#eflteacher

ALL the reasons to use a song

by

This post started with a line, one of those things that one says, casually, in a conversation with a teacher or at a conference. ‘There are many reasons to use a song…’ , I said and my brain, always ready for this kind of a challenge, took over. ‘How many? Can you count?’

I accepted the challenge. I have found sixty. For now:-). Not all of them are mine, of course but since this post is meant for teachers, not researchers and since I am on some kind of an academic holiday, no proper referencing. This time. All the inspiration sources and the follow-up reading below.

Now, fasten your seatbelts and let’s go! 3…2…1…

We are using songs with the primary and pre-primary EFL learners because:

  • Kids like them
  • They are a part of the kids’ world, regardless of the language.
  • They help to reduce stress.
  • Songs create a positive atmosphere.
  • They can help set the context of the lesson.
  • The kids don’t care if the teacher does not have a really beautiful voice but they care about a teacher who does not really sing.
  • Singing and music are present in many areas of our everyday life.
  • They can be used differently, depending on the day and how the children feel – to calm them down, to cheer them up, to wake them up.
  • They can be used to develop motor skills, gross motor skills (jumping, dancing, skipping) and fine motor skills (finger play).
  • They lead to personalisation for example by choosing favourite songs and expressing opinion on songs.

  • Using different types of music develops children’s musical taste.
  • They provide the exposure to the target language.
  • They help to remember the vocabulary and structures
  • They help with pronunciation, rhythm and intonation.
  • And with the early literacy development, by developing the ear, rhymes recognition.
  • They use a natural language
  • The traditional rhymes, chants and songs carry the culture of the country.
  • Songs are an opportunity for expression.
  • They help memory development.
  • Singing games usually involve a group or a team and so they help to develop social skills.

  • They can be used to develop turn-taking and other social skills.
  • They can help the kids to settle in the lesson and in the L2 environment.
  • It is something that we do together, it helps to unite the kids after they have taken part in pair-work, team work or individual activities.
  • They are a nice change of pace in the lesson, a punctuation mark.
  • They are an easy-to-use stirrer.
  • They are an easy-to-use settler.
  • They give the lesson a frame (Hello song, How are you chant, Did you do your homework chant, storytime song, table time).
  • They help the kids to move from one stage of the lesson to the other.
  • They help to create a community.
  • They help to take the language out of the classroom. The kids can sing the songs at home, in the car, on holiday.

  • They are one of the few tools that help to involve a variety of learning channels: auditory (because we listen and we say), visual (because we can use flashcards to help kids remember the lyrics) and kinesthetic (because every song can be and should be accompanied by gestures)
  • Thanks to music they remember the language better
  • They are the first step language production; a song is basically a lot of discourse with some music.
  • They are great for beginners, children can participate in a song, even if only through the gestures.
  • They are great for shy students; singing is not scary if you do it in a crowd.
  • They help to create routine and balance the ration of the new (material, songs, activities) and the familiar (all the favourite songs).
  • Kids learn how to make decisions – choosing which song to sing next.
  • They can be used as an activity timer (you have one song to finish colouring)
  • Songs often tell a story this way creating the context for the language.
  • They can be used to introduce new vocabulary and structures.

  • They are great for recycling vocabulary.
  • They can be used as background music during craft activities, to encourage the kids to sing rather than just chat in L1.
  • Songs and chants can be used to give instructions.
  • They can be used during any stage of the lesson.
  • They can be used to get the students’ attention.
  • They are easy to use and do not require a lot of preparation.
  • There are plenty of songs to choose from.
  • It is easy to make up your song or chant that can be used for one specific reason.
  • They contribute to the variety of resources used in the lesson.
  • They can contribute to the development of the cognitive skills, such as attention and focus.

  • Children learn to take responsibility for the lesson and to lead by choosing the songs to sing.
  • Songs can lead to creativity in the language. Once the song become familiar, they can be the stepping stone to creating own versions of them.
  • They can ‘just be sung’ or they can become the theme of the lesson, if accompanied by the vocabulary introduction, craft, story.
  • Singing a song can be a reward for good behaviour or special achievement.
  • Some songs can contribute to learning other subjects such as art, maths, science etc.
  • Parents like when their children sing so songs might be used during parents’ days, end-of-year performances.
  • They help to motivate the kids to learn the language.
  • They give the kids the sense of achievement, as even after a few lessons, they can feel like the speak the language, because they can sing the songs or recite a rhyme.
  • Learning through songs is fun and memorable.
  • Because, finally, adults, also get an excuse to sing!

It looks like, for now at least, all the reasons to use a song = 60 reasons to use a song. If you have any more ideas to add to this list, please let me know in the comments!

And may the VYL and YL classrooms be alive with the sound of music, like this or like this!

If you want to learn how to move from singing a song to a discourse, have a look at the earlier article on How to un-sing a song.

If you are new to teaching and you are not sure where to start

Happy teaching!

#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#

References

Jo Budden, 2009, British Council Blog, Using music and songs

Alex Case (2019) Why and how to use songs with young children,

Alex Case (2008) 15 Criteria for a good kindergarten English song

Children and music: Benefits of Music in Child Development, Bright Horizons,

Sue Clarke, Kids and songs,

Yvette Coyle and Remei Gomez Garcia (2014), Using songs to enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition in preschool children, ELT Journal, 68/3

Nihada Delibelovic Dzanic, Alisa Peijic, The effect of using songs on young learners and their motivation for learning English, 2016, NETSOL, An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1 (2),

Dovlatova, M. 2015, the role of songs in learning English, Young Scientist, 10 (90),

ESL songs for kids and teens (2019),

Opal Dunn (2012), Introducing English to Young Children: Spoken Language, Harper Collins Publications

Larry M Lynch, 9 reasons why you should use songs to teach EFL

Lin Marsh, Why song and dance are essential for children’s development, 2015

Carmen Fonseca Mora (2000), Foreign Language Acquisition and memory singing, ELT Journal, 54/2, p. 146 – 152

Sandie Mourao, Gail Ellis, Teaching English To pre-primary children, Delta Publishing

Carol Read (2007), 500 Activities for the primary classroom, Macmillan books for teachers.

Devon Thagard, 2011, Why the songs should be used more in the Young Learners classroom

Elaine Winter, Why Music Matters in the early childhood classroom, 2017

Crumbs #7: Line up, everybody!

by

Today about a little and very un-revolutionary change in the routine that has, nonetheless, made a huge difference to my VYL and YL classes.

Instructions

  • Make sure the door to your classroom is closed and that the children wait for the lesson outside.
  • When it is the time to start, come out and line them up, perhaps with the parents’ help in the beginning, until they get used to the new routine
  • Wait for them to be ready, say hello to everyone and count together how many students are present
  • Say hello to the first student, ask how they are, let them into the classroom, wait until they book the books and bags away, choose their seat and sit down.
  • Let the second student in.
  • If setting homework is a part of your routine and programme, this is when you can check the homework, asking each student a few questions about it.
  • If there is no homework, this time can be devoted to a short individual conversation with each student. It can be a short revision of the vocabulary, talking about a picture or, if the students are already in one of the primary levels – some reading practice with flashcards or a few questions about any material covered in class. We often use it for practice with ‘Tell me about…’ with the use of a picture.
  • When the students get used to the first part (entering the room), you can add the second element and make sure that the students already sitting in the classroom are occupied, too. They can either play a simple guessing game if this game has been practised in class and if they have been given a set of flashcards. They can also play some games on the phone or the tablet, for example to practise reading with phonics. Again, they have to first to try it under your close supervision, to get used to taking turns etc.

