Combinado Advanced

Unit 1
Advanced Didactics of the English Language
Motivation in the EFL Pre-

school Classroom
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4
1.1. Introduction and objectives 4
1.2. What is motivation? 4
© Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR)
1.3. Internal and external factors of motivation 9

1.4. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the EFL pre-
school classroom 11
1.5 Bibliographical references 16
In Depth 17
Test 19
Scheme

3
Unit 1. Scheme
Key ideas
1.1. Introduction and objectives
Motivation is an essential concept in teaching, not only on the students’ side but
also on the teachers’ side. Remember children will not learn from somebody who
does not like teaching. Therefore, teaching must be a profession you choose
because it is your real vocation.
In this unit, we will focus on how to motivate young children by revising some
general concepts about this topic that will be applied to the EFL pre-school
classroom. The main aims of this unit are:
 Understanding the concept of motivation.

 Understanding what influences our students in terms of motivation.
 Understanding and applying types of motivation.
1.2. What is motivation?
Motivation is not an easy concept to define. Although we can easily describe what a
motivated or unmotivated student is and how he/she acts, motivation is a much
more complex concept to describe.
This term usually appears when talking about successful and unsuccessful learners,
as it seems that motivation is the motor that makes the learning process work, no
matter the age of the student.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
The leaner’s enthusiasm and perseverance towards a subject are going to be
essential to determine his/her success or failure and this is applied when
learning a foreign language. Motivated pre-school students can reach a good
command of English regardless of other important factors such as their
aptitude to learn languages.
Consequently, attitude towards the language can be, in some cases, even more
important than aptitude. It is our responsibility as teachers to create the correct
environment where children feel comfortable and are not afraid of using the foreign
language.
During this stage, motivation and interaction are essential. As a rule, bear in mind
that all children have similar aptitudes towards language learning or acquisition. If
English is properly taught during the pre-school period, they will start primary
education with a good command of the language, at least regarding listening skills.
Therefore, always bear in mind the principles of the comprehension approach,
developed by Winitz, Krashen, Terrel and Asher in the 1980s:
 FL is learnt as a L1: silence and observation.

 A lot of comprehensible input is provided.
 Nobody is forced to speak until ready.
 Language is allowed to emerge and improves gradually.
Following this approach implies creating a motivational learning environment and

having a good command of the language yourself. Remember you need to offer
children correct models of the language, as they are copying your pronunciation
and grammatical constructions.
Let us see an example: if English pre-school teachers are not required a C1 or

C2 level of English, as a result, we can find teachers whose level of English is
not enough for teaching pronunciation. However, pre-school years are crucial
when talking about acquiring phonemes.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
If a teacher spends all this stage saying /ˈtelebɪʃɒn/ instead of /ˈtelɪˌvɪʒn̩ /
those are the phonemes pupils will learn. Motivation is important, but
preparation is also a key issue in language teaching.
Motivation is an abstract concept we use to refer to the reasons why people

act as they do.
The results we get from our actions are closely linked to the reasons why we behave
in a particular way. However, motivation, apart from being difficult to define,
contains many different motives that might have nothing in common except that
they influence the way we behave or face the language learning process. For
example, when someone is motivated to learn a foreign language, that is, he or she
is enthusiastic and committed, studies hard and is perseverant, it might be because
he/she wants a pay rise, wants to travel abroad, loves the culture, etc.
These motives can vary from very basic physical needs (hunger, temperature, etc.),
to other material needs (money issues) or beliefs and values. However, pre-
schoolers do not pursuit these goals, they are not aware of the importance of
learning languages: they learn English because it is part of their educational plan.
Nobody asked them or gave them any other chance.
Consequently, the English teacher must plan activities children are likely to enjoy,
providing the right atmosphere where they feel at easy. Dörnyei (1994, p. 278)
points out the teacher-specific motivational components:
 Affiliative drive: which refers to the students’ need to do well in school in order
to please the teacher whom they like and appreciate.
 The teacher’s authority type: whether the teacher is autonomy supporting or
controlling. Sharing responsibility with students, offering them options and

choices, letting them have a say in establishing priorities and involving them in
the decision making enhance student self-determination and intrinsic
motivation.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
 The teacher’s role in the socialization of student motivation: whether the
teacher actively develops and stimulates learners’ motivation. There are three
main channels for the socialization process:
• Modelling. Teachers, in their position as group leaders, embody group
conscience and students’ attitudes and orientations towards learning
will be modelled after their teachers’, both in terms of effort
expenditure and orientations of interest in the subject.
• Task presentation. Efficient teachers call students’ attention to the
purpose of the activity they are going to do, its potential interest and
practical value and even the strategies that may be useful in achieving
the task.
• Feedback. This process carries a clear message about the teacher's
priorities and is reflected in the students' motivation. There are two
types of feedback: informational feedback, which comments on
competence, and controlling feedback, which judges performance
against external standards. Of the two, the former should be dominant.
Dörnyei (2001) also states that when someone has made a great progress in class
we usually say that this is because he/she is motivated, without reflecting on the
factors that have contributed to this positive attitude towards learning. Therefore,
to talk about motivation, Dörnyei proposes, we should think about the antecedents
of a particular action to better understand why students lose their motivation or
keep it (2001, p. 6-7). According to Dörnyei, motivation has two basic dimensions:
 Direction. The choice of a particular action.

 Intensity or magnitude. The effort expended on it and the persistence with it.
In other words: motivation refers to the reasons why someone decides to

carry out an action, the degree of implication he/she has with its
development and the duration of the interest in the development of the
action.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
Different motives make someone act in a particular way depending on many
different aspects. Age is, of course, one of the most important ones. Do not forget
that pre-schoolers are still acquiring their first language properly. If the preparation
and the learning environment is appropriate, they could also acquire the foreign
language in a natural and progressive way. The degree of implication on the
teachers and institutions’ side is essential to provide the best setting for learning. If
these factors fail, the quality of teaching will not have the results we could expect in
the suitable circumstances. Motivation in language teaching can be undermined by
lack of resources and poorly qualified teachers.
We should always bear in mind that a classroom, no matter the level or age of the
students, is a quite complex environment and that pure theories which focus on
only a few motivational factors are not going to be useful to adjust to the reality of
our classroom.
We cannot forget that, apart from learning a language, children are doing many
other different things in the classroom and that a lot of things happen at the same
time in a classroom: children growing up together, learning, having arguments,
discussing, making friends, etc.
The complexity of what is happening inside a classroom, as well as the

complexity of what each student might be going through in life (their personal
circumstances) should always be taken into account: we cannot explain and
analyse this complexity by using a single motivational principle, theory or
activity (Dörnyei, 2001, p. 13).

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Unit 1. Key ideas
1.3. Internal and external factors of motivation
A foreign language should not be considered just another curriculum topic, because
of the social nature of the language learning process and the real objective of
language learning or acquisition: using it as a social tool.
When we are dealing with a foreign language, we are not just learning vocabulary,
grammar, pronunciation or intonation, we are also learning how people
communicate, interact and behave in a different country, with a different language
and a different culture. The complexity of language learning from the point of view
of the students can be better understood by looking at the internal and external
factors of motivation.
As we can see in table 1, many different factors are going to have a direct impact on
motivation. Internal and external factors need to be taken into account during the
whole learning process, bearing in mind that the factors affecting learning a foreign
language might be different from those affecting learning any other subject and
that different ages or cultures can entail different factors.
The factors included in the chart are general ones, but we could make them more
specific if we focus only on what learning a foreign language implies.
The youngest learners, for example, are motivated by their wish to show their
parents and their teachers that they are improving, that they are learning new
things and behaving properly.
However, remember that each student is different and you need to pay attentions
to their particular needs and circumstances.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
Williams and Burden describe the framework of L2/FL motivation as follows (table
1):
INTERNAL FACTORS EXTERNAL FACTORS

Intrinsic interest of activity: Significant others:
 Arousal of curiosity.  Parents.
 Optimal degree of challenge.  Teachers.
 Peers.
Perceived value of activity: The nature of interaction with significant

 Personal relevant. others:
 Anticipated value of outcomes.  Mediated learning experiences.
 Intrinsic value attributed to the activity.  The nature and amount of feedback.
 Rewards.
 The nature and amount of appropriate
praise.
 Punishments, sanctions.
Mastery: The learning environment:

 Feeling of competence.  Comfort.
 Awareness of developing skills and  Resources.
mastery in a chosen area.  Time of day, week, year.
 Self-efficacy.  Size of class and school.
Self-content: The broader context:

 Realistic awareness of personal  Widely family networks.
strengths and weakness in skills  The local education system.
required.  Conflicting interests.
 Personal definitions and judgements of  Cultural norms.
success and failure.  Societal expectations and attitudes.
 Self-worth concern.
Attitudes:
 To language learning in general.
 To the target language.
 To the target language community and
culture.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
Other affective states:
 Confidence.
 Anxiety, fear.
Developmental age
1.4. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the EFL

pre-school classroom
Children are intrinsically motivated to learn, to undertake challenges, and to solve

problems (Deci & Ryan, 1985, p. 11). Therefore, it seems that if a child is not willing
to go to school and learn is because something has destroyed this natural tendency
towards learning. It has been observed that when students are intrinsically
motivated to perform a task, they spend more time engaged in the activity, learn
better and enjoy the activity more than when they are just extrinsically motivated
(Lepper, 1988).
Therefore, it seems important to discern both types of motivation in order to

provide students with the most suitable strategies. The teacher does not just order
to perform the activity but puts on the students’ shoes and understands that the
activity needs a different presentation to enhance motivation.
Remember that if your students are motivated, you are also likely to feel
motivated.
According to Dörnyei (2001, p. 11):

 Intrinsic motivation concerns behaviours performed for its own sake in order to
experience pleasure and satisfaction such as the joy of doing a particular activity
or satisfying one’s curiosity.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
 Extrinsic motivation involves performing a behaviour as a means to an end, that
is, to receive some extrinsic reward (e.g. good grades) or to avoid punishment.
Intrinsically motivated students feel that they are doing an activity because they
have chosen to do so voluntarily and because the activity represents a challenge to
their existing competencies and requires them to use their creative capabilities.
Intrinsic motivation is considered to be highly self-determined in the sense that the
reason for doing the activity is linked solely to the individual’s positive feelings
while performing the task.
On the other hand, extrinsically motivated behaviours are those performed not
because of inherent interest in the activity, but in order to achieve some
instrumental end, so the source of regulation is external to the activity per se.
Sometimes, rewards (that is, promoting extrinsic motivation) may seem the
solution to motivate students for doing tasks they do not like. However, results are
negative and the student still perceives the activity as non-attractive. Let us see an
example (fig. 1):
Figure 1: Promoting extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
Obviously, this is not universal because a real classroom is full of different individual
with different personalities and needs. Experience and patience will show you what
works better in each group.
It is also interesting noting that teachers usually feel tempted to reward intrinsic
interest as a way of maintaining it. Opposed to what it may seem, this behaviour
can lead to a loss of intrinsic interest because, according to research (Deci & Ryan,
1985, ch. 3), when you stop offering the reward, the student’s natural interest in
the activity or subject will decrease.
If the student is intrinsically motivated, do not offer further reward.

Everything is already perfect.
Bruner (Deci & Ryan, 1985, p. 247) pointed out that when students are learning
intrinsically, they usually interpret their successes and failures as information rather
than as rewards and punishments. These intrinsically motivated children see
mistakes as what they are: a natural part of the learning process.
Deci and Ryan (1985) go a step forward and revise motivation by talking about the
self-determination theory defined as:
Self-determination is a quality of human functioning that involves the experience of

choice, in other words, the experience of an internal perceived locus of causality. It
is integral to intrinsically motivated behaviour and is also an evidence in some
extrinsically motivated behaviours. Stated differently, self-determination is the
capacity to choose and to have those choices, rather than reinforcement
contingencies, drives, or any other forces or pressures, be the determinants of one's
actions (51).
They also give a more detailed description of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation,
dividing the latter into four categories (table 2).

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Unit 1. Key ideas
Table 2. Key motivational elements in the creation of motivational tasks
Adapted from Blumenfled, 1992, p. 273.

It is important noting that task variety can increase interest and attention at the
expense of cognitive engagement, so we can never forget that importance of
content, as this affects meaning.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
Meaningfulness can be considered as the key dimension of tasks and it must be
always present in all the activities we design.
The classroom is not an authentic environment, so all tasks are performed and
created for a teaching reason.
This is something that people alien to education, especially when talking about pre-
school teaching, do not understand. When teachers play a film or propose a game,
the task is always meaningful in an academic context. Children are not watching a
movie or playing basketball because the teacher is tired, but because that movie or
that game is useful from a didactic reason.
Constructivism talks about authentic tasks (Blumenfled, 1992, p. 278). By definition,

authentic tasks require students to use tools and practice self-regulation and are
diverse and challenging.
Authentic tasks also require that students represent and apply knowledge in
ways that are responsive to and transfer across situations. Under these
circumstances, instructional support involves scaffolding, coaching, and
modelling.
The teacher becomes a facilitator who relinquishes considerable control to learners.

Helping learners to be independent is also a good motivational strategy, as they
feel they are capable and their opinions are valued by the teacher. This does not
imply anarchy in the classroom and you need to stablish a norm of tolerance and
respect.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
1.5 Bibliographical references
Blumenfeld, P. (1992). Classroom Learning and Motivation: Clarifying and Expanding

Goal Theory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84 (3), 272-281.
Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in

Human Behaviour. New York: Springer Science.
Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Classroom.

The Modern Language Journal, 78 (3), 273-284.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.
Lepper, M. R. (1988). Motivational Considerations in the Study of Instruction.

Cognition and Instruction, 5, 289-309.

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Unit 1. Key ideas
In Depth
Facilitation of Learning
To complement the contents included in this unit, please watch the master class
about facilitation of learning, where the teacher will revise the main characteristics
of this approach.
The master class is available at the virtual campus.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
McLeod, S. A. (2017). Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Maslow established a motivational theory based on the needs human beings have.
These are distributed in the form of a hierarchical pyramid. This web page explains
them in an easy way and will help you reflect on the complexity of your students’
minds.
Access to the article through the following link:

https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

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Unit 1. In Depth
Teachers’ Motivation to Participate in Training and to Implement Innovations
Gorozidis, G. and Papaioannou, A. G. (2013). Teachers’ motivation to participate in

training and to implement innovations. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, 1-11.
An interesting article about a case study on teachers’ motivation based on self-

determination theory.
Access to article through the following link:

http://selfdeterminationtheory.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/01/2014_GorozidisPapaioannou.pdf

18
Unit 1. In Depth
Test
1. Motivation is:
A. A clear concept which defines human attitudes towards learning.
B. A concept which reflects upon the process we go through to fulfil a given
task.
C. An abstract concept we use to refer to the reasons why people act as they
do.
2. The affiliative drive proposed by Dörnyei refers to:

A. The students’ need to do well in school in order to please the teacher.
B. The teacher sharing responsibility with students.
C. The teacher actively developing and stimulating learners’ motivation.
3. Do students need feedback?

A. Yes, as it is the way the teacher transmits his/her priorities.
B. Yes, but it is necessary to provide students with as much controlling
feedback as possible.
C. No, as students will not become independent learners.
4. The dimensions of motivation are:

A. Intensity and antecedents.
B. Direction and intensity or magnitude.
C. Magnitude and intensity.
5. No pure theory can be applied to the complexity of a real classroom:

A. True: each student is an individual with particular needs and a proper

background so we need to know our students to know what better suits
them.
B. False: children show similar behaviours according to their age, so any
general theory designed for that age scope will suit any classroom.

19
Unit 1. Test
6. Internal factors of motivation include:
A. Perceived value of the activity, significant others and mastery.
B. Intrinsic interest of activity, self-content and attitudes.
C. The learning environment, the broader context and developmental age.
7. According to Deci and Ryan children:

A. Need extrinsic motivation to learn.
B. Are afraid of challenges.
C. Are intrinsically motivated to learn.
8. Extrinsic motivation includes:

A. Control, obedience and punishments.
B. Pleasure, fun and enjoyment.
C. Competition, resources and intrinsic interest.
9. The creation of motivational tasks include:

A. Routine, challenge and norms.
B. Variety, challenge and meaning.
C. Rewards, challenge and competition.
10. The key dimension of tasks is:

A. Meaningfulness.
B. Meaninglessness.
C. Meaning.

20
Unit 1. Test
Unit 2
Motivational teaching
practice
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4

2.2. What is motivation? 4
2.3. Meaningful learning 13
In Depth 16
Test 17
Scheme

3
Unit 2. Scheme
Key ideas
In order to better understand how motivation works in the EFL classroom, this unit
revises the important aspects to bear in mind when addressing pre-schoolers and
designing activities for them. This unit intends at making some reflection about the
importance of motivation and all the steps we can follow to maintain it in our
classroom.
The main aims of this unit are:
 Discussing how to stablish and keep a motivating environment in the classroom.

 Being aware of the importance of meaningful learning to promote intrinsic
motivation.
2.2. Motivational teaching practice
Promoting motivation as a FL teacher can be more demanding than promoting

motivation as a tutor. The tutor spends several hours per day with these children
and the rhythm of the classroom fluctuates, giving the opportunity to do activities
that are more relaxing or more demanding according to what was done before.
In the case of the English teacher, things are a little bit different. The English teacher
moves around the school and meets a different group in every session. This means
that you could be repeating the same contents several times during the same day if
you are in charge of various classrooms from the same age group. That is quite
demanding for the teacher because it implies that you need to show the same

4
Unit 2. Key ideas
enthusiasm all the time. Being able to motivate students is important for all
teachers, but especially for those who meet different groups along the school day.
Dörnyei (2001) offers the following steps to motivate your FL students:
 Creating the basic motivational conditions.

 Generating initial motivation.
 Maintaining and protecting motivation.
 Encouraging positive self-evaluation.
Let us see them in detail in order to provide the most motivating teaching practice.
Creating the basic motivational conditions
Before starting using motivational techniques in your classroom, you have to pave
the way for the correct reception of these. Therefore, Dörnyei establishes some
steps to take into consideration to build a motivational environment. These are not
to be applied in all cases, as it is important being aware that what works in a group
may not work in another.
Start your year with a positive attitude, but allow you some time to know your
students, their needs and backgrounds.
One of the first things to start creating motivational conditions is by showing

appropriate teacher behaviours. Enthusiasm is, of course, one of the most
important conditions. Normally, our most influential teachers were those who were
the most enthusiastic, those who loved their subjects and were able to show their
passion for the discipline they were teaching.
Do not be afraid to share our personal interest in the language, share the reasons
why we enjoy English and the cultural aspects we are really interested in. The
learning of a FL should be seen as something meaningful in itself, not only as a
mean to reach something else but something that can also be fun and satisfactory.

5
Unit 2. Key ideas
On the other hand, it is very important to show our students we have high
expectations for what they can achieve and the progress they can make. They need
to feel we care about their improvement, their strengths and weaknesses. Our
expectations about our students’ achievement are directly proportional to their
own expectations of success.
It is important that everybody in the classroom should be aware that you

care, that it is important for you that your students succeed and that you are
ready to work just as hard as the students towards this success.
A good relationship with students is essential. Obviously, this is a slow process, your
students need to be aware you trust them and you believe in their potential. We
are not their bosses, but facilitators of their learning. So, listen and pay attention to
what they have to say. If you need to correct something any of them has done or
reproach someone’s negative action, show a non-judgemental attitude and accept
that all your students are different. It is important that your students consider you
as somebody approachable, who will be available to help if they need so. Personal
contact with students can be of great importance to solve some problems with
learning and, of course, to increase motivation and a positive attitude towards the
subject.
As you will be using a foreign language as a medium of communication,

sometimes students may feel you are not as accessible as other teachers are.
Never forget that students’ parents are also an important part of the learning
system, so keep a good relationship with students’ parents. As the FL teacher, you
do not need to contact parents often, as this is something the tutor does, but try to
keep parents regularly informed about their children’s progress using the tutor or
sending notes from time to time.
Remember keeping them informed is not just telling if they are doing it poorly, but
also when everything is ok, so they are able to understand how their children are

6
Unit 2. Key ideas
performing in the FL classroom. Whenever possible, try to design activities that
need their assistance at home. These type of activities are not homework, but
experiences they are likely to enjoy such as going for a walk and look for some
flowers to classify in the English classroom. These have to be carefully planned, as
you need to know about parents’ availability.
It is also important stablishing a pleasant supportive atmosphere in the classroom.

As we have previously said, we are not dealing with an easy subject to teach. In
English lessons, children need to operate, to carry out activities and express
themselves using a code they have not mastered. This can make them feel insecure
and can risk them avoiding trying to communicate.
Make sure they understand you value their effort and, even though your mission is
promoting the use of English in the classroom, do not forbid the use of students’ L1
when they need to express themselves.
Allow FL to emerge naturally by providing them with lots of input and correct
examples, repeating, rephrasing and negotiating meaning as much as
necessary. The classroom should be an anxiety-free zone.
Here are some tips we can use:
 Tolerance is essential. Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process.

We should establish norms of tolerance and encourage students to take
risks. Mistakes are always a good opportunity to provide correct examples
and new chances for communication.
 Humour should not be left out. Humour should be encouraged and
brought into the classroom. It is going to make the risk-taking easier.

 Decorate the classroom according to the students’ tastes. Take into
account your students’ preferences when elaborating visuals.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
Bear in mind that you are sharing the classroom with other teachers, so ask the
tutor to give you an English corner. Change this decoration from time to time, so
there are not too many elements together.
Generating initial motivation
According to Dörney, if we want our students to have a positive attitude towards

the FL and its culture, it is important focusing on promoting positive language-
related values, thus enhancing the learners' language-related values and attitudes.
There are three different types of values in this regard:
 Intrinsic values. These are associated with the students’ interest on the
language learning process and the activities related to it. What we have to
do is to present the course as something fun and interesting in itself,
arousing their curiosity, creating an attractive image of the learning process.
Some tips:
• Connect FL activities with those students are likely to enjoy. Use
learning and knowledge technologies (LKT), outdoor activities, music
or any other ideas the students themselves may suggest.
• Provide examples of original and enjoyable tasks you will carry out
during the course.
• The first encounters with the subject must be a positive experience,
not a threatening one.

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Unit 2. Key ideas
 Integrative values: these refer to the students’ interest in the interaction
with members of the social group represented by the target language.
Therefore, promote an open-minded disposition towards the foreign
language, its culture and its speakers. Some tips to promote integrative
values are:
• There should always be a cultural and social component in your FL
curriculum. The texts we use, the songs we play or the posters we
use to decorate the classroom are a source of cultural information.
• The use of influential public people and their contribution to society
and culture is a good way to promote a positive interest in social
interaction and the language learning process. If our students are
very young, they might not know these public figures, but you can
start introducing them.
• We must always promote contact with FL speakers and products
related to the foreign language: music, books, films, or brands.
• By using authentic material, students might enjoy feeling involved in
exploring the cultural differences: different food, customs, TV
characters.
 Instrumental values. These are related to the practical use of the language
in the outside world. In other words, the pragmatic benefits of speaking and
understanding a foreign language. Our youngest students might not be able
to understand that English is a different code of communication and that
mastering it will bring them lots of different possibilities and opportunities,
so these values should be reinforced directly as a form of encouragement.
Instrumental value in the pre-school classroom is promoted, basically, by
encouraging them using the language for communication, even if they only
use isolated words and not full sentences. Interactive activities will help
them in this sense.
Avoid frustration by increasing the learners' expectancy of success, so be sure you

provide them with sufficient preparation.

