English for Young Learner

Learning English Through Songs,

Stories, Videos And Games And
Assessing Young Learner

Eko Nurhariyanto
Muhammad Idris Ihsani
Eneng Yoyoh Komariah
Nunung Yuliantini
Anis Azhar
Iwan

Nowadays, English teachings gain different patterns of strategies, methods and approaches
varied from the traditional-simple to complex-sophisticated intended to improve the quality
of English language teaching itself to meet the need of various learners. This section
particularly outlines the points on English learning for young learner through songs,stories,
videos and games.
A. Teaching English through songs
Songs tend to repetitive and have a strong rhythm. They are easily learnt by primary children and
quickly become favourites because of their familiarity. They are fun and motivating for children.
They allow language to be reinforced in a natural context, both with structures and vocabulary.
All songs build confidence in young learners and even shy children will enjoy singing or acting
out a song as part of a group or whole class. This also develops a sense of class identity. Children
are often proud of what they have learnt and will like having the opportunity to show off' what
they have learnt to friends or family.
Many songs can help develop memory and concentration, as well as physical co-ordination, for
example when doing the actions for a song. For the teacher, songs can be a wonderful starting
point for a topic and can fit in well with topics, skills, language and cross-curricular work.
Here are some tips for using and exploiting songs in the classroom.
1. For reinforcing grammar points
Some songs lend themselves naturally to teaching or reinforcing grammar points. They may be
integrated into lessons with a particular grammar focus and provide much-needed variety, while
contributing to the overall aim of a lesson. Particularly at lower levels when children are still
learning basic key grammar patterns, songs can play a role as input.
On LearnEnglish Kids there are several songs which can be used in this way. For example the
song Quiet, please!' is useful to practise the structure Can I have...?' and to practise other
phrases typically used in the classroom. You can listen to the song on the website, or print the
lyrics to sing: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/quiet-please
The song Over the mountains' provides practice of the present continuous in the context of
travelling. The chorus refrains e.g. I'm driving in a car' are repeated several times and children
can produce their own sentences afterwards:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/over-the-mountains
2. Teaching vocabulary of a particular lexical set
Research into child language acquisition has shown that lexical items may need to be repeated
many times before they are internalised by the child. Songs provide an excellent means of
repeating and reinforcing vocabulary and are suitable for children of all abilities. For example, a
song like Pizza and chips' follows a very simple repetitive format and teaches days of the week.
This song could be used with very young learners for reinforcing days of the week and as a basis
for further work: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/pizza-and-chips

Songs are easy to fit in with a topic-based or thematic approach. The topic of animals forms part
of most young learner syllabi and there are several songs which could be used for this topic, such
as the traditional song Old Macdonald had a farm
(http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/old-macdonald-had-farm), which also has
lots of related games to help support learning:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/category/topics/old-macdonald
People work is also a catchy song for teaching jobs vocabulary and has a fun element in that
the names of the people rhyme with their jobs:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/people-work
3. Developing listening skills
Longer songs with a wider variety of structures and vocabulary are more suitable for the
development of overall listening skills. For example, the song The ballad of Lisa the lemur is a
story based on the topic of the rainforest, and endangered animals and the environment in
general. Although quite long, the tune is folksy and catchy and you'll find an activity worksheet
to download and print, as well as some games and a quiz about lemurs:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-ballad-lisa-the-lemur
Some songs are linked with stories which your students may already be familiar with, for
example the traditional story of Goldilocks and the three bears. The song The Goldilocks song
is a song based on the story: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-goldilockssong
4. Singing
Many of the songs on LearnEnglish Kids are suitable for singing in class or for an individual
child to sing along to. Community singing in class brings the benefit of total participation from
all students, especially if accompanied by actions or mimes. The total physical response (TPR)
approach is particularly suited to younger learners.
Children enjoy singing along and it can really improve motivation. Singing can also improve the
pronunciation and intonation patterns of the students, especially younger children. At primary
level, vocabulary teaching tends to concentrate on single word items, and songs allow learners to
learn chunks or meaningful phrases of language rather than single words, as well as to learn
about how sounds connect and run together. For example, children can become of aware of using
contractions and weak forms.Traditional songs are particularly useful for developing
pronunciation and acclimatising young learners to the sounds of the language. Simple songs are
very repetitive and good for singing along. For very young learners the The alphabet song is a
good starting point for singing and reinforcing the alphabet:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-alphabet-song
Before they listen:
It is a good idea to warm up for a song by providing some input. You could do this by using
visuals of the main vocabulary items, or using realia. For Old MacDonald had a farm for
example you can practise animal vocabulary with flashcards or small toy animals. For The
Goldilocks song you could provide some household items, e.g. 3 bowls and cutlery.

