The thesis Teaching vocabulary to young learners deals with the need of a
teacher to know his or her learners and to understand their needs and problems.
MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Teaching vocabulary to young learners
Bachelor work
Brno 2006
Author: Lenka Přibilová
Supervisor: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková
Bibliografický záznam
Lenka Přibilová, Teaching vocabulary to young learners: Bakalářská práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2006, 43 stran a 5 příloh. Vedoucí bakalářské práce: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková
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Anotace Bakalářská práce Výuka slovní zásoby u mladších žáků pojednává o potřebe učitele poznat své žáky a rozumět jejich potřebám a problémům. Dalším bodem, o kterém tato práce pojednává, je otázka motivace a zapojení her a zábavy do výuky. Posledním bodem, kterým se tato práce zaobírá, je využití různých metod a přístupů ve výuce u mladších žáků.
Annotation The thesis Teaching vocabulary to young learners deals with the need of a teacher to know his or her learners and to understand their needs and problems. Other issue mentioned in the thesis is the question of motivation and icluding fun and games into the teaching process. The last issue the thesis deals with is the usage of different methods and approaches for teaching young learners.
Klíčová slova Mladší žák, motivace, slovní zásoba, přístup, metoda, hra, zábava
Key words Young learner, motivation, vocabulary, approach, method, game, fun
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Prohlášení Prohlašuji,
že
jsem
bakalářskou
práci
zpracovala
samostatně
pod vedením Mgr. N. Vojtkové. Dále prohlašuji, že jsem uvedla všechny literární prameny, z nichž jsem čerpala. Souhlasím s uložením práce v archivu Masarykovy univerzity a se zpřístupněním ke studijním účelům. V Brně dne 30. července 2006
Lenka Přibilová
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Acknowledgements I would like to express gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková for her valuable advice and help.
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CONTENT
1.
INTRODUCTION
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2.
THEORETICAL PART
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2. 1.
YOUNG LEARNER-WHO IS A YOUNG LEARNER?
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2. 2.
VOCABULARY
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2. 2. 1.
WHAT IS VOCABULARY?
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2. 2. 2.
HOW ARE WORDS LEARNED?
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2. 2. 3.
WHICH WORDS AND WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT?
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2. 3.
VOCABULARY PRESENTATION
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2. 4.
BE REALISTIC
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2. 4. 1.
CHOOSING ACTIVITIES
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2. 4. 2.
THE ROLE OF FUN AND GAMES IN THE LESSONS
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3.
PRACTICAL PART
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3. 1.
LESSON PLAN # 1
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3. 2.
LESSON PLAN # 2
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3. 3.
LESSON PLAN # 3
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3. 4.
LESSON PLAN # 4
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3. 5.
LESSON PLAN # 5
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3. 6.
LESSON PLAN # 6
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3. 7.
LESSON PLAN # 7
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4.
CONCLUSION
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5.
RESUMÉ
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6.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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7.
APPENDICES APPENDIX I
45 45 6
APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX
II III IV V
47 48 49 50
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1. Introduction “Why? What is it good for ? Is it good for them at all? Do they really need it? Is it not only a useless worry? Why do we have to make them learn something more than what they really need and have to? How much hope shall we place in it? “
These are the most frequent questions I have been thinking about. I have discussed them with many pupils, teachers and parents. Reactions and opininons were, of course, different. I have been teaching English for eleven years now – seven years at a language school here in Brno, the rest at two primary schools also in Brno. I have to admit that at the beginning I doubted about any acquisition for young learners and many arguments seemed cogent to me. During the time I began to realize chances and occasions that English language can offer to children and I started to be a big fan of teaching English to young learners.
I ran against a lot of troubles that I would like to share in my final thesis and also I would like to share some ideas for teaching vocabulary to young learners. At the begining during the discussions with my colleagues we found out that some kind of conception was needed, next we pointed out that there were missing good textbooks or materials, also didactic aids and methodology books. Frequent complain of many teachers is that it is extremely difficult to teach children that seem to lack the basic talent for learning languages. Therefore I would like to refer to the possibilities which teaching a foreign language to young learners brings.
The aim of this work is to show several ways that can be used for teaching vocabulary to young learners. I would like to show why and how teaching vocabulary to young learners can be more efficient.
I divided my thesis into the theoretical and the practical part – the practical part follows the theoretical part. In the theoretical part I will introduce the aim of this thesis, then I will try to describe who is a young learner. In the next chapter I will focus on what is vocabulary and how it is learned and also the ways how vocabulary can be presented..
In the second part of my thesis I would like to present my system of work and also different methods I use while teaching. I will enclose some materials and games that I use in
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my lesssons. In conclusion I will briefly summarize my thesis. After that follows the list of sources - books (used literature) which I used for my thesis and the appendices where I included some materials and exercises with the keys.
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2. Theoretical part 2.1. Young learner - who is a young learner?
A young learner – who is he or she? This term covers a wide age range, this can be anybody from the age of three to the age of eighteen. There is a big difference between what a –three-year-old child can do and what a child of fifteen can do. We should consider their development too. Some children develop faster, others need more time. Teaching young learners requires the knowledge of knowing all the development differences. Understanding these differences can help me as a teacher to develop methods and a system of work that I will use in the process of teaching. Of course, it is not possible to say that every child of six will know this and that. But it is possible to pick out some chracteristics which I as a teacher should know and should be aware of.
I have decided to focus on young learners – age group 7-11. I have chosen this age group because I like working with young learners. From my own personal experience I have to admit that learners at this age are grateful when someone invest time in them. The results are seen quite easily and of course teachers demand this kind of satisfaction. These children still want to learn something new. When they know it, they are happy to present it and they feel more important. I remember a girl - 5th grade - who was able to “communicate” with a native speaker. Her joy was the best reward for me.
