#eflteacher

Jerome et al or how the EFL world started to scaffold

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https://ru.freepik.com/free-photo/construction-site-silhouettes_1243080.htm#page=1&query=scaffolding&position=7

This is the first post in the series of ‘Reading and Research’ in which I would like to at least try to bring forward the great thinkers and researchers that stand behind everything that we do in the classroom, in the hope that in the worst case scenario it will be a tiny contribution to spreading the word and in the best case scenario, someone is going to reach out and read the original article and look at the procedures in the classroom from a different angle. Today: Jerome. Then Leo, Lily and all the other ones. And yes, I am using their first names as a sign of my utmost respect because over the years, we have grown really close.

Let me introduce my first superhero, Jerome S. Bruner.

However, before we get to scaffolding and the EFL classroom, please start with watching one of the last interviews that Jerome S. Bruner gave, in 2013, three years before his death. Why? Just to find out more about the life of a great scholar who cheated in order to be able to be enlisted to fight in WWW II, served under general Dwight Eisenhower and who, upon moving to England to start teaching at the University of Oxford in 1972, wanted to take his boat with him so badly that he basically organised an across-the-ocean sailing do with a bunch of his friends…

Now, scaffolding.

It is probably one of the very few methodology terms that made it into the everyday vernacular of teachers, used not only by trainers and resource book writers but also teachers. Such a concept! So much potential!

That is one single reason why digging deep (and deeper), it is worthwhile to be inquisitive about the beginnings of all of these concepts that are so familiar and yet so unknown and which, initially, had nothing or, indeed, very little to do with learning language.

Jerome S. Bruner and his two colleagues David Wood (University of Nottigham) and Gail Ross (Harvard University) carried out an experiment on a group of children, aged 3, 4 and 5 in order to find out how these childrenfor the first time introduced this term in relation of learning and, funnily enough, initially it had nothing, or very little, to do with learning languages.

The article was the report of the research that the three psychologists conduced on a group of children, aged 3, 4 and 5 to find out how these learners behave in a specific learning situation and how the tutor’s support, its amount and quality, varies in relation to the child’s age. This research was carried out in the light of the socio-cultural theory of learning which assumes that adults (teachers, parents, older siblings also known as ‘experts’) help children (or not adults, not experts but novices) to learn. Based on what they observed, they defined scaffolding as the ‘process that enables a child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which would be beyond his unassisted efforts’ (Woods et al, 1976: 90).

The research

The experiment itself is a fascinating piece of reading and I would recommend having a look at it to every teacher working with young or very young learners.

Let’s take the task, first of all. The three gentlemen designed the task (and ‘the toy’) themselves with a few objectives in mind, namely it had to be interesting enough for the children to be willing to get involved or as they call it ‘feature rich’. It had to be complex to challenge the kids but at the same time achievable, both for 3 y.o. and 5 y.o. and for example it could not be very complex as regards fine motor skills of physical strength as the younger children would not be able to participate in it. What is more, it had to be repetitive to enable the children to learn while dealing with the task and to apply the developed skills in later stages of the activity.

The final result was a set of interlocking blocks, that, if used properly, come together as a pyramid. The children were allowed to play with the blocks alone, under the supervision of an experienced tutor, who would apply what techniques she found most suitable to help each child complete the task as independently as it was only possible in each case. Then, the quality of this support was analysed and conclusions drawn.

The findings

The most fascinating part of this research are the differences in they way in which children of different age groups of preschoolers reacted to the task.

During the interaction with the tutor, the youngest children needed most help but also, that, because of their age, they were not quite interested in observing the demonstration and instructions. The other children, most likely already familiar with the school set-up and the roles of the learner and the teacher, were indeed ready to listen, ready to be taught.

When it comes to the oldest children in the group, because of their cognitive development, they were ready to deal with the task, almost from the word ‘go’, with a minimal tutor support. It can be assumed that for slightly older children, the presence of the tutor would be completely redundant.

What do we, the YL teachers, get from this?

A better understandig of how the same task may or may not work with students from different age groups.

This is especially important for the teachers of very young learners. It might happen (and it often does) that, for whatever the reason, children of different ages end up studying in the same group, for example a 3 year-old with a 5 year-old, since they are both pre-school beginners. Or, even more frequently, the same coursebook is used with a group of 3 year-old beginners and with a group of 5 year-old beginners, although they are miles away in terms of social, cognitive, linguistic development.

No need to panic, however, here is the good news from Jerome et al: we can make it work. In most cases there is a leeway and the same resource, activity, handout, craft, game can be used with the younger and with the older preschoolers and the things to change will be the instructions, staging and the amoung of the teacher’s inolvement and support. A post with more examples and practical solutions soon to come!

A better understanding of what a VYL or YL activity should be, from the perspective of child development

For language teachers the most important factor to take into consideration while assessing materials and activities is their potential contribution to a meaningful language production. However, teachers working with early years, primary or pre-primary, are aware of the fact that they cannot open the book or bring a handout and hope that their students will get involved in completing the activities just because this is something that the teacher wants them to do. The criteria that Bruner et al outlined while designing their ‘toy’ are a good starting point for the teachers who can be asking the following questions while lesson planning

  • Is the task going to be ‘interesting’ for the students? Why would they want to do it? Is it a game? Is it fun? Is it colourful? Does it involve their favourite characters? It does not mean that all these criteria need to be met every single time but is it a little bit more than ‘exercise 2 on page 11’?
  • Will they be able to do it? Is it achievable for the students whose hands, brains and social skills are only 4 years old? Is it challenging enough (in terms of the congitive skills, the linguistic skills, the motor skills)?
  • Is there any point in investing the teacher’s and the students’ time and energy in it? Can it be recycled later, in any way? The game which might be possibly time-consuming to set up the first time but that can be played again and again, with different sets of vocabulary…Learning a song that, intially, might be too long and to complex but which will become the group’s feel-good anthem…Making the puppet of a favourite character that perhaps will not generate too much language in the first three months but that will be your students’ safely blanet and will make them feel safer in class…I don’t think there is one one definite answer here that would work for all the children, all the teachers and all the groups but, nonetheless, it is a good question to bear in mind.