9
Unit 2. Key ideas
The perceived likelihood of success does not depend only on how difficult the
task is but also on how well the learners are prepared for the task.
Pre-task activities have become standard features in modern language teaching

methodologies, and these tasks increase success potential. Therefore, be sure your
tasks always have a proper presentation, so your students understand their aims
and what they are expected to do. Do not forget to offer assistance while doing the
task. If the students know that they can count on your ongoing guidance and help
while they are engaged in a learning activity, this knowledge will naturally increase
their expectation of success. This is also promoted when students do cooperative
work.
Your students’ interests should be your guide whenever possible so you can
make the teaching material relevant for the learners.
Indeed, one of the most demotivating factors for learners is when they have to
learn something that they cannot see the point of because it has no seeming
relevance whatsoever to their lives. The first step has to involve our finding out
about the interests, hobbies and needs of our learners. Try:
 Doing interviews and one-to-one chats.

 Proposing group discussion and brainstorming.
 Paying attention to their conversations and the games they play.
Finally, positively confront the possible erroneous beliefs, expectations, and

assumptions that learners may have, so you create realistic learner beliefs.
Speaking a new language is not something that can be done in a couple of months.
Reflecting about the language learning process can be tricky in this stage, but, if
possible, raise the learners' general awareness about the different ways languages
are learnt and the number of factors that can contribute to success.

10
Unit 2. Key ideas
Maintaining and protecting motivation
Although we revised the positive language related values in the previous section,
these are to be taken into account in all the tasks you design for your students,
especially the intrinsic value by making learning enjoyable and presenting tasks in
a motivating way.
Vary the type of tasks you carry out, focus on motivational flow and not only on
informational flow of your classroom and, of course, do the unexpected from time
to time. Tasks need a good presentation, so students feel interested in them. It is
also important to provide appropriate strategies to carry out tasks so that students
get used to using different kind of strategies to carry out different types of tasks.
The content of the activities should be adapted to students’ interests and
personalised when possible. It is useful having always a plan B in case something
goes wrong.
Protect the learners’ self-esteem and increasing their self-confidence.
The opinion of teachers plays a very important role in reinforcing the students’ self-
image and reducing anxiety when facing the learning process. If you believe in your
students, they will believe in themselves. It is essential to draw learner’s attention
to their own abilities and strengths, showing you believe in their capacity to
complete the tasks and overcome their weaknesses. Even though pre-schoolers are
not very self-conscious about their social image yet, try to allow them to maintain a
positive social image. For most schoolchildren, the main social arena in life is their
school and their most important reference group is their peers. The FL lesson makes
a student feel especially nervous in terms of performance, so this can affect the way
they perceive the usefulness of the language itself. Remember mistakes are part of
the process, so do not criticise them in ways they may consider humiliating (figure
1).

11
Unit 2. Key ideas
Figure 1. Observe the two reactions from a teacher to a pronunciation mistake. Do correct
mistakes, but in a constructive way.
Speaking a FL can also be a source of anxiety for the student, so avoid putting
learners in the spotlight unexpectedly: many students have been demotivated by
the embarrassment of having to speak in the FL in front of the class.
Be sure they see the use of language as something natural and as a valuable
tool. Do not force them to speak until they are ready.
Dealing with young children can also be frustrating for you as a grown-up, as they
are still developing their social skills and leaving behind the egocentric stage of their
lives. Teachers need tons of patience to overcome these issues associated to
developmental age, so avoid disciplining students in ways that they might perceive
as humiliating or in ways where no meaning is derived. As FL teacher, your will be
dealing with different students in each session, so be sure you can breathe for a
while and treat your students as what they are: different subjects with different
needs.

12
Unit 2. Key ideas
Encouraging positive self-evaluation
Sometimes it is said that pre-schoolers cannot understand many things because

they are too young. That is true, but the role of the teacher is trying to prepare
them for critical thinking. This is something really useful regarding self-evaluation.
So, start by promoting motivational attributions.
Encourage learners to explain their failures by the lack of effort and appropriate
strategies applied rather than by their insufficient ability and spend the time
needed to overcome learning difficulties. Refuse to accept ability attributions and
emphasise that the curriculum is within the learners' ability range.
If you provide your students with motivational feedback, they will see this as a
model. So, notice and react to any positive contributions from your students to give
them a sense of achievement. If you increase the learners’ satisfaction, you will
help them in this process. Monitor student accomplishments and progress and take
time to celebrate any victory and make student progress tangible by encouraging
the production of visual records and arranging regular events.
2.3. Meaningful learning
Meaningful learning is essential when teaching, but the concept acquires special
relevance when we are dealing with languages. We have been dealing with this
topic implicitly in the lines above, as meaningful learning is closely related to
motivation.
However, further reflection is needed to better understand its importance when

designing a lesson plan. It seems that if we want to be linguistic competent, we
need to be aware of phonological, morphological and syntactic norms so we can

13
Unit 2. Key ideas
transmit an intelligible message. However, this does not mean communication has
been successful. Sometimes, children repeat accurate utterances the teacher has
transmitted in the classroom, but which actually do not make much sense to them.
When you are a teacher, your objective is not finishing your tasks as fast as possible
and going home or taking a break. Proper teaching practise seeks successful
students, and, in language teaching, success means using the target language for
meaningful communication. In meaningful learning, the new information is
understood and can be connected to previous knowledge, complementing and
expanding it. Ausubel (2000) confronts rote learning (memorising) and meaningful
learning: a teacher who just gives list of words, uses drills constantly and asks
students to learn by heart some concepts without putting them into context may
have a classroom full of clever parrots but has not succeeded in teaching, as these
rote learnings have a limited and practical usefulness.
Ausubel (2000) coined the concept meaning reception learning, which requires both
a meaningful learning set and the presentation of potentially meaningful material
to the learner. In other words, contents must be relevant for the students and make
sense.
For example, a teacher should not talk about the underground if those
children have never seen such a thing in their daily life, but for example, about
buses. It could be interesting vocabulary to teach in a given session, but it will
become just a meaningless word for your pupils until they place it in really
life.
Take into account that the knowledge of the world a pre-schooler has is rather
limited. Therefore, before presenting new vocabulary to your students, pave the
way for the introduction of new concepts properly considering previous knowledge.
It is important noting that meaningful learning is not synonymous with the learning
of meaningful material, as the learning material is only potentially meaningful
(Ausubel, 2000, p. 1) and, consequently, depends on the teacher and the students’
attitudes to become relevant.

14
Unit 2. Key ideas
All this implies the materials the teacher employs must be relevant for the students
and should avoid using too many new concepts in the same day so they can
assimilate them easily. Consider that too many can be much less than expected, but
you only will know that once you know how your students work.
Ausubel, D. (2000). The Acquisition and Retention of Knowledge: A Cognitive View.

New York: Springer-Verlag, Publisher.
Dörney, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

15
Unit 2. Key ideas
In Depth
Pros and cons of being the English teacher
where the teacher reflects about the implications of being an English teacher and
how this can affect your motivation.
Access to master class through the virtual campus.
Teacher Motivation
Han, J. and Yin, H. (2016) Teacher Motivation: Definition, Research Development and
Implications for Teachers. Teacher Education and Development, 3.
Motivation is also important for you as a teacher. In this article you will find
interesting details about teacher motivation which will help you especially if you are
given your first steps the teaching world.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1217819?needAcc
ess=true

16
Unit 2. In Depth
Test
1. Dörnyei steps of motivation are to be considered universal.
A. True: children show similar behaviour according to their age, so what
works in with a 4-year-old classroom also works with another 4-year-old
classroom.
B. False: even though children are the same age, their personalities and
taste may differ due to several factors.
2. Within showing appropriate teacher behaviours, the most important is:

A. Enthusiasm.
B. Perseverance.
C. Control.
3. The relationship with the students’ parents:

A. It is important because if the FL teacher tells parents about their
children’s progress, they will have objective data of their evolution.
B. It is not important for the FL teacher, as parents already speak to the
tutor.
C. It is important because they need to know if their children need extra
support outside school.
4. What can you do if your students use their L1 in the English classroom?
A. You must stop that immediately.
B. You must remind them that English is the vehicular language in the
English classroom.
C. Nothing. The FL must emerge; they will use it when they feel ready and
confident, so provide them with lots of input.

17
Unit 2. Test
5. What is a mistake?
A. A natural part of the learning process.
B. A problem in the learning process.
C. Something that happens when students are not paying attention.
6. Intrinsic values are associated to:

A. The target language itself and its speakers.
B. The students’ interest on the tasks proposed.
C. The use of the target language.
7. What do interactive activities promote?

A. Self-motivation.
B. A positive attitude towards the FL culture.
C. The instrumental value.
8. What are pre-tasks for?

A. For presenting the tasks to the students so they understand their aims and
meaning.
B. For offering assistance during the tasks.
C. For helping students with a lower level.
9. To be linguistic competent:
A. We must not make grammar or pronunciation mistakes.
B. We must transmit messages that make sense both for us and for the
receiver.
C. We must transmit intelligible messages.
10. In meaning reception learning, teachers:

A. Take into account previous knowledge and how it can be enlarged.
B. Present sets of new items to broaden the students’ knowledge.
C. Provide students with as many new concepts as possible to open up their
minds.

18
Unit 2. Test
Unit 3
Oral skills: decoding

Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4

3.2. Decoding messages 4
3.3 Decoding and meaning building 10
In Depth 14
Test 16
Scheme

3
Unit 3. Scheme
Key ideas
Being able to understand what the English teacher says is the first step to acquire or
learning the language. Pre-school children have a limited knowledge of the FL, so
your mission is providing them with lots of comprehensible input and interactive
activities. It is important noting that little children are not going to deal with
grammar explicitly, in the same way they do not do so when learning their first
language, so listening activities are based on communication and not in the dealing
with grammar rules.
However, before talking about activities and ideas, it is necessary to take a look at
the theoretical background supporting the complexity of language understanding
and all the factors involved in the process.
In this unit, we will focus on how little children see a spoken text and all the process
that they go through to understand messages. The main aims of this unit are:
 Understanding the process the brain goes through to understand a given

message.
 Thinking about the techniques teachers can use to ease communication in the FL
classroom.
3.2. Decoding messages
Oral skills are essential in language acquisition or learning. Language, even though it
can be written, is meant to be spoken. Never forget that the objective of language

4
Unit 3. Key ideas
learning is communication: English is not a simple academic subject, nor just a must
for job opportunities, but a powerful tool for communication. The complex
development of human communication starts when we are in the womb and keeps
developing for years. It is, therefore, interesting recalling some previous knowledge
about how the human brain handles language.
Our brain has two specific areas devoted to language. Both of them are placed in
the left hemisphere (fig. 1) and are in charge in differentiated processes:
 Broca’s area deals with the production of language.

 Wernicke’s area deals with the comprehension of language.
Figure 1. Broca and Wernicke’s areas (NHI, 2015).
Consequently, if any of these areas is injured, speech is affected in the form of

aphasia.
Taking a non-damaged brain as a starting point in the pre-school classroom,

children are the perfect age for language acquisition, as they are in the known as
critical period (Lenneberg, 1967). In fact, Lenneberg stablished that at the age of
three or four practically every child in contact with a foreign language community
learns the new language rapidly and without a trace of previous accent (1967, p.
62). They only need the correct amount of exposition to the language and, most

5
Unit 3. Key ideas
times, this is difficult to achieve at school when the exposure to the FL is limited to
one session.
Apart for limited exposition to the FL, another problem is that English at pre-school
level was not implemented long ago. Specifically, it was implemented in 2006 with
the Ley Orgánica de Educación (LOE). This means that there is a shortage of English
teachers in the field of pre-school education.
In many cases, primary school teachers are in charge of teaching the FL to pre-
schoolers. Even though their command of the language is enough for teaching
during this period, their target group is different from the one they are used to
teaching. For example, a primary school teacher can use written examples, but this
has no application when dealing with a pre-school classroom.
The English pre-school teacher needs to focus almost solely on spoken

language, which is, in fact, very demanding in terms of teaching.
A new language is a new tool which opens new possibilities of communication and
this is directly associated with the use of spoken language. That is why teaching a
language to young learners cannot be based on the same methodology we could
find useful for adults, who need reflection about grammatical structures.
Cameron (2006, p. 18) points out that children:

 Are more enthusiastic learners.
 Will engage in an activity even if they do not understand completely why or
how.
 Lose interest faster if the activity is not interesting.
 Cannot use metalanguage as they do not know about grammar or discourse.

 Are not so afraid of using the language.
Simple as it may seem, language is, indeed, acquired through use. Children will
model their conversation skills according to the models given by the teacher.

6
Unit 3. Key ideas
According to Lenneberg: “children will never learn language unless they hear
it, and we fulfil our function simply by talking, the more the better” (1967, p.
64).
They will learn grammar structures, intonation and vocabulary by paying attention
to what you offer them in the classroom and all this will appear later in their spoken
language. Once they start literacy in their L1, you could start looking at written
language, but this is not an important factor when teaching pre-schoolers.
The language you offer in tasks must be content-rich and be related to the students’
backgrounds in order to promote meaningful learning (see Units 1 and 2). It is
important using techniques to clarify new vocabulary and ease understanding, but
always bearing in mind that the teacher should never use the L1 (or L2) of the
student in the classroom.
The best technique to introduce new vocabulary is negotiation of meaning.

Through negotiation of meaning, the speaker paraphrases, gives synonyms or
even uses extralinguistic techniques to make him/herself understood.
Let us see an example (table 1):
Teacher: You need a crayon.

Student: No sé qué es eso, teacher.
The teacher starts negotiating meaning:
 Explanation: a crayon is like a pencil, you use it to colour your drawings.
 Synonym: a colour pencil.
 Extralinguistic technique: the teacher grabs a crayon and shows it to the
student.
Table 1: Negotiation of meaning.

7
Unit 3. Key ideas
Therefore, following Cameron (2006, p. 36):
 Meaning must come first: if children do not understand the spoken
language, they cannot learn it.
 Children need both to participate in discourse and to build up knowledge
and skills for participation to learn discourse skills.
Through negotiation, new vocabulary is retained easily, as this process implies a

conscious analysis of the word and its meaning.
When we are listening to someone speaking, we are dealing with a lot of

information we need to organize and analyse quickly in order to be ready for a
possible answer or reaction. The real objective of listening to a language is being
able to go through this process without taking a lot of time thinking about
structures, but in a natural and fluent way. However, the process is rather complex
if we analyse it in detail. When we are listening to a message the phonemes of the
language are grouped into syllables and these syllables are grouped into words and
so on until a full utterance is understood and an answer is given if necessary (figure
2):
Figure 2. The process of decoding of a given message.

8
Unit 3. Key ideas
Within this process, we need to consider that phonemes are linked to each other
when we speak. This is what is known as connected speech. Consequently, some
words can be mistaken for others or the listener can make up new form according
to the sounds which are connected. Let us see an historical example:
 ðeəz ənædər əʊvə ðeə

• Possibility one: There’s an adder over there.
• Possibility two: there’s a nadder over there.
The correct term, if you look it up in a dictionary is “adder”. However, the original
noun had the phoneme /n/. Connected speech was the reason of this process
known as rebracketing, which, without following etymology, shapes vocabulary
according to its use and transmission.
Misunderstanding of forms can also lead to misinterpretations of the language,

especially if the listener is dealing with unknown words from another language. The
human brain, always searching for order and sense, brings new words to what is
already present in its memory and, when a word does not make sense, can be
transformed in amazing ways.
Due to these reasons, the English teacher needs a good command of phonetics and
in order to help students in the correct discrimination of new words. It is essential,
therefore, provide learners with lots of comprehensible input and be sure they
understand new vocabulary when it is presented for the first time, no matter how
long this takes. Otherwise, teachers risk having students who want to please them
and continue with the task even if they do not understand (Cameron, 20016, p. 40).

9
Unit 3. Key ideas
3.3 Decoding and meaning building
If we aim at a more specific understanding of the process of decoding it is necessary

to expand its meaning in linguistic terms. Field (2009, p. 85) explains two major
operations which make up the listening skills and that we need to understand and
distinguish:
 Decoding. Translating the speech signal into speech sounds, words, clauses
and meaning.
 Meaning building. The listener expands the meaning with previous
knowledge and adds new information.
Consequently, just decoding is not enough to understand a listening, but we also

need external information for the message to make sense. To conform this process,
the listener needs three types of information:
 Input. The sounds the listener receives and the words, syllables, clauses,
etc., that those sounds represent.
 Linguistic knowledge: (implicit) knowledge of words, grammar, syntax,
intonation, etc.
 Context. The general knowledge and personal experience and the
knowledge of what has been said so far in the conversation.
The information provided by the input and the linguistic knowledge is associated to
decoding and the context is necessary for meaning building. Apart from these
concepts, we need to be able to distinguish between bottom-up and top-down
when talking about direction of processing listening (Field, 2009):
 Bottom-up refers to building phonemes into words, words into phrases, etc.
that is, building small units into larger units.

 Top-down refers to the use of context (external knowledge) and co-text
(text-so-far) to help identify words that are not clear. That is, the influence
of larger units when we try to identify short ones.

10
Unit 3. Key ideas
To promote meaning building when doing listening activities in the classroom,
teachers need to avoid questions that simply require general comprehension (Field,
2009, p. 90). Instead, they might feature tasks where learners:
 Sum up what they have heard so far and say what they expect to hear next.
 Have to use world knowledge to establish a context or to expand upon what
is said.
 Use the speaker’s opening sentences to identify the situation.
 Listen out for certain pronouns and say what they relate to.
 Paraphrase an ambiguous piece of text, or a set of ideas that are linked by
the speaker in a way that is not very clear.
 Simply identify the main point or the speaker’s attitude or role.
Obviously, you must adapt these suggestions to the level and age of your learners
and be aware that their command of the language is not enough to elaborate long
sentences in the FL. In these cases, students use their L1, so they can prove the
message is clear and the teacher can carry on with the activity.
While production is still not possible, being able to understand is an important

step in language acquisition.
The interactive compensatory hypothesis
The combination and urge of mixing bottom-up and top-down processes results in
the interactive compensatory hypothesis (Stanovich, 1980). He stated that when
confidence in input is high, the role of top-down information is small, but when
confidence is low, then, top-down information plays a much more important role,
making a big contribution.
Both input and context play a very important role in listening, regardless the
listener’s level, although the not very experienced-listener, with a lower level, will
rely more on context to compensate for the gaps of information he/she might have.

11
Unit 3. Key ideas
Actually, the listener can understand a message completely bottom-up and still not
being able to decipher the message. Let us see an example:
Lucas brought me another present today. It was too late to save it, so I
buried it in the garden.
Who is Lucas? If we analyse the text bottom-up, that is, just taking into
account the input and the linguistic knowledge and, therefore, just decoding,
we can see there is not any word we do not understand or any ungrammatical
construction. Therefore, Lucas:
 Is somebody I know.
 Is somebody who brings me presents.
 Has killed something or somebody.
 Considers this something or somebody who has been killed is a present
for me.
However, the text does not make much sense for some people. The role of the top-
down information is essential in this case: Lucas is a cat. If you are familiar with cat’s
behaviour, you know cats usually bring dead or almost dead little animals to their
owners. In this way, top-down information compensates bottom-up.
The interactive compensatory hypothesis also helps learners to solve cases of

syntactic ambiguity (fig. 3). As young children have a rather limited knowledge of
the world, they are not aware of double senses or even synonyms.
When a child finds an unknown word, previous knowledge helps classifying it to

make sense. If there is not previous knowledge related, ambiguity appears.
Introducing new vocabulary and checking understanding is an important step when
dealing with language acquisition.

12
Unit 3. Key ideas
Figure 1. “Time flies like an arrow”, attributed to Anthony G. Oettinger, linguist and computer
scientific to illustrate how this utterance could confuse a computer due to its syntactic ambiguity.
Cameron, L. (2006). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: CUP.
Field, J. (2009). Listening in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: CUP.
Lenneberg, E. H. (1967) The Biological Foundations of Language. Hospital Practice, 2

(12), 59-67. DOI: 10.1080/21548331.1967.11707799
NHI (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders) (2015).

NIDCD Fact Sheet. Voice, Speech, and Language. Aphasia. NIH Pub, 97.
Stanovich, K. E. (1980). Toward an Interactive-Compensatory Model of Individual

Differences in the Development of Reading Fluency. Reading Research Quarterly, 16
(1), 32-71.

13
Unit 3. Key ideas
In Depth
Authentic material in listening activities. Why is it important?
about the use of authentic material in listening activities.
The master class is available at the virtual campus.
The Effect of Using Authentic Materials in Teaching
Al Azri, R. H. and Al-Rashdi, M. H. (2014). The Effect of Using Authentic Materials in

Teaching. International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, 3 (10), 249-254.
This article deepens in the use of authentic materials in the EFL classroom. It will
help you enhance your knowledge of this topic and apply it better in your teaching
practise.

http://www.ijstr.org/final-print/oct2014/The-Effect-Of-Using-Authentic-Materials-
In-Teaching.pdf

14
Unit 3. In Depth
The Linguistic Genius of Babies
Title: The Linguistic Genius of Babies

Year: 2011.
Length: 13:37 min.
Patricia Kuhl reflects about language
acquisition and the importance of
interaction during the critical period. An
interesting video to understand that the
younger the better when we talk about exposure to language.
Access to the video through the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=G2XBIkHW954

15
Unit 3. In Depth
Test
1. Broca’s area is in charge of:
A. Language understanding.
B. Language production.
C. Language learning.
2. When comparing pre-school children to adult learning a FL:

A. They are less afraid of using the target language.
B. They are more afraid of using the target language.
C. They are equally afraid of using the target language.
3. Negotiation of meaning is:

A. A technique used to explain the meaning of unknown vocabulary without
using the learner’s L1.
B. A technique used to explain the meaning of unknown vocabulary using
the learner’s L1.
C. A technique used to explain the meaning of unknown vocabulary using
non-verbal language.
4. When listening to a message, the first step is:

A. Identifying phonemes.
B. Identifying words.
C. Identifying utterances.
5. As a consequence of connected speech:

A. Phonemes are linked to each other.

B. Words have clear boundaries.
C. Misunderstanding is not possible.

16
Unit 3. Test
6. Being sure learners understand the message is important because:
A. The teacher is sure the following task is interesting for them.
B. The teacher is sure the following task makes sense for them.
C. The teacher can elaborate a list of new vocabulary.
7. Meaning building is associated to:

A. Input.
B. Linguistic knowledge.
C. Context.
8. Bottom-up processes:
A. Use the context.
B. Build small units into larger ones.
C. Uses the influence of larger units when we try to identify short ones.
9. The interactive compensatory hypothesis:

A. Points out at the need of combining top-down and bottom-up information
to compensate information gaps.
B. Shows that bottom-up information plays the most important role in
understanding.
C. Shows the top-down information is not necessary to understand a
message.
10. The interactive compensatory hypothesis:

A. Helps overcoming syntactic ambiguity.
B. Promotes syntactic ambiguity.
C. Is the cause of syntactic ambiguity.

17
Unit 3. Test
Unit 4
Oral skills: listening and

speaking in the EFL pre-
school classroom
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4
4.2. The listening lesson 4
4.3. Different types of listening and appropriate

responses 12
4.4. Integrating speaking and listening 15
In Depth 19
Test 211
Scheme

3
Unit 2. Scheme
Key ideas
Once the process of decoding is clear, it is time now for reflecting upon the
activities the FL teacher can carry out in the pre-school classroom and what format
is the most suitable to cover the specific needs of pre-school students. The first
thing to bear in mind is the fact that listening is not an isolated skill. When you
listen, you are expected to, at least, show understanding. So, even when playing
songs in the FL classroom, they will also have a didactic purpose with the advantage
of intrinsically motivate your young students.
In this unit, we will focus on the how a listening lesson is according to the different
objectives a teacher may have. The main aims of this unit are:
 Reflecting upon the format for a listening lesson.