Children could predict or guess words from a song, for example predict the animals in
We're going to the zoo: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/were-goingthe-zoo
They could try to guess the missing words in a gapped song.
They could try to put the jumbled lines of a song in order.
They can circle or tick pictures of what is included in the song see the worksheet for A
bear named Sue for an example: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/bearnamed-sue
They could be asked to order or sequence pictures or words as they listen.
They could complete the gaps.
They could sort out jumbled lyrics.
They could be asked to match half-lines.
The teacher could give true/false statements.

While listening
When you introduce the song allow the students to watch and listen to the song a couple of times
to become familiar with the tune. Explain the meaning of unfamiliar words to the children using
the visuals in the flash animations. Ask children to point to any visuals or items of realia as they
listen. Children usually start to sing along naturally without much prompting from the teacher.
Performing actions to accompany the song is a good way to encourage this. The song If you're
happy and you know it (http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/if-youre-happy-andyou-know-it) is a fun action song to get children used to joining in this way. For most other
songs, actions can be invented for almost any word or line ask students to help you invent
actions for songs!
After listening
Many of the songs on the website have a topic or theme and therefore act as a natural stimulus
for subsequent reading and writing activities, for example changing the words or adding verses.
Many of the songs have worksheets which support children with this, such as What can it be?:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/what-can-it-be Or, for Old MacDonald had a
farm, the lyrics could be adapted to Old MacDonald had a zoo.
Many of the songs also lend themselves to creative arts and crafts activities. For example, with
Old MacDonald had a farm you could make a classroom wall display of farmyard animals. Or
for The scary skeleton children can make a skeleton using the accompanying worksheet:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-scary-skeleton
Some songs provide opportunities for drama and acting out narratives, for example The
Goldilocks song. You can download masks to use for acting out both the song and the story:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-goldilocks-song
But best of all,they can listen and sing again!
B. Teaching English through story
The educational value of using stories and the technique of storytelling has always been
undisputed throughout the world. Now more and more English as a foreign language (EFL)

teachers of young learners are using carefully selected stories from the world of children's
literature because they have become more familiar with an acquisition-based methodology and
because stories comply to the major objectives in most countries for foreign language teaching to
young learners: linguistic, psychological, cognitive, social and cultural. EFL teachers use stories
to supplement their core materials or to create self-contained units of work that constitute minisyllabuses. In this way, a story provides the starting point and rich context for developing a wide
variety of related language and learning activities involving children personally, creatively and
actively in an all round whole curriculum approach (see Ellis and Brewster 1991 and 2002).
Selecting storybooks
Storybooks are carefully selected from the world of authentic children's literature mainly from
the lists of British publishers. We look for stories that have gained an international reputation and
contain rich and authentic examples of English, as well as literary devices commonly found in
children's literature such as repetition and cumulative content, rhyme, onomatopoeia, humour
and suspense, etc; and which allow us to implement a story-based methodology structured
around the familiar three stages of pre, while and post storytelling. We look for stories with high
quality and varied illustrative styles and illustrations which synchronise with the text to support
children's understanding and to develop their visual literacy.We look for stories that take place in
settings other than western and urban and address issues such as citizenship and multicultural
education in order to develop intercultural awareness; stories that develop social skills and
emotional development and stories that allow links to be made with other subjects in the
curriculum in order to build on children's general knowledge, reinforce concepts and help them
learn how to learn. Finally, we look for stories that offer a concrete outcome in the form of
dramatization, related songs and rhymes, book-making, making a game, a quiz/competition,
poster-design, project work, etc.
Pupil responses
The educational gains from using authentic children's literature are very rich indeed as reflected
by pupils' personal response to the stories. Younger children (5 - 7 year-olds) respond in pictorial
form and older pupils complete a more detailed written evaluation focusing on genre, characters,
setting, illustrations, what they liked about the story and what they learnt from the story. Here are
some examples in response to the question, What did I learn from the story?
The Pied Piper: We must keep our promises and not be greedy.
Tusk Tusk (a story about how elephants became grey and tolerance): I learnt about
tolerance and racism. I learnt to know how to respect others because we can't all be the
same. You have to love each other.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar: I learned the life cycle of the butterfly
Meerkat in Trouble: We mustn't disobey. You have to be obedient to your parents.
The Little Red Hen: You must help people.
Personal and professional development of the teachers
Implementing a story-based approach requires a great deal of energy, creativity and
excellent classroom management skills and flexibility from teachers. In addition, on the
final afternoon of the course children present their work to parents, which provides an