Why we love it

  • It helps to introduce the order from the very start of the lesson since the kids are not waiting in the classroom and the teacher’s arrival is not an interruption of something that they are doing.
  • It is obvious who is responsible for the students during that time, the teacher’s take-over is clearly marked. It might not be as obvious if the kids enter the room during the break or before the teacher, especially if the teacher wants or has to spend the break time outside of the classroom, for whatever the reason.
  • The parents are of a great help in the beginning of the course, they can help explain what the kids are supposed to do, they can help with the name etc.
  • This part of the lesson is a fantastic opportunity for the 1-1 conversation with each child. Regardless of whether the teacher uses this time to check the homework or to ask and answer questions or to read, they are giving each child all their attention (almost all, the eyes at the back of the teacher’s head are watching the kids already in the room, of course:-) and they can check the progress and language use.
  • For the parents, this is a wonderful opportunity to find out how their children are interacting in English, without the parents’ supervision and this is how they can, indirectly find out about their child’s progress, before every single lesson if they wish to do so.
  • For the parents, this is also a chance to find out how the homework handouts or materials are used, what questions the teacher asks and how much language can be generated out of a page that, to the untrained eye, looks like a simple colouring page. If they want to and they have have the time, they can later use this knowledge to practise English at home.
  • In the beginning, when the children are just getting used to the new routine or if they are really young, this part of the lesson can be kept short, later it can be made longer. Similarly, in the begining, the T leads the activity but, later on, the kids can ask each other at least some of the questions, too.
  • I have been using this technique for about six years now. My first ever group for which this has been created (because there were ten of them and we hardly ever got to talk 1-1 in class), now in the third year of primary, still line up to chat with me on entering the room. I have been using it with my pre-primary students, too, groups and individuals, too. The parents always wait in the hallway, at the back of the line and they always wait to hear how their children talk to me. If they leave the school, it is only after their kids have walked into the classroom. They always wait and not because they don’t trust us/me but because they are curious and want to know how it goes.

Happy teaching!

A piece of cake. The everyday lesson planning: Pre-schoolers

by
photo courtesy of Юлец

Welcome to my classroom. I will take you through the lesson planning for one of my preschool groups. They have just started to learn English, they are four and they come to us only once a week.

This was our lesson number 5 and I taught it last week, just one of the lessons, without any fireworks or magic, just what we do. The only thing that was different was me taking notes and photos every step of the way. The planning took about twenty minutes (plus photocopying and preparing the classroom).

This IS how I plan and it was only a few months ago, while talking to a friend and a colleague (insert virtual hugs to Vita), I realised that if I had to pick up a metaphor for my approach to lesson planning, I would go for a cake: I figure out what I want (the visualisation of the amazing piece of baked goods, just a second before you cut it up to serve) and then I come up with all the ingredients to buy, all the equipment to prepare and all the steps to take to get there. Just like while making a cake.

Welcome to my lesson, step by step. Get ready for a lot of I’s!

Step 1: Getting started

An A4 piece of paper is where I always start. A single piece of paper and a few colourful markers. I use the same approach to planning for all my lessons, regardless of how old the students are or what their level, but for pre-schoolers it is especially important.

Leafing through the pages is not necessary and, let’s be honest, not recommended or even impossible when simultaneously you are managing a group of four- or five-year-olds. The lesson plan is always on the wall. It is relatively simple and thanks to the big font, the structure and the colour-coding, I can read it, even from the other end of the classroom. Sometimes, I take it around with me and pin it in the other corner of the room, all that depending on the activity. If for example we are doing something completely new, for the students or for me, my notes for this particular activity are a lot more detailed.

Step 2: The framework

This is the typical framework that I use for all my pre-primary groups and individual students. The lesson is divided into the three main slots, regardless of how long the lesson is. As a result, the length of each third varies and it can last 20 minutes in one real hour class, 15 minutes in one academic hour class or even 10 or 5 minutes in the shorter online classes that lasted 30 or 15 minutes respectively. As with any lesson planning, assigning time slots should be only approximate because a) anything can happen b) we adapt our and the coursebook authors’ ideas to what actually happens in a particular lesson. To be honest, if I were to give up one lesson plan / lesson ingredient / craftsmanship element, timing would be the first one to go.

I start from the scratch in every lesson although I have been playing with the idea of improving the approach – printing the template, half-filled in with all these elements that are constant, then laminating it and using whiteboard markers to plan to minimise the time expenditure and the workload but I have never got round to it. Not yet, anyway.

Step 3: The aim

I start with the lesson aim. I mean, we all do, in a more or less conscious way. Only about a year ago, though, I started to force myself to verbally formulate the aim of each lesson and to write it down. The results of that little, non-time-consuming teaching habit have been nothing short of amazing.

I know most of the coursebooks that I am / we are teaching with very well, I have gone through most of them once at least and I have my favourite activities and solutions and so on and, of course, at the bottom of my brain, I know why I do this or that. But, having to actually think about a particular group and a particular lesson, on a particular day and having to say it out loud has made a bit difference and has made me more aware of what I do and why.

But there is more to it, too. There have been a few occasions over this year when I really wanted to include something to supplement the coursebook, a game, a song you find or an idea you wake up, include it at all cost, just because the idea seemed very appealing. On those few occasions, the lesson aim got skipped or left for the very end of the lesson planning, as if by accident.

Only it was not by accident. Because when I got to the point when I was ‘just’ supposed to summarise it in the lesson plan, I simply could not. It did not come together because the lesson, at this point, was just a collection of activities, without any real focus or an obvious outcome. All these lesson plans were redone and the activities reconsidered.

For that reason, now I always put the lesson aim at the top of the page, as my frame, my spotlight, my runway. A clear lesson aim also helps to reflect on what happened in class afterwards.

In this particular lesson, I wanted my students to start talking about emotions. They had already been exposed to the three key words (happy, sad, angry) and their symbolic representations but without actually producing much. In this particular lesson, I wanted to try to take it a bit further, to the production stage, ideally in the form of a full sentence ‘I’m happy / I’m sad / I’m angry’.

To be honest, ideally, this is what should have been written on the page ‘I’m happy/ I’m sad / I’m angry’ but it got compressed to only three words, mainly because I have taught the lesson a few times already and it would be a full sentence by default. Just to prove that the lesson plan was for the lesson itself and not for ‘publication’.

Stage 4: I will always love you

This is the easy thing. The first and the last block, in brown, are the admin bits, with the students entering and leaving the classroom.

We line up in front of the classroom, count how many people are present, we say hello officially and we check the homework (more on that kind of a hello routine soon to come!) and we sing our goodbye song and choose stickers, get homework and choose the stickers before everyone goes home. These never change, although sometimes I only send the homework through the WhatsApp group or explain it directly to the parents. This was a standard lesson, though.

The other element that always appears at that point are all the songs and chants to be sung in class. These depend on the topic of the lesson and later on, the students can sometimes decide which one we are going to sing. This group here is at the very beginning of their English adventure so for the sake of establishing the routine and because we only know a few songs, we sing all of them in every lesson.

Songs work here as some kind of punctuation marks and during the lesson, we basically sail from one song to the other. It helps to ensure the balance between settlers and stirrers or songs offer at least a tiny little bit of a change of a pace and an opportunity to move but they also help to ensure that there are periods of the lesson when we all do something together so it helps to keep the balance of different interaction patterns (whole class vs individual work, pair work or taking turns).

Step 5: The centrepiece

At this point, I am adding the main activity, our focused task during which we are set to make the lollipop puppets with our three emotions (plus colours and some functional language). I have done this activity in that format a few times and for that reason there are no detailed instructions, the staging is already in the blood.

