English in elementary school teaching materials collection 2013 the jet p rogr amme

Teaching Young Children 
The teaching of foreign language and international understanding to children can be extremely 
fulfilling due to the responsiveness of the audience. Whereas adults have many years of habit and 
thought to overcome, children’s curiosity will often overcome childhood prejudices. 
When preparing classes, always bear in mind that the children, although responsive, may have very 
limited attention spans. These are children who are used to watching television programmes with 
commercial breaks every 5-7 minutes. Also do not overestimate the amount of time you have. 
Excluding start-up and clean-up, a 45-minute class you may well have only 30 minutes of actual 
instruction time. There are a number of suggestions contained herein for the first time you teach a 
class. The children may need time to adjust to having a foreigner speaking to them before they 
move on to some of the more thought provoking exercises also included. When planning activities, 
try to look out for things that the children are interested in, e.g. their favorite musical group, or a 
favourite baseball or soccer player. Use these examples to capture the students’ attention and 
interest.