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General Advice
"Kids are keen."
If you need a mantra for your young children
classes, let it be this one. Children are natural learners. Think how
quickly they learn
to master their own language and social environment.
However, don't assume that because children learn
their native tongue effortlessly that they will pick up English with equal
ease. This is one of the myths of
language
learning. In fact, not all children (even very young ones) are good at learning a
second language. This may result from aptitude, or the language learning
environment, or a combination of the two.
Consider the following two points. A five year old native speaker has heard his native tongue
spoken
for tens of thousands of hours while your students, even after two years, may
have been exposed to less than 500 hours of English. A child brought to an English speaking country will take
5-7 years to attain fluency on par with his or her age group.
With little ones, comprehension should
exceed the ability to speak. Try not to use broken English to
communicate with your students, though you can accept it from them. Work
with children's love of puzzles (and language is a puzzle) and their
tolerance for imperfection.
Having Fun
We've learned a lot about how to have fun with children from
our sister clown "Cupcake." Cupcake has been known to have
"Summer Days" in the middle of winter. With her two young children she sets up a tent
in the living room and the children act out all
the things they can do in summer, but can't do in winter.
This is the kind of offbeat humor children appreciate.
Be
wacky if it is in you. If it isn't, take some advice. For
example:
1) Put a sticker somewhere on your body. The first child to
spot it when you walk in the class gets to keep it.
2) Walk into
class with your coat on backwards, or socks on your hands. Tell the students
you are handing out pens for writing and hand out licorice instead. When the
students tell you it's a sunny day put on your coat and shiver.
3) Ask silly questions. If you show a picture of a rhino,
ask if it is a dog. Kids love this. It makes them feel confident when they understand a
situation well enough in another language to laugh. If you
show a picture of a fridge, pretend to open the door and take out a glass of
milk. Offer it to a nearby student.
Motivation
Showing a genuine interest in your
students can help motivation. One of the best ways to show your interest is
to come well prepared. Throwing a lesson plan together a few minutes before class
shows contempt for your work, and consequently your students.
Be likeable. Be warm. Consider the
following: When adults like you they want to speak to you. Little children
are no different. Try to have the sort of class where students really want
to tell you what is their favorite animal or how many brothers and sisters
they have.
Use humor and show enthusiasm. Play
with the intonation of your voice. Make your voice crack when you begin to
speak.
Remember you are teaching
little children. Often the silliest humor works charms on them. See
"Fun" above.
Young children can also often be
motivated with treats or rewards. Every teacher must decide for themselves
when the line is crossed between motivation and bribery. Treats can be
stickers, stamps and coins, but also stories, songs, videos, trips outside, and
PE
games.
Greetings/Goodbye
Greetings help to create an English
(western) environment right from the start of class. They also help you to
memorize the children's names and test their mood that day. Be warm and
humorous. If your students answer "Here!" when
you call out their names, pretend you can't hear one student.
Say "goodbye" in some
clear fashion. Use the same
song, game, expression, ect., at the end of every class. This helps to avoid
confusion and gives the students confidence (as they know what to expect). A
fun goodbye also ends the class on a positive note, which leaves the
children wanting to come back next time.
Note: Change the goodbye song, game,
expression, etc., periodically to avoid tedium. Make sure the children are
aware of the change. "Today, are we going to sing Goodbye to you?
No! Today, we are going to say See you next time."
Most teachers like to warm-up their class with a physical
activity. This activity can set the tone and mood for the rest of the class.
It can also give you a sense of where the students are that day. Are they
enthusiastic, or tepid? Are they active or lethargic? Are they in for a
challenge or seem to want the comfort of something familiar?
Songs or chants are always a good way to warm up the class.
TPR helps get a class up and physical while working their minds into
English mode.
Interludes include short activities between longer ones,
and activities to get the energy back after a long session of drills, reading,
etc.
Interludes can include short songs or chants. They may also
include simple guessing games. "What is in my hand?" Or riddles. "What is big and has a
long nose."
Lesson Plans
Don't be lazy! Please, prepare a proper lesson plan for every class. A
proper lesson plan for a children's class includes more activities than you
have time for. Be over prepared in case one or more games don't please the
students that day. Always have several backup activities.
Lesson plans need to have a clear
language target. What sentence pattern are you focusing on? What vocabulary?
What are you going to review? A lesson plan that answers all these questions
clearly is one that provides focus and direction for the teacher. In practical terms it
can mean help in choosing the type of activities you will do. Having a clear
focus also helps to build on previous lessons, and to integrate the
vocabulary and patterns of old lessons into new ones.
Even very experienced teachers
should have a detailed lesson plan. If you think you can do it off the top
of your head, then you're
doing it by ROTE!
Review/Repeat
Always review previously taught material. If you did
body parts last week and are doing animals this week, ask the children about
the animals' body parts. Where is the lion's stomach? How many ears does the
monkey have? If you teach English as though it were a series of independent
themes and sentence patterns then your students will likely retain very
little of what you teach them.
Many of our theme games help to review vocabulary by putting
it into context.
Young children also need more review because they cannot
read or even know where to go for an answer. When they forget a word they
can't go to the dictionary to find it, for example.
Very young children also cannot be
taught grammar rules in a formal way. Even translating segments of English into the native tongue
will not help much. If, for example, you're teaching "this and that"
you must use frequent examples, over many classes, to get children to understand the
difference.
We believe it is better to teach something for 5 minutes a day,
every day, than 5 hours once, one day. If you are teaching the weather, for
example, ask questions every class. "How is the weather today? Is it
sunny now?" And work the weather (or whatever theme) into new lessons.