Another thing that appears at the time is the storybook. At this point in the course, we use storybooks only as supplementary material to revise and to reinforce the target language from the lesson and this is how Pete the Cat helped us. We revised the colours and emotions only using a different resource.

Step 6: The familiar

The next step is adding the other elements of our routine. These are not as constant as the hello or goodbye routine but not as changeable as the focused task or the target language practice.

Since it is the beginning of the course, there is not much to pick out from or to revise and since we are still working on building our routines and I try not to add too many new elements, not to overwhelm the kids.

Our revision activity has been the same for all this time: we count up to ten on fingers, we count the people present, boys and girls and teachers and we count other things, in this lesson dinosaurs, in this lesson in a book and our plastic toys.

Our music and movement has been pretty much the same from the beginning of the course and it is only now that the kids are properly enjoying the activities. This applies to the songs and the magic bag game, in which we use plastic fruit. They don’t know the fruit names so at this point we only focus on their colours (‘It’s green’).

As for our How are you today part, the plan was to do it in the traditional way but with the introduction of the finished product. I thought that this might help the kids become aware of what this toy is and how to use it (pick one and place it in front of our face, while saying ‘I’m happy’). By the time we’d get to making our own lollipops, they would already be familiar with them. It would also help with giving the instructions.

Step 7: The key elements

The things to add now, will be the details of working with the target language and with the revised language, in order to ensure that they best contribute to the completion of the focused task.

What I did plan, however, was the colours practice with a variety of activities: not quite in the order in which we did them. The main and the new one here was ‘open/close’ also known as ‘what’s missing’, a memory game and the most challenging activity here (as it involves cognitive skills and language production, focus). Everything else was either a preparation for that or a supplementary game, which can but may not be used, in the end. I like to make a list like that to prepare myself for their different moods, participation and involvement levels, etc. Having a list of potential games which we can play, without any major changes to the materials set or the seating arrangement I found it to be quite useful.

The fish game here acted as my potential plan Z, only if we have time. In the end, I used it later in the lesson, instead of the magic bag activity since they were both quite similar (students taking turn to perform an individual task with a motor skills development focus and colour revision.

In this lesson, the connection between the focused task and the target language practice is not as strong but that is because it is only the lesson 5 in level 1. Thinking about it now, after the lesson, I think that, ideally, I should have included some additional activity to combine numbers and colours, for example in the form of colourful happy, sad and angry faces, that we could categorise by emotion, count etc. So see, there is always a way to improve things)))

Ready!

The lesson plan is ready. Perhaps now, looking at it, in its full, finished glory, it is easier to see why I do not include any timings. The framework itself outlines the time slots for each stage of the lesson, alongside their aims, although they are not articulated clearly and they are the following:

Column A: the introduction to the lesson, hello and revision, the aim: settling in, duration: about 20 minutes.

Column B: working on the target language, the aim: presentation, practice and production, in varying ratios, depending on whether it is the beginning of the ‘unit’ or the end of it, duration: about 20 minutes.

Column C: production, the aim: production, with the hope of more freer practice and spontaneous production, although, of course not during the first few lessons of the level 1 course.

Looking back

The lesson went well and, apart from the few things mentioned already, I did not really have to change anything else. Not that it would be a very bad thing to do. Regardless of what has been planned, the thing that matters most is a group of the little people who are sitting in the classroom, how many of them there are, how advanced they are, how they are feeling on the day. Flexibility, first and foremost. And then – the reflection bit. Because we can always make things better.

If you are new to teaching pre-schoolers, have a look at my post about the first VYL lesson survival kit.

Happy teaching!

L1 in the primary and pre-primary EFL classroom part 1: The overheard conversations

by

Should we? Can we? Is it a good idea? Is it going to work? Is it legal? What will the students think? What will the students’ parents think? Have we just so got used to what we have been doing all our life that we don’t even want to consider the benefits of the other approach? Have we been brainwashed enough so that now that idea sounds like a blasphemy?

To be honest, I have no idea and I have no answers. I am setting off on this particular adventure with all the questions in the world and no answers yet, rejoicing the fact that the EFL world has (slowly) started to talk about the use of L1 in the EFL class.

But, although this is a very interesting topic, I would like to seriously narrow it down and focus on, surprise surprise, the presence of L1 when the students are real beginners and about 5 or 7 years old. Or 3. Or 6. Or 8 even. Then the question shifts from ‘Shall we have L1 in class?’ to ‘What do we do about the L1 in class?’, because, whether you want it or not, L1 will be there.

Before we start, I think it is important that I shed a bit of light on my background: I am here as an experienced EFL teacher and a teacher trainer who works in a private language school and who speaks her students’ L1 but who does not use it in front of the kids. In the past I also had a chance to work with young (and younger) kids whose langauge I did not speak at all. These details are factors which, potentially, at least, might have had an impact on my attitude to L1 and its place in the classroom.

This is the opening post to a series that I have been dreaming about for a long time and in which I would like to include not only my experience but also the overview of what our YL gurus think on the subject, the studies carried out so far and what I have found out while researching for my own MA dissertation.

In lieu of an introduction, a few overheard conversations. The text in italics is the translation of the exchange that initially happened in the students’/parents’ L1.

One: overheard in the classroom aka The Kids Want To Talk

T: What happened?

S6: One of my teeth fell out all by itself and the other one, Sasha (brother) pulled out.

T: Your brother?

S6: (He is) three years old. He pulled it out!

T: Oh, no! He is a dentist, yes? The doctor from the teeth? (*)

S6: He put his hand in my mouth and then pulled and.. ((very animated))

T: Oh, so is he strong?

S6: Yes.

T: I think he is.

S1: And I did it all by myself. Because I am big. ()

S6: And I also want to tell you…()

S9: And I want to tell you that I was ill the day before yesterday.

T: I am sorry.

S1: And my brother is ill, too. He does not go to English anymore. Today.

S8: And my Masha (the doll) is ill.

So many stories to tell, about the brothers, sisters, teeth, dogs, cats, dead birds on the path in the park, a bad day at preschool, the upcoming birthdays and grandma’s visit…Kids, preschoolers or primary, love the teacher and want to share their stories. This is exactly how they build the rapport and bond. Yes, it is easy to imagine that, if there are no boundaries, kids could easily spend the entire lesson chatting in L1, without any incentive to at least try to speak English but going for the binary ‘English or nothing at all’ is not an option with the youngest students.

Two: overheard in the classroom aka Let’s Sort Out a Problem

S5: How ((pointing at trousers))?

T: Trousers.

S5: Who is wearing trousers?

S1: Me

S5: But you already said that you were wearing jeans!

S1: Jeans are also trousers.

T: Very good, Sasha. Very good question.

Now, surely, one more reason not to stick to the binary here. It is not just a random conversation (that is useful anyway, see scene one), this is intervention, clarification and sorting things out. This is, actually, useful, potential trouble-shooting. Would we want to ban that, too?

Three: Overheard in the classroom aka We Cherish L1!

S1: Red, please.

T1: English, please.

S1: Red, please.

S2: And I don’t know how to do it.

T: No Russian!

Yes, this is when the blood starts to boil. Russian, Polish, Chinese, French or German, the kids should not be told off for using their first language. This is something that they can do, something that they should be proud of being able to use it and of using it. I do believe that English should never be put in an opposition to the L1, in the same way as homework should never be set as a punishment.

Four: overheard in the hallway: Some Adults (We Don’t Like Very Much)

S1 and S2: (blab together in Russian)

Carers: No, speak English!

