Collins Introducing English to Young Children: Reading and Writing

Although individual face-to-face contact is still important for conveying messages, lower-primary children can now follow the teacher when spoken to in pairs, groups or as a whole class. Spoken and written language needs to go beyond any actual text content – it needs to include the sharing of thoughts in order to help children begin to think of themselves as learners and critical thinkers. They need to be encouraged to initiate talking about their feelings, emotions and ideas. Children are innate communicators if they like the people they are talking to, and feel they are liked, too.

2.7.1 Teacher-talk

The use of voice is crucial to the success of a lesson. The teacher’s commentary throughout the lesson (on what is taking place, what has been achieved and what is coming next) is a key part of input for revision, as well as for new spoken language. However, lower-primary children working together in pairs or small groups may also begin to talk amongst themselves in English. The teacher should encourage this, recasting what children have said and repeating it so all the class can hear. Teachers need to be ready to develop and expand any language produced by the children. For example: Aisha says it’s very cold today but Abdul says it isn’t. What do you think?

It is important not to over-question children as they soon begin to feel the teacher is giving them a test. Where possible, questions should be open-ended rather than having only a Yes or No answer. Open-ended questions lead to children giving a thoughtful and meaningful answer. Teachers should use Wh- question words whenever possible (who, what, where, why, when, which, etc.), for example:

What do you think about …?

Which is the best one?

What if he fell?

Where do you want to go? To the seaside, a big town, or somewhere else?

That’s interesting. Why a big town?

The use of the teacher’s voice is crucial:

 to convey a calm, warm, feel-good atmosphere

 to motivate and remotivate

 to make use of the Playful Approach

 to socialise behaviour

 to co-share in pair and group work

 to mediate and introduce new language activities

 to repeat target language

 to express emotion

 to encourage the use of English

 to reassure that ideas are valued.

2.7.2 Management language

The structures used in managing classroom activities are more complex with lower-primary children than with pre-school children. Management language has developed to include other situations, such as children playing games themselves in small groups, or taking part in responsible activities like tidying up.

Management language might sound like this: Now it’s tidy-up time. Hannah is collecting the pencils so please give your pencils to Hannah. Have you got all the pencils, Hannah?

2.7.3 Mediating language

Mediating language can be used to introduce new formal literacy, or something brought to a ‘My secret’ session during ‘Circle time’ (see 6.3.1). Mediating language might be introduced as follows:

The teacher, during ‘My secret’, shows the children his or her favourite flower and introduces associated vocabulary, such as flower, stalk, colour, roots, etc.

The teacher links this vocabulary with honey, showing how a bee visits a flower.

She introduces buzz and bumble bee, so children can hear how the word buzz sounds like the noise the insect makes.

2.7.4 ‘Teacherese’

Teachers of young children often modify their speech (either by simplifying or including L1) when interacting with children who are still new to learning another language. This is known as ‘teacherese’. Once children have a basic grounding in spoken English the amount of ‘teacherese’ needed diminishes, except when the teacher is introducing new language in an activity or in formal literacy. Although language content has increased by lower primary, the basic ‘teacherese’ strategies for dealing with code-switching and error correction remain the same.

A focused ‘teacherese’ session in a face-to-face dialogue can help comprehension greatly, particularly when a teacher finds a child has not understood and needs to revisit a topic.

2.7.5 Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a method of brainstorming, but in sustained, shared way. It helps children to focus and become conscious of their concentrated thought. Scaffolding can be used to revisit something that a child has not fully understood. Lower-primary children are more mature and they can scaffold with the teacher as a pair, in groups or as a class.

Co-thinking is exciting and motivating; it challenges a child, pair or group and takes them on to the next level. Often suggestions for follow-up ideas at home are included, for example the teacher might say Look for a photo at home. Let’s make a class book about …

2.7.6 Repetition

Repetition gives a chance to try again. Children need to learn the saying If at first you don’t succeed try, try, and try again (a saying originally popularised by Thomas H. Palmer in his Teacher’s Manual). Children naturally do try and try again if they are interested and motivated. Watch them learning a skipping skill or repeating a physical game until they get it right! Teachers need to engage them repeatedly so they continue trying.

