5/3/2012

INTRODUCING FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AT AN EARLY

AGE

Nowadays it is not uncommon to start learning foreign languages

at a very young age, even in kindergarten. There is a strong ˝folk˝ belief

that young children learn languages better and more easily than older

children (Brewster; Ellis, Girard, 2004: 3). There has been a growing

trend for using English as a world language and English is learnt by

children in many countries of the world. Incentives for learning English at

an early age has often come from parents, who believe that being fluent in

English will help their children in many areas, especially in economic,

cultural and educational areas (Brewster; Ellis; Girard, 2004: 3).

Characteristics of young children

Compared to learning a foreign language at an adult age, when

people usually have a long-term goal (a wish to get a job where bilingual

skills are important, a wish to study in the country of the target language),

learning a foreign language at a young age has its specificities, the most

important being the fact that young children are not in control of their

lives and are thus ˝motivated˝ to learn a foreign language by their parents.

Following are the characteristics of young children (Brewster; Ellis;

Girard, 2004: 10):

- have a lot of physical energy

- are emotionally excitable

- are developing conceptually

- get impatient easily

- are developing literacy in their first language

- are excellent mimics

- tend to be self - oriented and preoccupied with their own world

- are developing conceptually and at an early stage of their

schooling

- can stay concentrated for a long time if interested

- can be easily distracted and also very enthusiastic

Children go through six stages of their first language (L1, source

language ) acquisition (Brewster; Ellis, Girard, 2004: 14):

1. Babbling (from birth to about eight monts): babies can hear and

produce a wide array of noises and sounds. Some of these sounds will be

rejected at a later stage.

2. The first ˝word˝ (about eleven months): children name objects in their

surrounding in their own ways. During the second year random

vocalizations begin to resemble genuine communication, thus some

sound combinations such as dada and mama, tend to be rewarded

positively, although they are produced by chance.

3. Two words (18 months to two years): children enter a synctactic phase

by putting two words together (there, look, want, more, all, gone) to

create a new meaning (look Daddy, Mummy gone, there, doggy)

4. Phonological, synctactic and lexical norms (age 3 and 4):

grammatical structures resemble adults´ structures, the phonological

system is acquired although children might have a few problems with

individual sounds and consonants (thrill, school, ship, church), children

use a vocabulary of several thousand words

5. Synctactic and lexical complexity and richness (between six and

twelve): children continue to expand their reading vocabulary and

improve their understanding of words; they are able to give more abstract

and less self-oriented definitions of words; they like learning poems, song

lyrics, tongue twisters and often create secret languages and codes

6. Conversational skills (12 onwards): do not hesitate to aks for

clarifications, try to identify the problem, suggest an alternative, more

able to take another person´ s perspective, better at using persuasive

arguments to get what they want.

Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2004: 15) opine that most learners

undergo through four phases during the process of acquisition of L1 and

L2 (target language):

1.Working out rules about how the language works

2.Generalizing the rules through a group of similar examples

3.Overgenaralizing (using rules where they are not appropriate, ex.

Simple Past goed and putted instead of went and put)

4. Using language items correctly

The acquisition of grammar

Vasta, Haith and Miller (1998: 425) point out that acquisition of

grammar encompasses the acquisition of syntax (word order), inflection

(conjugations, declensions) and intonation (stress). They distinguish

following stages of L1 grammar acquisition:

1. Opting for the symbol which they believe will be of greatest use to

them in learning the linguistic structure of their mother tongue,

selecting the symbols that are most accessible (Engl. word order in

a sentence)

2. Focusing on the most reliable symbols (those explaining the

structure of grammar in the most consistent way)

3. Noticing the symbols that are in collision, subsequently choosing

those symbols that best reflect the structure of the language

Lynne Cameron emphasizes that children create their own ˝inner˝

grammars, which they acquire individually, i.e. every individual acquires

grammar in his/her own specific way. Inner grammar is sometimes

referred to as interlanguage or linguistic competence. She distinguishes

three stages of L2 grammar acquisition (Cameron, 946: 108):

1. noticing: noticing structures and the connections between

form and meaning, children often notice chunks of language

(phrases they acquire and use later in speech, ex. I don´t

know, Come on)

2. structuring: children freely manipulate with a foreign

language (expressions can be splintered and combined with

other linguistic elements: ex. We don´ t know, I don´ t know

his name), grammatical mistakes are often made: children

apply the acquired rules in new situations: maked, taked

3. proceduralizing: automatization of the use of most

grammatical rules takes place; teacher´s role is very

important at this stage

Vidović and Drakulić (2011: 948) outline similarities in the

acquisition of L1 and L2 English grammar. They point out that mistakes

mostly occur in the use of the same grammatical categories (ex. plural of

nouns such as mouse – mouses and the Simple Past of irregular verbs

such as go – goed).

Mistakes mostly occur in a similar manner, i.e. excessive

generalization; the inconsistent use of regular and irregular word forms,

i.e. the same child may sometimes use the correct form, i.e. teeth or a

wrong form such as tooths (Vasta; Haith; Miller, 1998: 498).

Views on L1 and L2 acquisition

Brewster, Ellis and Girard give a brief overview of the main

theoretical views on L1 and L2 acquisition (2004: 16 - 19), i.e.

behaviorist, innatist, cognitive – developmental and social –

interactionist views.

Behaviorist views had a strong influence on the audio-lingual

approach. Behaviorists put emphasis on repetition in form of drills,

accuracy and avoidance of errors and base their work on Leonard

Skinner´s work ˝Verbal Behaviour˝ (1957). Language is learnt by

imitation, practice and habit formation. Correct learning behaviour is

rewarded by praise.

One of the biggest disadvantages of these views is the fact that

they do not explain children´s creativity in language. They neglect the

fact that children play with similar sounds and compare patterns and

meanings recognized from other words (ex. experimenting with the word

undressed: on dressed, off dressed, etc.).

Innatist views originate from the 17th and 18th century theories

whicha advocated the notion that there are universal characteristics of the

mind. These ideas revived in the 1950s by Noam Chomsky, who

suggested an internal (innate) Language Acquisition Device (LAD),

which led to Universal Grammar in 1959. Chomsky supports the notion

that children process the language they hear and produce own meaningful

utterances. However, one disadvantage of this view is that it neglects

social aspects of communication.

Nativists think that both L1 and L2 acquisition require the learner

to use past experience to structure new experience. According to this

view the child uses the language they hear selectively by building upon

what they already know.

Cognitive – developmental views see language development as an

aspect of general cognitive growth. They believe thinking skills mature

before a framework for early language development is created. R.

Lenneberg supported the notion of Critical Period Hypothesis, which

advocated the idea that there is a specific and limited time for language

acquisition.

The main disadvantage of these views is emphasizing age too

much at the expense on other factors suchas motivation and learning

conditions. Cognitivists believe there are significant differences between

L1 and L2 acquisition. In their view an L2 learner is more cognitively

developed than an L1 learner .

Social – interactionist views emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s,

when developmental psychologists emphasized the importance of social

factors and adult – child relationships in learning. They opine that

language is modified to suit the level of the learner. Jerome Bruner

introduced the idea of Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) and

stressed the role of scaffolding (providing a structure framework by the

person giving support to the learner). A few decades earlier Lev

Vygotsky suggested the˝zone of proximal development˝(ZPD), stating

that children can do much more with the help of someone more

knowledgeable/skilled then they would do if studying alone.

However, social – interactionists do not stress enough children´s

creativity.They emphasize that the social context varies significantly in

terms of the types and amount of the input provided/output produced as

well as the purpose for which the language is used. Thus they see L1

acquisition as highly contextualized with the learner being highly

motivated, whereas L2 acquisition is more decontextualized and the

learner is usually not so highly motivated.

13/2/2012

THE IDEAL AGE FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Mother – cat took her kittens for a walk on a nice sunny day.

Suddenly a huge dog appeared in front of them and started barking. The

kittens were terrified and started miaowing in panic. Mother - cat,

however, plucked up her courage and started barking at the dog. The dog

was astonished and disappeared. The cat said to her kittens: ˝You see,

children, how important it is to speak foreign languages!˝

Foreign language acquisition is a unique process, although it shares

certain mechanisms with the acquisition of mother tongue, as said in the

previous lecture. There has been a trend in Croatia (it is also a global

trend) to sign children into foreign language programmes at a very young

age. Thus it is not uncommon when a parent enrols his/her 3- year - old

son /daughter in a kindergarten which runs an English course. We can

pose a question: What is the ideal age for a child to start learning a

foreign language?

