10.

1 Listening

Listening can be very difficult for many of young learners. Therefore, a

teacher should anticipate their difficulty by catering the listening activities with

his/her appropriate stimulating gestures via hands and body movements and facial

expression. This will involve the young learners so that they will be motivated,

get the ideas and can have a go with writing about the word or phrase and even

sentence they have listened and been trained to say or pronounce. The listening

activities can be various such as ‘listen and imitate’, 'listen and repeat’, ‘listen and

follow instruction’ and 'listen and match’.

Listening tasks are extremely important in the primary language

classroom, providing a rich source of language data from which the learners begin

to build up on their own idea of how the language works. This language forms a

base or resource which they will eventually draw on in order to produce language

themselves. Let the leamers listen to language which is a little above the level

with which they are already familiar. Make the meaning clear by using pictures,

mime, and body language, and they wiil understand it and expand t their + language

horizons just a little bit further.

It is always almost true that language learners understand more than they

can say, and when children learn their first language they respond language long

before they learn to speak. Second language learners also have a ‘silent period’ in

which they listen to the language around them, internalize it, and formulate their

own personal grammar, which they adapt and expand as they are exposed to more
language. Some authors argue that this period should be respected and that the

students learning a new language should not be made to speak (or write) until they

are ready, that is, until they do spontaneously. Many of the activities in this

section require learners to respond non-verbally, or using a minimum of language.

This allows them to focus on what they are listening to and to demonstrate that

they have understood it, without being distracted by how to formulate their.

10.2 Speaking

Spoken activities should be organized through communicative interaction

involving the young learners to partake actively. The learners are usually eager to

act out the language they have just learnt or are learning. Therefore, a teacher

should be able to well-plan the objective of the spoken activities. In a guided

activity which mainly concerns on accuracy the teacher can make direct correction

on the learner's mispronunciation as well as the structure.

In more free spoken activities which tend to drive learners’ enthusiasm to

express their ideas the focus is on the content not on the structure. These can be language without it
becoming boring.

Young leamers also respond strongly to music and rhytt

find that they are more easily able to learn a chant or & song than a

Songs and chants are also useful for teaching the stress pattern and
English — see section 10. 5, ‘Songs and Chants’.

However, teachers find speaking a difficult skill to teach, because

have to master different elements of language in order to say what they

vocabulary, pronunciation, structures, functions, and so on. This is why it is

to teach short, set phrases first, such as everyday classroom language like

greetings and requests, or What's your favorite sport? in basic information

gathering activities. This gets the learners used to the sound, feel, and rhythm of

the language, without having to worry too much about how to formulate what they

want to say.

As young learners getting older they become better able to use and

manipulate the language, and you can add less tightly controlled activities such as

storytelling, or information gathering. It is important to bear in mind that youn,

learners need to see the reason for doing the activity — for example, to complete

picture, to find information in order to make a graph, or to put on a perfi

This end-product is an important motivating factor, often more important ¢

topic itself.

their own language, often through frustration at not havi

Choose tasks that are wipe their capabilities and 1

ting skills is a follow-up activity of listening, speaking and

been done earlier. This activity should consider much on the

and level of the lcamers’ ability to use English. Writing is a compl

Buse of requiring ability to spell, to construct logical sentence,

vocabulary.

Relieving level of learners' writing ability can be categorized into two. The

beginner of English young learners. The material

copied is word by word. The purpose is to train the young learners hand-writing

with correct spelling and to introduce new vocabulary. For example, writing a list

of animals, stationery, filling in puzzle, labeling picture, and grouping words of a

which will be rewritten or

ouop s siq1 essed uoys o sauens spuon (Buiidoo) Sunu sI

topic

The second is creative writing. This is usually done by upper class

students. The purpose is to train the learners to write and spell, use punctuation

marks,

and know new vocabulary and structure. The materials which will be

consist of phrases or sentences with a certain structure which has been

learned. In this activity the learners have a chance to practice the language

pattern/structure which has just been learned in meaningful sentences.

The question of when to start teaching the young learners to write in

English is closely linked to that of when to start teaching them to read. Similar

written

criteria apply:

- How well can young learners read and write in their own language?

- Do they need to be able to write in English at this stage?

- Do they know the Latin script?

- Do they show an interest to write?

- Will the English spelling system interfere seriously with what they are

learning in their own language?

-Are you going to ask them to copy or to be creative?

- To write words, sentences, or stories?

In general, it is best to introduce English through listening and speaking

first, then reading, and writing last. It is important to evaluate the needs and

abilities of your own learners

learners, pictures are very

important. Ask them to draw a

For young

picture first (for example, 'What I did at the weekend'), and then to write a short

caption for it. It is usual to ask them to copy words and short sentences first - to

much as their English. These short sentences and

practice their handwriting

words should reflect themes connected with the young learners' schoolwork or

daily lives, and be linked with pictures and posters around the room.

However, writing is much more than the simple mechanics of getting the

appropriate words, sentence linking and text construction; and, for older children.

having ideas about content, and the ability to be self-critical and to edit their own

words down: it involves being creative, spelling, grammar, punctuation, choice of