Good idea! But how to make it happen if the two kids in question have a range of about 25 words in English, together and I know that for a fact. I have taught them all of these 25 words that they do know at this point, that they do know, collectively. How are they supposed to communicate, in class or in the hallway, with these 25 words? High expectations are good but the task should be achievable, too!

Five: Overheard at the reception aka The Parents

P1: Does the teacher speak Russian?

Self: Yes, she does. Not in class but yes, she knows the language.

P1: But this is not good at all.

P2: Does the teacher speak Russian?

Self: No, she doesn’t. Not very well.

P2: But this is not good at all.

It is not always easy to meet parents’ expectations and to even predict what these are actually going to be. The truth is that if they are introduced to ‘an established’ teacher, and that may not necessarily mean teacher with a lot of experience, only some who has already made a name for themselves, even in the tiniest of circles, then they are more likely not even to ask these questions, at all.

If, however, the teacher is brand new, then, unfortunately, parents will be more curious and more likely to evaluate the teachers’ abilities and skills against some very subjective criteria including the teacher’s nationality, the teacher’s first language, the teacher’s knowledge of L1. Or age, or sex or appearance, too. These criteria are probably the result of the parents’ previous experience as learners or as learners’ parents, the experience which might not always have been positive. They might also result from the exposure to some EFL/ESL urban myths from the 60s in which a five-year-old child picks up an accent from their non-native teacher and is ‘scarred’ for life.

No one-fits-all solutions here. Just like every child requires an individual approach, so does each individual parents. Yes, we win some battles here and we lose some.

Six: Not quite overheard aka the State School

Student 1: Anka, I had my first lesson of English today. My teacher did not say anything in English. She did not say one word of English. In the lesson of English. Not one word. Anka!

This line came from a student who has been in my group for four years and who has just started primary school. I did not know what to say so I kept quiet trying to remain in control of my face, so that it would not reflect in any way the thoughts that were rushing through my head.

The teacher in me thinking that we have made great progress and that, already at 7, my student not only communicates in English but also knows what to expect from a lesson. The teacher trainer in me shedding tears at the methodology and the lesson time used in such a way. The fellow teacher in me sorry for my peer at one of the schools as she will be trying to adapt her lessons to include a gifted and more advanced learner. And, as an adult, suddenly very much worried about my student in a different learning environment and how her teacher is going to treat her.

But, really, a lesson of English without any English? Not even hello? Not even bye-bye?

Seven: Overheard during a workshop aka The Teachers

Teacher 1: But they have very little language. They will not understand the rules of the game so I have to explain the rules first and then we can play.

Teacher 2: What if a child cries? Or if there is a real problem? I can only sort it out in the child’s frist language. They do not have enough English to understand…

Teacher 3: They need to know that I understand what they are saying. They need to feel safe.

Teacher 4: They still think I don’t speak Russian. I don’t want them to lose the motivation to use English in class.

Four teachers, four approaches. I do indentify with all of them, to some extent and I have a few follow-up questions about all of them, too. And you, dear teacher?

I am really interested in the attitudes of primary and pre-primary teachers to using the kids L1 in class, by the students and by the teachers. This was one of the beliefs that I was researching in my MA dissertation (the post on that coming up in this series). The MA is done (yay) but the research continues so if you have a few minutes to spare and you don’t mind taking part in the survey, please follow the link and answer a few questions here.

The next step? The overview of literature. First, the YL gurus. Coming soon!

All you need is…a picture!

by

A post by a lazy teacher who likes to ditch the tasks and the responsibility onto her students, even those little ones.

A post by a greedy teacher who always wants more and whose main aim of every lesson is: language production. And then more language production.

A post by a teacher who first shared these ideas at the Cambridge Back to School webinars in August 2020.

A post by a teacher, about materials management or 00000 different ways to use the same picture.

A post with activities that were inspired by some of the YLE Cambridge exams but approached in an open-minded way…Ready, steady, go!

P.S. Don’t forget to check out of the second part this post.

There is only one picture…

created using an image from classroomclipart.com and Miro

Before you even look: tell the students that it is a picture of a bedroom, have them predict what they might see…Then we look at the real one and check.

Tell me about this room: the students describe the room, using the language that they are familiar with, ‘there is’, ‘I can see’, perhaps only the nouns, perhaps nouns and colours and prepositions.

Riddles: the kids make up simple riddles for their partners to guess. ‘It is black and it is on the chair’.

Stickers dictation: this one is more appropriate for the lower levels and was inspired by the sticker activity in the Superminds coursebooks by CUP. It is also a perfect opportunity to use up all the leftover stickers that no one ever asks for. Students work in pairs and they upgrade the illustrations in their coursebooks (as in: any illustrations) with the stickers. Student A is telling student B where to put the five stickers in one of the coursebooks and then they swap roles.

Teacher = Cheater: the kids open their books and look at the picture. The teacher tells them about her non-existent picture which is, surprisingly, very different from the picture in the coursebook.

Students = Cheaters: the kids describe their made-up rooms, also, very different from the bedroom that they are looking at.

In my real room: particularly appropriate for the online classes since the children will be already sitting in their rooms and can easily compare the illustration with the reality but can be done in the offline lessons, too.

Because: students describe the picture but instead of just focusing on what exactly they can see they try to find the rationale for what they can see. ‘The books are on the floor because….’

The story behind the picture: even such an uninspiring picture in which nothing is happening (really) can be a starting point to writing a story or telling a story. The only thing that you need is a set of questions to get them started, for example: Who lives in this room, a boy or a girl? How old is he/she? What is his / her name? What does he / she like? He / she is not in his/her room. Where is he/she? What is he/she doing? What did he/she do before? What is he / she going to do next?

Dice games: the teacher has to assign the structures to each of the numbers on the dice and these can be easily adapted to the level of the students. The standard set might include: 1 = I can see, 2 = There is, 3 = There are, 4 = It’s on / under / in, 5 = It’s green / red, 6 = It’s big/ small / beautiful. You can also include: I like, I don’t like, …is doing what, is happy/ sad/angry, there aren’t any and so on, depending on the picture. Kids work in pairs, roll the dice and describe the picture using the assigned structures.

Noughts and crosses: It takes three lines to turn any picture into a noughts and crosses game. Students play the game in pairs but before they put their mark in one of the boxes, they have to describe what they can see there in one, two or even three sentences. To keep the kids interests up, a marking scheme can be introduced, a twin grid, with points which is of course kept secret until the end of the round (in Miro – under the noughts and crosses grid, on paper – on the corner that is folded under). This way we always have a winner, the person who collects more points for the boxes that they have described. Sometimes we have two winners, too, the logical one and the mathematical one.

Memory games: first, the students get to look at the picture for a minute or two. The teacher asks them to remember the details, all the colours, actions, number of children and so on. Afterwards, the students are divided into teams. The teacher can use either a set of pre-prepared sentences some of which are true and some of which are false. The teams pick out one of the cards, read the sentence and check how much they remember. This version is more T-centred but it has the advantage of additional reading practice. In another version, the students get to look at the picture again and make up a sentence about it, for the other team to guess. They can also write their own set of sentences which will be later used to test the other team.

There are two pictures…

I can make it different: the starting point is a picture and it can be copied and upgraded in any way the teacher sees fit, using all the beautiful tools that the Miro board has to offer (google image search and icons). It will take some time but it means that it can be adapted to the level, skills and interests of a particular group and then saved and recycled forever. Just like these two pictures here…

Predict the Differences: the children can only see one of the pictures and they try to figure out all the ways in which the two pictures can differ. It might be especially effective if they are already familiar with the task format and know that they have to be looking out for different patterns, activities, objects that the people are holding, throwing, the comparisons between two objects, the location on the right or left side of the picture and so on.

