Kitabı oku: «Collins Introducing English to Young Children: Reading and Writing», sayfa 3

Although the lower-primary child is now more independent, the same basic triangle of influence and support (parent, teacher, child) remains important in English acquisition. New discoveries innately motivate children to try and express their thoughts, imagination and feelings with others in English. Discovering the world at this age is exciting, and both parents and teachers need to arouse curiosity and enable, as well as inspire, the desire to explore.

2.5 Motivation and emotional literacy

Motivation is the most important factor in determining whether you succeed in the long run. What I mean by motivation is not only the desire to achieve, but also the love of learning, the love of challenge and the ability to thrive on obstacles. These are the greatest gifts we can give our students.

(Dweck)

Children need to be motivated if they are to continue to self-educate at their own pace and find meaning through self-discovery. They now understands new concepts, with adults mediating less and less, but need to be stimulated to use their self-language-learning strategies to acquire, understand and eventually use a wider range of spoken English.

To motivate we need to arouse curiosity in children. Curiosity is aroused by seeing something new, or something different from what they expected. This arouses their interest to find more out about it. Children have an internal need for consistency, and they look for things to fit into their cognitive map of understanding. When something does not fit in, it causes tension or ‘cognitive dissonance’, which innately drives them to find out more so they can resolve the inconsistency and fit the new information into their thinking. During this process children are focusing, exploring and learning at a deep level, which researchers liken to a ‘flow’ experience (see 1.5). Highly curious people show openness to new ideas, as well as an innate drive to examine and learn, and therefore expand their own cognitive map.

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

(Einstein)

Motivation and ‘emotional literacy’ are closely linked, and together help to create the ‘feel-good factor’ which is vital for self-learning. Goleman talks about emotional literacy as being the ability to experience and manage emotions positively, as well as recognise emotions in others and show empathy. If children of this age are not yet emotionally literate, it can be difficult to motivate them – and if they are not motivated, little or no self-acquisition of English can occur.

A child with little emotional literacy still finds the following activities difficult: working in pairs, group discussions, persuading, leading. Young children want and need to feel liked by other children in the class if they are to feel good.

Motivation can be thought of as ‘intrinsic’, where children motivate themselves, and ‘extrinsic’ where motivation comes from outside (with the teacher igniting it by setting the scene for an enabling activity).

It is accepted that the emotional mind can override the rational mind.

(Anon)

To start to manage their emotions, children need to:

 feel physically secure and safe within the classroom

 feel the teacher understands and recognises their emotions

 know the classroom routine, so they can predict the next activity

 know some basic English to talk about their emotions

 know how to read emotions in others (children and adults).

Children need to be able to describe their emotions and thoughts in English if they are to develop a sense of well-being. If they have no simple vocabulary in English to express their emotions and thoughts, they may hide them or resort to talking about them in L1. If the teacher is not bilingual, he or she may not be able to understand unless another child is able to translate, or a parent tells the teacher. Words for feelings and thoughts can be picked up from teacher-talk – this can be in the form of teacher modelling, or from a planned game that introduces basic feelings in a context which children understand.

Children are constantly watching behaviour and learning how to show and handle their emotions through modelling and mirroring the teacher and other adults, as well as other children close to them. Consider this example:

Discussing feelings

 The teacher introduces words for describing emotions by cutting out cardboard face shapes and sticking them onto short sticks. Each cardboard face shape has a different facial expression drawn on it: a sad face, a happy face, a surprised face, an angry face, etc.

 The teacher shows the faces and asks the children to say how each face feels. The children learn to say He’s happy. or She’s angry. etc. They also learn to answer the question Are you happy? with Yes, I’m happy. or No, I’m sad.

 The teacher then plays a game with the children, calling out words to do with feelings and children have to choose the cardboard face that matches the word.

Good relationships with teachers and peers contribute to enjoyment. The teacher needs to include enabling activities in which children can work together. Children learn more from other children than from adults, since they are similar to themselves and easier to copy. However, they are constantly watching adults’ behaviour and learning from it how to manage their emotions.

Emotions, and the way we show them to those around us, are culturally linked. Teachers should be aware, for example, that in some cultures a smile or laughter can cover up embarrassment or may be thought of as rude or inappropriate behaviour in class. In some L1 classrooms teachers may not expect children to show their emotions, so children have to be reassured that talking about feelings is normal and acceptable in the English classroom.

