1

The act of teaching is essentially a constant processing of options. At every point in

each lesson a teacher has a number of options available. He or she can decide to do
something, or to do something else, or not to do anything at all. In order to become
a better teacher it seems important to be aware of as many options as possible.
This may enable you to generate your own rules and guidelines as to what works
and what doesn't." (J im Scrivener)
By Grace Bertolini
2




- GAME: Getting to know each other P. 3
- Teaching Very Young Learners P. 4
- Language Acquisition vs. Language Learning P. 5
- The order of acquisition P. 5
- Guidelines for stimulating the Learning Process P. 6
- Communication skills. English pronunciation P. 7
- Motivation & Methodology P. 8
- Language Learning Methods and Approaches P. 9
- The Behaviorist Theory P. 9
- The Cognitive Theory P. 10
- Theories and Theorists P.12
- Comparison of Behaviorist and Constructivist Learning Methods P. 12
- An approacha methoda technique? P. 13
- A brief history of EFL P. 14
- The Audio Lingual Method P. 15
- CLL: Communicative Language Learning P. 16
- TPR: Total Physical Response P. 17
- The Natural Approach P. 18
- Krashens Natural Approach principles P. 19
- Communicative Approach P. 21
- Whole Language P. 23
- Task-based Approach P. 24
- VAK: Multisensory Learning P. 26
- Multiple Intelligences Theory P. 27
- The Lexical Approach P. 28
- Providing a natural environment for Young Learners P. 29
- English naturally P. 30
- Appropriate physical environment & materials P. 31
- Main principles of Foreign Language Teaching P. 32
- Main aim of language teaching at Kindergarten P. 33
- Always remember how kids learn! P. 33
- Childrens educational needs P. 36
- HOME TASK p. 38






3


ACTIVITY:
PEOPLE TO PEOPLEGetting to know each other.




INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Participants stand up and get into pairs
2) They will introduce to each other (name, city, school) and talk during one minute
about :
My expectations about TEK COURSE
3) The leader will give some commands: when the leader chants a body part
(Back to Back) the pairs will put those body parts together and will continue
talking.
4) When the leader says: People to People, the pairs split up and everybody seeks
a new partner and start talking again.
Suggestions: Back to back - Knee to knee - Foot to foot - Hand to hand - Elbow to
elbow - Shoulder to shoulder.

AFTER THE ACTIVITY:
1) What was something interesting you found about someone?
2) We learnt:
- What is important for others.
- About diversity.
- We can celebrate differences
- To find what we have in common.
- Everybody can participate/ nobody felt excluded.

3) This activity: Brings people together- Creates family- Builds Community.



4
TEACHING VERY YOUNG LEARNERS:

Teaching a child could be defined as instructing him in a certain area.
Educating a child, however, is enabling him to develop mentally, morally, physically
and socially.

When 3, 4, 5 year-olds start school, he may never have been away from his mother for
any length of time, may have had very little contact with children of his own age or, at
the most, have had contact with only a very small secure group.


Going to Kindergarten and Preschool is an enormous step and the first thing a child has
to do, is to become socialized in this environment. This means learning.
- The Dos and Donts of getting on with others.
- How to be accepted by others and how to accept them.
- How to gradually become independent while taking part of the community.


It is our responsibility as teachers to help our students to develop and mature as well as
learn.
Teachers should:
- Enjoy her students.
- Be as relaxed as possible.
- Be firm and consistent in her attitudes.







THE LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCESS:
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION & LANGUAGE LEARNING:

In the language learning process, the first language is acquired through experience and
the second language is learned through formal teaching.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION takes place in a constantly stimulating environment:
children are exposed to their first language from the very beginning and they are
literally bombarded with language all the time.

5
LANGUAGE LEARNING: to facilitate learning, we should try to provide our
students with at least some of the stimuli which are present in Language Acquisition.








Learning is often confused with studying or memorizing. Because we, as adults,
have already acquired Learning Strategies, we often confuse learning with
studying.
Studying is a tool for learning: it is not learning in itself.

YOUNG CHILDREN have hardly begun developing these strategies and are,
therefore, at a more elementary stage of the learning process than an adult or
adolescent.








Because children learn from experience, they do not distinguish learning situations from
non-learning ones: ALL SITUATIONS ARE LEARNING SITUATIONS FOR A
CHILD.

THE ORDER OF ACQUISITION:
1) LISTENING
2) SPEAKING
3) READING
4) WRITING











If we think of teaching as the other side of learning,
then by trying to understand better how children learn,
we will have more understanding of how to teach them
Learning for Young Children is still a question of
experiencingso we need to provide our students with the
possibility of experiencing to ensure successful learning
Teachers present the language orally
the child listens
Teachers ask children to reproduce this
language
the child speaks
Teachers present the language in the
written form
the child reads
6











GUIDELINES FOR STIMULATING THE LEARNING PROCESS:
































THE LEARNING PROCESS: Remember
Young childrens L1 (their Mother Tongue) is their point of reference.
Teachers ask them to reproduce this
language in a written form
the child writes
Children experience language before reproducing it.
They experience the language in the oral form before the written form.
With Young Learners, teachers should concentrate
essentially on listening and speaking.
1) LISTENING: Present language orally:
Children need to listen to language:
- On tapes/ CDs: as part of formal instruction.
- From the teacher: through informal communication in the classroom.
Talk to children in English and use natural language.
2) SPEAKING: Spend a good part of your class time getting your
students speaking:
- The purpose of language is communication.
3) READING:
- Young kids need to be exposed to the language.
- Provide visual support such as posters, labeling, etc
- Let children play with letters and words as part of learning to
read.
4) WRITING:
- Writing is the last and most complex skill that we develop in
language learning.
- It cannot be performed successfully until the other 3 stages are
in place.
- One of the reasons why Foreign Language Teaching is so often
unsuccessful, is that teachers spend too much time on writing
activities.
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Do not expect them to learn things in English which they have not already
mastered in L1.
If children are not proficient readers in L1, they cannot be expected to read in
English.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

- You cannot expect children to communicate in English in ways that they cannot
communicate in their first language. If children are asked to read and write in English
when they are not skilled or mature enough: learning to read the language becomes an
unpleasant task.

