#L1inthevylclassroom

L1 in the YL classroom. Bringing up the child

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It is funny how, sometimes, a particular topic lands on your table all of a sudden. I’d say ‘L1 made a cameo appearance’ but it would not be very accurate. It was defininitely not a cameo appearance. I am thinking more of a scene from Harry Potter, the one in which the Dursley’s living room gets flooded with the envelopes from Hogwarts after uncle Vernon tries to hide the one letter to Harry for a few days…

This was the use of L1 in the EFL classroom, especially when you are teaching kids. There were some conversations with my trainees, during the input sessions and during the private consultations, there were a few sessions at the Warm-Up Conference from Masha Elkina. Then I found the book by Shellagh Deller and Mario Rinvolucri with whom I had a pleasure to learn years ago so I automatically reach out for their books whenever I see them on any shelf. Last but not least, there was my own teaching this summer.

One conclusion: I think I know what the next post is going to be about…

As regards, the book, I need to read it first and to find a few activities that I would love to experiment with in my lessons. Luckily, the new academic year is about to start so there will be at least two groups that will help me with it. The post will come out of it, too.

In the bibliography you will also find a few of the most recent articles available online (yay to the easy access) but I have to admit – I haven’t read them yet, the bibliography today will be my ‘saved for later’ type of a list. I will be dealing with them later but maybe you will get there first.

I have written about the use of L1 on this blog:

This summer’s teaching and why it made me think about L1

This summer, apart from my regular students, I am also working at a summer camp in the city, mostly with primary students and with a few younger ones, who usually come with their older brothers and sisters. We have a programme designed specifically for the summer classes, without any coursebook and with the adjustable level of the literacy content, focusing on developing vocabulary and structures and the speaking skills, with a lot of CLIL and task-based learning activities that can be adapted to the needs of a mixed ability group. If you are curious about the actvities, I have been keeping my summer camp diary here.

The biggest issue that I have had to deal with during this summer camp was not the mix of levels and age groups but the very essence of a summer camp, its short duration or, perhaps, not only the duration on its own and the fact that we teach students for only two weeks, usually, but the fact that during this kind of a camp, some students may join the group on only some days and even only for a part of the day. I would like to stress that we all had fun and we learnt a lot but, all these factors really did get in the way of the effective establishing of the class routines and introducing and implementing the class rules.

This has become especially important because my group was made of amazing individuals, aged 6 – 9, however, these were the individuals who had absolutely no idea how to be a group and how to try to be a part of a group. This is precisely what made me think about the advantages of using my students L1.

A few case studies, to get us started…

Imagine, dear reader, that these are the things that happen while mid-air aka while in class, teaching, engaging, motivating.

Case study #1: Two brothers, Sasha and Sasha, play in pairs and they start debating the rules of the game which quickly turns into a fight. It all looks serious, especially that these are two brothers taking part and, unwillingly, they bring into this conversation everything else that has gone on between them since that very morning or week. One of the brothers wants to play the game according to the rules that we have used so far (good, he has learnt), the other one wants to play according to the new rules that we have just introduced this morning and which his brother has missed. I actually want to laugh out loud because they take it so seriously, our games rules, but it is very serious for them and it is getting even more serious by the minute. There are six other kids in the lesson.

Case study #2: One of the girls, Sasha, suddenly comes across an obstacle in the lesson, for example, one of the other students tries to help her with an answer. Or she cannot find a pencil that she wants. Or she is not the first one that the teacher asks a question. Regardless of how minor this obstacle might actually be in reality, she automatically withdraws, tears up, loses control and, if there is any paper, around, for example a drawing, she crumbles it and throws it into the bin. If she had been an oyster, she’d snap shut. Sasha attends classes only three days a week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and this kind of a reaction usually happens on her day 1, every single week. Later on, during the week, she calms down, feels a bit more comfortable until the following day 1 when the anxiety levels go up again, as if she had forgotten that she is in a safe environment.

Case study #3: We are playing a competitive game, in three teams. One of the students, Sasha, struggles with accepting the idea of a competitive game. He is over the moon when his team is winning, when they get many points, when they find a nice surprise but, at the same time, every time he is not, he starts shouting out all what he thinks about the game, ‘It’s not fair!’, ‘I never win’, ‘They only win’, ‘I always get the stupid boxes’….A very interesting case of an extremely short-term memory loss because, literally, a second ago, this student was celebrating his achievements in the game.

Case study #4: We are doing a creative task. Sasha has a great idea, she presents it and it really is great and a lot of fun. We all laugh. The following student, Sasha, also decides to include it in his contributions. Sasha girl reacts immediately with: ‘Oh, no, you are copying from me!!!’ Both Sasha are not happy.

