners);
sentence cards should only be used with sentences that children know very
well. They can be attached to the board, like flashcards, or the teacher can make
them stand. They can then be placed along the edge of the teachers desk, so
that substitutions can be made during a drill. During practice, the teachers desk
will look like this during practice:
My sister

like

apples

The teacher will have another word cards (my friends, I, we, dislike, sweets,
sugar, etc.) ready to be switched in and out of the sentence. The grammatical

59

point being practised (the s of the third person singular verb) should be on a
separate card. Alternatively, the folded word cards can be hung along a string
suspended between two nails. In this way they can be easily dropped on or
lifted off;
transparencies can be used if there is an overhead projector. They should be
kept in special plastic covers or framed and then put into a file. They keep well,
take up very little space and are very useful for working with the whole class.
Some commercially produced transparencies are also available. They can be
flexibly used: it is possible to place several transparencies over each other to
build up more detail gradually, or the teacher can mask out parts of the picture
with a piece of paper to focus and direct childrens attention;
card games are useful for language interaction and relaxation. Any teacher
should have several sets of cards for different topics (e.g. food, furniture,
buildings, sports, hobbies, etc.):

In the example above the cards focus on clothes and can be used for
presentation or revision of new vocabulary, recognition of different items,
conversation, role play, etc.;
board games are useful for relaxation and language work too, but also their
making presents a real challenge. The teacher will always get wonderful
language work out of making up rules. Board games can be made for almost
any subject. In the example above the game is called Snakes and ladders. In
order to play it the teacher will need the board below, counters (they could be
different buttons) and a dice. The teacher must discuss rules with the children:
if they land on the head of a snake/at the bottom of a ladder, they will have to
answer a question/name objects learned in the previous lesson/tell a joke, etc.

60

6.3. Materials to buy:

toys have endless uses in the language classroom. They also help to connect the
childs world outside the classroom to what is happening inside the classroom.
For example, telephone conversations are enhanced by bringing in toy
telephones and getting the children to sit back to back so they cant see one
another. If a policeman is in a dialogue, the teacher will give him a toy helmet.
This will not only intrigue and thus involve his/her children, but also set the
tone for acting out;
readers are a real investment for the language learner. We feel it is better to
have lots of different ones rather than class sets. That is why they must be
coded. Although it is tempting to code books according to difficulty, we would
not advise it, since children would always select the ones they want to read, and
not the ones that the teacher says they are ready to read. So, it is necessary to
find some other way of organizing books, such as by subject matter (animals,
fairy stories, etc). This means, of course, that the teacher has to read through
all the books first, select and classify. Then the books are put on low open
shelves if at all possible in the English corner. The point is that the children
must be physically able to reach the books. The teacher should also have a
system of borrowing all these books, so that he/she always knows who has each
book and how long he/she has had it, as in the following example:

61

Name of the book:

Childs name

Date out

Date in

Lavinia

Dec 10

Dec 19

George

Dec 20

Jan 15

The teacher might have a large card inside each book and when a child borrows
it he/she writes his/her name and the date on the card and puts it in the space
left by the book. This not only lets the teacher see who has the book, but also
tells him/her how popular the book is. The card is very simple, and the children
can take turns at being the librarian and seeing that the others fill in the cards;
wall posters and charts made for the language classroom can be found in great
number on the market. Posters usually carry a text or a picture that is too
complex to draw quickly at the blackboard. They can also carry a set of four or
more smaller pictures to resume an entire story that may have been spread over
several lessons in the textbook. Grammar points too can be written beforehand
onto wall posters, instead of being built up at the blackboard. Wall charts have a
table, a map or a graph of some sort. The teacher must be careful, though, that
his/her children do not get bored with the same poster of chart, used again and
again or displayed forever on the classroom wall. The teacher will use a number
of wall charts or posters alternatively for snap revision or consolidation. If
he/she does this successfully, the children will be reminded of words and
structures that they have previously learnt, each time he/she puts one up. If the
teacher brings out personality, situation and imaginative incident, the children
will also recall these when he/she uses the wall chart or poster again;
building blocks are also very useful as they can become anything from cakes to
houses.
6.4. The teachers aids. For the teacher, the most important aids are the syllabus,
the course book and the blackboard.
6.4.1. The syllabus and the course book. Syllabus design and materials production
are complex matters, which should take into account every factor in a teaching
situation. The most important aid of all is the textbook. One may find it odd to see
it referred to as an aid. In some places it seems rather to be a god, or at least a
dictator. Many teachers, probably most, plan all or nearly all their lessons round a
basic course book, whether by choice or by compulsion. This has its dangers, but is
basically a sensible thing in most circumstances. It ensures a reasonably wellgraded progression from year to year, and a rough parity in progression (though
not in success of learning) between parallel classes all over the country. It makes
life tolerable for the teacher, who would otherwise face an impossible task of

62

collecting and creating all his/her own material. On the other hand, a rigid lockstep course that accounts for every class hour, every page of which must be worded
through in an exactly prescribed manner, is highly undesirable. Teachers should be
free, within reasonable limits, to vary the diet supplied by the basic course,
adapting, discarding and supplementing. This is what justifies us in calling the
textbook an aid, even though the most important aid. In the same way, we hope our
own course will be an aid to teachers, in helping them to provide this variation in
the basic diet of the children.
6.4.2. The blackboard is the most valuable teaching aid world wide, commonly
available and inexpensive. Sketches, diagrams and tables enable teachers to avoid
excessive use of the mother tongue, while prompting meaningful oral contributions
from the children. In many ways, a blackboard is more essential than a textbook.
When learners look at a page, their eyes and thoughts could be anywhere. When
they look at the blackboard it is apparent that their attention is on what the teacher
has written or drawn. It has the advantage of providing a focal point of attention
for the whole class, and can be used for a variety of purposes: to present
vocabulary, structure and grammar points. However, it is very easy to forget its
usefulness, simply because it is always there, or to use it ineffectively through lack
of thought, preparation and reluctance to regard it as an integral part of the lesson.
Here are some golden rules in using the blackboard properly:
start clean: at the beginning of each lesson the teacher will ask someone to
clean the blackboard (if necessary) and write the date in one corner. This
provides an opportunity for real language use, with a range of please and thank
you formulae. While these are being done, the teacher might conduct a warm-up
activity, a game or a song;
write legibly: blackboard writing should look more like print than cursive script.
The teacher must avoid stylish loops and spirals that can be misread. Beginners,
especially, are confused by elaborate letterring. The teacher will write large, so
that those seated at the back can read easily, and will not cram too much writing
onto the blackboard;
stand sideways: the teacher must not stand with his/her back to the class as
he/she writes. He/she may stand at 45 degrees and write with the arm extended.
This makes it easy to glance back over his/her shoulder from time to time as
he/she works;
the talkn chalk principle: the teacher must never work in silence. It is vital to
keep the class involved. He/she will comment on his/her drawing as he/she
draws, will invite children to read out what he/she is writing, to answer a related
question, to tell what word to write next, how to spell the next word, etc. The
teacher can also get the children to write on the board and test their spelling this
way. This is not easy at first, but the teacher must persevere. It will soon
become second nature. The teacher must not talk to the board. If he/she needs to
say something, he/she must turn around and address the class;

63

economize on blackboard time: the teacher must avoid long periods of

inactivity on the part of the class. Anything that requires careful drawing or
planning should be done at home beforehand, in picture or poster form;
the layout of the blackboard: the teacher must divide the board in three sections.
These need not be exactly the same width. New vocabulary is written in the left
section and any grammar point or structure to the right. These language items
will stay on the board until the end of the lesson. The centre is used for in going
work, such as pictures, working examples and notes. The teacher must clean the
board when it comes impossible crowded, instead of squeezing in additional
sentences wherever there is space. If the children have a clear visual image of
what the teacher has written, this will help them. If everything is mixed up,
he/she is merely using the board to confuse them.
Progress can be noticed in the domain of teaching aids too. Nowadays there
is a choice between black boards and a restful green colour and new types of
blackboards are being used:
the magnet board can be used for composite pictures. The picture elements are
pre-drawn and cut out. The teacher puts them on the magnet board one by one,
holding them in place with a piece of magnet, to build up the picture.
Sometimes he/she will want to put on a back cloth first, to give a background.
For example, a background of a street could be used when introducing traffic,
children playing, a lamppost and so on. The advantage with magnet boards is
that pictures can be superimposed: an open wardrobe can receive a suit, a child
can be dressed, and so on. Because each picture is part of a larger one, some
care has to be exercised. Cups and plates must be small enough to look right on
a table but the table must be smaller than the fridge. Perspective is another
consideration. Pictures in any composite picture look better if they are viewed
from one side and slightly above;
the felt board is used in the same way as a magnet board, but it is made of card
or thin plywood and so it is even lighter. As with the magnet board, pictures are
built up as the teacher talks;
the portable blackboard: with this visual aid the teacher can do the writing or
drawing before the lesson and just unrolls it when it is needed, like a poster.
He/she can use a range of brightly coloured chalks, and so produce careful
drawings, rather than simple sketches. It is also ideal for laying out grammar
points that are too lengthy for the regular board. To carry it, the teacher just
rolls the bottom to the top and snaps an elastic band round the cylindrical
package;
the whiteboard is another secondary writing or drawing surface. Dark colours
stand up especially well on the white surface. Because of this, a whiteboard is
excellent for written texts, and even really small writing is legible from the back
or other side of the room. The disadvantage is that the teacher must use only
special dry-wipe pens on this surface, any other pen will ruin it. After use, a dry
tissue or cloth will erase what was written. The teacher could also work with a

64

short original text, then erase words one by one to make any practise more
challenging.
6.5. Mechanical aids:
cassette recorders are useful for recording the teacher and the children. It
brings other voices in the classroom and gives the children valuable practice in
listening to varieties of English different from the teachers. A great deal of
material is available on tape and the teacher can also record his/her own from
the radio. As with all mechanical aids, precision in use is essential. Without
proficient control, hours can be wasted trying to find the place, erasing when
he/she should be listening, and so on. The teacher has to practise recording and
playing back until he/she is proficient. The tape must be set up at the
appropriate place before the lesson begins. Ideally he/she should use a tape
recorder with a number gauge so that he/she can wind back to any part of the
passage without losing the way. Taped material can be effectively used for
listening comprehension work (we have already discuss that in chapter 3 on
teaching skills) and it can also be used in connection with other activities
dialogues, songs, etc. The teacher can also use the tape recorder to record
children, getting them to talk briefly about some simple subject such as a
description of their school, house or flat, their daily routine, etc. Then the
material will be listened to with the class commenting on the mistakes and
revising;
the overhead projector: presenting materials on it allows the teacher to face
the children all the time and provides the children with a common focus of
attention. The teacher can come back to the same material whenever he/she
wants to, and he/she can use the same material with different classes. The
overhead projector is a useful alternative to the blackboard in that the teacher
does not have to turn his/her back on the children, and he/she can save time by
preparing the material in advance. It does not have to be cleaned and there is
more space available. It is used in much the same way as the blackboard for
writing model sentences, presentation, explanation, drills, pictures, etc;
video players obviously accustom children to understanding English outside
the classroom. Usefulness can be increased by making sure of feedback. So, the
teacher has to choose films that use easy dialogues. Of course, he/she must see
the film before showing it so that he/she can determine level and suitability of
content. The film should be stopped from time to time in order to get children to
ask questions, if they have not understood. Then, the teacher might ask them
questions about events, characters, descriptions, etc. If the teacher does this,
he/she will find he/she can ease children into understanding the film more
effectively, and that they retain more of what they hear and see. After the
children have seen the film, it may be a good idea to give them the script and
get them to go over it for homework and ask them to write a summary, or to
give an oral account next day in class. This will allow children to work more on
their own, and to synchronize the spoken and written commentaries. The
teacher can only do this with fairly short films. Additionally, with video

65

players, the teacher can start the film, stop it, go back and forward and, in this
way, use the film in any way he/she wants, whether for presentation, practice or
revision. Videos are extremely good for helping motivation, giving practice in
understanding the spoken language in interesting situations, taking the children
outside the classroom experience;
slide projectors and computers could also be successfully used in the
classroom, but they are rather expensive and not all schools have the possibility
to buy such devices.
6.6. Conclusion. Unlike most other subjects, where children can work alone with
books, language lessons are often teacher-centred. Consequently, language
teachers have to be able to capture and hold the learners interest, offering stimuli
for conversation and discussion, as well as for practice. This is done by varying the
material used from lesson to lesson and by frequent changes of approach and
activity. Teaching, as well as learning, then becomes enjoyable.
Movement helps teachers to gain and hold attention. He/she can leave the
blackboard area when using hand held visuals (such as flashcards, word cards,
letter cards, number cards, a clock face or finger puppets). Folded word cards,
charts and posters can be displayed at the sides of the classroom or pegged to a
string line across the board. A magnet board or felt board is usually balanced on
the ledge of the board but can be hung from a hook or nail in any wall. A portable
blackboard or whiteboard can act as a reusable poster or chart. Any change of
focus is attention holding.
With purely visual aids the quality most desirable is flexibility. The printed
wall picture lacks this entirely and consequently spends most of its time in the
cupboard or hanging unnoticed on a wall. The overhead projector is very flexible
in that the teacher can change a display by adding or taking away parts of it as the
children are looking at it. The blackboard can also be very flexible but is suitable
mainly for displays the teacher can produce swiftly, as they have all to be erased
each time. Flashcards are useful in beginning reading, but have the same
inflexibility as wall pictures.
The cheapness and portability, combined with reasonable quality, of the best
cassette tape recorders make them a marvelous boon to the English teacher. No
English teacher worth his/her salt will be satisfied until he/she has managed to get
one. Once he/she begins to use it, he/she will find it a constant companion in
teaching listening comprehension, pronunciation and oral fluency. It even has uses
in teaching reading and writing. For example, to develop fluency in reading, the
teacher gets the children to follow a printed text as they listen to a recording of it.
In writing, a recorded text is a good way of giving dictation. It should be recorded
at normal speaking speed, without special pausing. In this way the children will
hear normal speech, pausing, intonation, etc., unlike the artificial effect of
sentences broken up for dictation. A little practice with the start, stop and re-wind
buttons will enable the teacher to break up the passage and repeat the sentences at
will.

