English for Young Learners

Anita Zukhrufa
1182040019
PBI 6A

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International Journal of Education and Psychological Research (IJEPR)

Ritu Chandra

Classroom Management for Effective Teaching

Teachers play a major role for effective class conduction. It is the responsibility of the teacher to make
his/her class interesting so that students are keen to attend and participate in the class.
Teaching is not controlling, but rather working with the students to learn, grow, and succeed together.
Classroom management aims at establishing student self-control through a process of promoting positive
student achievement and behavior.
According to Evertson and Weinstein (2006)
Classroom management has two distinct purposes:
“It not only seeks to establish and sustain an orderly environment so students can engage in meaningful
academic learning, it also aims to enhance student social and moral growth” (p. 4).
Jacob Kounin also believed that if students were engaged in their lessons, they would be less likely to
misbehave.
According to Spencer Kagan, students should play an active role in setting classroom rules. By allowing
the students to help create the rules, the students are participating in classroom community building.

Problems of Classroom
Indiscipline is a problem normally faced by teachers which creates a hindrance in teaching process.
Problems of Classroom Management can be overcome by being prepared for class, motivating the
students, providing a comfortable learning environment, building students’ self-esteem, being creative
and imaginative in daily lessons.

Techniques for Better Classroom Control

Teacher needs to Focus attention on entire class and must not talk over student chatter.

With-It-Ness
With-it-ness refers to a teacher’s awareness of what is going on in the classroom behaviors before they
get out of line, keeping learners on tasks.

Ripple Effect
Jacob Kounin created the idea of the “ripple effect.” The idea is that if one student sustains positive or
negative consequences, the rest of the class will see what is taking place and a ripple effect will occur.

Model Classroom
The Canters believed that teachers should teach and model classroom behaviors. By doing so, students are
able to visually see what is expected and what is not allowed in the classroom.

Lee & Marlene Canter focused on Assertive Discipline, Students have the right to learn in a calm,
organized classroom and teachers have the right to teach in a classroom free of interruption and
misbehavior.
Working with Young Children who are Learning English as a New Language
Alberta. Alberta Education. Early Learning Branch.

1. Learning English as a New Language

a) Early stages of learning
Children move through a number of stages when learning English as a new language.
The association Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) identifies five
developmental stages for learning a new language.
 Beginning Stage
 Home language use: Some children initially use their home language in educational settings
because it is the only language they know.
 Nonverbal period: In a new setting, young children may not use any language at all, or very
little, for a few weeks or even months. Children often use gestures to communicate with
adults and other children.
 Emerging Stage
These children use a lot of formulaic expressions (words or phrases they hear others say). Formulaic
sentences are important because they help open the door to social interaction with early childhood
professionals and other children.
 Developing Stage
Children gradually move from memorized sentences to original, productive and spontaneous English
conversation. Their English often has errors that cause by:

 Transfer errors: Some children’s errors are traceable to their first language.
 Developmental errors: common to all learners of English.
This guide deals mainly with the three developmental stages listed above. TESOL identifies the later
two developmental stages as Expanding and Bridging.
b) How long does it take for children to learn English?
Young children learning English can take years to become as competent in English as their peers
whose first language is English.

It takes approximately three to four years in school for young children learning English to
accumulate an English vocabulary size comparable to their English-speaking peers.
 It can take from five to seven years in school for young children learning English to master
complex academic English skills, both spoken and written
c) Why do some children learn English faster than others?
These individual differences can be due to such things as the following.

 Language aptitude
 Age of acquisition
 Socio-economic status
  Quality and quantity of English exposure

2. Developing and Maintaining the Home Language

Young children from newcomer families are in a different situation than their parents because their
first languages are still developing when they begin to learn English, and opportunities to continue
learning their first language are often limited.
 Why developing and maintaining the home language is so important\
The loss of the home language may cause a child’s self-esteem to suffer because the child may
feel he or she does not belong to the home culture without the language or not fully belong to the
majority culture.
 How early childhood professionals can encourage children’s home language development
Young children continue to build their home language at the same time as learning an additional
language, development of both languages is enhanced. Therefore, it is important for early
childhood professionals to encourage families and communities to support children’s home
language development and maintenance.
3. Engaging Families and Communities
Family, community members and the children themselves are great resources as you seek to establish
a learning environment where cultural and linguistic diversity is valued. Young children’s learning is
integrated and interconnected, therefore experiences that reflect and support the home and
community life of the children will have the greatest impact on their learning.
Tips for communicating with families and communities
 Understand the importance of your role.
 Consider newcomer issues.
 Learn about who they are.
 Use what you have learned to help you communicate.