- So children should have good oral communication skills in English before they learn
how to read and write in English.

- They will also be able to read aloud with good pronunciation if they can identify
the words on the page, with language they have already heard.
- If reading is enjoyable, they will feel encouraged to read more, and later, to write.
- If they are able to express themselves, then writing will be a creative rather then a
mechanical task.

ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION:

- The fact that the connection between the way words are written and the way they
are pronounced is so apparently chaotic.
- Unlike many Latin-based languages, each letter in English does not have one
independent, unchanging sound.

- VOWELS: Most vowels can be pronounced in 2 or more ways and, brought
together in different combinations, they form different sounds.
- There are 20 different vowels sounds in English, all produced by just 5 letters.








- CONSONANTS: There are many consonant combinations which produce
different sounds: For example: th in think or in this.
- ACCENTS: English does not use accents to show where a word should be
stressed.
- Correct pronunciation is only developed by listening to English and reproducing
the sounds.

LIST OF VOWEL SOUNDS:

8
ENGLISH STRUCTURE:

When teaching Young Learners, we are usually concerned with simple structures
such as:
- Verb Tenses.
- Adjective/Noun combination.
- Prepositions.

Objectives for this stage, should be very limited and should be practiced and recycled
continually.
With children it is much better to demonstrate the language than to explain it. Language
learners need to use structures both formally (using the course materials) and
informally (through classroom communication).

Teachers should distinguish between the structures that they expect the children to be
able to produce and those that they expect them only to understand.
When telling a story in the classroom, the text may contain complex structures, but kids
can follow the story from the non- linguistic support such as pictures, sound effects
and gestures.


RememberThe ultimate aim in a Young Learners classroom is to teach
our students effective communication: children should be able to understand
and make themselves understood.


MOTIVATION & METHODOLOGY:

An important element of successful teaching is knowing how to motivate your students.
This is a complex issue since different people are motivated by different things.
The main motivation for language learning has to be the desire to communicate.
For Young Children the central interest is themselves. They love to talk about
themselves, their possessions and their immediate surroundings.

Teaching a language is different from teaching other subjects as our aim is
communication. We cannot promote communication among children if they are all
sitting quietly doing individual work all the time.

- By varying the Group Dynamics in the classroom, we can provide students with
different types of interaction.
- Failure and fear of failure, demotivates the student and he can perceive himself as a
bad learner.
- Careful planning of each class will ensure positive motivation.

__________________________________________________________________________________

9

LANGUAGE LEARNING METHODS & APPROACHES
for EFL TEACHING:

How are Languages learnt?
What is the best way to teach them?


LANGUAGE LEARNING THEORIES

What is the relevance of language theory to language teaching?
Which method should we follow in order to teach English at school?
Is there just one method or various?
Are some methods better than others?

LANGUAGE TEACHING THEORIES depend on the conception of what a language
is.
There are several theories explaining how the human being acquires language:


1) THE BEHAVIORIST THEORY

General theory of learning by psychologist J OHN B. WATSON (1923).
According to Behaviorists, All learning takes place through a process of habit
formation
FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING consists of learners receiving linguistic input
from speakers in their environment, imitating what they hear and developing habits in
the foreign language by routine practice.

Knowledge is the product of interaction with the environment
through stimulus-response conditioning

Problems with Behaviorist View:
- Imitation does not help the learner in real life situations.
- Students must make sentences they have never previously seen.
- Pre-practiced sentences are not enough to carry on conversation.



THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD is the best example of the Behaviorist View.
- Learning can be controlled and measured.
- Teachers organize and transmit the information to students.
- They strengthen the transmission through repetition and positive reinforcement or
rewards.
- They use objective tests to measure learning.
10

2) THE COGNITIVE THEORY: CONSTRUCTIVISM

The Cognitive theory is based on the work of psychologists. Piaget says that students
can learn things when they are developmentally ready to do so.
Cognitive psychologists emphasized the importance of:
- Meaning
- Knowing
- Understanding

- Meaning plays an important role in human learning. Learning is a meaningful
process of relating new events to already existing concepts.

- LEARNING A LANGUAGE is a holistic process where foreign language
learners:
1) Use their skills of cognition to figure out the L2 on their own.
2) Notice a pattern and construct their own rules accordingly.
3) Benefit from their mistakes because they play an active role in the Foreign
Language Learning process.

THE CONSTRUCTIVISM VIEW:

Teachers should be facilitators who help students:
- Construct their own understanding.
- Carry out challenging tasks.
One problem with this view, is that cognition is not the only factor that
learners use to make assumptions about the language. Some errors learners make, are
based on rules of the Mother Tongue. They are influenced by these rules as opposed to
coming to conclusions based on their cognitive abilities.



