I’ve been teaching English in French primary schools for the past ten years. I’ll try to explain « how » I teach.
My teaching is comprehension-based. I don’t think you can learn to speak a language without first understanding the language. To understand any language, we have to be exposed to it A LOT and what we are exposed to has to be comprehensible. Parents make language comprehensible when their children are learning to speak their L1. They do this naturally. They seem to know instinctively that it helps children understand if they talk about objects, people and events that can be seen, heard and touched.
A dog! Look at the dog!
I hear a bird. Listen to the bird.
Here comes the mailman.
Parents know children need lots of practice listening so they create opportunities for listening through out the day. They talk out loud about what they are doing as they perform everyday routines and tasks.
I’m cutting the tomatoes.
I’m looking for my shoes.
They also describe what their child is doing, feeling, hearing, seeing . . .
You’re so tired. It’s time for a nap.
You’re giving Teddy Bear a hug.
Parents instinctively know children need to hear the language to learn it, so they speak to their child and they help make what the child is hearing comprehensible. I do exactly the same thing in class. I begin with TPR (total physical response). The beauty of TPR is that the language is 100% comprehensible from the first class. A word can be taught through TPR if its meaning is transparent without translation. The most obvious groups of words are concrete nouns taught with props and action verbs but also many adjectives, prepositions, etc. I teach lots and lots of verbs in the first few weeks of school including, say, stand (up), sit (down), walk, stop, jump, run, swim, fly, come, come in, go, go out, stay, fall, begin, finish, drink, eat, listen, look, look at, look for, put, take, give, put on, take off, put in, take out, open, close, see, shout, cry, sing, dance, draw, write, sleep, play, work, etc. I say the word, I do the action with one or two students and then I teach the sign for the word to the entire class. I talked about signing with my classes in a previous post. Gestures, combined with teaching vocabulary in context, and constantly recycling vocabulary provides students with a language base that allows them to speak with a basic level of fluency very early on.
If you are interested in using sign language with hearing children, I recommend the following books:
Amazon.com: Dancing with Words: Signing for Hearing Children's Literacy: Books: Marilyn Daniels Amazon.com: Signing Exact English: Books: Gerilee Gustason,Esther Zawolkow,Donna Pfetzing,Lilian Lopez
or this website:
ASL Browser
Next, I introduce There is/are, this is, he/she/it is, I am and the verbs have, like, want, need, make/do, can, must and the question words and lots of important little words like, so, but, then, if, also. These are worked into daily conversation with the kids and the conversations become stories – usually very repetitive silly stories.
As part of our entry routine, I write a journal entry on a large pad on an easel in the front of the class. It always begins with “Today is . . .” If it is someone’s birthday or if someone has broken a bone or has a new baby brother or sister or pet or is going to Spain for the weekend that gets mentioned. This week Luc (CE2) had a new baby brother. So we wrote, “Today is Monday, February 11th. Luc has a baby brother.” Then I started asking and answering questions with the kids help. I sign a split second before I speak so the kids can speak with me as opposed to repeating after me. Does Luc have a baby sister or a baby brother? Luc has a baby brother. Who has a baby brother? Luc has a baby brother. Does Marc have a baby brother? No, Mark doesn’t have a baby brother. Luc has a baby brother. Luc, does your baby brother cry a lot? Does he sleep a lot? Does he sing or does he cry? Luc said his brother sings so we created a story about the baby singing very loudly all night and Luc can’t sleep so Luc is very, very tired. And of course the baby sings only in English not in French so we burst into song often while telling the story. Luc gets out of bed and shouts “BE QUIET” but the baby does not stop singing. The baby begins to dance. This went on for 10 or 15 minutes. Sometimes we act out the story -2 or 3 or 4 times -or draw the story on the board, anything to help make it comprehensible to everyone.
I also like to share picture books with my classes. The books can be in French because I tell the story using vocabulary they will understand and I ask a lot of questions.
By the way, I see my classes 3x30minutes/week.
Other suggested reading:
Amazon.com: How Languages Are Learned (Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers S.): Books: Patsy Lightbown,Nina Spada
and anything my Stephen Krashen. “Comprehension-based” approaches are based primarily on Stephen Krashen’s Comprehensible Input (CI) theory.
Books and Articles by Stephen D Krashen
Also watch this show about a gesture-based teaching method:
Enjeux
Good luck teaching
cjj