It is generally known that the Czech system officially allows children to start learning a foreign language in the 4th grade. In the Czech Republic children have started learning a foreign language in the 4th grade so far. However, according to the new school curricula, which is starting to be adopted from September 2006, the children will start a year earlier and in some schools the foreign language will be introduced from the 1st grade. In the 7th grade they will have to start learning a second foreign language. In my opinion, the sooner they start, the better for them. Their brain and memory is ready for learning and most of them can learn quite well. There have been many disputes and discussions over this. I think these debates will be run over and over because nobody is able to say the exact time for beginning to learn foreign languages. From my personal experience, I achieved quite good results with kindergarten children so I do not see any problems for older learners. I think if very young learners are able to achieve good results, I think the older ones can do it too.
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I would like to point out some characteristics about this age group.
They are happy when they can play. They love to share their experiences, they love when people pay attention to them and their talking. They are able to talk about what they are doing. They use imagination a lot. They can think, argue, discuss and they are able to interact with both children and adults. They are able to concentrate for certain time. They understand situations and through situations – they use several senses. They are able to use language skills not even realizing them. They do not realize what is fact and what is fiction sometimes. They want to learn and are happy when they learn something, then they have to share it with somebody and they are proud that they learnt something, they can show off a little bit. Often they “teach” each other. They love to be praised for what they have done and learnt, this is very important fact to keep their motivation. Very often they pretend they understand everything and they know everything. Halliwell states that: young children are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words already have great skill in using limited language creatively frequently learn indirectly rather than directly take great pleasure in creating fun in what they do their imagination is ready “above all take great delight in talking” (Halliwell, 1992, p 3) I do agree with Halliwell and her observations. My observations are the same as hers. These examples of characteristics I have mentioned above are great hints how to teach young learners and what kind of methods we should use. It is very important to choose the right way of teaching for these little children. The teacher definitely has to be very sensitive to the children´s needs and has to prepare the lessons well.. We should avoid a stereotype, the 11
lessons have to be creative and lively. Otherwise this could have really bad consequences for the learners´ further improvement in the language.
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2. 2. Vocabulary 2. 2. 1. What is vocabulary?
“Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language. However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than just a single word: for example, post office, and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary „items“ rather than „words“. (Ur, 2003, p 60)
All languages consist of words. Languages emerge first as words, both historically, and in terms of the way each of us learned our first and any subsequent languages. Moreover, vocabulary is still widening. Even in our native language we are continually learning new words and meanings of old words. For example, Czech word pošta. This used to mean just the post office or simple letters but nowadays it also means emails. Some words can be entirely new to us. We come across completely new words that are made up according to new technologies and according to the needs of real life. For example, a verb to google is used frequently a lot. Learners of a second language experience something similar. Thornbury states that they can be confronted by words that are totally unfamiliar, or being used in ways that for them are novel and possibly obscure. To find the right word to fit the meaning can be very frustrating, especially if the store of words is limited.
To summarize this, the learner while learning the vocabulary of a second language can come across several challenges: “making the correct connections, when understanding the second language, between the form and meaning of words when producing language, using the correct form of a word for the meaning intended ( i.e. nose not noise)
To meet these challenges the learner needs to: acquire a critical mass of words for use in both understanding and producing the language remember words over time, be able to recall them readily
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develop strategies for coping with gaps in word knowledge, including coping with unknown words, or unfamiliar uses of known words have to take responsibility themselves for vocabulary expansion” (Thornbury, 2002, p 31)
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2. 2. 2. How are words learned? “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” David Wilkins, linguist
To know a word is one thing but we have to pause on the fact how this knowledge is acquired. Thinking about little children who learn to speak, then they always start with words used for labelling, so that the concept, for example, of a cat has a name cat. But of course not every animal is a cat. The child needs to learn how far to extend the concept of a cat. “In other words, acquiring a vocabulary requires not only labelling but also categorising skills.” (Thornbury, 2002, p 18) The child has to realise that these common words like cat can be replaced by superordinate terms like animals. And to this category also belongs other animals, not just cats. Thornbury states that the children have to develop some kind of network building – constructing some complex idea. Than during this process they will realise there also exist words like synonyms, homonyms etc.
There are many different methods and approaches how to teach a foreign language, including vocabulary. I will mention just some of them that can be used for teaching young learners.
To help the learners understand it is important to visualize the item and get the pupils to repeat or use the item actively. One good way of doing this is to let them see or perhaps touch the vocabulary item, for instance a house. We need to let them repeat it in different ways and they should be given a chance to listen to the teacher talking about it. A little bit of shocking method is the direct method or the direct approach. The mother tongue is never used, there are no translations. Only target language is used in the calssrooms and only complete sentences are used. Culture is considered an important aspect. Suggestopedia is a very successful method in helping learners to memorize words. This method stimulates the learner´s brain by music while learning but nowadays teachers seem to be leaving this method. What really works especially for young learners is the Total Physical Response method - TPR. Very many children are nowadays very hyper and physically active
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and to concentrate for a long time can be very difficult for them. Using this method, games, changing topics and using a variety of activities is very appreeciated by them. This method is used a lot by teachers. Communicative Language Approach (Teaching) – CLT – stresses the meaning of a language in context. Communicative competence is highly developed here and learners are encouraged to communicate.
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2. 2. 3. Which words and what should be taught?
The significant point in teaching vocabulary is the selection of words we as teachers want to teach. It is quite easy to teach concrete words at lower level and then become more abstract. Thus, we need to consider the frequency too. There is a choice for us, we can decide which words to teach on the basis of frequency, how often the words are used by the speaker of the language. Especially with young learners words that they are familiar with and they can stick to them should be taught. Very often words are taught according to themes and topics. Nowadays all the course books are organised into themes and they provide vocabulary according to it. If there is a theme “Animals”, then we can expect words like naming animals, also where they live, what they eat etc. Words that have quite specific meaning should be avoided with young learners.