There is no straightforward answer to this question. Research was

conducted in several European countries in the 1960s and 1970s, the aim

of which was to determine optimal conditions related to the introduction

of a foreign language in primary schools. The project ETML, which was

conducted in The United Kingdom during the 1970s, did not explicitly

indicate that younger children learn French faster and more easily than

older children. The main drawbacks of this project were a huge number

of students who participated in it and, related to this issue, the

inappropriateness of some variables for systematic control and checkup

(Vilke, 1991: 143). France in turn conducted an experiment to determine

how far primary foreign language learning might be successful (Brewster;

Ellis; Girard, 2004: 3). Thus a report by Girard provided a detailed

overview of several European FLL projects. These projects emphasized

the optimal or best conditions for teaching languages including: 1)

appropriately trained teachers, 2) proper schedule with appropraite

timing, 3) appropriate methodology, 4) liaison with secondary schools,

provision of suitable resources and integrated monitoring and evaluation

(Brewster; Ellis, Girard, 2004: 3). The findings of these projects

suggested that there is no theoretical optimum to start teaching. The

commencing age seems to depend upon the linguistic situation in a

particular country, although at that time the age of nine was often chosen

as the ideal age for starting to learn a foreign language.

It was also concluded that time is of essence, i.e. the more time a

child is exposed to a foreign language, the better the results. It was

determined that it is more beneficial for younger children to have regular

short slots during the week rather than longer more concentrated slots.

Different views on the ideal age to start learning a foreign language

Most research in this field has been conducted in the areas of

neuroscience and developmental psycholinguistics. Research as well

included the studies of the linguistic situation of children who acquired a

second language in the countries where this second language is spoken as

the first language as well as the studies which were conducted in

students´ homelands and included institutionalized learning of foreign

languages. The latter research will be addressed with more detail during

the following lecture.

Lenneberg´s research from 1960s indicated that the end of the

lateralization process, which takes place around puberty, marks the

domination of the left hemisphere in the brain. This process is

accompanied by a loss in brain plasticity. Thus in cases of aphasias

(which result from brain damage) that take place before the critical

period, i.e. before lateralization, the linguistic capability can be restored.

In that way children who are exposed to a foreign language during this

period of their lives can acquire a foreign language without an accent.

Lenneberg´s hypotheses were refuted by S. Krashen, who highlighted that

the process of lateralization starts before a baby is born and finishes

around the age of 5 (Vilke, 1991: 145). Cases like the 13,5 – year – old

girl Genie (the girl was found completely neglected, confined in a

basement by her brother and father) indicate, however, that linguistic

development is erratic and incomplete if started after the age of 6.

According to Piaget, the ideal age for foreign language acquisition

seems to be the stage of concrete operations, i.e. the age between seven

and eleven. He distinguishes two different concepts of language

acquisition: spontaneous concepts, which a child acquires with his own

mental efforts and non- spontaneous concepts, which a child obtains with

the help of others. Foreign language acquisition belongs to the second

category, while mother tongue acquisition belongs to the first. During the

stage of concrete operations a child commences to socialize with other

children, can be concentrated on an activity for a longer period of time

and behaves responsibly towards people surrounding him/ her (Vilke,

1991: 148).

L. Vygotsky points out that the development of spontaneous and

non- spontaneus concepts are strongly interrelated: the success in foreign

language acquisition depends upon the level of maturity a child has

reached in his / her mother tongue and the other way round, i.e. a foreign

language facilitates the acquisition of higher, more complex forms of

mother tongue (Vilke, 1991:150).

Vilke (1991: 148) points out that a child of ten is not yet

linguistically, cognitively and emotionally developed, therefore one

should be careful in selecting appropriate contents and forms to teach.

The author as well emphasizes the fact that children acquire some

structures in their first anguage around the age of 10 (ex. some forms of

demonstrative pronouns). It is therefore wrong, opines Vilke, to insist

upon the acquisition of foreign language structures which a child has not

acquired in his /her first language.

20.03.2012.

DOES YOUNGER AUTOMATICALLY MEAN BETTER?

The Zagreb Project

The research undertaken at the University of Zagreb focused on

(dis)approval of Lenneberg´s theses on the neuroplasticity in language

acquisition and, related to this phenomenon, puberty as the period in a

person´s life during which appear blocs in the language acquisition process.

Thus, Lenneberg claims, language is best learned by the age of 12 (Lenneberg,

1967: 36).

The first phase of the study, which lasted from 1973 to 1985, was

conducted at the Department of English of the Faculty of Arts in Zagreb which

examined sixty nine- year- old beginners and sixty beginners aged between 17

and nineteen. The examinees were exposed to approximately same language

materials, similar methodologies and techniques were applied and the studied

period was identical. The project was led by Dr. Mirjana Vilke. The findings

were following: most significant differences appeared in the area of

pronunciation: the younger group demonstrated a very high level of

pronunciation and used authentic English sounds and intonation while the

older group used Croatian sounds that are the closest to the equivalent English

sounds (mader/mazer instead of maðэ).

In the area of grammar there were as well considerable differences: the

younger group tended to provide the shortest possible answer (ex. Is the dining

room upstairs? Yes/No. ), which is in accordance with the strategies young

children utilize in their mother tongue, whereas the older group provided

complete short answers (Yes, it is./No it isn´t). The older group had acquired

the singular and plural forms of demonstrative pronouns, while the younger

group hadn´t (They provided different answers to the question What are

these?: This is apples; That is apples; That are apple; That´re apples; That is

apple). This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that pronominal

relations are not completely acquired in mother tongue either by the age of ten

or eleven (Vilke, 1991: 152).

The acquisition of lexical material depended to a large extent on

understanding the concept in the source language. Thus the noun bedroom

was easily acquired, while the nouns drawing –room and dining room were a

problem because the children were not familiar with the concepts these words

represented (this is due to the fact that children mostly lived in two – bedroom

flats which did not encompass dining rooms and drawing rooms).

The findings of the first phase of the Zagreb project indicated that correct

pronunciation and intonation is best acquired during the pre- puberty period in

a child´s life, while older students achive more modest results in this area. On

the other hand, older students understand the mechanisms of functioning of a

foreign language better because they have already acquired mechanisms of

their mother tongue. Moreover, they are at a higher level of intellectual and

cognitive development. Differences in acquisition of grammar and lexis were

significant but not crucial (Vilke, 1991: 153). The examiners´ conclusion was

that children should start learning foreign languages early enough to develop a

sense of self - confidence characteristic of a person who is aware of his correct

pronunciation and fluency in speaking a foreign language.

The second phase of the project focused on determining an ideal

age for foreign language acquisition. The starting point was Piaget´s stage of

concrete operations (which corresponds to the the age between seven and

eleven). The posed question was: If there is an ideal age for learning a foreign

language, would it be between seven and eleven? The second phase of the

project started in 1975. It was envisaged as systematic observation of seventy

children between the ages of six and nine. The children learnt English on

courses of the Institut za strane jezike Narodnog sveučilišta grada Zagreba

(today Škola za strane jezike). The children were interviewed in order to find

out which were the most relevant motivating factors for learning English.

These turned out to be a wish to communicate with people from other

countries due to the fact that English was one of the most important global

languages, a wish to communiocate in English during school holidays, a wish to

understand films in English and a wish to be able to get by when travelling

abroad (Vilke, 1991: 154). It was obvious that these were the parents´ wishes,

who transferred their positive attitudes to learning English onto their children.

Another significant factor of motivation was the strudents´relationship with

their English teachers. Learning English was viewed as fun, interesting, the

children felt well and relaxed in class. English teachers were described as

friendly and helpful. These findings indicated at the importance of motivation

in learning foreign languages at an early age.

Jayne Moon classifies various motivating factors which influnce attitudes

to learning a foreign language (Moon, 2004: 15 – 17). For younger, pre- puberty

children these include: parents´opinions, the methods used in class,

appropriate learning materials, planning interesting learning activities and

creating a positive learning environment. Moreover, the intrinsic motivating

factors include personal preferences, a wish to play computer games and to

socialize with friends. Older students, however, seem to be influenced by their

peers rather than by their parents ( they do not want to look foolish in front of

their friends) and are more aware of the usefulness of learning English (working

and studying abroad, being able to find a better job, to use the computer, etc.).

Let us answer the question posed at the beginning of the lecture: Does

younger automatically mean better? Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada (1993)

opine that learners who start learning a foreign language slightly later

(between the ages of 10 and 12) catch up with those who start earlier (at the

age of seven or below). They emphasize that young age itself does not seem to

be the sufficient factor for success at learning a foreign language, other factors

include levels of motivation and confidence, personality, aptitude and others.

