867. Helping kids make image/word links in English



One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Within a couple weeks I’ll be teaching classes to kids of 9 to 11. Once again I’d like they would utter words, then sentences, then hold a short conversation. I mean, I don’t want to confine their contributions to the class to single words as the only response they can give me.

One activity I’ll implement is to elicit verbs they’ve learned this academic year. And I’ll try to hold some conversation by means of using those verbs. For example we could say simple things about ‘walk’. I could ask one of them, ‘So, how long does it take you to come, to walk, from your house to this center?’, etc., etc.

With the youngest students, who need to move around often, I could give one student the instruction to walk from here to there: the point is for them to gain a visual image of what ‘walking’ is; in other words, help them make up a visual-mental link between the word and the action.

It’s very important the students should speak, and not just listen to me and respond with single words. Ah, and I could have one of the kids write the verbs I’m eliciting from them on the whiteboard: if they’re more ‘protagonists’, the management of the class I hope it’ll be more simple.” / Photo from: stumbleinn net. 1954 Ford Atmos

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3658. Language Facts or Communication in Class?

  I teach English to adults. It’s so great … and demanding.  Adults have some characteristic way of learning the language. For example they tend to focus on specific grammar patterns and ways of saying things in the target language. Well, it’s something I also do when learning that language myself. And it is something I cannot change. It is something we can take advantage from, anyway.  Even in that way they can learn quite a lot. You know, it doesn’t matter they would ask me questions in class that show they are focusing on grammar. It’s ok. It’s ok ever if also we as teachers facilitate there is plenty of communication in English in class.  I mean, do not confine as a teacher to teach grammar and language facts, but provide a lot of communication in class.  When some newcomer arrives at one of those groups of mine – and I’m thinking of one specific group – that new student says kind of, Oh I can see my classmates have a lot of fluency while in my case … Why do the other students have
Read more

758. Irregular verbs now and then

Image
One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “English irregular verbs are an interesting grammar point Spanish students have to study year after year, increasing the list of them each academic year. Quite many more verbs of this type existed in Old English, before the 11th century, perhaps most of the English verbs then. In other words, the way each verb took the form of past simple and past participle was more complicate than the simple – ed ending. With centuries passing, fewer and fewer verbs remained as such ‘irregular’ verbs, in fact those verbs native speakers used very often. Because of that those verbs remained being ‘irregular’, while most of the English verbs, roughly speaking, were taking on the regular form of – ed for past simple and past participle. This can be due just to linguistic evolutions that actually occur in every language, with the language common people speak, year after year. Beside the fact that many words, so verbs too, were entering in the E
Read more

2064. Connecting people from different countries

Image
Something we teachers of English or other languages have to bear in mind when teaching adults is that the students should learn and practice communication, and we shouldn’t confine our classes to give them facts of the languages.  Also in kids’ case.  The point isn’t for them to know information about the language, yet to learn how to communicate in that language.  Thus we could plan our classes with that aim.  I state all this because we could dedicate a long time to teach facts, information, something nearly dead, say.  In this way, besides we contribute to connect people from so varied countries. It’s something brilliant, isn’t it? / Photo from: people-happy-cheering bachflowerssingapore wordpress com
Read more

2445. We Had Nice Teachers To Remember!

Image
Families have a nice and indispensable role in kids’ education.  School just helps, among other things to win knowledge and PRACTICE of technical school subjects: math, sport, grammar and spelling… Also school educates people, more specifically: teachers, we teachers help parents and families in their kids’ education.  At school you win some values, like solidarity, environmental friendship, knowledge and practice..., as I said. And all what teachers, we teachers can provide, because of our own education, values and virtues: we set examples, either positive or we can show flaws in our behavior.  I’ll give you one example. At my primary education we had a teacher that taught us how to read the Bible, the New Testament more specifically.  We had nice teachers, and they taught us how to learn… and to love their subjects. I can state that - about most of my teachers. / Photo from: teacher1 www geledes org br
Read more

3657. How to Develop a Lesson that Could Be Efficient

  You may be a teacher, one of a second or foreign language. Well, that’s is a marvelous enterprise.  Now I wanted to draw some lines about what a good lesson could be, according to my experience plus others’ one.  Thus we can start the class with a warmer or warm-up activity. I ask my dear students about today’s date, and about the weather. Then, within that warmer, we practice saying sentences with such or such grammar structure, one we are practicing lately. Or they answer some questions by me. Or by them, to each other.  Then we work on the homework set on the previous lesson. Every day I set some homework, at the end of the class. And usually they’ll have to review what done in class – me giving examples of what and how they may revise at home.  And next we may work either on photocopies I hand out, or on the textbook we are working on.  Much weight should be given in class to speaking in the target language.  I plan each and every lesson, on a notebook for that purpose, even some
Read more