 Giving ideas about listening activities.
 Integrating listening and speaking.
4.2. The listening lesson
Listening activities are very important in the classroom. As languages are mainly
oral, the practice of oral skills is essential to improve knowledge and expertise. The
field of pre-school education has left behind in the Spanish educational system and,
sometimes, teachers feel a little bit lost when facing a pre-school classroom who
works at a different rhythm and has different needs in comparison to primary
school students.

4
Unit 2. Key ideas
A listening is not aimed as being a grammar exercise, but as a way of being
able to see how the language works in its natural environment.
The student, does not matter the level, learns how sounds are combined, if
intonation varies according to the illocutionary acts, which words are chosen
according to different situations and, in addition, how grammatical structures work
in context. As pre-school children are not going to reflect upon grammar explicitly,
listening is the way they will find out how grammar works. Later, when they feel
ready for speaking, they will take the examples seen during listening as models for
their outputs.
Listening has always been regarded as a source of nervousness for learners because
native speakers speak fast, and they get lost (Field, 2009, p. 4). Nevertheless, this is
easily solved if the teacher:
 Has a good command of the language and offers them correct examples
when speaking.
 Provides students with multiple opportunities for listening.
 Uses authentic material.
The importance of a good pronunciation and the use of authentic material is

especially relevant regarding the teaching of listening to young learners. As they are
in the right age to pick all the FL phonemes, a correct exposure will help them to
acquire a native-like proficiency. Authentic material, that is, recordings where we
find native speakers, will also be a great allied in the pre-school classroom.
In the case of material designed for pre-school native speakers, teachers have the
advantage that both native speakers and FL learners can be considered at the same
level. There are numerous nursery rhymes about the body parts, actions and
routines which are addressed to native speakers and that can be perfectly used with
FL learners. The input is short, and the listener is used to not being able to

5
Unit 2. Key ideas
understand every single word, both in the case of a native speaker and a non-native
speaker. In this case, we are not talking about level, but age.
For example, a 5-year-old native speaker would not be able to understand a

listening from Game of Thrones, not because of her/his command of the
language, but because of his level of understanding and the knowledge of the
world at this age. Remember, pre-school children, not matter their first
language, cannot transmit or understand complex messages. Therefore, if the
input received by a non-native 3-year-old is the right one and increases at the
pace of the learner, the FL would stop being considered as such and become a
L2 or L3.
However, never forget that the exposure to the FL is rather limited outside
the classroom, so maximize your time at school.
Thinking about the most natural way of acquiring a language, we must bear in mind
the Comprehension Approach (CA). The CA is a valuable method to follow during
the teaching of a FL in these initial stages, as it respects the rhythm of the child.
If you put into practice the CA in your classroom, you will notice you need to
provide your students with lots of meaningful input, create motivating activities and
do not force your students to accomplish tasks they are not ready for according to
their developmental age. Once the first utterances in English appear, they will be
never forgotten, as the FL has been acquired not learnt.
The CA favours a passive type of listening, where speech is not considered

important and teacher decides everything regarding the listening activity.
Therefore, the CA may seem inadequate if we want to promote interactive lessons
where facilitation of learning and more student-centred approach is desired. In the
following section, we will analyse when the CA is suitable and when we need more
interactive activities.

6
Unit 2. Key ideas
Recommended format for a listening lesson
Listening lessons have been based in doing comprehension questions and reflecting
upon the grammar and vocabulary used in the listening rather than on the spoken
language itself. As a consequence, the early method for a listening lesson was based
in three stages (Field, 2009, p. 14) (figure 1):
 Pre-listening: all the new vocabulary in the listening was previously

studied to ensure maximum understanding. Often, it was translated into
the students’ L1.
 Listening: divided into:
• Extensive listening followed by general questions on context.
• Intensive listening followed by detailed comprehension questions.
 Post-listening: a grammatical-morphological part where the teacher
looked at any other vocabulary which needed attention, analysed
grammar (why past perfect and not past simple?), paused play and
listening and repeat.
Figure 1. Early days format for a listening lesson.
This is the format which has been used in FL classrooms across the world. In the
case of pre-school teaching, we can easily see that too much emphasis was put on
metalinguistics and the actual listening activity was forgotten. Field (2009, p. 15)
considers this format as questionable due to the following reasons:
 It was not correct to assume that students could handle a listening exercise
only if they knew the vocabulary in it (see the Interactive Compensatory
Hypothesis in Unit 3).
 Intensive listening took place without any clear aim. Students were not
asked questions until after they had heard the passage, so they did not know
what they were listening for. Their success in answering depended on
memory as much as on listening skill.

7
Unit 2. Key ideas
 The convention of drawing attention to examples of grammar was a relic of
the idea that the listening lesson should serve to demonstrate recently
taught language in everyday use. In the end, lessons often focused more on
discussing the language of the recording than on practising listening.
 Paused play could lead to parroting. Its critics argued that students could
repeat a stretch of sound without necessarily understanding what it meant.
Let us have a look now at the current format (Field, 2009, p. 17) (fig. 2):
 Pre-listening:
• Establish context.
• Create motivation for listening.
• Pre-teach only critical vocabulary.
 Extensive listening: general questions on context and attitude of
speakers.
 Intensive listening:
• Pre-set questions.
• Intensive listening.
• Checking answers to questions.
 Post-listening (optional):
• Functional language in listening passage.
• Learners infer the meaning of unknown words from the sentences
in which they appear.
• Final play; learners look at transcript.
Figure 2. Current format for a listening lesson


8
Unit 2. Key ideas
Let us now analyse the differences between this format and the previous one and
the rationale behind them.
 Pre-listening:
• Pre-teaching vocabulary: there are several reasons for not pre-
teaching all the unknown vocabulary in a recording:
▪ It takes time which would be better spent listening.
▪ It leaves students unprepared for what happens in a real-life
listening encounters where when they find an unknown
word.
▪ It encourages the learner to listen out for those words instead
of paying attention to the overall meaning.
As a result, the learner’s attention is focused upon the language of the text
rather than its meaning. It may also be misdirected to parts of the recording
which are not strictly relevant to the main argument. The current policy is to
pre-teach only critical words. Critical is taken to mean those words without
which the recording could not be understood (for example, in a passage
about jogging, we would want to be sure that learners knew the verb to jog).
• Establishing context. As already noted, it is important to compensate
for the limitations of using an audio by giving students general idea
of what they are going to hear. In a real-life situation, they would
usually be aware of who the speakers are, where they are and so on.
It is only fair to provide some of this information before the listening
exercise. However, the information does not need to be extensive. In
fact, there is considerable danger in expounding too much on the
context of the listening passage. The more we tell the learners, the
less they will need to listen to the recording to extract the answers
they need. The criterion should be: what would the listener already
know in real life before the speech event begins?
• Creating motivation. We need to give listeners a purpose for
listening. The quality and depth of listening is also enormously

9
Unit 2. Key ideas
enhanced when they have given some forethought to what the
listening passage is likely to contain. How to create motivation? One
way is to say or write on the board a title for the listening passage,
and then to ask the learners to predict what they will hear. Once
they have created a set of expectations, the goal of the extensive
listening phase is to check which of their predictions prove to be
correct and which not.
 During listening: extensive listening remains the same, but listeners have
the advantage of the previous work done during the pre-listening stage.
Intensive listening is restructured:
• Pre-set questions. If questions are not asked until after the recording
has been heard, learners listen in a very untargeted way. They are
unclear about where to direct their attention and their ability to
answer depends upon which parts of the recording they happen to
have paid special attention to. Their responses also become heavily
dependent on memory. A policy of setting questions before the
second play ensures that learners know in advance what they are
listening for.
• Checking answers. The teacher allows learners time to think about
their answers, and then checks them with the class as a whole. This is
sometimes a difficult phase of the listening lesson. Learners may be
slow to respond, as they feel insecure about their command of the
language or they are too young to remember some details in the
listening. One way of overcoming reluctance is for learners to
compare answers in pairs before submitting them to the whole class
and allow them to use their L1 if necessary.
 Post-listening:
• Functional language. The practice of replaying a listening passage in
order to reinforce recently taught grammar has been abandoned,
along with other structuralist notions. However, many of the
dialogues which feature in published listening materials represent

10
Unit 2. Key ideas
common types of human interaction. They therefore afford useful
and well-contextualised examples of language functions such as
refusing, apologising, threatening, offering, etc. These functions are
relatively difficult to teach in isolation. It is worthwhile drawing
attention to any which feature prominently in a listening passage,
and even pausing briefly to practise them.
• Inferring vocabulary. If only minimal vocabulary is pre-taught,
listeners have to learn to cope with unknown words in the passage.
Here, they are gaining experience of exactly the kind of process that
occurs in a real-life encounter, where there is no teacher or
dictionary on hand to explain every word in an utterance. It is usually
assumed that the way in which an FL listener deals with an unknown
word is to work out its meaning from the context in which it occurs.
If one accepts the assumption, it is appropriate to give listeners some
controlled practice in the process of inferring word meaning. The
teacher identifies a number of useful words in the recording which
may be new to the class and whose meanings are relatively clearly
illustrated by the context within which they occur. The teacher then
says or writes the words on the board and replays the sections of the
listening passage which contain them. Students suggest possible
meanings.
• Final play. There is sometimes a final play during which, for the first
time, the students are given a transcript of the listening passage. This
is a valuable activity for word recognition, but do not use it as
reading activity, as the text could be too complex for their reading
level. So, instead of giving them the whole transcript, use just some
important words to practice literacy skills.
A listening exercise following the new format could also be considered as rather
artificial, as this type of activities are not what we will be expected to do in a real
communicative situation. In fact, Field (2009, p. 32) points out how early language
learners are quite heavily dependent upon their ability to compensate for gaps

11
Unit 2. Key ideas
where they have been unable to recognise words in a piece of connected speech.
The CA makes no effort to develop the use of listening strategies that enable them
to deal with this situation, therefore, negotiate meaning.
Indeed, it often does the opposite: reducing the extent to which strategies are
required by simplifying the language of the passages that are used or using slow
speech. Small wonder that some learners achieve quite a high level of listening
success in the classroom but find that they are ill equipped for the demands of the
outside world. However, never forget that the classroom is not an authentic
environment, and that the activities carried out in the classroom would not
necessarily correspond to reality.
Most times, contents are somehow forced to fit in the learning process. This is
not wrong, it is just adapting to the resources and timing of schooling.
4.3. Different types of listening and appropriate

responses
Although we can provide a lot of different types of listening events, they are always
going to be a very limited set in comparison with the real-life situations students
might find outside. On the other hand, if we follow the CA, we will find some
requirements which limit even more the type of listening we can use in the
classroom. Field sums them up as follow (2009, p. 58):
It has to be long enough to permit around eight comprehension items which

need to be quite widely spaced so that two do not occur too closely
together. Ideally, a recording, which can be divided into shorter subsections
for more intensive listening if necessary.
 The recording needs to be information-rich.

12
Unit 2. Key ideas
 Only one speaker or two speakers of different sexes should take part in the
conversation or, at least, speakers with well-defined voices to avoid
confusion.
 The listener’s role is passive. He/she needs to decode information and be
prepared to use it to complete an activity, rather than to respond in an
active way.
This type of listening is aimed at (Field, 2009, p. 59):
 Identifying various points of information within the text.

 Paying a high level of attention to the recording.
Even though this sounds right for the classroom environment, the range of listening
types should not be limited to this model, so learners can consider listening in the
FL as a natural part of a communicative activity and not just as something, which is
done at school from time to time. Therefore, if we want to prepare students for the
outside world, we need to assess the extent to which the listening task demands
the sort of processing that would occur in a real communicative situation (Field,
2009, p. 62). The CA is, then, a great methodology for the pre-school classroom, but
needs to be complemented to achieve better results.

13
Unit 2. Key ideas
Field (2009, p. 64) reflects upon the need of introducing greater variety in the types
of input offered to listeners explaining what it is required according to different
types of listening events (table 1):
Genre Listener response

Conversation Listen and respond.
Eavesdrop.
Negotiation Listen and respond.
Retain detailed meaning representation.
Announcements Monitor for items.
News headlines Monitor for interesting items.
News Monitor for previously identified items.
Listen for main points in item.
Outside broadcasts Construct spatio-visual representation.
Songs Gist.
Words.
Narrative Listen for plot essential.
Instructions Listen and do.
Taking a message Close listening for details.
Lesson Listen for main points.

Show understanding.
Tour guide Listen for main points.
Figure 3. Listener response appropriate to the type of input (adapted from Field, 2008, p. 64).

14
Unit 2. Key ideas
Even though Field’s proposals are interesting and do not need much effort to be
used in the pre-school classroom, Cameron (2006, pp. 62-63) offers more specific
activities for beginners which can be easier to implement by the novel teacher:
 Listen and identify. The teacher gives a description of a picture and ask
them to identify it (this animal has a trunk).
 Bingo. Students identify the spoken word with pictures.
 Listen and take away. The teacher asks them to take away the entire
element which share a certain characteristic (take away all the animals with
wings).
 Find the odd one out. The teacher says some words and students find out
which one does not belong there (cat, dog, bird, tree).
 Listen and put. The teacher describes a picture and students draw it or paste
pictures to complete it (there is a tree. On the tree, there is a nest. Next to
the nest, there is a bird,…).
4.4. Integrating speaking and listening
Although speaking has not been given much importance in most traditional
teaching methods, it is so central to our thinking about language learning process
that when we talk about speaking a language we usually mean knowing a
language. We can know the rules of a language, be able to understand it when
listening to someone speaking, when reading, etc., but be unable to use it orally.
Many researchers have pointed out that the skill producing most anxiety is
speaking, however, pre-school students would not be especially afraid of

using the FL if the process is motivating and meaningful for them.
We know that pronunciation and speaking are closely related: we cannot speak a
language if we do not use correct pronunciation. However, as it happened with

15
Unit 2. Key ideas
speaking, pronunciation has not been given much prominence in the classroom.
Practice is always essential at all levels, but it depends on willingness to speak. To
motivate students to speak, we should make them feel interested in speaking,
choosing appropriate topics, challenging activities, suitable classroom
arrangements, to sum up, creating the right learning environment. We cannot
forget that making speaking easier has more to do with the affective factors of the
learning process than with the cognitive ones.
Speaking and listening are simultaneous skills. Soliloquies are not frequent at all in
real life, so listening and speaking need to be practised together in the FL
classroom. We know we can use a wide range of listening activities, but how can we
change the passive and non-participatory role of listeners and promote interactive
listening. Even though we can find situations where the listener is passive and does
not need a verbal reaction, spoken language is also two-way: the speaker becomes
the listener and the listener becomes the speaker. Thus, it is necessary turning the
listening activity into an interactive activity. This gives the student the possibility of
integrating both speaking and listening in a more natural way.
A more participatory listening task requires some changes in the format of the
listening lesson because (Field, 2009, p. 69):
 The input is often very short, making a single point.

 The input may be oriented towards the listener.
 The listener is under time pressure to extract, at least, the gist of what is
being said.
 The listener has little time to monitor his/her own understanding but can
use negotiation.
 The listener has to listen not simply for meaning, but also for signals
indicating that the turn has shifted, and an immediate response is required.
 The listener has to interact with the speaker by shaping his/her responses to
the way in which the speaker’s last turn was expressed.

16
Unit 2. Key ideas
Field (2009, p. 70) suggests some exercise types to fulfil the above requirements
(table 3).
Modelling Use the recording to discuss:

 How changes of turn are signalled.
 How changes of topic are marked.
 How meaning is negotiated.
 How to show understanding.
Paused practice  The teacher pauses the recording and ask students to
anticipate the answer. This can lead to discussion.
Quick-fire questions  A series of questions as in an interview your students
have to answer.
Rehearsal  Give your students the listening topic and ask them
about the questions the listening may require.
Jigsaw listening  Students listen to a disorganized recording and discuss
about the order it should have.
Figure 4. Types of listening exercises to integrate listening and speaking.
Again, Cameron (2006, pp. 63-64) offers simpler activities which will engage the
pre-school child in the listening-speaking task:
 Look and say. The teacher shows a picture and asks what is in it.
 Listen and choose. The teacher gives a description and ask students to
choose to what the description belongs (an animal with four legs and a tail
→ a cat, a dog, a cow, …)
 Tennis game. Students are divided into two groups and given a semantic
field, animals, for example. They keep saying names in turns.
 Guessing. Students have to guess a word by asking questions modelled by
the teacher beforehand. Start using concrete substantives.

17
Unit 2. Key ideas
Another factor which is frequently forgotten is that the lesson itself, whatever the
activity, involves speaking and listening practice. Teachers ask questions, give
commands, tell stories, explain the rules of a game and many other activities which
involve the use of spoken language. Children will interact according to their level,
but the teacher has to make sure that the message has been correctly transmitted,
and the purpose of a given task is clear and meaningful for the student. This means
that, most times, you do not need to design a specific listening activity to practise
oral skills in the classroom.
Field, J. (2009). Listening in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: CUP.


18
Unit 2. Key ideas
In Depth
The importance of interaction
about the importance of interaction in language learning.


19
Unit 2. In Depth
Input, interaction and Second Language Development. An Empirical Study of the
Question Formation in ESL.
Mackey, A. (1999). Reading: Input, interaction and Second Language Development. An

Empirical Study of the Question Formation in ESL. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 21(4), 557-587.
This article reflects on the importance of interaction in the EFL/ESL classroom.

Useful to understand concepts such as negotiation, recast and pre-modified
material.

http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/59850/1/download5.pdf
Pre-K Pages
An interesting web page full of resources for teaching young learners. Even though is
not specifically for EFL, it provides with lots of valuable interactive activities.
Access to the web page through the following link:

https://www.pre-kpages.com/

20
Unit 2. In Depth
Test
1. Listening activities are a good source of grammatical knowledge because:
A. Students can reflect on how grammar is used.
B. Students explicitly analyse the grammar present in the recordings.
C. Students see grammar in context, even though they do not explicitly talk
about it.
2. If we follow the CA in listening tasks:

A. Students are passive.
B. We promote interaction.
C. Students integrate speaking and listening.
3. Paused-play in the early days format for a listening lesson:

A. Was a good resource for pronunciation.
B. Was not satisfactory, as students can repeat sounds without being aware
of meaning.
C. Was the best way of knowing new vocabulary.
4. The pre-listening stage in the current format:

A. Establishes context, creates motivation and teaches critical vocabulary.
B. Establishes context, revises new vocabulary and promotes interaction.
C. Establishes comprehension questions, create motivation and teaches
critical vocabulary.
5. What is a mistake?
A. A natural part of the learning process.

B. A problem in the learning process.
C. Something that happens when students are not paying attention.

21
Unit 2. Test
6. The current format for a listening lesson:
A. Fulfils the needs of a real communicative situation.
B. Does not represent the needs of a real communicative situation.
C. Helps students to use negotiation of meaning.
7. Some interesting listening activities are:

A. Drilling and paused play.
B. Bingo and listen and identify.
C. Translation and bingo.
8. Are speaking and listening separate skills:

A. They can be separated, but they are not usually isolated in real
communicative situations.
B. They can be separated, as speaking and listening are not used together in
real communicative situations.
C. They can never be separated, as we never listen if we are not going to
speak afterwards.
9. A more participatory listening task involves:

A. Longer input.
B. Shorter input.
C. Divided input.
10. In meaning reception learning, teachers:

A. Take into account previous knowledge and how it can be enlarged.
B. Present sets of new items to broaden the students’ knowledge.
C. Provide students with as many new concepts as possible to open up their
minds.

22
Unit 2. Test
Unit 5
Written skills: Written

Materials for the EFL Pre-
school Classroom
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4
5.2. Different ways of using texts in the EFL pre-

school classroom 4
5.3. Combining oral and written skills 11
In Depth 16
Test 18
Scheme

3
Unit 5. Scheme
Key ideas
Literacy in English is quite different from literacy on any of the other official
languages in the Spanish educational system. The reason is that English is not a
phonetic language and needs more training to recognise sounds in words. Pre-
school children should not start dealing with literacy until they feel interested in
reading and writing and, in the case of the FL, this can be delayed until Primary.
However, this does not mean you cannot introduce written words in your
classroom, but never forget that more emphasis should be put on listening and
speaking.
In this unit, we will discuss about the use of written texts in the classroom and their
usefulness for young learners. The main aims of this unit are:
 Reflecting upon the type of texts we can use in the pre-school classroom.
 Giving ideas about reading and writing activities.
 Integrating listening and reading.
5.2. Different ways of using texts in the EFL pre-

school classroom
Reading and writing are the skills that have been given more importance in
academic settings, especially in the traditional teaching methods. If we want to help
our students to develop reading skills in a foreign language, we need to understand
how reading works. First of all, we should bear in mind that reading is not a passive
activity, but an active one. Our students are going to be taught to decode the

4
Unit 5. Key ideas
meaning in the written text not only by analysing the written symbols, but also by
making connections with their previous knowledge, their expectations, etc.
Pre-schoolers cannot read or write yet. They start scribbling some graphemes and
identifying sounds and letters in words, but you cannot give a long text to one of
your students to read. Sometimes, pre-school teachers decide not to include
reading or writing activities in the FL because they consider it will be too demanding
for their students. However, we should reconsider what a text is for a pre-schooler.
We do not need a story or an essay, not even a rhyme. Most times, we can use
isolated words related to the vocabulary they are learning (colours, shapes, body
parts and so on) or simple sentences which are meaningful for them (I live in a
house). Whatever the text or set of words you use to start literacy with your
students, be sure they are part of a meaningful context. Learning written skills is not
a race nor a natural need of children, they need to find it interesting to get engage
in the process.
Stanovich (1986, p. 372) points out the problem of word calling, which occurs when
the words in a text are decoded but the text does not make sense. This is frustrating
for the learners as the text, no matter the length, is not meaningful for them. They
put too much emphasis on spelling but forget about context. Reading involves a lot
more than letter recognition: children must be aware of how the syntax and
grammar of the FL works and the context. In other words, bottom-up information
needs to be combined with top-down information, in a similar way we saw in
listening. They also need to understand the phonological correspondence of the
written letters, which, in the case of English, differs from any of the languages
spoken in Spain. It seems obvious, therefore, that no emphasis should be put on
reading while the phonological system of the FL is not familiar to the student. A
good method for dealing with this is phonics (as revised in Didáctica de la Lengua
Inglesa), where the students deals with letter sound and how there are combined
to form words.

