#teacherdevelopment

When the trainer is observed by the trainees. A very special kind of stress

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This post will start from the summarising comments: experienced teachers (including trainers) should be observed by the less experienced teachres because both parties can benefit from that immensely.

There were countless occasions on which I was observed…

These involved the standard developmental observations done by my supervisors and mentors, follwed by a grade and a feedback on my teaching skills and my teacher training skills. Then, there were the newly qualified teachers or the teachers who were novices in a particular area who would visit pretty much every other lesson at the start of the academic year, in September and October. Then, there were also teachers who were struggling and needed support in one area or another and they were likely to pop in throughout the entire year. Then, there were also the teachers on our teacher trainining courses who had to clock in a certain number of classes observed (the IH CYLT course) or who just wanted to see a colleague and a mentor in action (the IH VYL course). Multiply that by ten and a half years of my work as an ADOS and add a number of your choice for my pre-ADOS career years and you get quite a few hours when you are not the only specialist in the room. Then, just for the sake of keeping the numbers’ right, I should throw in all the hours of the lessons recorded for the marketing department and all the times when I had a whole crowd in the classroom, observed by the parents in all the open classes…In a nutshell: I have been observed a lot. Nothing, however, has ever come close to the stress of the observations that I am yet to include here, namely: when the trainer is observed by trainees co-teaching on the course.

Co-teaching with your trainees and what to hate about it…

Normally, it was not our standard practice on the IH CYLT course that the trainers would be taking part in the teaching although I did hear that my colleagues at BKC IH Moscow did it on the CELTA courses regularly. However, there were a few occasions, over the years, when some of my trainees would get sick and we ran very intensive courses, we had very little flexibility and a quick cover had to be found. And this cover was me, the main course tutor.

Obviously, one would expect that the most experienced teacher in the group could raise up to the challenge and just step in and that it would be this particular person to do it with the minimal resources involved (creativity, preparation time, stress and so on). At least, in comparison to everyone else present.

It is all true and ‘they lived happily ever after’ in this particular story, however, I will be honest and I will tell you that throughout a large part of that experience, I was filled with resentment and stress.

Partially, it was due to the fact that I knew I would be observed by a 12-strong group of people whom I had been training, guiding and assessing for the past two weeks. I was aware that ‘my reputation’ was, to some extent, at stake. No matter how experienced you are and how confident you are as a professional, this particular prospect would be very difficult to dismiss in my opinion. There are lessons that I am not entirely happy with and, yes, they are an opportunity for reflection, development and improvement but when a group of people who are also your trainees are to be witnesses to this potential reflection, development and improvement, it is very difficult to be entirely calm about it. I know I was not, not when it happened the first time.

What is more, I was just angry that I had to do it because it all felt like some catch 22 situation. On the one hand, a good-quality lesson was expected of me and my trainees made sure that I knew that. ‘Oh, Anka, I am so happy that I will be able to see you with students’. On the other hand, my great lessons are such because I do have time to plan them and to prepare for them. Charisma is a nice thing to have but you reap what you sow and on this particular occasion, as the main course tutor with all the duties involved, admin and otherwise, there was very little time for me to get ready for ‘the show’ in front of the kids and in front of the trainees.

…and what to love about it.

To start with, it was definitely one more bridge to cross for me, as a teacher and as a trainer, an opportunity to expose myself to a different kind of stress and to develop some new levels of professional immunity. The first time was stressful but only the first one, especially for the teacher – teacher trainer.

My students enjoyed the lesson and I met my aims fully. I had a lot of fun teaching them and, to be honest, the stress and the anger and all the other unwelcome feelings died out as soon as I got up and into the front of the classroom, in front of my teens. They were simply gone. I was about to start teaching and all the irrelevant things had to give way. I was calm and focused.

Despite all the obstacles, I managed to put together a good lesson. I was to introduce comparatives and superlatives and, somehow, I found a connecting element and a way of generating a lot of lanugage from the kids in a rather clever way. Because of that, my trainees got a decent lesson to observe and, hopefully, to learn from. Another aim – fully met.