Within different cultures the use of silence, facial expressions, laughter and body language varies, and this should be carefully considered by teachers if they are to teach holistically – that is, to help the whole child mature.

When thinking about the emotional development of children, teachers need to include activities that help them begin to balance their emotions, such as using co-reading picture books that can be discussed together as a class. Free play, including book browsing, also helps children to self-manage their emotions. This is evident in the case of children (often boys) who like to learn to read through science books or books about their favourite imaginary superheroes.

Children need a rich language environment if they are to acquire language to their full potential and feel motivated. Motivation depends on the teacher’s choice of structured enabling activities, appropriate to the interests and maturity of the children.

2.6 Monitoring and assessing

Regular assessing analyses the efficacy of activities and the teaching programme, as well as recording progress and highlighting the need for repetition and review. It is through regular assessment that teachers remain closely tuned-in to each child.

Children need to know that the teacher wants them to respond in English. To be responsive, they need to have no fear of making mistakes and need to be aware that mistakes can be used as an opportunity for learning. Children also need to know that the teacher understands risk-taking, and that he or she welcomes new suggestions and gives praise for effort. If children know that the teacher’s response will always be positive, welcoming and encouraging, they will feel secure and begin to be responsive and show initiative. This is the best way for children to achieve their full potential in English.

As the child becomes more independent and confident, and more capable of taking responsibility in the classroom, the child–teacher relationship evolves into one of friendly, mutual respect. The child feels he or she can rely on the teacher to show personal understanding, listen to interests, welcome creative ideas and encourage efforts.

The only good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of development and leads it.

(Vygotsky)

The teacher’s role in helping learners reach their potential depends on the relationship with each child. For children to begin to develop their self-educating strategies, they needs to feel secure when taking risks and know that their opinions and efforts to learn are valued – by peers as well as the teacher.

The right kind of experience and support can help children to become confident, creative, motivated doers and thinkers so that the early years build a strong foundation for all they will encounter in the future.

(Stewart)

2.7 Teacher input

Interaction with adults through talk involves children in the adult’s ways of thinking, and children’s efforts to understand lead them to attempt to express similar meaning.

(Tough)

The child’s innate aim is to speak as much English as possible and be able to read and write quickly. The child will, if motivated, be keen to use all the English they know and will find it frustrating when he or she is unable to convey thoughts, emotions and creative ideas.

The tuned-in teacher’s role is to support children in achieving their goals by showing how and when to use English – bearing in mind this might be different from when and how their L1 is used. For example, in some societies please and thank you are used differently from how they are used in English. Teachers cannot expect children to know that speaking in the lower-primary English classroom is welcomed, when in L1 classrooms the teacher might be the only person who ever talks.

Although individual face-to-face contact is still important for conveying messages, lower-primary children can now follow the teacher when spoken to in pairs, groups or as a whole class. Spoken and written language needs to go beyond any actual text content – it needs to include the sharing of thoughts in order to help children begin to think of themselves as learners and critical thinkers. They need to be encouraged to initiate talking about their feelings, emotions and ideas. Children are innate communicators if they like the people they are talking to, and feel they are liked, too.

2.7.1 Teacher-talk

The use of voice is crucial to the success of a lesson. The teacher’s commentary throughout the lesson (on what is taking place, what has been achieved and what is coming next) is a key part of input for revision, as well as for new spoken language. However, lower-primary children working together in pairs or small groups may also begin to talk amongst themselves in English. The teacher should encourage this, recasting what children have said and repeating it so all the class can hear. Teachers need to be ready to develop and expand any language produced by the children. For example: Aisha says it’s very cold today but Abdul says it isn’t. What do you think?

It is important not to over-question children as they soon begin to feel the teacher is giving them a test. Where possible, questions should be open-ended rather than having only a Yes or No answer. Open-ended questions lead to children giving a thoughtful and meaningful answer. Teachers should use Wh- question words whenever possible (who, what, where, why, when, which, etc.), for example:

What do you think about …?

Which is the best one?

What if he fell?

Where do you want to go? To the seaside, a big town, or somewhere else?

That’s interesting. Why a big town?

The use of the teacher’s voice is crucial:

 to convey a calm, warm, feel-good atmosphere

 to motivate and remotivate

 to make use of the Playful Approach

 to socialise behaviour

 to co-share in pair and group work

 to mediate and introduce new language activities

 to repeat target language

 to express emotion

 to encourage the use of English

 to reassure that ideas are valued.