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The children will appreciate the efforts the teacher puts in to make learning
enjoyable. They will know, from the range of materials devised, that their lessons
are well prepared and that their teacher is a true, caring professional.

CHAPTER SEVEN. FEEDBACK AND ASSESSMENT

7.1. Introduction. In many cases teachers have been reluctant to administer

regular tests. Some general reasons might be that many teachers consider testing
too time-consuming, taking away valuable class time. They identify testing with
mathematics and statistics or think testing goes against humanistic approaches to
teaching. Or they simply have received little guidance in constructing tests during
their training period. We must also recognize that testing puts the teacher face-toface with his/her effectiveness as a teacher and, in this sense, testing can be as
frightening and frustrating to the teacher as it is for the children. If we refer to the
condition of teachers in our country we may add that many teachers feel that the
time and effort they put into writing and correcting tests is not acknowledged with
additional pay or personal praise.
7.2. Reasons for testing. Testing tells teachers what children can or cannot do, in
other words they show teachers how successful their teaching has been. It provides
wash back for them to adjust and change course content and teaching styles where
necessary; it will also help evaluate the effectiveness of the programme, course
books, materials and methods. By identifying childrens strengths and weaknesses,
testing can help identify areas for remedial work. Testing also tells children how
well they are progressing, fact that may stimulate them to take learning more
seriously.
A great value of classroom tests is their effect upon attitudes. A teacher can
indicate where his/her priorities lie by the tests he/she gives. If classes have
nothing but written and formal grammar tests, they will perceive this as a lack of
interest on the teachers part in their listening, reading and speaking abilities.
Another important aspect is the diagnostic element the feedback obtained
is of value to the teacher and the children.
Tests can even be used to enhance learning. By giving advanced notice of
the ground to be covered in a test, the teacher can virtually ensure that the learning
is done beforehand.

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7.3. Purpose of testing. The overall purpose of testing is to provide information

about ability and about the learning and teaching process. Roughly, this overall
purpose can be divided into two:
proficiency testing: its purpose is to find an answer to the question What is the
childs level of ability?;
achievement testing: its purpose is to find an answer to the question Has the
child learnt what he/she is supposed to have learnt according to the teachers
teaching?.
7.3.1. Proficiency testing. The main uses of proficiency testing are:
placement tests: their purpose is to put new children into the right class, so they
should be as general as possible and should concentrate on testing a wide and
representative range of ability in English. They should avoid concentrating on
narrow areas of language and specific skills. Consequently, questions
measuring general language ability can form a useful part of a placement test.
These questions often consist of blank-filling items and tests of dictation. All
these tests look forward to the language demands which will be made on
children during their course;
selection tests imply a competitive assessment which allows teachers to
compare the performances of all the children and select only the best ones for a
limited number of places, when they are interested not so much in how well
children can use English but in how much better than the other children they
are;
diagnostic tests are used to find out childrens areas of strength and weakness.
They are essential if the teacher wants to evaluate his/her teaching, the syllabus,
the course book or the materials used. Problems and difficulties may arise
because a particular area of language or a certain sub-skill has been glossed
over in the course book or because the teachers have not provided children with
enough practice. Whatever the reason, a diagnostic test can enable teachers to
locate difficulties and to plan appropriate remedial teaching.
To conclude, proficiency tests measure how suitable children will be for
performing a certain task or following a specific course.
7.3.2. Achievement testing. The main uses of achievement testing are:
progress tests: they are used to see how children are getting on in a course, how
well they have mastered the language areas and skills which have just been
taught. They are usually the most important kinds of tests for teachers and they
should produce a cluster of high marks. If most of the children fail to score high
marks, something must have been wrong with the teaching, the syllabus or the
materials. Progress tests act like a safeguard against hurrying on to complete a
syllabus or textbook regardless of what the children are actually achieving or
failing to achieve;
end of course or achievement tests are used to see how well children have learnt
what the course set out to teach them. They are formal examinations given at

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the end of the school year or at the end of the course. They are like progress
tests but are usually designed to cover a longer period of learning. In fact, they
should attempt to cover as much of the syllabus as possible;
course evaluation tests are used to see where the course is more or less
successful.
7.4. Testing principles. The theoretical requisites that tests must achieve are
validity, reliability and practicality.
A test is valid to the extent that it actually tests what it is supposed to test.
So, a valid test of learner ability to read and understand English must test exactly
and only that ability.
Many things can prevent measurement from being valid. As far as the
classroom teacher is concerned, the first requirement for validity is that the teacher
should have a clear idea of exactly what it is about the childrens English he/she is
trying to assess. The best way of getting a clear idea is to state in operational terms
what it is to be measured, that is the childrens ability to.
A test is reliable to the extent that it produces the same result under the same
circumstances. So, if two people of the same ability did the test, or if the same
person did it twice, they should score the same.
Finally, a test is practical if it does not involve much time or money in its
construction, implementation and scoring.
7.5. Problems with testing. Good testing is, as far as possible, non-threatening to
teachers and children. External examinations and sometimes internal school
examinations are often felt by the teachers themselves to be a threat to their
reputation. If their children do not do as well as those of another school or another
class, they fear that they will be blamed. One way of combating this is to associate
teachers more in the examining process.
Testing that is felt by the children as threatening often leads to lowered
achievement. This can happen in two ways. Firstly, the actual test results may not
give an accurate reflection of what the child could have done, because of the
childs excessive anxiety. Secondly, a few experiences of this kind quickly reduce
the students motivation for further learning.
It is part of a teachers job to look for ways of reducing the anxiety
associated with testing. In a good class with a fairly narrow ability range, to be
near or at the bottom is not necessarily to be inadequate. In such circumstances
there is no point in publishing information about rank order and little point in even
keeping such information. The teachers role is to give the children specific
feedback on the strong and weak points of their work. For the more frequent
progress testing the standard demanded should be such as most of the children who
have made reasonable efforts can satisfy. Formal testing should not be too frequent
and teachers should not spend too long revising in preparation for it and should
include at least a few easy items that everyone can do at the beginning of the test,
in order to build up confidence.

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There are strict limits to the amount of time that the teacher can profitably
spend on test techniques. A little time is beneficial. A lot of time may even be
counter-productive, if it causes tension or boredom, or wastes valuable teachingtime. It must be admitted, though, that some children certainly prepare for and
perform in exams rather better when there is some tension (not too much!) than
when there is none.
7.6. Using tests in teaching English. Keeping all these facts in mind we are going
to refer further on to the most used tests and the advantages of using them in
teaching English.
It is possible to test childrens ability in English by setting a task and seeing
whether or not they can carry it out. This is called criterion-referenced testing. It
gives the teacher yes/no information about childrens specific abilities in English.
It does not give the teacher detailed linguistic information, nor does it allow he/she
to rank children in a class. The point here is to find out whether a child can
perform a particular task or not. For example, can the child write a letter asking for
information about something, or give personal details about himself/herself with
only occasional errors of language?
Norm-referenced testing allows teachers to rank children and it focuses on
the language itself by recognition (where teachers provide language options and
ask children to choose the correct one) and by production (where children have to
make up their own language responses). Norm-referenced tests can also show how
a childs performance compares with the performances of the other children in the
same group: is the child in the top part, in the middle part or in the bottom part of
the group? How many children in the group are better or worse than that child?
As we have already said, recognition items require choice from the children.
If there are several options to choose from, this is called multiple choice testing. It
is useful for testing vocabulary. The teacher can give the children some sentences
and list options (A, B, C, D) under each sentence. Multiple choice testing also
offers a good way of testing childrens reading comprehension. It is often used for
testing discrete points of grammar. The marking is quick, easy and, in itself,
objective.
Another way of testing vocabulary in context is through matching items.
Matching can also be done by finding the words that rhyme with a given word.
Cloze tests call upon the children to produce the missing word. They are
given a text from which target words have been removed and replaced by blanks;
the teacher reads the full passage or plays a tape with the full passage and the
children fill in the blanks with the words they have heard. These tests are easy to
produce, acceptably valid, reasonable reliable and quick to mark.
In addition to cloze in its pure form, various modifications of cloze can be
used: the teacher can close the gaps so that the children are not shown where there
is an omission. In this case it would be a good idea to give the children some
instructions, indicating the number of the missing words or making clear that no
line will have more than one word missing. Rather than simply omitting every 10th
word or so, the teacher can omit particular types of word (verbs, articles, pronouns,

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etc.). The cloze test could be combined with a multiple choice: at each gap, instead
of a blank, the teacher provides three or four choices, only one of which will
suitably fill the gap.
Multi-mode tests are tests which contain a task (or a number of tasks)
requiring the use of more than one language skill for its satisfactory completion:
first the children listen to a recording, then discuss what the recording is about and
finally write a short report. They are very useful when testing group work activity.
The purpose of pronunciation tests is not only to evaluate knowledge and
award grades, but also, and probably more importantly, to motivate children to be
sensitive to this aspect of English. Pronunciation tends to be neglected by many
learners as long as they know they will not be tested on it. Obviously,
pronunciation is tested globally in different types of conversational exchange,
interview, reading aloud, etc., that go on in the classroom. What seems to be
insufficient is the testing of accuracy that is, testing to assess the learners
management of specific features. For example, one method of testing word stress
derives from the very nature of English stress. In native English speech, stress is so
strong that it is generally accompanied by a movement of some part of the body
(head, eye, hand, etc.). To exploit this characteristic, especially at beginner levels,
the teacher may ask the children to identify the stress of a word by a bodily
movement, like tapping, shaking ones fist, moving ones head, etc.
Dictation is not simply a test of spelling; although it may include an
assessment of spelling, it tests a wide range of skills, providing a useful means of
measuring general language performance. This testing method is based on the
assumption that, most often, if the learner has a deviant pronunciation of a word,
he/she will not understand it when it is read with a different pronunciation.
When giving a dictation, the teacher should begin by reading through the
whole dictation passage at almost normal speed. Then, he/she should dictate
meaningful units of words (phrases and short clauses) reading them aloud as
clearly as possible. Finally, after finishing the actual dictation of the various
phrases and clauses, the teacher reads the whole passage once more at slightly
slower than normal speed. The children will then be given an opportunity to check
the spellings of words and their overall understanding of the text. Some teachers try
to make the dictation easier for their children by reading out the text very slowly
word by word. This way of giving dictation can be very harmful as it encourages
children to concentrate on single words. Clearly, the teacher should give children
enough time to write down what he/she is dictating. To do this, the teacher should
simply pause at the end of a meaningful unit (or sense group) to allow the children
time to write down what he/she has just read out. It is also important to choose a
suitable text for dictation with this in mind and to prepare beforehand by dividing
the text into intelligible segments.
The focused dictation is different from a traditional one (which evaluates
both listening and writing). In the case of a focused dictation, instead of writing
everything, the children write only specified words. For example, they could be
asked to write all the nouns, all the verbs heard in the present continuous form, and