5
Unit 5. Key ideas
Reading starts with print awareness (Fitzgeral, 1994, p. 32), that is, knowing
that the printed words and letters are unique symbols which are different
from pictures, objects or numbers.
Print awareness is acquired in a progressive way during the first years of life.
Written skills are, consequently, also interactive: children become aware of letters
as differentiated symbols when an adult reads a book to them, looking at the
printed words in shops and toys and understanding that those are part of daily life.
To promote interest in the classroom, it is a good idea having printed words

around the classroom or English corner.
Be sure these are words your students understand and that have certain relevance
for them (words related to Christmas and winter in December, about the meals they
have and similar examples). Fitzgerald (1994, p. 33) also recommends having
reading materials in the student’s environment, even though they cannot read yet.
Such materials should be visible and accessible and include more than reading
books, but also everyday texts such as menus, magazines, grocery lists and other
type of written materials common in everyday life.
A good reading teaching method at this level, apart from phonics, is emergent
literacy, which involves phonological and print awareness. In this case, not too
much emphasis is put on the reading process, but it is a good approach to the first
written words. The child has already been in contact with written words in English
before entering school watching TV or walking around their town (figure 1).

6
Unit 5. Key ideas
Figure 1. Common English words in the life of a pre-school child.
The process of learning to read and write begins very early in a child's life. Children
have contact with many forms of communication right from the start. Most children
can identify common signs and logos by the age of 2-3. They will begin to
experiment with written forms of communicating by scribbling long before they can
read. Reading is taught reading in this sense. This is not a very complete
methodology, as already remarked in Didáctica de la Lengua Inglesa, but it is a great
starting point in the pre-school classroom because of the limited time of exposure
to the language does not allow the teacher to put enough stress in the process, as it
is the case of phonics. By using emergent literacy, your students can be dealing with
other activity and the teacher shows them some written words. Let us see an
example: the teacher is dealing with vocabulary related to animals. Instead of using
just drawings or descriptions, she/he uses the written word in a flash card or
inserting the drawing in the word itself (figure 2).

7
Unit 5. Key ideas
Figure 2. The word cat with cats. The child associates the written form with its meaning.
In this sense, the emphasis is not put in the written language, but just mentioned.
The teacher, therefore, does not stop the conversation to look at how the
phonemes are represented in written form. The word is left in a visible part of the
classroom, so the student assimilates its form, meaning and pronunciation.
When our students are able to read some words in the FL, the problem of what text
to use arises. Authentic material is a good source of easy short texts for students
who start being independent in terms of reading ability. However, do not think
about literature for children, as this is usually meant to be read to them or with
them but not by them, which is not wrong, but requires another type of processing.
Examples of authentic material can be found in advertising, everyday products and
many other things around the students, as children learn about reading and writing
through items in their environment that have print on them (Fitzgerald, 1994, p.
32). Let us see an example (figure 3).

8
Unit 5. Key ideas
Figure 3. A can of baked beans can be a suitable text for the FL classroom.
The written word is everywhere around us. Children are aware of the existence of
these symbols that can be decoded, so starting their contact with the written world
using something tangible adds interest to the process. A can of baked beans, for
example, fulfils these objectives.
This type of texts also highlights the importance of paratexts and images that
appear with the text itself. In the example above (figure 3), we notice the
capitalisation of the brand, the centred-alignment of the text, the capitalisation of
lexical words and, especially relevant for young learners, a picture of the product.
The text needs all these elements to be fully understood in its context.
Having the texts around the classroom is not, however, all we can do regarding
literacy in the FL. Texts can be used in three different forms in the FL classroom, no
matter the level of the students (Johns & Davies, 1983; Clandfield, 2005):
 TALO (Text as a linguistic object): we can use texts to present language, as an

example of grammar structures, vocabulary, different registers, tones, spelling,

orthography, etc. It can be also used as a model for writing. For example (figure
4).

9
Unit 5. Key ideas
Figure 4. Some ideas for TALO activities.
 TAVI (Text as a vehicle for information): texts can be used to learn about the FL
culture, to develop reading comprehension and in many cases, to enjoy. Another
TAVI activity is preparing a pre-reading activity before the first encounter with
the text. In this, similarly to pre-listening, the teacher creates motivation and
establishes a context for the reading (figure 5).
Figure 1: some ideas for TAVI activities.

10
Unit 5. Key ideas
 TASP (text as a stimulus for production): we can use texts as an example or point
of departure from which students can get ideas and motivation to write or speak
or do a derived activity not related to written skills. The text is used as a topic
(fig. 6).
Figure 2. Some ideas for TASP activities
5.3. Combining oral and written skills
As our students have a limited knowledge of written texts, we will combine listening
and reading in activities. After going through the previous section, we can observe
how print awareness is also fostered when supporting it with the spoken word. To
be more specific, this is done by (Strickland & Shanahan, 2004, p. 74):
 Observing the teacher writing as she/he says the words aloud.

 Observing and following along as the teacher tracks print from left to right while
reading aloud.
 Working with rhymes and playing language games with letter sounds.

11
Unit 5. Key ideas
Listening to correct English helps to improve recognition of the same expression in
print. Children become aware of written forms when they start identifying letters as
symbols, and this can be done using storytelling in the classroom. However, this
does not mean that the teacher reads a story and the children just listen: the
teacher puts emphasis on the written words, signalling them in the texts so they can
associate spelling and pronunciation. From listening and watching an adult reading
aloud, children can see (Cameron, 2006, p. 141):
 How books are handled.

 How texts express ideas.
 How words are set on a page or the format of different texts (the position of
titles, greetings in a letter…)
After that, the teacher can choose some words or even sentences from the story
and work with their written from during a discussion about the topic of the story,
promoting critical thinking. This already starts looking at the cover during the pre-
reading stage, so students start a discussion about the characters, what the text is
about or even the colours in it.
Grellet (2006, p. 10-11) emphasizes the need of considering the text as a

whole, taking into account that students can also “read” the pictures
accompanying the text.
After the text is read, you can do some spoken or written activities like (Pope, 2012,
p. 122):
 Practising summary skills.

 Changing the title to give the story another perspective.

 Changing the ending.
 Telling the story from the point of view of another character.
 Adding a new character.
 Transforming the story into a play, a song or a video.

12
Unit 5. Key ideas
 Creating a similar new story or character.
 Creating a collage with information about the story.
Critical literacy?
Critical literacy is about enabling students to read both the word and the world in
relation to power, identity, difference and access to knowledge, skills, tools and
resources. It is also about writing and rewriting the world: it is about design and re-
design (Janks, 2013, p. 227). In this way, a critical approach recognises that words
are nor innocent nor casual, but instead work to position us and it is important
reflect about the complexity of human language codification from an early age.
Likewise, critical literacy helps students recognise that our world (geographically,
environmentally, politically and socially) is not neutral or natural, but it has been
formed by history and shaped by humanity (Janks, 2013, p. 227). As teachers, we
are responsible for helping the minds of future to give their first steps into the
world of knowledge away from dogmatisms but questioning and answering in a
constructive way.
Critical literacy stablishes that texts are never neutral, but that they always
convey features from their authors. That means that subjectivity is present in
all we read because the author is an individual with his/her own thoughts and
beliefs.
Critical literacy is also an important source of cultural information that opens a new
world of possibilities to the student. When using texts form different cultures in the
classroom, critical literacy is important to understand the background behind those
apparently objective texts as all of them hide a why. Intercultural reading shows us
that our interpretation of reality is just one more among many other possibilities.
The sooner our students realize of the existent diversity outside their immediate
surrounding, the more respect towards other cultures. That is why critical literacy is

13
Unit 5. Key ideas
important even in pre-school education. You do no need to start with complicated
philosophical issues, but, little by little, children will start questioning absolute
truths and discussing in a respectful way.
According to Janks (2014, p. 350), teachers need to be able to do the following to

work critical literacy in the classroom:
 Make connections between something that is going on in the world and their
students’ lives, where the world can be as small as the classroom or as large as
the international stage.
 Consider what students will need to know and where they can find the
information.
 Explore how the problematic is presented in texts and practices by a careful
examination of design choices and people’s behaviour.
 Examine who benefits and who is disadvantaged by imagining the social effects
of what is going on and of its representation/s.
 Imagine possibilities for making a positive difference.
Clandfield, L. (2005). Text in Language Classrooms: TALO, TAVI and TASP. Retrieved
from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/text-language-classrooms-talo-
tavi-tasp
Fitzgerald, J. (1994). How Literacy Emerges: Foreign Language Implications. The

Language Learning Journal, 9 (1), 32-35.
Grellet, F. (2009). Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

14
Unit 5. Key ideas
Janks, H (2013). Critical literacy in Teaching and Research. Education Inquiry, 4, (2),
225–242.
Janks, H (2014). Critical Literacy’s Ongoing Importance for Education. Journal of

Adolescent & Adult Literacy 57, (5), 349–356.
Johns, T. and Davies, F. (1983). Text as a Vehicle for Information: The Classroom Use
of Written Texts in Teaching Reading in a Foreign Language. Reading in a Foreign
Language, 1 (1), 1-19.
Pope, R. (2012). Textual Intervention. London: Routledge.
Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew Effects in Reading: some Consequences of

Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21
(4), 360-407.
Strickland, D. S. and Shanahan, T. (2004). Laying the Groundwork for Literacy.

Educational Leadership, 61 (6), 74-77.

15
Unit 5. Key ideas
In Depth
Subtitles in Videos. Reading or Distraction?
Some teachers use subtitles in the classroom but is this a good idea? This master
class discusses when subtitles are suitable in the pre-school classroom.
Reading Models in Foreign Language Teaching
Redondo, M. (1997). Reading Models in Foreign Language Teaching. Revista Alicantina

de Estudios Ingleses, 10, 39-161.
This article offers a review of the main features of the most representative reading
models in relation to the FL and L2.

https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/6000/1/RAEI_10_11.pdf

16
Unit 5. In Depth
Building Blocks: The Sequence of Emergent Literacy Skills by KBYU TV Eleven
Ready To Learn
Building Blocks: The Sequence of

Emergent Literacy Skills
Year: 2011
Length: 40:52
An interesting workshop on how
emergent literacy works and
develops the five emergent literacy skills: listening, talking, writing, decoding and
comprehension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9qkXU6UD9E&t=93s

17
Unit 5. In Depth
Test
1. Reading is:
A. A passive activity.
B. A natural activity.
C. An active activity.
2. Written texts must be meaningful:

A. True: children need appealing texts, related to previous knowledge or to
their environment.
B. False: children will not be able to face long readings in the future of we do
not introduce a considerable amount of new information in each new text.
3. Word calling refers to:

A. The ability of construct meaning from the words in the text but the
inability of decoding them.
B. The ability of decoding written words but the inability of construct
meaning from them.
C. The ability of decoding written words and construct meaning from them.
4. Should we have reading materials around the classroom?

A. Yes, as this promotes their interest on how written language is
represented.
B. Yes, as this gives us the opportunity of starting reading as soon as
possible.
C. No until students have developed basic reading skills.
5. Emergent literacy:
A. Is useless until children have developed some written skills.
B. Is a good method to become familiar with written forms.
C. Is a complete method to use with advanced learners.

18
Unit 5. Test
6. When using authentic text in the pre-school classroom to practice autonomous
reading, we should choose whole storybooks addressed to children:
A. True, as they engage their imagination.
B. False, as storybooks can be too demanding for initial autonomous
reading.
C. False, as storybooks are beyond the comprehension level of pre-school
children.
7. An activity where we use the text as a linguistic object (TALO) is:

A. Looking at how the words are spelled.
B. Becoming aware of the cultural component of the text.
C. A pre-reading activity.
8. Can we combine reading and listening in the classroom?

A. Yes, as the decoding process is the same.
B. Yes, as both skills are related and listening helps understanding written
forms.
C. No, as they are completely different skills.
9. Storytelling is a good resource to promote reading skills:

A. Yes, because students become aware of how a book is handles, the
position of text on the page and typical vocabulary in stories.
B. Yes, because, afterwards, they can read the story to their classmates.
C. No, because, as the teacher is the one who reads, it only promotes
listening.
10. Can we use critical literacy in the pre-school classroom?

A. Yes.
B. No.

19
Unit 5. Test
Unit 6
The Role of Culture in the

EFL Pre-school Classroom
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4
6.2. Englishes 5
6.3. Languages and Culture 8
6.4. Interculturalism 11
6.5 How to promote intercultural competence in the
EFL pre-school classroom 13
In Depth 16
Test 18
Scheme

3
Unit 6. Scheme
Key ideas
Learning a language goes beyond grammatical structures and vocabulary. It implies

learning another culture and another way of categorising the universe. The world is
full of different cultures and different languages and these are now more in contact
than ever thanks to technology. The Internet has meant an apparently endless
source of contacts with people and cultures, which would not be easy to connect
even by the end of the 20th century. This leads us to the problem of confronting
intercultural misunderstanding, especially when the fear of unknown is over
common sense and respect.
As teachers dealing with so young children, we need to emphasize intercultural

respect from the beginning. You are teaching a mass language, but the cultural
component of English is not just one. As a language spoken either as a first or as an
additional language in many parts of the planet, we need to understand this cultural
diversity, so we can reflect it in teaching. This unit and the next ones are specially
addressed to enrich the knowledge of English teachers-to-be about the language
itself and the culture around it.
In this unit, we will discuss about English expansion and its influence in our
knowledge of other cultures. The main aims of this unit are:
 Reflecting upon the process of expansion of English language.

 Observing how English is now part of many different cultures.

 Understanding the concept of interculturalism.
 Promoting intercultural communicative competence in our teaching.

4
Unit 6. Key ideas
6.2. Englishes
“English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property of the

imagination: it is the property of language itself”, the poet Derek Walcott
stated in 1968.
By teaching English to our young students, we are giving them a good tool to move
around the world. However, we must never forget that the importance given to
English will never mean that it is a superior language, but a language that is spoken
by many people. From the first moment we start teaching English to pre-schoolers,
they should be aware that all languages are equally important both in linguistic and
cultural terms. It does not matter whether a language is spoken by one thousand or
one billion people, as it always represents the culture out of which it emerges.
Before dealing the cultural role of English language, we need to reflect upon its
history and evolution. English language has gone through an intense process of
modification since the first Old English (OE) words were spoken. English language,
together with the rest of European languages (except, Basque, which is more
ancient), belongs to the Indo-European linguistic branch. The first OE texts have
nothing to do with the Present Day English (PDE) we know (table 1):
Table 1. Extract from the famous Old English poem Beowulf, translated by Benjamin Slade
(2012).
The English language had existed about four hundred years before it began to be
called “English”, around the 5th century, when a number of Germanic tribes arrive

5
Unit 6. Key ideas
in Britain and combined their dialects (Seargeant, 2012, p. 1). This primitive English
or OE (Old English) was declined as it was the case of Latin, but with its particular
characteristics. The language evolved and simplified with the passing of time,
becoming more analytic than synthetic. There was also a change in the alphabet, as
OE kept elements from the runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons (figure 1).
Figure 1. The Anglo-Saxon runes or futhorc alphabet and its pronunciation.
Source: Þæt Eald-Ænglisce Blog, 2011.
Once it was well stablished, it was not by far the only spoken language in the island.
According the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (9th century), the inhabitants of these lands
spoke: English, Brito-Welsh, Scottish, Pictish and Latin (Seargeant, 2012, p. 1). After
the Norman invasion of 1066, many nobles from England moved to Scotland, where
the English language, although heavily influenced by Scottish, spread and later
continued its voyage to Ireland with them in the 12th century (Crystal, 2003, p. 30).

6
Unit 6. Key ideas
The influence of all these languages is notorious in the English language, but
specially that of Latin, which was considered as the language of science and
religion for many centuries.
English learnt how to evolve and adapt to the new circumstances affecting it and
continued its spreading throughout the world.
By the end of the 16th century, there were between five and seven million English
speakers in the world, almost all in the British Isles and at the beginning of the reign
of Elizabeth II (1952) this number increased to 250 million, most of them living
outside the British Isles (Crystal, 2003, p. 30).
Nowadays, English is spoken by around 2 billion people, considering native

speakers, second language speakers and speakers of English as a foreign
language.
The expansion of English is not due to the fact that its grammar is easy, or it is a
simple language. Phonologically speaking, languages such as Spanish (which is one
of the most spoken languages in the world) is far simpler. The real reason for the
expansion of the English language is convenience: English was in the right place at
the right time. As Crystal (2003, p. 120-122) explains:
 In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was the language of the leading colonial
nation: Britain. Therefore, it was exported worldwide.
 In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was the language of the leader of the
industrial revolution: Britain. Therefore, the language of capitalism.
 In the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, it was the language of the
leading economic power: the USA. Therefore, the language business and
international affairs needed.
 In the late 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, it was the language of
electronic revolution, which was mainly born in the USA. Therefore,
computers speak English.

7
Unit 6. Key ideas
In a world where English presents such a wide variety of accents, loans from other
languages and words that are specific from the culture where that English is spoken,
the question of what English is correct arises.
Even though we are used to learning British English or American English, the world
of Englishes goes far beyond these two possibilities. If we think about just the
English spoken in the British Isles, the richness of accents can be more numerous
than expected. The English spoken in the north of England is quite different from
the one from the south; the English spoken by the Gaelic speaking population is
enriched also by allophonic variation and vocabulary from the other language.
Now, to this equation add the fact that English teachers in Spain are not
native speakers. The question that derives from these facts is: what English
should I teach to my pre-school students? Any, as long as it is correct.
It is important for a teacher having a good command of the language s/he is

teaching, and this starts by a correct pronunciation. It does not matter whether we
are using Irish English or Australian English but be sure you offer your students
correct examples regarding phonology and grammar. Remember pre-school
children are in the perfect age for language acquisition, so if the input you offer
them is meaningful and correct in linguistic terms, they will take it an example for
their outputs. Whenever possible, be sure your students understand that English is
spoken differently in other parts, but do not overwhelm them with too many
possibilities, as they may be confusing.
6.3. Languages and Culture

Regarding practicality, English is a very useful language and can open a world of
cultural contacts. Consequently, English maintains a good status worldwide, and it is
the first foreign language taught in non-English-speaking countries. However, the

8
Unit 6. Key ideas
advance of English in the world has set the alarm for many languages and cultures.
This takes us to the concept of language death, in this case, by English.
It is important that our students, no matter how young they are, be aware of
the importance of keeping diversity alive.
Cultural and linguistic diversity enriches our world. Having a lingua franca or sort of
should not imply the disappearance of other languages, but it sometimes does.
When a language dies, the culture attached to it declines and fades away in time if
not recorded.
The Council of Europe (2014) favours linguistic diversity against linguistic

homogenization:
Europe is multilingual, and all its languages are equally valuable modes of
communication and expressions of identity; the right to use and to learn one’s
language(s) is protected in Council of Europe Conventions.
The need of such a statement, urges us to reflect upon the prestige some parts of
the society give to English. English has affected the languages that were spoken
before its arrival. It is the case of Celtic languages in the British Isles or the native
languages of North America, Australia and parts of Africa (Crystal, 2003, p. 20).
Therefore, even being teachers of English, we need to promote language diversity
from our classroom. Learning English is very valuable nowadays but that does not
mean forgetting about other languages.
Nowadays society is hyperconnected, so we need to be aware of other cultures

early in life. Help your students see English as a tool to promote intercultural
communicative competence (ICC) (Byram, 1997), which involves both linguistic and
cultural knowledge (figure 2).

9
Unit 6. Key ideas
Figure 2. Competences within intercultural communicative competence.
Source: Adapted from Byram, 1997.
Having intercultural communicative competence implies:
 Being able to interact with people from another country and culture in a
foreign language.
 Being able to negotiate a mode of communication and interaction, which is
satisfactory to oneself and the others.
 Being able to act as a mediator between people of different cultural origins.
According to Byram (1997, p. 71), ICC is acquired in the classroom, fieldwork and
independent learning. Be sure, then, you provide your students with sufficient
preparation in the classroom, as this is probably the first contact students have with
the language and the different cultures associated to it.
Learning English is more than knowing a language that is useful for future jobs
opportunities. The presence of English in so many countries also implies another
advantage apart from linguistic communication: being able to get in touch with
cultures, which originated in other languages. This is what English is nowadays,
nobody’s property, everybody’s language.

10
Unit 6. Key ideas
6.4. Interculturalism
One of the main subjects of study in cultural studies is how we react against and
towards differences. Since the process of raising intercultural awareness is not a
simple one, its description and justification cannot be less complex. It is important
being aware of some general concepts about intercultural teaching to apply them in
a better way in the pre-school FL classroom.
Bennet (1993) talks about the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

(DMIS) based on the relation between the individual’s cognitive development and
the individual’s attitudes towards the foreign culture. This model details six
different stages divided into ethnocentric and ethnorelative ones.
Ethnocentric stages are based on the idea of using one’s culture as a measuring
stick to judge, assess and confront cultural conflicts whereas ethnorelative stages
are just the opposite and therefore, they involve people adopting a more open and
tolerant attitude towards any differences. It is important to point out that not all of
us would pass through the same stages and during the same period of time.
 Ethnocentric stages:
• Denial. In this first stage, people describe others using stereotypes.
They know very little about the other culture and cannot deal with
the cultural differences in an appropriate way since they are not able
to distinguish the complexity inherent in those differences and what
it involves. People at this stage tend to oversimplify and
underestimate others.
• Defence. In this stage, people are more able to deal with cultural
difference, but they are still not able to think positively about it. They
attach positive stereotypes to themselves and negative stereotypes
to others. They denigrate others to fight against what they consider
threatening.

11
Unit 6. Key ideas
• Minimization. This stage, although much more advanced than the
aforementioned, also describes situations in which people tend to
oversimplify cultural differences. People at this stage accept the
more superficial cultural differences but tend to consider that,
beyond those, all of us would aspire and long for the same things in
life since in essence we all are the same.
 Ethnorelative stages:
• Acceptance. It can be considered as the first step for intercultural
integration. People at this stage accept differences, are tolerant and
know that there are different ways to behave depending on different
cultural patterns or frame of reference. However, they are still not
able to act when they face a cultural conflict. Therefore, they are not
fully adapted since they can understand the possible problems that
might arise but, as it does not imply that they can easily adopt a
cultural perspective different from their own, they may feel
paralysed and blocked when that happens.
• Adaptation. People at this stage have a wide range of behaviours
and can adapt to different situations and adopt others’ perspectives
in order to avoid cultural conflicts.
• Integration. People at this stage see themselves as interculturalist.
They can easily reconcile the conflicting cultural frames they have
internalized.
Interculturalism should be understood as a potential goal of foreign language

teaching. It is a process of communication and interaction among people and
groups where neither of the cultural groups is considered as more important than
the other. The purpose of intercultural education is to create a degree of
understanding of other cultures and establish ways of communication as free of

prejudices and stereotypes as possible with the members of these communities.

