Teaching Englishthrough songs, stories, videos and games and assessment

Eko NurhariyantoEko NurhariyantoMuhammad Idris IhsaniMuhammad Idris Ihsani

Eneng KomariahEneng Komariah

Teaching English through songs

Songs tend to repetitive and have a strong rhythm. They are easily learnt by primary children and quickly become favourites because of their familiarity. They are fun and motivating for children. They allow language to be reinforced in a natural context, both with structures and vocabulary.

Here are some tips for using and exploiting songs in the

classroom

• Reinforcing grammar points• Teaching vocabulary of a particular

lexical set• Developing listening skills• Singing

Reinforcing grammar points

Some songs lend themselves naturally to teaching or reinforcing grammar points. They may be integrated into lessons with a particular grammar focus and provide much-needed variety, while contributing to the overall aim of a lesson. Particularly at lower levels when children are still learning basic key grammar patterns, songs can play a role as input.

‘Quiet, please!' : http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/quiet-please

‘

Teaching vocabulary of a particular lexical set

Research into child language acquisition has shown that lexical items may need to be repeated many times before they are internalised by the child. Songs provide an excellent means of repeating and reinforcing vocabulary and are suitable for children of all abilities.

Pizza and chips' : http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/pizza-and-chips

Developing listening skills

Longer songs with a wider variety of structures and vocabulary are more suitable for the development of overall listening skills.

‘The ballad of Lisa the lemur’ : http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-ballad-lisa-the-lemur

Singing

Children enjoy singing along and it can really improve motivation. Singing can also improve the pronunciation and intonation patterns of the students, especially younger children. At primary level, vocabulary teaching tends to concentrate on single word items, and songs allow learners to learn ‘chunks’ or meaningful phrases of language rather than single words, as well as to learn about how sounds connect and run together.

‘The alphabet song’ : http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-alphabet-song

Teaching English through story

The educational value of using stories and the technique of storytelling has always been undisputed throughout the world. Now more and more English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers of young learners are using carefully selected stories from the world of children's literature because they have become more familiar with an acquisition-based methodology and because stories comply to the major objectives in most countries for foreign language teaching to young learners: linguistic, psychological, cognitive, social and cultural. EFL teachers use stories to supplement their core materials or to create self-contained units of work that constitute mini-syllabuses. In this way, a story provides the starting point and rich context for developing a wide variety of related language and learning activities involving children personally, creatively and actively in an all round whole curriculum approach (see Ellis and Brewster 1991 and 2002).

Selecting storybooks• stories that have gained an international reputation • stories that contain rich and authentic examples of English • stories that contain cumulative content, rhyme, onomatopoeia,

humour and suspense • stories with high quality and varied illustrative styles and

illustrations Can work with others and learn from others• stories that take place in settings other than western and

urban and address issues• stories that offer a concrete outcome in the form of

dramatization, related songs and rhymes, book-making, making a game, a quiz/competition, poster-design, project work,

Pupil responsesThe educational gains from using authentic children's literature are very rich indeed as reflected by pupils' personal response to the stories. Younger children (5 - 7 year-olds) respond in pictorial form and older pupils complete a more detailed written evaluation focusing on genre, characters, setting, illustrations, what they liked about the story and what they learnt from the story.

Here are some examples in response to the question, What did I learn from the

story?• The Pied Piper: We must keep our promises and not be

greedy.• Tusk Tusk (a story about how elephants became grey and

tolerance): I learnt about tolerance and racism. I learnt to know how to respect others because we can't all be the same. You have to love each other.

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar: I learned the life cycle of the butterfly

• Meerkat in Trouble: We mustn't disobey. You have to be obedient to your parents.

• The Little Red Hen: You must help people.

Teaching English through Videos

'One of the aims of teaching English to young children is to instill in them the idea that language learning is a happy experience, and video creates an attractive enjoyable learning environment.' Tomalin (1991: 48). Children enjoy language learning with video. They love to hear stories again and again and the same goes for video. By watching a video several times children can learn by absorption and imitation for Children gain confidence through repetition

Here are the benefits of using video in the

classroom?• Video communicates meaning better than other media o Video presents language in context in ways that a

cassette can't. Learners can see who's (or what's!) speaking, where the speakers are, what they're doing, etc. All these visual clues can help comprehension

• Video represents a positive exploitation of technology o Children, in particular, have a positive attitude towards

television and video. It is seen as being 'modern' compared to books

Criteria for selecting video

• Watchability• Completeness

• Length• Appropriateness of Content

• Availability of Related Materials• Degree of visual support

• Clarity of picture and sound• Density of language

• Speech delivery• Language content• Language level

• Level of maturity• Video types

Teaching English through Game

'Many experienced textbook and methodology manuals writers have argued that games are not just time-filling activities but have a great educational value. W. R. Lee holds that most language games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms (1979:2).