11
Theories Theorists
Learning Theorists and their theories.

Theory Summary of Theory

Robert Gagne


Gagne created instructional techniques to enable teachers
to teach and assess students based on the principals of
information processing.
The technique was simplified into nine steps which include
1) Attention of students. 2) Inform all of objectives. 3)
Recalling previously learned information that correlates
with new information to be learned. 4) Teach new
material. 5) Assist with learning. 6) Encourage
performance. 7) Assess learned knowledge. 8) Check
mastery. 9) Ensure mastery
BEHAVIORIST

Skinner


Skinner refuted the theory that behavior was controlled
physiologically, but rather cognitively. He devised the
theory of operant conditioning which stated that actions
may be controlled by the penalty or reward of activities.
Positive reinforcement can encourage a good behavior by
adding a reward, where as negative reinforcement can also
encourage a good behavior but through adding a negative
consequence.
Punishment encourages the removal of a bad behavior
through a negative consequence. Reinforcements and
punishments are often used in educational facilities to
mold the behavior and performance of students.

CONSTRUCTIVIST

Jerome Bruner



Learning is cognitive: Jerome Bruner believed that there
would be growth through interaction with the environment.
The idea of discovery learning is largely attributed to
J erome Bruner.
Discovery learning is an approach to instruction through
which students interact with their environment by
exploring and manipulating objects.
Children go through stages of cognitive development: -
Enactive Stage,
Iconic Stage,
and Symbolic Stage

12


Jean Piaget






Learning is cognitive: Jean Piaget believed that there
would be growth through neurological and social
maturation.

When children confront unknowns it causes
disequilibrium, they respond with assimilation, fitting it
into their views, or accommodation, changing their views.

Children go through stages of cognitive development:
Sensor-motor Stage,
Preoperational Stage,
Concreter Operational Stage,
Formal Operations Stage





John Dewey




Learning as social experience:
John Dewey believed that curriculum should be flexible
and tailored to the needs and interests of each student.

The Curriculum should also be taught as integrated topics,
rather than isolated skills.

Education is a process of growth and a way of helping
individuals through social experiences.

Lev Vygotsky



Vygotskys theory on learning and cognitive development
is based on the idea of proximal development that children
learn through the world around them and build new
information upon previously learned ideas.
Those concepts already mastered are those within the
childs area of proximal development those not yet
mastered are beyond the childs and are on a more
advanced level.
Therefore it is important to build knowledge gradually with
the help of a teacher, someone who already has a mastery
of the information.



13

Comparison of Behaviorist and Constructivist Learning Models




14
AN APPROACH? ... A METHOD? ... A TECHNIQUE?

- The history of Foreign Language Teaching has been characterized by the search for
methods. Yet, the concept of method may be, in itself, confusing, because there are
two other terms associated with it: approach and technique.
- In 1963, Edward Anthony defined the terms by building a hierarchy with the 3
elements and he said that:
An Approach theory is a set of assumptions about the nature of language
learning and teaching.
A method is a plan for the systematic presentation of language, based on an
approach or theory of language learning.
A technique is a specific activity for the classroom that is consistent with a
method and in harmony with an approach or theory.

Sothere may be various methods that follow the same approach.
_____________________________________________________________________

A BRIEF HISTORY OF EFL:
Historical context in which theories became methods:

- For centuries, there were almost no theoretical foundations of language learning
and teaching methodology.
- Foreign language learning in schools was limited mostly to Greek and Latin.
These 2 languages were supposed to promote mental gymnastics, the method
used was called: Classical method

18
th
Century: THE CLASSICAL METHOD/ GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION
METHOD: it focused on:
- Grammatical rules.
- Memorization of vocabulary.
- Verb conjugation.
- Translation of texts.

At the turn of the century, a new method was popularized by Charles Berlitz: the
DIRECT METHOD. The premises were:
- The first Naturalistic Approach : simulate the natural way children learn.
- Lots of oral interaction.
- Spontaneous use of language.
- No translation.
- Little analysis of grammar rules.

Meaning was to be conveyed directly in the target language through
the use of demonstration and visual aids.
Berlitz schools were very successful with small groups, but were not suitable for large
groups and it needed native-speaker teachers with a strong cultural background.

15
In 1930, most language schools returned to Grammar Translation Method
(reading approach).
When World War II broke out, the USA Army men needed to know the oral language
of the allies and of the enemy. They used THE ARMY METHOD. It emphasized:
- Aural / oral skills.
- Pattern skills.
- Conversation practice.
- No translation.

Educational Institutions adopted this oral method and made it famous as THE
AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD
This method had a firm ground on linguistic and psychological theory (Behaviorist
psychologists who advocated habit-formations model of learning). The method
included:
- Repetitive drills.
- Very controlled use of vocabulary.
- Correct pronunciation.
- Error-free utterances by students
- Almost no use of mother tongue.
- Use of tapes and visual aids.
- Use of language laboratories.

It was successful because students could repeat almost perfect extracts of conversation
with more than acceptable pronunciation. But it failed to promote long-term
communicative proficiency.








THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD marked a turning point in the field of
foreign language teaching methodology by showing a way to teach a language.
16
The 60s established another landmark: the beginning of research on how languages
are learned, studies on the structure of the language and of the nature of cognitive
processes.
The linguist NOAM CHOMSKY showed his opposition against the behaviorist
conception that the mind is a simple tabula rasa. He claimed that:
- the mind contains complex structures.
- the language is developed when the person is placed in the appropriate
environment.
- When learning a 2nd language, the brain resets the structures of the 1st
language.
- Although the brain during childhood can reset 1st language more easily than
when the learner is older, 2nd language acquisition is always possible if there is
exposure.

