EFL for Children and Young People

This information comes from an article written by Gill Bryant published in Educare, a publication of WEC International.

Part 1 — Helping English Language Learners

Introduction

An increasing proportion of expatriates’ children are being educated in English even though it is not their first language. Many schools for expatriate children use English as the language of instruction. Many schools, learning centers, and home educators are expressing a need for help and advice with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching.

Teachers need to have an awareness of the educational background and culture from which their students come. Some students will come from an educational background in which the learning environment is more student centered. There is less teacher talk and more student involvement in their own learning. Rote learning is rarely done. Instead of dwelling on facts, students are taught where to find information, how to use/analyze the information and how to present information to others. These students are challenged to think and ask questions of the teacher. These students may become frustrated if they are only required to learn facts and not be able to be more hands-on in their learning.

Some students will come from an educational background in which lessons are much more teacher-centered. This means they will expect much more teacher talk, memorization, and learning by rote. They will be more used to fact-based learning and less used to analysing information and forming their own opinions. It may take time for them to adjust to a different style of learning—although learning by rote can certainly be used to advantage for picking up new vocabulary.

A large percentage of TCK schools are in English. This means that both teachers and TCKs from countries where English is not the mother tongue will need to learn English as a foreign language. This will result in them spending most of their teaching/learning day not in a language that they know best.

Now, think about students you’ve worked with whose language of instruction is not their mother tongue. In our home countries, the dynamics of this is a bit different, because one of the purposes is to help them transition and assimilate into the country in which they are living. But, for the TCK, they need to learn the language of instruction so that they can be successful in the school. The goal in a TCK school is not assimilation, but rather to help the TCK eventually repatriate to their home country. These different approaches can affect how the teacher works with students in their classroom/boarding home/youth group.

Part 2 — Helping Young Students Learning a Second Language

Young L2 (second language) learners will need a lot of support throughout the school day, especially if their English is very limited. Additional factors such as being new to school, and even new to the host country, make this even more important. They may at first need to be physically shown what to do and where to go.

The children need clear, simple instructions to be given throughout the school day, every time there is a change of activity. These instructions may need to be given one-on-one as it cannot be assumed that they will understand whole-class instructions. The language used needs to be at or just above the students’ level of comprehension. If the teacher can use the same words and phrases, the students will grasp the meaning more quickly.

In the same way, a well-organized classroom with set places for equipment and classroom furniture will help the students to become accustomed to everything. Even if students appear to have a fair grasp of English, it is important to be aware that they may not be used to hearing the teacher’s spoken version of the language. For example, they may have learned some English in Singapore but find an American or British accent more difficult to understand. From the outset, L2 students should be given classroom tasks along with the others, so that they feel part of the class and are able to practice their language while washing brushes, cleaning the board, tidying up, etc. with their fellow students.

Some topic areas studied in the classroom may be unfamiliar to the learners—examples are the weather, seasons, and farm animals. School books produced in the UK, Australia, Canada, or the USA may well include work surrounding these topics which will not make sense to students from different parts of the world where the information in the textbook bears no relation to those of their life experience. So some adaptation of the lesson materials will be required.

It is important for the teacher to be genuinely interested in the culture and background of the students and to convey this in the lessons. The students should be encouraged to write/draw/talk about their own cultures, and class work could involve appropriate history or geography projects.

It is an excellent idea to involve parents in this as they have unique knowledge and life experience to share. They could be invited to come in and share stories, music, and practical skills such as cooking. This also has the knock-on effects of making the parents feel more involved in their children’s education and strengthening the relationship with the teachers.

Practical ideas to help with English include the following:

• Music and songs—help to reinforce language already learned. Individual listening—children listen to stories on tape. They could do a gap-fill or true/false exercise to help focus their listening.

• Videos—show them a video clip without the sound, get them to answer questions such as “Is the man on the video angry or happy?” Play again with sound, give the children a cut up dialogue from the clip which they have to put in order, and then act it out, etc.

• Home made books

• Picture story sequencing

• Divide a familiar story into pages and make up fun activities based on each page.

Part 3 — Helping Older Students Learning a Second Language

Older L2 learners will still need clear instructions and will also need opportunities to ask about language areas which they find difficult or in which further practice is needed. Again, as with younger learners, routine is important and helps them to become familiar with what is going on. Instructions should be given step by step, orally or written down as a reminder. Check whether the students have understood by asking them to tell you what they are going to do. Try not to give too much detail at once, and emphasize key words. Make sure that the atmosphere in the classroom is positive and encouraging so that students do not feel ashamed to ask questions or admit ignorance.

The following ideas will help:

• Use a wide range of visual materials to give information—examples are pictures, charts and maps, tourist brochures, cuttings from magazines and newspapers, different types of books, the Internet.

• Teach appropriate study skills such as note taking and summarizing, creating a piece of writing, producing reports.

• When asking questions, start with factual ones including those requiring yes/no answers.

Progress to more complicated or abstract ones later.

• Use pair work and group work in which each student has a role–this helps to diminish anxiety and gives the students practice in using problem-solving English.

• When introducing a new topic, find out what the children already know–extend this to include unique elements from the life experience of the EFL students.

• Use plenty of hands-on activities such as science experiments and the construction of relief maps.

• Use questionnaires and interviews to give speaking practice and also help to provide a basis for later written work.Teach new vocabulary from pictures or real objects. Then use substitution exercises, where students take out certain words in a pattern sentence and replace them with new vocabulary.

• Have students keep a daily diary based on models provided by the teacher.

• Encourage students to create a bilingual dictionary. They could use words and/or pictures for this.

• Use videos as for younger learners.

Resource

EFL For Children and Young People

The link above is to the full article from which these pages came from. The article was published in the March 2006 issue of Educare, a ministry of WEC International. Permission has been given to use these materials. This information is written to teachers, but it has some very good suggestions that parents can do to help their child if they need to be learning English because they are in an English speaking school.

Permission to copy but not for commercial use.