2.7.2 Management language

The structures used in managing classroom activities are more complex with lower-primary children than with pre-school children. Management language has developed to include other situations, such as children playing games themselves in small groups, or taking part in responsible activities like tidying up.

Management language might sound like this: Now it’s tidy-up time. Hannah is collecting the pencils so please give your pencils to Hannah. Have you got all the pencils, Hannah?

2.7.3 Mediating language

Mediating language can be used to introduce new formal literacy, or something brought to a ‘My secret’ session during ‘Circle time’ (see 6.3.1). Mediating language might be introduced as follows:

The teacher, during ‘My secret’, shows the children his or her favourite flower and introduces associated vocabulary, such as flower, stalk, colour, roots, etc.

The teacher links this vocabulary with honey, showing how a bee visits a flower.

She introduces buzz and bumble bee, so children can hear how the word buzz sounds like the noise the insect makes.

2.7.4 ‘Teacherese’

Teachers of young children often modify their speech (either by simplifying or including L1) when interacting with children who are still new to learning another language. This is known as ‘teacherese’. Once children have a basic grounding in spoken English the amount of ‘teacherese’ needed diminishes, except when the teacher is introducing new language in an activity or in formal literacy. Although language content has increased by lower primary, the basic ‘teacherese’ strategies for dealing with code-switching and error correction remain the same.

A focused ‘teacherese’ session in a face-to-face dialogue can help comprehension greatly, particularly when a teacher finds a child has not understood and needs to revisit a topic.

2.7.5 Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a method of brainstorming, but in sustained, shared way. It helps children to focus and become conscious of their concentrated thought. Scaffolding can be used to revisit something that a child has not fully understood. Lower-primary children are more mature and they can scaffold with the teacher as a pair, in groups or as a class.

Co-thinking is exciting and motivating; it challenges a child, pair or group and takes them on to the next level. Often suggestions for follow-up ideas at home are included, for example the teacher might say Look for a photo at home. Let’s make a class book about …

2.7.6 Repetition

Repetition gives a chance to try again. Children need to learn the saying If at first you don’t succeed try, try, and try again (a saying originally popularised by Thomas H. Palmer in his Teacher’s Manual). Children naturally do try and try again if they are interested and motivated. Watch them learning a skipping skill or repeating a physical game until they get it right! Teachers need to engage them repeatedly so they continue trying.

It takes time to build up a classroom routine and there are sessions when there seem to be steps backwards rather than forwards. This is normal in learning, and children may have absorbed more than outwardly visible in assessing.

(Stewart)

2.7.7 Tutor-talk

Hidden behind general teacher-talk is the planned, structured syllabus of the mechanics of language – these mechanics can sometimes be verbalised using ‘tutor-talk’. The use of focused mini-tutorials can help children make progress at their own speed. Tutor-talk, although planned, can be introduced at any time within a lesson and can even be introduced further times within a lesson if appropriate. The teacher could say Do you remember, I explained that this word means …

Quick tutor-talks can be used to revise a point introduced previously, to correct a recurring mistake, or to explain pattern variations. For example, the teacher might say It’s different this time. For this, we say … Do you remember I said before that …?

It is through tutor-talk that the foundations of formal literacy are built. Quizzes and games may help to further pattern recognition, and a repertoire of these and other activities will help to consolidate the content of these mini-tutorials.

Piaget believed that learning depended on a child’s readiness to learn. Vygotsky recognised a child’s ability to learn with help.

2.7.8 Self-talk

The teacher’s input can take the form of an external monologue of internal thinking. This form of ‘self-talk’ is quite usual among stressed adults who need to clarify their thoughts! Thinking through a problem, seeing cause and effect or weighing up risk is something children have to learn from adults. In self-talk teachers give more than a factual commentary – they reveal aloud how they actually think, feel and deal with a problem, in order to move towards making a decision. The teacher uses self-talk to show children how to think critically and sum up, before arriving at a choice or decision. If the decision is wrong, the teacher also uses self-talk to show how to go back and rethink, in order to arrive at a new decision or choice. For example, the teacher might say Do I go here or do I go there? Oh dear! That’s not right. I think I’ll go back to the beginning. If I do this, what will happen?