12
Unit 6. Key ideas
6.5 How to promote intercultural competence in
the EFL pre-school classroom
One of the problems or advantages a pre-school teacher faces is the limited

knowledge children have about the world. On one hand, it is a problem because
there would be many concepts about intercultural understanding, which can be too
difficult to explain from the English classroom. Intercultural understanding,
therefore, is a transversal issue, which needs to be worked by all the other teachers.
The advantage of this limited knowledge is that children are still free from
prejudices.
The human being is born without being class-conscious and, for little children;
everybody has the same rights and opportunities. It is not until they get in touch
with older people when they realise not everybody is treated the same. The adult
world has been perverted by discrimination and xenophobia and, even when some
people try to be politically correct and show an open mind towards diversity, they,
unconsciously, keep using stereotypes and labels because of what they have been
observing in their lives.
When we approach intercultural respect from the English classroom, there is an

enormous world to explore.
As we have seen in the previous sections, English is spoken in many different

countries with their own cultural identity. This implies that, thanks to English,
we can get in contact in many other ways of perceiving reality.
As a consequence, we have an almost never-ending source of teaching resources

just using cultural material. More forward, we will go through the passionate world
of customs and traditions of some English-speaking countries that will show you the
huge amount of resources you can use in your classroom to conduct your students

13
Unit 6. Key ideas
through the path of intercultural communicative competence using English as a
vehicular language.
Apart from dealing explicitly with the cultural characteristics of the English-speaking
countries, Moeller and Nugent (2014) propose some activities to promote
intercultural communicative competence, which can be adapted to the pre-school
classroom:
 Online exchange. Students use the foreign language as a medium of
communication with students who, at the same time, are learning their
language. Both enrich from this linguistic interchange at the same time they
learn about cultural issues present in the lives of children who speak the FL.
 Attitude exploration with OSEE tool. Offer your students a video of a
tradition from an English-speaking country and guide them to apply the
OSEE created by Deardorff and Deardorff (2000) to help learners analyse
their attitudes towards others at the beginning of the intercultural process.
OSEE stands for:
• O: observe what is happening.
• S: state objectively what is happening.
• E: explore different explanations for what is happening.
• E: evaluate which explanation is the most likely one.
 Documenting transformation collectively. Ask your students about what
they know a given topic (the USA flag, a can of baked beans, Sidney) as a
way of preparing them for intercultural knowledge. Bring them interesting
facts about the topic, videos and authentic materials for them to appreciate
the real characteristics related to them to broaden their perception of the
world.
 Values in proverbs. Through the study of proverbs, students can begin to
uncover the cultural values expressed in language. Offer them a proverb and
think about the meaning and the equivalent in their L1.
 Artefact exploration. Show them elements that differ from their culture:
typical food in parties, musical instruments, games and other things they can
touch. Ask them to talk about what they are for or when they are used.

14
Unit 6. Key ideas
Bennett, M. J. (1993) Towards a Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. In

Paige, R. M. (ed.) Education for the Intercultural Experience (21-71). Yarmouth:
Intercultural Press.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative

Competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Council of Europe (2014). Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education. Guide for the
Development of Language Education Policies in Europe. Strasbourg: Council Europe.
Crystal, D. (2003) English as a Global Language. Cambridge: CUP.
Moeller, A. K. and Nugent, K. (2014). Building Intercultural Competence in the

Language Classroom. In Dhonau, S. (ed.) Unlock the Gateway to Communication (pp.
1-18). Eau Claire: Robert M. Terry.
Seargeant, P. (2012) General Introduction. In Seargeant, P. and Swann, J. (eds.)

English in the World. History, Diversity, Change (pp. 1-3). Oxford: Routledge.
Slade, B. (2012). Beowulf. Diacritically-Marked text and Facing Translation.

Retrieved from http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-text.html
Þæt Eald-Ænglisce Blog (2011). Lesson 0. Alphabet and Pronunciation. Retrieved

from https://ealdaenglisc.wordpress.com/old-english-lessons/lesson-0-alphabet-
and-pronunciation/

15
Unit 6. Key ideas
In Depth
Language death
Reflection upon Crystal’s book about languages in danger.
Access the master class through the virtual campus.
Developing the Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching
Byram, M. Gribkova, B. and Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the Intercultural Dimension

in Language Teaching. A Practical Introduction for Teachers. Strasbourg: Council of
Europe.
This is a very complete reading on intercultural dimension in language teaching. It

will give you information about how to deal with stereotypes and all those aspects
we need to manage when including the cultural component in our lessons.
Access to publication through the following link:

http://lrc.cornell.edu/rs/roms/507sp/ExtraReadings/Section0/uploads/File1235272
745204/InterculturalDimensionByram.pdf

16
Unit 6. In Depth
The History of English in Ten Minutes
Title: The History of English in Ten

Minutes
Year: 2011
Length: 11:20
The Open University summarizes all
the events English language has gone
through since the Roman left Britain
to emergence of global English.

https://youtu.be/H3r9bOkYW9s
Don’t Insist on English
Title: Don’t Insist on English

Year: 2010
Length: 10:28
Patricia Ryan is a long-time
English teacher who asks a
provocative question: Is the
world's focus on English
preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? In other words: What if
Einstein had to pass the TOEFL? It is a passionate defence of translating and sharing
ideas.

https://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_ryan_ideas_in_all_languages_not_just_english

17
Unit 6. In Depth
Test
1. Dörnyei steps of motivation are to be considered universal.
A. True: due to its popularity and little grammatical difficulty, it overcomes
any other language.
B. False: it is not the most spoken language in the world, as Chinese has
more native speakers.
C. False: there are not languages which can be considered as superior. It is
just a matter of expansion and number of speakers.
2. Old English and present-day English:

A. Look as they were different languages.
B. Look quite alike.
C. Both varieties are still in use in some parts of England.
3. English is spoken by around 2 billion people:

A. Taking into account native speakers.
B. Taking into account native speakers and second language speakers.
C. Taking into account native speakers, second language speakers and
speakers of English as a foreign language.
4. English started expanding during the 17th century because:

A. It was the language of the leading colonial nation.
B. It was the language of the leader of industrial revolution.
C. It was the language of the leading economic power.
5. Which English should you use with your students?

A. Received Pronunciation.
B. General American.
C. Any, as long as it is correct.

18
Unit 6. Test
6. What happens when a language dies?
A. Nothing, another language occupies its place.
B. The culture associated to that language fades away.
C. The society does its best to keep a good record of it.
7. Intercultural communicative competence includes:

A. Linguistic competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence
and intercultural competence.
B. Phonological competence, morphological competence, grammatical
competence and intercultural competence.
C. Sociological competence, instrumental competence, discourse
competence and intercultural competence.
8. Ethnocentric stages are based on:

A. People adopting a more open and tolerant attitude towards differences.
B. The idea of using one’s culture and a measuring stick to judge.
C. Becoming interculturalist.
9. Interculturalism is:
A. A process of communication and interaction among people and groups
where neither of them is considered as more important that the other.
B. A process of communication and interaction among people and groups
where one of them is considered as more important that the other.
C. A process of communication and interaction among people and groups
where one of them is considered as more important that the other in cultural
terms.

19
Unit 6. Test
10. One activity we can do with our pre-schoolers to promote intercultural
communicative competence is:
A. Asking them to write a letter to a native speaker.
B. Doing an online exchange with a foreign school.
C. Offering them history books.

20
Unit 6. Test
Unit 7
Folklore and History as

Teaching Resources: the
British Isles
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 5
7.2. Geographical and historical details 5
7.3. Customs and traditions of the British Isles 17

7.4 Interesting facts about the British Isles 27
29
7.5. Bibliographical references 29
In Depth 32
Test 344
Scheme

3
Unit 7. Scheme

4
Unit 7. Scheme
Key ideas
The British Isles are mix of Celtic, Viking, Anglo-Saxon and Norman traditions
enriched by customs brought by the Commonwealth of Nations. All the countries
and crown dependencies within this archipelago are full of curiosities that will help
you introduce the integrative value in the pre-school classroom and promote the
intercultural communicative competence. This unit offers a summarized account of
some important happenings in the British Isles from the Celtic tradition to present-
day celebrations. In this unit, we will learn a little bit more about the complexity of
the British Isles and discover that there is more there than expected.
The main aims of this unit are:
 Being aware of the geographical details and historical background of the British
Isles.
 Exploring customs and traditions and characters, which will be interesting for
your pre-school classroom.
 Reviewing some facts that are worth knowing.
7.2. Geographical and historical details

The British Isles are not just England. Many Europeans tend to use “English” as a
synonym for “British”, forgetting about Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish. What is
more, some even use the term to name all the inhabitants of the British Isles.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
It is important, therefore, being aware of the actual borders and divisions of these
lands:
 The British Isles, all the islands that are included in this archipelago, of which 187
are inhabited. The name has implied some dispute among the non-British
inhabitants (such as the Irish), as they consider the term as exclusory, so terms
such as Islands of the Northern Atlantic (IONA) came into scene in the 1980’s to
avoid political connotations in nomenclature.
 The British Islands, those islands that are British. These are: The United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of
Jersey (these two also known as Channel Islands) and the Isle of Man.
 Britain or Great Britain, the largest island in the British Isles.
 United Kingdom, a monarchy formed by four countries England, Wales, Scotland
and Northern Ireland. In fact, the complete official name of the country is The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
As a convention, this unit will use the term British Isles to refer to all the isles of this
archipelago, but we must be aware that the British Isles are far more than British.
As revised previously, the different folks that invaded and settled in these territories
are diverse both in origin and language, creating a special flavour regarding
tradition.
It is worth revising, even though not in detail, the historical timeline of isles to
better understand the influence of these different cultures on the resulting
traditions we can find nowadays.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Figure 1. Geographical and political division.
Adapted from Ordnance Survey team, 2011.
Celts
The Celtic cultural background present in these islands helps us to make

connections with many parts of the Atlantic shore, especially in the cases of Galicia
and Asturias, where Celtic influence is rather strong even nowadays.
However, the presence of Celts in Europe is far more extensive, as we see in figure
2.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Figure 2. Celts in Europe.
Adapted from Haywood, 2001.
The Age of the Celts began around 700-750 BC. They emerged as a differentiated
folk at the start of the first millennium BC around the rivers Rhône, Rhine and
Danube.
It was a hierarchical society, with its own religious beliefs and rituals and a
distinctive artistic style.
There are two main periods associated with the Celtic world:
 Hallstatt (800-500 BC), in mainland Europe, mainly situated in the territory

of present-day Austria.
 La Téne (400-50 BC), a period of expansion, when the Celtic culture arrive to
the British Isles, among many other parts of Europe.
By the 6th century BC, the Celtic language was established in most of the British
Isles. This was an old Celtic language know as Goidelic or Q-Celtic, which was later
replaced (even though in some places coexisted) by the Brythonic or P-Celtic.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
The Goidelic led to the formation of the three Gaelic language spoken in Ireland,
which will give Manx and Scots Gaelic in medieval times. While Brythonic gave place
to Welsh, Cornish (no longer spoken since the 18th century) Cumbric (extinct since
medieval times) (Cartwright, 2016).
Socially speaking, they were divided into clans or tribes, with their own laws and
chiefs. The Celtic society was highly stratified, being the warrior elite and the Druids
at the top, followed by cattle barons and small farmers and traders. There was not
distinction between women and men, and all could access to own property,
divorce and charges within the clan (McCoy, 2002).
The Celtic festivals left an important footprint in the culture of the British Isles,
where they are still celebrated nowadays, either as their own or under other
names, usually under a Christian advocation. The most important celebrations were
(Le Roux & Guyonvarc’h, 2003):
 Samhain, October 31st or November 1st, which derived in nowadays

Halloween when adapted to Christianity. It marked the beginning of winter,
a time to gather and remember those who are gone.
 Imbolc, February 1st, the coming of spring and the reborn of the earth.
 Beltane, May 1st, the coming of summer. It is the fire festival.
 Lughnasa, August 1st, the end of summer, harvest festival to honour the
Celtic God Lug.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Dealing with monuments, the most representative Celtic constructions are the
hillforts, settlements enclosed by parapets to protect their inhabitants from
invasions. One of the most important is Maiden Castle (Dorset, England) the largest
in Britain (figure 3).
Figure 1. Maiden Castle from above. Even though dwellings did not survive until present day, the
different levels of the fortification can be easily observed (VisitDorset, 2018).
Roman invasion
Even though Julius Caesar had tried to conquest Britannia in 55 BC, it was under the
rule of Emperor Claudius in 43 BC when it became a Roman province. However,
Caledonia (Scotland) presented some difficulties in conquering terms, which finally
led to the construction in 122 AD of Hadrian’s Wall, to establish the limits of the
Roman Empire and, by the way, to separate Romans from the barbarians (fig. 4).

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Figure 4. Hadrian’s wall.
Ireland (Hibernia in Latin) was never part of the Roman Empire, although they did
establish a commercial relationship. There is not evidence of the Roman having
landed on the Isle of Man either.
One site which stands up within Roman legacy in Britain is Bath (England). This city
keeps one of best-preserved Roman baths in the world. The thermal waters of this
site were already used by the Celts, who dedicated it to the goddess Sulis and
whom the Romans identified as Minerva (figure 5).

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Figure 5. Roman baths in Bath (England).
Source: Bath Tourism Plus, 2018.
Anglo-Saxon Britain
After the Romans left Britain in the 5th century, the native Britons organised
themselves into small kingdoms led by warlords. This period is called the Dark Ages
due to the little written evidence about it (Mourón Figueroa, 2018). New invaders
did not hesitate to visit the island:
 The Irish and the Picts from the west and north (nowadays Scotland).
 The Germanic tribes: Saxons, Angles and Jutes.
The arrival of these Germanic tribes gave the British Isles, especially England, its
more remarkable factor: the English language.
By the early 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons were ruling most of Britain except
Wales, Cornwall and what today is Scotland. In the north of England, they
established the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.
Anglo-Saxons were not Christians and they considered death and the beginning of a
journey. Their burials were full of objects to help the deceased in the after-life

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Unit 7. Key ideas
(Mourón Figueroa, 2018). One of the most remarkable burials is that of Sutton Hoo
(Suffolk), where among many other valuable objects, includes a ship (figure 6).
Figure 2: Gold belt buckle from the Sutton Hoo burial
Source: Trustees of the British Museum.
During the Anglo-Saxon period, Christianity began to establish in the British Isles
(Mourón Figueroa, 2018). In the 5th century, Saint Patrick arrive to Ireland as a
bishop of the Roman Church and converted the Irish to the Christian dogma. Saint
Ninian evangelised the Picts and Saint David oversaw Wales. In 597, Pope Gregory I
decided it was high time for the Anglo-Saxon kings to give up their pagan beliefs and
embrace the Christian faith. So, a group of five missionaries head by bishop
Augustine (later Saint Augustine) and fulfil the mission. Bede, the Venerable, a
monk and historian who lived during the 8th century in the monastery of Jarrow
(north of England) wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, an
account of the arrival and development of arrival of Christianity to Britain. It is
worth mentioning a letter from Pope Gregory to Abbot Mellitus when he was about
to join Saint Augustine in the process of Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons (Sellar,
1907, pp. 67-68):
To his most beloved son, the Abbot Mellitus; Gregory, the servant of the
servants of God. We have been much concerned, since the departure of

our people that are with you, because we have received no account of the
success of your journey. Howbeit, when Almighty God has led you to the
most reverend Bishop Augustine, our brother, tell him what I have long
been considering in my own mind concerning the matter of the English
people; to wit, that the temples of the idols in that nation ought not to be
destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let water be

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Unit 7. Key ideas
consecrated and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and
relics placed there. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that
they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true
God; that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may
remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God,
may the more freely resort to the places to which they have been
accustomed. And because they are used to slaughter many oxen in sacrifice
to devils, some solemnity must be given them in exchange for this, as that
on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose
relics are there deposited, they should build themselves huts of the boughs
of trees about those churches which have been turned to that use from
being temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no
more offer animals to the Devil, but kill cattle and glorify God in their feast,
and return thanks to the Giver of all things for their abundance; to the end
that, whilst some outward gratifications are retained, they may the more
easily consent to the inward joys. For there is no doubt that it is
impossible to cut off everything at once from their rude natures; because
he who endeavours to ascend to the highest place rises by degrees or
steps, and not by leaps.
Vikings
Towards the end of the 8th century, the Vikings reached the British Isles. They ruled
the Irish Sea and the coast of Wales (figure 7).
Figure 3: Vikings in the British Isles
Source: Britishstudies, 2009.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Their presence was highly important in the case of the Isle of Man, where they
establish a good relationship with the Celtic dwellers.
Vikings arrived in their characteristic longboats, which are still present in an annual
race in Peel (Isle of Man), as seen in figure 8.
Figure 8. A present-day Viking longboat at Peel’s annual race. Note Peel castle at the back, built in
the 11th c. by the Vikings (photo by David Kneale, 2015).
The Danish Vikings established the Danelaw in Britain, a territory which was
considered as a Danish territory until Edward the Elder conquered it back in 920.
However, it was not until 955 that the last Viking part of England, York, recognised
an English king as its own. After a succession of Anglo-Saxon and Viking kings, who
claimed the territory once and once again, England was finally reunited by 1042
when Edward the Confessor became king (Mourón Figueroa, 2018).

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Normans
1066 marked an important milestone in the history of England and the British Isles.
Being Edward the Confessor half Anglo-Saxon, half Norman, the contacts with the
continent were frequent. However, the problem appeared when, apparently, due to
a hunting accident he was rendered sexually impotent (Mourón Figueroa, 2018),
Edward could not offer an heir to the throne. After his death, the claims to the
throne came from Harold, Earl of Wessex, William of Normandy and Edgar Atheling.
In 1066, the problem was solved when William of Normandy became William I, the
Conqueror, king of England, after the Norman victory at the Battle of Hastings. This
new king brought a new dynasty into England and a new Norman speaking
aristocracy. He also introduced feudalism into the reign.
The arrival of the Normans to the British Isles

supposed also the flourishment of the
Romanesque art, especially in ecclesiastical
buildings. Romanesque style expanded through
most parts of the British Isles intermingling with
local folklore, religious beliefs and styles. One of
the most enigmatic figures is that of the Sheela-
Na-Gig, an grotesque female representation
frequent in Romanesque churches both in the
British Isles and the many parts of Saint James’
Way (Torrado Cespón, 2017).
Figure 4. Sheela-Na-Gig in Kilpeck Church (Hereforshire, England), a 1140 building under the
supervision of the Norman Oliver de Merlimond (photo courtesy of the Sheela-Na-Gig Project).

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Unit 7. Key ideas
7.3. Customs and traditions of the British Isles
When dealing with pre-school children, talking about history may seem attractive,
but you must be very careful with the way you present the material in order to
avoid boredom. There are many resources online especially addressed to children
which can help you constructing your lesson plan around historical events, but it is
always interesting putting a little bit more of yourself into the design of teaching
material. Another deficiency in teaching plans is the little time addressed to
customs and traditions which will promote intercultural understanding among the
different cultures were English is present. It is interesting realizing that, culturally
speaking, the world of English-speaking countries does not end with Halloween.
Looking at all the folklore of the British Isles will take us years of study, so it is
interesting looking at those you can adapt to the pre-school classroom. The
following timeline offers some interesting traditions which can fit into your lesson
plan according to the dates they are celebrated (figure 10):
Figure 10: Customs and traditions of the British Isles in chronological order.
Harvest
There are traditions and superstitions around harvest in all parts of the British Isles.
The importance of these rituals is rather symbolic nowadays but used to be an
important part of the process when all the economy and sustenance of the
community depended on having a good harvest.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Harvest was a time to show up and prove who was the fastest at reaping. The most
important was being the one who cut the last sheaf of corn, which was an honour
usually reserved for the oldest reaper. In some parts of England, this last load was
called the Neck. In other parts, the last sheaf had an animal name being a hare in
some parts of Scotland and Ireland, a horse in Hertfordshire and Shropshire
(England) and a goat in the Hebrides (Scotland) (Alonso Romero, 1993, p. 381).
The ethnographer James Frazer related this identification with the animals which
were found in the field at the time of harvest. The animal, scared, tried to be safe by
hiding in the last sheaf and finally was considered a reincarnation of the corn spirit
(Alonso Romero, 1993, 381). In general, this last sheaf was treated in much
consideration by the harvesters. Across England, the last sheaf was carried home in
a richly decorated cart, including flowers and ribbons. Women and children would
ride on top of the lead and, sometimes, a couple sit on the front of the wagon to
represent the king and queen of harvest (Roud, 2008, p. 379).
The last sheaf was also usually transformed into a corn dolly (figure 11), which was
symbol of fertility. There are many kinds of corn dollies, as they appear in many
different places, not only in the British Isles, but also in some European countries.
Doing a corn dolly is a good activity for your students who, with a little help, could
made a simple design to celebrate the harvest (figure 12).

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Figure 11. An English corn dolly (Baker, 1974, 33) Figure 5. A simple corn dolly craft.
More information about how to make a Corn Dolly at https://nurturestore.co.uk/how-

to-make-a-corn-dolly-craft-for-a-harvest-celebration#more-26399
Samhain
The word Halloween means the “eve of All Saints day”, therefore, a product of
Christian tradition. However, it is plain to see that Halloween traditions do not fit
the Christian creed. This is, therefore, a good example of how a previous pagan
tradition was kept in the calendar disguising it as Christian-like.
Going a step forwards, the present-day celebration is largely influenced by the

American transformation of the festivity. Halloween is a common resource in the

English classroom, as it implies disguising and pumpkin carving, but there are more
things to do. Being the night when this world and the other were connected,
divination games are a favourite. These games have change and are now just for
fun, most of them typically addressed to girls who want to know about their future

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Unit 7. Key ideas
husband. The most popular among children is apple bobbing: fill a tub with water
and put some apples in it. Children have to catch them with their teeth without
using their arms.
There are variants across the British Isles: children pass an apple (or orange)
using just their chins or apples hang from strings and children try to bite them.
In many parts of the British Isles, Samhain was also a night to lit bonfires, and are
still done in some parts of Ireland and Scotland. Bonfires are related to the purifying
power of fire and, in this case, to the sun leaving the Earth during the winter
months.
Pumpkin carving looks like a must in any Halloween celebration, but teachers are
aware that little children cannot do that on their own. Use oranges or similar and
paint them to do your little pumpkins in the classroom. Curiously, pumpkins were
not the only carved vegetable in the British Isles.
Turnips were popular among the Scots, Irish and Manx (figure 13):
Figure 6. A carved Manx turnip.
A practise that exists nowadays.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Christmas and New Year
You may think that Christmas celebrations are rather similar all around the world.
However, the fact is that this date is actually related to the previous festivals
celebrated around winter’s solstice. Therefore, there is still much of pagan tradition
during these days. It is still frequent hearing the word “Yule” across the British Isles
as a remembrance of the original Scandinavian festivals celebrated around these
dates. Nowadays, they talk about the Yule Log, which has transformed from a large
log burning on Christmas Eve to a chocolate cake in the form of a log.
The first thing to notice when talking about Christmas in the British Isles is that fat
man in red who brings presents is not called Santa Claus, but Father Christmas. One
of his traditional presents was the orange, which used to be a luxury product in
ancient times.
A nice craft for children is that of Christmas crackers, popular across the British Isles
and also in some Commonwealth countries. These are small decorated cardboard
tubes which are opened when two people pull their sides. They are filled with small
presents, such as paper crowns, little toys and a paper with a joke in it (fig. 14).
Figure 7: A Christmas cracker. A great craft to do with your students.
See how: https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas-cracker-craft

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Another very important date during the Christmas period is Boxing Day (26th
December), a public holiday in the British Isles. It is also celebrated in many other
countries which belonged to the British Empire.
Its origins are in costume of open tips boxes apprentices received on that day
from their masters (Roud, 2008, p. 559).
These boxes were actually made of clay and had to be broken to get the money. In
Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man, this day is also called Wren Day. Children killed a
wren, the king of all birds, and went from house to house, dancing and singing
asking for money. The wren became the king of all birds because they held a
competition to know which bird could fly higher. The wren, which is a tiny bird, hide
among the eagle’s feathers and, when it was its highest, it emerged from its hidden
place and flew a few inches higher (Roud, 2008, p. 563). Nowadays, nobody
actually kills a wren during this day, but the tradition is still celebrated singing and
dancing around the wren pole, which includes a stuff or false wren in the middle
(figure 15).
Figure 15: Hunting the wren dance in the Isle of Man.
Watch it in: https://youtu.be/k8ntUNbPW10

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Unit 7. Key ideas
New Year’s traditions start with the first-footer, who is the first person who enters
the house after midnight.
To ensure good luck along the New Year, a dark-haired male is preferred. This
first-footer usually brings something to the house, such as a piece of coal,
cake or an alcoholic drink.
Imbolc
The Celtic festival of Imbolc is still celebrated in many parts of the British Isles,
although Christianity has changed it a little bit. The first two days of February, Saint
Brigit’s day and Candlemas are actually an adaptation of this ancient festival. Saint
Brigit is particularly popular in Ireland. One of the most outstanding traditions on
this day is the renewing Saint Brigit’s cross (figure 16), which is placed on the doors
to protect the house from misfortune, especially fire and lighting. It is not very
difficult to do, so you can try to make one with your older students.
Figure 16. Saint Brigit’s cross.


