Real_English_The_Teacher_Guide.pdf

THE TEACHER GUIDE

FOR A YOUNG CHILDREN’S COURSE

material to use with very young learners of English

(3-11 years)

Luc Ciotkowski

(with contributions from Lydia Brear)

First edition published by ILCEA Linguistic Ltd. 2005

Introduction

Are we missing the point?

Lexical and grammatical fields

VIII

Materials

XII

Vocabulary games

XIV

Language specific games

XVII

Week

Lesson

Introductions

ers

Halloween

Colours

REVISION A

tis

This and that

Weather

Christmas

REVISION B

Family and pets

Body parts I

Body parts II

ials

REVISION C

Can you?

In the house

Hair and eyes

Easter + REVISION D

e’s ig

Clothes

REVISION E

Mealtimes

Transport

REVISION F

REVISION G + Goodbye

The ‘chairs’ game

XVI

Introduction

This guide was originally conceived for the PROXILANGUE language

school program and provides material for an English language course

for children between the ages of three and eleven years old. The

course consists of thirty one lessons of one hour which, at one hour a

week, represents a full academic year. It can be no more than a basis

due to the large differences in development between these age

groups. Therefore, the guide should not be looked at as a ‘one-size-

fits-all’ but as a cloth ready to be tailored to specific groups and

ages. Clearly, you will spend longer using the more simple practice

activities and games with groups of younger students, while you will

be able to move onto more complex activities and games more quickly

with older groups. The course is very light on materials and teaches

spoken English. This allows for maximum communication, interaction

and participation, while promoting a new language as an interpersonal

tool and not an academic discipline. As a result the course is more

demanding than many others: the teacher is neither able to rest nor

hide behind materials and written exercises. However, this is also

the very thing that makes it more rewarding for teachers than many

other courses.

The Teacher Guide was developed on these principles: children learn

most naturally and effectively through play; learning a language can

and should be a pleasant experience. I hope the Teacher Guide will

be used with motivation in mind. I believe that this is the most

important factor for increasing the effectiveness of learning (see

the piece entitled ‘Are we missing the point?’) and should be a key

consideration in any course. The activities are designed to promote

cooperation, participation and some friendly competition that doesn’t

exclude less able students in favour of the more able ones. The

students are discouraged from reverting to their mother tongue or

not participating by the risk of ‘losing’ or isolating themselves from

the group; they must participate in order to ‘survive’. This is coupled

with the way that activities are presented as play rather than work;

it is much easier to get students to do something because they want

to rather than forcing them to.

No reading or writing activities are directly mentioned in the

Teacher Guide. This is not attempt to deny the importance of the

written language. It is important as a means of making sense of what

has been learned, in addition to being a communicative tool. However,

in a thirty-hour course that consists of one lesson of one hour a

week (as this was originally intended) the contact time for actual

human communication is too precious to be spent on something which

is essentially an individual activity and penalises students with a less-

developed level of literacy. I recognise that some teachers work

under the obligation of teaching written English and the Teacher

Guide remains a useful resource to them: reading and writing

activities can be added to the end of every lesson to reinforce what

has been learned. I strongly advise that if a written element must be

added then it be added after new language has been introduced

through listening and speaking. Phonology has to come before

phonics, otherwise interference from the phonics of the mother

tongue will have a significantly negative effect on pronunciation.

This is a guide and, as such, is not exclusive: your own ideas and

games would be a welcome expansion and if, without losing cohesion

or coherence, you can do something better you should feel free to do

so. We are breaking away from the tradition of the textbook; to

follow the entire guide without adding, taking away or changing

anything would be to kill the dynamism we are trying to attain. I have

tried and tested all the lesson plans and ideas with every age group,

although I have never followed a single one to the letter and never

delivered a lesson in exactly the same way twice. The reason for this

is that the needs of each group are as different as the abilities,

personalities and needs of the individuals who are in it. We need to

adapt our ideas constantly if we wish our students to reap the

maximum benefit from our classes.

III

What we teach children first may be no more important than which

leg we put into our trousers first in the morning, but the Teacher

Guide tries to cover some of the most frequently occurring and

relevant topics and language areas. The Guide doesn’t work through a

progression of structures and you will be able to see that present

tenses appear most frequently (as they do in real life spoken

English). However, the context is the deciding factor in choosing

tenses; if an activity creates a situation where a certain tense is

most natural we will not avoid it because it is a ‘higher level’ tense.

Equally, approaching activities in a different way open up the

possibility of using different tenses to those mentioned. The games

are designed to satisfy both the fun and language aspects of the

course. No thirty-hour course will produce fluent speakers of

English, but it can be a foundation and, more importantly, a positive

first experience of learning English.

You will find a list of the most useful vocabulary and language

specific games that are referred to in the lesson plans; these can

also be used in lessons where they are not mentioned. There are

language specific games that are not at all mentioned in the lesson

plans; these are designed to be slotted in according to age and ability

where you feel they may be appropriate. You will see that the

vocabulary included follows the norms of British English; this can

easily be adapted if you wish to teach another variety of English.

Finally, I have taught students between the ages of three and

eighty-three, of all levels and abilities, and have often asked their

opinions of what makes a good teacher. The most valued

characteristics are almost always the human qualities that are

independent of teaching methods or styles. I believe it is important

to bear this in mind in any teaching situation.

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