The items that I have observed are related to young learners, as in this practicum I have had the opportunity to be with children from preschool, first graders and second graders. Hence, I have been able to display several strategies that work with children of this age. Below, these strategies are accurately explained:
Strategies to make very young learners or primary students to speak in English
To get students to speak in the classroom using English it is a difficult task, especially with young pupils. That is because they know few words in English and they tend to have problems using them. Hence, it is advisable to start the lesson with questions. Therefore, my teacher used a routine that was also helpful to review vocabulary related to the weather. She started the lesson with the following question: What’s the weather like? and she formulated another question that scaffolded the first one: Is it rainy, sunny, windy…?. Thus, by mentioning the vocabulary related to the weather, pupils were able to associate the terms with their corresponding meanings and answer correctly to the questions in most cases. Furthermore, the teacher showed flashcards of the weather as a visual support to scaffold the students’ responses. Moreover, when introducing a topic, the teacher used to hang several flashcards on the blackboard and ask simple questions about the vocabulary that appeared in the flashcards (e.g: What’s this? What color is it?). In fact, this strategy was really useful, as students could understand what the teacher was saying by observing the pictures, and they could answer to the questions using the words that they already knew. For instance, if the new topic was the means of transport, as the pupils were already familiar with some of the means, they could easily answer to the questions posed by the teacher (e.g: What’s this? A car). In addition, they were more willing to use the language as they only had to say one word, so that this task required little effort from them.
On the other hand, the implementation of games also served as an strategy to get students to talk in English, as they all wanted to participate and, in order to participate, they had to say some words in English. Therefore, one of the games that the English teacher developed in the classroom was the What’s missing game?. I also implemented it in my teaching unit and the co-teaching activity due to its effectiveness when getting the students to assimilate new vocabulary. Thereby, this game is usually played after the introduction of new vocabulary and the review of the meaning of the words. It consists on placing several flashcards of the vocabulary worked on the blackboard and asking for two volunteers. One volunteer has to go outside the classroom and the other has to choose a flashcard. The teacher has to put the chosen flashcard upside down and place it in the place of another flashcard. Hence, the other flashcard has to be put in the place of the chosen flashcard. Afterwards, the student that is outside the classroom has to come outside and guess which flashcard is missing. Thus, this strategy is very useful when reviewing vocabulary but it is also useful to get students to speak in English. Even though they do not guess it at the first try, while attempting to say the adequate word they practice other words and consequently they talk in English. On the other hand, another game quite similar to this one consisted on asking for one volunteer to come in front of the classroom and make him or her hold the flashcards. The teacher has to take one of the flashcards and put it on the forehead of the student. Hence, the student has to guess which flashcard he or she has on her forehead. The instructor has to place the flashcards that the kid does not guess on the blackboard. Consequently, this strategy is useful to review vocabulary and also to get the pupils to talk. Indeed, the teacher usually asked the other students questions about the flashcards that the kid chose, in order to aid pupils assimilate the words worked (e.g: Is this a banana? Is this an apple?). Therefore, the teacher encouraged the pupils’ responses by telling them that they had to answer: Yes, it is/No, it isn’t. Thereby, the students’ interaction and usage of language was promoted through this game. All in all, in regards to gamification as an strategy for stimulating students’ talk I would state that it is really useful. That is because students are always motivated to play games, no matter the language of the game. Due to this reason, through games, pupils unconsciously use language so that even the shyest ones are willing to communicate orally.
On the other hand, pair work or group is also a good strategy to talk about how to complete tasks and to get pupils to develop their social skills, by learning to share their thoughts and ideas and learning to take turns. Therefore, through activities that promote collaborative learning, pupils have to talk to each other using English, even if they have difficulties. With children with young age, it is especially laborious to make them talk in English, as they quickly change to Catalan or Spanish during the development of the tasks due to the lack of English knowledge. That is why I could display that my teacher offered them adequate scaffolding in order to encourage their talk and facilitate their work. Thence, through cards with key sentences or questions, pupils were able to formulate their speeches adequately. In line with the scaffolding provided by the English teacher, in my teaching unit I developed a Who is who? game. Within this game, I gave the students a Question card and an Answer card. These were really helpful, as they had an structure of a substitution table, so that the students had to construct the questions and the answers in accordance to what they wanted to ask or respond. Nonetheless, I did not provide the whole sentences written for them, so that they had to make an effort to construct their discourse (e.g: Does he have blond hair?). Moreover, by providing the proper scaffolding, teachers can stimulate the students’ use of the oral language. Furthermore, it is recommendable to encourage children to use polite language when talking with each other. That is why the English teacher had visual support on the classroom wall such as a Word bank with phrases so that children could communicate properly with their classmates when playing games (e.g: Let’s play the…, Thank you, You’re welcome, Please can you pass…). This Word bank contained the sentences and a drawing next to them that illustrate their meaning. Thus, the teacher encouraged the use of polite vocabulary by modelling an example with another pupil before starting the lesson. Even though this is not easy, as students tend to use the first language when they are not playing directly the game by formulating questions or answering them, I believe it is relevant to insist on using these key expressions. Therefore, maybe the students will not be able to say sentences but they will at least use some key words such as “Thank you” or “Please” that are often used in the English classroom and in the daily life.