ideal way of strengthening our parent/teacher relationships. This can, however, put
teachers under a certain amount of strain as the performance of their pupils is often
equated with their performance as teachers. As one teacher said it keeps you on your toes!
In other words, it maintains high quality language teaching. Teacher's critical appraisal,
resourcefulness and confidence develop greatly:

I am now able to appraise a prospective storybook for use in class very quickly and
decide if it's suitable and for what age group it could be used with.
I am able to see the potential of a particular book and can create the support material
necessary and that has links to other curriculum areas.
Using storybooks has been an enjoyable experience and has given me another approach
to teaching English to children that is authentic and interactive where both teacher and
students learn something new!
I have developed my storytelling techniques and ways of making authentic language
accessible to foreign language students and techniques for creating worksheets and
activities for exploiting the language in the story.
The choice of the storybook is very important; if a teacher is enthusiastic, often this is
contagious.
Initially some teachers find it difficult to imagine how they can use a storybook for up to 6 10 hours. However, once they have used children's literature they often find it difficult to
return to the more conventional specifically written EFL materials which tend to remain
at the mundane and utilitarian level of basic dialogues and daily activities. Storybooks
address universal themes and allow children to play with ideas and feelings and think
about important issues.
C. Teaching English through Videos
What are the benefits of using video in the classroom?
Learners aged 3 - 8
Children enjoy language learning with video
o 'One of the aims of teaching English to young children is to instill in them the idea that
language learning is a happy experience, and video creates an attractive enjoyable
learning environment.' Tomalin (1991: 48)
Video is an effective way of studying body language
o Younger language learners are still learning about the world around them.
Children gain confidence through repetition
o Young children love to hear stories again and again and the same goes for video. By
watching a video several times children can learn by absorption and imitation.
All Young Learners
Video communicates meaning better than other media
o Video presents language in context in ways that a cassette can't. Learners can see who's
(or what's!) speaking, where the speakers are, what they're doing, etc. All these visual
clues can help comprehension
Video represents a positive exploitation of technology

Teenagers, in particular, have a positive attitude towards television and video. It is seen
as being 'modern' compared to books

Drawbacks
There are however a couple of potential pitfalls that teachers should watch out for.
Passivity
Children are used to passively watching TV at home on the sofa. Teachers should try to
avoid learners 'switching off' in class when the video is switched on by providing
stimulating activities where the child can interact with and learn from the video.
Parents
This is linked to the above. Some parents may get annoyed when hearing their child has
spent the class watching the TV 'as they can do that at home.' This can be prevented by
ensuring that time actually watching the video is kept to a minimum and also by the
children having something concrete to show to parents connected to the video: a
worksheet, picture etc.
Role
of
video
Once the decision has been made to use a video in class, thought should be given as to
what purpose the video is being used for i.e. the role of the video. The way the video is
used and the materials prepared for use with the video will depend on the role the video is
to take. Below are four possible roles for video. ( Adapted from Willis' 6 roles for video
1983: 45)
Developing listening skills
Listening for global understanding, listening for detail.
To provide information
To provide content relevant to students' needs and interests.
Presenting or reinforcing language
Grammar, vocabulary, functions.
Stimulating language production
Video used as a basis for discussion, a model for learners to follow, a visual aid.
A scheme of work using a video sequence may, however, encompass more than 1 of these
roles. Learners may watch a video to find out information about, for example, a famous
person. The same lesson may also include work on developing listening skills to enable
learners to extract the relevant information. It could then could be used to develop
vocabulary on the topic of 'lives'.