As a trainer, I did appreciate all the feedback that I received in the feedback session, although, I had to be careful not to forget to bring back all the areas that could be further improved because my teachers were more likely to focus on the positives and perhaps did not have enough confidence in their own beliefs to confront me about the weaknesses of the lesson or the activities. From that angle, it was also an interesting experience for me as I had to step back and try to see my lesson from a distance.

The most precious comment that was made came from Vika, who, apart from being my trainee, was, at the time, also a mother of one of my students and she had many opportunities to observe me in our open lessons. She told me that on that day she watched me, surprised, having seen me many times in a classroom with pre-primary and primary kids as a mum of one of them and she was expecting to see that same in a teenage lesson. What she was a completely different teaching persona and attitude.

Co-teaching with your trainees. The most beneficial experience so far

There is always more and that is the case here, too because two years ago we decided to include trainer teaching as a permanent element. The first teaching day on the course is always the day when everyone is teaching in order to break the ice with the students and with the situation, to feel the class and to get at least some of the stress out of the way. The lessons are always short, limited to pretty much one activity and it is an unassessed teaching practice. When we were running the course in the summer 2021, we had a small group of teachers and a long, three academic hour lesson. Esentially, there were some time slots left and we did not want to single out and to overload anyone and I took these free slots in both groups, with the teens and with the juniors.

It was a positive experience for me because

  • As a teacher, I had more time to plan
  • I had more flexibility and influence on the content because it was always the first lesson and the unassessed one and even though my mini-lesson had to combine with all the other ones in the day for the benefit of the students, there was a lot less pressure althogether. I knew that in the worst case scenario, even if I did not meet my aims at all, I would not be messing up my trainees’ lessons.
  • For the trainer, it was a unique bonding activity, because, despite the experience and the status (even now I cannot but giggle here, being serious about my status and being proud of my achievements are two different things, for me, as they have always been), I was one of them for a day and we all had to go through the stress of facing a new group of unknown students and we all had to prepare a plan B or C for all the possible scenarios
  • I was able to share some of my ‘first lesson tricks’ and ‘the uncharted territory tricks’ and ‘flexibility tricks’ with them and I hope that because that, perhaps, they were better prepared for these first lessons on the course as well as for the other first lessons in the future. I would like to think that it even added to my credibility as an expert because I was in a situation when I would have to do exactly what I preached. Which is not to say that without this option, the tutor’s credibilty would suffer in any way or that it needed to be enhanced in the first place. It did feel different, though, better.

It was a positive experience for my trainees because

  • For this one lesson, they had the trainer (aka the master and commander, giggles ensue) completely on their side and not only because that is what a good trainer would do but, because, literally, we were all in the same boat.
  • The trainer was, for a day, playing two roles: this of a mentor but also this of a more experienced peer, actively participating in the lesson planning session and sharing what she was planning to include in her mini-lesson and why.
  • Then, in the feedback session, the same teacher was able to look at how the lesson went, to reflect on that and to evaluate her own performance. The teachers were very much involved in that process, from the beginning until the very end.
  • There were two lessons of that kind and two cycles and the second one, a slightly more challenging and a slightly more imperfect (due to a bigger discrepancy between the group we were planning for and the actual group in the classroom) was even more beneficial for the trainees, not only because of the mistakes that we could learn from but, most importantly, I want to believe, from this very attitude to a lesson that was not quite up to our expectations and standards. We make mistakes to learn after all and I hope that I could model that attitude, too, on that course.
  • Even during the lesson planning, which we did as a group, I could see the positive influence of the experienced teacher that I was. Or the easy-going or even the reckless teacher that I was (and I am). I coud see that my attitude had a calming effect on them. ‘There is no need to overplan here, we do not know the kids and, hence, we do not know what is up to their level, what is going to be overchallenging or underchallenging. We can relax’. Naturally, they wanted to do their best, on the first day and throughout the course, but, at this point, back then, this perfectionism and the inducing stress were simply not necessary.