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Unit 7. Key ideas
Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday or Mother’s Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, so

the date varies each year. In older times, teenagers or even children used to leave
home to learn a job or to become servants in a house. On this Sunday, they had the
day off to visit their mother church, that is the main church in the area. Therefore,
they had the day off and took the advantage of visiting their relatives, especially,
their mother (Roud, 2008, p. 105).
Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers, and home-made cards to
their mothers. But there is also a nice Welsh tradition which fits within this day:
carved lovespoons. Even though they are not specifically meant for Mother’s Day,
this is a gift given to express love and affection; therefore, it is usually given to
Welsh mothers on this date. A lovespoon is a wooden spoon with different symbols
carved, each one with a meaning (a bell for weddings, Celtic knot for eternal love, a
lock for security or a diamond for wealth, among others), as seen on next page,
figure 17.
Figure 17. A simple lovespoon. The heart symbolizes giving your heart to the person who receives
the gift and the cross is related to Christianism and the protection of God.

24
Unit 7. Key ideas
Tip: Think about doing a lovespoon with your students to celebrate Mothering Sunday
by using clay and a mould.
Easter
Even though Easter is a Christian tradition, it is also related to former celebrations.

This is quite obvious when we observe how the date changes according to the
moon, so, again, we can observe how two different traditions can survive together.
Easter traditions in the British Isles also have they particular flavour.
An interesting one is skipping during Good Friday in some parts of England. It

consists in gathering and use your jump rope to skip with many other people (Roud,
2008, p. 147). Nowadays, this tradition is in disuse, but it has been revived in
Cambridge. Another game associated to Good Friday is playing marbles. This
especially remarkable in Sussex, where the World Championship takes place every
Good Friday. Playing marbles on this day dates back to the 16 th century.
In many parts of the British Isles, we find pace-egging (Roud, 2008, p. 158). This
tradition is related to the Easter eggs we are used to seeing nowadays, but, in this
case, the egg is real and not made from chocolate. Traditionally, eggs were boiled
with onion peels or saffron to colour their shells, although nowadays they are
painted. Children compete to see who is able to roll them further without cracking
their shell. They also eat them.
Beltane
The celebrations associated to this date are related to the beginning of fair weather.
Among many others, it is worth signalling May Queens and Maypole dancing, widely
celebrated in the British Isles, but especially across Britain. Children make flower
garlands for the May Queen and maids, who are chosen among the girls in the town

25
Unit 7. Key ideas
and become a personification of May Day. Then, they dance around the Maypole,
usually with ribbons (figure 17):
Figure 8: Maypole and Maypole dance in England .
Source: Staufenberg, 2018.
Highland Games
To finish your culturally successful academic year, take a look at the Highland
Games, held in Scotland from the end of May till September. They are a cultural
event that started at the beginning of the 19th century, based on former clan
competitions. It has crossed borders since then and it is celebrated by Scottish
communities in New Zealand, Canada or the USA (Brewster, Connell & Page, 2009,
p. 271). Some of the most popular disciplines are:
 Caber toss: competitors have to hold a long log vertically by its smaller end.
The objective is turning it upside down.
 Sheaf toss: competitors have to throw a packed straw bundle with a
pitchfork over a raised bar.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
 Maide-leisg or lazy stick: competitors sit down on the grown with the soles
of their feet pressing against each other. They held a stick horizontally with
their hands and they have to pull at it as strong as possible to raise the
opponent from the ground.
 Tug o’war: sixteen competitors divided into two groups pull a rope one
against the other. The loser is the one who first crosses the line in the
centre.
Bagpipes and dancing are present all over the events, making these games a
real cultural gathering.
7.4 Interesting facts about the British Isles
 The Manx parliament is the oldest in the world. It dates back to the 8 th
century, when the Vikings settled in the island and was never broken since
then.
 The Isle of Man was the first country where some women (the ones who
held property) could vote (figure 1).
Figure 9: Some Manx women could vote in 1881.
Drawing by the Manx Alice Quayle, 2018.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
 Richard III, the last Plantagenet king (Norman ancestry), is the only king who is
not buried in Westminster Abbey (London). His body was not found until 2012
under a car park in the city of Leicester and was later reinterred in this city in
2015.
 Queen Elizabeth II holds the record for the longest reign, which started in 1953.
 The longest place name in Europe belongs to a Welsh village (figure 11):
Figure 20. The full name of this village is usually shortened to “Llanfair”.
Source: Wikipedia Commons.
 In some parts of the UK, finding a white cat in your way to school involved
bad luck.
 There are not snakes in Ireland. Tradition says that Saint Patrick spelled
them, but there is a geological reason for this. When Ireland was connected
to main land, it was covered in ice. After that, it was an island, so snakes
could not cross to it.
 The Isle of Man has some curious animals: cats with no tails, four-horned
sheep (figure 14) and wallabies. The latter escaped from the Wildlife Park
and live now freely in the north of the island.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Figure 21. Loaghtan sheep. Apart from being brown, males have four horns.
 The witch seat is a special place in Channel Islands roofs where witches can
rest for a while. Thus, they will not bother the inhabitants of the house.
 The Scots invented golf.
 Scotland includes 790 islands, not all of them are inhabited.
7.5. Bibliographical references
Alonso Romero, F. (1993). El Espíritu del Grano: Tradiciones Agrícolas Propiciatorias

en Galicia y en Otras Comunidades Europeas. Cuadernos de Estudios Gallegos, 51,
pp. 367-389.
Baker, M. (1974). Folklore and Customs of Rural England. Devon: David & Charles.
Bath Tourism Plus (2018). The Roman Baths. Retrieved from:

https://visitbath.co.uk/listings/single/roman-baths/

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Brewster, M.; Connell, J.; and Page, S. J. (2009). The Scottish Highland Games:
Evolution, Development and Role as a Community Event. Current Issues in Tourism,
12 (3), 271-293.
Britishstudies (2009). Vikings and Danelaw. Retrieved from

http://britishstudies.pbworks.com/w/page/15133699/Vikings
Cartwright, M. (2016). Celts. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from

https://www.ancient.eu/celt/
Haywood, J. (ed.) (2001). Atlas of Celtic World. London: Thames & Hudson.
Le Roux, F. and Guyonvarc’h, C. J. (2003). As Festas Celtas. Noia: Toxosoutos.
McCoy, E. (2002). Celtic Women’s Spirituality: Accessing the Cauldron of Life.

Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications.
Mourón Figueroa, C. (2018). Historia e Cultura dos Países de Fala Inglesa (teaching
material). Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
Ordnance Survey team (2011). The Difference between UK, Great Britain and the
British Isles.
Retrieved from https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/2011/08/whats-the-
difference-between-uk-britain-and-british-isles/
Roud, S. (2008). The English Year. London: Penguin.

Sellar, A. M. (1907). Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England. A Revised Translation

With Introduction, Life, and Notes. London: George Bell and Sons.
Torrado Cespón, M. (2017). Da Moura á Sheela-Na-Gig: Reflexións sobre Significado,

Orixe e Evolución. Noia: Toxosoutos.

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Unit 7. Key ideas
Visit Dorset (2018). Maiden Castle. Retrieved from https://www.visit-
dorset.com/things-to-do/maiden-castle-p133633

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Unit 7. Key ideas
In Depth
Preparing pancakes with your students
Pancakes are an easy, delicious and popular dish in the British Isles. You can prepare
them with your students to celebrate Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday). In case of
food allergy, dairy and wheat flour can be easily substituted.
Revealing Guernsey’s Ancient History in Fact and Fiction
Goodall, P. (2016). Revealing Guernsey’s Ancient History in Fact and Fiction. Shima, 10
(2), 118-128.
A little more about the little Channel Island.


https://eprints.usq.edu.au/30749/1/l.-Goodall-Shima-v10n2.pdf

32
Unit 7. In Depth
The King in the Car Park
Title: The King in the Car Park

Year: 2013
Length: 124 minutes
This documentary looks at the
search for the remains of King
Richard III of England (1452-
1485). After being killed in the
Battle of Bosworth Field (August 22, 1485), his remains were taken to Leicester and
it was believed that he was buried at Greyfriars Church. The church no longer exists,
and its remains were believed to be under a car park. Phillipa Langley, from the
Richard III Society, convinced archaeologists at the University of Leicester to lead a
dig and surprisingly, as it turned out, the first skeleton they found was subsequently
proven to be that of the King through DNA tests which showed a match to Canadian
Michael Ibsen, a direct descendant of Richard III's sister.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx8oo9MAMZo
Historic UK
An interesting web about history and folklore in the UK to guide you for further
research.

https://www.historic-uk.com/

33
Unit 7. In Depth
Test
1. The United Kingdom includes:
A. England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
B. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall.
C. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
2. Celts came from:

A. Central Europe.
B. Scandinavia.
C. Ireland.
3. There are parts of nowadays England where Celtic language are spoken:
A. True: Cornish and Cumbric.
B. True: Cornish.
C. False: Cornish and Cumbrian are no longer spoken.
4. Hadrian’s wall was constructed to:

A. Establish the limits of the Roman Empire.
B. Separate Romans from the barbarians.
C. Establish the limits of the Roman Empire and separate Roman from the
barbarians.
5. Anglo-Saxons:
A. Were Britons.
B. Were Jutes.
C. Were Germanic.

34
Unit 7. Test
6. Normans introduced___________ in England:
A. Capitalism.
B. Feudalism.
C. Communism.
7. Corn dollies are symbol of:

A. Fertility.
B. Power.
C. End of summer.
8. Turnips are used during:

A. Christmas.
B. Halloween.
C. Easter.
9. Why were oranges given as a present in Christmas?

A. Because they were considered as a luxury product.
B. Because of their medicinal properties.
C. Because they were associated to Father Christmas.
10. A traditional Easter activity in some part of England was:

A. Hunting the wren.
B. Bonfires.
C. Skipping.

35
Unit 7. Test
Unit 8

USA
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4

8.3. Customs and traditions of the USA 12
8.4 Interesting facts of the USA 16
In Depth 18
Test 200
Scheme

3
Unit 8. Scheme
Key ideas
The United Stated of North America are a relative new country, born on July 4 th
1776, when the thirteen British colonies proclaimed their independence from the
British Crown. Nowadays, the USA are better known in terms related to economics
and politics, but pre-school children are not really interested in these. The cultural
foundations of their traditions are an amalgam of the many different origins of their
inhabitants, both natives and settlers, creating their own special idiosyncrasy.
In this unit, we will see some aspects of the USA, both in historical and cultural
terms. The main aims of this unit are:
 Being aware of the geographical details and historical background of the

USA.
 Exploring customs, traditions, and characters, which will be interesting for
your pre-school classroom.
 Reviewing some facts that are worth knowing.
The colonization of America supposed one of the most important steps in the
history of English language. 500 years later, the USA became the most powerful
economic power in the world, and, with it, English reinforced its status as the most
used vehicular language. Let us see, very briefly, how the process developed since
Columbus arrived in the Caribbean until the born of the USA.

4
Unit 2. Key Ideas
Native Americans
When Columbus arrived in America in 1492, he found that there were people living
there (figure 1). As he was looking for an alternative route to India, assumed they
were Indians. Even though after realizing this was not India, native American have
kept the appellative Indians until nowadays. These native Americans are believed to
have arrived in the continent from Mongolia and Siberia during the last ice age
(Schurr, 2015).
Figure 1: American tribes by the arrival of Columbus.
Source: Maps.com, 2018.

The arrival of the European settlers meant a big impact in the daily life of the
natives. Cultural differences between the established Native Americans and
immigrant Europeans, as well as shifting alliances among different nations of each
culture through the centuries, caused extensive political tension, ethnic violence

5
Unit 2. Key Ideas
and social disruption. The Native Americans suffered high fatalities from the contact
with infectious Eurasian diseases, to which they had no acquired immunity.
Epidemics after European contact caused the greatest loss of life for indigenous
populations. Genocide and warfare at the hands of European explorers and during
the conflicts previous to the independence of the colonies were the other causes of
a critical decrease in their numbers (Mourón Figueroa, 2018).
After the Independence of USA, the situation of the Native Americans did not
improve substantially. George Washington and Henry Knox believed that Native
Americans were equals but that their society was inferior, so they needed to be
civilised. In spite of this, they continued being treated as inferior, forcing them to
leave their lands or to sell them at ridiculous prices when the settlers advanced
westward. In 1830, Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Acts, which
authorized him to conduct treaties to exchange Native American lands, always at
the convenience of the new Americans. As many as 100,000 Native Americans
relocated to the West as a result of this Indian Removal policy (Mourón Figueroa,
2018). This abusive behaviour towards them continued until the 20 th century, when
they were finally considered as USA citizens by the government.
Regarding language and culture, Native Americans have seen how the arrival of
English language has supposed a major impact in their idiosyncrasy. The English
Plus resolutions (1992), an American movement to promote the plurilingual
character of the USA, encouraged the USA government to assist Native American in
their efforts to prevent the extinction of their languages and cultures (Crystal, 2003,
p. 139).
The first colonies

The first settlement in the New World was established in 1584, but, due to conflict
with the natives, some colonizers had to come back to England to seek help. When
the ship returned, none of the original group was found. The first permanent
settlement dates from 1607, when an expedition arrived in Chesapeake Bay. The

6
Unit 2. Key Ideas
colonists called their settlement Jamestown (after James I) and the area Virginia
(after the ‘Virgin Queen’, Elizabeth). Further settlements quickly followed along the
coast, and also on the nearby islands, such as Bermuda.
In November 1620, the first group of Puritans, later know as Pilgrim Fathers, thirty-
five members of the English Separatist Church, arrived on the Mayflower in the
company of sixty-seven other settlers. Prevented by storms from reaching Virginia,
they landed at Cape Cod Bay, and established a settlement at what is now
Plymouth, Massachusetts. The group was extremely mixed, ranging in age from
young children to people in their 50s, and with diverse regional, social, and
occupational backgrounds. What they had in common was their search for a land
where they could found a new religious kingdom, free from persecution and
purified from the church practices they had experienced in England. It was a
successful settlement, and by 1640 about 25,000 immigrants had come to the area
(figure 1).

7
Unit 2. Key Ideas
Figure 2. The first settlements in America.
Source: Crystal, 2003, p. 32.
These first settlers did not adventure far west, so they were concentrated along the
Atlantic coast by the time of the first census (1790), with a population of around 4
million. A century later, after the opening of the west, the population increased to
over 50 million, spread throughout the continent (Crystal, 2003, p. 35).
The attractive possibility of having a piece of cake in the vast unexplored territory of
the New World, fascinated many other settlers apart from the English.
Consequently, the varieties of English which finally emerged in the current USA are
influenced by different languages.
 The Spanish had occupied large parts of the west and south-west.

8
Unit 2. Key Ideas
 The French were present in the northern territories, around the St Lawrence
River, and throughout the middle regions (French Louisiana) as far as the Gulf of
Mexico.
 The Dutch were in New York (originally New Amsterdam) and the surrounding
area.
 Large numbers of Germans began to arrive at the end of the seventeenth
century, settling mainly in Pennsylvania and its hinterland.
 There were increasing numbers of Africans entering the south, as a result of the
slave trade, and this dramatically increased in the eighteenth century: a
population of little more than 2,500 black slaves in 1700 had become about
100,000 by 1775, far out-numbering the southern whites.
The nineteenth century saw a massive increase in American immigration, as people

fled the results of revolution, poverty, and famine in Europe. Large numbers of Irish
came following the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s. Germans and Italians
came, escaping the consequences of the failed 1848 revolutions. As the century
move on, there were increasing numbers of Central European Jews, especially
fleeing from the exterminations of the 1880s. In the first two decades of the
twentieth century, immigrants were entering the USA at an average of three-
quarters of a million a year. In 1900, the population was just over 75 million. This
total had doubled by 1950.
Within one or two generations of arrival, most of these immigrant families had
come to speak English, through a natural process of assimilation.
Grandparents and grandchildren found themselves living in very different

linguistic worlds. The result was a massive growth in mother-tongue use of
English (Crystal, 2003, p. 37).

9
Unit 2. Key Ideas
Independence and Civil War
The English crown used the colonies as a source of raw materials, which, once
manufactured, were sold in America under the Navigation Acts (1660), which
limited the trade of the colonies with other countries. According to these
Navigation Acts colonies should grow only what England needed, they could buy
goods only from England or at least through England, and they could not send their
products to other countries but England.
During all this time, England had been involved in several wars within the British
Isles, which left the country with little money. The crown decided to impose taxes
overseas to defend the Empire and passed a series of acts enforcing duties on non-
English goods:
 The Sugar Act (1764), which updated the Molasses Act (1733) and included
more exported goods, such as certain wines or coffee.
 The Stamp Act (1765), all the official documents needed a stamp to prove
the payment of taxes. The main affected were journalists and lawyers.
 The Townshend Acts (1767), more taxes on imported goods.
The reaction of the American to these abusive acts was negative and, on December
1773 took place the Boston Tea Party, where colonists, disguised as Mohawks,
threw overboard 342 chests of tea in Boston harbour (Mourón Figueroa, 2018).
In September 1774, the colonies met at the First Continental Congress and decided
to form a Non-Importation Association in order to stop trade with Britain and
boycott British goods. The following year, they agreed on creating an army. The war
started and the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4th, 1776 (fig.3).

10
Unit 2. Key Ideas
Figure 3. The beginning of the USA with the thirteen colonies.
Nelson, 2018.
After that, the new country started gaining more territory until they annexed Alaska
and Hawaii in 1959. This was not an easy task, and the new country got involved in
numerous conflicts as the mentioned with the Native Americans.
The USA suffered also a civil war in 1861. Southern States, where slavery was a
medium of life, saw a threat in the abolitionism of Northern States. They declared
their independence from the rest of the United States. The emancipation of slaves
allowed black people to fight in the war. However, even nowadays, racism
continues in some parts of the USA.

11
Unit 2. Key Ideas
8.3. Customs and traditions of the USA
American traditions are influenced by the many different backgrounds of its

inhabitants. There are reminiscences from the British Isles, even though they have
acquired a personal touch. One clear example is Halloween, which has been
modelled into the fashion of the USA or pancakes, fluffy and with more ingredients.
Other examples from the British Isles are Saint Patrick’s Day, the Highland Games or
Boxing Day.
Winter count
Native American culture and history is based on oral records but many of them used
pictures to tell stories. The Native Americans from the Great Plains used to keep
records of past events by drawing in buffalo hides. These are known as winter
counts (figure 4). The story told starts in the centre and spirals out clockwise. The
symbols in the count represent important events, such as births, victories,
achievements and so on (Serrano Moya & Santamaría Urbieta, 2018).
Figure 4. Winter count from the early 1900s.
Source: Buffalo Bill Center of the West, 2018.

12
Unit 2. Key Ideas
Pre-school children may enjoy this activity by simplifying it a little. Obviously, do not
use a buffalo skin and, instead of drawings, they can use pictures they bring from
home telling something about them.
Dreamcatchers
Dreamcatchers are also a product of Native American culture, specifically,

originated with the Ojibwe and Lakota people, although they later expanded to
other tribes. They are made of willow and include a net plus certain sacred items,
such as feathers of bead. They were used as protective devices for children while
sleeping, so bad wishes were trapped in the net.
A dreamcatcher would be a nice craft to do with your students, you just need to
keep it simple (figure 5). You can also tell them about the legend (Blake, 2008):
Long ago, Asibikaashi (Spider Woman)

brought the sun back to the sky each day.
However, as the Ojibwe Nation spread to
the ends of the earth, her task became
more laborious and Spider Woman began
to find it difficult to make the trek for all
of her people. Rather, she directed
mothers, sisters, and grandmothers to
weave magical webs for new babies using
hoops made from willow twigs. Called
dreamcatchers, they would allow only
pleasant dreams to enter the babies'
minds as they slept.
Figure 2. A dreamcatcher for pre-schoolers.
Get to know more on how to create a dreamcatcher from a paper plate at:
http://createartwithme.blogspot.com/2012/07/super-simple-dream-catcher-from-
paper.html

13
Unit 2. Key Ideas
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is one the most representative celebration in the USA. Regarding its
use in the pre-school classroom, it is far more important that other celebrations
considered indispensable for Americans, as July 4th. It is celebrated on the fourth
Thursday of November.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, to commemorate the harvest reaped
by the Plymouth Colony after a harsh winter. In that year Governor William
Bradford proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving. The colonists celebrated it as a
traditional English harvest feast, to which they invited the local Wampanoag Indians
(Mourón Figueroa, 2018).
In many American households, the

Thanksgiving celebration has lost
much of its original religious
significance. Nowadays, it centres on
cooking and sharing a generous
meal with family and friends.
Turkey, a Thanksgiving essential, has
become all but synonymous with
the holiday.
Figure 3. Turkey crown
Turkey may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural
feast in 1621. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry
sauce and pumpkin pie (History.com eds, 2018). The turkey also occupies a special
place in children’s crafts (figure 6).
Check more on thanksgiving turkey crowns’ handwork https://printablecrush.com/free-

printable-thanksgiving-turkey-crowns

14
Unit 2. Key Ideas
However, not all turkeys are eaten during this celebration. From the beginning in
the mid-20th century, the president of the United States pardons one or two
Thanksgiving turkeys each year, sparing the birds from slaughter and sending them
to a farm for retirement (figure 7).
Figure 4. Obama pardoning a turkey on 2016
Source: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
Another event during Thanksgiving are parades, typically featuring marching bands,
performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities and giant balloons
shaped like cartoon characters.
Read across America
This celebration was created to celebrate the birth of Dr. Seuss, author of popular
books such as The Cat in the Hat (1957). This event is held every year in USA schools
around the March 2nd, with reading events specially related to Dr. Seuss, although
not exclusively about his books. This was an initiative created by the National
Education Association (NEA) in 1997, and has become an important event in all
schools nationwide.

