«MODERN SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGES AND TRENDS»
SCIENCECENTRUM.PL
ISSUE 3
ISBN 978-83-949403-3-1
150
context for understanding and using the language.
Teaching Techniques
In order to accommodate different learning styles and maintain young
learner‘s interest, the teaching techniques and activities must be varied. In addition,
the techniques and activities should be appropriate to the learners‘ cognitive level
as well as take into account the learners‘ affective needs.
The techniques used
should allow students to work at the class level
–chorale response; read aloud
together
with teacher etc; small group level
– for negotiating, sharing ideas and
creating group products; pair work
– for enabling pupils to engage in dialogues and
oral interactions and individual level
– which allow pupils to think about, internalize,
practice and apply what they have been learning.
Activities
The activities should provide multiple sources
of language input and
opportunities for reinforcement, internalizing and using the language. The activities
must be multi-sensory which cater to the needs of pupils with different learning
preferences
– singing; arts and crafts; listening to stories;
acting out; solving
puzzles; playing games etc.
Assessing Young Learners‟ EFL Learning
Assessment has various purposes
– formative, for assessing progress and
summative for assessing whether instructional goals have been achieved. It has
been noted in the literature that young learners may not perform to the best of their
ability on formal standardized tests due to the time and
pressure constraints and
general lack of experience with this mode of assessment. In addition, the use of
tests has a strong impact on the self-esteem of young learners particularly on
whether they perceive themselves as ‗successful‘ or not which will then affect their
attitudes toward learning the language and future achievements (Wortham, 2000,
2005).
In
the young learner classroom, the teacher should focus on formative
assessment activities -
to provide information, which will benefit the pupils‘ learning
as well as inform instruction. To this end, assessment should be viewed as an
ongoing process of collecting information on the pupils‘
abilities, difficulties and
progress. The most effective means of collecting this information is by observing
pupils in the classroom setting, recording their performance as they are engaged in
activities and reviewing samples of their work over time. In addition to on-going
informal assessments, periodic summative assessment procedures can be used to
measure achievements and indicate what goals
have been achieved after an
extended period of instruction.
Following are some techniques for assessing young learners, progress and
achievements:
• Checklists: these are easy to use and can be done regularly
• Self-Assessment Activities: these allow pupils to reflect on their learning
and express their feelings about their learning.
• Short Questionnaires which can indicate what pupils like and don‘t like;
what is easy and what they find difficult
• Short Assessment Activities, which focus on core elements which
everyone, should have mastered.
• Anecdotal Observation sheets