A better understanding of how we can support our students in class

Before the concept of ‘scaffolding’ became one of the key words in EFL and before it got watered down a bit, Wood, Bruner and Ross, based on all their observations of children, managed to highlight six ways in which a tutor (or a teacher) can actually scaffold an activity. Among them (only) three are directly related to teaching:

  • demonstration (or modelling and instructions appropriate for the students’ age, level and cognitive skills),
  • marking critical features (or monitoring and feedback)
  • reduction in degrees of freedom (which stands for what is most frequently associated with scaffolding – task simplification by providing more support for the student).

The other three are more related to the fact that the group were preschool children and involve

  • getting the kids interested in the task (recruitment),
  • making sure they stay interested (direction maintenance)
  • dealing with tantrums and demotivation (frustration control) in order to enable them to complete the task.

So every single time you are demonstrating, getting your kids’ attention, calling their name to get them back or every time you praise them because you can see they are struggling and are about to burst into tears…Every time you are colour-coding the handout or manipulating it in any way to make it doable…Anytime you are putting on your silly voice to turn it into magic or counting down to signal that they should be settling down, you are, in fact, scaffolding! And that is the way to go!

References

Wood, D., J.S. Bruner and G.Ross (1976), The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving, Journal of Child Psychology, 17, pp 89 – 100.

Inside the Psychologist’s Studio with Jeremy Harmer (2013), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxn6IpAJEz8

Pairwork for pre-schoolers: Where the angels don’t fear to tread*

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Ha! It was working!

Again, I made it happen. They were sitting in pairs, facing each other, making riddles, answering, all by themselves. I was sitting in the corner, just keeping an eye.

First reaction? To run out of the classroom, shout it from the rooftops or, since they were just in the hallway, tell me students’ parents. But then, just then, I hesitated because, in my mind’s eye, I saw their reaction. What if I really did rush out, with a victorious ‘Your kids can play in pairs!!!!’

What would they do? They’d just look at me with an eyebrow raised. They do know that their 4 and 5-year-old sons and daughters can play in pairs. They did see it, a million times, in playgroups, in the playgrounds, in kindergartens, at home…what’s the big news here?

Indeed. If you at the types of play and the age slots when kids normally are capable of engaging, then yes, for a long time, children are only taking part in unoccupied play (0 – 2), solitary play (2-3), onlooker play (2.5 – 3.5) and parallel play (2.5 – 3.5) but even the children aged about 3- 4 do engage in associative play and, a bit later, from the age of 4, in cooperative play. And that means, that for most of the EFL students (with some exceptions as there are school which admit 2 and 3-year-olds), there is nothing, from the point of view of child development, that should prevent children from interacting with each other and working together towards a common goal, without the adult, or rather, with the adult being involved only marginally.

Consequently, they should be able to take part in a pairwork activity in an English class because why not?

Naturally, some provisions related to the age of the participants will have to be made and the whole definition of what a pair-work activity is, adapted. And things such as the inability to read and write, the level of English, the duration of the activity, the ability to stay on the task…but these are the things that we work on anyway so…

Personally, I think I became obsessed with pairwork in the early years about five years ago. The group I was teaching was big, nine or even ten students at a time. They were absolutely amazing, some of them I still teach today, but there were ten of them and I felt really unhappy. They did not produce as much as they could have as we had to focus on whole class activities. Until, one day, I had enough of that, and out of this desperation, I started taking my first steps towards pairwork. From that group on, nothing was the same, pairwork was there on the table, for this and for all the other groups. There is no way back.

This year, with my new level 1 group and with the BKC Conference approaching, I decided to run an experiment, a small case study, just to put the pairwork with pre-schoolers on a timeline, out of curiosity and for the other teachers, too.

The group

There were seven kids in that group, two boys and five girls. The youngest of my students was around three, the two oldest ones – five years old.

The course

The group studied once a week, for sixty minutes. We had a pacing schedule and we did use the coursebook. In many ways, this was a typical level 1 group. We did things in the way that I normally did them with a level one group, the only real difference was that I kept my eyes open and I kept the journal of the whole experiment. Throughout the whole project, I did plan to go through it in the most organic of ways, without speeding the process, observing the kids and moving on to the next stage when they were ready.

Stage one: weeks 1 – 12: the start of the course

During these first twelve weeks of the course, we did absolutely everything that we do when we start with a new group, including:

  • The first vocabulary sets: colours, numbers, school things, toys
  • The first functional language phrases: hello, goodbye, blue, please, thank you, who’s next, are you ready, it’s big, it’s small etc.
  • Establishing and working on the routine
  • The first everything: the first lesson with the coursebook, the first story, the first craft, the first video, the first holiday
  • Developing social skills, building the class community

Stage two: a new game: week 13

Since the kids already knew the toys vocabulary and we had played some simple flashcards games, I decided to introduce a more complex game and the basis for the whole project: the guessing game ‘Is it?’