Overall, as I have already mentioned, this has been a very positive experience and, if I have a chance to choose which way to play the game, I will be choosing teaching with and for my trainees.

Happy teaching! Happy training!

Teacher roles, teacher personalities.

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This is not a serious post.

There is no need for anything else serious now, not with the amount of work related to the end-of-year procedures, the amount of work related to the summer programmes kick-off or the very important teacher training course that has just taken off. If there are any posts to come in the next few weeks, they will be all of the following kind: light-hearted, frolicky, with a giggle.

A teacher = a chameleon, a teacher = a jack of all trades, a monitor, a manager, a mediator, a diagnostician and a teacher, experienced or not, talented or not, on a good day or on a bad, this very person juggles all these roles and a teacher multi-tasks, playing a few roles at the same time.

But there are the other roles that a teacher plays in the classroom. Here are mine.

I’m a coach.

I work hard with my players. Whenever they are there, I am there, at every single training session, those technical ones, those devoted to developing speed and agility, those before the important game. I have been a player myself, I know what it all feels like, I have learnt how to share this knowledge. I am sometimes light-hearted, sometimes very serious but I know what our aim is and I am going to do everything to get us there.

But, at the same time, I am not the one who is going to play this important game. I am preparing my sportsmen but they are the ones who will be performing themselves. I will not be able to be there and always hold their hand, not on the pitch. They will be on their own and they need to get ready for that. Our time in the training session has to focus on that, on giving them skills, developing their independence and confidence. And then they go.

I’m a gardener.

I have my patch, my garden, my orchard. I plant my seeds and my saplings. I hope for the sun and good weather. I water, every day or even twice a way. I protect from the insects and birds. I check out for the weeds. I look and check up on them regularly. I wait. I wait. I wait. I wait. I wait. I wait. I worry about the wind, storm, temperature drops.

After a very long time and a lot of waiting, the day comes when a leaf appears, a flower, a raspberry here and a carrot there. And when it does happen, it is the best day every and I rejoice. And sometimes, I need to water more or move the pot into the sunnier place, or back into the house. Sometimes, I have plant the seeds again.

I’m a (kind) witch.

I am sweet (or so I would like to believe, at least when I am in the classroom:-) I smile a lot and I laugh a lot. I can turn a lot of difficult situations into a joke, to disperse the clouds. I wear funky socks and funky masks. Funky earrings, too. I am kind. I laugh a lot.

But I am also a witch and there can be no doubt (never ever) who is in charge, who is the boss and who has got all the superpowers. Which she will not hesitate to use. When necessary, the smile will be put away, on the shelf and the witch will do the witch’s things. If the world really needs it.

I know that these might be also referred to ‘teaching personas’ or ‘teaching personalities’ but I am going to stick to the concept of ‘a role’ here. Because ‘personality’ suggests something more serious (and that’s not the word for today, remember) and something more permanent and these described above are not traits, only characters that one assumes while entering the classroom. They can be different on different days, more or less prominent or obvious, they might appear every day or be held in the cupboards, kept for the special day…Perhaps we change as people because of the fact that we teach and that we teach English and that we teach English to kids and because of how we do it. Perhaps we choose our teaching roles based on what we are. Perhaps both. That is a conversation to be had on another day. Maybe.

In the meantine, if you want to share how you see yourself in the classroom, there is the comment box below. I am really looking forward to reading these.

Happy teaching!