15
Unit 2. Key Ideas
8.4 Interesting facts of the USA
 The vision Disney gave about Pocahontas is not real. She was a little girl by
the time the story takes place. She married to John Rolfe in 1614, who takes
her to England, where she died after contracting smallpox three years later.
Pocahontas was an important cultural intermediary and her life
demonstrates the difficulty of achieving an accommodation between the
Native American and English ways of life.
 The USA flag’s bars represent the thirteen British colonies that proclaimed
the independence. The stars represent the 50 current states.
 Santa Claus originated in the USA and later merged with Father Christmas,
but they were not the same person.
 The USA does not have an official language.
 The statue of Liberty was gift from the French, and it was made in France.
That means that the whole disassembled sculpture travelled by sea to
America. The journey was four months long.
Blake, D. (2008) Legends of the Native American Dreamcatcher. Bella Online: The
Voice of Women. Retrieved from:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art37506.asp

Mourón Figueroa, C. (2018). Historia e Cultura dos Países de Fala Inglesa (teaching
material). Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.

16
Unit 2. Key Ideas
Nelson, K. (2018). Colonial America for Kids: The Thirteen Colonies. Ducksters.
Retrieved from:
https://www.ducksters.com/history/colonial_america/thirteen_colonies.php
Serrano Moya, E. and Santamaría Urbieta, A. (2018). Workshop on Culture: Ideas,

Activities and Practice (PDF). Metodoloxía AICLE para Profesorado de Áreas non
Lingüísticas. CFR Pontevedra.
Schurr T. G. 2015. Tracing human movements from Siberia to the Americas: New
insights from genetic studies. In Frachetti MB, Spengler RN (eds) Mobility and
Ancient Society in Asia and the Americas. Basel: Springer, pp. 23-47.

17
Unit 2. Key Ideas
In Depth
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks did not give her place to a white passenger. This was the starting point
of protests against the unfair laws of Alabama. In this master class, we will talk
about the importance of what the teacher says in the classroom.
How Many People Were Here Before Columbus?
Lord, L. (1997). How Many People Were Here Before Columbus? News and World
Report, August 18-25, 68-70.
A short article about the native inhabitants of America and what happen to them
after the arrival of the Columbus.

https://www.bxscience.edu/ourpages/auto/2009/4/5/34767803/Pre-
Columbian%20population.pdf

18
Unit 2. In Depth
Digital History
A web full of short articles about American history to enlarge your knowledge.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

19
Unit 2. In Depth
Test
1. Native Americans came from:
A. Nowhere, they were always in the American continent.
B. The Southern part of the American continent.
C. Mongolia and Siberia.
2. The Native American population decreased due to:

A. European illnesses.
B. Sacrifice to gods.
C. Emigration.
3. The Indian Removal Acts were designed to:

A. Protect the Native Americans from abusive deals regarding the exchange
of lands.
B. Promote equality between Native Americans and settlers.
C. Benefit the Americans in the expansion of the USA westwards.
4. All the Native Americans were considered as USA citizens:

A. By the beginning of the 20th century.
B. By the time of USA independence.
C. They are not considered as USA citizens yet.
5. The Boston Tea Party:

A. Was a celebration of the arrival of the first tea shipment to America.
B. Was an attack by the Mohawks to a tea shipment.
C. Was an attack by the colonist as a reaction to abusive taxes.

20
Unit 2. Test
6. The British East India Company was created:
A. To establish a good relationship among traders from different countries.
B. To establish a British trading monopoly.
C. To establish free commerce.
7. The Civil War in the USA was caused by:

A. The abolition of slavery.
B. Abusive taxes.
C. Religious differences.
8. Dreamcatchers were done to:

A. Protect the house and their inhabitants.
B. Protect children while sleeping.
C. Protect cows.
9. What happens to turkey pardoned during Thanksgiving?

A. They are sent to a farm and never eaten.
B. The president of the USA takes them for his own Thanksgiving dinner.
C. They are given to the poor.
10. USA’s official language is:

A. English.
B. Spanish.
C. None.

21
Unit 2. Test
Unit 9

Commonwealth
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4

9.3. Customs and traditions of some Commonwealth
countries 9
9.4. Bibliographical references 15
In Depth 16
Test 19
Scheme

3
Unit 8. Scheme
Key ideas
When the British Empire expanded, many countries completely alien to the culture
in the British Isles were connected to it. The reason for this expansion was
economic and was not always done in the best terms for the colonised countries.
The imposition of English as the language of power plays a great role in the state of
native languages, but also in the transmission of some cultural aspects. Once the
relationship with the British crown was not so good, these countries claimed their
independence and more or less pacific terms. One way of keeping alliances was by
establishing the Commonwealth of Nations (1926).
In this unit, we will take a look at the expansion of the British Empire and the latter
formation of the Commonwealth of Nations. The main aims of this unit are:
 Being aware of the geographical details and historical background of the

different English-speaking countries.
 Exploring customs and traditions and characters that will be interesting for your
pre-school classroom.

The Commonwealth of Nations is formed by 53 states, most of them belonged to

the British Empire (figure 1). All of them are considered as free and equal.

4
Unit 9. Key Ideas
The members are supposed to have the following benefits (Commonwealth
Secretariat, 2018):
 Support in terms of developments, democracy and peace. Especially

relevant for developing countries.
 Promotion of inclusive institutions, justice and human rights.
 Collective decisions about actions, which may have an enduring impact on
citizens.
They also participate in the Commonwealth Games each four years.
These countries use English as an official language in international communication

even it is not the official language of all the members. Not all the countries that
were once under the British rule agreed in accepting this membership, so let us
revise them from a general perspective (Crystal, 2003, pp. 36-54).
Figure 1. The Commonwealth countries.
Source: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2018.

5
Unit 9. Key Ideas
Canada
Canada attracted English migrants due to economic reasons from the end of the
16th century. Namely, the farming, fishing, and fur trading industries. There was
ongoing conflict with the French, whose presence dated from the beginning of the
16th century. However, this came to an end when the French claims were gradually
surrendered during the eighteenth century, following their defeat in Queen Anne’s
War (1702–13) and the French and Indian War (1754–63). During the 1750s
thousands of French settlers were deported from Acadia (modern Nova Scotia) and
were replaced by settlers from New England. The numbers were then further
increased by many coming directly from England, Ireland, and Scotland.
When the USA declared their independence in 1776, the Loyalist supporters of
Britain found themselves unable to remain there, and most left for Canada. They
were soon followed by many thousands who were attracted by the cheapness of
land, especially in the area known as Upper Canada (above Montreal and north of
the Great Lakes). Within fifty years, the population of this province had reached
100,000.
The Caribbean
During the early years of American settlement, the English language was also
spreading in the south. A highly distinctive kind of speech was emerging in the
islands of the West Indies and the southern part of the mainland, spoken by the
incoming black population. This was a consequence of the importation of African
slaves to work on the sugar plantations, a practice started by the Spanish as early as
1517.
From the early seventeenth century, ships from Europe travelled to the West
African coast, where they exchanged cheap goods for black slaves. The slaves were
shipped in barbarous conditions to the Caribbean islands and the American coast,

6
Unit 9. Key Ideas
where they were in turn exchanged for such commodities as sugar, rum, and
molasses.
The ships then returned to England, completing an Atlantic triangle of

journeys, and the process began again. They were over 4 million slaves by the
time slavery was abolished, at the end of the USA Civil War (1865).
The policy of the slave-traders was to bring people of different language

backgrounds together in the ships, to make it difficult for groups to plot rebellion.
The result was the growth of several pidgin forms of communication, and in
particular a pidgin between the slaves and the sailors, many of whom spoke English.
Once arrived in the Caribbean, this pidgin English continued to act as a means of
communication between the black population and the new landowners, and among
the blacks themselves. Then, when their children were born, the pidgin gradually
began to be used as a mother tongue, producing the first black creole speech in the
region.
Australia and New Zealand
Australia was visited by James Cook in 1770, and within twenty years Britain had
established its first penal colony at Sydney, thus relieving the pressure on the
overcrowded prisons in England. About 130,000 prisoners were transported during
the fifty years after the arrival of the first fleet in 1788. Free settlers also began to
enter the country from the very beginning, but they did not achieve substantial
numbers until the mid-nineteenth century. From then on, immigration rapidly
increased. By 1850, the population of Australia was about 400,000, and by 1900,
nearly 4 million. In 2002, it was nearly 19 million.
The British Isles provided the main source of settlers, and thus the main
influence on the language. In spite of this, Australia is still a multilingual and
multicultural country.

7
Unit 9. Key Ideas
In New Zealand (whose Māori name is Aotearoa), the story of English started later
and moved more slowly. Captain Cook charted the islands in 1769–70, and
European whalers and traders began to settle there in the 1790s, expanding the
developments
already taking place in Australia. Christian missionary work began among the Māori
from about 1814. However, the official colony was not established until 1840,
following the Treaty of Waitangi between Māori chiefs and the British Crown. There
was then a rapid increase in European immigration. As early as the turn of the
century, visitors to the country were making comments on the emergence of a New
Zealand accent.
South Africa
British involvement in the region dates from 1795, during the Napoleonic Wars.
British control was established in 1806, and a policy of settlement began in earnest
in 1820, when some 5,000 British were given land in the eastern Cape. English was
made the official language of the region in 1822, and there was an attempt to
anglicize the large Afrikaans-speaking population. English became the language of
law, education, and most other aspects of public life. Further British settlements
followed in the 1840s and 1850s, especially in Natal, and there was a massive influx
of Europeans following the development of the gold and diamond areas in the
Witwatersrand in the 1870s.
South Asia
The first regular British contact with the subcontinent came in 1600 with the
formation of the British East India Company, a group of London merchants who
were granted a trading monopoly in the area by Queen Elizabeth I. The Company
established its first trading station at Surat in 1612, and by the end of the century
others were in existence at Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. During the eighteenth
century, it overcame competition from other European nations, especially France.

8
Unit 9. Key Ideas
As the power of the Mughal emperors declined, the Company’s influence grew, and
in 1765 it took over the revenue management of Bengal. Following a period of
financial indiscipline among Company servants, the 1784 India Act established a
Board of Control responsible to the British Parliament, and in 1858, after the Indian
Mutiny, the Company was abolished, and its powers handed over to the Crown.
China
Even though China is not to be considered part of the Commonwealth, the treaties
with the UK make its presence relevant in this section. Moreover, there are large
Chinese communities in the British Isles, especially in London. The arrival of Chinese
citizens to the British Isles started in the 19th century, when they were employed on
merchant ships. The first “Chinatowns” appeared in the ports, particularly East
London and Liverpool, as stores to cater the needs of immigrants arose. Chinese
communities continue their expansion and, after the Second World War, women
and children turn these initial towns into viable communities (Roud, 2006, 34).
9.3. Customs and traditions of some

Commonwealth countries
It is rather difficult integrate all the significant customs and traditions of

Commonwealth countries in your lesson plan. So, let us see some of the most
popular and relevant for the pre-school classroom. Remember that talking about
these countries will help you with the process of intercultural understanding.

9
Unit 9. Key Ideas
Diwali
Diwali is the Festival of Lights held in India around mid-October and mid-November.
Hindus honour their deities and give thanks for what they have in their lives
(Preszler, 2007).
The celebration lasts five days (National Geographic, 2018):
 On the first day of Diwali, people clean the house and shop for gold or
kitchen utensils.
 On the second day, people decorate their homes with clay lamps and create
design patterns called Rangoli on the floor using coloured powders or sand
(figure 1).
Figure 2. Rangoli patterns.
Source: National Geographic, 2018.

 The third day is the main day of the festival when families gather for Lakshmi
puja, a prayer to Goddess Lakshmi, followed by feasts and firework
festivities.

10
Unit 9. Key Ideas
 The fourth day is the first day of the New Year when friends and relatives
visit with gifts and best wishes for the season.
 On the last day of Diwali, brothers visit their married sisters who welcome
them with love and an extravagant meal.
Tip: Do your own simple pattern in your classroom and fix it with glue!
Pirates Week
An attractive celebration in the Cayman Islands is Pirates Week, in November. As

the name indicates, the participants disguise as pirates and perform mock invasions
and parades. Pirates Week remembers the origins of the islands, which were a kind
of haven for pirates, with lots of places to hide (Pirates Week, n. d.).
Junkanoo festival
The most popular festivals in the Bahamas. It is celebrated on Boxing Day and New
Year. The slaves celebrated their free days by singing and dancing in colourful
masks, going from house to house.
Junkanoo music is highly rhythmical and instrumental. The participants use

cowbells, drums and whistles (Sands, 1989, p. 93). The costumes are usually made
of colourful crepe-paper, representing the theme chosen by each group (Sands,
1989, p. 94). The dates of celebration do not actually fit the school programme but
can still take advantage of this celebration doing an easy craft and talking about the
Bahamas to your students. A nice, although noisy example, is transforming cowbells
into a more festive instrument by painted them (you can also make a cardboard
cowbell) or inspire Carnival costumes in Junkanoo and do a transversal activity
together with the tutor (figure 2).

11
Unit 9. Key Ideas
Figure 3.: Pre.schoolers at Junkanoo
Source: Photo by Canishka, A.
Haka
Figure 4. How to teach haka to pre-schoolers.
Check: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTFRN-Bf8o0
Chinese New Year
The Chinese calendar (lunar) does not follow the Gregorian calendar, so New Year
falls on a different day each year, between 21st January and 21st February. In

12
Unit 9. Key Ideas
traditional Chinese culture, the New Year season lasts fifteen days, and everyone is
expected to visit their families and friends (Roud, 2006, 35).
Each year is dedicated to an animal, but the reason is obscure. There is a fable,
which explains the chosen animals:
Buddha, on the turn of a new year, summoned all the animals to come to him
before his departure from earth. Only twelve came to bid him farewell, so
Buddha honoured them each with a year. The order was taken from the
sequence that they appeared to him: first the Rat, who is said to have ridden
on the back of the Ox and jumped off in front of the Ox when they arrived,
then the Ox, the Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster,
Dog, and Pig (Roud, 2006, 35).
Other versions tell that the Jade Emperor, ruler of the heavens, asked to bring to
him the twelve most interesting animals on the earth. In other instances, these
twelve animals where the winners of a race and the Emperor gave them the honour
of having the zodiac named after them (Roud, 2006, 35).
Chinese New Year has a great deal of visual elements, being fireworks and red
lanterns what people tend to associate the most to the celebration. A red lantern
can be a good easy craft to introduce the topic in the pre-school classroom (figure
3).

13
Unit 9. Key Ideas
Figure 5. A lantern craft.
Fast check at:

https://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/World/chinesepaperlantern/chinesepaper
lantern.html
Other activities associated to these days include:
 Cleaning: As a way of driving the old from the house, a deep cleaning is done
and, thus bad luck is driven out from home.
 Buying new things: New year, new elements around the house.
 Spring festival couplets: A pair of poetry lines on a red paper expressing
good wishes for the year. They are pasted in both sides of the front door.
 The character “Fu”: Which means good fortune or happiness. It is pasted
around the house.
 Chinese knots: As decorations.
 Door gods’ pictures: They are pasted on the doors to drive away the evil
spirits.
 Lucky money in red envelops: They are given to children in the family
dinner.
 Parades: with performances and dances.

14
Unit 9. Key Ideas
9.4. Bibliographical references
Commonwealth Secretariat (2018). Member Countries. Retrieved from:

http://thecommonwealth.org/member-countries
National Geographic Kids (2018). Diwali. Retrieved from:

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/diwali/#diwali_rangoli.jpg
Pirates Week. (2010.) Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary.
Retrieved from: https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Pirates+Week
Preszler, J. (2007). Diwali. Hindu Festival of Lights. Minnesota: Capstone Press.
Roud, S. (2008) The English Year. London: Penguin.
Sands, R. (1989). Conversation with Maureen “Bahama Mama” DuValier and Ronald
Simms: Junkanoo Past, Present, and Future. Perspective in Music, 17 (2), 93-108.

15
Unit 9. Key Ideas
In Depth
Not for all the tea in China
Tea is very popular in the British Isles, but it actually was brought into fashion by a
Portuguese princess who enjoyed drinking the Asian product.
The master class is available at the virtual campus
Our Story, Our World. Our Commonwealth. The Story of 53 Nations
Commonwealth Secretariat (2015). Our Story, Our World. Our Commonwealth. The
Story of 53 Nations. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.
A short, concise and simple explanation of what the Commonwealth is. Quite useful
to work in the classroom.

http://thecommonwealth.org/kids/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Our-
Commonwealth.pdf

16
Unit 9. In Depth
Nelson Mandela
Title: Narrated version of The Life and Times of

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Year: 2013
Length: 13:29 minutes.
Nelson Mandela was one of the most
remarkable activists in South Africa. Know more
about him by watching this short biography and
continue your research on
https://www.nelsonmandela.org/

https://youtu.be/X7i7xVrWzT0

17
Unit 9. In Depth
Test
1. The Commonwealth of Nations is formed by:
A. All the former British colonies.
B. All the former British colonies plus the UK.
C. Some of the former British colonies plus the UK.
2. Canada attracted English settler due to:

A. Economic reasons.
B. Its position regarding the USA.
C. Climate.
3. The Caribbean Islands:

A. Were free states.
B. Were ruled by the French.
C. Were the main nucleus of slave transaction in America.
4. Australia was used as:

A. A penal colony.
B. A nature reserve.
C. A source of raw materials.
5. British settlers find out South Africa was interesting because of:
A. Its cultural diversity.
B. The possibility of slave trading.
C. Its gold and diamond mines.
6. The British East India Company was created:

A. To establish a good relationship among traders from different countries.
B. To establish a British trading monopoly.
C. To establish free commerce.

18
Unit 9. Test
7. Diwali:
A. Is the festival of lights.
B. Is the festival of winter.
C. Is the festival of flowers.
8. The Junkanoo festival has its origins in:

A. British Boxing Day.
B. The celebration of the free day slaves had.
C. Harvest celebrations.
9. Chinese New Year follows:

A. The lunar calendar.
B. The Gregorian calendar.
C. The Julian calendar.
10. Cleaning the house is a custom related to:

A. Diwali.
B. Chinese New Year.
C. Both.

19
Unit 9. Test
Unit 10
Literature as a Teaching
Resource
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4
10.2. Why using stories in the EFL pre-school

classroom? 4
10.3. Types of books in the EFL pre-school classroom 7
In Depth 16
Test 18
Scheme

3
Unit 10. Scheme
Key ideas
Narrative and conversational events are part of our lives since we are babies.
Narrative and dialogue are, therefore, good tools when teaching an additional
language and this is something which storytelling integrates. Using storytelling and
critical literacy in the foreign language pre-school classroom can help the students
integrating new knowledge in the target language and, at the same time, creating
reading habits also in the FL. After revising techniques about storytelling reading, it
is now time to see some examples.
In this unit, we will look at some examples of books especially addressed to pre-
school children and how to work with them in the classroom. The main aims of this
unit are:
 Being aware of importance of stories in the pre-school classroom.

 Being able to read or listening critically from a young age.
 Offering examples of material to use in the classroom.
10.2. Why using stories in the EFL pre-school

classroom?
Tales, stories or legends are motivating materials for students. However, it is not
just reading a story while students sit down being passive listeners. Teachers need
students to engage in the process by using interactive storytelling or critically
literacy. Sénéchal, LeFevre,

4
Unit 10. Key Ideas
Hudson and Lawson (1996) found that children who were actively engaged in
reading a book with an adult learned more than those just listening to it,
increasing their vocabulary.
In fact, according to Wegner and Kaplan (1950), there are two main ways of
vocabulary acquisition:
 Through direct and explicit reference by adults when they name objects or
define words.
 Through incidental encounters with words in verbal contexts, such as
conversations, television and in stories.
If we combine both methods of acquisition, the results improve. Through

storytelling, children will learn vocabulary that they may not necessarily find in daily
conversations and see how those words are part of a syntactic structure (Wasik &
Bond, 2001, p. 243).
Moreover, there are more reasons for using stories in your classroom. According to
Ellis and Brewster (2014, p. 6-7):
 Stories are motivating, challenging and enjoyable. They promote intrinsic

motivation. Remember to include a presentation to give students a reason
for listening.
 Stories exercise the imagination. They can involve in the story, try to
identify the characters feelings and develop creativity.
 Stories are a useful tool in linking fantasy and the imagination with the
child’s real world. In the same way symbolic play does, stories help them to
understand daily happenings.

 Listening to stories in class is a shared social experience. It helps developing
cohesion in the group, as they experiment the same feelings and can share
their experience.

5
Unit 10. Key Ideas
 Children enjoy listening to stories over and over again. Repetition also
encourages participation in the narrative, thereby providing a type of
pattern practice in a meaningful context
 Storybooks provide diversity. You can choose the tale or legend according
the needs of your classroom.
 Storybooks promote intercultural understanding. Using stories from
different countries will help your student enlarge their cultural awareness.
 Storybooks train their minds. They allow children to play with ideas and
feelings and to think about issues that are important and relevant to them.
Finally, remember that storytelling cannot be improvised. The teacher needs to

know the book, think about how to negotiate meaning, know the characters to
module his/her voice according to the requirements of the text and, in summary,
interpret the story. Ellis and Brewster (2014, p. 26) recommend:
 Starting small, especially with younger children.

 Asking your students to sit down, preferably on the floor, while you sit
down on a chair. Thus, they can see the book while you read it.
 Read slowly and clearly, they are not used to reading and they are
listening to a foreign language. Therefore, they need time to process
what they hear and associate it to the pictures.
 Act and adapt to what the text says by expressing (sometimes
exaggerating) emotions.
 Make eye contact with the children, so you can see their reactions and if
they have doubts about what they are listening to.

6
Unit 10. Key Ideas
10.3. Types of books in the EFL pre-school
classroom
Among an ever-growing world of possibilities, sometimes it is difficult to choose the

correct books for your classroom. Establishing a network among other teachers is a
good solution to keep your list updated. In this section, we will see some book types
which usually suit the needs of your students.
However, bear in mind that what works in a classroom can be a disaster in

another, so take these ideas as a starting point to develop your own
preferences.
Another problem you may find is the level of the text. In the case of books
especially addressed to pre-schoolers, the language tends to be simple and the
input short. However, this is not always so. The discussion of the practicality of
authentic materials arises again. Even though the use of pre-modified material in
the classroom should not be a recurrent tactic, employing pre-modified stories in
the classroom is not a crime, nor your students will learn less vocabulary. Just do
not adapt stories to such a point that you do not leave place for negotiation of
meaning or to introduce new vocabulary.
Counting and vocabulary books
This type of reading materials can be a really good source of comprehensible input
for the initial stages of language acquisition. Nevertheless, this type of books does
not offer the same amount of information a tale or a storybook implies, as they lack
context. There are books that plainly show new vocabulary or numbers, so the
teacher will help students to go through them creating a storyline whenever
possible or adding some questions about the vocabulary.