Predict the Differences Quiz: the idea is the same but we add the competitive element and another skill as the teams or pairs of students are asked to write ten potential differences between the picture they can see and the other one. The team that manages to better at predicting wins.

Find the difference: we can ask the students to work in pairs but to find all the differences without showing their picture to the partner. This is not going to be a strict Movers or Flyers preparation task but we are going to raise the level of challenge and they students will really have to listen carefully in order to establish how these two pictures are different.

One big and ten small pictures: it is not necessary to kill another tree to ensure that each child has two pictures right in front of their eye. One, enlarged copy of Picture A can be displayed on the board (or on the screen) and compared with the picture B in students’ coursebooks.

Accidental friends: illustrations that were created not as a ‘find the difference’ task but can easily serve the purpose. Examples? Any of the Movers and Starters reading and writing story tasks or any of the Movers or Flyers speaking story tasks…The theme is already there and looking for differences can be a nice warm-up to storytelling or story-writing activities…

Very, very different: the illustrations that can be used in this kind of a task do not even have to be specifically created with that purpose in mind. Any (and I mean it: any) two pictures depicting ‘a bedroom’ can be used to find the differences. The crazily pink exhibit A here and practically any page of the IKEA catalogue…And pronto!

YLE listening task recycled: these can be used as a listening task, to prepare for the format and to develop listening skills but they can be later used again as a colouring dictation activity. Students work in pairs, one is in charge of the coloured pencils and speaking (‘Colour the bird yellow’), the other one – in charge of the colouring page and listening. Half-way through the activity they swap roles.

This is already more productive but the best is yet to come. Since it is a freer practice activity and students make their own decisions regarding the choice of the colours, it is quite likely that all the pictures will be different. And then…Yes, we can compare them, in groups of four.

Actually, even a leftover listening copies can be used in the same way (Saving the planet, remember?). After all, regardless of which exam it is, the students only have to colour five elements of the picture and the rest of them can be used in a speaking task like that.

Colouring printables: can be used in exactly the same way. Not all the pages will do, for example a large drawing of a cat does not really offer too much as an object to be described and I try not to use colouring pictures which are too big as some students like to be precise and colouring those might take too much of the precious time of the lesson. Other than that, just open google and type in: a child’s bedroom colouring page…Ready! And if there are any words that the students don’t know yet, we can always learn them. Even if they are not on the YLE word list and just because ‘a dragonfly’ might be a cool word to know😊

Which one is different?

Which one is different? Why?

Vocabulary practice: we only need four pictures out of is one is different. It might be a set of four objects, three of which are blue and one of which is red and the students do not even need to know the name of all of the objects. They can still complete the task by using the structure ‘It’s blue’ or even ‘blue’. We can create such by using icons or google images on the Miro board or by arranging and re-arranging the flashcards that accompany our books.

Grammar practice: the focus here can be chosen depending on the topic of the lesson and it can be limited to only ‘it has got…legs’ with animal flashcards, ‘it’s big’ with school objects, ‘I like’ with food, prepositions, Present Continuous and what not.

Kids take over: the students can make up their own chains, either with the coursebooks flashcards or the mini-flashcards (always a good idea to have two or three sets of those for each topic, they can be reused throughout the course).

Chant it! This is the only variation here that I have not had a chance to use in the classroom but if you look at it from the right angle, all of a sudden, there is a lot of potential here: each chain has four pictures and each of them can become a separate verse. The kids can clap for the similar concepts and stomp for the odd one out…

It’s a good idea but it’s not my idea: the kids talk about the pictures and describe the odd one out but they have to go on until they guess the teacher’s original idea (probably better to write it down somewhere in order to be able to prove that we have not been cheating this time😊. If the appropriate topic has been chosen (such as, for instance, animals), this activity can go on for almost forever and the students will produce a terrifying amount of language. Once they learn to think outside of the box, this same activity can be used with all the seemingly less ‘appealing’ topics, too.

How many can you think of: a similar idea but realised slightly differently as students work with the exam materials but try to think of as many reasons to odd one of the pictures out…

Well, 27 activities…Not bad, not bad at all. I might be adding to this list in the future.

I hope you have found something useful here! And if you have used it in class, please let me know!

Happy teaching!

P.S. A request!

It is very simple.

I would like to know a tiny little bit more about my readers. There are so many of you, popping in here, again and again, and the numbers of visitors and visits are going up and make my heart sweel with joy. But I realised I don’t know anything about my readers and I would love to know, a tiny little bit more.

Hence the survey.

Crumbs #5 End-of-course Goodbye-Letter

by

This is one of my favourite end-of-course activities for all young learners.

Instructions

You need a piece of A4 paper per student. You can use regular white or colourful photocopying paper.

Write the names of the students on the sheets, one per student, and put them up in the hallway, ideally at a distance from each other. Have a card with your name, too but keep it in the classroom. It will be used for demonstration.

Show your card and tell the students that everyone has a card like that in the hallway. Explain that they are going to walk around and write something for everyone.

If necessary, pre-teach or revise some language, for instance ‘You are…’ and adjectives or ‘Thank you for…’.

Clarify the rules: a) we don’t come up to the card with our name, b) we write something for everyone, c) we can leave anonymous notes or we can write our names, d) we only write nice things, e) if we have nothing nice to write, we only leave a smiley

Give our markers, line up and go out. Monitor and keep an eye on the clock. This part of the task takes about 15 minutes with a group of twelve.

Ask the students to go back into the classroom and quickly collect the letters. Give them out in the final lesson.

Why we love it

  • It is a great opportunity for the students to read and to write something that they really care about and it is a great souvenir from the course, handmade and personalised.
  • The students have a lot of freedom and can write as much as they want or only leave a smiley in case they really have nothing to say.
  • This activity can be adapted to the level and age of the students. It can be done in the classroom, with the papers being passed from student to student, until they make a full circle and return to the owner and the youngest kids can only draw some simple shapes for example a smiley, a heart, a sun, a star and their name.
  • The first time I did this activity, I planned for the kids to re-write the letters before handing them out to the addressee but they stopped me (‘But Anka, this is much cooler and more beautiful!!!!”) and they were right!
  • I keep my card on the board but I don’t actively encourage the students to write something for me, too. Somehow they always do anyway))

Happy teaching!

About growing cactuses.

by

No, just kidding.

Teaching teens.

A few weeks ago, I got to do my personal version of The Matrix: Reloaded: after eight years’ break, I went back to the forest to teach at a summer camp. If you’ve never had a chance to try it, there is one thing you should know – camp, among all the other things, is also an alternative universe and an academic year in a nutshell, and hence, a perfect opportunity for reflection. This time about teenagers…In a flipped classroom manner.

The last scene

It is one of my end-of-the course traditions, a good-bye letter writing. I participate, too because it is a chance to tell my students that they are amazing. The card with my name is in the classroom, to model the activity but I never specifically encourage them to leave any notes there. Asking for compliments is just…not cool, basically. But, somehow, this page never stays blank. Magic, I presume😊

I don’t need to tell you that it is really sweet and touching to be getting a letter like that:

‘You are the best teacher’‘I liked ur lessons, thanks’, ‘Thank you for interesting lessons! You are the best teacher’, ‘I do love you!’, ‘love u’, ‘it’s really interesting and funny. It’s better than lessons at school’

A letter that is followed by an avalanche of hugs. And a cabbage, a капуста, a group hug, another camp tradition. In the middle of which, this year exclusively, one is just trying not to think of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing.

