UNIVERSIDAD DE CÓRDOBA

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING I

WORKSHOP
TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS (TEYL)

Names:
Valentina Pérez Torrenegra
Brayan Fernando Rodiño Coronado

Date:
25/11/21

Teacher:
Yurisan Tordecilla

Montería, Córdoba.
2021 – II
Introduction.

Younger learners need to have opportunities to physically move during class and to play.
As they play, they learn and practice social skills, including communication and language
skills. They are curious and usually willing to learn another language. Because their
cognitive abilities are still developing, they deal better with language as a whole, rather
than with rules about language. Since they are still in the stage of developing their native
language rules, they are able to generalize and create their own rules about a second
language as they use it. Given that their cognitive and motor skills are still developing, they
have stronger oral skills than literate skills, so this strength can be used in teaching a second
language. To do so requires a lot of repetition and clear directions. Younger learners also
have a shorter attention span than adults, which suggests that a variety of short activities
during a class would be better than one long activity. However, as they get older, children’s
attention span becomes longer, their motor skills develop, and they are able to do more
reading and writing.

1. After watching the video “Characteristics of Young Learners” and reading the
document “TEYL English Language Teaching” answer the following questions.

A. What are some characteristics of young learners when it comes to teaching a

foreign language? Mention at least 7.

- Active
- Energetic
- Spontaneous
- Can't seat still
- Touches things
- Imaginative
- Curious
- Short attention

B. What are some considerations or strategies that teachers should apply in a class
with young learners?

Match those characteristics of your students and young learners with the activities and your
class.

2. Watch this video and solve the following points “Shaping the Way We Teach
English: Module 12, Younger Learners” https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=agx2mWqIzzU

1. What is the purpose of this activity?

The main purpose of this activity is that using a song and repeating the words that the
teacher is trying to teach and of course, making the young learners have fun, they can
understand the introduction of the topics that they are going to learn on the class.

2. List the steps that the teacher goes through to enable students to do this activity.

-Introduction
-Physical Activity
-Explanation of the Writing activity

3. Look for behaviors that tell you whether students are enjoying this activity and
whether they are meeting the learning goals (purpose).

During the activity, the students are having fun, laughing, jumping, singing, among many
other behaviors that show us that they are participating in the activity, which is as fun as it
is educational, especially for youth and children.

4. The students are learning vocabulary for parts of the body. What are the two
techniques that are being used to help them learn? Do you think they are effective?
Why, or why not?

The two techniques that teachers use are divided into two activities. the first is physical
activity, and the other is the written part. Both are complemented for the purpose of
teaching students the terms or topics that teachers seek to evaluate. On the one hand,
physical activity is more didactic in which they play, laugh, sing, and learn using repetition;
while the written part is a little less didactic but uses concepts and processes that children
find entertaining.

Since we talk about the education of children, especially being a different language, these
techniques are quite useful when teaching them due to the specific characteristics of people
at these ages, so we consider that they are totally affective and above all functional because
if We use or try to apply a different model, be it stricter, more serious or less dynamic, it
would probably be quite difficult for the children to pay attention and be concentrated in
the classes.

5. Look at your list of the steps that the teacher goes through to do this activity. Not all
of the steps are pictured in the video. What additional steps do you think are necessary
to do this activity successfully?

It is a very complete method, and we believe that it fulfills the purpose, but if we have to
add a complementary part, it would be the sample of audiovisual content that reinforces
previous knowledge and makes it easier for children to relate the words with more detailed
images to improve their understanding of the themes.
 6. Do the students look as if they are enjoying this activity? Have they learned the
vocabulary? What behaviors tell you that?

When we see students doing activities of this type where they laugh and do things
animated, we can say that it really shows that they are enjoying the class. Hand in hand
with learning new words through repetition and the action of touching or pointing to what
these words represent, so they are learning the necessary vocabulary and demonstrate it
with their behaviors when singing while pointing to each of the words. parts of the body in
a fluid way.