The spirited 70s:
The decade of the 70s was fertile. There were many discussions on:
- Linguistics and the development of language.
- Second Language Teaching and Learning.
- Innovative methods.
a) CLL: Community Language Learning.
b) SUGGESTOPEDIA.
c) THE SILENT WAY.
d) TPR: Total Physical Response.

a) CLL : COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING:
This method advised teachers to consider learners as whole persons (not only their
intellect but also their feelings, physical reactions and their desire to learn).
CLL identified 5 Stages that went from students depending on the teachers to mutual
independency. There was student-centered participation and anxiety-free climate in the
classroom. The teacher was a supporter, a counselor in the process of learning.

b) SUGGESTOPEDIA:
Geori Lozanov, a Bulgarian psychologist, considered that students mental powers
could be stimulated by creating a relaxed atmosphere with:
- Baroque music.
- Comfortable seats.
- Colorful rooms.
Suggestopedia suggests that learning takes place on 2 different planes:
- A conscious plane in which learners attend to the linguistic aspects of the
language.
- A subconscious plane that suggests that learning is easy and pleasant.

c) THE SILENT WAY:
Developed by Caleb Gattegno, the Silent way is a humanistic approach that relies on
cognitive principles such as problem solving activities and discovery learning. Teaching
is subordinated to learning and teachers act as stimulators and they remain silent most
17
of the classroom time. They use sets of colored rods of words and sounds and colorful
wall charts.
Positive principles:
- Teachers talk is reduced.
- Students work things on their own.
- Teachers let students construct their knowledge by discover learning.

Negative principles:
- Teachers adopted a distant position.
- They did not encourage a communicative atmosphere.

d) TPR: TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE:
TPR is a natural approach developed by psychologist J ames Asher and based on the
observation that children learn in stress-free environments by responding to commands
before they start speaking.
J ames Asher says that for him there are no methods because the term method implies
a formula for teaching anything. He calls TPR an approach or tool. He looked at
early 1
st
language acquisition for clues to a better way to teach foreign languages:
a) Listening skills precede speaking: children are often able to comprehend many
complex utterances before they produce any intelligible speech.
b) Comprehension is 4 times as great as production: children may not be able to give
a linguistic response to instructions but they can give physical response.
c) Through action and observation, the childs whole body is involved in decoding
the noise of speech into language.

Asher studied about brain lateralization and trace memory. The brain has 2
hemispheres, each of which has specific tasks:
- the left hemisphere is described as verbal, analytical and logical.
- the right hemisphere is nonverbal (responds to touch and music), intuitive and
sensory.

Motor activity is a right-brain function that precedes left-brain language
processing. So, for Asher was quite logical that the starting point for teaching
another language is to structure the class especially for the right hemisphere. A
Foreign Language should be first presented with stress-free motor instructions.

TPR is also associated to trace memory: the kind of memory people use when learning
to ride a bike. (kinesthetic memory): memory is increased if it is stimulated or traced
through association with motor activities.

The use of kinesthetic intelligence and memory is important when teaching Young
Learners, because we know that they do not learn by thinking, but by doing
things.


18


______________________________________________________________________

The 80s saw THE NATURAL APPROACH:

The linguistic Stephen Krashen claimed that language learning is a subconscious
process of acquisition.
Learners move through predictable and sequential series of developmental stages and
teachers can predict and accept a students stage while modifying their instruction to
encourage progression to the next stage.


a) STAGE 1: THE SILENT / RECEPTIVE or PRE PRODUCTION-
COMPREHENSION STAGE

Students have up to 500 receptive words (words they can understand, but may not be
comfortable using)
This stage involves a Silent Period in which students may not speak but can respond
using different strategies.
Pointing to an object.
Pointing to a picture.
Pointing to a person.
Performing an act (stand up/close the door).
Gesturing.
Nodding.
Responding with a simple Yes or No.
Carrying out a command.

Teachers should not force students to speak until they are ready to do so.




19
b) STAGE 2: THE EARLY PRODUCTION STAGE

This stage can last an additional six months after the initial stage.
Students have developed 1000 receptive/active words (words they are able to
understand and use).
During this stage, learners can:
- Respond with single-words utterances (holophrastic)
- Speak in one or two-words phrases
- Give short answers (Yes / No questions or Who / What / Where questions)

c) STAGE 3. THE SPEECH EMERGENCE STAGE

This stage can last up to another year.
Students have usually developed 3000 words and they:

- Can use short phrases and simple sentences to communicate.
- Begin to use dialogue.
- Can ask / answer simple questions (Can I go to the toilet, please?)
- May produce longer sentences (often with grammatical errors)

d) STAGE 4: THE INTERMEDIATE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY STAGE

This stage may take up to another year after Emergence Stage.
Students have developed 6000 words and are beginning to:
- Make complex statements.
- State opinions.
- Ask for clarification.
- Share their thoughts.
- Speak at greater length.

e) STAGE 5: THE ADVANCED LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY STAGE

Gaining advanced proficiency in a 2
nd
/foreign language, can typically take 5 to 7 years.
Students have developed some specialized content-area vocabulary. They:
- Can participate in activities with extra support.
- Can speak English using grammar and vocabulary comparable to that of same-
age native speakers.