Criteria for selecting video

When selecting an authentic video for use in the classroom certain general criteria should
be kept in mind.
Watchability
Is the video interesting? Would a young native speaker want to watch this video?
Completeness
Tomalin (1991: 50) 'The ideal video clip tells a complete story or section of a story'.
This idea of completeness is important for young learners whose primary motivation for
watching a video is enjoyment.

Length
The length of the clip is important, it shouldn't be too long, perhaps between 30 seconds
and 10 minutes depending on the learning objective.
Appropriateness of Content
The content should be suitable for Young Learners. How has the video been rated;
'Universal', 'Parental Guidance', for ages '13'or '18'? Would the video be suitable for
viewing in all cultures?
Level of maturity
Children mature very quickly so a group of 7-year-olds watching a video made for 5year-olds would probably regard it as 'too babyish'. On the other hand using a video
intended for older children with a group of younger children might lead to the children
not being able to understand the concepts in the video.
Availability of Related Materials
Many authentic videos now come with ready made materials that can be used for
language teaching (Wallace and Gromit, the 'Speak Up' series of films in Spain.) Other
videos may have been adapted from books, which could be used in the classroom to
support the video. (The 'Spot' series and Eric Carlyle stories such as 'The Very Hungry
Caterpillar'.
If, however, the video is being used for presenting language or for comprehension tasks
there are further factors which should be considered when selecting a video.
Degree of visual support
A good idea is to choose scenes that are very visual. The more visual a video is, the easier
it is to understand - as long as the pictures illustrate what is being said.
Clarity of picture and sound
If the video has been copied from the television it is important to make sure both the
picture and sound are clear.
Density of language
This refers to the amount of language spoken in a particular time. Videos where the
language is dense are more difficult for learners to comprehend.
Speech delivery
'Clarity of speech, speech rate and accents are all factors in determining how difficult a
video excerpt will be for students to comprehend.' Arcario (Undated: 115)
Language content
'In using video to present language, an important factor to consider is the linguistic items
(particular grammatical structures, language functions, or colloquial expressions)
presented in the scene.' Arcario (Undated: 116)
Another important factor is the amount of repetition of the language content. Authentic
videos for young learners will often contain a lot of repetition. It is also useful to see if
the linguistic content in the video can be linked to that of the language curriculum or the
course book thus providing a way to integrate video work into the course as a whole.
Language level
The language level of the video should be appropriate for the level of the class without
the teacher having to explain too much.

Video types
Animation/cartoons
Spider, Spot, Pingu, Mr Ben, Eric Carlyle stories, Wallace and Gromit series.
Educational programmes
TV documentaries made for children about science/nature etc, Dinosaurs series, The Blue
Planet
TV advertisements
Music
Programmes about musicians, video clips
Drama
TV series/soaps for young people (especially good for seeing life in Britain, maybe not so
easy to understand!)

D. Teaching English through Game

'Many experienced textbook and methodology manuals writers have argued that games are
not just time-filling activities but have a great educational value. W. R. Lee holds that most
language games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct
forms (1979:2). He also says that games should be treated as central not peripheral to the
foreign language teaching programme. A similar opinion is expressed by Richard-Amato,
who believes games to be fun but warns against overlooking their pedagogical value,
particularly in foreign language teaching. There are many advantages of using games.
"Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely" (Richard-Amato
1988:147). They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more
opportunity to express their opinions and feelings (Hansen 1994:118). They also enable
learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible
during a typical lesson. Furthermore, to quote Richard-Amato, they, "add diversion to the
regular classroom activities," break the ice, "[but also] they are used to introduce new ideas"
(1988:147). In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students
remember things faster and better (Wierus and Wierus 1994:218). S. M. Silvers says many
teachers are enthusiastic about using games as "a teaching device," yet they often perceive
games as mere time-fillers, "a break from the monotony of drilling" or frivolous activities.
He also claims that many teachers often overlook the fact that in a relaxed atmosphere, real
learning takes place, and students use the language they have been exposed to and have
practised earlier (1982:29). Further support comes from Zdybiewska, who believes games to
be a good way of practising language, for they provide a model of what learners will use the
language for in real life in the future (1994:6).''Games encourage, entertain, teach, and
promote fluency. If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help
students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems that at times seem
overwhelming.'