Through the teacher’s regular repetition of these thinking-aloud language structures, children can absorb the language of thought and gradually begin to use it. Children, when encountering a problem, often give external monologues which reveal they have learned how to work through a decision-making process logically. A child might say Let me think. Do I go here or do I go there? What if I do this? I’ll try again. I have a good idea. What do I want – this or that? This is better.

Once familiar with the basic language of thought, children begin to create their own personal thinking language, and may code-switch some words into L1. If this happens, the teacher needs to recast what the child has said in English.

Thought is internalised language.

(Vygotsky⁾

3
Listening to the maturing child

3.1 Self-educators

3.2 Motivation

3.3 Evaluating success

3.4 Autonomy

3.1 Self-educators

Helping children learn better is not the same as helping them become better learners.

(Claxton)

Young children are self-educators if they are provided with enabling experiences. From about 5 years old, many children show signs or wanting to do things for themselves. Many of them already want to become independent, saying things like Let me try. I can do it. They are active agents in their own learning and develop personal strategies to help them progress (including language-learning strategies, which – with adult help – they can reuse to acquire English).

By the age of 6, without being formally taught, children have managed to develop a range of self-learning strategies with which to learn many things. ‘Learning to learn’ involves knowing and being able to use these self-learning strategies effectively. Effective learning at this age forms the foundations for life-long learning.

Strategies are sequences of behaviour, which are developed to enable us to do things in more effective and efficient ways.

(Stewart)

By the age of 7, many of the self-learning strategies for acquiring language are in place, since children are by now fluent L1 speakers. Children who already read and write in L1 have also acquired some self-learning strategies for coded L1 literacy.

As teachers, we need to foster young children’s ability to self-learn, helping them to work out how to transfer their self-language-learning strategies to absorb English successfully. By now, children will already have unconsciously transferred their strategies to pick up spoken English, but they need help to do the same when learning how to read and spell and later create written English.

Learning to reuse and broaden strategies to acquire English cannot be taught by imposed instruction. Children have to explore and experiment for themselves, but they also need to be helped through focused tutor-talk explanations and modelling that they can imitate. Children need time to find out how to use their strategies to solve problems, self-manage and persevere to achieve progress.

To achieve there has to be volition, and for this children’s inner drive needs to be ignited and continually stoked. To successfully orchestrate self-learning, teachers also have to monitor progress and assess by summarising, recalling and talking over how things were done and what was achieved. Listening to each other’s reflections, ideas and questions is important, because – apart from being able to tell everyone about how they are thinking – children learn from watching and imitating their peers.

What children learn is important, but developing and becoming aware of their self-learning (and self-language-learning) strategies is even more crucial if children are to become life-long learners – including learners of English.

3.1.1 Reusing self-learning strategies

Learning English for a child is part of their holistic learning experience. Unless they are helped to build and reuse their self-learning strategies, children cannot progress effectively with their acquisition of English, or achieve further autonomy.

Focusing on how a young child learns is more important than the actual English language content that he or she acquires. Young children are innate, holistic language learners, if motivated, and unconsciously absorb language and use it. We don’t force them to learn grammar rules, but through their own learning strategies young children work out grammar and – apart from pattern variations like saying taked, doed, goed instead of took, did, went – they often get it right!

The young child is becoming aware of how he or she learns, and is able to talk about this. The child is beginning to ‘think about thinking’ (metacognition), and needs to be listened to as he or she unconsciously reuses, adapts and broadens his or her self-learning strategies to acquire English. This growing awareness means that the child is developing strategies to self-assess and also assess the abilities of other children.

Whereas the child has to learn counting words for each language, she only has to learn the counting skill once. The skill is the same in each language and can therefore be transferred.

(Harding and Riley)

Teachers will need to use specific techniques – such as using ‘teacherese’, scaffolding and offering quick translations (see 2.7) – to support children while they learn to transfer their self-learning strategies to the learning of English. As children’s spoken English ability increases, these forms of support can be minimised until they are gradually faded out – except for use when introducing new material or supporting a slower learner.

Teacher’s also need to be aware that any teaching outside their learners’ ‘zone of proximal development’ (‘ZPD’ – see 2.4.2) may be ineffective. Teacher-imposed English language exercises which are not sensitive to a child’s ZPD can probably be completed and learned by heart by most children, but many of those children will then find difficulty in transferring the content to other experiences and situations.