Controversial aspects of the Natural Approach:
- Delay of oral production (Silent Period) until speech emerges.
- Heavy emphasis on comprehensible input.
- Managing students at different times of speech emergency.



20
KRASHENS NATURAL APPROACH PRINCIPLES

Classroom activities based on the Natural Approach, are guided by certain principles:

1-COMPREHENSION PRECEDES PRODUCTION:
- It is impossible to connect meaning to form if the learner has no opportunity to hear
the new vocabulary in a meaningful context.
- Activities should introduce new vocabulary and grammar structures in communicative
contexts before students are expected to produce words.
- Lessons generally start with input (comprehension) activities (brainstorming,
discussions, contextual guessing, TPR) before moving to output (production) activities.

2- SPEECH EMERGES IN 5 STAGES

3- SPEECH EMERGENCE IS CHARACTERIZED BY GRAMMATICAL
ERRORS:
- When students start putting words together into sentences, they make errors, this is to
be expected.
- Early speech errors that occur during the communication activities, do not usually
become permanent. Teachers should expand and rephrase the students responses in
grammatically correct sentences.


4- GROUP WORK ENCOURAGES INTERACTION AND CREATES
COMMUNITY:
As soon as students can produce, teachers should provide them with the opportunity to
begin working in pairs and small groups. Students enjoy interacting with others and feel
freer to express themselves in groups.
Group work gives the teacher the opportunity to:
- move quickly from group to group,
- make sure that the activity is going well,
- answer questions,
- help individuals with pronunciation, grammar and usage.


5- STUDENTS ACQUIRE LANGUAGE ONLY IN A LOW-ANXIETY
ENVIRONMENT:
- Students should not be put on the defensive in a class.
- There are a wide variety of techniques for keeping anxiety-levels low.
- Teachers should create a classroom atmosphere that is:
- friendly,
- interesting,
- and that caters for enjoyable activities.
Students must always feel that they can express their ideas without fear of interruptive
grammatical correction.

21
6- SPEAKING HELPS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
The Natural Approach encourages student output in whole-class and group-work
situations.
Speaking helps language acquisition:
- It encourages comprehensive input, via conversation.
- It gives students the feeling of participation, of real language use.
- It prepares them for communicative interaction outside the classroom.












COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

CLT-COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING:
the most recent method of language teaching

- British linguistics (Wilkins -1972 / Widdowson 1978) felt students were not
learning enough realistic language and did not know how to communicate using
appropriate social language.
- In 1971, a group of experts began to investigate the possibility of developing
Language Courses that proposed a functional or communicative syllabus.
-




THE GOAL OF THE NATURAL APPROACH IS
PROFICIENCY IN COMMUNICATION SKILLS.
Students in a Natural Approach classroom are evaluated primarily
on their oral proficiency, on their ability to communicate specific messages
in particular situations,
rather than on the grammatical correctness of their spontaneous speech
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MAIN PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH:

- Authentic language (language as it is used in a real context) should be exploited
in the classroom.
- Successful Guess-work: teachers should create situations in which learners will
be asked to guess the intentions of the writer.
- Constant use of the target language.
- Games should be exploited in class, because they have elements in common with
authentic communicative acts.
- Learners should be given every opportunity to express their ideas, emotions and
opinions.
- Errors are tolerated and are seen as a natural outcome of the development of
communication skills.
- Communicative interaction encourages cooperative relationships among learners.
- Teachers act as advisers or facilitators during communicative activities.
- Controlled and freer practice is replaced by a more Task-based approach: learners
are given a communicative task which is monitored by the teacher.
- Traditional grammatical approach is replaced by a more communicative focus,
with basic introductions, requests and questions enabling learners to
communicate in English from the very first lesson.
- Communicative classes for young children, can be enriched when teachers use
Thematic Units that focus on content-area information.
- Visual, gestures, sounds and actions will help students understand new
vocabulary and structures.







THE WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH
THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
Has allowed teachers to incorporate motivating and purposeful communicative
activities while retaining the best elements of other methods.
It has had a great impact en EFL, because it has meant adapting rather than
rejecting existing methods.
23
WHOLE LANGUAGE is not a systemized approach, but rather a philosophy that
assumes that reading and general language competencies are acquired through
integrated use instead of through learning separate, finite skills, such as word attack,
comprehension, and vocabulary. It relies heavily on the use of literature and trade
books, rather than basal readers, and usually involves integrated thematic studies and
the extended use of writing.
It is considered a method of teaching reading to children (also known as the "Look-
Say" Method), in contrast to the Phonics Method. Phonics teaches the individual
components and sounds (or phonetic building blocks) which make up words, enabling
the student to then determine the correct pronunciation, and often the meaning, of most
words with relative ease. The whole language method requires the student to recognize
and learn new words as whole words, and rely on the context in which they appear,
rather than on their phonetic building blocks, to determine their meanings.
Appearing in the 60s and 70s, the movement gathered steam in the 80s. During the
1990s, and today, the issue has been politicized and the approach is criticized by many
conservatives who prefer the phonics method. Opponents argue that structure is
necessary, and that a child's learning to read, is too valuable to leave to chance and
accidental discovery. All children do not learn in the same way, therefore adhering to
one method only, is dangerous and may leave some children behind.
Many teachers today use a blended approach. They use some traditional methods, but
also weave in the use of literature, writing, and thematic studies into their plans. They
view teaching to read as a good coach teaches baseball: a team needs to spend time
practicing skills (phonics), but, if the team never gets to play an actual game (whole
language), the players loose the joy of the sport (reading).


