TEYL

Teaching young learners is a demanding yet interesting task.The teacher should always provide a nurturing environment that brings out the best in her students .The instruction should always take into account the linguistic competence of the students , their characteristics , and their needs .

Many approaches can be adopted to teach young learner and every teacher should know what the preferences of her students are . The teacher can use either the total physical response , the language experience approach, the affective approach , the communicative approach , or any other approach that fits . The book we use follows the thematic- content-based approach , where students read selections related to certain themes . Then , reading , listering , speaking , grammar and writing are taught in connection to the theme .

The activities used to teach young learners should stress the development of students communication . They should be interesting relevant and practical . Based on the characteristics of young learners the activities should have the following characteristcs . First , they should be enjoyable and compatible with the students abilities in order to keep them motivated and attentive . Second , they should be brief because young childern like variation and can’t concentrate for a long time . The instructions of the teacher should be clear . The activities should also be challenging but not too much . The teacher must be sure that her students can carry them out , The activities should lend themselves to cooperative and group work . Childen learn from each other as much as they learn from the teacher and sometimes more . Cooperative learning such as jigsaw II and STAD should be a part of a teachers lesson . Teacher must vary the classroom interaction ( Teacher-class / Teacher-student / student-student / Group-Group ) . The development of activities for the fast students who finish first is essential . The activities include solving puzzles , writing journal entries , and reading stories .

The teacher should stress on using the English language all the time even on the first day of school and with young learners . The use of miming , gesturing , pictures and realia will help clarify meaning . Writing and displaying new vocabulary words on the bulliten is helpful in making the students memorize them . The idea of teaching English through English is not new . Children learn faster if they are immersed in the language and are in an environment which is a little bit above their linguistic level , when the teacher uses only the English language in the classroom , she is not only getting her students used to listening to . English but also encouraging her students to guess the meaning of the words from context , gestures and intonation .She is also forcing them to use the English language
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Sometimes, a classroom organization is as important as the student’s activates. Actually some tasks cannot be carried out without proper classroom organization. An ideal classroom would be spacious allowing a space for making corners, and conducting activities and games. It should have large bullitenboards, a classroom library, and listening, technology, writing and curriculum stations. The classroom labirary can include books,stories,magazines and student-made books. The listening station includes a tape recorder, a headset, tapes, and after listening activities. In the technology station, students can type on the computer using the word program or can play language games. In the curriculum station, student can do cross curriculum activities that are related to their English lesson. Of course the classroom described is an ideal one, far away from our very small classroom.
The organizational structure of activities is as important as the organization of the classroom. It’s better to use cooperative learning when the teacher is giving a problem solving task. Pair work works best with dialogue, review and think-pair-share activities. The environment of the classroom should be friendly. It’s known that achievement is correlated to motivation. The teacher must develop a sense of achievement in her students as it is well known that nothing succeeds like success . The teacher's feedback should be meaningful realistic and directed towards the student’s mistakes and not them. A teacher must praise her students and motivate them through awards and tokens. As to the material, games, songs, music poetry, video, newspapers, radios, realia, and drama are sources that a teacher can use to motivate the students and to make the class lively and enjoyable.
Teaching young learners is very rewarding. They come to school with an open heart. If the teacher uses the appropriate methods, design interesting activities, uses the English language and motivates them, the students will love her, develop a positive attitude towards English and become successful foreign language learners.