"What color
is the sky? Is it sunny in winter? It is raining on the farm. Are the horses
sad? Are the ducks sad?"
Be prepared. Your best defense against misbehavior is a
clear, detailed lesson plan. But the best lesson plan won't work if half
your class is absent or the kids are cranky or tired. Have a "back-
up" plan. Carry a list of your favorite games, activities, and stories
so that you can quickly make adjustments if you need to, with no stress to
yourself and no wasted time for the students. Wasted time (you shuffling
through your notes, or bag for an activity) is an open invitation to misbehavior.
Names. Know the names of all your students. Give the kids
name tags if you find this easier. Watch for kids who are starting to
misbehave. Sometimes just saying their name can help bring their attention
back.
Demonstrate. Clearly demonstrate what you want the students
to do. Show the student by doing an action first for them. If you need to
explain something, keep the instructions short and simple. Sometimes when
you are demonstrating you may show what an inappropriate action would be.
Show that such an action will lead to the student being asked to sit down or
leave the classroom.
Co-teacher. Often, with kindergarten or pre-K
classes, you work with an assistant. Don't make the assistant have to cover
for your
sloppy discipline. Don't let the kids run wild and expect the co-teacher to
clean up. Have a sense of what your boundaries are.
Energy. Everyone wants an energetic class but don't think
that students are only having fun if they are crazy. This is probably the
single biggest mistakes made by new ESL/EFL teachers abroad (especially male
teachers). Try to imagine that the children are your own. Would you want them
to be taught that it is alright to run around the classroom whenever they
want to? Or that they can interrupt the teacher or other students? Do you
think it's cute when your nephews or nieces are unruly?
Pacing. Pacing and timing are crucial. While
these are skills
that cannot really be taught (as they are intuitive) there are some points
to consider.
1) Don't allow an activity to burn itself out. Stop it and
proceed to something new before the students grow bored with it.
2) Follow a high energy game with a calming story or worksheet. Follow a
Q&A session with a riddle and reward the correct student with candy or a
sticker.
3) Don't give up on an activity just because the students didn't like it
the first time. If you think it is fun, try again a week or two later. It's
incredible how the same children can have a completely different response to
something
one day to the next. This also applies to popular games they like. If one day
the kids
seem disinterested, then forget about the game for a while.
Rewards. Rewards help to prevent or stop misbehavior. Little
children respond well to stickers, stamps, coins and candy, especially if they can
turn groups of these objects in for bigger rewards like pencils, yo-yo's,
books, etc.
Misbehavior: Handling
Warnings. Prior
to any form of discipline makes sure you have given a clear warning to a
student that you are not satisfied with his or her behavior. One method is
to get the student's attention and then write his or her name on the board.
Another is to change the seating arrangement. Often this alone will alert
the child to their behavior. Be clear in your initial warning but don't make
too big an issue of it.
Understanding. Try to understand
why there is a problem. Children often act up because a cold or the flu is
coming on. Or because they didn't get a good night's sleep. Second language
teaching presents special challenges to the teacher as we cannot often ask
our students directly what is wrong. If we understand where a problem is
coming from we will be in much better position to prescribe a cure.
Assistants. Make the problem child your assistant. This
is a popular and often successful method of dealing with a misbehaving child. It
gives the more talented a new challenge, while the struggling ones gets a boost of confidence. For both kinds of children it may allow
them to participate in class in a non-disruptive way.
Exclusion. Exclude the
misbehaving child from activities.
This is a later (though not last) step to take. Do not let the disruptive
child play games with the class until he or she seems willing to co-operate.
Some teachers have a "time-out" spot in their classroom where
children go to sit when they are being disruptive. Ideally the child should
not sulk in this corner but think about their behavior and allow themselves
time to calm down.
Be consistent. New teachers often
fail to be consistent in their expectations of the class. Too often they
find themselves playing catch up, trying to stop behavior that they let go
for the first few weeks. Decide before you enter a new class what are your
values and limitations. Will you accept an answer if a student has not
raised his hand? Will you allow students to talk to each other while you are
teaching? How must students address you? What will you do if one student
punches another? Or calls another a name? If you don't have a game plan, how do you expect to win,
or even do well?
Alert parents. If a child is
consistently misbehaved, talk to, or ask the school to talk to the parents.
Mothers and fathers can often straighten out their young children much
faster than you can.
Total Physical Response (TPR) was developed by Dr. James
Asher. It is a theory or methodology in which students respond physically to the teacher's
instructions, usually commands. TPR is meant to mimic the natural learning
process of a child. Language learned through TPR is often retained for
longer periods (life being the longest claim made) than that learned through
more traditional methods.
For more information see the following sites. On
the first you will even find Dr. Asher's email address. Note: Children Only ESL-EFL is not
affiliated with these companies in any way.
http://www.tpr-world.com/
http://www.tprstorytelling.com/
Command
Language
Based on TPR (Total Physical
Response) theory, command language can be classroom management language.
Example of command language are: Sit down. Stand up. Open your book. Close
your book. Touch. Come. Walk Run. top. Go back. Clap your hands. Stomp your
feet. Both the teacher and students can practice issuing the command
language.
Command language helps with discipline as the children get used
to obeying commands in English. This is important if you have no local
co-teacher, and no fluency in the native tongue of the students. Command
language, by keeping kids busy and active, also reduces boredom and its
ensuing disciplinary problems.
Shy Children
For those students who are
genuinely too shy or nervous to speak out (especially in the early stages)
encourage them to use non-verbal cues to show they understand. They can
nod their head or just touch the appropriate flashcard or object. With
steady encouragement from the teacher these students can soon become
confident enough to join in with the other students.
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