Looking at the last scene, you’d think that we had two weeks’ worth of the most amazing lessons, in the great atmosphere, with the students who wanted to learn and make the most of the summer camp lessons’ opportunities. A dream come true!

Only it wasn’t that.

The typical lesson

It’s not the students tried to find excuses not to be in class or that they complained or, even refused to participate point blank. No, they were there, every morning, all twelve of them, they did do what I asked them to but a regular lesson would also feature at least one of the following:

  • Yawning
  • Resting their heads on the tables
  • Sighing deeply when you present the model of the project
  • Sighing deeply when you explain how the walking gallery is going to work
  • Sighing deeply when you hand out the papers
  • Rolling their eyes when you want them to mingle
  • Chatting (in English but not about what they were supposed to)
  • Not sitting like the model students from the stock photography snapshots
  • Asking (seemingly) provocative questions
  • Saying just what they think, no filter whatsoever
  • Answering in single words
  • Never volunteering just to do something
  • Questioning the point of every other activity and trying to convince you to abort the whole plan
  • Sitting with a perfectly expressionless face
  • Sitting quietly until you call out their name and ask them directly

The bad news is…

…that, paradoxically, starting the academic year and the course might actually be easier with the younger students, primary or pre-schoolers. Yes, classroom management and behaviour will be a challenge but the kids will be expecting to be charmed, to be swept off their feet with your puppets, stickers, flashcards and your smile. You will have to cast the correct spell but once you do, they will be on your side, within the first five minutes of the lesson, stars in their eyes… And yes, if you are confused and you don’t quite know what you are doing, the magic will be very short-lived and you will be in trouble, but a little bit later.

It does not really work that way with teenagers. They will probably not be running around the room and demolishing the classroom while waiting for you. They will not cry or ask to go out to see mum. They will not fight over the last pink marker. What a relief. Still, the first few lessons might feel a bit awkward for the teacher. No matter how much enthusiasm you project and how much energy and effort you put into the lesson preparation, the reaction that you get might still be more resembling of Coke that has been standing in the fridge for too long – still admittedly a liquid, but as flat and un-fizzy as could be. And nowhere near the ‘WOW’ effect that you were going for. In lesson one and in lesson two and in lesson three…Oups.

The good news is…

…that it is just the way things are and that it is not the teacher’s fault, usually. Teenagers are a more demanding audience and it takes more than just one academic hour and one set of stickers to charm them.  

It makes me think of a window sill or, better even, a greenhouse, with long rows of pots, with all the imaginable species and variations of cactuses. Most of them with needles, long or short and always sharp. Or those that look like soft white hair only are as prickly and unpleasant as all the more obvious ones.

It would be silly of me to think that one blog post can effectively summarise everything that has been written about teenagers and growing up so I am not even going to try. But perhaps these few comments and ideas will make someone’s life in the classroom a bit easier. Here we go.

Peers are more important than adults.

We, dear teacher, we do not really matter that much. We are not the priority. In a group in a language school that has just been put together and in which the students don’t know each other, their energy and time and attention will inevitably be devoted to figuring each other out and finding their own place in the group. At a state school, they will probably know each other very well and the group will have been formed already but, because of that, they will act as a group, as a team, all against the world (which, in this case, is us, unfortunately). It will have nothing to do with aggression and real dislike. It will be all about not breaking the ranks to make the teacher happy. Because, really, who would want to do that?

You can help them by facilitating interaction with different people in the group. If it is teacher-imposed, it will be easier for them to put up with. They are not losing the face because they have to do it but they will be given a chance to get to know each other and to slowly bond with everybody, working together on a task, playing the game, role-playing and so on. Especially if done frequently, in a random manner (for example using cards with their names that one of the students will pick out from the bag, thus forming the teams) and if punctuated with the periods of ‘the safety blanket’ that is sitting and collaborating with their favourite people.

It works well both for the newly-formed groups and for the existing groups that the teacher only takes over because in any case it gives plenty of opportunities to observe how different students interact with different partners. For example, someone who, at the first glance, looks like the ringleader of the group might turn out to be the most laborious student when separated from his or her followers…And the quiet student might start talking when paired-up with someone who is not their best friend.

The teacher is, potentially, an enemy, too.

First of all, the teacher is old and has no idea what life is about, what struggles they everyday might bring and how difficult it is to be a teenager. Yes, the teacher used to be a teenager, too, but, clearly it has been a while and things have been forgotten already.

Second of all, the teacher seems to be on some kind of a mission (duh!) and she always wants something. Usually, that particular thins is the least interesting option of all of those available at the moment. As if that has not been bad enough, the teacher has the power to make the students do things, even if only those little, non-oppressive things such as answering questions, completing the homework tasks or changing partners. Fighting back is possible, but in the end, it is the adult who has the winning card.

Last but not least, this teacher is new and it will take some time for everyone to figure out if he or she is to be their own Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall or …Professor Umbridge. Teenagers do not have a lot of life experience but all of them have already had a chance to be exposed to different kinds of teachers, not only in books and films. They will be bringing this prior knowledge into our lesson, too and we will have no choice but to deal with that.

You can help by being yourself and smiling and by not letting their apparent lack of enthusiasm get to you. ‘Time is on your side’, as Mick Jagger says.

A few years ago, Katherine Bilsborough gave a great talk at the IH YL Conference in which she called for ‘More Democracy in the Classroom’ by getting the students involved in the shaping of the lesson and taking responsibility for it. It was a real eye-opener for me as I realised that my 4-year-olds get to make more decisions about the lesson (the favourite songs, the favourite games, the colour of the chair etc) than my pre-adults, who, actually, are the ones who need the most practice.

Drafting the class contract might be the first step but the students can also make some decisions regarding the homework they want to do, the order of the activities in the lesson, the test date, the topics to include…All within reason, of course, but something to let them see that it is not a one man show and that they matter, too.

They are looking for and finding their own voice.

That is why they are always ready to potentially question anything that we say (we are old, we don’t matter). They will be doing their ‘Mary, Mary, Quite contrary’ just to see where it gets them and how you are going to react to their actions and views and opinions and questions. Will you accept their weirdness and their alternative approach or will you try to mould them into something?

You can help by developing their critical thinking as well as including a lot of open-ended activities and opportunities for them to express their opinions and views. Teaching them how to agree in English, how to disagree politely, how to express doubt, justify opinion will all come in handy. All of it will come in handy, in your English lessons and in their lives.

The last scene. Revisited.

So here they are, your cactuses. Until they know that they are safe, until they confirm that they can trust you, they will be not be ‘nice’ and ‘sweet’ and ‘lovely students’ that every teacher dreams off.

It might take some time. It might even take the whole course. And only when it is time to say good-bye, during one of those final lessons, they take the masks off and you get to see the real, vulnerable people. People who like you, people who respect you and people who appreciate what you do. Even though they do their best not to show it.

They are also the people who care enough to ask ‘Will you remember us?’

Of course, I will.

Dear teacher, if you are preparing for the first lessons with a new group of teens, just fasten the seatbelt and get ready for the ride. And if you have got any oven mittens lying around, pack these, too. They might be just the thing you need.

Happy teaching!

P.S. I have always loved cactuses:-)

The first VYL lesson survival kit

by

My first VYL teaching experience…

…was in Spain. There were eleven kids in the group, we met for two real hours but only once a week. Some of the students were five and some were six and already in school which, of course, made everything a bit easier.

