Approaches to teaching children

APPROACHES

• Direct method

• The total physical response method

• The whole language approach

• The topic based approach

• The task based approach

Methodology – derived form approaches. It’s descriptive, specific techniques

Approach – narrower, something different than methodology.

DIRECT METHOD

• Observation, two-years-old children are though English based on observing and response.

• Teachers must encourage direct and spontaneous use of foreign language. Students are thought not only rules and grammar but must also learn a language.

• Through this method learners will be able to induce rules of grammar.

• The teacher becomes a source of language – there is no course book.

• The teaching of speaking begins with systematic attention to pronounciation. We have to be good example of good speaker.

PRINCIPLES OF DIRECT METHOD:

• Classroom interaction is conducted exclusively in target language.

• Only everyday vocabulary and sentences are thought; Everyday situations.

• Oral communication skills are built up in a carefully graded progression, organized around question-and-answer exchanges.

• Small-size classes

• Intensive courses

• Grammar is taught inductively (oral presentation)

• Concrete vocabulary is taught through demonstration(not through writing)

• Spelling and listening comprehension are taught

• Correct pronounciation and grammar are useful and very important.

RULES OF DIRECT METHOD

• Demonstrate

• Act

• Correct mistakes

• Ask questions

• Use sentences as model

• Use lesson plan and follow it

• Keep the peace of students

• Speak naturally (speed, tone)

THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

• Children learn by doing, the teacher should be persistent. Encourage the children

• Language teaching procedures refer to comprehension-based teaching and learning

• Comprehension abilities precede productive skills in learning a language

• Teaching of speaking is delayed until comprehension skills are established.

• Skills acquired through listening transfer to other skills

• Teaching should emphasize meaning

• Stress should be reduced to the minimum.

TECHNIQUES:

• Imperative drills

• Repetitions (phrases, songs)

• Role-plays

• Slide presentations

WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH

• Children experience simultaneously the integration of all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing)

• Learning a language should be done in functional situations

• language is learned when children experience and use it.

BENEFITS OF THE WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH

• Learners can participate in all language activities, regardless of their level of proficiency in English

• Mixed ability groups can learn together

• Child-centered learning

• Development in oral skills

• Reading and writing are integrated and grow simultaneously

• Rate of growth is completely individual

• It facilities growth in both first and second language

ACTIVITIES

• Choral repetitions/reading

• Singing

• Grammar

• Cooperative learning

• Problem solving

• Field trips

• Art

• reaps

TOPIC BASED APPROACH

• Use topics that are interesting and useful for children

• Involve all senses

• Stress on communication

• Use children creativity (drawing, painting, singing)

• Use visuals

TASK BASED APPROACH

• Organize learning around tasks

• Task/problem solving approach

• Involve all senses and language skills

• Stress on communication

• Games, puzzles, riddles

• Importance of visual stimuli

Listening

Children spend a large part of their time listening

Play some record in the background when children are doing other activities

PREPARATION

• By making explicit the reasons for listening to something

• Be equipping Ls with specific strategies for different listening purposes

• By emphasizing that Ls are not expected to understand every word

• By encouraging “intelligent guesswork”

THREE APPROACHES

• Language is a linear process (word -> short sentence -> longer sentence->…)

• Language as a comprehension-focused process

• Language as an integrative process

EFFECTIVE LISTENING – complex interplay of three dimensions

• Social (explain the meaning)

• Cognitive

• Linguistic (rhythm, intonation, stress)

Speaking

Language learning = speaking

• Immediate results

• Some English to “take away”

• Basic concepts: numbers, colours

• Simple greetings

• A few rhymes and songs

TEACHING SOME PATTERNS

• Greeting

• Social English (may I go out?)

• Routines (instructions, orders)

• Classroom language

• Asking for permission

• Communication strategies

SPEAKING PRACTICE

• Initiated by teacher

• Consists of simple question and answer

• Connected with fun and games

• With varied interaction patterns

• Varied responses

• Allow participation according to Ls ability

• Amount of talking time

• Should range from controlled to free communication

Reading

The younger students, the less force them to reading. It is wise not to place too many demands on younger learners who are at an early stage of reading development.