Rod Ellis (1994) suggested a compromise: the critical age for native – speaker-

like pronunciation is six, while for learning grammar the critical age appears to

be puberty onwards ( Brewster; Ellis; Girard, 2004: 36): Lightbown and Spada

point out that shorter slots are likely to be more effective with younger

children, with preferably more than two periods a week.

Jayne Moon emphasizes that not only in-school, but also out- of – school

influences play a role in motivation. Apart from already mentioned in – school

influences (teacher, teaching methods, the learning process, school culture,

teaching materials), out- of –school influences are as well of importance. These

include:, parents´influence, peer influence, the media and local youth culture,

with the last three affecting mainly the puberty + students (Moon, 2004: 17).

¸

26/3/2012

WORKING WITH CHILDREN WITH DIFFERENT ABILITIES

Working in class full of children with different abilities certainly

poses a challenge for a foreign language teacher. Moon distinguishes

almost a dozen differences amongst pupils related to foreign language

acquisition. Thus children may differ in following (Moon, 2005: 26):

- perception of the language

- relationship with the teacher

- family background

- types of intelligence

- interests

- gender

- attitude and motivation for learning English

- experience of the world

Apart from children with different interests and characteristics, foreign

language teachers will have had experience with dealing with differences

in abilities. Moon names possible strategies of dealing with children of

different abilities (Moon, 2005: 28):

1. planning differentiated activities (it is a good idea to collaborate

with other teachers in order to develop a materials bank)

2. giving enough time to different groups (it makes students more

independent and relieves the teacher of the need of constant

attention to the whole class, which enables him /her to spend

time with individuals/groups who need extra help)

3. catering for all the different needs (this can be done in several

ways: by preparing a bank of self – access materials in

particular problem areas at different levels, by getting children

to help in making practice activities, by pairing children off

with thier buddies in order to practice a particular skill or a

problem area)

4. Aiming the lesson at the right level (initially this can be done

with the whole class so that the teacher demonstrates what is

required involving pupils in the demonstration and giving them

time with observing the procedures and working out what they

have to do)

5. Catering for pupils´ lack of interest or ability (lack of interest is

usually an indicator that a child has a problem in a particular

skill/apect of language, thus it is important to first find out why

the pupil is not interested and eventually adapt activities to

his/her level or provide more support and create more time with

that particular student)

TEACHERS´ EXPECTATIONS OF PUPILS

Teachers´expectations of their pupils strongly affects their

motivation and influences their behaviour during foreign language

classes. Some teachers give ˝neutral˝ names to different groups, which

they have formed on the basis of their capabilities. However, children are

very quick in finding out how they have been labelled by thir teacher (ex.

the teacher has assigned the group of children with low abilities a

˝neutral˝ animal name like the Monkey group, but the children soon

realize that those are the ones who are ˝thick˝).

How to avoid labelling children?

Teachers tend to label children according to their abilities and this

categorization tends to accompany them throughout thier schooling.

Moon emphasizes that children should be given a chance to show that

thier skills and abilities vary according to sitiation, topic and activity

(Moon, 2004: 30).

The author points out that middle – range children are hardest to

describe because we tend to notice the extremes (the ones who always

answer and the naughty ones) because they affect our teaching more. In

that way we tend to neglect children in the middle range or quieter

children.

It is very important to approah children with an open mind and

expect the best from them, which will in turn help them raise their

expectations of themselves. Barbara Steel, a primary teacher in America,

conducted an experiment with her class, which consisted of 35 12 - year -

old students. There were a number of ˝problem ˝ children, who were not

interested in school, were underachieving and came from difficult home

backgrounds. Barbara let children choose what they wanted to learn, thus

giving them a greater responsibility for their own learning. She helped

children draw up their own work contracts for each day. At first it was

difficult for some children to work without being directed, but at the end

most children in her class were able to work independently. This

experiment showed that success strongly influences children´s ideas

about themselves. The ˝problem˝ children had built up low opinions of

themselves through years of failing or being blamed for misbehaviour. In

Barbara´ s programme these children got a new chance to show that they

could be successful, which in turn changed their self – image and their

behaviour.

Strategies for responding to different needs

Moon suggests three different strategies to deal with this problem

(Moon, 2005: 32):

1. differentiating by support

2. peer tutoring

3. group teaching

1. Children with high abilities do not need to get as much support

as children of low or middle - range abilities. In the context of

learning a foreign language, an exercise in which children have

to match different parts of sentence is certainly less demanding

than a task in which students have to create sentences

themselves. One of the disadvantages of this strategy is that

slower children may not get a chance to deal with more

complex activities due to the pressure that the class should

move on to a new unit (according to the curriculum). The

advantage of this strategy is that slower children can proigress

at their own pace and complete activities which are similar to

the rest of the class andbe successful in doing that.

2. Slower or weaker pupils can be paired with a stronger partner

for doing some language activities in class. The teacher should

pair students based on her/ his knowledge of students. As the

school year goes by, students may express their preferences or

the teacher may feel the need to make changes if she /he feels

that the ˝buddies˝are not working well together. Some

advantages of this strategy (Moon, 2005: 37): it involves pupils

in helping each other, pupils become more involved in the

learning process, pupils are learning to become more

independent, pupils are given an opportunity to be ˝buddies˝ for

areas where they have particular strengths. The disadvantages

include the difficulty to pair pupils appropriately, stronger

pupils my feel less challenged and may not necessarily be very

good at helping their peers, while the strategy my reinforce a

lower status for weaker pupils, some pupils try to dominate their

buddies, it is time – consuming in the sense that it takes time to

train pupils to work effectively as buddies.

3. If a class is very big, if, for example, there are 50 students in

class, this may pose a formidable problem to the teacher. Group

work requires good organization of work and good planning on

the part of the teacher, a good system of monitoring and

checking work, while the teacher also has to train his/her

students to be independent during a significant part of the

lesson, i.e. she/he has to get pupils check each other´ s answers

and help each other. The advantages of this strategy: it helps

students become more independent, it enables teacher to spend

more time with different groups of learners, it encourages

students to collaborate and help each other, it allows students to

work at their own pace and be successful at what they do. There

are as well a few disadvantages: it takes time to train students to

be independent, pupils that are uninterested in the activity may

disrupt the work of the whole group or other groups, it needs

careful planning and preparation by the teacher, there is a

possibility that some students may get labelled according to the

group they belong to and thus it may be more difficult for them

to progress to another ability group.

2.4.2012.

BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM

Vilke (1991: 89) outlines that the definition of bilingualism varies

from author to author, however, most authors aggree that bilingualism

refers to an individual´s ability to use two languages at an approximately

the same level, with the use of L2 approaching the level of a native

speaker. Others stress that L2 can be used at a receptive level only, using

only some, even one of language faculties (speaking, reading, listening

and writing).

Simultaneous bilingualism occurs in families with mixed

nationalities, where children acquire two languages from birth. There are

indicators that childen face the use of two languages from birth use two

language systems as one language. The more conscious the child

becomes of the existence of two languages in his /her surrounding, the

more separate these languages become.

Successive bilingualims occurs when children and their families

live in a country where their mother tongue is not spoken as the first

language.Thus they use theri first language at home, while they start

speaking the language of the majority later, when attending nursery/

kindergarten or a similar institution. Some children move to another

country when they have acquired their mother tongue, thus in these cases

the problem of language systems separationis not an issue (Vilke , 1991:

104).

Multilingualism occurs in situations when there ay be an official

language, a language used as a medium of instruction in school and

another language spoken at home (Brewster, Ellis and Girard, 2004: 21).

There has been a great demand nowadays that all children be given

a bilingual education so that children´s ability to learn languages easily is

capitalized. In many European countries there are bilingual schools,

where children are taught more or less in two languages. An excellent

example of trilingualism is Luxembourg, where national Luxembourgian

is spoken at home, German is introduced in the first year of primary

school and French is taught from the beginning of the third year of

primary school. Moreover, English is introduced in secondary school,

which makes the language situation in this country even more complex.

However, there have been some problems with introducing bilingualism/

multilingualism. These include (Brewster, Ellis and Girard, 2004: 20):

1- Differences in language learning opportinities and exposure to

target language (rural / urban divide)

2- Diffeences in attitudes related to urban / rural divide

3- Limitations on time and number of pupils

4- Conflicting claims of other subjects.