Ur states the learners need to be taught the form of the word, then grammar, collocations, meaning and word formation. In the form pronunciation and spelling should be mentioned. “The learner has to know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling).” (Ur, 1996, p 60) The grammar of a new item also needs to be taught. Again, depending what level the learners are they should be taught to follow some grammatical rules. For example when teaching nouns, we would like to present their plural forms, also regular and irregular
( girl-girls,
mouse-mice). When teaching verbs, maybe we would like to present their past forms, especially if the verb is irregular (forget-forgot). Collocations – I do not think these are important for young learners. “The meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real world, its denotation”. (Ur, 1996, p 61) In my opinion it is important to inform learners about the meaning of the word as well as their form and grammar. Learners find this sometimes very difficult and discouraging because some words do not have just one meaning. Context helps them to find the right meaning. Thus, it is good when the learners know the synonyms (smart – intelligent) or antonyms (rich – poor). We can relate items together – for example words like “a school, a teacher, a blackboard and a break” are all associated with education. Word formation – using prefixes and suffixes, using hyphenated words etc. is too difficult for young learners.
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To summarize this, firstly I think that knowing the word and understanding its meaning go hand in hand. Secondly, it is easier to remember concrete words like a chair or a dog than abstract words. Young learners often put words together with what they can see, hear or with whar they can touch. But as said above they also need to know other aspects of the words they learn. In my opinion, it is important to teach them all these aspects. Of course, we will not teach them, for example the irregular plural form right away, but they need to know it. I think that if we keep repeating the plural form “mice”, after some time most of them will not say “mouses”.
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2. 3. Vocabulary presentation
“By presentation we mean those pre-planned lesson stages in which learners are taught pre-selected vocabulary items.” (Thornbury, 2002, p 75)
Firstly, we should consider how many words should be presented during the lesson. This is closely connected with several factors: the level of the pupils – beginners, intermediate etc. their familiarity with the words – have they come across these words or are they completely new? words difficulty – are the words abstract, are they easily pronounced, can we find similar words in the learner´s native language etc.? can the words be easily demonstrated ? shall we use realia or anything that the pupils can become familiar with? can pictures be used to elicit vocabulary? After the teacher chooses what items to teach, he or she should follow certain guidelines. In my opinion, this includes teaching the vocabulary "in spoken form first" to prevent students from pronouncing the words in the form they are written, placing the new items in context, and revising them.
A number of techniques can be adopted to present new vocabulary items. Some techniques are more popular and more often used than others. Also it is up to the teacher which techniques he or she decides to use but always the effectiveness of teaching should be considered. I think every teacher tends to use and prefers some technique that he or she finds interesting. And of course there are techniques that we as teachers try to avoid. There are techniques that are particularly appropriate for certain types of words – for example actions can be explained through pantomime. Another factor that is worth considering is the age of the learners. Younger ones react quite well when we show them concrete illustrations, the older ones can manage pretty well abstract explanations or even definitions. The presentation of new vocabulary can be classified for example according to verbal and visual techniques. Among visual techniques we can find pictures - flashcards, photographs and magazine pictures, wall charts, posters, blackboard drawings, word pictures, several realia
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that teachers can hold up or point to. Mime, action and gestures can be used especially for explaining actions and times. Learners can label pictures or objects or perform an action. Verbal techniques consist of using illustrative situations, descriptions, synonyms and antonyms, collocations, scales, and using various forms of definition: for example, definition by demonstration (visual definition), definition by abstraction, contextual definitions, and definition by translation. Explanation can become extremely difficult especially with beginner levels. Another way that can be used is translation. This technique is not used much recently, even though it is quick and easy but can be very discouraging for learners. They cannot interact with the words. Words can be organised into sets, subclasses and subcategories often aided by visual presentation. Translation is one of the traditional ways of explaining the meaning of words. It could be done by the teacher or with using a dictionary. It has its advantages but also disadvantages. Using this technique, learners can learn how to use dictionaries. Most of the young learners have never used a dictionary before so it is a need to teach them to use dicitonaries first. They have to be told there are two parts – English-Czech and CzechEnglish. Then they have to be told about the alphabetical order and about other things they can find there. In my opinion it is good to use both picture dictionaries and classical dictionaries where they find the meaning with young learners. Teachers can prepare quite interesting lesson where the learners learn how to use dictionaries.
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2. 4. Be realistic Nowadays, teachers can come across many language teaching ideas and techinques. There are many of them in circulation that it is quite easy to get carried away. We draw pictures, cut paper into small pieces, draw flashcards, make crosswords etc. and we do it even at midnight. We want to be flexible, creative, sensible, we want to praise the children as much as possible but on the other hand we want to be realistic and, very honestly, our expectations are sometimes very high. And we hope it will be worthwile. But sometimes something goes wrong. Language classrooms are noisy, there are at least fifteen pupils – usually even more. The classes with high number of students put exceptional demands on teacher`s preparation for the lesson and there is obviously a requirement of larger classrooms too. Quite often the children are not “angels”. We encourage them to interact, be active, creative, independent. This of course leads to the fact the children will become silly and they will really enjoy it. There are teachers who would never do such activities again. And their lessons then turn to be boring. “We need to be realistic in our expectations of ourselves and the learners. ... It does not mean, for example, we should reject the idea of pairwork because our clasess are big, or not very able, or poorly motivated. On the contrary, being realistic should mean taking realities into account in such a way that good things can still happen.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 19) After every lesson we should ask ourselves whether the lesson was productive or unproductive and we should go back to our objectives and aims. We should evaluate the lesson ourselves. Or if we have an observer in the lesson, we should discuss it with him/her.