71

so on. The passage is spoken at a natural speed twice, and the children write the
words as they listen and between the readings.
A number of listening tests contain short statements in the form of
instructions or directions. Listen and draw is a pure listening test, involving no
reading, speaking or writing. Yet the teacher knows at once if the children have
understood what they heard. It is enough to check their drawings, as to earn a mark
they have to follow the teachers exact instructions.
Other listening tests contain short conversations on which questions (or
pictures) are based.
Testing speaking skills can be made by different procedures: re-telling
stories, using pictures for description or comparison or sequences of pictures,
pictures with speech bubbles, maps, oral interviews, etc. In a traditional role play
test the teacher designs a series of situations and play one role while a child plays
the second. The teacher has to provide children talk cards (as shown in the figure
on the right) which are put face down on the
desk. The child takes one at random, looks Your name Anna / Andy
Your age
11
through it and prepares while the teacher is Your hobbies reading,
role playing with the previous child. As each
playing computer games
child is called for interview, the next one Your family Your fathers a doctor.
Your mothers a teacher.
comes forward for a card, and so on. Each
You have a sister.
role play takes only a minute or so. Grades
are awarded (fail, pass, pass with merit) as Your favourite star Tom Cruise
Your favourite cartoon Batman
the test is conducted.
As the teacher monitors a childs speech, he/she can refer to marking grids.
A class grid like the one below will hold the scores of twenty or more children
(instead of letters, the childrens names would be on the card). Marks are based on
how much the children say of relevance, how well it was said, how they reacted to
what others said, how enjoyable it was, and so on. Each assessed category is given
a mark out of five: a mark of 3 in a factor indicates satisfactory, 5 is excellent
while 1 is extremely poor. Some children speak readily and accurately, but with
an awful accent; others say little, but say it well. The individual scores can be
entered onto a card like this:
Candidate
Message
Accuracy
Fluency
Comprehensibility
Total/20

Testing reading comprehension is, perhaps, the easiest skill of all to evaluate
and the teacher has plenty of interesting formats to choose between. Here are some
of them: true/false items offer a very reliable way of testing a childs reading
comprehension. Completion items are useful in testing a childs ability to
understand a reading text as well as recalling information. They can range from
one-word completion answers to the completion of sentences: reading texts with

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blanks or texts followed by summaries with blanks. Split sentences are simple to
produce and the chances against guessing correctly are very low indeed if the
teacher has twenty or more items. There is no point in making the children write
out the sentences; it is wasteful of the teachers time as well as theirs. They simply
write the appropriate letter of the completion against the number of the stimulus.
Reading comprehension can also be assessed by asking learners to identify the
order of scrambled sentences, taken from one paragraph.
Testing writing skills can be made through error-recognition items, rearrangement and changing words.
When testing children through error-recognition items, the teacher can use
the errors his/her children make in their homework or compositions. In rearrangement tests, the students are required to unscramble sentences: they must
write out each sentence, putting the words and phrases in their correct order. This
kind of tests are useful for testing an awareness of the order of adjectives, the
position of adverbs, inversion and several other areas of grammar.
By requiring children to re-arrange sentences, the teacher encourages them
to pay careful attention to such grammatical markers as connectives and pronouns.
Changing words tests require children to put verbs into their correct tense.
In the case of the written tests the teacher can use marking grids. Normally
the grids are designed to give a round maximum total, taking into account the
appropriateness of the content, the choice and spelling of words, sentence
structure, etc. Each factor has a maximum of 5 marks, as it is shown in the table
below:
Marks
Vocabulary/spelling
Sentence structures
Cohesion
Task fulfillment

7.7. Continuous assessment is a procedure which enables teachers to assess over a

period of weeks or months those aspects of a childs performance which cannot
normally be assessed as satisfactorily by means of tests. For example, continuous
assessment could be used to measure childrens work in groups and their overall
progress as shown in class. It also includes marks or grades for homework as well
as scores on classroom tests.
Most children like continuous assessment, but it may still be stressful if the
teacher does not handle it carefully. There will usually be less stress, for example,
if teachers tell their children that their worst three assignments will not be taken
into account in awarding a final score or grade.
Continuous assessment enables teachers to take into account certain qualities
that cannot be assessed in any other way: namely, effort, persistence and attitude.
The following table provides an example of a teachers attempt to grade
children according to their persistence and determination in learning English:

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5
4
3

2
1

Most persistent and thorough in all class and homework assignments.

Interested in learning and keen to do well.
Persistent and thorough on the whole. Usually works well in class
and mostly does homework conscientiously. Fairly keen.
Not too persistent but mostly tries. Average work in class and does
homework (but never more than necessary). Interested on the whole
but not too keen.
Soon loses interest. Sometimes tries but finds it hard to concentrate
for long in class. Sometimes forgets to do homework or does only
part of it.
Lacks interest. Dislikes learning English. Cannot concentrate for
long and often fails to do homework.

Children can be directly involved in the assessment process by filling in a

questionnaire:
Look at these questions. Think about them carefully. Draw a
circle around the number you want. 1 means Not at all. 6 means
Very much or very good. Numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 are in between.
How interesting do you find this topic?
Do you like learning English songs?
The course book?
Stories in English?
Working together?
How good are you at speaking English?
Reading English?
Writing English?
Understanding English?

123456
123456
123456
123456
123456
123456
123456
123456
123456

Or the children can be involved by simply orally commenting on their own

learning, in response to questions in discussion. The answers will give the teacher
valuable insight into the childrens perceptions of their own learning.
A quick note in the teachers record book of which children were successful
and which had difficulty in each activity, will identify the range of ability within
the group. It will also help the teacher to plan a sensible course in the future,
refining the match between language needs and the childrens conceptual levels:
Childrens names

Activity A

Activity B

Activity C

Maria

++

too noisy

Paul

- present
continuous

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Such records are invaluable for report writing and as a basis for discussion
with parents. They enable the teacher to remember, for example, that child X, who
scores low in lexical terms is the acknowledged group leader in problem-solving.
A much rounder picture of the child is made available and strengths upon which
the teacher can build are identified. More effective planning and more successful
task/child matches should follow.
A briefer record sheet might be preferred. Each child in the group is named
and a short comment or an indication of the childs degree of success added:
Activity

Date

Make a
group story

Successes

Difficulty

Maria good
Paul verb
sense of story
confusion
structure

Language
needs

Comments

Revise present
simple 3rd
person singular
with all

Clara needs more

extension get
activity ready for
her

These abbreviated reflections would serve as a reminder to the teacher of

specific responses and as a planning aid.
If the teacher wishes to keep a systematic record of the way his/her children
do during games, he/she might use a monitoring sheet. This should not be too
elaborated just a few columns giving general headings under which to group the
errors, with one column left to write in the childrens names or an indication that
the error is one of general relevance. Here is a suggested layout for such a sheet:
Game
Name

Class
Date
Lexis

Syntax

Pronunciation

Language
occurring
frequently
It is a good idea to write down the names of the games from which the
teacher gets the information, as the monitoring sheet will then serve another
purpose. As well as being a record of deficiencies, the teacher can collect useful
information about the type of language each game does in fact elicit. When looking
through the monitoring sheet, the teacher may realize that a particular game could
be used for a language point that he/she had never connected with it before.
Student self-evaluation is an important means of continuous assessment.
Children are asked to assess themselves each week or month according to the most
appropriate grades listed on a simple form. The children then show their teacher
their forms at the end of the week or month and briefly discuss their results
individually with the teacher. Whenever possible, the teacher can compare his/her

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own grades with the grades which the children have awarded themselves. Each
individual interview will usually take no more than one or two minutes except in
rare cases where there is a great discrepancy between a childs self-appraisal and
the teachers own view.
The self-evaluation may include all the skills, reflecting all the learning that
has taken place. Or it may concentrate on only one skill or area of language,
depending on the type of course given. The forms are kept as simple and short as
possible. Here is an example of a form that could be used for self-evaluation of
listening skills:
5
4
3
2
1

I understood everything the first time. All my answers to the exercises

were correct.
I understood almost everything the first time and found it easy after
repetition.
I understood a lot the first time and almost everything after repetition. I
got a few wrong answers.
I understood a lot after repetition but I still have a few doubts. I got several
wrong answers.
I found it difficult to understand even after repetition. Most of my answers
were wrong.

7.8. Conclusion. In order to develop confidence in the children, teacher-to-child

feedback should always be supportive and positive. In closed activities, the
children can assess their own achievements by matching their results with the
predicted outcome, while the teacher keeps an overview of their competence and
progress. The language focus of the lesson can be tested orally or in writing,
depending on the age and ability of the children. Testing, however, is only
encouraging to those who do best. For some children poor test scores can signal
the beginning of the end of their motivation.
The teacher needs therefore to balance testing with assessment based on
classroom observations. Levels of confidence and fluency can best be measured by
listening in to the childrens interchanges. Levels of motivation, attitudes to
problem-solving and overall development can also be noted. Through regular,
informal tests, teachers obtain feedback for themselves and the children on the
efficiency of the teaching and learning process.
Teachers should try to evaluate all the skills, in isolation and by means of
mixed skill tests. Where they face pressures of time, it helps if listening and
reading tests are in the multiple choice format, with a preprinted answer paper.
Written and oral tests have to be marked by impression if creativity is not to
be stifled. There can be a pass-fail criterion or the teacher can design a simple
marking grid to reduce subjectivity. Oral tests can be conducted more
communicatively as well as more quickly if they are done in small groups.
Teaching and testing are two inseparable aspects of the teachers task. In
spite of the current reluctance to profit from the latter, this chapter contends that

76

testing has an essential role in the development of the childrens communicative

competence. The brief nature of the study does not allow for an exhaustive
description of progress testing. Our intention is to encourage teachers to read more
on the subject and to try some of the suggestions given.

CHAPTER EIGHT. ROLE OF FUN ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING

ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS

The goal of this chapter is not to provide teachers with lyrics and games to
teach their children in class. But to show them how all these well-known games,
songs or rhymes can be used in order to create new learning situations, to put the
childrens imagination to work and have benefits while they play and have fun.
It is a commonplace that young children learn better through play. Or at least
can be induced to go along with teaching that is tempered by fun activities, that is
all those activities that involve play and enjoyment and that are the object of a
teaching approach particularly suitable for the four to eleven year old children.
This approach concentrates on games, puzzles, verses, stories, competitions,
quizzes and simple dramatizations, together with songs and music, drawing,
colouring, clapping hands, chanting rhymes, model-making and other pre-artistic
activities of various kinds. In such an approach, language use would be much less
tightly controlled. The excessively strict control of language is, in our opinion, the
main reason for the dull and uninteresting nature of much primary language
teaching material.
In this chapter we are going to analyze two types of such fun activities
games in the first place and then rhymes and songs.
8.1. GAMES.
8.1.1. Definition. Games provide contexts for play, reasons for playing and
routines for playing. They are activities governed by rules, which set up clearly
defined goals. These are motivating and provide the purpose of the game. The
achievement of these goals signals the end of the game. To play a game is to enjoy
competing alone or in groups against other players, against time or against the
challenge of the game, and not to think consciously about the language involved in
doing so. In other words, games may be seen as tasks. If they successfully engage
the childrens attention, as a proper children game should, then learning will be

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supported. Ground rules must be set for how games are played. Children are
usually very concerned with fairness and with preventing others from breaking the
rules.
8.1.2. Reasons for choosing games. Children may wish to play games for fun.
Teachers, however, need more convincing reasons. They need to consider which
games to use, when to use them, how to link them up with the syllabus, textbook or
programme and how, more specifically, different games will benefit children in
different ways. Useful though the games are as time fillers, they are also effective
teaching-learning instruments and merit a proper place in a teachers lesson plans.
Other reasons for including games in the language class are:
- they focus childrens attention on specific structures, grammatical patterns and
vocabulary items;
- they can function as reinforcement, review and enrichment;
- they involve equal participation from both slow and fast learners;
- they can be adjusted to suit the individual ages and language levels of the
children in the class;
- they contribute to an atmosphere of healthy competition, providing an outlet for
the creative use of natural language in a non-stressful situation;
- they can be used in any language teaching situation and with any skill area
whether reading, writing, speaking or listening;
- they provide immediate feedback for the teacher;
- they ensure maximum children participation for a minimum of preparation.
8.1.3. The pedagogical focus of games. Games to be used must in some way be
language dependent. The specific language focus of a game could be items of
vocabulary or particular structures or functions. The language skill focus could be
any one of the major skills of listening, speaking, reading or writing, with a
narrower focus on, for example, spelling or pronunciation.
8.1.3.1. Choosing the right game. Many factors enter into deciding what is the right
game to choose for a certain class: the size of the class, the class level (elementary
or intermediate), the structures being studied at the moment, the physical space the
teacher has to work with, the noise factor (will the other classes be disturbed?), the
childrens interests, in and out of class, the equipment and materials available, the
time available for a game.
8.1.3.1.1. When to choose a game. The logical time is toward the end of the lesson.
However there is no hidebound rule about this and whenever a teacher feels it is
the appropriate moment for a more relaxing activity. That is the time for a game.
All this is relative, of course, and it will be the good judgement of the teacher that
determines the appropriate time.
It is always wise to stop playing while the children are enjoying the game
and would prefer to continue. As far as repeating a popular game is concerned,
discretion should be used. There is nothing wrong with playing a successful game