4. Creating a Supportive Learning Environment

This means that children, parents and community members should feel as though they are welcomed
members of the learning community and that their diverse identities are valued.
 Establish a welcoming early learning environment
 Encourage children to play
 Model language use

5. Language Learning Activities

Young children learn about the world as they experience it. This means that their learning is holistic
and related to particular events in their lives. Thematic and project-based approaches are two
effective ways to offer children relevant and hands-on learning experiences
 Focusing on language functions
 Activity planning tips
 Encourage interaction.
 Interact with the children.
 Use repetition.
 Introduce new material slowly.
  Be flexible.
 Allow for breaks.
 Language-rich activities
 Storytelling and retelling
 Puppets
 Describing unseen objects
 Motivating activities
 Language-based games
Joan Kang Shin
English Language Center University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Teaching English to Young Learners

Teaching language within a meaningful context and share effective techniques for making language input
comprehensible and encouraging student participation.

Module I: Learning & Teaching Styles for Primary Students

Considerations for Teaching Young Learners
• How children learn
They learn through their own individual actions and exploration. Through other people, through
interaction with adults.

• Characteristics of young learners

 Acquire through hearing and experiencing lots of English

 Learn things through playing
 Are not able to organize their learning
 Are not able to organize their learning
 Their grammar will develop gradually on its own

• Language Learning Environment

L1 environment L2 environment

- language highly contextualized - language more decontextualized

- in the real world the language used is authentic - in the classroom the language used tends to
- learner highly motivated be artificial
- learners may not be highly motivated

Teaching Approaches for Young Learners

1. Supplement activities with visuals, realia, and movement.
2. Involve students in making visuals and realia.
3. Move from activity to activity.
4. Teach in themes.
5. Use stories and contexts familiar to students.
6. Establish classroom routines in English.
7. Use L1 as a resource when necessary.
8. Bring in helpers from the community
 9. Collaborate with other teachers in your school.
10. Communicate with other TEYL professionals.

Module II: Songs, Chants, and Poems!

This means learning to sing, chant, and write poems as well as learning how to incorporate them
effectively into English lessons as good practice for teaching pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and all
four skills.

Module III: Storytelling and More!

It gives the rationale for using stories as a meaningful context in which new language can be taught and as
a source for cultural content. Demonstrations of storytelling techniques and activities for young learners
will be given in order to show participants how to integrate skills and teach vocabulary and grammar in
fun and interesting contexts.

Module IV: Increasing Classroom Interaction

Why use classroom interaction techniques?
Classroom interaction techniques can be used to give students a chance to build their oral language
proficiency. Students can practice using English in meaningful and communicative contexts with the
teacher’s guidance and feedback.

 Benefits of increasing students’ oral English production in the classroom

o Familiarizes students with using English and helps them to feel comfortable interacting in
English rather than afraid
o Motivates students to learn English so that they can communicate more effectively
o Builds students’ confidence in using English as they are able to get their ideas across
o Gives students the opportunity to “notice the gap” between their comprehension of input and
their ability to produce comprehensible output
o Let students test hypotheses about how English works and get feedback from the teacher
 Classroom interaction is authentic communication
The language used in the classroom when giving instructions is very similar to real life, basic
everyday English.” (Willis, 1981, p. 30)
Teacher-directed interaction techniques
1. Give students opportunities to speak.
2. Prompt students to improve the quality of their responses.
English for Young Learners
Anita Zukhrufa
1182040019
PBI 6A

Conclusion

Teachers have an essential role in creating effective teaching. How well the teacher manages, the
class will affect student learning achievement. However, teaching is not managing students but working
with students to learn, grow and succeed together. Therefore, classroom management aims to build
student self-control through processes that support positive student achievement and behavior. It not only
seeks to develop and maintain an orderly environment so that students can engage in meaningful
academic learning, but it also aims to enhance students' social and moral growth.

Children go through some stages when learning English as a new language, such as the beginning
stage, the emerging stage, and the developing stage. In this case, children need five to seven years to
master English skills, both spoken and written. They learn faster than adults. Young children are different
from their parents because their first language is still developing when they start learning English; if the
two are balanced, they can improve both languages. Therefore, early childhood professionals need to
encourage families and communities to support children's home language development and maintenance.
Their learning is holistic and related to specific events in their life. Engaging with families and
communities to create a supportive learning environment will significantly impact their learning success.
After all, young children learn from certain events in their life.

Children learn from what they do. Teaching language must be meaningful and effective to make
language input understandable and encourage student participation. Therefore teachers need to consider
several things, such as how children learn, their characteristics, their learning environment, and the
appropriate teaching approach. Young children like fun things, so that teachers can use songs, songs,
poetry, or storytelling. Furthermore, it is also possible to use interactive techniques to build their spoken
language proficiency. After all, the classroom language when giving instructions is very similar to real-
life, everyday basic English, so that it motivates students to communicate more effectively in English.