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2. 4. 1. Choosing activities
It is up to the teacher mostly to choose the right activity. This is not easy and teachers should spend really quality time to think about this. It needs to be considered well. Some language activities can stir a class. Thinking about the positive way of the word “stir”, it means these activities will wake up the class, warm them up. Of course, there are activities that have the opposite effect. They may seem to settle the pupils. Before the lesson is planned, there should be considered what kind of activities should be choosen knowing the effect of them. Activities that can stir the class are, for example, oral work, games, competitions. Another aspect we should think about are activities which engage children´s minds and which keep them physically occupied.
We should not forget context developing activities. “If we are to help the learners acquire independent second language lexicons, we need to highlight the importance of the context in which the language naturally occurs. Once the idea of context playing a decisive role in the choice of language is firmly established, we can begin to introduce varieties of the language used in different contexts. Many coursebooks provide learners with plenty of opportunities to develop their own context for the language presented, for example activities like “odd one out, filling-in exercises, dialogues” etc”. [1]
Another factor that teachers should bear in their minds is to keep the lessons simple. We often try to make our lessons varied. This is good but can lead to misunderstanding. The lesson can be varied by doing lots of activities on different topics. But this can mean we may produce a lesson which is a disaster, too many activities and changing the activities all the time can destroy the lesson well. The children´s minds have to jump from one topic to another with not much time to let things sink in effectively. We should realise some important things.
“We will not help the children to develop their capacity to concentrate if we jump inconsequentially from one topic to the next.
There are ways of varying the oral work so that it is making different demands on the children and therefore feels different even when the topic remains the same.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 27)
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Variation does not only mean changing the topics and materials but also the change of work we do. Variation comes in the forms of activity as Halliwell states. Using different methods and ways of teaching should become a regular part of our lessons. We can reuse materials all the time, we can come up with new things but always the activities should be simple in principle. Then they can transfer to different topics and situations. “Because you use them regularly you will quickly get to know the best way to set them up with your classes. Because the classes know them, they will take to them easily when they appear.... They can become truly the core of your language teaching.” (Halliwell,1992, p 38 )
[1] http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/vocabulary/context_developing.shtml
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2. 4. 2. The role of fun and games in the lessons
“By ´fun and games´ I mean all those activities that we loosely think of as involving play and enjoyment. Singing, clapping hands, chanting rhymes, solving puzzles, drawing, colouring, model-making, games.” (Rixon, 1995, p 33)
It is evident that young learners learn through play much easier and they enjoy it more. This is quite a natural way for them to learn. They play and love to play. In playing together we can see elements of interaction and during interacting the learners develop language skills. Learning can be absorbed really well. Quite often the learners do not realize they are learning. Fun and games should have an important role in the children´s education. The language learnt by heart can often be a part of the activities. For example, commands for the games can be remembered quite easily. Many games can be looked at as drill exercises but they have an added fun and competition element. For example, a game that works like this is well-known game “Simon says”. What is a game? “A game is played when one or moreplayers compete or co-operate for playoffs according to a set of rules.” (Jones, 1986) (Jones in Teaching English to Children) “A true game is one that frees the spirit. It allows of no cares but those fictitious ones engendered by the game itself...” (Opie, I. And J., 1969) (Opie, I and J. in Teaching English to Chidren) Games are activities with rules and goals. Khan states that the achievement of these goals signals the end of the game. Children are very often concerned with controlling whether everybody follows the rules and whether they are not broken. Piaget (1967) (Piaget in Teaching English to Children) saw chidlren´s games as, ´the most admirable social institutions´. (Khan, 1995, p 143) It is obvious that the games need to be motivating. “ For young learners, motivation deriving from the factors outside the classroom, such as parental and social attitudes, is likely to be weaker than that created by events in the classroom itself. Children need to be involved and even excited in order to learn effectively.” (Khan,1995) Games may focus on oral or written part of the language, they offer a vast selection of activities. Language can also be picked as a result of an enjoyable activity. “Telling stories to students can result in natural language acquisition on their part.” (Rixon, 1995, p 37) Teachers can tell stories the learners are familiar with in their own language. Then the learners are able to follow it better. Again, the stories need to be picked carefully, the level of the learners need to be considered and the teacher has to investigate time into preparation. Teachers can come up 24
with a simple version of the story. Appreciated story can be The Story of the Big Enormous Turnip. Several activities can allow and involve more creative use of the language. New sentences and activities can be produced by the children themselves. Songs are most grateful way for this. The learners can make up new verses, then they can be extended. Example - a song “This is the way, I ...” or “If you are happy and you know it...”.
As said above games and fun are important parts of the lesson. A play is in the essential nature of the child. There are many possibilities for adapting games we can find. The teachers should not forget the values of games and fun activities in the lessons. All this can be applied to teaching vocabulary too. Teachers can “play” with vocabulary while teaching it. It is very appreciated by the learners.
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3. Practical part In my final thesis I have decided to focus on teaching English vocabulary to young learners - age group 7-11. I would like to enclose several lesson plans and also reflect on some observations from the theoretical part. I tried out all the activities described here during my teacher´s career.
It is evident that some learners have been learning the English language for several years, some have just started. Most of the classes use the course book Cambridge English for Schools by A. Littlejohn and D. Hicks. The younger ones do not use any course books, we work with handouts that they get from me and place them into a folder. These handouts are given to them so that their parents know what we learned in the lesson and can practice during the week. The activities have been piloted in at least 10 classes, most of them consisted of 10 - 15 pupils at the age of 5 – 11. Most of the pupils only started with learning English in the 4th grade, some started in the kindergarten.