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on a later occasion but it is preferable to allow a decent interval of time before reintroducing it. Still better is the use of a different game the next time, though it
could be a variation of one that children have especially enjoyed.
8.1.3.1.2. Patterns of organization. The way in which games are organized varies a
great deal. Some games are played in pairs, some in groups, some in teams, some
with the whole class playing against the teacher or one leader. This factor may help
the teacher decide whether a game is suitable or not. Is it going to lead to
dangerous situations where learners are outside immediate control of the teacher?
Is it going to involve moving a lot of furniture? Are frequent changes of place
going to disrupt the class? Is it going to lead to noisy, excited competition between
teams?
The pattern of organization has clear implications for the sort of language
activity that a game will engender and is controlled by the rules and closure or
outcome of the game. A game played in pairs may involve more children in oral
interaction for longer than a teacher-led game.
8.1.3.1.3. Materials and equipment. Teachers may also be strongly influenced in
their choice of game by the nature of the materials needed. Computer games, board
games, card games, paper and pencil games, blackboard games, etc., the level of
materials and equipment involved varies considerably. Availability and expense
will be major factors in selection as will the effort of organizing childrens groups,
conservation and storage of materials.
8.1.3.1.4. Ludic principles. The ludic principles or playing spirit that are the heart
of many games may help a teacher to turn a textbook-led language exercise into a
game. They may derive from a number of elements that give a game its particular
tone:
the element of luck: on the whole, children like games which have an element of
luck because it can add to the excitement and reduces the socially divisive
nature of clever games. For the teacher with a wide range of ability in the
class, an element of luck is very important in a game. Games entirely dependent
on skill have the tiresome habit of producing the same few winners repeatedly
and thereby rapidly reducing the level of involvement of the majority of the
players. Games with a powerful element of chance include guessing games,
games with a dice or randomly dealt cards;
the element of competition: one game may be driven by competition between
players. Many games are purely competitive and winning may be the perceived
objective of an individual, a group or a team. With children it is important for
winning to come everyones way at some point in order to maintain
involvement and enthusiasm. Using teams and groups also helps to reduce the
individual pressures of competition;
the element of co-operation: players need to co-operate with each other in order
to compete against the challenge that the game sets up. Co-operation in a game
therefore encourages verbal negotiation;

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the element of uncertainty is caused by demands made on memory. Many

games are based on the fact that the players memories will fail at some stage.
The excitement comes from the challenge of uncertainty!
8.1.3.1.5. Conclusion. In brief, in deciding which games to use, a teacher has to
bear in mind a number of points. Does the game focus on appropriate language
items and skills? Can it be organized within the classroom? Are materials available
or could they be made? Are the children going to find the degree of
competitiveness or co-operation stimulating? Is the balance between skill and luck
right for the class? Are the children at a stage where they will benefit from
familiarization through repetition? Do they need the stimulation of situations
where they have to struggle a little but which are fun because of the challenge, and
can they cope with them?
The questions are many but may be quickly dealt with by the teacher who
has begun to use games as a teaching technique and resource.
The teacher also has to catch the mood of the class. For example, when
children are tired or need cheering up, or the end of the school year is near, the
teacher may use songs. In this way he/she will be able to teach as much without
their realizing it, as when he/she presses them to learn.
8.1.4. Classification of games. Two characteristics of the games are to be taken
into consideration: on one hand, the type of language and skill that are the focus of
one particular game. On the other hand, it is the manner in which children are
going to learn the language or use a certain skill that counts.
Games that could be used in teaching English to young learners are in great
number. We are going to describe only a few of them (the ones that we ourselves
used successfully in class) for each category mentioned, as we have already
specified that the purpose of this chapter is to help beginner teachers in using
games.
8.1.4.1. After the type of language and skill, games may be classified as it follows:
8.1.4.1.1. Vocabulary games give the children an opportunity to practise many of
the high-frequency words and expressions they have learned:
observe and remember tests the childrens ability to observe and remember
while reinforcing the vocabulary of high-frequency. The teacher only needs a
variety of small, easily identifiable objects (pen, pencil rubber, watch, key,
button, etc). The number of items, as well as the items themselves, should be
appropriate to the language level of the class. The teacher will place the objects
on his/her desk in front of the class. The children will be asked to look at them
for a certain length of time and then spell out or write down the names of as
many objects as they can remember (at this point the teacher has to cover the
objects or remove them from view. In the end the teacher uncovers the objects
and allows children to check their answers. Or, he/she may hold up each
individual item and have the children identify them in turn;

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the A to Z party is an excellent game for practising the vocabulary of food

items. The children may remain at their desks or be arranged in a circle. They
must imagine they have just been to a big party at which a variety of food items
were served. Going around the classroom, each child, in turn, is to tell what he
ate at the party (the tense of the verb to eat may be changed in accordance
with the level of the class). The teacher begins by modelling the example
sentence At the party I had apple pie. The only rule is that each child must
repeat all the previously mentioned food items and add a new one beginning
with the next letter of the alphabet. The first time the game is played, it is a
good idea to place pictures used while teaching in front of the children. To
make the game move more rapidly, instead of repeating all the items previously
mentioned, the child can add only the new item, although the repetition does
help him/her learn new vocabulary.
8.1.4.1.2. Number games. One of the first things that children learn to do is count,
which means they are able to play simple and enjoyable number games very early
in their language learning experience:
bingo: each player has a card with boxes. There can be as many boxes as the
teacher wishes but five across and four down will usually be enough. The
children are instructed to fill their card with random numbers, but it is best if
this is done in a prescribed way, working from low numbers at the top to the
higher numbers lower down. This enables players to find the numbers the
teacher calls more quickly. It helps if the teacher instructs them to write any
number between 1 and 10 in the first row, 11 and 20 in the second and so on.
The choice of numbers depends on the level of the class. The teacher
himself/herself will need a sheet of paper with all numbers on it, to tick the
numbers as he/she calls them in quite random order. The children cross off the
numbers on their own cards. There are two winners for each game. The first
child to cross out all the numbers in any one line across the card calls Bingo!.
He/she then calls back the numbers crossed out as a check. This winner gets a
small prize, such as a sweet. The second winner is the first person to have all
the numbers called. He/she signals the fact by shouting out Full House!. The
full house winner gets somewhat better prize, perhaps a pencil;
count again is a useful two-minute filler that can be used for warm-up or even
introduced halfway through the lesson for variety. The teacher gives the class
one digit. The class counts aloud from that number, in unison. After a few
numbers the teacher claps his/her hands and the class stops. The teacher calls a
new number and the class immediately begins counting from that point. The
game becomes more difficult if the children are required to count by twos, or to
replace every third number by the word buzz.
8.1.4.1.3. Spelling games. English being the diverse language that it is, spelling is
often difficult to foreign learners, so spelling games prove to be of great help. Here
are some examples:

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secret messages practises both numbers and the alphabet. Each letter is given
an agreed number, but it is not necessary to work from a=1 to z=26 each time.
The teacher can stipulate any combination. Once he/she has put the message
into the agreed code, he/she then calls out the numbers. A space between two
words is marked by the word zero. For example, the teacher might code the
message Give me a red pen! and the first child to obey would get the prize:
14 18 9 10 zero 26 10 zero 2 zero 17 10 8 zero 21 10 25
G I V E
M E
A
R E D
P E N
word building is a good way to practise spelling. A long word is written on
the blackboard and the class is given a fixed time, say two minutes, in which to
write as many other words as possible, using only the letters of the original
word. This can be an individual task or a pair work one. For example, working
from the word aeroplane, the class might find real, pen, ran, an, plan, panel,
learn. The scoring is not one point for one word. A point is won only for a word
which no other child has found;
card scrabble: the teacher has to make a pack of letter cards, which should be
about the same size as playing cards. They can be used for years as an everready warm-up or time filler and are easily carried. Through playing, the class
engages in vocabulary revision and spelling practice. One card for each letter of
the alphabet is not appropriate. Some letters occur less frequently than others.
In English the letter frequency is as below:
No of cards

Letters

A E N T

4
3

I O R S
C D F H P L

2
1

B G M U W Y
J K Q V X Z

The teacher should make up the numbers shown for each letter, giving a pack
of 72 cards for the 26 letters. To play, one child shuffles the pack and draws
seven cards. The seven letters are written on the board. The children work in
pairs to build as many words as possible from the letters. After a check (in
which the winners are those who discover words that nobody else thought of),
the teacher has only to draw one more card. With just one new letter added to
the seven, a new range of possibilities is opened up for word creation. The
game continues in this way after each check, with a new letter being added
each time. This gives the teacher total control over timing;
Anything to declare? This is a question asked by custom officers. The
traveller has to declare what is in his/her luggage. The children are supposed to
avoid mundane objects, and declare items that might conceivably interest the
officer. The game can be played in alphabetic order, or without such a control:
Teacher: Have you anything to declare?

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Child 1: Ive got this alligator.

Teacher: And you? Anything to declare?
Child 2: Only an alligator and a boomerang.
(cat, dog, explosives, fish, gun, etc.);
letter chains is a good activity for training spelling. The children have to
identify the last letter of a word and give another word beginning with the same
letter. It is best played in teams so that they can attempt to trap each other.
There should be a time limit of 5 seconds for a response to be made. The chain
will be like this: cow, white, elephant, teacher, ring, gap, etc.
8.1.4.1.4. Structure games. Perhaps the most instructive language learning games
are those that emphasize specific grammatical structures. They not only practise
basic structures but do so in a pleasant, easy way that allows the children to forget
they are drilling grammar and to concentrate on having fun:
turn left, turn right is a game that provides children with an opportunity to
follow explicit directions and commands using a physical action game. This is a
good game for a large room, although it can also be played outside, but
wherever it is played there should be lots of obstacles. Assuming that in most
cases it will be played inside, chairs and tables can be rearranged. The teacher
chooses a child to be It who leaves the room while the others rearrange it. When
they are ready they call It who is blindfolded. Standing just inside the door, It
waits for directions. The other players, now lined up against one of the walls,
have already agreed on a goal that it is to reach. In turn, each child tells It what
to do, step by step. If It follows directions carefully, he/she should be at his/her
destination by the time the final player has given his/her direction. It should not
reach his/her goal before the last person has told him/her what to do, however.
If this happens, the child responsible becomes It. Each player gives only one
instruction: Turn right, Take two steps, etc. When It finally reaches the
destination (a chair should be placed there for him/her to sit in), he/she takes off
the blindfold, gives it to the new It and goes to the end of the line;
noughts and crosses or tic-tac-toe enables the teacher to ensure practice of
specific language context in an amusing way. The class is divided into two
teams: one represents the noughts (0) and the other the crosses (X). The teacher
puts the following on the board:
this

never

running

their

cant

are

isnt

play

can

The team selects the square it wishes to play for, and a member of the team has
to say a sentence using the word in that square. If the sentence is correct, the
square is filled with a nought or a cross, depending on the team the player
comes from. The game can be adapted to any language the teacher wished to

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have practised. The squares could all contain question words or modal
auxiliaries, frequency adverbs, etc. More fun can be added if the teacher brings
in the game on a card and the squares are all covered. The children select a
square the teacher uncovers and the team has to make a sentence with whatever
is underneath;
teapot is an ideal game to practise and use a wide variety of verbs, by
guessing each item through yes/no questions. One of the children is chosen to
be It and is sent out of the room. The other children agree on a verb (simple
verbs should be chosen at first). Then It returns and goes round the group
asking yes/no questions, using the word teapot to take the place of the
unknown verb. For example Do I teapot with my hand? Is teapoting
running?, etc.
8.1.4.1.5. Conversation games serve as ice breakers and provide a necessary step
between controlled and free conversation, a major goal in language teaching:
Dont you remember? is a memory test and vocabulary building game, as well
as a basis for controlled-to-free conversation. The teacher needs wall charts or
poster-sized pictures. He/she shows them to the class but only for a few
seconds. The wall chart or picture is then removed and the children are
instructed to write down or give orally all the objects they can remember. The
child with the most words wins the game. One variation is to have the children
write down or give orally only those words beginning with a certain letter.
Another variation is to ask the children specific questions about the wall chart
or the picture;
Chinese whispers is a game that improves speaking and listening
comprehension skills. The children are seated in a circle and the teacher
whispers a word, a phrase or a sentence (it depends on the level of the class) in
the first childs ear, but only once. Then that child whispers what he/she thinks
he/she heard in the ear of the mate to his/her right, and so on around the circle.
The last child announces aloud what was repeated to him/her. The teacher then
provides the original message. There is little connection between the original
message and the one that the last child speaks out loud. Sometimes it is fun to
go around the class, once the game is finished, and have each child tell what
he/she thought he/she had heard;
Have you noticed? stimulates discussion through the use of provocative
questions. The children will have to answer questions after seeing a poster for a
couple of minutes.
8.1.4.1.6. Writing games offer practice in this difficult skill, as well as enjoyment:
crazygrams provide written practice through the use of imaginative telegrams.
The teacher writes ten letters (or less) on the blackboard, without repetition, and
divides the class into teams. The first child of each team takes a piece of paper
and writes a word beginning with the first letter on board, then folds the paper,
so that what he/she has written couldnt be seen, and passes the paper to the