In week 13, we played the game for the first time, ever, with the kids sitting in a circle, with the teacher leading the game. I did have to play it up a little bit, in the beginning, pretending to be student A and student B but they got the idea of the game very quickly. I did accept the one-word production but some of the older children started to ask full questions from the very beginning.

Stage three: students take over: week 14 – 18

At the time I was not sure when this particular stage would happen, I wanted to wait for the kids to be ready and I was getting ready to wait. But, surprise surprise, they were ready, already in the following lesson.

I did play a few rounds, with me in the lead and then, invited a few of them to lead the game. They did need my help with holding the cards and keeping the game going but that’s really it. It was all natural and they were more taken aback by the fact that, out of all eight of them, not everyone did have a go.

Stage four: team vs team: the stage that did not happen

When I was staging the whole process, I did plan the stage in which the kids divided into teams would be playing the game, with one set of cards.

The idea was that would be slightly more independent, at the same time not being exposed and supporting each other in the game and the teacher could still supervise them effectively.

However, when we were sitting down to play the game, one of the pairs, grabbed the cards that were lying on the side, took them and, without any further ado, started to play the game, with the child sitting nearest, using full sentences.

This is when I realized that we were ready for the next stage so we proceeded.

Stage five: pairs: lesson 19 – 24 and onwards

It just happened and it was a success, despite the fact that between the whole Christmas break took place between lesson 18 and 19 and the fact that a student came back after a longer trip. As soon as the kids saw the materials, they knew what was to come (I knew because they were commentating in Russian) and to reinforce the whole idea, I prepared another set of seats, in another part of the classroom.

Stage six: the follow-up: interrupted by the pandemic

Here, again, I can only tell you about everything that I was planning to do, and everything that I could not do because we are chased out of the classroom by the coronavirus.

The first step was to be switching the vocabulary, to push the boundaries of the familiar and the unknown a bit, and play the same guessing game with school objects and colours.

The second step was to switch the game and, hopefully, swish through a few stages and use a game to play in pairs, Abracadabra, Pelmanism or One or many.

Reflection

All in all, it was very easy and pretty straightforward despite the fact that the kids were quite young and despite the fact that we only did meet once a week. I would imagine that, if we had classes more regularly, for example twice a week, even less time would have been required and we would have met our aims even faster.

If you haven’t tried pairwork with pre-primary, then use the first opportunity and go for it!

The contributing factors

  • Seating arrangements: very important, especially for the first few times with pair-work. It does make it a bit more complicated for the teacher, to put together mini-stations with two stools facing each other or, even better, two stools at a small table, in a reasonable distance from the other mini-stations but it really does contribute to the whole project. Kids can only see their partner; they have a small working space in front of them and the other pairs are automatically excluded. Out of sight, out of mind.
  • Material arrangement: very important. Colourful flashcards are great and beautiful to look at but they proved to be too big to manipulate for some of the little hands. It was too much of a challenge to shuffle them, one of twice they did spill onto the carpet and if the kids really wanted to keep them a secret, they did press them tight to their chests and the flashcards got folded and creased. This is how the black and white mini-flashcards appeared. Even if they got torn, lost, destroyed, it was super easy to replace them. To make sure that they were not see-through and they don’t fly out of the little hands, the colourful envelopes appeared. The students very quickly learnt to associate these envelopes with this particular game
  • Material coherence: This is in order to ensure that they students will be using the full structures and that they will be using the grammatically correct language. Naturally, it will depend on the activity and the vocabulary set. In our case, we started using pairwork with toys but I decided to eliminate ‘puzzles’, ‘crayons’ ‘blocks’ from this particular game. I did not want my students to overgeneralize and use ‘Is it?’ with a noun in plural and, at this point in the game, they had not learnt the plural form ‘Are they?’ and I did not want to overcomplicate things.
  • Voices to show interest: especially in the beginning, while modelling, when the teachers themselves are their own student B and student A. A little bit of theatre goes a loooong way here.
  • Decision making: or in other words, teaching kids to be independent. In a regular lesson, there are plenty of opportunities for the students to make decisions about the lesson – choosing the colour of the stool to sit on, choosing which song to sing, which game to play, the order in which they join the circle, or who is the next one to lead the game. This way, step by step, the little people learn that the teacher is always the hub and not the only hub in this little community and it all comes in handy later on, during the pairwork tasks.
  • Leading the game: as soon as the kids become familiar with the activity, they can be given the opportunity to ‘be the teacher’ and lead the game. This way they will be producing more language but, from the point of view of pair-work, they will be also better prepared to take a bit more responsibility for the game.
  • S-S interaction: as with leading the previous point, the students should be given many opportunities to interact with other students, without the teacher. Obviously, with the little ones, these exchanges will be limited to saying hello and goodbye to each other, not only to the teacher, to students asking each other ‘How are you?’, to students giving out pencils, asking for them and saying thank you etc.
  • Pairing-up aka Clever teacher: Ideally, of course, everyone should be able to work with each other and be on good terms with everyone in the group and building these relations is one of the general aims of the course. However, getting to that place is a process and work in progress and it will take time. For that reason, it might be a good idea, to consider pairing children up in a way that will be contributing to pairwork, with the hope that the benefits for the community spirit will be secondary here. There might be two factors to take into consideration, on the one hand pairing up the children that work well together, on the other pairing up the younger with the older, creating perfect conditions for this pairwork ZPD, with one student the expert, the other the novice.
  • Functional language: We started with the key language necessary for this particular game (Is it…? Yes, it is. No, it isn’t) and only later, when the time came, we added ‘I give up!’ which turned up to be necessary. When we were about to start the proper pairwork, I added chants to give it a proper framework, ‘Are you ready? 3…2…1…Let’s play!’ to start the activity and ‘Let’s finish. 10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1. Well done!’