Brewster, Ellis and Girard emphasize that, generally speaking,

children from urban areas, i.e. from big cities such as Oslo or Stockholm

usually start school with positive attitudes to learning English and a

higher sense of motivation and interest in learning English due to the fact

that they are more exposed to English before starting school. They come

to school with a solid knowledge of English, unlike children from rural

areas, who have fewer opportunities to learn English (Brewster, Allis and

Girard, 2004: 22). These children meet English speakers more rarely than

children living in urban areas and do not hear English – speaking

televison, radio, films and music as often as their peers in big cities.

9/04/2012

MANAGING PUPILS´ LANGUAGE LEARNING

It is very important to set up favourable condidions which will

enable children to learn foreign languages.

The foreign language teacher can significantly help establish and

manage these conditions (Moon, 2005: 41):

1. (s)he creates positive teacher – pupil relationships and learning

environment

2. creates and maintains effective organization of pupils and

resources

3. creates and maintains effective comunication between teacher

and pupils

4. provides appropriate support for children´s language learning

5. provides interesting and stimulating learning materials and

resources

One way to reflect upon one´s teaching is to give students a grid to

complete. Students can be asked to identify the qualities of the teacher

they liked the best and the qualities that their least favourite teacher.

Foreign language teachers can also insert more qualities and ask their

students to do the grid. In that way they can get feedback on how his/ her

students see his/her teaching, realize which qualities the students would

like him/her to change and take correspondin actions.

Positive Negative

Strict 1 2 3 4 5 Lets

learners

do what

they like

Kind 1 2 3 4 5 Cruel

Has a

sense of

humour

1 2 3 4 5 No sense

of humour

Interested

in

learners

1 2 3 4 5 Not

interested

in learners

Patient 1 2 3 4 5 Impatient

How to develop a positive classroom atmosphere?

Moon stresses the importance of working in a friendly atmosphere,

which results in us feeling secure and happy in our working environment.

The same goes for the classroom atmosphere. If it is warm and relaxed, if

the people around (the teacher and other students) provide support to

every individual student and behave friendly towards him/her, the student

feels secure and happy. If, on the other hand, the teacher and pupils

behave rudely and ignore each other, the result is the feeling of insecurity

and unhappiness.

In order for students to feel secure, it is important to establish

classroom rules. Jayne Moon thinks that it is difficult to decide which

attitude teachers should take when handling the problem of their students´

misbehaviour. The problem can be ignored, the children can be punished

for bad behaviour on the spot or the teacher can address the problem at

the end of the lesson and refer to the previously agreed upon classroom

rules. Moon favours the last response and emphasizes the relevance of

negotiating some basic rules, so that the students, who have taken part in

establishing these rules, know what to expect in the future.

Developing pupils´ self - esteem

Students´ sense of self – esteem is developed through their

perception of how other people see them (Moon, 2005: 49). If the teacher,

for example, compares a student with his/ her sibling who is better at

learning English, the child is likely to develop low self – esteem. If ,

however, a student is praised for his work and been listened to, he will

feel that he is worthy and valuable, which will result in high self –

esteem.

There are several ways to help children develop their sense of self

– esteem. One is to establish some basic classroom rules such as No

laughing at each other; No speaking when someone else is speaking;

Everyone must listen to each other; Everyone has a turn; No – one is

forced to speak, if he/she doesn´t want to (Moon, 2005: 49).

Sharing hopes and fears is another possiblity for developing self –

esteem. Students can be asked to say how they feel after doing, for

example, drama work. It helps them express their feelings in a supportive

atmosphere and gives them an opportunity to share their feeling with

others, which will give them confidence. Students can also talk about

their achievements which make them they feel proud of themselves.

Moon emphasizes that it might be difficult to find time for these activities

and opines that some children may be too shy or reluctant (especially

older students) to share their feelings. The teacher also needs to prevent

students making fun of each other.

Group and pair work

Young children find it more difficult to understand the reason for

working in a particular way. In that sense they may not understand the

point of group work and pair work. Still, children are likely to cooperate

if this kind of work is related to, for example, their previous experience

of stories.

Moon states the main benefits of goup – and pairwork: increased

language input, pupil practice and greater involvement in language

learning (Moon, 2005: 53). One way to form groups is to play the game

called Musical Circles. The teacher draws a number of circles on the

floor. Children walk around the room and when the music stops, they

must stand in the circle. Only six children can stand in a circle. Each

circle forms a group (Moon, 2005: 54).

Pairwork and groupwork provides children with more opportunities

to get language exposure and practice. Moon outlines several things

which a foreign language teacher should have in mind when organizing

their students in groups or pairs (Moon, 2005: 58):

1. Children must be carefully prepared for the activity.

2. They should be organized in ways appropriate to the goal of the

language – learning activity

3. Children should be shown how to do the activity.

4. They should be involved in demonstrations.

5. Teachers should be positive about their efforts.

6. Teachers should loosen their control of the activity gradually.

7. Activities should be meaningful and should engage students´

interests.

16/4/2012

SUPPORTING CHILDREN´S LANGUAGE LEARNING

Children need assistance to handle activities that they would not be able

to cope with without assistance. This support helps students to gain

adequate knowledge, abilities and confidence to eventually function more

independently (Moon, 2005: 73).

The support provided depends on the child´s current level of English, his

familiarity with the language and with the activity itself (Moon, 2005:

75). Following are some general ideas on providing support to students

by adjusting the teacher´s language:

1) repeating pupils´ answers, which confirms the answer and gives

reinforcement

2) rephrasing answers (ex. by adding missing parts such as articles)

3) prompting through a rise in intonation

4) framing sentences and using movements in order to encourage

students to finish sentences (T: While they were walking, Yanni

saw a big...Pps:...elephant)

Moon as well names various techniques and resources a foreign language

teacher can resort to when providing support to her/his students:

1) using pictures of the characters involved in order to help and make

the meaning clear to the students

2) activating background knowledge about the topic so that pupils can

connect new knowledge with what they already know

3) responding positively to pupils´contributions

4) creating a meaningful purpose for using language (ex. referring to a

familiar context such as a zoo when discussing animals)

5) encouraging pupils to predict (What do you think will happen

next?), which enables students to draw upon their background

knowledge, introduces new vocabulary and makes students more

actively involved in thinking about the topic

6) confirming answers so pupils know if they were right or wrong

7) providing the written forms of the questions and answers as a

visual reinforcement of what has been said.

Additional support can be given by choosing contexts which are familiar

to the pupils (ex. visit to the zoo), providing clues to the meaning of the

language , beginning with the concrete and moving onto the more abstract

(ex. from a dialogue acted out orally with visuals ont a written dialogue

on the board).

The language

When giving support to children, it is important to use appropriate

language. Moon states several things foreign language teachers should

have in mind when talking to students (Moon, 2005: 79):

1) using language at children´s level, i.e. words and structures they

can understand

2) adjusting the language to help children understand by repeating,

rephrasing, extending what a child wants to express

3) adjusting speed and volume and using pauses in order to give

children enough time to think

4) using gestures, actions (ex. elevating your hand in order to show

that something is high, nodding for ˝Yes˝, facial expressions,

making noises, etc.)

Assessing the support needed

When foreign teachers select learning activities, they need to determine

what kind of support is needed for pupils to complete the activity. While

for some students initial whole – class preparation may be necessary,

others need support in doing the activity. Moon gives some general ideas

on providing support to the whole class (2005: 80):

1) giving a clear purpose for doing the activity (Let´s try to solve this

puzzle. We have to guess the mystery words )

2) putting an example of exercise on the blackboard (the teacher has

to make sure that the example on the blackboard is not the same as

the one in the book)

3) checking with pupils if they know what to do

4) filling in one or two examples with the students´ help on the board

5) encouraging students to think about where they can look for help

(ex. dictionaries in which they can check the spelling)

In order to enable students to gradually become independent in their

work, a foreign language teacher has to think about how to adjust and

reduce support. While doing TPR activities which involve familiar

actions, the teacher can gradually reduce the amount of gestures so that

children have to rely more on following the teacher´s words. If support is

not reduced when that is necessary, children are not challenged and they

may not be making adequate progress. Reducing support is a matter of

trial and error. The teacher has to judge when children are ready to

receive reduced support. If the children are doing an activity confidently

and if they are successful, they are probably ready to get less support.

Moreover, in big classes it is very diffucult for a teacher to provide

support to each and every child. What can be don is put chidren in mixed

ability groups where stronger pupils can give support to the weaker ones.

