LANGUAGE SKILLS

Unit 2
TEACHING LISTENING TO YOUNG
LEARNERS
TEACHING LISTENING
• Listening is a receptive skill because the focus is on receiving
information from an outside source
• As teachers of second- and foreign-Ianguage learners, it is useful to
consider the listening skills that are taught to children learning English
as a first language. For example, a five-year-old native speaker who is
not able to listen to and follow simple instructions is probably not
going to be ready to learn academic content such as colours,
numbers, shapes, days of the week, letters, and sounds. The same
holds true for the non-native student.
TEACHING LISTENING

Listening skills also help children who have literacy skills in their own
language transition into English-language literacy the development of
different listening skills helps children get ready to read (listening skills
prepare children for reading in their native language as well as reading
in a second or foreign language):
 LISTENING
ACTIVITIES
SONGS AND FINGER-
PLAYS: STORYTELLING:
- The Eensy Wensy Spider - YES/NO CARDS
(TPR) Goldilocks and the Three B
- Head and shoulders (TPR) ears (sentence patterns ar
e repeated)

DRAWING (WITH SYLLABLE

MINIMAL PAIRS
INSTRUCTIONS): CLAPPING
-Draw a circle
- English syllables! - Bat / Pat
-Draw two eyes
-Draw some hair
- Tapping syllables in - Ship / Sheep
words
Children often announce when they suddenly hear a specific outdoor
sound such as a fire engine or an ambulance. If children live in an area
where there are animals, they learn to distinguish the sounds of dogs
barking, cows mooing, sheep baaing, etc.
TEACHING SPEAKING TO YOUNG
LEARNERS
TEACHING SPEAKING

• They have a clear advantage when it comes to pronunciation if they

begin learning English as a foreign or second language at an early age.
Nevertheless, there are some phonemes which English-speaking as
well as non-native-speaking children have difficulty with. It is not
uncommon for a six-year-old child to have trouble articulating /r/.
• The /s/ sound as well as /th/ can also be difficult for some children. As
a teacher working with ESL or EFL, you should keep this in mind when
you are working on pronunciation.
TEACHING SPEAKING

What is known about the development of English-language skills in

native English-speaking children can be used to influence the way that
we teach English to ESL or EFL young learners. The expectations for
children learning ESL or EFL should not be greater or more demanding
than the expectations for children learning to speak in English as their
native language.
AGES WHEN NATIVE-ENGLISH SPEAKERS USUALLY MASTER
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE SOUNDS
 DIALOGUE:
• Whenever possible, the role-play
should be based on the types of
real conversations.

• Use puppets or fishbowl (

another example) techniques to
introduce dialogues:
SUBSTITUTION DRILLS
(AL):
• They are aimed at getting learners to
practice using the patterns that occur
in language.
• They are appropriate for young
learners at early stages of English-
language development as well as for
young learners under the age of
eight.
 GAMES:

• When carefully planned, games offer

the advantages of both ALM and CM
You can very easily set up games so that
children repeat the same patterns over
and over again. Games can also be
structured to maximize English
language use.
• When giving the rules for a game, make
using English a game rule. For instance,
if a child uses her native language while
playing the game, she loses a point or a
turn.
Games like Thumbs up o I spy with my little eye
 TEACHING • Tongue twisters are a fun way to teach
PRONUNCIATION: pronunciation to children learning
English as a second or foreign language
• You can select rhymes and fingerplays that as they generally have the same
focus on a specific phoneme or sound or set phoneme repeated over and over again
of sounds. Most English-language
coursebooks contain rhymes, poems, and
chants as part of the program. Sally sells seashells at the seashore

• Children may have trouble pronouncing

certain English-language sounds. For
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter
example, children who speak some Asian
Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck
languages may have difficulty pronouncing of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?
the English-language /r/ and /l/ because of
their absences in their native languages.
TEACHING SPEAKING TECHNIQUES – JOHN
KAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7zsz8fi64
TEACHING READING TO YOUNG
LEARNERS
TEACHING READING

• Reading is a set of skills that involves making sense and deriving

meaning from the printed word. In order to read, we must be able to
decode (sound out) the printed words and also comprehend what we
read.
• For second-language learners there are three different elements
which impact reading: the child's background knowledge, the child's
linguistic knowledge of the target language, and the strategies or
techniques the child uses to tackle the text. For example, if a child is
going to learn how to decode letters, she must understand what
different written symbols represent.
TEACHING READING