Case study #5: Sasha is not happy with the behaviour of the group and she decides to assume to role of the teacher, or, perhaps, to help the teacher in the way she feels is appropriate and she makes a very decisive and authoritative comment, a very adult comment if you think about. She says: ‘You are very loud. Stop it. I am beginning to get a headache’. The group, naturally, does not approve and it is all obvious and written all over their faces – they are on the verge of deciding not to like Sasha at all. The funny thing is that this is just the group’s reaction to this particular song and it is within the boundaries and rules established in the summer camp group. Sasha, however, doesn’t know it because she joins the group only for an hour, in the middle of the day and, of course, she brings with her the rules that she learnt in her regular English classes at school. She is also a bit older than the group so perhaps that is why she feels she is obliged to take on the role of the ‘expert’ and to show the way.

(Here you can find a whole huge post that I am really proud of, about the competitive and non-competitive games in the YL classroom.)

The teacher sighs and makes a decision

All of the case studies described above come from the last few weeks of teaching, all of the Sashas are real people and I will have to go over the text again in a moment in order to make sure that the kids’ real names have not been typed up by mistake. Real students, real situations, real problems…

In all of these, there have been only one question that I had to ask myself, namely: What am I dealing with here and how can I sort it out in the most effective of ways? And, since you have been reading this post for a few minutes now, you can probably guess the answer already.

Having taken everything into consideration, the kids as a group, the kids as individuals, the details of the particular situation, I decided to deal with all of these in the students’ L1. Here is why:

  • All of these situations involved some kind of distress for my students and not dealing with them at all would be impossible as they were all very likely to snowball and to have more implications for the individual students and for the atmosphere in the group. Some action was necessary.
  • Because of the age and the level of the students, relying on the kids’ mother tongue gave me an opportunity to ensure that the kids will really hear me and, with using L1, I could have a real conversation. Asking questions, eliciting, asking the kids to reflect with pre-A and A1 students is only possible in their L1. Taking the kids’ real development into account and thinking of all of these situations as an opportunity to develop as a human, to develop the kids social skills and to help them notice the other children in the group, there is no doubt that L1 had to be used. As an educator, I had no doubt about that.
  • As a teacher of English, I did feel a tiny (tiny) bit guilty about not trying to do it in our target language but, having had enough time and plenty of those situations as I have been teaching at the camp over the entire summer this year, I know I made a good decision. The context is different in our permanent, regular classes. First of all, we develop the language in a more organised way and it is easier to smuggle the appropriate langauge to talk about emotions or rules there. Second of all, there is more time and the framework is more regular and structured. You start the year slowly, adding elements, games, interaction patterns as you go along and when the kids are ready for them. If the group returns after the summer, even if there are new students joining in, the skeleton of the rules, routines, rewards and patterns is already there, in place, and it really needs only some dusting, perhaps. Summer camp is an academic year in a nutshell, or pehaps, even better, it is like a time-lapse video of the academic year – all the stages and processes are the same only at a much faster pace. Of course, there are consequences of that.
  • As for the solutions and the situations described above in my five case studies, they were dealt with in a variety of ways. Sometimes, it meant putting the lesson on hold and having a short conversation with the whole group. Sometimes, it was limited to only comforting the student, offering help and giving her a moment to calm down. Sometimes it meant a quick chat with the two main participants, in private, without drawing the attention of all the other students. Sometimes, it meant a bi-lingual input, like in the case study #4: explaining that the student copied the approach and the idea only because it is a great idea in L1 and then, reinforcing it, or rather, claiming the key phrase (‘Wow, it is a very good idea!’), hoping that we will be able to add it to our set of the functional language in the classroom. Apart from that, I was working a lot on buidling the community, in the context that we were in, for example working in teams, working in pairs, working as one big team, letting the kids make decisions about the lesson and letting them lead the games. I would like to hope that all of these helped the kids develop their social skills, too.

Coda

There are no real take-outs here. This is only a description of an experience from this summer that has made me reflect on the ways of using and keeping the kids’ L1 in the classroom. And, certainly, it is not the last post in that category…

Bibliography

Sheelagh Deller and Mario Rinvolucri (2002), Using the Mother Tongue. Making the most of the learner’s langauge, Delta Publishing

When is it ok to use students’ L1 in the classroom? (2023) Cambridge Blog: World of Better Learning

The use of L1 in English Language Teaching (2019), Cambridge University Press

Using L1 in the classroom, TEFL Online

Using the Mother Tongue in English Language Classroom (2022), OnTesol

Survival Guide Using L1 in the classroom by Lindsay Clanfield and Duncan Foord, One-stop English

Why, When and How to Use L1 in the Classroom (2022), Barefoot Teacher

Happy teaching!

The Spiderman Story. CCQ-ing pre-school?