23/04/2012

LESSON PLANNING

Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2004: 231) point out that a lesson is not

a haphazard collection of items, but a ˝progression of interrelated

activities which reinforce and consolidate each other in establishing the

learning towards which the teacher is directing his or her efforts.˝

A good lesson, continue the authors, is ˝flexible and adaptible; it is

a back – up system; has clear objectives; has a variety of activities, skills,

interaction, materials; caters for individual learning styles; has interesting,

enjoyable content; has an appropriate level of challenge and is well –

prepared, well planned and well - timed.˝

The reasons for planning are numerous and include ther following

categories (Moon, 2005: 101):

Practical: Planning gives support to teachers, it helps them prepare

for their lesson, organize time and address different students´ needs. This

reason is particularly important for less experienced teachers, since they

define what to do at which stage in the lesson. It is also important to

teachers who are changing the teaching level or those who are teaching

new materials/curricula.

Personal development: Having a plan enables teachers to monitor,

assess and improve their teaching. A plan enablles us to define our

intentions or, in other words, what we expect learners to achieve. With

planning teacher can compare the intended outcomes with th actual

outcomes. If these do not match, there is something wrong.

Public proof/accountability: This category of reasons is related to

public accountability or a public record or proof of what has been done,

which is shown to school authorities, inspectors, other teacher and

parents. Thus teachers demonstrate their ability to do the job. Planning

makes teaching more transparent and open to public.

Confidence: This group of reasons relates to the affective aspect of

teaching. Planning gives teachers more confidence about their teaching

and makes them more sure about what they are doing.

The organization and content of a lesson plan

There is no standard way of writing a lesson plan. Every teacher develops

his/her own format which suits his/her needs. New teachers tend to write

longer lesson plans. Moon emphasizes that it is a good idea for teachers

who start teaching a new group of learners or who use new materials to

plan lessons with more detail at the beginning in order to clarify their

ideas (Moon, 2005: 105).

The first part of the plan contains information about what the teacher is

going to teach. A good language lesson plan should define the following

(Moon, 2005: 106):

1) objectives: what the teacher wants his/her pupils to achieve at the

end of the lesson

2) functions: the way sentences are used in particular situations, such

as to describe, to apologize, to inquire, etc.

3) language skills: these are abilities related to the four main language

skills, i.e. listening, reading, reading and writing (ex. reading for

detail, guessing from context, etc.)

4) vocabulary: the known and new words pupils will use in the lesson

5) language structures: these can be receptive (language patterns

pupils will read or listen to ) and productive (language patterns

which pupils will be expected to produce (ex. write or speak) at the

end of the lesson

The second part of the lesson describes how the teacher is going to

teach, it defines the procedures or sequences the teacher will be using in

teaching. It encompasses two sections: the teacher´s activity and the

pupils´activity. The time planned for each of the procedures is also

defined (in minutes). The typical structure of most lessons contain three

main stages/sequences: a beginning, a middle and an end. The middle

part of a lesson can consist of one, two or more activity cycles (Brewster,

Ellis and Girard, 2004: 234).

The beginning can take the form of an informal chat, it can be related

to an event celebrated on that day, talking about the weather and similar.

A song or a chant related to the topic of the lesson can be introduced.

This helps students get in the mood. Another way to start a lesson is to

revise work covered in previous lesson. In this way students can reflect

upon what they have learned, which gives them foundations for new

knowledge.

The middle part includes one or more activities that are interrelated

and share a purpose. The first activity usually sets the context of the

lesson. A variety of techniques can be used at this stage including

elicitation, showing a picture, playing a guessing game, etc. Students

should have a clear picture of what they are going to do and understand

the language they are going to practice and learn. The following stage(s)

enables students to use the language practiced at the previous stage. If

there are any problems with the students´ performance, the teacher can go

back and reinforce the language before moving forward. The review stage

of the middle part consist of exercises which help children to consolidate,

extend and personalize language that was introduced and practiced at

earlier stages. There is usually a concrete outcome such as produce a

labelled picture, complete a worksheet and similar.

The review part of a lesson rounds up and summarizes the lesson,

confirms its aims and reviews students´ performance. Teacher can give

homework to their students and they usually explain it earlier in the

lesson if it is related to a particular aspect they have been working on.

Following is the example of the second part of the lesson plan (Moon,

2005: 108):

Time Teacher´s activity Pupils´ activity Notes

5-10 mins. Warm –up

1. Brief revision

of colours using

a team game

Pupils stand in

lines behind

flags of different

colours. As

teacher says a

colour, pupils

behind the flag

of that colour

crouch down

10 mins. 2. Bring in

goldfish or

picture of fish to

introduce topic

to pupils

Discuss fish –

what it looks

like, its colour,

its parts. Check

who has a fish at

Pupils gather

round tank and

contribute what

they know about

fish. They tell

about their own

fish.

NB Remember

to bring in fish

and arrange

classroom.

home.

3. Tell pupils

you are going to

tell them a story.

Get them to

predict what will

be in the story.

Pupils try to

guess what will

be in story

Arrange pupils

on mat for story.

NB remember

picture of eel or

black sock.

4. Explain the

activity, i.e.

pupils have to

colour their fish

as the little fish

in the story

requests. Give

out colours and

blanks of fish

drawing.

Group

leaders/monitors

give out crayons

and blank

sheets.

Get pupils to

shareif not

enough.

If warm-up

revealed

problems with

colours, spend a

few minutes

revising as

crayons are

given out.

10 mins. 5. Tell first part

of story with

actions and

pictures.

Continue story

with instructions

for colouring.

Pupils colour in

fish following

instructions.

Check that

pupils know

what to do.

5 mins. 6. Get pupils to

compare

drawings.

Pupils compare

to see if they

have the same.

Go round and

see if drawings

are the same.

5 mins. 7. Go around

class getting

different pupils

to describe the

colours of the

little fish. Use

sentence

prompts,eg His

face is...

Some pupils say

the colours of

the fish, eg. His

face is...

5 mins. 8. Ask pupils

what they

thought about

the story in L1,

if necessary.

Ask whether the

Pupils give their

opinions.

big black eel

was right not to

give the little

fish colour for

his lips.

9. Display

pupils´coloured

fish on the wall.

Pupils write

their names and

help teachet to

display.

The little fish who wanted to be beautiful

Once upon a time there was a little fish. He lived in a big river with many

other fish. But he was not happy. All the other fish were very beautiful.

Their bodies were of many different colours, red, blue, green, and so on.

His body was white. He felt very sad. ˝I want to have a beautiful body

like those other fish,˝ he said.

So one day he went to see the king of the river, a big black eel who lived

in a big black hole atthe bottom of the river. He swam down and down

and down to the bottom.

˝Who´s there?, ˝said a loud voice.

˝It is me, little fish,˝said the little fish.

˝What do you want, little fish?, ˝said the big black eel.

˝Please, sir,˝ said the little fish, ˝make me beautiful like the other fish.˝

˝Hmm, hmm,˝said the big black eel. ˝Alright. What colours do you

want?¨

˝Please make my body red,˝said the little fish.

And his body became red.

˝Please make my tail yellow,˝said the little fish.

And his tail became yellow.

˝Please make my fins green,˝ said the little fish.

And his fins became green.

˝Please make my face orange,˝ said the little fish.

And his face became orange.

˝And make my lips red˝, said the little fish.

˝You rude little fish. You did not say please, ˝said the big black eel. ˝I

won´t give you any more colours.˝

And so the little fish had white lips. But he was very happy because his

body had many colours.

He was very beautiful.

30.4.

TPR GAMES FOR DEVELOPING LANGUAGE SKILLS

All described games develop at least one language skill, most of them

more than one. They have been classified according to the skill that is

practised the most.

Games for developing listening skills:

CHINESE WHISPERS

The pupils compete in two or more teams by standing in lines. The

teacher whispers a simple sentence to the first child in the line who then

whispers it to the next child standing behind him/her. The last child in the

line says the sentence aloud. The teacher can whisper a different sentence

to each team.

SIMON SAYS

It is a good idea to revise all the actions that the teacher wants to practise.

If the teacher says Simon says:Jump!, the children perform the command.

If the teacher says just Jump!, the children should not move. The children

who perform the command although the teacher did not say Simon says ,

drop out. The winner is the last child to remain in the game.

FRUIT SALAD

The students take a chair to sit and make a circle. The teacher occupies

the central position in the circle and assigns different kinds of fruit to

children: a banana, a cherry, an apple , an orange, a strawberry...Thus

there wiull be a few bananas, apples, etc. When the teacher says

Bananas!, all the bananas stand up and change seats. The teacher does not

have a chair and treis to sit on an empty chair. The child who did not get a

chair on time stays in the circle and calls out another fruit. If the teacher

wants all the children to change seats, (s)he says Fruit salad! Instead of

fruits, the teacher can assign the names of animals to children. If (s)he

wants the children to change seats, (s)he says Zoo!