Our classroom was not quite what you would call a VYL teacher’s dream come true. We had huge, wardrobe-size tables that no one, save for Hulk, possibly, would have been able to move and they were so big that when my students sat down, they were barely visible. There were only eleven little heads bobbing above these huge tops…

In terms of the space, we had a tiny strip of the floor in the aisle and another one between the first row and the podium with the teacher’s desk stood because, of course, there had to be a podium. I did not speak my students’ first language and they were beginners in English.

If that had not been enough, just before the first lesson, I was informed that one of my students was allergic to most foods, and the allergy was so strong that we were not allowed to bring anything edible into the classroom, not to put his life at risk. I was also told that, should I notice anything suspicious, any potential symptoms of an allergic reaction, I should immediately leave the classroom with my underage students (one of them unwell) and run about 200 meters along the hallway to fetch the person who was qualified and equipped with the injection that would save his life.

As a result, naturally, I spent the entire academic year stressing out to the maximum of my brain’s capacity. Because something might happen to him, he might try to tell me and I might not understand. And perhaps I don’t run fast enough to get to the office room on time…Or I have to leave all the kids in the classroom and it will be a huge traumatic experience for them…I was dying before, during and after the lesson and perhaps because of that I managed not to focus too much on the potential methodological failings of my first year with the little ones. We had fun, we learnt a lot and my kids were amazing. And, probably, because of that experience, I am what I am today. Alvaro, Jesus, Luz, Uliana, Itziar, Amalia, Oihana, Beatrice, Andre, Eva, Maria. The amazing students.

If you are about to start teaching English to preschoolers…

Let’s start from a happy ending because there will be one: you will start teaching a new group of preschool beginners, they will fall in love with you and with learning English. You will get the access to a source of pure, undiluted life energy twice a week. You will adore teaching the future to speak a foreign language. The parents will be grateful, the kids will start shouting their first words as soon as they enter the school. The songs you teach will stay with them forever and they will sing them while in the car on the way home. And, many many years later, while they are taking their FCE or CAE exam in a few years’ time, they are going to look back and smile thinking of their first English teacher. See? A happy ending.

Before you get there, though, and it is still a long, long way from now, you just have to survive the first 45 minutes of the first lesson.

Surprise!

That is potentially the biggest problem that during that first lesson anything can happen, literally anything. Some kids will have already started kindergarten so they are used to staying on their own, with ‘a stranger’. Some children have started ballet classes or swimming lessons so they know that mum is not always around and, instead, there is another adult and that they will be ‘learning’. Some kids have had a conversation with their parents that prepared them for this new experience and now they know what to expect. Some children may have even learnt a few words, some red, blue, green, pink and onetwthreefourfivesixseveneightnineten, usually like that, as one word. Some are ready.

However, it will be only some of them and this year, due to the pandemic, possibly fewer than in a regular year since for quite a few of them the academic year and the socialising would have been interrupted. The thing is that you really need to meet them in person and then start discovering them all by yourself.

What can go wrong?

Well, let me think and reminisce a little:

  • tears as soon as you enter the room (for the first two weeks straight, actually)
  • running in the hallway screaming (in their L1) ‘I don’t want to learn any English’.
  • lying on the carpet for 40 out of 45 minutes of the lesson time, looking at you but absolutely refusing to interact in any way whatsoever
  • covering their ears when you speak English
  • responding to you in Turkish (the L2), not in Russian (the L1) and not in English (the foreign language, that was a fun one!)
  • leaving the room to bring the nanny in
  • hiding under the table. Standing by the door during the entire lesson
  • speaking very very quietly
  • asking to see mum every ten minutes
  • asking why you don’t speak Russian
  • hugging the bear and not letting go

Just to name a few things.

Ten things that you can do

One. Do not panic.

Being experienced does give you some heads-up, true, but it is a bit nerve-wracking anyway, no matter how many years you have on your resume. It is quite likely that the first lesson will be an awkward one. It’s ok.

Two. The parents are on your side.

It might not always be possible but it would be great to meet the parents and let them know what you are going to do during the first lesson. Ask the parents to stay at the school, close to the classroom. You will be on your own during the lesson but it is good to know that, should it come to the worst, you can just open the door and call Masha’s dad or Tima’s mum to help you deal with the tears or the unwanted behaviour. Keep the doors of the classroom closed and collect the kids in the hallway. Line the kids up and find out what their names are. Say hello and count everyone. Open the door to the classroom and take the kids in, one by one. The parents will help you here, they will wait with their children and keep an eye of them while you are organising the students in the room.

After the lesson, take the kids out and explain the homework to the parents, too.

Three. Get ready.

Prepare a lesson plan, trying to predict what can go wrong, with the classroom management, instructions or materials and to prepare a plan B. I have found it very useful to put up a poster on the wall with a simplified version of your lesson plan, big font and colour-coded, something that you will be able to glance at without turning your back or taking the eyes off your group.

Get all your resources ready and in order. You will have your plate full as it is so you don’t need to wonder where the pencils are or try to reorganize all your papers when the kids are already in the classroom.

Four. Priorities.

One of the most important things during the first lesson and during the first ten or even twenty lessons, is working on the classroom routine. Your students have no previous learning experience of that kind. They don’t know what is expected of them because they literally, have never done that before. Go step by step, especially between the stages or when you are moving between the parts of the room. In a few weeks’ time, yes, you will be able to say ‘Everyone, let’s make a circle’ but for the time being, do get up, stand where the circle is supposed to be and call Petya. Wait for him. Then call Misha, wait for him to come. Then Marusya, wait for her to join the circle…Don’t worry that you are wasting the precious lesson time. No, you are not. You are establishing the routine and investing in the future.

Five. Your basic teaching tools.

Don’t forget that you have the most important teaching tools on you – your face, your hands and your voice. Use them to help you, to show the kids what to do, to praise them or to discipline them. They don’t speak the language, yet. Your face and your voice and gestures must match the message you want to convey, your soft voice and a smile for praising, your other voice and a serious face when you want to tell them that something should not be happening.

Six. Model.

Demonstrate. Model. Show. Always. Verbal instructions and ICQs (instruction checking questions) matter, too but your students will not know any of the words you are using and modelling will be essential. No matter what your activities are, give the instructions and do it first yourself, possibly a few times. If you are going to use a handout, prepare two spare copies for yourself – one to complete before the lesson and to use as the finished product to show the kids what the aim is and another one to be completing with the kids during the lesson.

Seven. Peer observations

Ideally, there would be enough time for you to arrange a live peer observation session with somes more experienced colleagues. Watching real kids during a real lesson can be especially beneficial, and even more so if you can have a look at the lesson plan and to talk to the teacher after the lesson. Arranging peer observations of the online lessons should be even easier to manage. In the school where I work, we also record lessons for teacher training purposes and we keep them on the database. This way, the newly qualified teachers can access them easily and watch them from home.

If none of these is available, there is still youtube and lots and lots of videos of teachers who want to share their activities and favourite tools. Every little does actually help. A lot!

Eight. Do the reading.

There might not always be enough time for the extensive reading and research before the first lesson but you have to start somewhere. Have a look at these two posts, on the methodology videos and the literature devoted to teaching English to very young learners.

Nine. Smile.

No matter what, keep it up. Smile.

Ten. Bring the ferret.

Last but not least, to quote a great mainstream Hollywood manual into the work with the very young learners ‘The kindergarten is like the ocean. You don’t want to turn your back to it’. Kind of.

But, actually, go on and re-watch the Kindergarten Cop with your teacher’s eyes. Especially the ferret bit…

Have a good one! And remember – the second lesson will be better than the first and the third one – better than the second one. I promise!

Happy teaching!