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person on his/her right, who has to write the next word beginning with the next
letter on board and so on. In most cases the results will be nonsensical. The
teacher might help children, telling them if they are to give a noun, a verb, an
adjective, etc., in this way: You have to use now something like happy.
He/she has to be careful not to supply an example that begins with the letter on
the blackboard;
analogies help children make comparisons in English. In advance, the teacher
will have to prepare a list of analogies suitable to the language level of his/her
class, with one word of the comparison missing in each sentence:
Puppy is to dog as kitten is to _______.
A page is to a book as a room is to a _______.
Then the teacher hands out the list to each child, allowing them time to work
their answers. He/she checks up by getting the children read their analogies
aloud.
8.1.4.1.7. Role play is useful for generating free expression and the feeling of
spontaneity in the language classroom. The game we might call situations
provide an opportunity for free conversation based on an imaginative role play
situation. The teacher prepares a variety of situations, perhaps in conjunction with
some recently studied ones, such as going shopping, seeing a doctor, etc. and
writes them on slips of paper, making numbered duplicate copies of each. Then
he/she puts them in a box and shakes them up. Each child picks a slip out of the
box and then looks for the person with the same number. When everyone has
found his/her partner they sit down and look over the situation together and decide
how they are going to act it out. The notes on the paper are only suggestions and
the children should be encouraged to change them in any way they feel will be an
improvement. After a period of time set by the teacher, the first pair comes to the
front of the classroom and acts out the situation, then the second, and so on. At the
end of the activity the children vote on which pair has done the best job. It would
also be a good idea for the teacher, at the end of the class, to comment on some of
the errors made.
8.1.4.2. After the manner in which children learn the language or use a certain
skill, games may be classified as it follows:
8.1.4.2.1. Games in which language is learned by heart:
Simon says is a listening game that is suitable for the classroom but is even
better in a larger space. Children not only have to understand the commands
(Simon says Stand up!). They must only obey commands which are
prefixed by Simon says. The teacher can do this in class with nondisruptive commands like Touch your nose!, but in a gym or playground in
which children can run around, he/she can add extra commands. Anyone who
does the wrong thing the wrong action in response to a Simon says
command or who acts in response to a command without Simon says is out.
This game uses a range of language including the function of giving

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instructions, imperatives and vocabulary for parts of the body. The teacher can
use it as consolidation of the language items or as listening practice;
spelling bee focuses on whatever vocabulary items the teacher selects. It is
played in two teams and a questioner. Both teams stand up. The questioner asks
one player at a time (alternating between teams) to spell a word. If the player
succeeds, he/she remains standing. In case of failure, he/she sits down. The
losing team is the one where everyone is sitting down first. The skills involved
are very restricted listening and speaking with all the emphasis on accuracy
of spelling. The teacher can uses it as vocabulary development, or listening or
spelling practice;
Whats the time, Mr Wolf?, a native-speaker game in which children chant the
title phrase while cautiously circling a wolf, certainly helps fix the Whats
the time? structure. The wolf in his/her turn has to repeat innocuous times
such as three oclock or ten oclock, but every now and then bursts forth
with Its tea/dinner time, which is the signal to chase the sheep. If a sheep
is caught, he/she becomes the wolf. This game needs space but it serves a
good purpose and may be played in break-time once children are familiar with
it;
I went to market and I bought is a quieter, more language-orientated game.
The first child says one item (for example some apples), the next child lists
the apples and adds an item of his/her own. The third child repeats the sentence,
lists the items already mentioned, then adds one, and so on round the class.
There can be a penalty for forgetting items on the list or getting them in the
wrong order. A player may be declared out or lose a life, but often it works
just as well if the class co-operates, prompting the speaker who forgets, to see
how many items can be remembered corporately. The game can be adapted for
all levels, replacing I went to market and I bought, which may be too long or
too difficult (the children should know how to form the past tense) with
something shorter and easier (I like, I have got , etc.). Concentration,
close listening and memory strategies are amongst the general educational
benefits this game may promote.
8.1.4.2.2. Games in which language is picked up:
Telling stories to children can result in natural language acquisition on their
part, but one needs to be careful about the type of story used. Well-known
universal fairy stories might be a good starting point. The children would probably
know the story in their own language and would be able to follow it better as a
result. The older ones might appreciate knowing that many of their own stories
existed in the English culture too.
Frequent change of scene and a wide range of vocabulary involved must be
avoided when choosing a story for the class. Remember that children have nothing
to do while the story is being told, so they might get bored very easily. But the
good news is that there is another category of universal stories, the ones where part

86

of the fun is for the children to predict the next step and join in. Here are two
examples.
The Great Big Enormous Turnip is a Russian folk tale that can be found in
many versions. Basically, it concerns a poor farmer who planted a turnip seed.
The seed did very well. The farmer, being hungry, decided to cook it for supper
for his family, but he could not pull it up. One by one he called members of his
family: wife, son, daughter, the dog, the cat and finally a tiny mouse who tips
the balance and up comes the turnip which is promptly eaten by all. In a story
like this, the children quickly recognize the repeated bits, and with
encouragement from the teacher they will begin to join in. This story bears
retelling and acting out. The lengthening line of pullers can also be drawn. A
modern version could be about a line of people pushing a car which will not
start;
Chicken Licken is another traditional story in which a panicky chicken who
thinks the sky is falling meets more and more friends on his way to tell the
king. The list of friends grows, until they all meet the final friend, Foxy
Loxy, who takes advantage of the situation, leads them all into his hole and eats
the lot of them. Phrases such as Good morning, Chicken Licken. Where are
you going? or 'They all went down the road to find the King' recur every time a
new friend is met.
Teachers would not expect a young child to learn the whole story off and
retell it, though many can repeat much of it. These pre-fabricated phrases, learned
from an enjoyable and active experience, often stick. They can be reused
spontaneously by a child either in a situation which calls for them, or as a source of
language data from which the brightest and most creative may make
generalizations and cause the children come out with phrases of their own. For
example instead of He pulled and pulled but he could not pull it up a child could
say I looked and I looked, but I could not find it.
8.1.4.2.3. Games in which language is used in a creative manner. Some games
allow more creative use of the language, where new utterances can be produced
by the child:
I spy involves a lot of language practice and revising of vocabulary relating to
items in the classroom, as well as spelling. The first player stands at the front,
silently selects a visible item and declares I spy with my little eye something
beginning with letter . The other children make suggestions: Is it a ?
Whoever guesses correctly changes places with the player at the front and so
on;
Find the difference is well known: two players have two similar but not
identical pictures and (without looking at the others person picture) have to ask
each other or tell each other about their own picture to discover a certain
number of differences, as in the following example:

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This is an example of a game framework that needs planning by the teacher

to be sufficiently targeted to what children can say and to a particular area of
language. Differences can be made in several ways. The two pictures could
simply contain different sets of objects and in this case the expected language
might be Have you got a ?, I can see a . If the focus of the lesson is
prepositions or location, the pictures might contain the same objects but in
different spatial relations, for example 'on the right of the house...', on the left
...', etc. The same objects with different colours could be used to practise
colour words. Making the pictures for such games seem a lot of work, but the
children can do it themselves. Once they are familiar with the game
framework, the teacher can put up on the board a list of objects for them to
choose from and ask each child to draw his/her own secret picture in his/her
exercise book and then use it to play the game with a partner.
8.1.4.2.4. Games in which language is learned from conceptual engagement.
Many intelligence test puzzle-type games also involve language use, or can be
made to do so by requirement that the answer is expressed in English:
clock faces: a simple reinforcement of time language involves giving children
a series of pictures of clock faces:
11 12 1
10
9
8

11 12 1
2
3
4

7 6 5

10
9
8

11 12 1
2
3
4

7 6 5

10
9
8

11 12 1
2
3
4

7 6 5

10
9
8

11 12 1
2
3
4

7 6 5

10
9
8

2
3
4
7 6 5

In each face the time advances by a fixed number of minutes, quarters of hours
or half hours according to the stage in the course. The final clock face is left
blank and the children have to fill in the correct time completing the sequence.
Then they write or say it in English. Number progressions can be used in the
same way;

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word sets: putting words into categories can produce useful vocabulary
revision. Children are given a grid of small pictures showing objects they know
the names of and a number of place headings, as in the following example:

The children are asked, alone or in pairs, to list or draw under each heading the
things they might expect to see in each place. Many objects could be found in
more than one place, and such cross-categorization not only means that they
will repeat the vocabulary items several times but that they will also think
about what is plausible in real situations. For example, a chair will obviously
be found in a kitchen, but it might also be seen in a living room or in a
bedroom. Justifications for such choices may be made in the native language if
necessary, since at least part of the objective of this activity is to develop
lateral thinking, which goes beyond the expression of this thinking in English;
Picture dominoes is a game that demands both lateral and logical thinking,
together with an expression of that thinking in English. Children have to put a
set of different picture cards into a chain in which each card has some link with
the one next to it:

89

The links may be obvious (They are both green/both plants) or they can be the
product of an individual childs imagination or opinion (They both hate the
rain/They are both ugly). The main point is that the link must be expressed in
English before the move can be made. This game can be played using the
normal rules of dominoes (one domino per turn, the first player to finish is the
winner) but it works just well or even better if children co-operate in building
up the most satisfying chain, helping each other with ideas and language;
finding your own categories: more formal categorization activities might
involve splitting a list of words or images into sub-sections of, for example
domestic and wild animals, drinks and
food, or putting names for family
relationships onto a family tree diagram.
The teacher may use the picture on the
right, where the children have to recognize
and write the words under two headings:
fruit and vegetables. A freer, more
personalized activity of the same sort
would be to give children a mixed list of
words and leave them to find their own categories (for example Food I like,
Food I dont like, Words beginning with t, Colour words, etc.) as in the
next figure:
FIND YOUR OWN CATEGORIES FOR THESE WORDS:

In this way, children could compare their results and learn from their fellows.

8.1.4.2.5. Games through which informal language is acquired with puzzles and
making activities. Some activities in which the child plays with or through the
language provide him/her with an informal way of looking at the form or the
system of the language itself. Many of the activities in this category are perhaps
too much despised, because they look too simple and too much like the sort of
puzzle children enjoy in real life:
a word chain in which the children have to separate out words from a string of
letters that are not separated is similar in function:

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a find the word grid may

look easy and trivial but it
can
train
children
to
recognize English spelling
patterns. If the words are all
of one category, such a grid
could reinforce categorization
skills. In the figure on the
right the children will have to
identify parts of the body and
sports. With beginners, the
teacher could provide the list
of the words that are to be
find in the grid: shoulders,
hand, leg, hair, head, mouth, foot, eye, nose, neck, ear, sport, basketball, ski,
baseball. In order to increase the challenge, the teacher might add self
evaluation: for 15 words discovered in a minute the children get excellent, for
10 good, for 5 not bad;
a dot-to-dot puzzle where the numbers are given as words or as letters of the
alphabet can provide useful reinforcement for number and letter work:
one

two

ten

nine

eight

three

four

six
seven

five

There is an additional language acquisition if the child then has to write under
the solved puzzle This is a star;
colouring puzzles, where the colours are
given as codes, for example R = red, can be
absorbing and exercise recognition and use of
colour words. A more simple idea is to mark
only certain parts of a drawing with dots; the
children will have to colour those parts and
find a hidden object. In the example on the
right, they will have to name the present they
are going to offer their mother/father/grandmother. The conversation will
develop easily as, after finishing colouring, the teacher can ask children what
the colour of their present is and why they chose that particular colour. A more

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taxing version is a puzzle picture in which children are told Colour all the
small triangles red, and all the big circles green. What can you see?;
model-making can be dangerously close to general artwork, with no linguistic
base, if the instructions are too easy and obvious. If, however, the teacher gives
oral instructions for making, for example, a simple puppet key holder, as the
children watch and imitate they will be motivated to listen closely and perhaps
to interrupt when a step is not clear. The motivation here is provided by the
end-result they will want to make the toy for their mothers keys:

Simple models like this can be found in many primary school resource books
as well as in origami books. The teacher has to choose something simple to
make and spectacular in appearance or performance and he/she will not go
wrong. With very simple models he/she can give written instructions,
supported by clear diagrams, as a start to reading for information;
collage-making: a pleasant vocabulary revision activity is to make a collage
based on a theme. Children can work in pairs or groups to create elements of it.
They will certainly remember the word for their object in English, and the
hand-and-eye training is of undoubted general educational value.
8.1.5. Conclusion. Children play, want to play and learn through playing. In
playing together, children interact and in interacting they develop language skills.
These are facts a good teacher will remember and take into account when
developing teaching strategies.