BACK TO BACK

With this game parts of the body can be revised. The teacher pairs off the

children and says a command: Back to back! The children touch with

their backs. If the teacher commands Forehead to forehead!, the children

touch with their foreheads. The children can be encouraged to give the

commands themselves.

WHAT´S THE TIME, MR. WOLF?

The children stand in the back of the classroom. The teacher turns his/her

back to them. The children ask: What´s the time, Mr. Wolf? The teacher

says: Five steps forward, turn around!¨and turns around fast. The

children who get caught moving, drop out of the game. The winner is the

first child who touches the teacher.

Games for develping speaking skills:

SAY IT WITH FEELING

The teacher prepares flashcards with different feelings (ex. happy, sad,

hot, cold, etc.). The teacher shows a card with a (for ex. happy) feeling

and children repeat the words if they are happy.

GUESS MY WORD

The class is divided in two teams. The teacher describes an animal on a

flashcard (e.g. A horse- It is big and beautiful. It lives on a farm. It eats

grass.). When children guess the animal, the teacher puts the

corresponding flashcard on the board. When the board is full of

flashcards put under two columns, the teacher asks the children to repeat

as many things about animals as they can remember. The teacher puts a

tick for each correct sentence next to the corresponding flashcard. The

team that has the most ticks wins.

WHO HAS MORE CARDS?

The class is divided into two teams. The flashcards with the vocabulary

that the teacher wants to revise are in a box. The teams take turns to draw

flashcards and say the corresponding word. If they say the word correctly,

they can keep the flashcard. The team who wins the largest number of

cards is the winner

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE

The board is full of flashcards or word cards. The teacher says: I spy with

my little eye something sweet and brown. The children answer:

Chocolate. The children can eventually assume the role of the teacher and

ask questions of their own.

Games for developing reading skills:

CHARADES

The teacher writes a sentence that the children have to mime on a piece of

paper. A child approaches the teacher, reads the sentence and mimes it to

the rest of the class, who have to guess it (e.g. I´m reading a book.)

TEACHER STOP!

The teacher writes words onto word cards. (S)he shows the word cards

and children nod their head if they recognize the words they have learnt

in their written form. If they do not recognize the word, they say: Teacher

stop! The teacher reads the word, and the children repeat after the teacher.

CHINESE WHISPERS

The teacher can put flashcards or word cards on the board and whisper a

word to the first child in the line. The last child in the line approaches the

board and takes down the corresponding flashcard or word card.

SIMON SAYS

Instead of saying the command, the teacher can show pupils word cards

with commands written on them. The children read the word card and

perform the command written on it.

Games for developing writing skills:

The first two described games develop writing as much as reading skills.

RUNNING DICTATION

The teacher writes some words/simple sentences on slips of paper. (S)he

sticks the papers around the classroom. The teacher divides the class into

two teams Each team chooses a runner. The runner runs towards one of

the papers, reads what is written on it, runs back to her/his team and

dictates the words/sentences to the children in his team. The winner is the

team with the fewest spelling mistakes.

FALSE DICTATION

The teacher writes the sentences (s)he wants to dictate all over a big sheet

of paper/on the board in random order. The (s)he dicates the words from

the sentences, points to them one at a time on the board/sheet. Children

look at the board and write complete sentences by remembering the order

in which (s)he showed and dictated the words.

FLASHING DICTATION

The teacher chooses word cards with simple spelling ( cat, dog). (S)he

flashes the card, but not too quickly. Children write the word in their

notebooks. Upon finishing the dictation, the teacher puts the word cards

on the board and checks for mistakes. The children can also swap

notebooks and check each other´ s mistakes.

WHOI HAS MORE CARDS ?

The rules of the game are the same as when it is played with flashcards.

Instead of flashcards, the teacher can use word cards.

7/05/2012

USE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

There are considerable differences amongst teachers when it comes to the

use of first language while teaching English to young learners. As

emphasized by Moon, there is a discrepancy between what teachers

would ideally like to do and the reality (Moon, 2005: 62). Using English

to teach English to young learners has numerous advantages:

a) it increases the amount of students´exposure to English

b) It develops pupils´confidence in language

c) It gives students real reasons for using English to communicate (ex.

to give instructions, get information from pupils, etc.)

d) The repetitive pattern of classroom language in the form of , for

example, instructions, can be easily picked up by pupils, without

them being aware of the fact that they are actually learning a

foreign language

e) It can motivate pupils to learn

f) It develops greater fluency due to the fact that pupils are

encouraged to think in English at an early stage.

Moon as well states the disadvantages of using English to teach

English:

g) Explaining things can last long, resulting in possible loss in interest

or concentration

h) Weaker or slower pupils may feel put off English since they may

lose confidence

i) Teachers with limited English or inappropriate foreign language

education may provide incorrect models to their students.

j) It may be difficult to do reflection on learning or discuss pupils´

opinions about their learning in English because of students´limited

English

k) For students who are not motivated it may involve a lot of effort to

understand.

l) It may take longer to cover the syllabus.

Generally speaking, it appears to be the best solution to use English for

teaching English since students are more exposed to English. The factors

that should be considered when reflecting upon using English or the

students´first language include studentságe, their motivation and previous

experience with the foreign language, the teacher´s own confidence in

using English, etc.

There are some situations, asserts Moon, when it is appropriate to use the

L1. These include the situations when (Moon, 2005: 66):

a) the child is upset – by using L1 the teacher soothes the child and

demonstrates his/her sympathy and closeness for the child.

b) The child knows the answer to a question in his/her mother tongue

but not in English – some teachers insist on their students

providing an answer in English, which might result in negative

attitudes to either L1 or L2

c) The child wants to share an experience /real information with the

teacher/pupils in an English lesson but has limited English – the

reason for using L1 is to communicate a message to friends or the

teacher

d) The teacher or the child wants to tell a joke – the reson for telling a

joke in L1 is in most cases to develop rapport/ closeness with

teacher/pupils

e) Teacher wants to introduce a new game which has complicated

rules – the reasons for using L1 in this situation is to save time

needed for explaining the rules of the game and to help

communication of a message

f) Teacher does not know if children have understood – the reason for

using L1 is to check if children have really understood

g) Teacher wants to get children to think about the reasons fore

learning English or to be aware of strategies to help learning – the

reason for using L1 in this situation is to aid in language learning

when students do not have sufficient levels of language to discuss

through the L2.

Ad e) Vrhovac emphasizes the amount of time teachers use to explain,

correct, warn and evaluate his / her students, which may result in

dedicating more time to the stated functions than to discussing the topic

of instruction (Vrhovac, 2001: 59).

Ad 2) Moon opines that it is advisable for teachers to accept an answer in

L1 from their young learners and to parallelly introduce the answer in

English. In this way, claims the author, the teacher lets her students know

that she has accepted the meaning of her students´answer, but at the same

time introduces the English form. By acknowledging that the meaning of

the answer in L1 is correct and by rephrasing an answer in English gives

students confidence to respond to their teacher´ s questions in the future

and helps form positive attitudes to learning English.

14/05/2012

SELECTING AND EVALUATING MATERIALS FOR LANGUAGE

LEARNING

Teachers´ situations differ regarding teaching materials. While

some teachers have access to a wide array of textbooks and

supplementary materials to choose from, some have to follow one

prescribed textbook.

There are many advantages of textbooks, as pointed out by

Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2004: 152): they identify what should be

taught/learnt, the order in which it should be done, they indicate

methodologies that should be used, they provide all or most of the

materials needed, thus relieving the teacher´s workload.

Most teachers have access to at least one textbook. Many teachers

use materials from several different textbooks. However, they

occassionally adapt these materials and supplement them with the

materials they themselves produce. The main problem about textbooks is

that they address a general audience, a ˝general international market˝

(Brewster, Girard, Ellis, 2004: 153) and may not completely meet our

students´ particular needs (Moon, 2005: 46). In order to satisfy their

students´ specific needs, many teachers select supplementary materials

which include graded readers, storybooks, songs, rhymes, chants,

posters, flashcards and selected technology including video, CDs, the

internet, etc (Brewster, Ellis,Girard, 2004: 156). Supplementary materials

will be the topic of the following lecture.