If you are interested in the topic of language production in pre-schooler, make sure you check out the posts on Colourful Semantics, discourse clock, using songs and activities based on developing cognitive skills.

References

*) This is the presentation I gave at the BKC IH Conference: Exprience, Excellence, Expertise, Moscow February 2020

How to see a city. From the series: Teaching English through Art

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source: www.izi.travel

A while ago, I was teaching my first teens group in Moscow, an amazing bunch of students that I had a privilege to take from A2 to FCE and that I referred to as ‘my monsters’, though never to their face. And this is how this project came to be.

It could be called an attempt at a CLIL lesson. It could be said that the not-yet-dead-historian in me was behind that project but the truth is that, at the time, I was simply bored out of my wits the coursebook we were ploughing through and I wanted something else.

And, inspired by Kenneth McHoan, a character from the Crow Road by Ian Banks and one of his lines (‘He is my son. I’ll fill his head with anything I like’), I decided to teach Art.

The lesson that I am sharing today is the first in the series of ten lessons ‘How to see…’ that I taught as part of our general English course. The group that I trialled it with were B2 young teens but, since then I had a chance to teach it both to adults and pre-teens, C1 and end of A2 levels.

Why we liked it:

  • I had lots of fun, accompanied in the classroom by my favourite artists.
  • I did enjoy the change, in the curriculum and the pace, and it did feel great to be teaching a subject, in English, not just the language.
  • The students did enjoy it, too, being given a chance to have an opinion and to express it, freely and the fact that one painting could generate so many different views. 
  • Last but not least: although it did not happen overnight, I did realise that when my students were given a chance to talk about Art, all of a sudden, they were using the vocabulary from a higher shelf and really working hard on communicating what they thought in a beautiful way.

Lesson 1: How to see a city

Language focus

Aim: to introduce the language and the approach the students will need to be able to deal with the task. Normally introduced in the lesson beforehand, to allow sufficient time for practice and to make sure the students feel relatively confident using in the Art lesson itself.

  • language to express opinion / to agree / to disagree
  1. expressing opinion: I think, In my opinion. The way I see it.
  2. agreeing: I think so. I agree. Exactly. That’s true.
  3. disagreeing: I don’t think so, I don’t agree. I am not sure.
  • Three sheep: the name I gave to a trick I learnt from Rafael, to teach your students how to construct their discourse, how to express and justify opinions, even for the lower level
  1. Sheep 1: the opinion itself (I think)
  2. Sheep 2: reasons etc (because, so, and, but)
  3. Sheep 3: an example from the real life

Setting the context

Aim: to help set the context for the Art lesson

  • T shows the students a few photographs from New York
  • Questions to discuss
  1. What can you see in these photographs? Do you know the city?
  2. What is New York famous for?
  3. Have you ever been there? Have you seen any films set in New York? Have you read any books set in New York?
  4. Is New York similar to or different from Moscow? Is it similar to or different from any other cities you know?
source: wikiart.org

Interacting with the artwork: stage A

Aim: to provide an opportunity for the students to interact with the painting in a freer way, to provide opportunities for speaking

  • T divides the students into two groups and assigns a painting, group A to work on Frida Kalho’s painting, group B to work on Georgia O’Keefee’s painting
  • Each group can be divided into pairs, depending on the group dynamics
  • The students are discussing their painting, answering the following questions:
  1. What can you see in the painting?
  2. Is it a happy / sad / angry / depressing / scary painting? Why?
  3. In your opinion, how did the artist feel about New York? Did they like the city they lived in? What makes you think that?
  4. Could this image be used in tourist brochures to promote the city? Would it make a good postcard or a souvenir?
  5. How does the painting make you feel? Would you like to have it on the wall in your room? Where could it hang, in an office, in a hospital, in a shop or in a museum?
source: museothyessen.org

Interacting with the artwork: stage B

Aim: to provide an opportunity for the students to interact with both paintings

  • T mixes the students so that students from group A can work with students from group B, in groups or new pairs
  • Students show each other their painting and report their personal and their group’s opinions
  • T gives out new questions for the students to discuss
  • Which of these two paintings do you like more? Why?
  • Both of these paintings show New York in a very different way. Why do you think these artists had such a different view of the same city?