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Really, the whole story is between me and a pair of blue, three-year-old eyes. The world around does exist, of course, and the world around is watching, with curiosity, but not really participating.

‘Spider’, I say.

‘Spiderman’, he says.

‘Spider’, I repeat, pointing at the spider flashcard.

‘Spiderman’, he repeats, as if not noticing.

‘Spider’, I say, yet again.

‘Spiderman’, he says and, I’d swear, he nods, too.

***************

The blue eyes belong to a little Sasha who is quite young, true, but who feels empowered and a lot more confident than any other typical three-year-old might have been in any relatively new environment. It is because this little Sasha never walks alone, he has his older sister as the source of his superpower. He is pretty much fearless. That is why he gets into this, well, debate.

The conditions are perfect. It is a warm May afternoon, the summer is round the corner, and the audience are waiting for some entertainment. After all, the parents have come to see what the kids can do and what the teacher is teaching them. Everyone is present, all the children and all the parents. The teacher is there and even the trainee teacher. Who could have wished for more?

Sasha is not doing it on purpose. One of the most important words in his life now is ‘Spiderman‘ and it does resemble something that the teacher is saying. It feels like a cool game to recite it, together with the teacher, well, almost ‘recite’ it. Sasha continues to play.

He doesn’t see how the world freezes waiting for any reaction. He notices that his teacher’s face has become a bit tense but he does not think that it might have anything to do with the new game. He wouldn’t know that the teacher’s blood pressure is slowly going up because of what is happening and what is happening is this: a student making a mistake and the teacher not correcting him, fossilising the error for the years to come and this little boy confusing the little eight-legged creature with a superhero.

It might be that the parents have not even noticed or realised. It might be that the parents have found it to be funny, too. In the teacher’s head, however, the world is crumbling and the teacher is failing, despite all her experience.

Ideally, the teacher would have just waved two flashcards to illustrate the difference. Only, of course, there were no Spiderman flashcards just lying around.

***********

‘Now, Sasha, spider – Spiderman’, I say. Again.

‘Spiderman’, he says, smiling, probably thinking that I have finally managed to learn the right word. I smile, too.

‘Sasha, listen. Spiderman is a boy. Yes or no?’, I say.

‘Yes’, says Sasha.

‘Mhm. And Spiderman is big or small?’ I ask.

‘Big’, said Sasha, looking at the teacher with curiosity.

‘Right’, I say. And then I ask, raising the spider flashcard. ‘Is THIS big?’

‘No’, said Sasha.

‘Is it a boy?’ goes the next question.

Sasha looks up from the flashcard, he looks at the teacher and smiles.

‘No’, he says, and you, know

‘No’, said Sasha and, you know, the teacher would swear, something sparks up in Sasha’s three-year-old eyes.

‘Exactly. Look. Spider – Spiderman’, I say, once again pointing at the spider flashcard, also adding gestures ‘small’ and ‘big’ ..

‘Spider’, says Sasha, pointing at the flashcard. And then he adds: ‘Spiderman’

***********

Victory? Probably. A memorable moment? Absolutely.

In hindsight, also a bit of revelation that a little adrenaline rush and, all of a sudden, it turns out that it is possible to use CCQs, concept check questions, with very young pre-schoolers who are somewhere in the pre-A1 level. I had never thought it would be possible but, hey, there you go. When there’s a will, there is a way? Aka the games my brain likes to play.

Happy teaching!

‘Are you a girl or a lion?’

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Friday, twenty minutes before the start of the lesson. Two of the girls (5 and 6 y.o.) remember about the amazing game they played about a month ago and, immediately, decide to play it again. There is only one rule in the game: to follow the teacher around the school, as she gets ready and fixes the last bits before the lesson and to say ‘I’m hungry. I will eat you‘ to which the teacher offers various things to eat (‘Do you like books?’, ‘Do you like markers?’), *) to which you have to answer ‘No. I’m hungry but I only eat people‘. And you roar. A lot. The other kids are arriving gradually, the hallway is filling up with parents, grandparents, nannies and brothers and sisters.

Friday, five minutes before the lesson. The lion game is getting better by the minute so now there are four lions running around (Did I mention running before?) and roaring. And, believe it or not, four lions roaring make a lot of noise. It’s not that we pretend that kids are made of sugar and they are always sweet and quiet and picture perfect. Kids are kids and they should be but the teacher picking up the flashcards and taking the last sip of water in the teachers’ room thought, briefly, of an avalanche of noise and ‘unwanted behaviour’. The lions did not really care, they were having lots of fun.

Friday, 2 minutes before the lesson. The teacher is ready and is collecting the group to start the lesson properly. Alas. The lions are roaring, more and more loudly. ‘Let’s go!’ (Roar). ‘Please, stop’ (Roar roar), ‘OK, everyone, 10, 9, 8, 7…(Roar roar roar).