There are, however, some barriers to teachers producing their own

materials (Moon, 2004: 87):

1) lack of time to design materials/activities

2) cost involved in making/photocopying

3) lack of handbooks or reference books from which to get ideas

4) lack of skills/expertise to design their own activities

Teachers can solve the problem of lack of time if they engage their

students in helping them cut, stick and copy the materials or do

illustrations for them. While they use the languge, they also help their

teachers in creating teaching materials. The photocopying cost can be

solved by teachers within the same school getting together and sharing

the cost. Ideas can be obtained from magazines for teachers or

exchanging ideas with other teachers. Finally, for a young teacher who

has not yet had expertise in creating his/her own materials, it is most

important that he /she has confidence and willingness to try. One way to

do that is to adapt activities from textbooks in small ways (Moon, 2005:

88).

In order to adapt/design materials to their students´ needs the teacher

has to have following in mind about language – learning activities:

1) (s)he need to have a clear goal (purpose, aim), in other words the

teacher has to know what (s)he wants to achieve through the

activity

2) they need to define input, i.e. the material that children will work

on such as text, oral instructions, etc.

3) The teacher has to determine what the children do with the input,

they have to define procedures

4) Must have a clear outcome fo the learners, a result of the activity

(these include product outcomes, something tangible like a set of

answers, a drawing and similar and process outcomes or skills,

attitudes which develop during the learning process, for example

ability to work together)

5) Teacher and learner roles have to be determined: a drill requires the

teacher to control and direct the children, while a communicative

game requires the teacher to establish the task and step aside and

monitor

6) The teacher has to determine the organization of the activity

(whole class, pair or group work)

When reflecting upon how to select activities for language learning,

the teacher misht ask herself/himself a series of questions including Will

it be difficult for children to carry out?; How long will it last?; Is the

language suitable for the level?; Does it take a lot of preparation?; Will

my learners like it?; Does it create a good atmosphere? and many more.

By doing this teachers make the criteria which help them choose

activities explicit (Moon, 2005: 90).

Teachers should think about the reasons for producing their own

materials: the coursebook does not provide enough practice, the activities

in the coursebook may not be very interesting or appropriate for their

students, they want to provide their students with activities which will

enable them to work at their own pace, etc. (Brewster, Ellis, Girard, 2004:

186).

The materials created by teachers can include worksheets, flashcards

or picture dictations. Worksheets are exercises and activites that are

drawn, written, word processed or photocopied. Picture dictations consist

of a line drawing: pupils listen to descriptions given by the teacher and

add them to the drawing. Flashcards can be drawn by teachers or pupils

or imported from clip art or photocopied (Brewster, Ellis, Girard, 2004:

161).

21/05/2012

ASSESSMENT

Teachers spend a lot of time on assessment. Moon defines assessment

as ˝a way of providing feedback on learning and teaching˝(Moon, 2005:

148). The purposes of assessment include monitoring students´ progress

and checking on students´ achievements. Moon outlines that every

particular teaching situation and school policy determine the manner

asssessment is conducted. Thus in schools which require teachers to

provide regular reports to parents it is necessary to monitor and record

students´ progress quite frequently. Moon distinguishes the following

reasons for assessment (Moon, 2005: 149):

1) to identify a pupil´s progress in learning English

2) to identify what pupils have learned, i.e. achievement over a term

or year

3) to check pupils´ use of a specific skill or language structure in a

lesson or unit

4) to find out whether a student has achieved the teaching objectives

5) to identify the skills/language/attitudes, etc. that pupils have

already developed

6) to find out whether pupils like/dislike some activities and why

7) to diagnose problems and/or strengths pupils have in a particular

language area, e.g. writing, reading.

Assessment can be on – going (summative) and overall (formative).

The first type of assessment is a continuous process during which the

teacher gives feedback to students on their progress in order to help them

develop. It is done on a daily basis and it gives immediate results because

it helps us compare a pupil´s progress with the set objectives. The second

type of assessment occurs periodically, usually at the end of a term or a

school year. Pupils usually take tests or exams and the teacher checks

whether they have achieved the set goals or targets.

Record keeping can be a formal or informal process (Brewster, Ellis

and Girard, 2004: 248). Most schools have official forms which teachers

have to complete for each child. The teacher comments on the students´

language skills and they can focus on grammatical categories,

vocabulary, listening or reading. Teachers usually conduct informal

record – keeping in their notebooks, where they write comments about

each student´s progress, his/her strong and weak points.

Following are the points which the teacher can observe in order to

assess the four basic linguistic skills (speaking, listening, reading and

writing), thereby entering comments in students´ record cards (Breewster,

Ellis and Girard, 2004: 250):

SPEAKING: intelligible pronunciation, use of classroom language, use of

communication strategies, participation in oral activities and efforts to use

new language, participation in story telling and repeating key words and

phrases

LISTENING: showing a global understanding of a story as well as

listening for a specific information, predicting a story line, ability to infer

meaning, recognition of words in context, ability to follow instructions

READING: reading for specific information and gist, ability to infer

meaning, predicting a story line, recognition of words in context,

matching simple dialogues with characters, following simple written

instructions

WRITING: producing a set of logically connected events, producing

grammatically correct sentences, using simple connectors (then, and),

producing a story with a beginning and ending

Moon states that children seem to believe the results of assessment are

inevitably negative. It appears that students get negative assessment more

frequently than positive one (Moon, 2005: 150). Moreover, students may

not always feel involved in the assessment process – for them ˝ it is

something done to them by adults˝ (Moon, 2005: 150) and they feel that

they have no control over it. The results of such a perception of

assessment can lead to lowering of self – esteem in some children and

development of negative attitudes about assessment, which can in turn

affect their ability or willingness to benefit or learn from the feedback

provided by the results of assessment. In order for children to perceive

the benefits of assessment, the teacher can do the following:

a) ask students about their view of assessment

b) develop students´ awareness of the purpose and benefits of

assessment

c) provide more information about students´progress and how they

can use the information to improve

d) encourage them to assess themselves so that they can be active

participants in the process

e) examine their own beliefs about assessment and how they might

affect the manner we represent assessment to students

Self – assessment is an important part of learning to learn (Brewster,

Ellis and Girard, 2004: 256). The authors point at the importance of

students being encouraged to be responsible for their own learning and

assessment, which results in their understanding of what is expected from

them and trying hard to achieve that. Moon considers learning diaries a

good way of self – assessment. She points out that younger children are

able to state what they have learnt and indicate whether they have

enjoyed the lesson, whereas older children are able to reflect upon their

own learning in more sophisticated ways (Moon, 2005: 160).

In peer – group assessment the students become involved in

monitoring others´ progress. Brewster, Ellis and Girard consider peer -

group assessment more appropriate for 10+ age groups, since older

children will have had more experience with assessment in other parts of

the curriculum and will have studied English for a longer period of time.

Pairs of children working together should be selected carefully and the

teacher has to explain carefully to his/ her students how to conduct this

type of assessment in order to avoid humiliation and possible bullying on

the part of the assessors.

CORRECTION OF MISTAKES

The teacher´s right and duty, as defined by his/her function, is to

correct his/her students´ mistakes (Vrhovac, 2001: 104) In practice

students often correct themselves or get corrected by their peers.

However, points out Vrhovac, young students have not developed either

the awareness of making mistakes or the value system related to the

relevance of producing correct utterances. Instead of paying attention to

correcting mistakes, they focus on demonstration of their communication

skills (Vrhovac, 2001: 104).

Opinions vary on when it is appropriate to correct a student,

immediately after (s)he makes a mistake or upon the completion of the

student´s oral expression. Some teachers believe that interrupting a

student while (s)he is talking can result in the student´ s loss of readiness

to talk in front of other students in class. Putting off correction to the end

of the period or even next period is, on the other hand, not always

effective. There is no straightforward answer to this problem, claims

Vrhovac. The teacher has to find the right moment for correction, the

moment when his/her feedback on the student´s error is most beneficial

for the student (Vrhovac, 2001: 107).

28/5/2012

NATIONAL PROJECTS RELATED TO LEARNING A FOREIGN

LANGUAGE

During the times of Austrian – Hungarian monarchy German was

the most important foreign language and was, alongside French and

Latin, part of the curriculum of every respectable secondary school in

Croatia. Foreign languages were taught through the Grammar Translation

method and the main aim was that students obtain a wide general

knowledge. The foreign language instruction focused on helping students

understand foreign languages rather than speak them.