All the activities reflect the level of the learners, their age and their abilities. I always have to consider that in each class there are more children and some with learning disabilities. I try to use English in the classes as much as possible and I want their reactions in English too, of course if possible. I have to admit that it is a lot of fun to teach these children, they do not have almost any troubles with motivation and as I have said in the theoretical part, they still want to learn.
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3. 1. Lesson plan # 1 Topic = My family Aims: - to get to know the learners´ families, the learners know them well so I suppose they will be very active and will want to share - the learners get to know my family - to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know - after the lesson the learners will know at least 5 new words Aids: - pictures and photos, a family poster, pieces of paper, a story book, colour pencils, handouts Assumptions: - learners know each other and their families - they are ready to share and are ready to play
1. Talking about families: Today we are going to talk about families. Do you live in a family? Who belongs to your family? Do you have any brothers or sisters? What is your brother´s / sister´s name? How often do you see your grandmother and grandfather?... Ok, now I will talk about my family. (On the black board there is a family poster all the time, so that I can point to it anytime. While talking, I use pictures of my family and point to the right person and repeat who he/she is. For example, “this is my daughter Kristyna”. I repeat the word “daughter”. And so on.) 2. Working with their pictures: (The learners were supposed to bring to the class pictures of their family members. I have to count on the fact, they forgot, so I distribute either my pictures or pictures from magazines.) Now, it is your time to show me who is who. Is this your mother? Is this your sister? Is this your grandfather? After some time we will play a game. Now, we are going to play a game and the winner gets a reward! I will say a sentence, for example:” Show me your mother!” And you have to show me your mother´s picture. After each sentence I make the learners say whose picture they are showing me. So I ask. Who is this? Your... mother, father, sister etc. 3. Reading and colouring: I distribute the handouts (Appendix I) that I have prepared for them and the colour pencils and the learners will colour the people. While doing this I read a story about a family from a book. At the end we sum up the lesson and I tell them that next lesson we will play a family pexeso. Before they leave the classroom, they all have to tell me a “password” to leave. I stand behind the door and as they leave I ask them for example for the word “maminka”. They have to say “mother” and can leave.
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Evaluation: This lesson is designed for 1st grade learners or even kindergarten children. In this lesson I decided to use one of the visual methods that I talked about in the theoretical part. Learners have a chance to hear and see. In this lesson I decided to use the TPR method too, the children can come to black board and point to the right person on the poster. I let them jump while showing me their family members, they put their hands above their heads etc. This lesson can be varied in many ways, again according to the age and level of the learners and also depending on the fact how long the lesson is – 40, 45 or 60 minutes. But as I have said in the theoretical part, too much variety can spoil the lesson so this is very important factor that should be considered. What needs to be said here is that during this activity the children are able to learn a phrase “This is my mother/father etc.” Because this phrase is repeated in the lesson many times, the children are able to remember it without any explanation and real “learning”. It is very natural for them to learn this phrase.
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3. 2. Lesson plan # 2 Topic = Colours Aims: - to get to know the learners´ favourite colours, to get to know how they feel about colours - the learners get to know the names of the colours - to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know - after the lesson the learners will know at least 7 new words including the word rainbow Aids: - pictures, a colour poster, pieces of paper, a story book, colour pencils, picture of rainbow, colour chalk Assumptions: - learners probably already know the colours - they are ready to play - colour dictation should be easy and fun for them
1. Talking about colours: I will say several words and you tell me what I am speaking about. We will do it as a game called “silent post”. The very first person who knows will tell me and then we will send it to others and the last person says that outloud. Ok, listen up! Black, white, green, blue... Well done! Now you know we will talk about colours today. Do you any colours? Which one is your favourite? What does black mena for you? How do you feel about yellow? What does it evoke?I will tell you a story about rainbow... (While we are talking, I put the poster on the wall. Every time I call out some colour, I take a colour chalk and draw a big circle on the board. I also point out to the right colour on the poster.) 2. Working with “colours”: Let´s take your exercise books now and you can see what I draw on the board. I want you to do the same. But to each colour you will write down the name. You need to be careful about the spelling!... Now when you have finished, I will pick up different colour pencils and you can shout out the name of the colour. Let´s start now... (After each shout I repeat the colour after them so that they have a chance to hear the pronunciation well.) Well done, now we will write a “dictation”. I know you do not like dictations but this one is going to be different. I say:´Vezmi si yellow a nakresli sun. Potom si vezmi black a nakresli three birds.´Well, are you ready?I do not want you to shout or look to your friend´s paper. Let´s start now... 3. Finishing up the topic: (After the learners finished their drawings, they swap the drawings with their partners and we check it together. Usually they do really well and are happy they were succesfull with their “dictation”.) Well, now exchange your drawings with your partner and let´s check it... Well done, children! Now you know the English names for colours. Since we stil lhave time left, I have a special reward for you. We will play a game. You can see this classroom is full of colours. I willshout out a name of the colour and you must run to touch this colour. You can touch a chair, a blackboard, your friend´s trousers, anything. So, are you ready? Let´s start... After some minutes the learners get back to their seats and we repeat all the colours once more.
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Evaluation: This lesson is designed for 3rd or 4th grade learners. I have to count on the fact most of the learners already know the colours from previous classes. Therefore this lesson cannot be boring so that even these children would be able to be active.Again, in this lesson I used one of the visual methods and also TPR. The learners can hear, see and touch and later they can run in the classrooms. I think using TPR is very productive and learners can learn and remember it better. I have to be careful because the learners try to write down the names of the colours. After they have finished that, I usually check the spelling in their exercise books. This topic is quite easy and children have a lot of fun with this. This lesson can be varied in many ways again, as I have mentioned in lesson plan # 1.