• In some languages such as English, Spanish, Arabic, and Korean, a

certain symbol represents a specific letter. These languages are known
as alphabetic languages. However, in other languages, a certain
symbol represents an entire word. For example, in Chinese the
character 媽 represents the word mother
• Furthermore, children who are able to read in their native language
are at an advantage over children who cannot read in their native
language because they understand the key concept that printed
symbols can be used to represent spoken words.
By developing strong literacy skills in their native language, it will be
easier for young learners to transfer those skills into English:
Decoding
English has approximately 40 sounds but uses only 26 symbols. This can
cause problems for speakers of languages which have a one-to-one
sound-letter correspondence, such as Spanish. Because of the
exceptions to sound/ symbol correspondence in English, children can
get very frustrated when they try to decode English words. For
example, the letter c used to decode both a hard and soft sound in
English. The hard c sound, /k/, found in cat and carpet is more common
than the soft c sound, /s/, found in cereal.
• Phonics instruction should be based on the English words that
children already have in their oral-language repertoire. In addition,
learners should already know how to pronounce the word before
they are expected to sound it out or read it. They should not have to
struggle with pronunciation and phonics simultaneously.
• Phonics instruction must be carefully planned for children learning
how to read in ESL and EFL classrooms. Too often, the words used to
represent different sounds are not commonly used by children.
• When children are at the emergent literacy stage, they should never
be expected to read a word that they don't know the meaning of. For
this reason, it's important to align your vocabulary and phonics
instruction.
 READING ACTIVITIES

PREDICTABLE STORIES OR
PATTERN BOOKS
• The predictable story contains repetitive
phrases and predictable language.
Predictable storybooks, also called
pattern books, contain illustrations that
help to clarify or support the word,
sentence, or pattern that is repeated in
the text
• Pattern books, such as
Mrs. Wishy-Washy, can be used to help
children develop phonics skills as well as
an appreciation for literature.
 READING ACTIVITIES

SIGHT WORDS
• Sight words are high-frequency words children
can recognize on sight without having to decode
the letters. The, all, an, and J are all sight words.
• Some sight words are especially difficult to sound
out or decode because they do not follow regular
spelling patterns-right, there, look, and should.
• Games are engaging ways to teach sight words.
For example, young learners can go through a
piece of text and count how many times the
word the occurs in the text.
 READING ACTIVITIES
PRINT-RICH ENVIRONMENT
• Environmental print is the print that is seen all around us.
As a teacher, you should try to create a print-rich
environment in the classroom. The print should have
meaning for the learners. You should include as much
environmental print as possible. Be sure to include items
such as the following:

• labels such as desk, door, window

• word lists with vocabulary words that children are learning
• authentic literature, storybooks, and non-fiction titles in
English
• posters with English-language labels, such as travel posters
• English-language packages, such as cereal box packages
• English-language calendars

You can find some examples here

TEACHING WRITING TO YOUNG
LEARNERS
 BACKGROUND TO THE TEACHING OF
WRITING
When you are teaching writing to children who are four to seven years old, you must consider two
separate areas of development:

1. Do your students have the fine motor or physical skills necessary to hold a pencil firmly
in their hands and form letters on paper?

2. Do they have the cognitive skills necessary to formulate ideas and write them onto paper?

The physical act of forming letters as well as the act of expressing oneself in written form are both
challenging for young learners. Depending upon their development, learners may find it very
frustrating to try to physically form letters, and they may not be able to put their thoughts together in a
coherent whole. Therefore, as their teacher, you face the considerable task of teaching them how to
actually print letters, write words, and capture their ideas to put on paper.
if students don't have writing skills in their native language, they most likely will
not have them in their second language.

Children learning ESL or EFL can face additional obstacles when learning to form English-
language letters. For example, they may have been introduced to cursive writing in their
native language before printed writing or their native languages may be written with
characters rather than letters.
Also, they may be unfamiliar with words, sentences, and paragraphs that are written from
left to right. For young learners who are just beginning to learn how to write in English or
who write letters and/ or characters in a different direction; teachers often put an arrow
running from left to right at the top of the page to show them where to start writing.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING SKILLS

• Process writing is especially appropriate for ESL or EFL young learners

because one of the prominent features is an emphasis on fluency.
Just as young children learn to speak fluently, they also need to learn
how to write fluently. The process writing approach involves the
process-steps necessary to produce a good quality final piece of
writing.
1. The process begins by thinking about what is going to be written (choosing a topic) and collecting
ideas both formally and informally.

