Course Objectives And Assignment

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Course Objectives

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Lesson 1: How Do Young Learners Learn Languages?
In this lesson, we will learn about some of the theories involving how young learners develop
and learn and how they learn language.

Assignment
In this chapter, we have talked about the different preferred learning styles that children may
have in their overall learning and in language learning. Review the different types of
intelligences noted by Gardner.
Observe a group of adults or children learning something new (a language or otherwise) and
notice how many different ways they try to learn this new thing. Note the differences and
similarities in how they approach this task. Can you see clear intelligences being used and, if
so, which ones can you see? Share your ideas with the discussion group.
Now think about your own preferred learning style(s). Have you studied a foreign or additional
language as a child or as an adult? What type(s) of intelligence(s) did you favor when learning a
foreign or additional language? Were you given the chance to use that style of learning when
you were a student? Do you remember a lesson or situation that was especially effective for
you? Did this reflect your preferred intelligence(s)?
Visit the Discussion Board and compare your ideas with your fellow teachers. Think about the
following:

How many teachers favor the same intelligence in language learning as you do?

How many other types of intelligence are mentioned by teachers?

How would you react to the types of effective lessons or situations that other teachers
describe? As a teacher, would you consider using any of those types of lessons in your
language class?

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Lesson 2: Implications for Teaching English to Young Learners
In this lesson, we will talk about the need to plan language lessons for our young learners that
take into account how they learn and also that acknowledge their language needs, interests
and social, emotional and physical needs.

Lesson 2: Implications for Teaching English to

Young Learners
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Lesson 2 Assignment

Assignment
Think about any language teaching for children you have experienced yourself or have seen
taught and consider for a few moments what approach the teacher was using in this teaching.
Was the teacher clearly thinking about the learners and an approach that would match their
cognitive stage of development or was the teacher thinking more about the language being
taught? Which approach do you think most suits young learners?
Make two lists outlining some of the aspects of the teaching of a new language to children that
you have seen or experienced. Make one list positive and the other list negative and record all
the things you have noticed. Share your findings with your colleagues on the Discussion Board.
As you work through this course you may want to revisit these lists to check if you still agree
with them and perhaps what you might do now if you were to improve in any way the teaching
that you have seen or experienced.

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Lesson 3: Teaching Language to Young Learners
In this lesson, we will consider the characteristics of young learners and how we can use that
knowledge to teach vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. We will also think about how to
make the English classroom a supportive language environment and how to approach topic
and activity-based teaching.

Assignment
Think about the main issues that are involved in teaching English to young learners. What
issues should a person be aware of when teaching in a young learner EFL classroom? Make a
web chart that outlines important issues to consider.

Are there areas of teaching that you hadn't thought of before reading this lesson? What issues
are new for you? Which of the issues do you find especially interesting or challenging? Why?
Share your findings with your colleagues on the Discussion Board.

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Lesson 4: Teaching Listening in English to Young Learners
In this lesson, we will pay more attention to what young language learners are doing when they
are listening. We will also discuss what we can do to support listening in the language class.

Assignment
Make a list of all the activity types in this lesson and, one by one, create a kitbag of listening
activities based on these. Trial the activities with your young learners in different lessons and
with different classes. Note any additions or changes you might like to make to the activities to
make them more suitable for your context.
After trying out a variety of these, you will be able to create similar activities that meet the needs
of your students and support the language you are teaching. Share your listening activities with
other teachers on the Discussion Board.

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Lesson 5: Teaching Speaking in English to Young Learners
In this lesson, we will think about what is going on in our young learners' heads when they are
speaking and consider how they can be encouraged to speak in a natural and real way in the
target language through a wide range of speaking activities.

Assignment
Try and listen to five minutes of real (natural) speaking on a video or DVD and make a note of
how many times the speakers (adult or children) make mistakes, hesitate, go back and change
what they were saying, and stop and say um or ah. Think about this and consider if you have
been expecting your young learners to speak in perfect English in complete sentences in the
English class and, if so, how you feel about this now. What is important to you in helping your
students speak in English? Share your thoughts on this with other participants on the
Discussion Board.

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Lesson 6: Teaching Reading in English to Young Learners
In this lesson, we will discuss what is involved in reading for young learners. We will look at the
characteristics of a range of texts and think about how to help students read them in the
ESL/EFL classroom.

Assignment
Try to find out what your language learners read everyday outside the classroom and then try to
find similar types of text that you can use in English class. What could you do with these texts to
help your students develop their reading skills? Can you think of ways to adapt any of the
activities you were introduced to in earlier lessons in this course to help your students develop
their reading skills? How easy is it to adapt activities to meet the particular needs of your
students or to change the focus of the lesson? Share your ideas with your colleagues on the
Discussion Board.

