Small children require the teacher’s individual
attention as much as possible. Their attention span is small (five to fifteen
minutes). For the teacher, it can be quite disconcerting when a three-year-old
wanders off in the middle of a song or story to play with a toy. It does not
mean they are not following what is going on; it is probably because some other
child had the toy before and they see this as their only opportunity to get
hold of it. We must not take it as a personal rejection. It is very difficult
to hold the attention of a whole group of small children and the best way to do
it is to ring the changes every five to ten minutes –unless you see that they
are all really absorbed in what they are doing, in which case the teacher can
let it go on a bit longer.
Usually, children of this age
love what is familiar and may seem indifferent to something new.
However, this does not mean that the teacher should never try anything new,
because what is new in one lesson has become familiar by the second lesson.
Young children may spend a
long time absorbing language before they actually produce anything. It is not a
good idea to try to force them to speak in the target language as this can
create a lot of emotional stress. By doing repetitive songs, rhymes, games and
plenty of choral work, children will be able to produce language without the
stress of having to speak individually.
Children of this age are less
inhibited. They are not afraid to be imaginative and they are not yet bound by
the constraints that demand that adults be logical. As they are so young, they
are not carrying any negative attitudes left over from previous school
experiences. They are curious about everything, keen to learn, and very
receptive. However, they can be selfish and uncooperative. If they want
something, they will push another child over to get it and show little concern
for the other child’s feelings. Some of them will use temper tantrums to try
and get their own way, and may scream or bite. Some may need help with going to
the toilet and there could be occasional accidents with incontinence.
In the primary school years
(6-11 years), children are in the concrete operational stage, that is, they are
not as egocentric as before, they can perceive something else beyond their own
realities and point of view, and have an incipient comprehension of physical
and mechanical realities and causal relationships, though they cannot yet carry
out abstract operations. Their memory techniques are progressively developed,
being able to review, organize and use imagery, recall and scripts for
learning. The first metacognitive abilities appear, so that they can start
learning how to carry out intellectual processes such as planning,
decision-making and strategic choice for solving problems.
Linguistically speaking, they
have learnt nearly everything regarding the oral aspects of the language,
including discourse and pragmatic skills such as illocutionary intentions,
speech registers and topic shifts. Nevertheless, some grammatical aspects are
still in the process of being learnt, such as the full use of co-ordinators,
conditionals, and relative clauses. Another very important task ahead is the
achievement of complete proficiency for the symbolic communication represented
by reading and writing, which, for the English learners, has an added degree of
complexity, due to its deep orthographic system.
This is the situation of
prospective Primary learners, whose job is learning a new language
with the cognitive and linguistic tools they have and with the help of the
teacher (and probably a textbook).
THE TEACHING PROCESS
o
Language learning takes place best of all in an anxiety-free and
joyful atmosphere
o
The development of receptive skills (listening) takes place before
the development of productive skills (speaking)
o
Children learn by what they see, hear and do.
o
Children usually go through a silent period, in which they
understand but are unable to speak. Thus, listening activities should take a
large proportion of the class time.
o
Written activities should be used very sparingly with younger
children. Children of six or seven years old are often not yet proficient in
the mechanics of writing in their own language.
o
Humour, stimulation of pupils’ fantasy, vivid illustrations, clear
visual aids and a good teaching system are important devices for successful
learning.
o
Use the second language as much as possible. It is not difficult
to give instructions for the usual classroom routines in English: using
gestures as well, the children will soon become used to them. The teacher can
also use words that are similar to the mother tongue, or use visual cues, or
even build an ‘English hat’. Wearing it, the teacher is supposed to understand
only English.
o
There should be different groupings: whole class/ pairwork/ groupwork/ individual.
o
Feedback is vital for learning. Feedback is a time in class when
the children and teacher can look back at, and reflect on, what they have been
doing. Feedback can take place immediately after the children have done an
activity, at the end of a series of activities, or on a fixed day each week or
fortnight. But it must be regular.