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For the young learner, motivation deriving from factors outside the
classroom, such as parental and social attitudes, is likely to be weaker than that
created by events in the classroom itself. Children need to be involved and even
excited in order to learn effectively. Games can be motivating. The discriminating
use of games in the young learners classroom can help in creating, on a small
scale, opportunities for involvement and excitement, for achievement and success.
And children who are eager to take part in playing a well-chosen game will want to
master the language necessary for doing so.
Unlike most learning activities, games can be as short or as long as the
teacher wishes, so they are easily fitted into any lesson plan. This gives the teacher
lots of flexibility. For example, when planning a listening or reading lesson, the
teacher may find that he/she needs only half of the full lesson time. The teacher
can now choose areas of vocabulary for enjoyable review or even present and
playfully practise an entirely new but potentially useful structure. In this way,
lessons become less predictable. Variety enhances the interest of the learning
process.
8.2. RHYMES AND SONGS learned by heart have less controlled language but
may give the child access to language chunks that he/she can incorporate into
general language use. In the best of possible cases songs and rhymes learned by
heart may form part of a childs linguistic data-base from which generalizations
may be made.
8.2.1. Motivation for choosing songs and rhymes. Teachers should not forget
that singing or reciting is an exceptional teaching tool: in fact, the children will
take rhymes and songs outside the classroom and will go on performing them long
after the lesson has finished, purely for their own pleasure. They are unforgettable.
Unlike drills, which usually slip from the childrens minds as soon as they leave
the classroom, songs and rhymes can last a lifetime. They provide a bridge
between the classroom and home, as the children chant the rhymes and sing the
songs they learn in class to their parents. And all teachers must encourage children
to do so.
Rhymes and songs proved to be invaluable aids in developing the childrens
listening skills and encouraging extensive and intensive learning. There are many
advantages to using them in the classroom: they present new vocabulary and
expressions in context, allowing the children to pick-up words, pronunciation and
other elements of language. They provide topics for discussion, encouraging
creativity and use of imagination. The teacher can also use them to reinforce the
structures that the children already know, to revise already known vocabulary, to
practise good, rhythmical phrasing.
Most children enjoy listening to songs or chanting rhymes since they are a
break from the textbook and workbook routine, providing a relaxed classroom
atmosphere and bringing variety and fun to both teaching and learning. Mastering
songs and rhymes gives the children the feeling of success that is so important to
language learning.

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8.2.2. Criteria for choosing rhymes and songs. The main difficulty in using
rhymes and songs as teaching aids lies in choosing the most suitable ones among
the variety of those available. The teacher must choose carefully the song or rhyme
to be presented. Its suitability depends on how well it fulfills the purpose of
teaching new material. The lyrics should be easily discernible, the vocabulary must
be rich and varied. The teacher should choose songs that can be sung in chorus and
can be easily grasped by the students because of their catchy tunes.
We cannot put an end to this section before pointing out some difficulties
the teachers should consider when bringing songs and rhymes to class. It is
important to make sure that both machine and tape are in good condition. Nothing
is more demoralizing than a tape that cannot be understood because of poor
quality. So the teacher should not forget that tapes can become damaged and tape
recorders can have poor speakers or tone controls.
On the other hand, the good thing is that tapes are small and modern cassette
players are easily portable. There is more and more good taped material available
for children, and audio tapes serve the learning and teaching process better, as they
focus the childrens attention exclusively on spoken English, rather than on visual
contact, gesture or surrounding events.
8.2.3. Types of songs and rhymes. Every English teacher should have his/her own
list of songs and rhymes which contains the items he/she knows fairly well and
introduce them to his/her children whenever the chance arises. And now let's see
which categories are most suitable for teaching English to children:
8.2.3.1. The raps are words spoken over a musical background. They provide good
pronunciation practice because they have strong rhythm, repetition and rhymes.
Here is an example of a very easy and catchy rap children enjoy very much, The
Animal Alphabet Rap:
A's an alligator, B's a bat;
C's a camel, you know that!
D's a dolphin ABC, AA, ABC,
Rap the words along with me ..., etc.
8.2.3.2. The chants are rhythmic dialogues with rhymes. They also provide good
pronunciation practice because of their strong rhythm, and they contain stressed
words and syllables and weak forms that occur naturally in fast spoken English.
Here is a short example that can be used in class when teaching actions:
Go to the window! No, no, no!
Open the door! No, no, no!
Jump up and down! Yes, let's do it!
Let's all jump up and down!

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8.2.3.3. Songs also provide good pronunciation practice because they have strong
rhythm, repetition and rhymes. Besides all that, singing relaxes the throat and is an
excellent preparation for confident speaking.
Suitable songs include If youre happy and you know it an action
song, often sung by native speakers, in which the children do the actions suggested
in each verse. Once the basic verse has been learned, children can suggest other
actions to fit into the verse. Other actions could be turn around, wave your
arms, touch your nose, etc.
8.2.3.4. The background music is a special kind of music that could be used in
class. It generally relaxes the children, activates them, gets them to be attentive,
changes the classroom atmosphere, creates learning situations and makes the
children quiet or noisy, according to the teacher's wish.
At the beginning of a lesson, the teacher can play it softly for 5 minutes or so
because soft background music has the effect of lightening the atmosphere of the
class. During small group discussions it can relax the children and they will be able
to concentrate on their conversation, as in a quiet situation the children often feel
inhibited to speak because they know they can be heard by another group or the
teacher. When playing games like Bingo, it serves to accelerate the
competitiveness of the game. It can also serve as a signal for starting or ending a
task; by raising the volume of the background music the teacher signals the
children to begin ending their task or, by turning it off, the children learn to stop
and give the teacher their attention.
The length of time for playing background music is very important, because
playing it all the time is not effective.
The background music should be selected in accordance with the teaching
activities. In general, soft, quiet and slow music is feasible for silent reading while
exciting, lively music is suited to pair work or discussions.
8.2.4. Techniques for using songs and rhymes in teaching English to children.
8.2.4.1. Theoretical approach. We are going to describe now some of the most used
techniques:
the ostensive way: the teacher illustrates the story line with pictures and mime.
This is the best approach for young learners who do not worry about
understanding every word in a text. Most songs and rhymes can be treated like
this. For example, the counting song Ten Little Indians: the teacher tells the
class they will hear a song about Indians, shows pictures of them and mentions
cowboy films. Then he/she writes the numbers 1 to 10 on the blackboard and
plays the song two or three times, pointing to the numbers as they occur in the
song. Then he/she has the class repeat line by line;
cloze texts: the teacher writes the text on the board but with key words or
phrases deleted. The children have to identify the missing words as they listen.
With easy texts the deletion rate can be quite high. For example, in teaching the
song Mary had a little lamb, the teacher presents the words lamb and fleece,

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using a small ball of wool and a picture. Then he/she writes the text on the
blackboard, indicating deleted words with a dash, like this:
___ had a little ___
Its ___ was ___ as snow.
The teacher will then say the rhyme once or twice and the listeners call out the
missing words, which are written in the gaps. The class will repeat the whole
piece;
focus questions: the teacher puts some focus questions on the blackboard or
worksheet to guide the class listening. He/she can also use inverted WHquestions. In this way the questions contain the words of the text in exactly the
order they will be heard. For example, in teaching Jack and Jill the teacher
presents the unusual vocabulary visually (e.g. pail = picture of a bucket, crown
= picture of a queen, to tumble = teacher uses gestures to show a rolling fall).
Then he/she gives questions like this: I want to tell me where Jack and Jill
went, And why they went there, And last, what happened to Jack? (the first
two questions are inverted). The teacher plays the tape or says the rhyme,
checks the answers to the questions, ensuring total comprehension, writes the
text on the board and lets the class repeat it, line by line:
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.
Finally, the class can recite the whole piece, in rhythmic unison. Then
randomly nominated learners can be asked to recite it without the support of
the text;
private study: after a fairly rapid and silent reading, the children ask for any
needed explanations. This may be done in English or the mother tongue,
depending on the level of the class. Afterwards, the piece is heard and learned
without any form of presentation and with no problems of comprehension;
disappearing texts: it is an enjoyable and challenging way to get shorter texts
learned by heart. The teacher puts the whole text on the blackboard. The
children read it as they listen. Afterwards they sing or recite it. Then, one or two
words are erased and it is sung again. More words are erased, and so on until it
can be sung with no support;
dictation is only suitable for short texts in which most of the words are already
familiar to the learners. The teacher dictates the text and corrects it publicly
before the class hears it.

8.2.4.2. Exemplification. Let us look now at some more detailed examples. We

think the English teacher should teach the children a chant at the end of each unit.
It will focus on the pronunciation and will reinforce the key words of the unit. For
instance, if colours are taught, the following chant might be chosen:
Red and yellow and blue, blue, blue...
Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue!
Red and yellow and blue, blue, blue...
Red and yellow and blue!

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Of course, there are only three colours taught here. But the children are
going to remember them very well, especially if the teacher adds some more
interesting activities, aiming to explore feelings and perceptions via music and to
show the children ways in which they can use their senses in order to understand.
The teacher must also prepare a set of coloured pencils for each child and a set of
colour flashcards. If the teacher does not possess appropriate flashcards he/she
could make some easily, adding large spots of the given colours on different pieces
of board. Then he/she must play the chant to the class and focus the children's
attention on the colours. Now it is time to show the colour flashcards and ask the
children to put them on the walls around the classroom. They must tell the teacher
which one they like best. The teacher will play the chant again and, whenever a
colour is mentioned, the children will stand under the corresponding flashcard,
doing this as many times as necessary to make sure the words are understood.
When each child can recognize the colours, the teacher hands the class the sets of
coloured pencils and, while playing the chant again, asks them to draw something
inspired by the music using the colours mentioned in the chant. Finally, the
children can share their works with the group.
The teacher might also end this activity by asking the children to compose a
similar chant. Composing chants allows the learners to be creative with the
language and to use it in meaningful, communicative ways. This kind of activity
offers the children an opportunity to have fun and to relax in the classroom while
getting useful practice in English at the same time.
Simple songs in each unit taught practise the words in context and introduce
new words and phrases.
Using the simple song below, the teacher can easily teach young learners
items of furniture, prepositions, interrogative words and the possessive case:
Where's the lamp?
On the chair. On Fizzy Fairy's chair.
Where's the chair?
On the cupboard. On Fizzy Fairy's cupboard.
Where's the cupboard?
On the table. On Fizzy Fairy's table.
Where's the table?
On the carpet. On Fizzy Fairy's carpet.
Where's the carpet?
On the bed. On Fizzy Fairy's bed.
Where's Fizzy?
Under the bed and she's OK.
In teaching such a simple song, the first listening task must focus on its
comprehension. Then the children listen again and read or sing with the taped
model. This allows the teacher to work on rhythm and stress, weak forms, word
linking, voice volume and correct pronunciation.
It will be also interesting to bring the children the karaoke version of the
song. The teacher should not expect his/her children to understand every word of

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the song. He/she must play the tape a few times and encourage them to join in as
much as they can. The children will gradually pick up the words and they can hum
or sing la-la to the parts they do not know yet. The teacher could also ask groups
of children to sing different lines, to help them become familiar with the lyrics.
In addition, the teacher might use the above drawing where the items of
furniture are placed in the exact order the song mentions them. Each child will get
a copy of the drawing and thus will be able to follow the lines as they are sung on
the tape. Next, the teacher can stop the tape and ask the children questions meant to
reinforce the new acquired vocabulary.
In order to add more fun to the song, the teacher can replace Fizzy Fairy
with the names of different children in the class.
8.2.4.3. Some guidelines for teachers. The teachers should not expect their children
to understand every word of the song; they must play the tape a few times and
encourage them to join in as much as they can. The children will gradually pick up
the words and they can hum or sing la-la to the parts they don't yet know. The
teacher can ask groups of children to sing different lines, to help them become
more familiar with the lyrics. It always helps if the teacher sings the song and
encourages all the children to join in.
Whatever technique the teacher might use, he/she should let the children
participate in a way that suits their abilities, whether that is to sing the whole chant,
to sing the key words or just do the actions. It is useful to keep up the rhythm by
tapping on the desk or clicking the fingers, encouraging the children to do the
same. Moreover, all the chants for young learners should have actions to
accompany them.
It is up to the teacher to fix the time to be devoted to singing. A whole
session can be dedicated to the learning and exploitation of the song or, on the
other hand, the whole activity can be spread over a number of sessions, devoting to
it only a part of the time.
The good news here is that there are a lot of publications which offer the
English teachers a great variety of simple songs, raps or chants for almost every
lesson in the school curriculum. For instance, the teacher can use The ABC song
when teaching the English alphabet; The Rainbow song when teaching the colours;
Ten Little Indians and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I've caught a fish alive for numbers;
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or Put Your Finger On Your Nose when the parts
of the body are to be taught; What time is it?, Tick-Tock or Calendar Song when
telling the time or talking about dates; Old McDonald, Three Little Mice or Incy
Wincy Spider when the class objective is to talk about animals, etc.
As well as being motivating, songs provide valuable recycling work. The
teacher might make a list of the songs that all the children know and name a child
to choose a song for everyone to sing at the beginning or end of every lesson.
In conclusion, songs, chants and raps can be a very significant element in a
balanced, communicative approach to language practice. Because of the rhymes,
repetition and rhythm, learning a rap, a chant or a song is easier for beginners than

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learning a piece of prose. Knowing them by heart will increase the children's oral
confidence and their ability to speak more fluently in English.
8.3. Conclusion. Using games, songs and rhymes together with other learning
methods is an efficient technique applied in order to make the children more active
and to cheer up the English classes. We also have to point out that introducing a
game, a song or a rhyme as additional material in the process of teaching English
does not break upon the school curriculum, as some of the teachers who do not
agree with this form of activity might say. On the contrary, they help to the
reinforcement of the new material meant to be taught and learnt by the children. It
is true, of course, that teachers must not exaggerate in using these fun activities.
Being only additional material in the process of teaching, they are included in the
lesson and are to be taught only in situations justified from a methodological point
of view. They can and should constitute a necessary element in solving some
problems as correction and reinforcement of some pronunciation abilities,
automatism of some structural structures, stimulation of the childrens attention
and interest for the class activities. It is common knowledge that the children who
relax and have fun while learning do learn more.
The methods presented are only a few because there is no limitation to
human creativity and it will definitely come out of the teachers' passion for
teaching.
Learning and teaching English through songs and music might be considered
a non-conventional method of studying English but, for a language teacher, we
appreciate that the most important thing is to maintain the spirit of taking risks in
order to motivate the learners. This keeps teaching exciting and facilitates learning.