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Lesson 7: Teaching Writing in English to Young Learners
In this lesson, we will become more aware of the different stages of writing for different levels of
language learners. We will learn what needs to be in place to support writing in the target
language for young learners.

Assignment
For this assignment on writing, identify a model of writing and an activity for each of the
following types of writers. Create a lesson plan for each of these activities and create or gather
all the materials you will need. (You can use some of the ideas suggested in this lesson.)

very young learners who are not yet writing in their first language and have little
background learning English;

young learners who are beginning to write in their first language and have limited
background learning English;

young learners who are confident writers in their first language and have some
background learning English.

These activities (and the resources needed for them that you have created and gathered
together) can become part of a portfolio for each of these levels of writers in your young learner
language classroom. Continue to develop further activities for your students. Share your writing
ideas with other teachers on the Discussion Board.

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Lesson 8: Using Stories When Teaching English to Young Learners
In this lesson, we will talk about how stories and storybooks in the young learner language
class provide an ideal way to introduce, practice and consolidate language learning.

Lesson 8: Using Stories When Teaching English

to Young Learners
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Lesson 8 Assignment

Assignment
Take one of the stories or storybooks we have listed above or mentioned in a chapter in this
lesson. Prepare it for your use in the language classroom. Decide what the stages of the story
are and list these, with details. Then start to learn the story so you can tell it to children without
reading it from the book. Practice with friends or family members. Think about your voice
(including intonation), facial expressions, and body language. See if your friends or family
members can understand and enjoy the story.
Now try and use it in your classroom. Be sure you overemphasize the drama in the story and
say it slowly, allowing lots of time for the learners to think about and process what they have
heard. Speak expressively and use plenty of gestures when you tell the story and enjoy it
yourself! Once you have mastered this approach to learning and telling stories, you can use it
for telling lots of stories in your classroom. Share your storytelling experiences and approach
you followed with other teachers on theDiscussion Board.

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Lesson 9: Using Songs, Rhymes, Chants and Poems in the Language
Classroom
In this lesson, we will learn a range of songs, rhymes, chants and poems and discuss how to
use them in a language class as important language-learning activities.

Assignment
Find a song, rhyme or chant you would like to use in the young learner classroom. Make sure
you choose it carefully, based on the chart in Chapter 2. Think about each of the activities
described in this lesson. Try and establish how many of these types of activities you could carry
out with your song, rhyme or chant. Trial your ideas first to make sure they are clear and work
well and then create the materials you may need for any of these activities. This is the beginning
of your songs, rhymes and chants library of teaching materials. Make sure you laminate them
(cover them with plastic) to give them a long classroom life.
Did you find you were able to think about lots of activities for your song, rhyme or chant? How
many activities do you think you will be able to use in your class? Share your findings with other
teachers on the Discussion Board.

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Lesson 10: Using Games in the Language Classroom

In this lesson, we will talk about why games are valuable to use in the language classroom. We
will discover techniques on how to successfully learn and teach through games.

Assignment
Look at a favorite card or board game that you know.Can it be used in the English class if you
just adjusted it slightly? What game is it and how would you play it to practice or consolidate or
recycle language? Share this information with your course colleagues on the Discussion Board.
You may find that you have lots of new games to play.

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Lesson 11: Using Presentations, Puppets, Videos, Role-play and Drama in
TEYL
In this lesson, we will learn about how student presentations, puppetry, video watching/making,
taking part in role-play and the delivery of formal drama productions in English can extend and
enrich our learners' opportunities to use English.

Assignment
Think about a story you could use as a starter for using puppets, role-play, video or drama in
your young learner English class. Brainstorm all the activities you could do with this story for the
lesson and then create some materials for it. Share your ideas with your colleagues on
the Discussion Board. This will immediately create a bigger resource bank for you. Comparing
what you have each done will allow for fine-tuning of your activities and ideas, too.

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Lesson 12: Evaluation, Assessment and Research in TEYL
In this lesson, we will consider what evaluation and assessment are used for at a classroom,
school, regional or national level. We will look at the benefits of carrying out small-scale
classroom-based research in our EYL lessons and look more closely at how to assess our
students and keep parents and students informed of what is happening in our classroom.

Assignment
For this assignment, take a test or assessment paper that you have created and analyze all
aspects of it, including the general focus of the test and what you wanted to assess by using it.
Now think in detail about this test and evaluate it in terms of what it actually did assess.
Did it assess the child's ability to read instructions for carrying out the test?
Did it assess how well a child could guess the answers?
Did it assess what you actually wanted it to assess?
If it did, how did you make sure this was the case?
If it didn't, why not? Can you identify some flaws in the design of the test? (What are these?)

How would you write a test to assess this area in the future? (Would you design it in exactly the

same way, in a slightly different way or in a very different way? Why do you say this?) Share
your thoughts and reflections on your own test designs with your colleagues on the Discussion
Board.