It takes time to build up a classroom routine and there are sessions when there seem to be steps backwards rather than forwards. This is normal in learning, and children may have absorbed more than outwardly visible in assessing.

(Stewart)

2.7.7 Tutor-talk

Hidden behind general teacher-talk is the planned, structured syllabus of the mechanics of language – these mechanics can sometimes be verbalised using ‘tutor-talk’. The use of focused mini-tutorials can help children make progress at their own speed. Tutor-talk, although planned, can be introduced at any time within a lesson and can even be introduced further times within a lesson if appropriate. The teacher could say Do you remember, I explained that this word means …

Quick tutor-talks can be used to revise a point introduced previously, to correct a recurring mistake, or to explain pattern variations. For example, the teacher might say It’s different this time. For this, we say … Do you remember I said before that …?

It is through tutor-talk that the foundations of formal literacy are built. Quizzes and games may help to further pattern recognition, and a repertoire of these and other activities will help to consolidate the content of these mini-tutorials.

Piaget believed that learning depended on a child’s readiness to learn. Vygotsky recognised a child’s ability to learn with help.

2.7.8 Self-talk

The teacher’s input can take the form of an external monologue of internal thinking. This form of ‘self-talk’ is quite usual among stressed adults who need to clarify their thoughts! Thinking through a problem, seeing cause and effect or weighing up risk is something children have to learn from adults. In self-talk teachers give more than a factual commentary – they reveal aloud how they actually think, feel and deal with a problem, in order to move towards making a decision. The teacher uses self-talk to show children how to think critically and sum up, before arriving at a choice or decision. If the decision is wrong, the teacher also uses self-talk to show how to go back and rethink, in order to arrive at a new decision or choice. For example, the teacher might say Do I go here or do I go there? Oh dear! That’s not right. I think I’ll go back to the beginning. If I do this, what will happen?

Through the teacher’s regular repetition of these thinking-aloud language structures, children can absorb the language of thought and gradually begin to use it. Children, when encountering a problem, often give external monologues which reveal they have learned how to work through a decision-making process logically. A child might say Let me think. Do I go here or do I go there? What if I do this? I’ll try again. I have a good idea. What do I want – this or that? This is better.

Once familiar with the basic language of thought, children begin to create their own personal thinking language, and may code-switch some words into L1. If this happens, the teacher needs to recast what the child has said in English.

Thought is internalised language.

(Vygotsky)

3

Listening to the maturing child

3.1 Self-educators

3.2 Motivation

3.3 Evaluating success

3.4 Autonomy

3.1 Self-educators

Helping children learn better is not the same as helping them become better learners.

(Claxton)

Young children are self-educators if they are provided with enabling experiences. From about 5 years old, many children show signs or wanting to do things for themselves. Many of them already want to become independent, saying things like Let me try. I can do it. They are active agents in their own learning and develop personal strategies to help them progress (including language-learning strategies, which – with adult help – they can reuse to acquire English).

By the age of 6, without being formally taught, children have managed to develop a range of self-learning strategies with which to learn many things. ‘Learning to learn’ involves knowing and being able to use these self-learning strategies effectively. Effective learning at this age forms the foundations for life-long learning.

Strategies are sequences of behaviour, which are developed to enable us to do things in more effective and efficient ways.

(Stewart)

By the age of 7, many of the self-learning strategies for acquiring language are in place, since children are by now fluent L1 speakers. Children who already read and write in L1 have also acquired some self-learning strategies for coded L1 literacy.

As teachers, we need to foster young children’s ability to self-learn, helping them to work out how to transfer their self-language-learning strategies to absorb English successfully. By now, children will already have unconsciously transferred their strategies to pick up spoken English, but they need help to do the same when learning how to read and spell and later create written English.

Learning to reuse and broaden strategies to acquire English cannot be taught by imposed instruction. Children have to explore and experiment for themselves, but they also need to be helped through focused tutor-talk explanations and modelling that they can imitate. Children need time to find out how to use their strategies to solve problems, self-manage and persevere to achieve progress.

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