CHAPTER NINE. CONCLUSIONS

It goes without saying that the purpose of this course is not to give verdicts,
as we do not consider that the methodical information presented is the unique
possibility to be followed in teaching English to young learners. The English
teachers who prove to be enthusiastic and interested in this form of activity can
enrich and improve the means discussed making use of their ingenuity and wish to
renew their work in order to obtain better results.
9.1. The job of teaching. All learners are the same. Outside class, they have a
family, friends, work, study or play, responsibilities, a place to live, and all the joys
and sorrows that come with those things. Into class, they bring with them their

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names, knowledge, experience, intelligence, skills, emotions, imagination,

awareness, creativity, sense of humour, problems, purposes, dreams, hopes,
aspirations, fears, memories, interests, prejudices, habits, expectations, likes,
dislikes, preferences, etc.
On the other hand, all learners are different because they are influenced by
their age and by their educational, social and cultural backgrounds, which they
may or may not share with their fellow children and teacher.
So, teachers must not see the learners as language learning machines. They
have to make an effort to inform themselves about them, to be sensitive to social
distinctions and try to be open to the personal needs, learning purposes and
learning styles of individuals. And above all, teachers must never forget that the
key to learning is motivation. Positive emotional involvement leads to effective
learning, so activities that deal with positive emotions are preferred.
Communication is the goal of language teaching. People learn English
because for some reason, in some way, they want to be able to communicate in
English. When this is not the case, as with schoolchildren following compulsory
courses, teachers still look for some kind of communicative goal as a way of
motivating them. Some examples would be: being able to sing the words of
favourite songs or reading the favourite story, being able to write to an English
penfriend, to understand what their favourite characters in a cartoon are saying, to
play at the computer, etc.
Any teachers success can be measured most obviously by how much his/her
children learn.
9.2. Grammar. Without grammatical awareness, a teacher may be able to slip
through awkward situations on the basis of his/her fluency and insight, but he/she
will not be in a position to give his/her children the help that they need.
A rule is a small thing to learn, but it can have big results. For example,
once the children have learnt that English makes a past tense by adding -ed to a
verb, they can make a past tense of any verb they want to, and they will almost
certainly be understood, even if that verb is an irregular one.
It is not enough simply to tell children rules. To make them more active,
teachers should give them a rule and ask them to use it in producing some
language. Or, they can give children examples of new language and then show
them what the rule is. Or, the teacher is the one that gives examples and then asks
children to work out what the rule is.
9.3. Practice. The first time the teacher tries to do something new, he/she is
unlikely to be completely successful. The same goes for language learning.
Children need an opportunity to practise new items in an organized way until they
can understand how what they have just learnt fits in with what they knew before.
Choral practice is useful for beginners because it gives them a chance to try
out something new without being listened to individually. New structures are often
presented in dialogues. By repeating the dialogue, the children can practise new
language as if it were in a real conversation.

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Drills are highly controlled exercises where the teacher gives a prompt and a
child gives a response.
The sooner practice connects with communication and personal interests, the
better.
9.4. Language skills. The skills are used in learning parts of the language. For
example, when learning a new piece of grammar or a new function, children will
listen to the teachers examples or to a taped dialogue. They will speak when they
perform the dialogue themselves or give their own examples, read the exercises
and other source material in their course book and write exercises as a way of
helping them learn and remember the new structure. There will also be a
communicative activity that involves them in integrating the skills, and where the
purpose is still to help them practise and learn a certain grammatical or functional
usage.
Reading written language out loud is not the same thing as providing
authentic listening practice.
The more children use their language skills for enjoyment, the more
language ability they are likely to acquire.
A teacher should keep in mind that reading and listening is not used to teach
texts. Texts are used to teach reading and listening.
9.5. Teaching new words. The more senses a learner can involve in learning a
word, the more likely he/she is to remember it. So, if the teacher tells the child the
name of a fruit just as he/she has bitten into it, and then he/she is holding it and
looking at it, with the taste in his/her mouth and the smell in his/her nose, there is a
very good chance that child will remember that name. Objects and pictures are
widely used in language teaching for this reason. So, when they teach, teachers
must think about how they might use the other senses as well.
The children must be encouraged to ask for words when they want to
express themselves, to keep their own vocabulary notebooks. They must be taught
how to use word cards. These are slips of paper or cardboard on which the word to
be learnt is written on one side, and a translation, a definition or an example that
shows the meaning of that word is written on the other side:

Plank

- kind of board
- The poor old woman was
sleeping on a plank bed.

The cards can be carried round and looked at any time.

Teachers must teach their children what to do when they do not know a
word. Words are very important but not every single word in every sentence has to
be understood. Children often stop reading or listening because they meet an
unfamiliar word, or they give up trying to express themselves because they cant
think of the exact word they want.
As far as reading and listening are concerned, teachers should use the
following approach to unknown words: ignore them and carry on - most probably

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the meaning will become clear, or it was not important. Later on, if a child still
wants to know what that word means, he/she can ask the teacher or use a
dictionary.
So, teachers should make sure that even from the most elementary level,
their children know how to ask What does mean?, Whats the English for
?, How do you say in English?.
The children must be taught how to use a dictionary, as this one contains a
lot of information about the language and can be a great source of independent
learning.
It is also important to develop the childrens ability to say what they want to
in another way. Three useful expressions to teach early on are:
you know a phrase for filling a pause and signalling that the speaker wants
his/her listener to co-operate;
a thing for avoiding unknown nouns, as in the example Have you got, you
know, a thing for lifting the car?;
when you for avoiding unknown verbs, as in the example I want to, you
know, when you put the eggs in oil.
A lot of the teachers work is done in raising the learners awareness of how
to learn.
9.6. Pronunciation. Even if the children are only repeating a dialogue, or
practising new structures in a drill, or using functions in an exercise, the teacher
must insist that they say their lines meaningfully.
For his/her own purposes as a teacher, a familiarity with the Phonetic
Alphabet can be helpful.
Some teachers disagree about the usefulness of teaching this alphabet to
children. They argue that children have enough problems without learning a
strange new alphabet. But, in our opinion, learning this alphabet will help children
become independent learners.
In the area of pronunciation in general, there is very little to explain. Most of
the work has to be done by listening and practice, by helping children develop a
good ear. In so doing, teachers must look out for the opportunity to use models
others than themselves, so that their children get used to a variety of pronunciation.
When a child says something well, teachers may use that child as a model and
encourage everyone to listen carefully, especially when there is no opportunity to
use tapes.
In everyday work, there are two points to keep in mind: to make the teaching
of pronunciation a constant element of the rest of the teaching and to give short but
regular bursts of treatment to aspects of pronunciation that seem particularly
important for the children.
9.7. Materials. When a teacher begins teaching, he/she will probably be given a
textbook. He/she can also probably depend on the fact that he/she will be expected
to be able to use a textbook. At this point, it is reasonable to ask How do I teach
these materials? But there is a danger in this question some teachers never escape

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of: they try to fit themselves and their children into the demands made by their
materials.
Materials exist in order to support learning and teaching, so they should be
designed to suit the people and the process involved. Where there is not the case, it
is the materials, or the use of them, which need to change.
Any English teachers purpose should not be to teach materials, but to teach
children and to use materials in that process. So, materials must be used with
enthusiasm. A negative attitude from the teacher towards the materials is strongly
de-motivating for the learners; it takes away their feelings of security and purpose.
The teacher must remember that he/she is there to help the children learn and
that they learn in many different ways. Certainly, some materials are better than
others, but just about any type of material can be used well by a committed teacher.
When a teacher is given a published textbook to use, he/she should be able
to expect that a great deal of effort has gone into making it:
attractive in terms of topics, layout and illustrations. The teacher has to check
this with the children, of course; what is attractive in one context may not be in
another;
reliable in terms of the overall choice and sequencing of what is taught, the
correctness of information, and the dependability of the exercises and activities;
user-friendly in that at least one way of using the materials is clear to the
teacher and the children, giving both of them security for class work and
homework. Wherever possible, the teacher should get a copy of the teachers
book, which will give he/she other options to consider in the use of materials.
But, on the other hand, a published book cannot provide:
insight into the interests and needs of any specific children;
decision about which materials to use and which to change, supplement or leave
out;
creativity to use the materials as the foundations of a bridge which children
cross as they learn to speak for themselves.
All these elements must be supplied by the teacher, of course.
9.8. Board. A dedicated English teacher should spend a little time practising
his/her board writing. It is a new skill at which everyone can be competent. And,
like any kind of writing, this is a form of communication. The teacher should go to
the back of the classroom and check that his/her writing is big enough, legible and
straight.
If a teacher wants to have a lot of writing on the board to use in a lesson,
he/she must see if the room is free foreword and do the writing then. It is true that
this takes up a teachers time, but it gives him/her a good, relaxed feeling for the
lesson, which is usually a fair reward. It also sets up a good atmosphere if the
teachers children find him/her there working for them as they arrive.
When the teacher is using the board in front of the children, he/she must not
let the fact pressure him/her into scribbling.

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The teacher must not be possessive about the board. He/she must encourage
children to use it, too. He/she can start a lesson by saying Come and write on the
board the first word you think of when I say picnic. Or, if there is some kind of
competition, one or two children can be at the board keeping the score.
In short, any teacher should make the board available.
9.9. Classroom. Ensuring a secure, pleasant and interesting place to work is one
good step towards successful teaching.
Many classrooms are arranged so that all children face forward to the
teacher; the message is clear: the teacher dominates, all information will come
from the teacher, interaction between or among children is less valued.
If a school has language laboratories, the teacher has to try to arrange the
furniture so that everyone can look towards the front of the class when necessary,
and everyone has a table to write on, as it is shown in the picture below:

If co-operative pair work is needed, A and B can work together. If divided

information pair work is needed, A and D can work together. If group work is
needed, A, B, C and D can work together. All of this is possible without anyone
having to move. The message is that children and teacher are flexible and will
work and communicate with different people.
If a teacher wants a class to talk about a topic all together, he/she has to try
to get the tables out of the way. The message is that children and teacher are open
to each other.
It takes an effort to get children used to the idea of moving furniture, but
with time it can be done efficiently, and a little physical movement in teachers
classes can form a natural and useful mini-break in concentration.
If a teacher teaches in a classroom where the furniture is fixed in place, the
best way to get children into groups is to have two turn round to work with a pair
sitting behind them.
9.10. Correction. The teacher must use correction to give children useful
information at the right time in the right way to encourage further learning.
We have already shown a lot of methods teachers could use to correct not
only their childrens speaking, but also their written work. One more thing should

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be added concerning this last one: that is many teachers avoid giving their children
compositions as homework. We agree that they need more time to correct them but
we also believe they need a kind of guide. So, when marking a childs
composition, the following table might be very useful:
5
Fluency
Grammar
Vocabulary
Content
Spelling

3
x

x
X
x
x

The teacher puts a cross in each appropriate square.

9. 11. Development. A good way of supporting ones development as a teacher is
to read an English language teaching magazine or journal on a regular basis.
The most effective means of development for a teacher demand some kind
of co-operation with other teachers. The most effective form of co-operation
involves attending each others classes. Because we have to recognize that teachers
work alone! One of the most terrifying words in teaching is observation: it means
having someone else in the classroom, someone who is not one of the children.
Observation has always been connected with being assessed and this introduces
tension and fear. Because of this fear, teachers do not share experiences with
colleagues and seldom really learn from each other. The single most important
change we can hope for in teaching is for teachers who trust each other to visit
each others lessons, not to evaluate, but to share.
The important point is to put an end to the isolation of teachers in their
classrooms and to begin open co-operation.