24
TASK-BASED APPROACH:

Students start by carrying out a communicative task with no help from the teacher. Once
the task is completed, teachers may focus on language use as an aid to acquisition.
Task -based learning offers an alternative for language teachers. In a task-based lesson
the teacher doesn't pre-determine what language will be studied, the lesson is based
around the completion of a central task and the language studied is determined by what
happens as the students complete it. The lesson follows certain stages.
1)PRE-TASK:
The teacher introduces the topic and gives the students clear instructions on what they
will have to do at the task stage and might help the students to recall some language that
may be useful for the task. The pre-task stage can also often include playing a recording
of people doing the task. This gives the students a clear model of what will be expected
of them. The students can take notes and spend time preparing for the task.
2) TASK:
The students complete a task in pairs or groups using the language resources that they
have as the teacher monitors and offers encouragement.
3) PLANNING:
Students prepare a short oral or written report to tell the class what happened during
their task. They then practice what they are going to say in their groups. Meanwhile the
teacher is available for the students to ask for advice to clear up any language questions
they may have.
4) REPORT:
Students then report back to the class orally or read the written report. The teacher
chooses the order of when students will present their reports and may give the students
some quick feedback on the content. At this stage the teacher may also play a recording
of others doing the same task for the students to compare.

5) ANALYSIS:
The teacher then highlights relevant parts from the text of the recording for the students
to analyze. They may ask students to notice interesting features within this text. The
teacher can also highlight the language that the students used during the report phase for
analysis.
6) PRACTICE:
Finally, the teacher selects language areas to practice based upon the needs of the
students and what emerged from the task and report phases. The students then do
practice activities to increase their confidence and make a note of useful language.


25
TASK-BASED APPROACH:

_____________________________________________________________


MULTISENSORY LEARNING: VAK
Multisensory methods are also known as VAK Modalities: The three modalities of
learning styles have been summarized by the acronym VAK, for:
Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic:

1. Visual: That which you see.
2. Auditory: That which you hear.
3. Kinesthetic: The tactile ... where the child touches and handles objects.
This teaching method suggests to involve the use of more of the childs senses,
especially the use of touch and movement (kinesthetic). This will give the childs brain
tactile and kinesthetic memories to hang on to, as well as the visual and auditory ones

26





27
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES THEORY:

Multiple Intelligence Theory was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner,
professor of education at Harvard University. It suggests that traditional ways of testing
for intelligence may be unfair to certain types of individuals.

The theory analyzes and better describes the concept of intelligence arguing that the
concept as traditionally defined in psychometrics (IQ tests) does not sufficiently
describe the wide variety of cognitive abilities humans display.

The original Multiple Intelligence theory was first published in his book, Frames of
Mind. The book strongly suggests that everybody has a different mind, and no two
profiles of intelligence are the same.

Therefore, the traditional concept of measuring intelligence by I.Q Testing is far too
restricted. From the 8 primary intelligences, an individual may excel in one, two or
even three of these, but nobodys good at them all.
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory:
INTELLIGENCE
TYPE:
CAPABILITY & PERCEPTION:
Linguistic Words and language.
Logical-Mathematical Logic and numbers.
Musical Music, sound, rhythm.
Bodily-Kinesthetic Body movement control.
Spatial-Visual Images and space.
Interpersonal Other people's feelings.
Intrapersonal Self-awareness.


28

Gardner's suggested possible additional Intelligences:


INTELLIGENCE
TYPE:
CAPABILITY & PERCEPTION:
Naturalist Natural environment.
Spiritual/Existential Religion and 'ultimate issues'.
Moral Ethics, humanity, value of life.

Recently Gardner has posited the existence of a 9th intelligence he calls "Existential".
Although Existential is positioned to be identified as an intelligence, at this time
Gardner feels that there isn't any neurological evidence of a separately functioning
biological existential ability.
That is a central criterion in identifying an ability as an "intelligence.


THE LEXICAL APPROACH:

It began in the 80s with the arrival of corpuses: enormous databases of recorded
examples of spoken and written language.
It takes vocabulary as the main focus for syllabus design and classroom teaching.
It looks at word frequency and collocation (how words go together).
As Corpus data becomes more available, the Lexical Approach is seen more in
contemporary teaching materials.


FinallyELT has grown out of methods We live now in a Post-method
condition: teachers can choose the best practice from a variety of approaches,
selecting them and shaping them in ways which are appropriate to their own
classrooms. This has also been called an eclectic approach.
Post-method pedagogy can be divided into three pedagogic parameters: particularity,
practicality, and possibility.
Particularity is based on the assumption that the post-method pedagogic has to be
sensible to particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learners, pursuing
a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context. It demands that teachers
develop skills in order to be able to monitor their own teaching effectiveness; by doing
so, they are going to improve their own procedures, instead of reproducing theories.
Possibility is based on the studies of Paulo Freire, who argues that the importance of
acknowledging and highlighting students and teachers individual identity.


29
PROVIDING A NATURAL EFL ENVIRONMENT
for YOUNG LEARNERS:

The process of acquisition of a Foreign Language is similar to that of the Mother
Tongue: it is important to look at how children have learned elements of their
native language: babies hear everyday language and songs and they begin to
imitate sounds and actions. Later through imitation, they sequence words together
to make phrases and sentences.
Teachers should create a natural environment surrounding students in an
English environment recreating reality.
It is very important to provide a rich visual environment for the language learner.
Young Learners classrooms should use walls, floors and ceiling spaces to
reinforce concepts.


