P.S. Here you can read about how I plan my lessons with pre-schoolers and here about our entering the room routine.

There is one more, newer post, with more focus on the teacher during the first VYL lesson.

Colourful Semantics in EFL?

by

Have you got something that you could file under ‘professional interests‘ (or, more to the point in some cases, ‘professional obsessions’)? Mine is language production.

That is why I am always on the lookout for new ideas on how to trick my students into producing more and more. And more. Some of these ideas can be found on this blog, in the posts on the discourse clock, pairwork for pre-schoolers, using songs or cognitive skills-based activities to develop speaking. Today – a new post in the series.

It was probably one of those free-falling searches on Instagram, with no rhyme and reason, that got me to Saffira Mattfield’s (@onlinespeechie) Instagram post on Colourful Semantics. A very special moment, like when you stumble upon a proper toolbox with the screwdrivers and bolts and saws and monkey wrenches…Or, when in the supermarket, you wander into the baking aisle and, all of a sudden, all the professional decorations and ingredients right within your arm’s reach…This amazing and a very powerful feeling of: ‘I could do so much with it!’

Colourful Semantics

The approach was created in the 90s by a UK-based speech therapist Alison Bryan in order to help children develop their speaking skills especially as regards the use of full sentences, storytelling and so on.

The main idea behind colourful semantics is the colour-coding of parts of speech and the parts of the sentence and developing the habit of including all the necessary ‘ingredients’ in the simpler or more complex sentences. This is done with the use of the cards, like those in the photograph below. Subject (who?) is orange, verb (what doing) – yellow, object (what?) – green and, location (where?) – blue.

Colourful Semantics cards from @onlinespeechie Saffira Mattfield

Children start with building simple sentences by using only two cards, for example ‘The girl’ (an orange card) and ‘is painting’ (a yellow card) and putting them next to each other on the template. Later on they move to constructing sentences made of three elements, for example ‘The girl’ (an orange card), ‘is painting’ (a yellow card) and ‘a balloon’ (a green card) or even four, by adding the blue card with the location, for example ‘in the park’. They not only learn to remember to include all the elements but they can also manipulate them physically. The sentence itself becomes less abstract since it all its key elements are represented visually.

If you are interested in all the details, please have a look at the bibliography.

Colourful Semantics cards from @onlinespeechie Saffira Mattfield

Colourful Semantics in EFL? Yes, please!

Colourful semantics perfectly resonates with everything that I have been doing in my lessons. Grammar structures and the format of the sentence are an abstract concept, beyond the grasp of pre-schoolers especially those who live in their own country, surrounded mostly by their mother tongue and not exposed to a sufficient amount of the target language. By using some kind of a visual representation of the parts of speech or the parts of the sentence, we make it more accessible to them and we enable production.

This visual representation can be realised through:

  • using gestures such as ‘pointing at yourself and sliding the hand along your body to draw attention to your clothes’ for ‘I am wearing’
  • using symbols such as ‘a heart’ for ‘I like’ and ‘a crossed heart’ for ‘I don’t like’
  • using flashcards such as ‘big’ and ‘cat’ to elicit a chunk ‘a big cat’

And…colours!

While making the sentences, students will be required to use all the required colours, ‘to tick all the boxes’, this way building a full sentence or a phrase. Of course, they might require more support from the teacher who will have to ensure that they did not skip any of the elements, but, the hope is that with time, including all the elements will become a habit.

Colourful semantics in the EFL classroom: how to get started

Step one: very easy

Get in touch with Saffira (@onlinespeechie) in order to get your own set of the ready-made cards. It is a perfect way of familiarising yourself with the colourful semantics in practice and to understand how it can be adapted to our EFL context. Although, of course, these cards can be used in the EFL classroom as they are, depending on the level of your students.

Step two: adapting the idea to your groups’ needs

The materials presented below were used with a group of the second level of four- and five-year-olds. Since they were still learning online, they were not using any real cards but only the visuals created with the Miro board. The unit was built around the topic of the house and included some furniture vocabulary, the prepositional phrases ‘the cat is on the sofa’ and some of the Present Continuous based on a story as well as a song.

The boards were used to practise these phrases were used later in the unit, when the student had become familiar with all the basic components. The main structure ‘The mice are having fun’ was introduced through a song. The first time the cards were used, the teacher was a very active participant, taking turns with all the kids to make sentences. In the following lessons, the teacher only modelled the activity and was responsible for moving the pictures around in accordance with the sentences the kids were producing.

The first set was designed to support the production of the sentences with the preposition ‘on’ which were later practised in a freer practise activity (‘My room’) whereas the second one focused on Present Continuous which was later reinforced in a storybook activity.

For the time being, a decision was made not to adapt the original colour-coding system and instead, a set of colours was assigned freely to each structure, to help the children associate them with each particular components of different structures, rather than with the whole system.

Reflection time

I have just started experimenting with this approach in my classes but the first steps in the world of Colourful Semantics have been more than exciting. This is definitely not the end of that adventure. Right now I am working on a set of cards that I could share with the parents of my students so that they could be printed, cut up and used at home.

Want to find out more? Start here:

Bryan, A. (1997) Colourful Semantics: thematic role therapy. In Chiat, S., Law, J. and Marshall, J. (Eds) Language Disorders in Children and Adults: Psycholinguistic approaches to therapy. London

Bolderson et al in (2011) Colourful Semantics: A Clinical Investigation. Child Language Teaching and Therapy October 2011 vol. 27 no. 3 344-353

Saffira Mattfiled @onlinespeechie

Colourful Semantics from London Speech Therapy

P.S. A request!

It is very simple.

I would like to know a tiny little bit more about my readers. There are so many of you, popping in here, again and again, and the numbers of visitors and visits are going up and make my heart sweel with joy. But I realised I don’t know anything about my readers and I would love to know, a tiny little bit more.

Hence the survey.

Crumbs #4 Sheppard Software

by

Are you thinking what I am thinking?

Does the name in the title look to you like the most uninspiring name and something that in no way could be related to teaching English to children or to children in general? Yes, same here.

Sheppard Software is a perfect example of how a random name can be a perfect cover up for a treasure chest, full of amazing tools that will make a VYL and a YL teacher happy.

www.sheppardsoftware.com

Instructions

Go to https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/ but first make sure that you have at least an hour to kill. There is so much there that even an adult (who is definitely NOT a fan of computer games) gets glued to the screen and wants to try out and play and play and play. Now that you have been warned, you are ready.

The VYL teachers: start with the preschool section https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/preschool.htm and start discovering. You can find here some games to practice colours, numbers, alphabet, shapes and animals.

The primary EFL teachers: you can start anywhere. It will all depend on what topic you are planning to teach. The website has a lot to offer to anyone who is teaching CLIL, for example Maths, Science, Art, Geography, Chemistry, Seasons, History… If you don’t have any specific idea in mind, you may as well start where I started at the Food Chain Game https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/science/animals/games/food-chain/ and think of all its potential while having fun playing. Then, slowly, bit by bit start browsing through the other gems

All the teachers: do yourself a favour and start with the sound off. It is great that practically everything on the page has got the audio added on, instructions, noises for animals and so but I can tell you that even a tiny little movement of the mouse/ cursor on the screen can lead to a lot maddening noise, so beware and tread lightly.

We loved it because

  • It it is beautiful
  • It has a lot of potential for speaking activities.
  • It can be used to teach a great range of CLIL topics but it can also be used to supplement any vocabulary / structure lessons with primary and pre-primary, online and offline.
  • the games can be shared with parents after the lesson and the students can play all of them at home again (and again and again)