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Annex 1
Lesson No.

Class

Aim(s):
Lexical Items:
Structure / Grammar:
Procedure
Warm-up / Review:
Stage 1. Presentation:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Stage 2. Practice, Exploitation of Text:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Stage 3. Performance:
a.
b.
c.
Other Activities (homework, game, etc.):
Reserve activity:
Teaching Aids Needed:
Comments:

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Annex 2
Aims: a. to have the class learn key structures by heart;
b. to have them practise the dialogue with substitutions;
c. to introduce some role play.
New Vocabulary: How are you?
a bike ride = a trip on bicycles
a picnic = a meal in the open air.
New Structure: How about ing? Function: making a suggestion.
Additional Language: declining: I dont feel like ing.
countering: Id rather + basic verb.
Procedure
Warm-up: game (3 minutes): going on a picnic:
You bring a/the/some !
Ill bring (nominated students).
Stage 1. Presentation (approx. 10 mins):
a. new vocabulary (three lexical items above);
b. new structure (note 1 and flashcards);
c. first model, spoken (BB drawings of speakers).
Stage 2. Practice (15 mins):
a. repetition drill, chorus work (note 2, backward build-ups);
b. cued substitution, chorus work (note 2);
c. public pairs: cued acceptance/refusal and counter suggestions (flashcards);
d. private pairs, substituting dialogue. Books open.
e. Public check. Books closed.
Stage 3. Production (to end of lesson, 17 mins):
a. Public pairs, new suggestions;
b. Private role play; new suggestions, counter suggestions, agreeing weekend
activities;
c. Acting out. Volunteer pairs;
d. Write out created dialogues.
Homework: complete writing of dialogues.
Reserve activity: poem.
Visual Aids: set of flashcards with suggestions.
Comments:

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Annex 3

LESSON PLANNING SHEET

Class: 4C (3rd year of English)
Date: 22nd March
Materials: topic-based lesson on pop music.
Objectives:
Structural

Simple present: Wh questions.

Functional

Understanding questions, writing instructions.

Skills

All

Phonological

/ei/ make, say; awareness of syllables.

Lexical

Vocabulary associated with pop music.

Becoming aware of contextual and linguistic clues.
Guessing & Predicting.

Learning to learn
Anticipated
difficulties

Class will probably need to ask questions about gap filling

exercise in Romanian.

Evaluation: Children became really involved in the activity & liked the problem
solving aspect. They had to ask some of the questions in Romanian. Teacherguided control of class was good but suggestions came from children. Good
preparation for listening stage.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abbott, G.; Greenwood, J.; McKeating, D.; Wingard, P., The Teaching of
English as an International Language A Practical Guide, London, 1981.
Allan, M., Teaching English with Video, Longman, 1987.
Anastasi, A., Psychological testing, London, Macmillan, 1982.
Atkinson, David, Teaching Monolingual Classes, Logman.
Brumfit, C., Teaching English to Children, HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
Byrne, D., Techniques for Classroom Interaction, Longman, 1985.
Byrne, D., Teaching Oral English, Longman, 1986.
Byrne, D., Teaching Writing Skills, Longman, 1988.
Carroll, B.; Hall, P. J., Make your own tests: A practical guide to writing
language performance tests, New York, Pergamon, 1985.
Cohen, A., D., Testing Language Ability in the Classroom, Newburry House,
1980.
Cross, D., A Practical Handbook of Language Teaching, London, 1991.
Edge, J., Essentials of English Language Teaching, Longman, London, 1993.
Edge, J., Mistakes and Correction, Longman, 1989.
Geddes, M.; Sturtridge, G., Listening Links, Heinemann, 1979.
Grant, N., Making the most of your textbook, Longman, 1987.
Grundy, Peter, Beginners, Oxford University Press, 1994.
Hadfield, J., Advanced Communication Games, Nelson, 1987.
Harmer, J., Teaching and Learning Grammar, Longman, 1987.
Harmer, J., The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, 1991.
Haycraft, J., An Introduction to English Language Teaching, Longman, 1978.
Heaton, J., B., Classroom Testing, Longman, 1990.
Heaton, J., B., Writing English Language Tests, Longman, 1988.
Keith, J.; Keith, M., Communication in the Classroom, Longman, 1987.
Kenworthy, J., Teaching English Pronunciation, Longman, 1987.
Larsen-Freeman, D., Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Oxford
University Press, 1986.
McCallum, G., P., 101 Word Games, Oxford University Press, 1980.
Morrow, K., The evaluation of tests of communicative performance, in
Innovation in Language Testing, London, 1986.
Murphey, T., Music and Song, Oxford University Press, 1992.
Oxford, R., L., Language Learning Strategies: What every teacher should
know, Newburry House, New York, 1990.
Papa, Mario; Iantorno, Giuliano, Famous British and American Songs and their
Cultural Background, Longman, 1995.

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Pollit, A., Giving students a sporting chance: Assessment by counting and by

judging, in Language Testing in the Nineties, Modern English Publications,
Oxford, 1990.
Porter, D., Affective factors in language testing, in Language Testing in the
Nineties, Modern English Publications, Oxford, 1990.
Revell, J., Teaching Techniques for Communicative English, Macmillan Press
LTD, 1979.
Rixon, S., How to use games in language teaching, Macmillan Publishers,
1981.
Scott, W.; Ytreberg, L., Teaching English to Children, Longman, 1990.
Stevens, P., New Orientations in the Teaching of English, Oxford University
Press, 1977.
Underwood, M., Effective Class Management, Longman, 1987.
Underwood, M., Teaching Listening, Longman, 1987.
Walter, C.; McGrath, I., Testing: What you need to know, in Teacher Training,
Modern English Publications, Oxford, 1979.
Weir, C., Understanding and developing language tests, Prentice-Hall
International, 1993.
Wenden, A.; Rubin, J., Learner Strategies in Language Learning, Prentice
Hall International, 1987.
Willis, J., Teaching English Through English, Longman, 1981.
Wright, T., Roles of Teachers and Learners, Oxford University Press, 1987.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON TEACHING ENGLISH TO
YOUNG LEARNERS
1.1. Foreword
1.2. The young language learner
1.2.1. The four to seven year old language learners
1.2.2. The eight to eleven year old language learners
1.3. Introducing the course
1.4. Planning points of an English language course
CHAPTER TWO. CLASS MANAGEMENT
2.1. Some basic classroom techniques
2.2. The physical surroundings
2.3. The ideal teacher
2.4. The teachers role at different stages of the lesson
2.4.1. Beginning the lesson
2.4.2. During the lesson
2.4.2.1. During the production stage
2.4.2.2. During question time
2.4.3. Ending the lesson
2.5. Grouping the children
2.5.1. Pair work
2.5.1.1. Guiding lines in using pair working
2.5.1.2. Steps in using pair work
2.5.1.3. The teachers role during pair work
2.5.1.4. Suitable activities for pair work
2.5.2. Group work
2.5.2.1. Introducing group work
2.5.2.2. Group work number and structure
2.5.2.3. The role of the teacher in group work
2.5.2.4. Suitable group work tasks
2.6. Dealing with teaching problems
2.6.1. Showing incorrectness
2.6.2. Classroom language
2.6.3. Surprises in class
2.6.4. Disruptive behaviour
2.6.5. Causes of discipline problems
2.6.5.1. The teacher
2.6.5.2. The children
2.6.6. Action in case of indiscipline
CHAPTER THREE. TEACHING LANGUAGE SKILLS
3.1. Teaching listening
3.1.1. Difficulties with listening
3.1.2. Listening activities
3.1.2.1. Listen and do activities
3.1.2.2. Listening for information activities
3.1.2.3. Listen and repeat activities
3.1.2.4. Listening to stories
3.2. Teaching speaking
3.2.1. Difficulties with oral work
3.2.2. Strategies used in teaching speaking

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3.2.2.1. Presenting new language orally

3.2.2.2. Controlled practice
3.2.2.3. Guided practice
3.2.2.4. Dialogues and role play work
3.2.2.5. Free activities
3.3. Teaching reading
3.3.1. Approach to reading
3.3.2. Attributes of real reading
3.3.3. Reading strategies
3.3.3.1. Starting off
3.3.3.2. Reading aloud
3.3.3.3. Silent reading
3.3.3.4. Finishing reading
3.3.4. Class reading tasks
3.3.5. Reading materials
3.4. Teaching writing
3.4.1. Difficulties with writing
3.4.2. Importance of teaching writing
3.4.3. Writing activities
3.4.3.1. Controlled writing activities
3.4.3.2. Guided writing activities
3.4.3.3. Free writing activities
3.4.4. Correcting written work
CHAPTER FOUR. TEACHING VOCABULARY, STRUCTURES AND GRAMMAR
4.1. Teaching vocabulary
4.1.1 Importance of vocabulary teaching
4.1.2. Choosing vocabulary
4.1.3. Presenting new vocabulary
4.1.3.1. Ostensive means
4.1.3.2. Verbal definition
4.1.3.3. Audio presentation
4.1.4. A step by step presentation procedure
4.2. Teaching structures
4.2.1. Presentation of a structure
4.2.2. A step by step procedure
4.3. Teaching grammar
4.3.1. Methods of teaching grammar
4.3.1.1. The deductive method
4.3.1.2. The inductive method
4.3.2. An example of grammar teaching
4.3.3. Conclusion
CHAPTER FIVE. PLANNING
5.1. Planning, textbooks, syllabus
5.2. Importance of planning
5.3. Planning stages
5.3.1. Long term planning
5.3.2. Short term planning
5.3.3. Lesson planning
5.3.3.1. Lesson planning with a textbook
5.3.3.2. Lesson planning without a textbook
5.4. The place of revision and homework in lesson planning
5.4.1. Revision

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5.4.1.1. Revising grammar points

5.4.1.2. Revising vocabulary
5.4.1.3. Conclusion
5.4.2. Homework
5.4.2.1. Attributes of good homework
5.4.2.2. Kinds of assessment
5.4.2.3. Conclusion
CHAPTER SIX. TEACHING AIDS
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Materials for the teacher and children to make or collect
6.3. Materials to buy
6.4. The teachers aids
6.4.1. The syllabus and the course book
6.4.2. The blackboard
6.5. Mechanical aids
6.6. Conclusion
CHAPTER SEVEN. FEEDBACK AND ASSESSMENT
7.1. Introduction
7.2. Reasons for testing
7.3. Purpose of testing
7.3.1. Proficiency testing
7.3.2. Achievement testing
7.4. Testing principles
7.5. Problems with testing
7.6. Using tests in teaching English
7.7. Continuous assessment
7.8. Conclusion
CHAPTER EIGHT. ROLE OF FUN ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO
YOUNG LEARNERS
8.1. Games
8.1.1. Definition
8.1.2. Reasons for choosing games
8.1.3. The pedagogical focus of games
8.1.3.1. Choosing the right game
8.1.3.1.1. When to choose a game
8.1.3.1.2. Patterns of organization
8.1.3.1.3. Materials and equipment
8.1.3.1.4. Ludic principles
8.1.3.1.5. Conclusion
8.1.4. Classification of games
8.1.4.1. After the types of language and skill
8.1.4.1.1. Vocabulary games
8.1.4.1.2. Number games
8.1.4.1.3. Spelling games
8.1.4.1.4. Structure games
8.1.4.1.5. Conversation games
8.1.4.1.6. Writing games
8.1.4.1.7. Role play
8.1.4.2. After the manner in which children learn the language or use a certain skill
8.1.4.2.1. Games in which language is learned by heart
8.1.4.2.2. Games in which language is picked up
8.1.4.2.3. Games in which language is used in a creative manner

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8.1.4.2.4. Games in which language is learned from conceptual engagement

8.1.4.2.5. Games through which informal language is acquired with puzzles and making
activities
8.1.5. Conclusion
8.2. Rhymes and songs
8.2.1. Motivation for choosing songs and rhymes
8.2.2. Criteria for choosing rhymes and songs
8.2.3. Types of songs and rhymes
8.2.3.1. The raps
8.2.3.2. The chants
8.2.3.3. Songs
8.2.3.4. The background music
8.2.4. Techniques for using songs and rhymes in teaching English to children
8.2.4.1. Theoretical approach
8.2.4.2. Exemplification
8.2.4.3. Some guidelines for teachers
8.3. Conclusion
CHAPTER NINE. CONCLUSIONS
9.1. The job of teaching
9.2. Grammar
9.3. Practice
9.4. Language skills
9.5. Teaching new words
9.6. Pronunciation
9.7. Materials
9.8. Board
9.9. Classroom
9.10. Correction
9.11. Development
Annex 1
Annex 2
Annex 3
Bibliography