2. The final step is to publish (that is, to make public). A piece of writing is published when it's put it
into a form which can be formally shared with others.
STEPS OF THE WRITING PROCESS
TYPES OF WRITING YOUNG LEARNERS CAN
PRODUCE
 WRITING ACTIVITIES

WORD WALLS
• Word Walls are lists of words that, for
example, the children have encountered in
their reading and that can be used in their
writing. These lists should be posted on the
walls of your classroom.
• Learners can refer to a Word Wall during
various stages of the writing process.
• Different Word Walls can have different
focuses. For instance, one Word Wall could
include high frequency words that learners
often see in their reading.
• The words can be arranged alphabetically.
Other Word Walls can be arranged topically. If
you arrange a Word Wall according to different Look at some writing activities and games
topics or subjects, you might want to colour
code them.
 WRITING ACTIVITIES

GROUP WRITING
• Children can work collaboratively on a
writing project, but it needs to be
carefully organized on the part of the
teacher.
• You can have young learners create a
group book. For example, they could
author different pages about their
favorite things. Each page could have the
same sentence starter such as, "My
favorite things are ______ “. The
children then finish each sentence and
illustrate it.
 THE ROLE OF WRITING IN LANGUAGE
LEARNING – LINDSAY WILLIAMS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luB0aHudknQ
TEACHING VOCABULARY IN THE
CLASSROOM
• El vocabulario puede aprenderse de dos formas: de manera
espontánea o de manera planificada (Hidalgo Gallardo, 2020).
Language consists of words. Vocabulary is the collection of words that an individual knows.

It is important to remember that even though nouns are important, vocabulary is more than just nouns.
As a teacher, it is important that you include verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions as part of your
vocabulary curriculum.

Teachers should facilitate vocabulary learning by teaching learners useful words and by teaching strategies
to help learners figure out meanings on their own. Useful words are words that children are likely to
encounter, words that occur in a high frequency. Useful words are also words which are of interest and
intriguing to children.

Vocabulary should be integrated into teaching the four skills-listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
 Principles for teaching vocabulary
Emphasize both direct and indirect teaching Direct and indirect vocabulary instruction should be included as part of a
vocabulary development program. Direct instruction refers to teaching the
words and their meanings. Indirect instruction refers to helping children
learn appropriate strategies so they can figure out the meaning of words on
their own.

Teach vocabulary words before a new activity When vocabulary words are taught before a new activity, students benefit in
two ways. First they are better able to comprehend the activity. Second,
teaching vocabulary words in advance makes it more likely that students will
actually acquire the target vocabulary words.

Teach how to use context clues appropriately Students can benefit from learning how to use context clues and guessing
the meaning from the context. This is a strategy that
learners can use when they encounter unfamiliar words.
Teaching vocabulary - principles.pdf

Present multiple exposures to new vocabulary items You shouldn't expect that a vocabulary word taught on Monday will be
remembered on Wednesday. As part of your teaching repertoire, remember
that a new word should reappear many times and in different situations for
the next several weeks of instruction.
Teach students to use dictionaries Young learners can benefit from using dictionaries. Very young children,
under the age of six, can use a picture dictionary where words are grouped
into different categories. Visual dictionary.pdf
CONTEXT CLUES - PDF
VISUAL DICTIONARY - PDF
 VOCABULARY
ACTIVITIES
WORD OF THE DAY
Select a specific word you will focus
on each day. You can pre-select the
word, or you can have your learners
decide what word will be featured.
For example, if children are studying
jungle animals, they could learn a
different species each day, or you
could ask each child to bring a new
word relating to the jungle on their
special vocabulary day
 VOCABULARY
ACTIVITIES
SCAVENGER HUNT WHAT'S MISSING?
Give children who are five or six years old Place 12-20 picture or word cards on
an EFL or ESL coursebook that is
appropriate far their age and language a table or the floor. Have your
level. Give them a word to find in the students look at the cards for a
book, such as apple. Young learners have minute. Then have them close their
to use cognitive skills to determine which eyes. Remove one card. Ask the
unit the word would be found in. This group or an individual learner to tell
helps learners classify words according to
different categories. For children who do you which card was removed. To
not have literacy skills, you can simply make the game more challenging
show them a picture of the target word. and interesting, have children
For other learners, you can write the target describe the picture or word card
word on the board. that was removed.
Actividad: diseño de un juego de mesa
• Debéis crear un juego de mesa para vuestros alumnos de 5 años.
• El objetivo es que trabajéis el set léxico que os toque, a través de la
gamificación.
• Debéis especificar los siguientes elementos:
- Nombre del juego.
- Objetivos de aprendizaje de la actividad.
- Reglas del juego. Recuerda que deben ser sencillas y claras.
- Materiales adicionales que vais a necesitar (fichas, dados, figuras, tarjetas, etc.)
- Representad el diseño del tablero y las normas en la cartulina.
• Al finalizar, presentaréis al resto de los grupos vuestro trabajo.
 Activity: complete beginners

Try to find the language skills used in the following unit’s

• 9781107476677_excerpt.pdf (ca • 9781108719612_excerpt.pdf (ca
mbridge.org) mbridge.org)