A Foreign Language atmosphere, should include
IMMERSION STRATEGIES such as:
Using contextual clues such as gestures, facial expressions, body
language.
Using concrete referents such as: props, realia, visual aids,
manipulative.
Using hands-on experiences accompanied by oral and written
language use.
Using linguistic modifications to make the target language
more comprehensible when necessary: controlled vocabulary,
controlled sentence length, repetitions and expansions, etc
Using functional chunks of language: using passwords
phrases for everyday classroom life: May I go to the toilet,
please? Can you help me, please?
Using on going- assessment: constantly monitoring students
comprehension.
30
ENGLISH NATURALLY: TEACHERS should:

Provide authentic English practice: students are able to see the relevance to the real
world of what they are learning.


Provide variety for students: they get out of the classroom and 'into' the
environment.


Integrate the 'four skills' of listening, speaking, reading and writing in a natural
way.



Promote learner autonomy and co-operation.


Provide a sensory rich learning experience:
- Learning is enhanced when students see as well as listen (audiovisual)
- They remember even more when they can also use their senses of touch,
smell and taste.

Provide practice in academic skills such as:
- note making,
- labeling,
- classifying,
- referencing, etc.


Promote learning in a natural and enjoyable setting. This helps to lower
emotional barriers which sometimes get in the way of effective learning.

ENGLISH NATURALLY: The importance of PLAY:
While they play, Young Learners use the new language patterns in everyday situations:
Play goes with other children, cooperatively.
Play is often structured by the childrens imagination
Their play become their workwork is found in their play.

31
APPROPRIATE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT & MATERIALS:
- Appropriate arrangement of the physical environment in an early childhood
classroom is important.
- Children in the early education classroom have basic environmental needs, such
as furniture that is appropriately sized, sturdy and comfortable, as well as sinks
and bathrooms that are easily accessible.
- Young children learn best through sensory encounters with the world:
manipulating, exploring, and experimenting, so, physical environment should
provide manipulative, puzzles and other learning materials that are easily
accessible.



MAIN PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
TO YOUNG CHILDREN:
























Communicative interaction is possible and necessary among children
and teachers
English is best learn in English: teachers do not need to use their
Mother Tongue when teaching a 2
nd
or Foreign Language
Active student involvement leads to a more effective acquisition
and learning
Daily lessons should have changes of activities and changes of pace
Beginners can understand a lot more than they can produce
Positive reinforcement and recycling of the language helps learning
32






















MAIN AIM OF LANGUAGE TEACHING IN KINDERGARTEN
AND EARLY PRIMARY GRADES:





From our main aim and principles, we infer that:

TEACHERS:



Teachers are Facilitators.
They become observers and they interact with their students.
Teachers should create a positive learning environment, surrounded by
foreign language print.
Language should be presented, practiced and reinforced in meaningful
situations, in a meaningful context
Topics, materials, resources and activities should relate to the interests
and development age of the group
Mistakes are a natural part of the language learning process
Language learning in more effective if it is enjoyable
Pleasant, gradual and effective acquisition and learning
of the English language through interaction and fun
in whole meaningful situations
33
Expose students continuously to English and dont translate if it is not
necessary.
They demonstrate and model, using body language, gestures, mime, etc
They should provide time according to students needs, interests, learning
styles: give time to listen, understand and participate.
Teachers should provide lots of learning opportunities: practical,
meaningful and purposeful. Give same opportunities to everybody.
Involve children in hands-on activities: children's minds are incredibly open
and they learn by absorbing ideas and concepts directly.
Children need to be actively involved: get students up and out of their chairs
and moving around.
Avoid talking for long periods of time: energy level of the classroom drops
lower and lower. Explain an activity quickly and then go to it!
Keep the energy moving: keep a few extra activities handy for this purpose.
Children need lots of stimulation all the time!
Use what is learned in different contexts. The more contexts used the better,
and the more concrete and 'real life' the contexts the better. Make it real for
students by talking about them and their lives.
The 3 Rs: Review, Reinforce, Recycle. New information is absorbed and has
meaning when it is related to information children have already learned.
Quickly review new concepts at the beginning of each class.
Praise, Praise, Praise!! Encourage and build students up in a natural way.
Learning occurs when students are motivated and feel good about themselves.
Give positive feedback and congratulate children on what they do, reinforcing
students confidence.
For their professional growth, teachers should:
- Read professional articles.
- Attend professional development workshops, seminars, conferences.
- Learn more about childrens literature.
- Form a local support of peers interested in sharing ideas (for example: through a
blog).
34



ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW KIDS LEARN!!

CHILDREN:

Naturally acquire oral language by listening, imitating and repeating (like
babies do).
They learn in a global way: from the general to the specific, from the whole
to the part.
They need instruction in all modes of communication: listening, speaking,
reading, writing, observing, illustrating, experiencing, modeling: Children
learn by doing!
Children should be actively involved in meaningful functional language
experiences.
They progress through appropriate stages.
Children learn in different ways, at different rates: learning a language takes
time and practice!
They learn by active exploration, making discoveries.
Young students are free to experiment, make approximations and mistakes.

In each class you should try to offer:
1) SOMETHING OLD: to reinforce, to practice, to
recycle.
2) SOMETHING NEW: to present
3) SOMETHING FUN: a new song, a game, a chant,
a resource (a new puppet)
35
They feel comfortable trying out, without fear of criticism: perfection is not
expected from them.
They learn to take risks and make decisions.
They learn to develop a positive attitude to school.
Children are involved in social interaction: they learn by interacting with
each other and with the teacher. Try to talk to each child individually each
class. Whenever possible, have children working in groups and in pairs.





