Another key strategy for promoting the learners’ talk is the Show and tell strategy. In my classroom, I was able to observe that each week there was a kid who was the protagonist of the week. This kid brought a cardboard with pictures illustrating his or her life and short sentences explaining the pictures (e.g: This is my mum Maria and this is my dad Carles). Hence, even though these sentences were written in Catalan, the English teacher used the cardboard to get students to talk in English. That is because she took profit of the vocabulary worked and made the student sit in front of the classmates and explain his/her cardboard. Thus, the student explained it using Catalan but the teacher asked her questions about the images in order to review the vocabulary worked and make him or her talk in English (e.g: What color is this t-shirt? Who is she?). Therefore, the teacher guided the child’s discourse through questions. Moreover, I have also thought that this strategy can also be implemented with the favourite toy of pupils, among others. For instance, with older students from the upper cycle, the teacher could get students to talk about their favourite book for example, by providing the adequate scaffolding to them before implementing the task. Hence, for upper primary youngsters, this task would be completely developed in English and prepared beforehand with the proper scaffolding.
The use of stories is also a great strategy for getting children to talk about feelings and the vocabulary worked. In my case, I could observe that the teacher told a story out loud and during the development of the task, she asked questions related to the characters and the events that happened in the story. It is recommended to ask simple questions with young learners, as the English teacher did (e.g: How is the bear feeling? Is he happy or sad?). This process could be accompanied by pictures or another kind of visual support so as to facilitate the students’ understanding of the story.
On the other hand, the development of role plays is a great strategy to encourage pupils to talk in English. Indeed, for young learners is a bit challenging as they barely speak in English. Nonetheless, with appropriate guidance, the teacher can make students generate small dialogues among them in English that represent daily life situations (e.g: buying popcorn at the cinema). Thence, the use of flashcards would be really useful in this task to give assistance to students in regards to the vocabulary. Nevertheless, with older pupils the teacher can divide the class group into groups and propose a situation to each group so that they have to develop a role play in accordance to the situation. The teacher can provide a card to each group with some expressions or vocabulary that could be used in that concrete situation to help them develop the dialogue properly. Moreover, I could observe that role plays with adequate guidance worked pretty well in second grade, although their short duration. The students were able to understand what they were saying and transmit the message clearly in most cases. A lot of visual support had to be offered so that the learners could express correctly their discourse. I could observe that the recording of the role plays acted as a motivational element that stimulated even more this language production. The creation of theater plays and movies would be included within this section, as they also awake students’ interest towards speaking English.
Strategies to teach English to very young learners (preschoolers and first graders)
The English teacher used storytelling as an strategy to teach very young learners. Stories are really useful in order to introduce new vocabulary or review vocabulary, as, through the illustrations of the picture books, children are able to comprehend the meaning of the words easily. Moreover, stories help pupils develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures and consequently they promote a positive attitude towards people from different lands, races and religions. Hence, storytelling can enhance intercultural understanding by allowing children to empathise with unfamiliar people, places or situations and display different traditions and values. Moreover, storytelling promotes a feeling of relaxation within the classroom that avoids possible misbehaviours within the classroom. It is a good pre-task as it helps to students to calm down when they come really nervous from the playground or the school canteen. On the other hand, storytelling also promotes the willingness to communicate and express thoughts and feelings about the story. Therefore, even though students use the first language to express what they think, the teacher can take advantage of this willingness and ask questions about the book in english that they can respond using few words (e.g: What is the girl doing? Is she jumping, is she swimming?). Moreover, through storytelling, pupils enhance their listening skills as they have to listen to the story in order to understand the plot. Thereby, the English teacher used stories to work some specific vocabulary with preschoolers especially. For instance, used a picture book called “A taste of the moon” in order to review the vocabulary related to the animals and the food. Therefore, I thought it was really interesting the visual support that she used, as she hanged a cloth that represented the landscape of the story on the blackboard. Moreover, she used plastified images to represent the animals and the food. She was moving around the characters through the landscape and it was really visual for the pupils. Each time a new element appeared, she showed the image and instantly children said the corresponding name for the illustrated element. Furthermore, she posed simple questions to guide the reading and to ensure the students’ comprehension of the book (e.g: Was he happy or sad?). On the other hand, she formulated easy questions when she introduced the images so that children could use their previous knowledge to say the name of the elements that the teacher showed (e.g: “What do you think the monkey dreamt of? Bananas”). Thence, I believe that storytelling it is a suitable strategy to teach English as it encourages active participation and widens the pupils’ vocabulary.