Teachers and parents should be careful not to over-support language acquisition as it can create dependency, whereby the child never takes the risk of making a mistake and always waits for support. As young children innately want to be independent, teachers need to encourage them to find out and try for themselves, using and developing their own personal strategies.

From about the age of 6 or 7, children start to become less egocentric and show more individuality and temperament. They like to take responsibility in coping with their freedom and are capable of thinking critically to make choices. Some parents who have a controlling bond over their children may not be aware of – or want to acknowledge – their child’s growing maturity, and they might smoother their growth by not listening to them, by answering questions for them, and by constantly referring to their past interests and abilities instead of focusing on the present and the future.

3.1.2 Transferring strategies

Where one language is established before acquiring a second, strategies developed in learning the first language will transfer to the process of learning subsequent languages and be a positive aid to learning.

(Tough)

Transferring strategies for reuse in English can be greatly helped by:

 Teacher-talk (explaining)

 Teacher modelling (showing how to use new language, or re-modelling known language to match new content)

 Teacher self-talk (‘thinking aloud’ to show how to work through ideas, solve problems, talk about strategies and manage emotions)

 Summing up activities (developing critical thinking)

 Asking open-ended questions (developing divergent thinking)

 Planning enabling, holistic activities and experiences

 Planning opportunities to work with other children in pairs or groups (imitating and learning)

 Listening to the child verbalise (valuing his or her way of thinking)

 Monitoring and observing activities (helping and encouraging effort)

 Assessing children’s autonomy and ability to use their own strategies

 Listening to children’s self-assessment and comments

 Listening to parents’ assessment of their child

In addition, transferring formal literacy strategies for children who are already able to read in L1 can be helped by:

 starting from the child’s ZPD (zone of proximal development) in L1 and English

 listening to the child verbalise how they think

 using tutor-talk (quick, focused explanations about language)

 using teacher-talk to help recognition of patterns and analogies.

When introducing gist understanding to English, teachers need to remember that children are still dependent on gist understanding strategies for acquiring new language in L1, using words, body language and their surrounding environment to piece together understanding. These strategies can be reused for English, but children need to build up confidence to use them successfully.

Teachers need to be aware that children do not need to understand every word in a sentence or utterance to make meaning. They are used to and satisfied with only understanding the gist of a text in L1, and transfer this acceptance to their understanding of English. Children also understand more than adults imagine and more than they can say. They also often use translation strategies to help each other in their understanding.

Consider these questions about children’s self-learning strategies:

Q: Can self-learning strategies be taught by the teacher?

A: Not successfully but they can be talked about and modelled. Children have to work out their own strategies by:

 taking part in holistic activities and games, enabling them to explore, experiment and imitate

 taking part in shared activities involving tutor-talk (explanation), modelling (show and talk) and self-talk (monologue commentary about problem solving and ways of thinking)

 interacting with other children and imitating.

Q: How can teachers find out what strategies children know and can reuse?

A: Teachers can know by:

 observing problem-solving techniques

 listening to children talking about doing and thinking (metacognition)

 listening to children’s self-talk (monologue commentary)

 co-sharing, recalling and summarising

 talking about problem solving.

Teachers should look for these strategies in children:

 Self-management/self-regulation (including management of emotions, self-control, socialisation, control of effective learning, effort, concentration, critical thinking, achievement)

 Self-awareness (including thinking about: thinking, problem solving, attaining goals)

 Self-efficacy/ability as a learner (including self-correction and perseverance)

 Problem solving

Teachers can use the following types of open-ended questions to help children focus on thinking:

 How did you do that? (recall)

 Can you do it another way? (encouraging divergent thinking)

 What was difficult? (critical thinking)

 Will you do it the same way next time? (critical thinking)

Teachers should always value children’s answers and points of view as this increases self-esteem and confidence. Children also need to be given time to reflect and reply

3.2 Motivation

As young children mature they gradually develop and refine strategies to self-educate. When they reuse their strategies to cooperate with sensitive adults (who introduce stimulating, enabling, interactive activities) they can be even more successful.

Listening to children sensitively – giving them space to express their thoughts and way of thinking, and to respond to ideas – stimulates them. Children need to feel valued; it gives them energy to persevere and develop their autonomy and ownership. It also helps them understand their identity within the family, school and beyond.

How children learn is more important than what they learn. By showing children that we value their learning processes, we help them to reach confidently for opportunities to learn.