Activate

This element describes the exercises and activities which are designed to get
students to use the language as communicatively as they can. During Activate,
students do not focus on language construction or practise particular language
patterns, but use their full language knowledge in the selected situation or task.

Lesson Structure
(a) The ESA lesson
A complete lesson may be planned on the ESA model where the 50-60
minutes are divided into three different segments. It is very unlikely that these
segments will be equal in duration. Activate will probably be the longest phase but
Study will probably be longer than Engage.
In this format ESA would appear to be little different from PPP.
(b) The ESA, ESA, ESA lesson
Teachers of children and younger teenagers know that their students cannot
concentrate for long periods. They can still use the ESA model but the model may
be used repeatedly, producing a larger number of shorter phases.
This repeated ESA model also works well with older teenagers and adults
and gives lessons a richness and variety which students appreciate.
It would be wrong to give the impression that Engage, Study and Activate are each
single activities. They are phases of the teaching/learning process which may
contain one or more activities.

Using Games and Stories

Research is beginning to show that young learners actually do learn better
through games.  There are many reasons for this, including the theory of intrinsic
motivation.
Intrinsic motivation is the idea that people are motivated to do things
because of internal factors.  Young children are not going to understand the
advantages that knowing a second language will give them. They are probably also
not thinking that they want to go to school to learn a second language - especially
because they are still trying to grasp their first language. 
That is why it is important to motivate them to want to do the class activities
and children will be more likely to join in and enjoy themselves when given the
option to participate in activities that incorporate play and physical movements.
Other research includes the theory of activity-based learning or total
physical response.  This theory states that movement stimulates neural networks
and activates mental capacities, which are not activated when sitting at a desk.
Children are more likely to be curious when presented with music, games and total
physical response activities, and therefore are more likely to learn and retain
knowledge. 
An example of a total physical response activity would be making the shapes of the
alphabet with your body, or using your body and props to imitate different types of
weather, or using your voice, body, a prop or make believe to represent vocabulary
or meaning.  For example a dull vocabulary idea is to ask children to pick up
pictures off the floor and name them.  To turn this into a total physical response
activity and fun game tell your children they are pirates who have lost their
treasure overboard and they must dive down and retrieve it.