EnglishClub

During my career as an ESL teacher I have come across plenty of teachers who dread teaching children. Because they are naughty. Because they cannot concentrate. Because all they want to do is run around and make a lot of noise. Having taught kids for six years now I wholeheartedly agree with all the aforementioned complaints. It takes however a few things to bear in mind to make your YL classes work like magic.

Teamwork, games and the sense of competitiveness

Students love competitions and YL are no exception. The only difference is that they love them even more! Hence you should take every opportunity to turn any activity into a contest. Start up by dividing the class into two or more groups. Give each team a name e.g. oranges and apples or red and blue. Very YL tend to forget which group they belong to so use colored chalk to mark their desks. On the blackboard write each group’s name and give them an equal numbers of points for a start. Warn the students they you will erase their points if anyone from the group shouts, walks around, keeps talking, does not raise their hand etc. Tell them that points will be added if group members speak English or complete tasks successfully. Reward the kids for every positive thing they do. Keep in mind that rewards have a much more encouraging and motivating effect than any form of punishment.

Demonstration not explanation

Whatever your experience may imply, always remember that children are not adults. Consequently different techniques have to be used to explain to the students what you require. Forget checking instructions and wordy explanations. As an alternative, resort to demonstrations or ask a stronger student to explain what s/he understood to the other students.

Rules and routine

Children need order and quickly get used to routines and habitual activities. If you notice that e.g. blowing a whistle gets their attention, keep practising that. Try to start and end a lesson in the same or similar way or have some always repeating elements in it. For instance, a good starting point is dividing a class into groups and a good finishing point might be counting the points and drawing stars for all the group members on the poster. Be strict about the rules you want the students to follow as well. For example, let them get used to the fact that you will give coloring worksheets only to the students who have already taken out their crayons.

Encouraging the usage of TL

Try to make students use TL (target language) from the very first classes. Expose them to the basic phrases and repeat these each time an opportunity comes up. Ignore the students who insist on using their mother tongue and they will sooner or later adjust to your behavior. Reward the ones who use TL by giving their group points, clapping or verbal praise.

Getting the students’ attention

YL classes tend to be noisy by definition so raising your voice or shouting has a poor chance of success. Instead, try using sound making objects – toy musical instruments (drums, maracas, trumpet), whistles, rattles, bells etc. Not only will you save your throat but you will bring some fun to the classroom as well.

Praise and rewards

Nothing works better for students than a decent amount of praise. When it comes to kids however feel free to praise them all the time for the smallest things they do or say properly. They might not be able to understand “very good”, “great” or “excellent” but they will surely get “bravo”, “super” or “perfect”. Thumbs up, clapping hands and a huge smile on a teacher’s face will definitely help the kids realize that they did a great job and made you pleased. Create a way of rewarding your students as well. Draw smiling faces, stars or use stamps or stickers to show your appreciation. Put up posters on the walls with the students names to keep record of their good work. Never stoop to bribery or material rewards. Sweets or mascots may make young learners do quietly what you order but once you forget the reward or want to quit the procedure a tragedy will follow.

Drama and acting

Do not be afraid to make a clown out of yourself. Teaching YL more than any other type of teaching requires acting skills. Make faces, use body language and your voice. While presenting new vocabulary and drilling it is possible to make kids repeat words even ten times only by changing the tone of your voice. Thus if you want them to repeat the word “papaya” sound angry, quiet, interested, helpless, hopeful, surprised and so on. There is no way that they will not enjoy it.

A little fluffy helper

Sometimes course books offer mascots or puppets thematically connected to the topics covered by the book, so do not be afraid to use them. Otherwise find any old mascot of yours and bring it to the classroom. Give it a name and age, and as the lessons proceed create its likes, dislikes, favourite food, color etc. Young learners get attached to mascots very quickly, especially if you bring it to every class and let the students touch, hug and talk to it. My students love offering our puppet water and got very concerned when Boo (its name) got ill and had to go to hospital!

Movement

Young Learners have loads of energy that we adults sometimes lack. It would be unwise not to use such a benefit though. Therefore make them move as much as you can. Think of games that involve running, races, coming to the blackboard. If you use songs or chants create movements to accompany them. Not only will it be a vent for the kids’ energy but it will also enable them to memorize the new vocabulary better.

Fast finishers

Always have an extra activity ready for the fast finishers. If kids have nothing to do they usually start walking around, talking etc, which is something we should try to prevent from happening. The extra activity does not have to be a worksheet though. You might tell the student(s) to draw the teacher, the classroom or his favourite animal in his notebook for instance. They might also be asked to help you organize your materials before the lesson is over or clean up the classroom.

Problematic students

Problematic students are the nightmare of every teacher but there are ways to deal with them. First, remember to praise any naughty kid for any good thing they do in front of all the other children. If necessary exaggerate! “Look everybody! Leyla has her notebook today! Well done! You are a very good student, Leyla! I’m proud of you!”, and so on. After a few weeks they will crave your praise, so then feel free to use that. Make little naughty-no-more kids your helpers. Let them distribute the worksheets, play with the puppet etc.