Open class feedback

Aim: to report back to class, to compare views

  • T leads the open class discussion, all the groups present their views, focusing on the two different ways to portray the same city. The teacher reveals that both paintings were painted at approximate the same time (1933 and 1925)
  • Error correction

The mini-lecture

Aim: to present the background information to provide the background for both paintings

  • T gives a short lecture, adapting it to the level and the age of the students, highlighting the main points
  • Both painters were not New Yorkers by birth, they came to the city with their husbands, one from exotic Mexico, the other from a small town in the prairies in Wisconsin.
  • Frieda felt alienated in the city, she didn’t like it, she missed home, she stayed only to accompany her husband
  • Georgia lived with her husband, in Manhattan, on the 30th floor, in Hotel Shelton and painted and sketched what she saw from her window.
  • Perhaps these are the factors that influenced both artists.
  • Questions from students
  • Error correction

The follow-up

Aim: to give the students an opportunity to look at their own city and reflect on how their feelings might influence the way they see the city

Part A

  • T divides the students into new teams / groups of 3
  • Students discuss the following questions about Moscow / own city:
  1. Do you like Moscow? Is it a good city? Would you like to live here in the future?
  2. What are the main tourists’ attractions?
  3. What are your favourite places in the city?
  4. If you could change something in the city, what would it be?
  • Open class feedback

     Part B

  • T gives out different paintings / photographs of Moscow / own city
  • Students discuss the following questions
  1. Look at these three different ways of showing your city in a painting/photograph. Which one is the best? Why? Which one is your least favourite?
  2. If you painted a picture of the city or if you were to take a photo to represent it, what would you include?
  • Open class feedback
  • Error correction

The follow-up: homework

Aim: to present an alternative way of looking at a city: through its inhabitants

Option A: Based on the photographs by Stan Raucher who photographs people on the metro in different cities

  • T selects the photographs / a photograph, appropriate for the age/ level of the students, hands out
  • SS at home prepare to talk about the photograph
  1. Who are the people in the photograph?
  2. What are they doing?
  3. What are they wearing?
  4. How are they feeling?
  5. Where are they going?
  6. Which city are they from? Why do you think so?

Option B: Based on the stories from Humans of New York, a project that interviews the people in the streets of New York and retells their storiesT selects the story/stories, appropriates for the age/level of the students, grades the language, if necessary, hands out to students

SS at home read the story and prepare to talk about their character:

  1. What is the name of the person?
  2. Where is he/she from originally?
  3. What does he/she do?
  4. What do we know about this person?
  5. What makes this person special?
  6. Would you like to meet this person?

In the following lesson, students report back, in pairs/teams and they choose the most interesting story / person / photograph.

Resources:

Frida Kalho, My dress Hangs there, 1933

Image and the basic information about the painting:

https://www.fridakahlo.org/my-dress-hangs-there.jsp

For more information on Frida Kalho see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo

https://www.wikiart.org/en/frida-kahlo/my-dress-hangs-there-1933

https://worldhistoryproject.org/1933/3/frida-kahlo-paints-my-dress-hangs-there

Georgia O’Keefee, New York Street with Moon, 1925

Image and the basic information about the painting

https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/okeeffe-georgia/new-york-street-moon

https://www.wikiart.org/en/georgia-o-keeffe/new-york-with-moon

For more information on Georgia O’Keefee see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keeffe

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/georgia-okeeffe-new-york-street-with-moon

Yuri Pimenov, New Moscow, 1937

Image and the basic information about the painting

https://izi.travel/en/3185-yuriy-pimenov-new-moscow-1937-the-state-tretyakov-gallery/en

https://en.opisanie-kartin.com/description-of-the-painting-by-yuri-pimenov-new-moscow/

For more information about Pimenov https://soviet-art.ru/soviet-artist-yuri-pimenov/

Stan Raucher

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3615702/Photographer-Stan-Raucher-captures-everyday-lives-ordinary-people-metro-systems-world.html

Stan Raucher’s photography https://stanraucher.com/metro

Humans of New York

https://www.humansofnewyork.com/

What’s out there? Part 2

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This has become a great tradition in the last few years that both the renowned speakers, authors and educators as well as the local teacher trainers share their presentations and webinars online to make them accessible for a wider audience. Yay to that!

If you were looking for them, here they are!

This has become a great tradition in the last few years that both the renowned speakers, authors and educators as well as the local teacher trainers share their presentations and webinars online to make them accessible for a wider audience. Yay to that!

If you were looking for them, here they are!

P.S. Don’t forget to have a look at the second part of this article (Books and articles: https://funkysocksanddragons.com/whats-out-there-part-1-books-and-articles/

Sandie Mourão

‘Play and Language Learning (Early Years), IATEFL YLTSIG Webinars 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRC46fIDzY&t=496s

‘English learning areas in the early years’ (Early Years), IATEFL YLTSIG Webinars 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZSHGIXzl8&t=548s

About: Both presentations give an overview of what working with VYL is and why and how play should be included in the EFL lessons, based on an example from some kindergartens in Portugal.

‘Picturebooks in ELT: An Underestimated Resource’ Macmillan Education ELT 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCeXsYSltCw

About: If you have ever wondered why you should start using real picturebooks with EFL and ESL learners, here are a few ideas.

‘Discover stories with Dex’ Macmillan Education 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQJ3ZtiIrFc

About: For those of you who want to find out more about the series of coursebooks ‘Discover with Dex’

Marianne Nikolov

‘Recent research into early language learning around the world’ PEAP Project Greece 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oJR_LpJRpA&t=1384s

About: Some interesting insights from professor Nikolov on what pre-primary language learning and teaching is and should be.

Carol Read

‘The magic of storytime’ Macmillan Spain 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA-PeZlMJcc

About: A very concise manual of storytelling in pre-primary (staging, activities, problems)

‘Seven ways to promote creativity in the classroom’ British Council Span 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbhoi01mTo8

About: Lots of practical ideas for ‘something new’ in pre-primary and primary classroom.

‘How to survive and thrive as a language teacher of children’ British Council Mexico 2020 (from approximately 00:25) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gSXwq91rP4

About: A nice talk on all the challenges of a YL (including VYL classroom), with real survival ideas!