The hidden perks of teaching EFL pre-schoolers

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Author: Lisa, ca 2016
  • You will train yourself to be extremely well-organised. Never again will you forget to make a copy, to bring the crayons, to arrange the chairs or to pick up the realia from the teacher’s room. Why? Because once you enter the classroom and the kids come in, there is no going out, until the lesson is over. What’s more, all your toys and tools are most likely to end up in neat piles around the room, within an arm’s reach. One of the first things you learn in the VYL classroom is that there is never a minute to spare or, in that case, to look through the lesson plan or to search for the misplaced whatever. If it is not there when you need it, you just get on without it and make sure it is always there, in the future.
  • Apart from that, you will become very resourceful. No matter how carefully you prepare, things will happen and you will have think fast on your feet and come up of ways of making do without the CD player, the computer or the tablet, the glue or the storybook that got left in the bag. And you will, every single time and with time you will get amazingly good at coming up with last minute solutions. It will feel a lot like being about to do magic, actually.
  • You will become greener because you will find ways of recycling pretty much everything: milk cartons, chopsticks, ribbons, wrapping paper, pots, cereal boxes. Nothing will ever be thrown away. At your house and at your friends’ houses, too, possibly. Because as soon as they find out that you collect and recycle they will be bringing you things, including the unusual things that you will later try to use in class.
  • You will discover your hidden talents or believe in your so-far-unused talents for singing or drawing. Such a confidence boost! You will have to draw or sing at one point or another and what a revelation it will be to discover that those (little) people do not care which key you are singing in and they will just accept your involvement. As well as absolutely all your attempts at drawing a cat, a dog, a panda, a dinosaur…
  • Whether you were born with micro-staging skills or whether you have worked hard on crafting and polishing them, over every lesson with your preschoolers, eventually you are going to get there and you will rock at dissecting any random task or activity at a glance, down to the most minuscule details and, no matter how complex the task, your instructions giving skills and modelling will be simply first-rate.
  • You will enjoy any lesson with adults twice as much only because they: do not rock on chairs (even if they do, you are allowed not to care), they pick up the resources, flashcards, cards, notes and put them back together, with the paper clip on, they will not cry because there is only one pink pencil, they will open the book and find the page all by themselves, they will to the other side of the handout but they will still focus on the right page, they will not get irretrievably distracted by your earrings or by another student’s fluffy tiara…
  • You will learn that lesson planning should start in the classroom and with the students who are there, not just any typical 4-year-old beginners and not with the activities that the coursebooks authors intended for them. Typical 4-year-olds don’t exist and who turns up on Friday is Masha, Katya, Anya, Egor, Petya and Sasha. They are the lesson and if some pages of the coursebook are not compatible with the bunch in the room, these pages have to go. Good riddance.
  • You will quickly become a champion at devising a good plan B (or even a good plan C), to resort to in any given situation, an additional copy of the handout, a spare puppet in your Mary Poppins bag, a glue stick in the back pocket and, on top of that, three more ideas in your head. Just in case.
  • It is not going to happen automatically but once you believe and see that your little EFL students can go beyond one-word answers, beyond rehearsed and drilled lines and that they can use full sentences, complex sentences and can produce language spontaneously (because, yes, they CAN!), there will be no stopping you. Because if the pre-schoolers can, they absolutely everyone can! High five to the level of challenge!
  • Developing learners’ independence and involving them in the shaping of the lesson is something that the VYL do on daily basis. The kids learn to make decisions, choose their favourite games and songs and given the chance to be the teacher and lead the activities. This ‘democracy in the classroom’ (which I first heard about at the wonderful presentation given by Katherine Bilsborough) should be a part of the lesson with primary, juniors and teens. It really does work wonders!
  • A chance to forget about the traditional assessment in the form of tests, quizzes and standardised exams because the little people just don’t take part in those. Instead, the teacher can just focus on assessment for learning and start experimenting with all the alternative methods of assessment, better suited for the pre-literate, pre-school EFL students.
  • A unique opportunity to sing and jump and put on voices in the middle of the day and to forget about the world for a moment, about the mortgage, the heartbreak, the tiredness, the pandemic, about anything that is not the lesson and the students. Time out, for the teacher this time.
  • A new perspective on the world as you will be learning again to see the world from the height of 70 above the ground, getting lost among the pages of the book, forcing the pencil to stand still and to produce scribbles…Brand new world!

So here we have a resourceful, creative, green, well-organised, confident, calm, open-minded teacher who is great at giving instructions and planning student-centred lessons…Any student’s dream, right?

Happy teaching!

P.S. Here you can find another post on being a VYL and YL teacher…

The first VYL lesson survival kit

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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.

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

by

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…