Teaching English to younger learners
is a way to introduce English as a foreign language. The most important aspect of
teaching English to younger learners is creating an enjoyable and creative learning
atmosphere. Teaching a language is not only about comprehensible input but also
developing all four language skills. As a language skill, listening is an
active engagement. There are a few ways to lesson plan for listening skills,
learning the basics, fun activities, and adding varieties.
According to UK professor A. F.
Garvie, 'Listening is an active not a passive operation.' Listening skills need
to have a 'real-life' meaning. Children need 'purposes and intention' to
recognize and respond to others. Children have limited knowledge, they enjoy
fantasy, imagination, and movement. That is why, we need to select materials
carefully and purposes for practicing listening skills and authentic meaning.
Stephen Krashen's 'comprehensible
input' is mandatory and he advised that acquisition proceeds best when the
level of anxiety is low and self-confidence is high of learners. That is why, a non-threatening and
enjoyable learning environment is necessary for teaching listening to the
younger learner. Children's learning mostly depends on making connections between
what they know and what they can understand in the speech they hear. A teacher needs to consider social constructivist theories when he develops
listening skills.
Piaget believed that a younger
learner 'constructs' or builds understanding over time. According to Piaget's
stages of development, the younger learner's age or stage starts from 0 to 7. Generally, they have a holistic approach to
languages.
Vygotsky believed that learning was
ahead of development and for development to occur, interaction with adults or
peers who are more knowledgeable is needed. This has been termed a 'zone of
proximal development'.
Bruner extended Vygotsky's ZPD theory
by defining the role of the more knowledgeable 'other' and he mentioned 'scaffolding'.
Listening is closely connected with
speaking. Alice Duer Miller said, "Listening is not merely not talking...
it means taking a vigorous human interest in what is being told us. You can listen
like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back
fuller and richer." He suggested that listening can be done in a limited
way but it enhances communication.
Concerns
Building listening skills is really important
for little ones though listening is a complicated skill. There are some considerations for
classroom listening.
- Explaining why listening is important and why children have to listen. Teachers have to make sure the learners are clear about what the main point or purpose of the activity is.
- Developing strategies for listening to help children. Teachers should teach an important strategy 'intelligent guesswork' or 'puzzle game'.
- Setting specific learning tasks. Listening is divided into three stages, pre-listening, while-listening, post-listening, and activities for each stage.
- Listening does not rely on the availability of a cassette player or pre-recorded material. Most listening is the teacher's talk.
- Giving the children enough confidence. Teachers should not expect them to always understand every word.
Aspects
of Difficulty in Listening
Learners know the word but sometimes get the wrong sense. The aspects of difficulty in listening are as follows:
·
Familiarity with the person who learners are
listening to
·
Lack of control over the speed at which
teachers or speakers speak
·
Not able to get things repeated as
listeners need
·
Failure to recognize the 'signals'
instructors provide
·
Problems of interpretation
·
Limited vocabulary of the listener
·
Inability to concentrate
·
Established well learning habits
·
Children's different psychological or mental
ability
That is why, teachers
should be more focused to avoid such problems. Teachers should be aware of the type and
length of the text children listen to, teacher can adjust the speed of the
speech whether recordings cannot modify this. Teachers should use authentic
pronunciation, repeat messages and help students to understand the meaning by
using gestures and facial expressions. It makes children's strong response-ability. Children have less developed schematic knowledge about real-life
topics. That is why, the bottom-up skill of sub-skills is preferable for younger
learners depending on their age and the type of teaching they have been
exposed to.
Suitable
Activities
Before engaging them in
listening activities, teachers need to develop a child's good listening skills
and turn them into a habit. Firstly, listen to them then keep eye contact with them.
Meet them at their level, use a calm voice, repeat back, and avoid strictness and
sarcasm.
The teacher is an important
source of listening material. Most of the activities are just listening and
responding. So, the teacher needs to prepare him/herself first. In the sight of the
children, the teacher is a cassette player.
* Teacher can use games,
role-play, rhyme, and story to teach listening. There are varieties type of
activities a teacher can apply to the younger learner to fulfill the purposes,
such as making a simple 'DIY telephone' and turn into a listening game. Teachers
can make their peers into the classroom to play this game.
DIY Telephone Game with Glass
* The sound box is a
musical listening game for small children. The teacher can turn it into a musical-chair game. Music starts, and the teacher will command sit down and while the music stops teacher will command stand up. The teacher can make it different like
he can play the music and when he will stop the music, one by one learners will
stand up with a new name of flowers. This a group activity.
Musical Chair Game
* Narrate some basic
instructions about animal characters and what they do. Have children listen and
move the characters along to the story. Another form of it is sound hunting, playing with different noises of animals, and learners will guess and give answers.
* The teacher reads or
makes up a story and as the students listen they draw the different scenes. The teacher can help them by explaining which scene to draw. This can be done
individually or in a small group on a larger paper. In this case, the teacher can
teach various adjectives such as big, small, tall, high, etc. When he says an
adjective/ noun combination then students have to draw it.
Listen and Draw
* Blindfold walk,
listening with flashcards, secret messages, guessing what it is, putting in order,
number/word bingo and some other interesting activities can develop children's
listening skills.
Teaching listening to the
younger learners and the activities teacher provides mainly based on the 'Total
Physical Response' (TPR), which is also called the 'Comprehension Approach'.
Teachers may apply 'The Audio-lingual Method', 'Desuggestopedia', and 'Communicative
Language Teaching' but TPR is the most effective and communicative approach. TPR is
a useful and easily adaptable teaching technique. The interaction between
teacher and student is necessary which occurs in TPR and it is beneficial for improving
children's listening skills.
To make students'
learning meaningful and fruitful teachers have to observe their students and
interact with them. Flexibility is the key to successfully teaching any language
skill. Teachers should be committed to the student's learning and should have
their own interesting ideas to make their interest in listening.
References
Pinter, A(2009). Teaching
Young Language Learners. Oxford University Press.
M Lewis_ Jimmie Hill (1985)
-Practical techniques for language teaching- Language Teaching Publications.
Good-ideas-for-teaching-listening-and-speaking-to-young-learners