Herbert Puchta

‘Teaching very young learners: What’s hot and what’s not?’ British Council Russia 2015  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRKZA5qjnwI&t=1489s

About: An overview of what teaching pre-primary is about (critical period hypothesis, key principles, ideas for activities based on the material from from Super Safari by CUP)

‘How to teach very young learners successfully’ Cambridge University Press ELT 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up6zx7587e4&t=1231s

About: Critical period hypothesis and the implications for pre-primary L2 learners in more detail and the importance of storytelling in teaching VYL)

Funky Socks and Dragons😊

‘Developing speaking skills with Dex’ Macmillan Russia 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNBPMa67mhQ&list=PLjofhOGijkwhxqN0G8PONFb6KO2Dsv6V6&index=5

About: Some thoughts on how to make sure that the pre-primary kids really do speak in class, based on Discover with Dex but not only.

‘How to help children start learning English’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmrabA_ZInQ

‘What not to do while learning English with your child?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKw-ZshLJLs

About: Two short videos we made for the parents of our students at BKC IH Moscow (in Russian)

I’m a teacher. What’s your superpower?

This is our online teacher training and learning community. You can find the recordings from our webinars on youtube. The sessions on VYL have been listed below but there are many more interesting ideas there. Have a look!

Webinar 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsXG2CwU9sE

Vita Khitruk: Miro Board (00:03:15)

Masha Andreevich: Putting together an online YL lesson (00:38:20)

Anka Zapart: Stirrers online (00:54:55)

Tatiana Fanshtein: My students’ favourite online games and activities’ (01:20:50)

Webinar 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=___zSQHMFaE

Vita Khitruk: Online Craft for VYL (00:06:19)

Svetlana Zalilova: Literacy with VYL (00:29:48)

Anka Zapart: VYL activities. The cognitive angle (00:42:26)

Webinar 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYtSQL-t5vU&t=18s

Vita Khitruk: Old games reimagined (00:02:57)

Anka Zapart: About a song (01:59:58)

IH Teacher Online Conference 2020

Anka Zapart, The unexpected advantages: developing primary literacy skills onlinehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPp_Mhb0f3w&list=PLCAQFt6dJ1aGt0vTVQP5JH665zOLkkAvk&index=8&t=39s

About: a few activities to develop reading skills in the primary online classroom

Chole Pakeman-Schavione, Engaging kids through zoom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldSXTiGIvZ0&feature=youtu.be

About: lots of cool solutions for the classroom. You will not believe that you haven’t thought of this before.

James Munday, A physical activity for a digital world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrvenfbC2wo&feature=youtu.be

About: Or how many things can you and your students do with a piece of paper aka kinesthetic online

Justyna Mikulak, VYLs – What works well with them in a digital classroom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JxhE3LS3ys&feature=youtu.be

About: An online pre-primary lesson format and some games and activities

What’s out there? Books and articles

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A reading list for the pre-primary EFL teachers (an attempt:-)

Here is a new project.

Deeply rooted in the fact that I keep losing things and if I start piling the resources here, I will also be able to find them myself easily. Selfish, as usual.

But, here’s to hoping that this post will come in handy to all those teachers who are looking for things to read about the very young kids and the ways of approaching them.

P.S. The list is highly subjective. So are the mini-reviews.

P.P.S. It will be continually updated!

P.P.P.S. Make sure you also have a look at the Bibliography Part 2: Webinars Treasure Chest.

Books: EFL

  1. Sandie Mourão and Gail Ellis (2020), Teaching English to Pre-Primary Children: Educating very young children, Delta Teacher Development Series. About: Waiting for my delivery but based on the IATEFL presentation in Liverpool, this book is dream come true.
  2. Vanessa Reilly and Sheila M. Ward (1997), Very Young Learners, Oxford University Press. About: Some nice practical solutions but, beware, the VYL world has moved on since 1997. Take it with a pinch of salt.
  3. Herbert Puchta and Karen Elliott (2017), Activities for Very Young Learners, Cambridge University Press. About: Lots of practical ideas for the beginner VYL teachers.
  4. Opal Dunn (2014), Introducing English to Young Children: Spoken Language, Collins. About: Some insights on what teaching pre-primary should be (although I cannot agree with all the approaches include here)
  5. Opal Dunn (2014), Introducing English to Young Children: Reading and Writing, Collins. About: Some theoretical background in a reader-friendly mode and some practical ideas.
  6. Lynne Cameron (2001), Teaching English to Young Learners, Cambridge University Press. About: Not really VYL-focused but an excellent introduction to the world of the non-adult learners.
  7. Sandie Mourão (2015), Discover with Dex, Teacher’s Book, Macmillan About: The best pre-primary Teacher’s Book so far (the overview of the age group, the implications for the classroom, the solutions).  

Research articles EFL

  1. Sandie Mourão (2014), Taking play seriously in the pre-primary English classroom, ELT Journal, 68 / 3, p 254 – 264 About: On the importance of play in the EFL/ESL environment.
  2. Sandie Mourao (2018), Research into the teaching as a foreign language in early childhood education and care, In: Garton, S. and F. Copland (eds), (2018), The Routledge Book of Teaching English to Young Learners, Milton Park, New York: Routledge, pp. 425 – 440. About: For those interested in a more academic look at EFL in pre-primary. Start your reading here! Spoiler alert: very little research in the area. Surprise surprise!
  3. Daeun Song and Jang Ho Lee (2019) The use of code switching for very young EFL learners, ELT Journal, 73 / 2, p. 144- 153. About: The results of a small scale study from South Korea on the benefits of the bilingual instruction in the pre-primary EFL classroom.
  4. Pawel Scheffler and Anna Dominska (2018), Own-language use in teaching English to pre-school children, ELT Journal, 72/4, p. 364- 383. About: The results of a small-scale study on the use of L1 in the pre-primary classroom in Poland (they do and they don’t mind).

