The Best Strategies for Teaching English to kids

The Best Strategies for Teaching English to kids

If you are wondering how to teach your little students or just need to have  a change in the class routine. Here are a few ideas that will make your life easier.

Things to have in mind when teaching young learners:

• Teach them in a natural way
• Build up a context
• Be visual
• Teach through songs and chants
• Show them different things
• Laugh
• Use your body
• Think, speak, do
• Keep them busy
• Repeat, repeat, repeat
• Role-play
• Be aware of their emotions
• Have them move
• Have them draw
• Have them create

Ideas of Games for little kids, young learners of English

1. Flashcards on the table

Teacher shouts the word and students have to snap the right card.

2. Chair dance

Teacher prepares a set of chairs with one missing chair.

Teacher plays the song that they are learning to sing and students walk around the chair.

Teacher suddenly stops the song and students have to find a seat. The student that can’t find a seat is out.

Remove one chair and continue playing the song until there is one student left. He is the winner.

3. Bingo

Write 16 words on the board. Students make a grid with 12 spaces. They fill in the spaces with words they choose from the board. As you call out the words, students have to cross the words out! The student who completes all the grid first has to shout Bingo. He is the winner.

4. Domino 

Create a domino with your students with objects and numbers. Make 5 cars for number 5. 2  telephones…etc.

5. Create a board games with your students

6. Playing ball

The child has to say his/her name or any other word or answer a question every time a ball lands on him/her. Pass around the ball as the music plays.

7. Draw the picture a little at a time

They have to shout the word as soon as they know what it is.

8. Masks

Students put on masks and go around the classroom asking each other their names.

9. Shopping for fruit

C: A lemom, please.

T: Here you are

C: Thank you.

10. Touching and Guessing from the shape

Fruit under a tablecloth

11. Touch the….

It can be a large piece of paper with drawings. Students have to touch the object the teacher calls out.

Shapes

Language teaching methodolgies

Listed below are brief summaries of some of the more popular second language teaching methods of the last half century.

The Direct Method

In this method the teaching is done entirely in the target language. The learner is not allowed to use his or her mother tongue. Grammar rules are avoided and there is emphasis on good pronunciation. 

Grammar-translation

Learning is largely by translation to and from the target language. Grammar rules are to be memorized and long lists of vocabulary learned by heart. There is little or no emphasis placed on developing oral ability.

Audio-lingual

The theory behind this method is that learning a language means acquiring habits. There is much practice of dialogues of every situations. New language is first heard and extensively drilled before being seen in its written form.

The structural approach

This method sees language as a complex of grammatical rules which are to be learned one at a time in a set order. So for example the verb "to be" is introduced and practised before the present continuous tense which uses "to be" as an auxiliary.

Suggestopedia

The theory underlying this method is that a language can be acquired only when the learner is receptive and has no mental blocks. By various methods it is suggested to the student that the language is easy - and in this way the mental blocks to learning are removed.

Total Physical Response (TPR)

TPR works by having the learner respond to simple commands such as "Stand up", "Close your book", "Go to the window and open it." The method stresses the importance of aural comprehension.

Communicative language teaching (CLT)

The focus of this method is to enable the learner to communicate effectively and appropriately in the various situations she would be likely to find herself in. The content of CLT courses are functions such as inviting, suggesting, complaining or notions such as the expression of time, quantity, location.

The Silent Way

This is so called because the aim of the teacher is to say as little as possible in order that the learner can be in control of what he wants to say. No use is made of the mother tongue.

Community Language Learning

In this method attempts are made to build strong personal links between the teacher and student so that there are no blocks to learning. There is much talk in the mother tongue which is translated by the teacher for repetition by the student.

Immersion

This corresponds to a great extent to the situation we have at our school. ESL students are immersed in the English language for the whole of the school day and expected to learn math, science, humanities etc. through the medium of the target language, English.

Immigrant students who attend local schools find themselves in an immersion situation; for example refugee children from Bosnia attending German schools, or Puerto Ricans in American schools.

Task-based language learning

The focus of the teaching is on the completion of a task which in itself is interesting to the learners. Learners use the language they already have to complete the task and there is little correction of errors.

The Natural Approach

This approach, propounded by Professor S. Krashen, stresses the similarities between learning the first and second languages. There is no correction of mistakes. Learning takes place by the students being exposed to language that is comprehensible or made comprehensible to them.

The Lexical Syllabus

This approach is based on a computer analysis of language which identifies the most common (and hence most useful) words in the language and their various uses. The syllabus teaches these words in broadly the order of their frequency, and great emphasis is placed on the use of authentic materials.

Most Common English Errors

Most Common English Errors for Arabic Speaking People

The Arabic writing system has little in common with English.

Arabic and English are two very different languages, and this can cause a host of problems for native Arabic speakers trying to learn English. There are few cognates or shared vocabulary, and the writing systems not only use different alphabets, but are written and read in opposite directions. Furthermore, Arabic is a consonant-heavy language where vowels are often omitted in the written form, and this makes Arabic students frequently exchange or reassign vowels in English words.

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1.   Adjectives

o        Like Spanish, the Arabic language places the adjective after the noun it describes. This leads to common oral and written mistakes, such as "The cat white" or "The house small."

Vowels

o        Including diphthongs, English has 22 vowel sounds compared to the eight found in Arabic. To the untrained ear, many of these sound similar, and native Arabic speakers often misunderstand or misuse vowels. Since Arabic speakers new to English cannot discern these subtle differences, "bet" can become "bat" or "ball" may be heard as "bell."

Stress

o        There is no stress on parts of speech in Arabic. All words are spoken in a regular manner with no emphasis. This rarely leads to misunderstandings when learning English but can cause many pronunciation problems. Without the proper stress on individual syllables, every word sounds monotone and contrived.

Writing

o        Arabic is written right to left and frequently omits vowels, depending on consonant patterns and context, to transfer meaning. Punctuation rules are fairly lax compared to English, and there are no upper or lower cases in Arabic. Many Arabic students try to transfer these language behaviors to their English writing. These factors can lead to a great deal of difficulty for native Arabic speakers learning to read and write English.

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Daily Routines & Illnesses &Feelings * Emotions & Prepositions

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 Feelings & Emotions

Prepositions