THE NEEDS OF YOUNG KIDS:


Teachers should encourage children to explore and exercise all of their natural
intelligences: Linguistic, Kinesthetic, Logical-Mathematical, Visual, Spatial,
Musical, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Natural.

CHILDREN:
Learn by doing: through imitation and repetition.
Learn by having fun. The more fun it is to learn a language, the
more a child will want to stay with it.
Learn with music and rhythms. Music is one way to use the whole
brain. Words combined with music are easier to learn.
Learn with movement. Children are kinesthetic learners. They like
to imitate and act out.
Learn by reflecting. First children absorb the language, later they
begin to speak.
YOUNG CHILDREN are spontaneous, active and enthusiastic
THEY LEARN VERY QUICKLYbut they:
- Forget things very easily!!
- Get bored very easily!!
- Have very short attention span!!
36
CHILDREN EDUCATIONAL NEEDS:
As teachers and educators, we can say that a student is an entire
self we have in our hands, with his/her own physical, intellectual,
emotional and social needs such as:
1) Personal security, happiness and success.
2) To make personal decisions and so to become less dependent
upon others.
3) To interact with other people cooperatively.
4) To be accepted by others.
5) To develop the use of language through the skills of listening and
talking.
6) To express creative ideas.
7) To acquire:
- Positive attitudes towards learning.
- The ability to reason logically.
- Moral values.
- Everyday knowledge.
___________________________________________________________
UNIT 1: CONCLUSIONS:
Children learn new languages best when:
a) Instruction is conducted in the Target Language with minimal use
of their Native Language.
b) Their teacher recognizes learners as active constructors of
meaning rather than passive receivers of vocabulary and
information.
37
c) Learning occurs in meaningful, communicative contexts: Social
and cultural situations through games, stories, rhymes and chants,
experiences with arts and crafts, role- plays and dramatizations.
d) Learning is organized in terms of concrete experiences using
visual, aids, props, realia and hands-on activities.
e) Comprehension is emphasized rather than speaking at beginning
stages.
f) Assessment of learning is frequent, regular and on going.
g) Planning is organized around a thematic center, establishing a
balance among: Goals of culture, Subject content, Language in
use.
h) Annual Curriculum is organized according to a communicative
syllabus, rather than a grammatical syllabus.
i) Contents are designed taking into account learners:
- needs,
- interests,
- developmental stages,
- experiential background,
- learning styles.




38



1) WHEN I LEARNT ENGLISH: Think back to when you went to school.
- What do you remember about those years?
- Do you remember
- The teachers?
- The teaching?
- The sounds?
- The physical surroundings?
- Other students?

2) MY OWN LEARNING DAYS:
- Was it good or bad learning a foreign language?
- Why?
- After analyzing Unit 1, what you should, should not do when teaching English as
a Foreign Language?

3) LANGUAGE TEACHING THEORIES:
- Mention the 2 Theories and their Theorists.

4) SOME PRINCIPLES OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH:
-
-
-

5) FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING:
- Can you mention some principles to teach a foreign language to Young Learners?
- How do young kids learn a language?

6) PROVIDING A NATURAL ENVIRONMENT:
- How can you create a natural environment in a Kindergarten class?
-
-

7) Can you tell the difference between an Approach, a Method and a Technique?
- AN APPROACH:
- A METHOD:
- A TECHNIQUE:


39
REFERENCES:
We are grateful for permission to reproduce material from:

- Roth, Genevieve. Teaching Very Young Children- Pre-school and Early Primary. Richmond
Publishing.
- House, Susan. An introduction to Teaching English to children. Richmond Publishing.
- Curtain and Pesola. Languages and children making the match. Longman.
- Clandfield, Lindsay and Foord, Duncan. The language teachers Survival Handbook. SBS
Publishing.
- Richards, J ack C. and Rodgers, Theodore S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.
Cambridge University Press. 2
nd
edition, 2001.
- Thornbury, Scott. How to teach Grammar. Longman, 1999.
- Lewis, Michael. Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory into practice. Language
Teaching Publications, 1999.
- Willis, J ane. A framework for Task-Based Learning. Longman, 1996.
- Amstrong, Thomas.The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and Writing: Making the Words
Come Alive.
- Amstrong, Thomas. Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 3rd Ed.






ENJOY YOUR TEACHING!
Grace B.
creativeteaching@gracebertolini.com.ar www.gracebertolini.com.ar













Teachers should make a difference in the lives of children
Tell me and I forget...
Teach me and I remember...
Involve me and I learn !
Benjamin Franklin.
To teach is to touch a soul forever
TEK COURSE: Teaching English at Kindergarten, Preschool and Early Primary Grades
Copyright 2011 By Graciela Bertolini
www.gracebertolini.com.ar

All rights reserved. No part of this course/ publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording,
computer bulletin board (BBS), Internet, or by any information storage retrieval system, without
written permission of the author. This legal protection not only applies to the name but also to the
format and contents of this course. Any copying or similar course/ handbook, will be seen a breach
of copyright and legal action will be sought. Please do not email TEK COURSE HANDBOOK to
anyone else, as I do not want free copies being emailed all over the internet.

I appreciate your integrity on this point. Thank you!
Grace Bertolini.