English appeared only sporadically until 1945. As long ago as the

end of the 19th century, English was taught at the Nautical Secondary

School in Bakar by Aleksandar Lochmer. He taught English for special

purposes to students of nautical orientations, which was an isolated case

of English instruction. After 20 years of discontinuity following

Lochmer´s death, English was re – popularized by Josip Torbarina, an

Oxford scholar. After the Second World war there was a growing

population of English teachers, which was also a result of political events

of the time (e.g. ex Yugoslavia ´s split with the Soviet Union and the fall

of pupularity of the Russain language). Rudolf Filipović conducted a

comparative study of the phonetic systems of English and Croatian and

introduced the International Phonetic Transcription in his textbooks. The

1960s, 1970s and 1980s were marked by an excellent cooperation of the

Department of English of the University of Zagreb, the Ministry of

Education and the British Council. Internationally reknowed experts were

engaged to teach in seminars in Croatia, scholarships were granted to

promising teachers, donations of books an journals contributed to the

quality of teaching of English. There was a growing number of doctoral

studies and students from different parts of Croatia researched processes

of learning and teaching foreign languages in school environments.

PROJECTS

The first international project was organized and conducted by

Rudolf Filipović. It was a contrastive analysis of English and Croatian

grammatical systems, the aim of which was to indicate which areas

presented difficulties for the Croatian learners of English. The project

was organized in all linguistic centres of the ex – Yugoslavia, its name

being YSCECP (Yugoslav Serbo – Croatian English Contrastive Project).

In 1991 four languages were introduced on experimental basis in the first

grade of primary school. The project was initially supported by the

Ministry of Education but, unfortunately, in the middle of the project the

head staff in the Ministry changed and the climate suddenly turned

unfavourable for the project. However, thanks to the enthusiasm of the

teachers who worked for the project and the project researchers the

project continued gaining outstanding results. More about this project will

be said during the following lecture.

The Early Language Learning in Europe (ELLiE) addressed

attitudinal development. The main aim of the project was to find out what

can realistically be achieved in state schools, where relatively little time is

available for L2 learning. It involved simultaneous research in several

European countries including Croatia, The UK, Italy, the Netherlands,

poland, Spain and Sweden.1200 learners from 6 to 8 schools per country

took part in the project. The findings showed that English was

increasingly popular, while the popularity of other languages varied over

the years.

In 2003 L2 has been a compulsory school subject of the primary

school curriculum from grade 1. More than 70% of first graders start with

English, while the second foreign language in the first grade of

elementary schools is usually German. The Croatian part of the ELLiE

project monitored students who started learning English in Grade 1 and

continued to learn it for three years. The findings of the three – year

research indicated that young learners start learning L2 with positive

attitudes to classroom activities. All initial activities are liked and enjoyed

by first graders. However, game – like activities appeared to be their

favourite activities. Nevertheless, for some students L2 became only

another school subject, while some even started developing negative

attitudes to L2 learning, which was caused by several factors: learning in

large groups, having only two periods a week and the fact that some

teachers were not fully qualified or trained to work with children.

23.4.2012

NATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL PROJECTS RELATED TO THE

POSSIBLE INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH AS AN OBLIGATORY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE SECOND GRADE OF PRIMARY

SCHOOL

Until 1977 children started learning English in the fourth or fifth

grades of primary school. A pilot project was launched in Zagreb in 1977,

the aim of which was to research whether earlier introduction of foreign

languages leads to better results in later years. 150 pupils from suburban

Zagreb and Osijek primary schools were selected to take part in this

project. The children were taught by specially trained teachers, i.e. the

teachers who had completed a training which enabled them to teach

English to children of a young age. Similar projects were planned with

the introduction of German and French, but these projects were not

completely realized due to the lack of governmental subsidies as well as

diminishing enthusiasm of the teachers involved (Vilke, 1991: 162).

Second graders had two periods of English weekly. The

experimental groups were compared to the control groups, namely the

children in the same schools who started learning English in the fourth

grade. The introduction of English into the second grade of primary

school faced some obstacles at the beginning: parents of some children in

suburbian areas of Zagreb thought that it would be more beneficial for

their children to commence learning German rather than English. These

views can be explained by the massive emigration of Croatian workers to

German – speaking European countries in the previous decades (Vilke,

1991: 163). The concerned students were, understandably, not

particularly interested in learning English, but were, however, curious to

see what the instruction would look like. The children could not see the

benefits of learning English at an early stage. Despite all these

difficulties, the experimental groups showed enthusiasm during all seven

years of learning English in primary school. Thus the teachers who were

involved in the project as well as students of English who observed the

English classes as part of their English methodology examination stated

that the experimental classes were more enthusiastic than the control

classes, were highly motivated for work and could communicate in

English better than the children in the contol groups (Vilke, 1991: 165).

Their motivation could be attributed to strong, emotional bonds which the

children established with their English teachers. The teachers taught the

students in shorter slots and paid special attention to the involvement of

physical activities in tasks (Vilke, 1991: 165).

The findings of this project highlighted the extraordinary listening

abilities of young children and their ability to acquire a perfect intonation

and pronunciation. The students complained of ˝difficult˝ words. These

words were either the words which contained consonantal clusters that do

not exist in the Croatian standard language or the words whose concepts

could not be related to children´s culture and everyday life (fireplace,

kettle). Vilke explains this phenomenon with Piaget´s spontaneous and

non – spontaneous concepts: thus children transfer the concepts which

they acquire within their culture via their first language onto a foreign

language, providing a new name to these concepts. Unlike these

spontaneous concepts, children have to acquire new concepts and

remember their names via their teachers (non – spontaneous concepts).

Thus Croatian children do not experience kettle directly, through

observing a family member filling it with water and putting it onto the

stove, but indirectly, with the help of their English teacher. Vilke suggests

introduction of these words at a later stage, when students are more

mature and when they are ready to be additionaly motivated for learning a

foreign language through concepts related to the culture of the nation

whose language they are studying. Grammar mistakes (ex. the incorrect

use of plural) were tolerated in order not to disrupt children´ s

expressiveness.

A similar project to the Zagreb pilot project was conducted in

Osijek in 1980. The leader of the project was Elvira Petrović. The project

focused upon studying listening abilities of young children, the function

of visuals, errors in speech amongst young learners and comparison of

learning outcomes of after eight, six and five years of learning Englsih

(Vilke, 1991: 174).

There were fewer errors related to identifying words from English

with words in Croatian that sounds similarly (rooster – luster) if these

words are practiced more often. Visuals proved to be a good way of

explaining new vocabulary, however, confusion occured when the

teachers wanted to explain the qualities of an item through a picture

(model plane – mali avion). Younger students seemed to make mistakes

related to the interference from their mother tongue (On the cake is seven

candles) and simplifying the grammatical system of the foreign language

(Helen two shoes).

The Osijek experiment proved once again that longer exposure to a

foreign language results in better listening skills and that students who

learn a foreign language for a longer period of tiem tend to use the

language more creatively and freely (Vilke, 1991: 178).

Both projects articulated a need to start with foreign language

instruction at an earlier stage, preferably the second grade of primary

school. Vilke stresses that it is difficult to determine the exact ideal age

for commencing to learn a foreign language. In the author´ s opinion it is

more important for the government to ensure a continuous and successful

instruction of foreign languges rather than determine the ideal age for

starting to learn a foreign language (Vilke, 1991: 186). She envisages the

need to train primary school teachers to teach English (and possibly other

foreign languages) in junior grades of primary school.

Literature:

1. Brewster, Jean; Ellis, Gail; Girard, Denis: The Primary English

Teacher´ Guide. (2004). Penguin: Hong Kong.

2. Cameron, Lynne (2001): Teaching Languages to Young Learners.

Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

3. Čajo, Kristina; Knezović, Ankica (2005): Building Blocks 3:

Teacher´s Book, priručnik za učitelje/učiteljice engleskog jezika za

3. razred osnovne škole uz udžbenik Building Blocks 3. Profil:

Zagreb.

4. Mihaljević Djigunović, Jelena ( 2005): Attitudes of Foreign

Language Young Learners: A Follow – up Study, Children and

Foreign Languages 1. Faculty of Philosophy: Zagreb.

5. Moon, Jayne (2005): Children Learning English. Macmillan:

Thailand.

6. Prebeg Vilke, Mirjana (1991): Vaše dijete i jezik: materinski, drugi

i strani jezik. Školska knjiga: Zagreb.

7. Vasta,R.; Haith, M.M.; Miller, S.A.: Dječja psihologija. Moderna

znanost: Zagreb.

8. Vidović, Ester; Drakulić, Morana (2011): Teaching the Concept of

Singularity and Plurality of Nouns within English Lessons to

Children of an Erly Age. Metodički obzori 15: Sveučilište Jurja

Dobrile u Puli.

9. Vrhovac, Yvonne (2001): Govorna komunikacija i interakcija na

satu stranoga jezika. Naklada Ljevak: Zagreb.