When to Use Games

'Games are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some time left at the end
of a lesson. Yet, as Lee observes, a game "should not be regarded as a marginal activity
filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do" (1979:3).
Games ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign languages. Rixon suggests that games be
used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen.'
'Games also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners recall material in a
pleasant, entertaining way. All authors referred to in this article agree that even if games
resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention to and
implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote communicative
competence, and generate fluency.'
Why Use Games in Class Time?
* Games are fun and children like to play them. Through games children experiment,
discover, and interact with their environment. (Lewis, 1999)
* Games add variation to a lesson and increase motivation by providing a plausible
incentive to use the target language. For many children between four and twelve years
old, especially the youngest, language learning will not be the key motivational factor.
Games can provide this stimulus. (Lewis, 1999)
* The game context makes the foreign language immediately useful to the children. It brings
the target language to life. (Lewis, 1999)
* The game makes the reasons for speaking plausible even to reluctant children. (Lewis,
1999)
* Through playing games, students can learn English the way children learn their mother
tongue without being aware they are studying; thus without stress, they can learn a lot.
* Even shy students can participate positively.
'In an effort to supplement lesson plans in the ESL classroom, teachers often turn to games.
The justification for using games in the classroom has been well demonstrated as benefiting
students in a variety of ways. These benefits range from cognitive aspects of language
learning to more co-operative group dynamics.'

General Benefits of Games

Affective:
- lowers affective filter
- encourages creative and spontaneous use of language
- promotes communicative competence
-motivates
- fun

Cognitive:
- reinforces
- reviews and extends
- focuses on grammar communicatively

Class Dynamics:
- student centered
- teacher acts only as facilitator
- builds class cohesion
- fosters whole class participation
- promotes healthy competition

Adaptability:
- easily adjusted for age, level, and interests
- utilizes all four skills
- requires minimum preparation after development
How to Choose Games (Tyson, 2000)
* A game must be more than just fun.
* A game should involve "friendly" competition.
* A game should keep all of the students involved and interested.
* A game should encourage students to focus on the use of language rather than on the
language itself.
* A game should give students a chance to learn, practice, or review specific language
material.

ASSESSMENT
INTRODUCTION
All teachers need to know how effective their teaching is and all learners are interested in
how well they are doing. Assessment of the learning process is therefore an integral part of
teaching and learning. In the case of children, however, traditional assessment methods can
be problematic. This is why it is important that assessment in language learning for children
is handled with care. This chapter will introduce some child-friendly methods that can be
used in a variety of different context.
PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment refers to the process of data analysis that teachers use to get evidence about their
learners performance and progress in English. In terms of purpose, assessment is carried out
because head teachers, school authorities and parents require evidence of learning but it is
also the right of children to know how they are doing.
All teachers want to be able to check whether students are achieving the target objectives.
Teachers are concerned with what the students will be able to do, say and write as a result of
their teaching. It is important for teachers to identify these objectives at the beginning of each
unit of teaching so that they can check childrens performance against them. Teachers will be
able to see where the gaps are, what seems easier or harder for a group of learners and what
objectives have been achieved by everyone. These findings will feed directly into everyday
teaching. The main aim of this process called formative assessment, is to inform and improve
teaching. In addition to formative assessment, teachers also need to engage in summative
assessment, which means taking stocks of what has been learnt and achieved at the end of a
longer period, for example, at the end of a course or a year. Summative assessment is often
associated with a certificate or some kind.

