The presentation is revolved around experiences shared in the journal the author wrote over eight months teaching English to eight children (two three-year old children, and six four-year old ones). First, she would highlight two considerable difficulties she encountered. Specifically, I could not implement most of the activities carefully planned for I spent most of the time running, chasing, calling out these “uncontrollable” kids’ names, begging them to stop, sit down and learn. Consequently, she was always both physically and mentally exhausted after every class. However, once she could figure out effective ways to settle them down to teach, another problem arose: they did not show any interests in looking at her, listening to her, and doing what she asked and then they quickly got back to the very crazy racing, chasing and running. Second, after presenting the two significant obstacles, the author would share techniques in making these very young learners (1) ready to learn and then (2) engaging in learning English.
Some facts about me :-) Hi, everyone. It is my pleasure to be to share with you my experience in teaching English to very young learners. I am teaching English to English major at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCMC, Vietnam. In 2013, I had a chance to start a part-time job as a teacher to very young learners. I had 8 month experience in teaching kids (april 2013 to Dec 2013). I recognized that it was extremely important to invest time and effort in finding educational, compatible, and effective methods to teach this type of learner, so I applied for a scholarship on Early Childhood Development, then I failed. ;-) Then I had to get back to the university and continued my life as an EFL teacher to young adult! But i don’t want to make these experiences die out, so whenever having chances to share, I always grasp them and share with people interested.
Considerable difficulties in teaching English to very young learners (2.5 - 4 years old) and solutions: a reflection
1. Teaching English to very
young learners (2.5 – 4 years
old)
CAMTESOL CONFERENCE 2016
20 Feb 2016
2. Considerable difficulties in teaching
English to very young learners (2.5 - 4
years old) and solutions: a
reflection
Tam Hoang
Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCMC
Vietnam National University, Vietnam
Nhtam19@yahoo.com
3. MY TWO MAJOR DIFFICULTIES
AND HOW I OVERCAME THEM:
A REFLECTION
Tam Hoang
Vietnam
4. Problems in teaching very young
learners?
Can they learn at the age of 2.5 - 4?
Will they cry in the classroom?
Will they whine?
Will they fight with their classmates?
Will they listen to us?
Will they do what we ask?
Will they be happy in class?
Will they love learning English?
Will they hit you?
Do they understand what rules are?
Should they be afraid of you –
a teacher?
Any others?
5. MY TWO MAJOR DIFFICULTIES
HOW TO “SETTLE DOWN” MY
“LITTLE MONKEYS” TO TEACH
(classroom management)
12. 1. Play
2. Clean up
3. Hello songs (TPR)
4. Classroom rules
5. Introduce/ practice/ review vocab
6. Break time
7. Clean up
8. Review vocab
9. Story time
10. Coloring time
11. Star counting
12. Goodbye song
13. Stickers
classroom routines
22. How to settle them down!!!
• Classroom organization
(blue mats, colorful table and chairs)
• Circles – my space
23.
24.
25.
26. How to settle them down!!!
• Rewards (stars and stickers)
“if u happily take part in the activity, u will get
stars and stickers”
27. To sum up, how do we
settle down these
little monkey!!!
28. To sum up
• Classroom rules (Be happy, be quiet, no fighting, listen,
sit nicely, raise your hand)
• Classroom organization (blue mats, colorful table and
chairs)
• Songs (routine songs)
• Rewards (stars and stickers)
• Circles – my space (drawing each circle for each kid)
• Classroom routines (1. Play, 2. Clean up, 3. Hello songs,
4. Classroom rules, 5. Introduce/ practice/ review
vocab, 6. Break time, 7. Story time, 8. Coloring time, 9.
Goodbye song, 10. Stickers)
32. • Arouse their curiosity
• Provide safe and happy learning
environment
33. Arouse their curiosity
o The magic bag (share stories – Amy with the
black bag! )
o Under-the-mat
o Close-your-eyes
o Drawing (a banana – draw a plate, a tree, a fridge
– suspense their curiosity)
o Eye contact (show the video)
o Facial expression (show the video)
o Rewards (give an example – reward the
destination)
o Puppet
o Magic wand (show)
o Magic floor (draw)
34.
35. Arouse their curiosity
o The magic bag (black bag! )
o Under-the-mat
o Revealing FC (illustrated)
o Close-your-eyes
o Pictionary (a banana – draw a plate, a tree, a fridge –
suspense their curiosity)
o Magic floor (draw)
o Eye contact (show the video)
o Facial expression (show the video)
o Rewards (give an example – reward the destination)
o Puppet
o Magic wand (show)
37. Provide a safe and happy learning
environment
• The kids did not enjoyably learn and play with
“witches” who were always glaring at them, strict
to them, threatening them, shouting at them.
• Always smile and be happy
• Be relaxed
• Be slow in the opening stage
• Giving them engaging, loving and caring eyes
• Communicating with them through the eyes
• Let them know, “we are here to PLAY, not to
learn!”
Good evening, everyone. It is my pleasure to be here today to share with you my experience in teaching English to very young learners. Even though it is not much, I am always proud of it because I obtained it thanks to my very careful, close observation, my enormous efforts, and my compassion in the job. If u have any questions which might take quite much time to discuss, can you please hold it until the end of the sharing. U can write ur question down, and stick it on the board! So, let’s start our lesson today with your own sharing! Let me give u a number, and find ur partner to talk with him/ her in 7 ms.
All of them used to be the difficulties I had to face with. However, today I am going to share with u the two hardest ones. They are...
Why settling down these little monkey is extremely important!!! Can u tell your friends why?
Bat coc bo dia story
Thanks to the classroom routines, they know when they can crazily run and do a lot of physical activities, when they sit down and listen. However, One thing playing the most significant parts in the success of a lesson is how they sit down and listen!!! SONGS is the KEY!