Positive attitude

Smile! Hug! Pat the students’ on the heads! Whatever happens, try to be positive and optimistic. Make an angry face when the students are naughty but don’t shout. Children have to know that you are also their friend.

Children’s attention span is extremely short compared to that of adults. Thus your job as a teacher is to use the few minutes you have to present vocabulary as effectively and successfully as you can. Be creative. Be appealing. Be quick. To make sure your students will remember all the new words you taught them, be fun and have fun as well!

Vocabulary selection

Keep in mind that no matter what memorization techniques you use, children are not able to remember as many words as adults at a time. In most cases, approximately five totally new words seem to be enough to present during a single lesson unit. If you follow a course book, make sure that the new lexical items actually and/or significantly differ from their counterparts in the kids’ mother tongue. It makes no sense to prepare elaborate activities for the students to memorize that “computer” is actually “komputer” (Polish). In addition be open to familiarizing the children with the so called “difficult words”. For YLs any new word can be memorized as long as they can relate it to something they already know in their own language.

Flashcards and pictures

As visuals appeal a great deal to kids, have a set of flashcards or pictures ready for any new words or phrases you want to introduce. Forget about the old fashioned “What’s in the picture?” sometimes. Instead, roll the cards over in many directions, show for a second and cover again, let them slowly appear from the back of a book. Not only will it make your students enjoy this stage more but it will also make them remember the new words better.

Realia

Whenever possible bring realia to the classroom. There is no better way to make a person remember something than to see, smell, touch and taste it. Another way of making the lesson more attention-grabbing is letting the children bring objects of their own. By doing so you will allow personalization and let them have some fun too.

Feel free to invite people to your classroom. If you are teaching professions, ask a doctor or a musician to visit your class and talk about their jobs. The students will be given the opportunity not only to memorize the name of a given profession but learn some other useful words related to it as well.

Miming

Try to create a single movement for (if possible) all the new words presented. Even if it is only waving your hand in a specific way or touching your cheek, the chance that the students will remember a word better is much greater. Another useful idea is making noises related to the vocabulary taught. “Meow” if you want to teach “cat” and “moo” if you teach “cow”. With some students the auditory intelligence is more dominant so make sure you facilitate the learning process for them additionally.

Pronunciation

Make sure you model proper pronunciation from the very beginning of the classes. Do so not only by making the students repeat the what they hear from a tape/CD. Pronounce the words yourself in many original ways e.g. as an old woman, as a soldier, as a baby, as an opera singer; whispering, shouting, laughing. Drill the students as a whole class, individually and in groups (boys and girls, left and right side, front row and back row). Whatever you do however do not exaggerate! If some students cannot copy your pronunciation, leave it and give them some time. Nothing is more discouraging than feeling different because of not being able to do what everyone else can.

Cross curricular learning

Having the chance, find out what your students learn during their Biology or History classes. If they talk about cities while studying Geography for instance, it will be easier for them to get to know some vocabulary related to the topic in English as well. What is more, the amount of new lexical items you want the students to memorize might be more significant.

Context

Do your best to create an appropriate context for what you are planning to teach. If the possibilities are limited make use of the blackboard or furniture in the classroom. Do not be ashamed to dress up! Wear a cowboy hat talking about the West, dungarees and rubber boots when you talk about farming or a raincoat and an umbrella when you want the kids to learn about the weather. If possible, use sound recordings to create a required atmosphere in the classroom or watch a thematically related video beforehand.

Always elicit what you are presenting from the students! Despite being young, they might surprise you with the knowledge they have.

Phrases

Whenever an opportunity comes up, teach your kids everyday phrases. Say “here you are” when you distribute worksheets and “thank you” whenever you get something from the students. Every time you open or close the window, emphasize the activity and the phrase you use. When students want to use the bathroom, make them utter the “may I go to the bathroom” phrase and let them go. Repeat the procedure every time with all the kids.

Words written down

Be careful when you wish to write words down so that the kids remember them better. Appealing as it may sound, this procedure can cause more setbacks than benefits. It is a common problem that learners mispronounce words or phrases having seen them written first at the early stages of presentation. Hence always drill pronunciation before you write anything on the blackboard or familiarize the students with any written form of the words. If you are a teacher with little or no experience bear in mind that students grade one or lower cannot write yet!

Time and timing

Whatever you do and no matter how you present the vocabulary, keep it short! Children can get bored in the blink of an eye, even if you dance the samba in the classroom. Once you realize that some of your learners are losing interest, do not try to get their attention by all and every means. Hurry up and move on to practice so as not to have the whole class yawning or talking when you try to teach.

To conclude, give your YLs time. Do not get angry if they cannot memorize all the new vocabulary you presented. In time they undoubtedly will. :)