ASSESSMENT OF YOUNG LEARNERS

Why are traditional methods problematic?
Assessing young learners can be problematic. Young childrens knowledge of English often
comprises, for example, being able to sing songs, participate in stories and games, mime in
action story, i.e. things that are not easy to assess objectively. Traditional paper and pencil
tests typically include activities such as filling in gaps in sentences, answering multiple
choice questions, or translating vocabulary lists. They are often favoured by teachers they are
relatively easy to set and correct and they reduce language knowledge to points, marks and
grades. However, in the case of younger children especially, these tests often dont work
because such exercises do not show what children know and can do with confidence. They
might also have a negative influence on teaching so that instead of singing, reciting rhymes,
listening to stories and playing games, children will have to spend time answering multiple
choice questions in class in order to prepare for the test. Children are often not yet very good
at writing and this means that traditional tests can be stressful and tiring. There is the danger
that inappropriate assessment methods and possibly lower grades would discourage children
and cause them to lose their motivation to learn English.
Gap Between Teaching and Testing

Puline Rea-Dickins and Shelagh Rixon, two British researchers with interest both in young
learners learning English and in testing, published some intriguing results about primary
English teachers beliefs and practices with regard to assessment. This questionnaire survey
in 1999 showed that a great majority of primary English teachers in many parts of the world
used paper and pencil tests as major tools of assessment. The testing practices like these
convey a strange message to children about the nature of language and communication.
Childrens natural capacities to work out meaning from rich language input were not taken
into account when these assessment tools were designed. In their conclusion, the authors
argue that there is a need for teachers in primary English classes to go beyond paper and
pencil tests and explore alternative approaches with engage learners more appropriately.

Child-friendly Methods
It is important for teachers to use assessment techniques that are child-friendly and
compatible with the activities used every day in their classrooms. In order to understand what
children have learnt, teachers may need to use a variety of assessment methods. If traditional
pencil and paper tests need to be used because of institutional restrictions, they should be
considered together with other methods such as self-assessment, portfolio assessment or
observations, in order to get a more complete and more reliable picture of childrens
achievements.
There are two main approaches to assessment: norm referencing and criterion referencing.
Norm referencing means that teachers compare their learners achievement with the norm,
i.e. the class average. If someone is below average, they will get a low mark. One problem is
that this approach to assessment fails to take into account small individual progress and
achievements, and it encourages comparison and competition among children. Criterion
referencing means that learners have to meet set criteria. Teachers make a note of where each
learner is according to the criteria and then track their progress. Comparisons among children
are discouraged because individual achievement is in focus. In criterion referencing, teachers
of young learners tend to favour success-oriented assessment, i.e. they encourage and praise
everybody and value both efforts and achievement. Children carry out tasks in familiar
learning contexts in an environment that encourages confidence and build self-esteem and as
a result they are not worried about being assessed.
ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES
Many coursebooks recommended their own set of assessment materials, and schools and
institutions may have their own well established assessment systems. Within a school
context, whether English is integrated into the primary curriculum or taught separately, the
assessment culture of the school will influence the assessment practices in English. Teachers
can choose from a range of alternative assessment tools, most of which can be incorporated
into the teaching practice of any context.

Observation
Teachers can use systematic observation as a tool to assess childrens performances.
Observation is non-intrusive because children are often not even aware that they are being

assessed. The same sort of task is given to children in class again and again until they are
used to it and then the teacher observes the performance of a particular group. Depending on
the goals of the observation, teachers can assess children in a variety of situations such as
working in pairs or groups or independently. Observation is also good for checking the
performance of non-linguistic skills (such as engagement, interest, motivation) which make
up some of the core objectives of primary English programmes.
Self-Assessment
Another alternative method that teachers can experiment with is self-assessment. Selfassessment means that children are asked to think about their own performances and
achievements on a regular basis. It is important to emphasize that careful and gradual training
is needed and the ability of children to assess themselves cannot be taken for granted. Selsassessment works best if it is restricted to certain well known tasks and situations. In the
same sort of task, the same sort of criteria can be used and this gives children confidence and
a sense of safety. Young children may find this harder at first so it is important to take it
slowly. Teachers can start with something relatively simple and build it up.
Portfolio
One method of assessment gaining popularity with teachers of young learners is portfolio. A
portfolio means a collection of a students work and evidence of students achievement over
a period of time. It can include drawings, pieces of writing and examples of crafts or even
taped oral performances. Children can be encouraged to select their best work to go into the
portfolio with the help of their teachers. It is important that teachers together with the
children work out criteria for selection, otherwise some children might want to in everything
without developing the ability to differentiate between samples of work. Childrens growing
ability to choose examples they think show their ability at best is linked to their ability to
reflect about their learning. If children are used to reflecting about their work on a regular
basis integrated into the English class, then they will find using a portfolio both natural and
meaningful.
Portfolios link teaching and assessment very clearly since they offer concrete evidence of
what a learner can do. This method of assessment can also motivate learners by getting them
to focus on what they are good at develop ownership of the learning process, thus promoting
learner independence. In the case of younger children teachers may have to take more
responsibility for helping to choose appropriate pieces of work. Portfolios can be bulky and
they need to be stored somewhere where the children can have easy access to them. It is also
important that rules are worked out about taking them home. Parents can take an active part
in promoting their childrens learning by taking an interest in their portfolios.
Project Work
Many teachers like to use project work as an alternative tool for assessment. If children often
work in groups during the lesson then it is logical to assess them in groups, too. The
advantage of this tool is that it combines all four language skills and the joint effort of several
children. Working together with others and completing a substantial task can be very
motivating for weaker learners because of the opportunities to learn from friends. It is also
beneficial for stronger learners because they have a chance to display their knowledge and
skills. Project can work well in mixed ability classes if the members of the groups are
carefully selected and all have appropriately defined roles and tasks and adhere to agreed
rules. In addition, project work is an opportunity for children to demonstrate other nonlinguistic strengths such as drawing or acting. There is of course the disadvantage that it is