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4. 3. Lesson plan # 3 Topic = Adjectives, Verbs Aims: - the learners get to know the the basic verbs and adjectives - to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know - after the lesson the learners will know at least 8 new words Aids: - colour pencils, handouts Assumptions: - learners know some basic commands - they are ready to play - they want to express their feelings
1. Revision of some basic commands and adjectives: Well, today we are going to practice some verbs and adjectives. What are verbs and adjectives? Can you tell me an example? Is the word ´sit´a verb? Is theword ˇhappy´an adjective? So, now I will say some basic commands and you will do what I say. Are you reday? Stand up! Sit down! Close your books!...Smile! Be happy! Be sad!... (This activity can last as long as the learners are not bored. The teacher also needs to know how many words the learners know.) 2. Learning new vocabulary: I want to teach the learners new vocabulary, for example, I am asleep, I am bored, I am blind, I am deaf, I am drinking, I ma dancing, I am writing etc. While explaining all these actions, I am showing them the motions. Together we repeat the words and do the actions. Then we will play a game. Now, it is time for a game. We will play the game “Simon says.” Does anybody know this game? I will explain the rules to you. I will say Simon says Stand up! and you will stand up. Simon says Sit down! and you will sit down. BUT if I don’t say Simon says you mustn’t do anything. If you do, you’ll get a point. A pupil with the less points is the winner. (As I was explaining the rules, I was doing what I was saying. I always start with the easier and already known ones, then I go on with the newer ones.) Now I need a volunteer who will say the sentence instead of me, you can be the teacher now. Of course during this acitvity we will practice the adjectives too.
Evaluation: This activity is designed for 4th grade. I decided to show another way of teaching vocabulary to young learners - using gestures, mimes and actions. For this activity I decided to choose the well-known commands as a warm-up, it can be used as a revision of what the learners have already known. I always use the English language for explaining the actions and adjectives because the motion help the children to understand. At the end of the lesson I always check whether they undrestand all the practised commands and adjectives. The game
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Simon says practises the language in reality. Very important aspect of this game is discipline. The learners need to pay attention to what I say. The learners are very competitive and active because everybody wants to be the winner. Very often I play this game in groups where more children can practise the phrase Simon says. When I get feedback from the children, they usually tell me they like it more when they can give the commands. This activity can be used as a warm-up or we can fill in some part of the lesson if minutes are left.
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3. 4. Lesson plan # 4 Topic = Animals Aims: - to get to know the basic animals in English - to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know - after the lesson the learners will know at least 5 new words Aids: - pictures, an animal poster, colour pencils, handouts, a tape recorder Assumptions: - learners like animals - learners will probably know some English names of animals - they are ready to share and lsiten
1. Talking about animals, brainstorming: Well, children, I will start up the lesson in a little bit different way than usually. I will write something on the blackboard and you have to find out a hidden word in it. You cannot talk, the winner gets a price! If you think you know, just put your hand above your head. WHAT SONG P ICTURE MOTHER CARD LOVE CH R I S T M A S In these words you can find 1 word, the topic of today´s lesson... Well done! The word is ANIMALS! And the winner is Honza? Here is your price! What is it? Yes, it is a toy dog. So as you can see, we are going to talk about animals today. What animals do you know? What is your favourite animal? Have you ever been to the zoo? Do you like big animals? Areyou scared of any? Do you know any exotic animals? Do you have an animal at home?… (During this talking I write down on the blackboard all the animals the learners name and distribute pictures of animals among the children. I get ready the tape recorder.) 2. Listening: Now, we will listen to a tape recorder. You are going to hear several sounds of animals and I want you to write their names on a piece of paper. You will hear 5 sounds and I think you will know all of them. To make it easier I distributed a set of pictures among you and you will hear all these animals. So, you can just write down number to each picture. Do you understand? ( The learners are ready to listen now.) Well done, you are very good! Now we will listen again but this time you do not have the pictures. You
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must guess which animals you hear. (This is a little bit more difficult but the sounds are of well-known animals so the chidlren will not have any troubles with it.) 3. Project: Now, imagine you are going to take a friend of yours to the zoo soon and you want to give him/her a tour. So you need to know some animals and also something about them. So now, make groups of 4 and each group has to prepare a poster. You can either draw or glue animals, you can write about them – what they eat, where they live, anything you like. If you need help, you can either ask me or, because you can work with dictionaries, you can use them. (Usually the learners want to be creative and work on their own, they do not need my help. Also usually this activity takes longer time, so I let them work in the next lesson too.
Evaluation: This lesson is designed for 3rd or 4th grade. Right at the beginning of the lesson the learners have a chance to brainstorm. Again, everybody is included, each child can talk and I pay attetnion to this. If somebody remains quiet, I ask questions – Honzo, do you know any animals?, Jano, what is your favourite animal? etc. Through brainstorming, the learners usually remember at least 1 new word. Then they have to guess the hidden word, which is not as easy for them. Of course, if nobody is able to guess this word, I help them. This is very active time, therefore after this activity I need to calm them down and we listen to the sounds of animals. All the sounds are of known animals, so the children do not usually have any troubles with this. Then I let them be creative and let them work on the project. I do not tell them which animals they have to choose or what exactly needs to be written there or how exactly it has to be done. I usually have examples with me in the lesson, so I can show them so that they get ideas. This lesson can be varied in many ways and can be done with younger learners too. Probably the hidden word would be too difficult for them, so the teacher would have to come up with a different activity. The topic is also very grateful and from my personal experience the children always have a lot of fun with it.