The teacher suddenly understands that she is not in the hallway of the school but on the edge of the cliff, on a windy day, on an empty stomach hence double dizzy. The lions do not like those lions that might calm down any time soon. The parents, grandparents and nannies have raised their eyes. The security guard, too, came out into the hallway and was observing the almost-mayhem in the hallway. The remaining 120 seconds should be used to re-introduce the order. The order should be sturdy enough to last sixty minutes of the lesson which is about to start.

You could say that’s not an ideal situation…

***********************

There were four things that I could do.

a) do nothing – not recommended, even if only because of those sixty minutes in the classroom to come.

b) let someone else sort it out – not recommended, not really. True, the kids have parents but at this point in the game, I don’t think I would want them to get involved. That’s why when our security guard (that the kids know and respect) started to saying something, I just shook my head and put a hand up to stop him. This mess was my mess and I had to deal with it. I think this is something I learnt during my five years at the state school – other people might be called to help with the behaviour management but at the end of the day it is your pack and you should be considered its leader.

c) talk to the kids in their L1 and sort it out – not recommended, not really. Why? Because I never talk to them in their L1 and this was serious enough, not yet anyway, to resort to that. I decided to keep it for another day and another occasion.

d) talk to the kids in English – tricky, with 5-year-old pre-A1 crowd but this is exactly what I decided to do.

I had no idea what I was doing, really. There were no previous cases that I could rely on, no plan of action but hey, if I don’t try, I will never know…Challenge accepted.

**********************

The teacher looked at her lions, still roaring in a small circle around her.

‘Now, where are my students? I want to start the lesson. Where are my students?’, said the teacher.

‘We are not students. We are lions!’ said the lions and they roard.

‘That’s a shame.’, said the teacher, feeling how someone continues to pull the rug from under her feet. She took a deep breath. She looked at the first lion on her left.

‘Are you a girl or a lion?’ asked the teacher.

‘A lion’

‘Are you a girl or a lion?’ now the teacher asked the second lion.

‘A lion’ said that second lion, with a beautiful smile.

‘Are you a girl or a lion?’

‘A lion’ said the lion and the teacher realised that almost all is lost.

‘Are you a girl or a lion?’ asked the teacher.

‘A lion’, said the fourth lion and the teacher was feeling pretty desperate then. The parents, the grandparents and the nannies were all watching then. Of course.

‘Right’, said the teacher. ‘It is a real shame but the English lesson is ONLY for boys and girls, not lions. I am sorry. Bye bye, lions’, said the teacher waving her hand and started walking towards the classroom. She stopped after a few steps where a little boy was sitting with his mum.

‘Hello, Sasha! Are you a boy or a lion?’ asked the teacher.

‘A boy’ said the boy.

‘Great! Let’s go to the classroom!’ said the teacher and off they went. They stopped again after a few more steps where a little girl was sitting with her mum.

‘Hello, Sasha! Are you a girl or a lion?’ asked the teacher.

‘A girl’, said the girl.

‘Fantastic! Let’s go to the classroom!’ said the teacher and all three went to the classroom.

At the classroom door, they stopped, and formed a line. The teacher opened the door, walked in, sat at the door and started saying hello to the first student in line (a part of the routine). They were in the middle of the chat about howareyoutoday and green pencils and yellow schoolbags, when one more person appeared at the end of the line.

‘Anka!’ she shouted, ‘Anka, hello! I am a girl!’

This was the first of the used-to-be lions and the other three quickly stood in line behind her. A miracle!!! In the end, we had one human teacher and seven human children taking part in this lesson.

***********************

This is a great VYL anecdote, of course, and I am sure, in the years to come, I will be going back to it to smile and to remember how difficult it was not to giggle when a girl-turned lion-turned girl came up to announce (in English) that she changed her mind and was ready to take part in the lesson for humans.

It is also a story about what it might be like to be a student at five and that what the big people see as being naughty (running around, roaring, pretending to be a lion) is just a lot of fun and an opportunity to do something different and to experiment with the ways of the world.

Finally, it is also a story about using or not using the L1 in the VYL classroom. You an use it, you don’t have to but using L1 is not the only way. It is a challenge but it is an interesting one. And it is possible.

Some people do sudoku to exercise their brains, some enjoy complex Maths thingies (that clearly not me), some like to guess the ending of a crime story before it is officially revealed in the final chapters. My brain seems to revel in such child-development-and-language-grading games. Especially when there is the added bonus of a high profile audience, of parents, supervisors or trainees…

I will leave the Spiderman story for some other occasion.

Happy teaching!

*) The text in italics is what the kids said in L1.