very difficult to assign grades to project work because of the need to acknowledge both
individual work and group effort and it is impossible to be completely fair to everyone. One
solution is to give children praise and general feedback rather than grades and use project
work as part of formative assessment. Teachers might want to experiment with grouping
children in various ways to find out which groups work best for collaborative learning. This
could easily lead to an action research project and interesting discoveries.

Combining Assessment Instruments

In some countries there are initiatives to introduce summative assessment at the end of
primary English programmes. For example, in Norway, The Ministry of Education
successfully piloted a national assessment project with primary learners at the end of the
sixth grade (age 11-12). In Norway, their aim was to help teachers assess their learners
strengths and weaknesses with multiple forms of assessment including self-assessment. A
whole package was designed because more tools can measure childrens abilities more fully.
The design of this assessment package took into account a number of restrictions. First of all,
children had only limited experience of writing. Secondly, the curriculum guidelines for
English were rather loose so teachers were covering different things in different schools.
Finally, teachers and learners alike had little experience of alternative assessment tools so the
test had to be easy to manage with lots of pictures and other visuals. The actual package
consisted of four episodes of a cartoon-picture mystery story about a hunt for a lost circus
elephant. The tool was trialed extensively in Norwegian primary schools and the results
indicated that children became very engaged in the tasks and genuinely used their skills to
solve the mystery. Some of the tasks were done collaboratively in small groups. Learners
were asked to score their own performance using simple self-assessment charts. Teachers
assessment of the children was interpreted together with students self-assessment comments
and both parties found working with the assessment package a very positive experience.
Teachers found that overall most pupils were realistic about assessing their own skills.
SUMMARY
In the case of children, traditional scores and paper and pencil tests do not work especially if
they are used as the only method of assessment. A variety of principals have been suggested
for introducing alternative assessment methods into TEYL classrooms. Assessment doesnt
have to be stressful and competitive. Instead, it can contribute to fostering positive self-image
and self-esteem in a collaborative environment.

RECOMMENDED READING
Background Theory
Carpenter, K, N. Fujii, and H. Kataoka. 1995. An oral interview procedure for assessing
second language abilities in children Language Testing 12/2: 157-181.
A Summary of empirical research conducted in the United States to work out how to design
and standardize oral assessment for young learners.

Language Testing Special Issue 2000. 17:2

This whole issue of the Language Testing journal is devoted to assessment with young
learners. The volume contains several articles from different contexts exploring issues such
as purpose and methods of assessment for children learning languages in the primary school.
Practical Teacher Resources
Ioannou-Georgiou, S. and P. Pavlou. 2003. Assessing Young Learners (Resource Books for
Teachers). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This is a collection of imaginative assessment ideas and activities to use in primary
classroom. The book contains multiple assessment techniques such as portfolio, selfassessment and project work but also more traditional assessment techniques carefully
explained and classified for different age groups.