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3. 5. Lesson plan # 5 Topic = Fruit Aims: - to teach and practise using dicitonaries - to find out the odd words - to revise some basic terminology - after the lesson the learners will know 5 new words
Aids: - various kinds of dicitonaries, handouts, flashcards Assumptions: - learners know the alphabet so this should not be that difficult - but even this fact the learners need their time to get used to working with the dictionaries
1. Introducing dictionaries: This mornig as I was getting ready for your lesson I realised I would need helpers. So thank you for coming and helping me to bring the dictionaries. So, distribute these dictionaries, one into each desk. Thses books are called dictionaries. If you open them, you can see there are two parts, English-Czech and Czech-English. So if you do not understand some word, you can find it here. It is orgaized according to the alphabetwhich you already know. Let´s quickly revise the aplhabet. Each child says one letter from the aplhabet...Well done! At the end of the lesson we can sing the alpabet song if you want to. 2. Working with the dictionaries: Now it is time to start “working” with the dicitonaries. I will say an English word and you can find the Czech equivalent in the dicitonary. If I say an English word, which part will you be looking in?Yes, the English one. So the word is a lemon. If you find id, put your hands above. I will go on like this for a while. I need to be sure they are familier with working with the dictionaries. 3. Practise: I usually ask the children to find out three vocabulary items to practise the finding. Now check these three items - “apple, pear, window”. Which one is the odd one? Yes, the window is the odd one. If their answer is right, I distribute the handouts (Appendix II) and the learners work on the handout. Now, I will give you the handouts and you have to work on them. You can work in pairs and you must circle the odd ones. Do you understand it? Well, you can start working... At the end we check the exercixe together. As homework they have to prepare similar exercise.
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Evaluation:
I talk about using dictionaries as a way for teaching vocabulary in the theoretical part. I said that it is very traditional and maybe an old way but I wanted to show that translation can be used and sometimes should not be avoided.This activity is designed for learners in the 4th grade. This is probably their first time using and working with dictionaries. I have to admit that when I first taught this topic and was teaching how to use dicitonaries, I did not manage to do everything that I planned for the lesson. Now I have to make sure that children know the alphabet really well. Every time there is a child who has troubles with it but it is normal. From my own personal experience I have to say that children usually like working with dictionaries and like the exercises. But it cannot be long because the learners easily get bored with it.
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3. 6. Lesson plan # 6 Topic = The Weather Aims: - to understand the text about weather - to find out the odd words - to revise some basic terminology - after the lesson the learners will know 5 new words Aids: - reading texts, flashcards, a poem Assumptions: - learners already know some weather terminology - the learners usually are not as willing to talk so I have to ask right and direct questions
1. Talking about weather: Good morning, children! ( I look very tired and I am not happy. I assume the children will ask me what is wrong with me. If not, I have to say it myself.) I am not happy today, I am tired and I would like to be at home in my bed with a hot cup of tea and my favourite book. This is all because of the weather. Do you like this kind of weather? What do you like to do in this kind of weather? What is your favourite season? Why? Do you prefer hot weather to cold weather? etc. 2. Reading: Now, we will read a short text about the weather and then we will talk about it. You will have to answer some questions too. I wil lwrite the questions on the blackboard. (Appendix III) I distribute the texts and I read first. The children just listen. After that, each child reads a line. We talk about the text and after that they answer the questions all by themselves. 3. Poem: (Appendix IV) Well, because you have been working hard, now it is time to learn a short poem. I will write it on the blackboard. When this is done, we start learning the poem. The learners can see the whole poem on the blackboard, I read it outloud and then we read it together. Every time we read it, I erase 1 word, so that the children would have to memorize it. 4. Odd one out: (Appendix V) Thank you very much for your work today and so that you can practise these new words at home, I have to give you a homework. You all know this type of exercise, so all you have to do is to find the odd word out. This won´t take you long. So, enjoy it and see you next lesson. Bye bye!
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Evaluation: This activity is designed for 5th grade. In the theoretical part I talk about CLT as a way of teaching vocabulary to young learners. This lesson makes use of it. This lesson is done completely in English and the communicative competence is highly encouraged and used here. I have to admit this is not easy but I as a teacher have to adjust my vocabulary and talking to the learners´ level. I have to be really well prepared for this lesson. The lesson does not have to seem interesting to the learners at first but later they start to like it. Working with a text is important for them, looking for information is another way to learn the language. At the end they memorize the poem by heart and I have to confess that 99% of the class always remember the poem. Usually next lesson I go on in this topic, I work with the learned vocabulary and I build on it.
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3. 7. Lesson plan # 7 Topic = A Story telling Aims: - to come up with a story focusing on prepositions - to revise some basic prepositions Aids: - none Assumptions: - learners already know some prepositions - to come up with own story is not always easy
1. The brainstorming: Today, I decided we will not learn anything new and we will have kind of relaxing lesson. Are you happy? But don´t worry, we will have regular English lesson. I heardthat in the lessons of Czech language you are talking about prepositions, right? Can you tell me any examples of Czech prepositions? …Well done! And now, the English equivalents. Tell me some English prepositions! …Well done again! Since you know the English prepositions, let´s use them in reality. ( I tell the learners we will come up with a story. I tell them they have to focus on the prepositions and each of them has to say a sentence.) 2. The story time: So, are you ready? Do you still think it is difficult? Ok, I will start so that you have some more time to think. Don´t forget it has to be a story and not just several sentences put together. It has to make sense. So, I will start now. Once upon a time, I met a man IN a town. Now it is your turn! (Now each child has to say a sentence and we go on as long as needed. If they come up with the story after the first round, then we finish and I usually let them mime it or do the actions. If not, we go on.) 3. Revision: Well, did you learn anything new today? You could see that we can have fun and play with prepositions in English too. Maybe, you can suggest this kind of activity to your Czech language teacher. I bet she will like it. And it is not just prepositions you can use in a story, maybe you can use nouns, numerals etc. It is only up to you. Maybe next time we could try adjectives.