GENERAL IMPLICATION

Encourage children to notice any examples of written English, songs, labels, advertisement

APPROACHES TO TEACHING READING - Objects in the classroom may be labeled

• PHONICS

• Sound and letters correspondences

• Work attach skills (combining word, syllabs)

• WHOLE WORD

• Starting with whole words

• Practicing words in context

• Letter combinations

• Recognizing key words

READING STRATEGIES

• Drawing upon previous knowledge

• 6-7 year old children live “here and now”

• Predicting – children think that predicting helps them to know the context

• Knowing the aim

• Using context (pictures)

• “intelligent” guesswork

• Using charts, labels, graphs, gestures

• Gap filling

Writing

Time consuming process; The aim of writing – to provide language practice

WRITING PROCESS

• Labeling

• Rewriting

• Filling in gaps

• Practice grammar

• Classifying

• Grouping

• Flashcard

• Charts

• Crosswords

• Anagrams

• Matching

• Sequencing

CREATIVE WRITING

• Cards

• Invitations

• Letters

• Menus

• Stories

• Cartoons

• Instructions to games

• Tickets

• Alphabet poems

• Shape poems

Grammar

Formal teaching of grammar is NOT a major objective when teaching young learners.

Teaching pronounciation to children

• Differences in pronounciation

• Ls are good in imitating

• Ls are good at “picking up” models

• Integral part of vocabulary presentation

Top – Down approach

1. Immediate inclusion of suprasegmentals

2. No need for theoretical background

3. It stresses the comprehensibility of Ls utterance

MEANS FOR PRACTISING PRONOUNCIATION

• Repetition drills

• Chants

• Songs

• Poems

• Games

• Riddles

• Rhymes

Lesson planning

Lesson is a progression on interrelated activities which reinforce and consolidate each other in establishing the learning.

HELPING STUDENTS

Teacher decides on what is to be learned during lesson

Teacher decides on aims of the lesson (what will Ls know after the lesson/what the Ls will be able to do/understand/express)

STRUCTURE OF THE LESSON

• Fairly recognizable: 45 minute period

• At school, in the classroom

• 2 kinds of participants (teacher + learners)

• Consists of recognizable activities

• 3 stages (opening, main part, ending)

OPENING – procedures that help students focus on the learning tasks. It takes first 5 minutes. Helps learners to relate to new content with the last lesson or topic; Assess the relevant knowledge; Establish an appropriate ‘set’ in learners; Allow ‘tuning in’ time; reduce the disruption caused by coming late students.

WAYS TO BEGIN A LESSON:

Describe the goals of the lesson

State the info or skill Ss will learn

Describe the relationship between the lesson/activities and the real world needs

Begin an activity without any explanation (warm-up)

Review learning for a previous lesson

MAIN PART: SEQUENCING Connected with the format of the lesson; Collection of activities which need to be ordered and organized.

PRINCIPLES OF SEQUENCING

Simple activities should come before complex ones

Activities involving receptive skills should proceed those that involve productive skills

S. should ‘study’ grammar rules before trying to use them

Accuracy-focused activities should precede fluency-focused ones.

PACING-TIME ALLOCATION

Avoid needles or over-lengthy explanations, instructions; keep them short, simple and clean.

Let Ss to get in with the task as soon as possible.

Variety of activities.

Avoid predictable or repetitive activities.

Set a goal and time for all actions, actions that have no obvious conclusion or in which no time frame is set tend to have little momentum.

Monitor Ss performance on activities to ensure that Ss have had sufficient but not too much time.

CONCLUSIVE – SUMMARY servers to:

Reinforce what has been learned in a lesson.

Integrate and review the content of a lesson

Prepare the students for homework/future learning

WAYS OF CLOSING THE LESSON:

Summarizing

Reviewing key points

Relating the lesson to the course or lesson goals

Making links to forthcoming lessons

Praising Ss for what they have accomplished during lesson

Giving homework

THE PURPOSE OF PLANNING: the planning enables you to:

Think about the type of learning

Think about the structure of the lesson

Think about the content of the lesson

To reduce thinking time during the lesson

To prepare materials, resources, props

STAGES OF LESSON PLANNING

1. Aims of the lesson

2. Selection of tasks

3. Scripting the lesson

4. Preparation of all props

5. Deciding on monitoring and assessing pupils

6. Predicting possible problems and solutions