Why Use Games in Class Time?

•* Games are fun and children like to play them. Through games children experiment, discover, and interact with their environment. (Lewis, 1999)

* Games add variation to a lesson and increase motivation by providing a plausible incentive to use the target language. For many children between four and twelve years old, especially the youngest, language learning will not be the key motivational factor. Games can provide this stimulus. (Lewis, 1999)

* The game context makes the foreign language immediately useful to the children. It brings the target language to life. (Lewis, 1999)

* The game makes the reasons for speaking plausible even to reluctant children. (Lewis, 1999)

* Through playing games, students can learn English the way children learn their mother tongue without being aware they are studying; thus without stress, they can learn a lot.

* Even shy students can participate positively.

When to Use Games'Games are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some

time left at the end of a lesson. Yet, as Lee observes, a game "should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do" (1979:3). Games ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign languages. Rixon suggests that games be used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen.'

'Games also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way. All authors referred to in this article agree that even if games resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate fluency.'

General Benefits of Games

• Affective:• lowers affective filter- encourages creative and spontaneous use of language- promotes communicative competence- Motivates- Fun• Cognitive:• Reinforces• reviews and extends• focuses on grammar communicatively

Class Dynamics:- student centered- teacher acts only as facilitator- builds class cohesion- fosters whole class participation- promotes healthy competition

Adaptability:- easily adjusted for age, level, and interests- utilizes all four skills- requires minimum preparation after development

How to Choose Games (Tyson, 2000)* A game must be more than just fun.* A game should involve "friendly" competition.* A game should keep all of the students involved

and interested.* A game should encourage students to focus on the

use of language rather than on the language itself.* A game should give students a chance to learn,

practice, or review specific language material.

How to Choose Games (Tyson, 2000)* A game must be more than just fun.* A game should involve "friendly" competition.* A game should keep all of the students involved

and interested.* A game should encourage students to focus on the

use of language rather than on the language itself.* A game should give students a chance to learn,

practice, or review specific language material.

Cuisenaire Rods – description (2)

white = 1 cm.

red = 2 cm.

light green = 3 cm.

purple = 4 cm.

yellow = 5 cm.

dark green = 6 cm.

black = 7 cm.

brown = 8 cm.

blue =9 cm.

orange = 10 cm.

Selected lexical areas where CRs can be used:

(1)• colours• numbers• the alphabet• time specification• body parts• family relations• buildings & furniture• animals• food• abilities

Aspects of grammar that can be ‘smuggled’

(2):• personal pronouns• articles• nouns• adjectives• verbs• prepositions• word stress• sequence of words in an English sentence

Letters of the Alphabet

• Encode your rods! (key: t – blue, c – light green, a – black, e – brown, y – yellow, etc.) Lexical area should be established. Team game – make as many words as possible for your opponents!

Numbers• Stairs &

Colourful rugsWhat number is dark green?

• Bingo

Numbers (2)• Hunt the thimble e.g. Find 2 red

rods and 5 white ones.

Hunt the thimble – film (1)

Hunt the thimble – film (2)

Time Specification• Telling the time• Morning routine

Telling the Time - film

Parts of the Body• Monster game (one

rod = one part of the body, e.g. white (1) – an eye, red (2) - a mouth, etc. Each group throws the dice and makes appropriate parts of the body. Then children describe their monsters.

Monster game - film

Main Advantages:C – colourfulU – universal I – imaginative S – solid E – effective N – nice A – appropriate I – indispensable R – ready E – exhilarating

Goodbye!

Methodology• Burwood, S., Dunford, H., Phillips, D. 2002. Projects with

Young Learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press• House, S. 1997. An Introduction to Teaching English to

Children. London: Richmond Publishing• Jaros, I. 2006. Język angielski z klockami Cuisenaire’a.

Kielce: Wydawnictwo Pedagogiczne ZNP• Philips, S. 2001. Young Learners. Oxford: Oxford

University Press• Reilly, V., Ward, S. M. 2002. Very Young Learners.

Oxford: Oxford University Press• Roth, G. 1998. Teaching Very Young Children. London:

Richmond Publishing• Wright, A. 2002. Art and Crafts with Children. Oxford:

OUP