7
Unit 10. Key Ideas
For example (figure 1):
Reading activity following Jolly

Phonics. What else can we do here?
 Ask them about the colours.
 Ask them to find a pen in
the classroom.
 Ask them about their pets.
 Ask them to move their hips
to remember the word.
 Talk about minimal pairs
(cup / cap).
 Create a story using these
words.
Figure 1: an activity from Jolly Phonics
Source: Wernham & Lloyd, 2010, p. 23.
The objective is making contents as meaningful as possible instead of learning lists

of vocabulary without attaching them to something concrete. In the case of
counting books, students are already familiar with the symbols, which represent
numbers, so they can establish parallelisms between their L1 and the FL (figure 2).
Figure 2. A page of Ten Little Dinosaurs Children can deal with numbers in both forms while a story
is told.
Source: (Brownlow & Rickerty, 2015).

8
Unit 10. Key Ideas
Legends and classical tales
Legends and popular tales from any English-speaking country will help your
students to deepen into the background of that culture. This is a good way to
promote intercultural communication.
You can also use popular universal tales, such as Jack and Beanstalk but you should
be careful with some classical examples due to discrimination and sexism. This is
the case of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and others where the female character
depends on a male to save her. This helpless image was enhanced by Disney films
and it is complicated to get rid of it. However, this does not mean you can use them
in the classroom, but you will need adapt them or reflecting critically about the
message they transmit.
Take as an example the adaptations made by Beatriz Millán in the series Érase dos
veces (http://www.beatrizmillan.com/cuentos-erase-dos-veces ), where she changes
the script of traditional stories in order to update them.
Legends and popular tales are also a good source of information, especially
culturally speaking, as they help children to understand some cultural facts about
the country of origin.

9
Unit 10. Key Ideas
For example, Manx cats have no tails and a popular tale helps telling why (figure 3).
Figure 3. A popular Manx tale to explain why Manx cats have no tails.
Source: Morrison, 1911/2013.
Modern classics
There are some tales written during the 20th century which, spite of the fact cannot
be considered as classical, are an undoubtedly part of the life of many English native
speakers. By using titles like these, your students would have the same information
as a native speaker. It is now your turn to make the most of them bearing in mind
their limited exposure to the FL outside the classroom and that some of these
stories have been translated into the students’ L1. Let us see some examples and
discuss their potential usefulness in the FL classroom.

10
Unit 10. Key Ideas
The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
(1999). A story about a mouse and his stroll
through the deep dark wood. He finds several
animals who want to eat him, but he invents a
creature who eats them all. Finally, the creature
does exist, and he also wants to eat the mouse.
However, the mouse is able to make him believe
that he is the scariest creature in the wood.
A good book to work vocabulary related to wild
animals, parts of the wood and body parts, but also to discuss about how being
clever is more important than being strong.
Monkey Puzzle, by Julia Donalson and Axel Sheffler

(2000). A little monkey is lost and a butterfly helps
him finding his parents. The problem is that
butterfly is not aware of how an grownup monkey
is, as her babies do not look like her.
A good book to work vocabulary about animals and
their body parts, but especially to discuss about
differences and how not everybody can be
considered the same. Actually, quite useful to work
the move from etnocentrism to etnorelativism (Unit 6, Bennet’s model).
Zog, by Julia Donalson and Axel Sheffler (2010).

Zog is learning how to be a dragon, but he meets a
princess who makes everything change and
becomes a flying doctor with her.
A good book for older students. It contains quite a

lot of text, which, even though it is good for
working vocabulary, the message is far more
important. Good to discuss about preconceived ideas about helpless princesses.

11
Unit 10. Key Ideas
The Very Hungry Catterpillar, by Eric
Carle (1969). A little tale about all a
catterpillar eats to become a beautiful
butterfly. There is some criticism about
the fact the butterfly emerges from a
cocoon and not a crysalis, but this
something you can use to talk about the
importance of contrasting information. The very Eric Carle solved this by saying that
this is a special type of catterpillar. A good book to work vocabulary related to food,
days of the week and counting, but also to discuss about healthy food habits.
The Very Busy Spider, by Eric Carle

(1984). A spider arrived to a farm with the
wind and stars spinning her web. The
animals there porpose her several plans,
but she is busy with her web and does not
answer.
A good book to work vocabulary related
to animals and discuss about the behaviour of the spider not answering the others.
“Slowly, Slowly, Slowly”, said the Sloth, by Eric Carle

(2002). A sloth makes everything slowly and the other
animals ask him why. He likes doing things like that and
does not see any advantage of being in a hurry.
A good book to work the pronunciation of initial /s/,
vocabulary about animals and to reflect upon the fact
of doing everything in a hurry.

12
Unit 10. Key Ideas
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice
Sendak (1963). A child is sent to bed
without dinner due to his misbehaviour.
Suddenly, the bedroom transforms into a
forest near the sea. He sails till a
misterious isle where monsters (wild
things) are and becomes the king of all, but
he starts missing his parents. After
spending a year travelling back home, his
bedroom is as it used to be and there is a hot supper waiting for him. A good book
to discuss the passing of time in dreams, talk about what scares the children and
what happens when they misbehave at home.
The Given Tree, by Shel Silverstein (1964). A rather sad

story about a tree, a child, and their very special
relationship. As the child grows up, the tree is not
longer interesting for him. The tree offers everything
to the now adult, so he is again interested in sharing
time with it: its apples for selling, its branches for
building a house and his trunk for a boat. At the end,
the child, now an old man, visits the old stump and the
tree tells him that it has nothing left, but the only thing
he actually needs is place to rest and sits on the stump. A good book to talk about
the passing of time and feelings.

13
Unit 10. Key Ideas
The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss (1957). A book about
two boring children who receive the visit of a naughty
cat while their mother is out. Only the goldfish tries to
promote order to avoid problems when mum comes
back. Finally, the cat cleans all the mess before their
mother enters the house. A good book to work
movement vocabulary and repetitive structures and
to reflect about their reaction to a similar situation.
My Painted House, my Friendly Chicken and Me, by

Maya Angelou (1994). Thandi, a girl from South
Africa talks about her daily life. She introduces her
chicken pet, her environment, explains some
traditions in her community and her life as a little
girl. A good book to promote intercultural
understanding.
Kofi and His Magic, by Maya Angelou (1996). Kofi,

boys from West Africa talks about his daily life. He
talks about weaving, his hometown, traditional hats
with cowries and celebrations. A good book to
promote intercultural understanding.

14
Unit 10. Key Ideas
Brownlon, M. and Rickerty, S. (2015) Ten Little Dinosaurs. London: Hachette UK.
Ellis, G. and Brewster, J. (2014). Tell it Again! The Storytelling handbook for Primary
English Language Teachers. British Council. Retrieved from
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/pub_D467_Storytelling_h
andbook_FINAL_web.pdf
Morrison, S. (1911/2013). Manx Fairy Tales. Ramsey: Lily Publications.
Wasik, B. A: and Bond, M. A. (2001). Beyond the Pages of a Book: Interactive Books
Reading and Language Development in Preschool Classrooms. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 93, (2), 243-250.
Wernham, S. and Loyd, S. (2010). Jolly Phonics Activity Book 2. Essex: Jolly Learning.
Werner, H. and Kaplan, E. (1950). The Acquisition of Word Meanings: A

Developmental Stud. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development,
15 (1).

15
Unit 10. Key Ideas
In Depth
Reading to preschool children
Let us see a practical example of how to use a book in the EFL pre-school classroom.
Access to the master class through the virtual campus.
Manx Fairy Tales
Morrison, S. (1911). Manx Fairy Tales. London: David Nutt.
A compilation of Manx popular tales.
Access to book through the following link:

http://manxliterature.com/sort-by-genre/other/manx-fairy-tales/

16
Unit 10. In Depth
Farytalez.com
A compilation of fairy tales from all over the world.
Access to book through the following link:

http://fairytalez.com/
The Gruffalo
A web full of resources you can use in your classroom, plus information about other
books published by the autors.

http://www.gruffalo.com

17
Unit 10. In Depth
Test
1. Reading stories to pre-school children in the FL:
A. Must be a passive activity, as they do not understand the FL.
B. Must be an interactive activity to force them to use the FL.
C. Must be an interactive activity to help them understand concepts in the
FL.
2. When preparing a storytelling session:

A. Be sure you have revised the text in detail beforehand.
B. Prepare a vocabulary activity to translate all the new words.
C. Bring copies of the text for all your students.
3. Vocabulary books are useful for:

A. Grammar in context.
B. Telling a story.
C. Learning vocabulary.
4. Can classical tales be conflictive?

A. No, as they were written expressly for children.
B. Yes, as they use archaic language.
C. Yes, as many present sexist attitudes.
5. What do legends provide?

A. Easy syntactic structures.
B. Standard vocabulary.
C. Cultural information.

18
Unit 10. Test
6. The Gruffalo is a good book to work:
A. Friendship.
B. Wit.
C. Family bonds.
7. What is strange The Very Hungry Caterpillar?

A. That, finally, a butterfly emerges from a cocoon.
B. That it was born on a Sunday.
C. That is it spends of its caterpillar period eating.
8. _______________ is a good book to talk about the passing of time in life:

A. The Cat in the Hat.
B. The Giving Tree.
C. Where Wild Things Are.
9. The Cat in the Hat was written by:

A. Dr. Seuss.
B. Eric Carle.
C. Maya Angelou.
10. Maya Angelou’s books are great to work:

A. Clothing vocabulary.
B. Feelings.
C. Intercultural understanding.

19
Unit 10. Test
Unit 11
Music and Rhymes as

Teaching Resources
Index
Scheme 3
Key ideas 4

11.2. The role of rhythm in language learning 4
11.3. Popular songs and rhymes 6
In Depth 12
Test 14
Scheme

3
Unit 8. Scheme
Key ideas
Using music, chants and rhymes in the pre-school classroom is a must. Nobody
questions the fact that you will use songs in the classroom, but never forget that
they have a didactic resource. A song is a listening and, we need to prepare it
carefully if we want to create motivation. The rhythmic pattern of songs is also
found in rhymes and tongue twisters, so they are also valuable material for the
classroom. It is worth understanding their potential usefulness in the FL classroom
far from just intrinsic motivation.
In this unit, we will discuss about the importance of repetitive patterns in FL

teaching. The main aims of this unit are:
 Understanding why rhythm patterns work in language learning.

 Seeing some examples of traditional songs and rhymes for children.
11.2. The role of rhythm in language learning
Using rhymes, songs and chants in the EFL classroom is not just a matter of having
fun with your young learners. They provide you with a valuable tool to enhance the
shape of the language at the same time you offer them authentic material. They are
also part of a non-threatening learning environment and can help you with
intercultural understanding. Thus, motivation, interaction and culture work
together in a single item.

4
Unit 11. Key Ideas
When listening to songs or rhymes, the phonological loop enters the scene. The
phonological loop (Baddley and Hitch, 1974) is a part of working memory what
deals with spoken and written material, previously decoded into speech sounds. It is
divided into:
 Phonological store: linked to speech perception. It can hold information

from spoken words for a couple of seconds.
 Articulatory control process: linked to speech production. It is used to
rehearse, and store verbal information from the phonological store.
The phonological loop is, therefore, the specific site where people encode and
rehearse phonological intheseation before committing the information to long-term
memory. Therefore, the repetitive nature of songs and rhymes can be considered as
an enhancer for language learning (Chuang, 2016, p. 25). Children see in these
repetitive patterns a tool to remember grammatical elements and sounds. Think
about Humpty Dumpty (table 1):
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Subject + verb (past) + adjunct

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall Same sounds /wɔ:l/ / fɔːl/
Table 1. Grammatical and phonological elements in Humpty Dumpty.
As they are short and simple, these input chunks provide children with input they
are able to manage. It is not just a matter of spoken language, as these repetitions
also help students developing their incipient reading skills, helping them predicting
structures.
Following Chuang (2016, p. 24), in the context of the cognitive dimension of

language learning, songs and chants reinforce the consolidation of ideas in short-
term and long-term memory. According to Krashen and Terrel (1983), it is suggested
that a manifestation of Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is reflected in
the brain’s inclination to repeat what an individual hears from environmental input.

5
Unit 11. Key Ideas
11.3. Popular songs and rhymes
One of the problems in using popular songs and rhymes in the English classroom is
mainly lack of understanding. Listening to Jingle Bells is a great idea, asking your
students to sing it too, but be sure they understand the lyrics. This is done in the
pre-listening stage, by introducing the topic, working critical vocabulary and
creating motivation.
We have also dealt with the importance of exposing your students to different
accents. Songs and rhymes, especially if you use recordings, can be a way of doing
this. However, if you are going to work some specific phonemes, be sure they
coincide with the English in those listening. For example, if you are trying to put
emphasis in the pronunciation on schwa in combinations such as <-er> (another,
discover, colder) using RP, use an accent which follow the same pattern:
 RP /əˈnʌðə/
 General American /əˈnʌðr̩/
 Irish /əˈnʌðər/
All of them are correct, but your students may get confuse. Always revise the
listening material carefully before playing them.
After checking the material at home, think about how you can start using it with
your students. Forster (2005, p. 64) recommends the following guidelines.
 Start off orally, leave the written element for later if you want to deal with
it.
 A little each lesson is better than longer, more concentrated spans of time.
 Review what you did the previous lesson and add a bit more.
 Revisiting learned songs and chants offers opportunity for review and
confidence building.

6
Unit 11. Key Ideas
A second stage of the teaching of songs and chants could be the following:
 Expand on the chant for further grammar and/or vocabulary.
 Use chants to teach speech rhythm and stress.
 Invent your own chant to suit specific needs.
Working with popular songs
There are many songs available to work in the pre-school classroom. Let us see
some examples and the possibilities they offer.
Brother John
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother John, brother John.
Morning bells are ringing,
Morning bells are ringing,
Ding, dang, dong,
Ding, dang, dong.
Use a bell to explain the meaning of the word. Explain the word “sleeping” by
simulating the action. Then, one of the children lays on the floor pretending to be
asleep and the bell on his/her back. We start singing and one of the other students
takes the bell and hides it. Brother John will ask each children “Have you got the
bell?” until found. That child will be now the new Brother John (De la Torre Rubio,
2007, p. 4).
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
And eyes and ears and mouth and nose.
One of the most used songs in the classroom, as it combines language and
movement. You can sing this song slowly, fast, sad, happy, etc, providing a good
opportunity to show them how adjust their voice to different situations. Once the

7
Unit 11. Key Ideas
song is familiar and they know the words, use the actions but not the words and ask
your students to provide them.
If you’re happy, happy, happy

If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands,
If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands,
If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands, clap your hands,
If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands.
If you’re angry, angry, angry, stomp your feet.
If you’re angry, angry, angry, stomp your feet, stomp you feet.
If you’re scared, scared, scared, say, “Oh no!”
If you’re scared, scared, scared, say, “Oh no!” Say, “Oh no!”
If you’re sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, take a nap.
If you’re sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, take a nap, take a nap.
If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands, clap your hands.
A cheerful song little ones especially like. You can use this song with first cycle
students.
The actions are completely linked to what the song says, and they easily
associate them to the spoken word. Use this song to introduce these verbs
and them repeat them in other contexts.
Some notions about poetry
As well as songs, rhymes are useful to work pronunciation. In the case of rhymes
and poems, we are also dealing with a special characteristic of English language: it is

8
Unit 11. Key Ideas
a stressed timed language. This means that in any given stretch of language, some
syllables are of longer duration than others. This is opposed to the syllable timed
languages where each syllable receives approximately the same amount of
emphasis and time (Forster, 2005, p. 64). Even though, the pre-school English
teacher does not need to receive detailed formation about poetry in English, it is
worth signalling the characteristics and the most frequent patterns followed by
verses in English. Then, check the master class to see a practical demonstration with
some popular rhymes.
Poems in English are written in feet. A foot is is a unit of metre, consisting of a

combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. The basic feet are (Lennard, 2006,
p. 3-4):
 Iamb / ambic: unstressed + stressed, such as “delight”.

 Trochee / trochaic: stressed + unstressed, such as “pencil”.
 Spondee / spondaic: stressed + stressed, such as “I know”.
 Pyrrhic: unstressed + unstressed, such as “such as”.
 Anapest / anapestic: unstressed + unstressed + stressed, such as “unaware”.
 Dactyl / dactylic: stressed + unstressed + unstressed, such as “multiple”.
The most relevant for the rhymes you are going to use in the classroom are the
iamb and the trochee, but combinations are also frequent. For example (table 1).

9
Unit 11. Key Ideas
S+U S+U S+U U+S Trochaic
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
S+U S+U S+U U+S Trochaic
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
S+U+U S+U+U S Dactylic

Hickory, dickory, dock,
U+S U+S U+S Iambic
The mice ran up the clock.
Table 2. A couple of metric examples.
The stressed words are quite easy to determine, as they usually follow the natural
stress of the words. In the case of monosyllabic words, content words are always
stressed (nouns, adjectives, verbs) while function words are unstressed (auxiliary
verbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions). However, be sure you have read the
poem a couple of times before presenting it to your students, just in case the
author had other intentions and marked different words to emphasise them.
Baddeley, A. D., and Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In G.H. Bower (ed.), The
Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in research and theory, 8, pp. 47–
89. New York: Academic Press.
Chuang, L. (2016). Accessing the Workings of the Mind: from Input to Intake. Oxford:
Chartridge Books.
De la Torre Rubio, M. P. (2007). Las Canciones en el Aula de Inglés. Revista Digital

Práctica Docente, 6, 1-10.

10
Unit 11. Key Ideas
Forster, E. (2006). The Values of Songs and Chants for Young Learners. Encuentro,
16, 63-68.
Lennard, J. (2006). The Poetry Handbook. Oxford: OUP.


11
Unit 11. Key Ideas
In Depth
How to read poems in English
To complement the contents included in this unit, watch this master class with
some examples of children’s rhymes and how they are recited.
Access to the master class through the virtual campus.
Songs, Chant and Rhymes in English Language Teaching
Abdellah, A. S. (2002). Songs, Chant and Rhymes in English Language Teaching. In

Naggar, Z. E. et al. (eds.) Spotlight on Primary English Education Resource. Washington:
Academy for Educational Development.
More examples of songs in the classroom.

Access to book chapter through the following link:

http://www.svu.edu.eg/faculties/education/cv/manaheg/antarreasearch/booksand
class/Songs,%20Chants%20and%20Rhymes%20in%20English%20language%20teach
ing.PDF

12
Unit 11. In Depth
Teaching Jazz Chants
Title: Teaching Jazz Chants
Year: 2013
Length: 6:26 minutes
Carolyn Graham, the creator of jazz chants
talks about their usefulness in the
classroom. Jazz chants use the rhythmic
pattern of spoken American English to
introduce vocabulary in the EFL classroom. Look for more information about these
methodology in Graham, C, (1978). Jazz Chants. Rhythm of American English for
Students of English as a Second Language. New York: OUP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqEh_7wdbCw
Super Simple
A great web page about songs and learning during the pre-school stage which offers
lots of resources and ideas for your classroom. It is updated frequently. Do not
forget to visit their Youtube channel.

https://supersimpleonline.com

13
Unit 11. In Depth
Test
1. Rhymes and songs are part of:
A. An instrumental environment.
B. An extrinsically motivating environment.
C. An intrinsically motivating learning environment.
2. The phonological loop deals with:

A. Spoken and written material.
B. Spoken material.
C. Written material.
3. The repetitive nature of songs and rhymes can be considered as:

A. A need for slow learners.
B. A reason for losing motivation.
C. An enhancer for language learning.
4. In the context of the cognitive dimension of language, songs and chants:

A. Reinforce the consolidation of ideas in short-term.
B. Reinforce the consolidation of ideas in long-term memory.
C. Reinforce the consolidation of ideas in short-term and long-term memory.
5. Do popular songs need a pre-listening stage?

A. Yes, as children need to know all the new vocabulary.
B. No, you just need to play the song and you can work with the meaning
later.
C. Yes, as children need to understand the topic, feel motivated and work
with critical vocabulary.

14
Unit 11. Test
6. As revised in unit 6, all Englishes are correct, so it does not matter the variety
songs use:
A. True: just expose students to as much variety as possible.
B. True: but be sure there is not any conflict between the pronunciation of
the new vocabulary and the variety you use to pre-teach it.
C. False: using different varieties will confuse children.
7. English language is:

A. A stressed timed language.
B. A naturally rhythmic language.
C. A unsuitable language for poetry.
8. Poems in English are written in:

A. Haikus.
B. Feet.
C. Iambs.
9. The word “finger” represents a:

A. Trochaic.
B. Spondaic.
C. Pyrrhic.
10. Which monosyllabic words are stressed?

A. Function words.
B. Auxiliary verbs.
C. Content words.

15
Unit 11. Test

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Unit 1

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

Motivation in the EFL Pre-

1.3. Internal and external factors of motivation 9

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

1.1. Introduction and objectives

 Understanding the concept of motivation.

1.2. What is motivation?

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

 FL is learnt as a L1: silence and observation.

Following this approach implies creating a motivational learning environment and

Let us see an example: if English pre-school teachers are not required a C1 or

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

Motivation is an abstract concept we use to refer to the reasons why people

controlling. Sharing responsibility with students, offering them options and

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

 Direction. The choice of a particular action.

In other words: motivation refers to the reasons why someone decides to

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

The complexity of what is happening inside a classroom, as well as the

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

to their particular needs and circumstances.

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

INTERNAL FACTORS EXTERNAL FACTORS

 Optimal degree of challenge.  Teachers.

Perceived value of activity: The nature of interaction with significant

 The nature and amount of appropriate

Mastery: The learning environment:

 Awareness of developing skills and  Resources.

mastery in a chosen area.  Time of day, week, year.

 Self-efficacy.  Size of class and school.

Self-content: The broader context:

strengths and weakness in skills  The local education system.

required.  Conflicting interests.

 Personal definitions and judgements of  Cultural norms.

success and failure.  Societal expectations and attitudes.

 To the target language.

 To the target language community and

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

1.4. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the EFL

Children are intrinsically motivated to learn, to undertake challenges, and to solve

Therefore, it seems important to discern both types of motivation in order to

According to Dörnyei (2001, p. 11):

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

Figure 1: Promoting extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

If the student is intrinsically motivated, do not offer further reward.

Self-determination is a quality of human functioning that involves the experience of

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

Adapted from Blumenfled, 1992, p. 273.

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

Constructivism talks about authentic tasks (Blumenfled, 1992, p. 278). By definition,

The teacher becomes a facilitator who relinquishes considerable control to learners.

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

Blumenfeld, P. (1992). Classroom Learning and Motivation: Clarifying and Expanding

Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in

Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Classroom.

Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge:

Lepper, M. R. (1988). Motivational Considerations in the Study of Instruction.

Advanced Didactics of the English Language

The master class is available at the virtual campus.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

McLeod, S. A. (2017). Maslow's hierarchy of needs.