Conversely, the teacher also used songs as an strategy for students to learn new vocabulary but also grammatical structures. Indeed, songs usually have repeated patterns so that they are beneficial for pupils when learning English structures. Songs create a welcoming and positive atmosphere within the classroom and make the learning of English fun for kids. Furthermore, songs allow quick reviews of vocabulary worked so that the students do not forget what they have learnt. During my internship, I was able to observe that my tutor used songs such as “5 little monkeys” and “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” to review the vocabulary about numbers and parts of the body. Indeed, through the “5 little monkeys” song, pupils also have to learn how to count backwards in English. Furthermore, the song also includes the past simple tense which the students did not have worked, but through the song they were able to understand the meaning of the sentence (e.g: Mummy called the doctor). It is recommendable for the teacher to use flashcards and gestures so as to scaffold the songs.
One particular song that I considered it was really useful to get students to accommodate grammatical structures was “Who took the cookie?”. This song was used to develop a game in which the teacher gave a card with a cookie to one of the pupils and the others were given a card that had written “Not me”. The students had to keep the cards upside down and then the teacher started to sing the song with the students. The song said: “Who took the cookie from the cookie jar? Rabbit took the cookie from the cookie jar”. The teacher changed “rabbit” for the name of a student and the game consisted on guessing which student had the cookie card. To do it, the teacher and the students sang the song and then they pointed at one student. The student had to show the card and say “Who me?” and the other pupils had to respond him or her “Yes, you”. Consequently, he or she had to show his or her card and, depending on the card, he had to say “Not me” or “I took the cookie from the cookie jar. The yummy yummy cookie from the cookie jar”. If the student said “Not me”, the other students had to ask him or her “then who?” and the concrete pupil had to point out to another pupil. I believe that this song is interesting for students to internalize some specific questions and answers and to be able to respond to the questions in accordance to their concrete card. Thereby, through the use of songs, pupils learn English in a dynamic way, without even realizing they are learning. They become warm and conducive towards English learning as they are relaxed and having fun.
In addition, the use of technological tools is convenient to teach English to young learners, as digital tools constitute an engaging and motivational element for kids. Thus, in the classroom I was able to observe that my teacher used multiple times the tablets in her lessons with young learners. The tablet contained some applications which were useful to get pupils to review vocabulary learnt or to introduce new vocabulary that was laterly worked in class. These interactive applications stimulated students’ motivation and, consequently, the pupils’ performance in regards to language learning.
Furthermore, from what I have been able to observe, games are key when teaching English to young pupils. That is because they encourage the active involvement of students which leads to a meaningful learning of the language. Therefore, language-based games such as “Simon says” or “I spy with my little eye”, among others. Through Simon says for instance, I could see that students learnt to give commands in English and vocabulary related to body parts as well as common verbs (e.g: Simon says kiss your hand). Nevertheless, it is important that teachers hang on the blackboard flashcards with illustrations of the verbs so that the students can properly understand all the commands of the game.
Besides, another strategy that is useful when teaching English is to include Art in English the classroom. Indeed, I have regarded that children enjoy making colorful and exciting creations with paint and different kind of materials. By including Art into the classroom, the students will be more interested to learn English, as they will be much more focused on the task and they will generally show a higher level of implication. Thence, they will want to do the task adequately so that they will get interested on how to properly do it, which is by learning English words and expressions, among others.
At last, to include the TPR (Total Physical Response) into the classroom is suggested, as I have observed that is an effective way to teach ESL to children. TPR is a method in which the learners associate physical movements with language instruction. Students move as they learn. They follow instructions, copy the teacher’s movements and get their whole bodies involved when they practice language content. In my classroom, I could display that the teacher firstly introduced the vocabulary by using flashcards that were hanged in the blackboard. While introducing the vocabulary, she made a concrete gesture for each word while saying it. Afterwards, the teacher said the name of an element that appeared in a flashcard while doing the gesture that represented the element. She told one student to come and point out the flashcard that contained that element. Therefore, the student was able to associate a physical movement to the word and consequently it was easier to remember its meaning. To conclude, there are a lot of effective strategies for teaching English and even though I still need to learn many of them, I am grateful for the strategies that I have learnt during this practicum. I believe I am definitely going to apply them in a near future.