Books: Early Years Education

  1. Tina Bruce (2015), Early Childhood Education, Hodder Arnold About: An absolute must. Nothing to do with EFL, lots and lots about the youngest learners in general.
  2. Tina Bruce (2001), Learning Through Play: Babies, Toddlers and the Foundation Years, Hodder Arnold About: A little more on play and why it matters.
  3. Tina Bruce (2004), Developing Learning in Early Childhood, Paul Chapman Publishing About: An introduction into the cognitive development, the social skills development, communication and the importance of play in early years education.
  4. Janet R. Moyles (1989), Just Playing, The role and status of play in early childhood education, Open University Press About: Even more on play, its types and value, including play with and through language.

Research articles: Early Years Education

  1. Developmental Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), Early Education (2012), The British Association for Early Childhood Education, https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf   About: If you’ve never worked with the little people, have a look at this summary. This is how they operate. This is what they need.

To be continued…

Crumbs (#3): SwitchZoo Online!

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Instructions

Go to www.switchzoo.com/zoo.htm.

Demonstrate for the students how you create an animal: choose the habitat, choose the head, the body and the tail.

Divide the students into teams, let them create their own animals and then present their animals.

The kids who are listening can also be involved by asking more questions, ‘interviewing’ the creators and the animal, depending on their level of English.

Print screen and save the animals. They can be used later in a bigger project – creating a zoo, describing the animals, writing the stories about them.

Make your own using MiroBoard!

Set it as homework, ask the kids to ‘compose’ their own animals and introduce them in the following lesson.

We loved it because…

First and foremost, it is a lot of fun.

It is a great follow-up activity to any language lessons on animals, habitats, body parts of even mythical creatures.

It makes kids want to talk and write about their creations.

The website is also a great tool to learn about animals, biology and geography, climate, habitats. You can build your own biome, listen to animal sounds or feed different animals.

Happy teaching!

Your 10 basic flashcards games

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One hundred.

It is the number of things in which you can manipulate the set of flashcards during the lesson and call it ‘a game’. That means that to teach, to introduce and to practise, to have fun and to change activities fast not to lose kids attention you really only need a set of flashcards and a table or a carpet. No more.

That means that you can mix and match, engage the kids and keep them involved for hours on end. Almost.

But before I take on the challenge of typing all those 100 up, here are the staple ten. The basics of the basic, the everyday. Five to practise receptive skills and five to focus productive skills.

Imagine that you have drilled all your words already (this will be another post, too!)

1. Finger up! (group)

Put all the flashcards face up on the table. Ask the kids to show you the indicative finger and put the hand up. This will be your punctuation mark here. Say ‘Finger up’ and all the kids and the teacher put their hands up, with the indicative finger out. Say ‘Touch the banana’ and encourage all the kids to lower their hands and put the finger on the banana flashcard. Then again say ‘Finger up’ and repeat with other words.

It is a great game especially for the beginning of a new unit or the beginning of the course as the kids will be basically following what you are doing and doing the same thing at the same time.

Variations: You can include different verbs i.e. pat the bananas, scratch the bananas, knock, stroke, etc.

Production: After a while, regardless of the variation, you let them lead the game and they are…producing!!!!

2. Yes and No (group)

Put all the flashcards face up on the table or on the carpet. Use your favourite punctuation mark. Point at one of the cards (banana) and ask ‘It’s a banana.’ ‘Yes?’, when kids start answering, by nodding or using their L1, provide the English word ‘Yes!’ and encourage them to repeat. Don’t forget to nod your head here. Point at another card (grapes) and ask ‘It’s a banana’ Yes?’ when the kids start answering, provide the English word ‘No!’ and encourage them to repeat. Don’t forget to shake your head. Repeat with the other words. The first time you play, it might be a good idea to use only singly words, to make sure that the rules of the game are perfectly clear but you can quickly start using full sentences, in singular and in plural, to model the language. There is no need to make things overtly simple.

Variation: Depending on the topic, it is a good idea to use the structures, too, for example with fruit: I like bananas (and picking up the banana flashcard), clothes: I am wearing jeans (picking up a t-shirt), I’ve got a kite (toys flashcards or pets) etc. This way they are not only going to learn to recognise the key words but they will be practising listening for detail with more challenge and getting a lot of exposure of the target language.

Production: After a while, regardless of the variation, you let them lead the game and they are…producing!!!!

3. Apple, please (group)

Give out all the flashcards, one per child. Use your punctuation mark and say ‘Apple, please’. Reach out your hand, towards the child who is holding the apple (if you can see who it is😊). After you have received it, say ‘Thank you’ and ask for another fruit. After a few rounds, add ‘Here you are’, too.

Variation: If you have a big group, you can ask for two words at the same time. Using a full question form is a good idea, too ‘Can I have an apple, please?’ All the flashcards on the carpet or on the table, and with calling the kid’s name to ensure that everyone gets a chance to play and that they don’t fight over cards.

Production: After a while, regardless of the variation, you let them lead the game and they are…producing!!!!