Evaluation: This activity is designed for 5th grade but can be adopted for any grade, only the level and age of the learners have to be considered. As you can see, another way of using CLT in the lesson. The only time the learners are allowed to speak Czech is when I ask them about the Czech prepositions. Then it is only English and again the communicative competence is encouraged here. I usually do not correct grammar mistakes, I only focus on the prepositions. All the children are curious about the story so they pay attetnion to it. Discipline is not usually
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a problem even though it is always just 1 person speaking. If they are allowed to act it out later, they are even happier. I have really good experience with this kind of activity eventhough when I started to teach it was hard for me. I tried it usually with older learners and there was a problem with discipline and the learners tried to use words they are not allowed to use in the classes.
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4. Conclusion In my final thesis, as the title prompts, I deal with the subject of teaching vocabulary to young learners. When teaching young learners, the teacher has to be strong at the knowledge but also needs to connect with the children. They need to feel the teacher likes them and wants to teach them something new. As said in the theoretical part, the results are seen easily and the learners at this age are very grateful when someone invest time in them. The teacher has to know his or her pupils. It is important to understand their needs, their expectations with which each child comes to the lessons, also ways how to motivate them and last but not least their learning style. All this the teacher is learning while working with the learners. The teachers get to know their families, their hobbies and interests and just basic information about the learners. Also, especially nowadays, we as teachers have to consider the learning disabilities too. There are more and more chidlren with these problems and we as teachers need to help them to enjoy the lessons and help them to learn too. The teacher needs to understand their differences, their cultural and family background etc. In the Theoretical Part I have mentioned some characteristics of young learners. I wanted to show that working with them offers many possibilities and we can use many methods and approaches. During my teacher´s training I have learned that it is important to learn about their personalities and also to get to know them. Every learner is different and we need to view each person individually. I also talk about vocabulary – what it is, how it can be taught, which words should be taught and ways that vocabulary can be presented. In the Practical Part, there are several lesson plans. From the theory, I tried to show how some methods and approaches can be used in the lessons while teaching young learners. I also tried to show that variety is important because young learners get bored if they do the same activities in the same way all the time. The Practical Part proved what I mentioned in the theory. I have to admit that in practice I tried out all the lesson plans and it worked well. Sometimes, some activity took longer time so the learners were assigned a homework. The focus of this thesis is the personality of young learners and teaching vocabulary to them. Testing and assessment will be the theme of my next future research.
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5. Resumé Understanding the personality of a young learner plays an important role in effective teaching. One of the subjects of this thesis is to show the characteristics of a young learner. Another subject of this thesis is the vocabulary itself – how it can be presented, taught, also what should be taught. There are mentioned some methods and approaches that can be used in the lessons. In the Practical Part, several lesson plans are presented. These lesson plans focus on using different methods while teaching vocabulary to young learners. Every activity mentioned in the lesson plans was tried out during my teacher´s profession.
Resumé Poznání osobnosti mladšího žáka hraje důležitou roli při efektivní výuce. Jedním z předmětů této bakalářské práce je ukázat charakteristiku mladšího žáka. Dalším předmětem této práce je slovní zásoba – jak může být prezentována, vyučována a také co by se vlastně mělo vyučovat. Jsou zde zmíněny i metody a přístupy, které mohou být v hodinách využívány. V praktické části jsou prezentovány přípravy na hodiny. Tyto přípravy jsou zaměřeny na využití různých výukových metod vhodných k výuce slovní zásoby u mladších žáků. Každá aktivity zmíněná v přípravě byla vyzkoušena během mé učitelské praxe.
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Bibliography
1. BRUMFIT, Christopher; MOON, Jayne; TONGUE, Ray: Teaching English to Children. From Practice to Principle. Longman Group Essex, 1995. 309 s. ISBN0-17-556889-8. 2. DOFF, Adrian. Teach English: A training course for teachers. Cambridge University Press, 1988. 345 s. ISBN 0- 18-34232-9. 3. HALLIWELL, Susan: Teaching English in the Primary Classrooms. UK: Longman Group Essex, 1992. 169 s. ISBN-0-582-07109-7. 4. HARMER, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. UK: Longman, 2005, 370 s. ISBN 0-582-40385-5. 5. KHAN, Julia: Using games in teaching English to young learners. In: BRUMFIT, Christopher; MOON, Jayne; TONGUE, Ray (edd.). Teaching English to Children. Longman Group Essex, 1995, s. 142-157. 6. REDMAN, Stuart: A Way with Words. Vocabulary Development Activities for Learners of English.Book 2. Cambridge University Press, 1991. 124 s. ISBN-0521-35919-8. 7. REDMAN, Stuart: A Way with Words. Vocabulary Development Activities for Learners of English. Book 3. Cambridge University Press, 1991. 124 s. ISBN-0521-35921-X. 8. RIXON, Shelagh: Young Learners of English: Some Research Perspectives. Longman Essex, 1999. 110 s. ISBN-0-582-42082-2. 9. SCOTT, Wendy A.; YTREBERG, Lisbeth H: Teaching English to Children. Essex: Longman, 1991 10. THORNBURY, Scott: How to teach vocabulary. Longman Essex, 2002. 185 s. ISBN-0-582-42966-8. 11. UR, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and theory.UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 375 s. ISBN-0521-44994-4. 12. WRIGHT, Tony. Roles of Teachers & Learners.UK: Oxford University Press, 1996. 160 s. ISBN 0-19-437133-6.
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Other resources 1. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk 2. http://www.longman.com/young_learners 3. http://www.eslkidstuff.com/
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