4. The duo (individual students)

Sit in a circle, put two cards on the carpet ie a banana and an apple, in a place where everyone can access them. Say ‘Masha, it’s a banana’. Masha picks up the banana flashcard and puts it away. Add another flashcard so that there are always two ie an apple and a pear. Say ‘Katia, it’s a pear’, Katia picks up the pear card and puts it away. The teacher adds another card etc.

Variation: You can change and vary the structures, even with the same set of flashcards i.e. with fruit: it’s a pear, I like pears, I don’t like pears, pears are green and so on. You can also ask the students to leave the flashcards that corresponds with the sentence and take away the incorrect one.

Production: After the kids have learnt how to play the game, nominate two students, they make simple sentences for each other. Then, another pair etc.

5. Get up! (pairs or trios)

Give out the flashcards to students, one per person. Go around the circle and call out all the words, one by one, slowly. Use your regular punctuation mark for starting an activity* and play the game. Call out two of the words (‘banana’ and ‘apple’) and motion the kids to stand up in the circle. Praise them and ask them to sit down. Call out two other words, wait for the kids, praise and ask them to sit down. Repeat with any combination you see fit. Then start calling out three words or even four. Kids listen and get up.

Variations: If it is a revision activity and they know the vocabulary, they can be holding two or even three cards.

If they already know a structure, instead of using single words, the teacher can use them in a structure, either very simple and generic ‘I can see a banana and an apple’) or something more connected to the set of vocabulary that you are practising ie I like bananas and apples.

Instead of getting up, the kids can also raise a hand, stamp their feet or clap their hands.

Production: After a while, regardless of the variation, you let them lead the game and they are…producing!!!!

6. Open your eyes (the group)

Put all the cards on the table or on the carpet, encourage the kids to call out all the words. Say ‘Close your eyes’ and make sure that they all cover their eyes, turn over one of the cards. Say ‘Open your eyes’ and call out all the words, in the end point at the card that has been turned over. After they guess, make sure everyone says the word out loud. Repeat.

Production: Let the kids take turns to lead the game.

7. Mime it! (whole class)

Very easy if you start preparing kids for it while introducing the vocabulary and helping them associate each word with a gesture.

Pick up one of the flashcards, say ‘3…2…1!’ and show the word for the kids to guess. Encourage them to produce a full sentence i.e. ‘It is a cat’. Let the kids lead the game as soon as possible!

Variations: If you have introduced some of the simple adjective you can start miming sentences. Pick up two flashcards (differentiated either by colour or size, to make it all go smoothly), say ‘3…2…1’ and mime the adjective and then the noun. Kids produce the sentence ‘It is a funny cat’ etc and it is quite likely that most of the sentences will be a bit ridiculous (but memorable).

8. Merry-go-round (group)

Start with one travelling flashcard. Have the kids sit or stand in a circle. Give the student on your left one of the flashcards, encourage and motion for them to pass the card to the student on their left. Let the card travel, then say stop and ask the student who is holding it to say the word out loud. Repeat a few times for them to get used to the idea.

Start the game all over but keep adding cards so that there are a few of them travelling. Say stop and have the kids call out the word they are holding at the moment.

Variations: There is a lot of potential for producing full sentences as soon as the kids get the idea and the key structure used will be related to the vocabulary, i.e. ‘I like’ with fruit, ‘I am wearing’ with clothes, ‘I can’ with verbs, ‘I’ve got’ with pets or toys, ‘I go to school by’ with transport etc.

This is also a great opportunity to teach the kids the word ‘nothing’.

9. Disappearing words (whole class)

Put five flashcards in a row, on the floor or up on the board, go from the beginning and call out all the words. Ask the kids to close their eyes and turn over the last card in a row. Call out all the words from the first one, in the same order and when you get to the last one, pause and wait for the students to say / shout / whisper the last word. Check quickly if they were right, show the cards to the kids, put it up covered again.

Ask the kids to close their eyes and turn over the last but one card. Ask the kids to open their eyes and call out all the words starting from the first one. When you get to the last but one, pause and wait for the kids to say the word, then the same with the fifth one. Proceed until all the words are covered up.

Variation: To help the kids remember, you can use a different gesture for each card, it can be either something related to the meaning of the word ie by miming the words or something that will help them remember ie knocking at the card, snapping, touching, clicking fingers, stroking it.

If you teach a big group, you can divide the class into two teams, one team will be holding the cards, one each, the other team will be guessing the words.

It might be also a good idea to use a full sentence ie I like to eat bananas, apples, peaches, plums and grapes, instead of single words.

10. Secret word! (whole class, pairs)

Revise the flashcards that you are going to be playing with so that the kids have a chance to become familiar with the images, the set of words and the colours. Then hold the flashcards to your chest. Ask ‘What’s the secret word?’ and model ‘Is it a kite?’ ‘No’. ‘Is it a doll?’ ‘No’ etc.

Variations: When they are playing the first time, they are quite likely to give you only separate words but it is worth encouraging them to produce full questions. You can either use ‘Is it…?’ or ‘Have you got…?’

Production: After a while, the students are given a chance to lead the game, first a student vs the rest of the group, later on in pairs, too.

*) ‘Punctuation marks’ are all the signals that the teacher uses to announce a start of a new activity. It can be clapping of the hands, it can be counting down from 5 to 1, it can be a bell, it can be snapping your fingers, it can be a chat ‘1, 2, 3! Eyes on me!’

Happy teaching, everyone!