4. CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING

4.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Younger children need to explore and be active, they learn through doing. They haven’t developed yet their conscious learning skills, so they learn indirectly while doing a task provided the language used is related to the activity. Conscious learning produces accurate language use; indirect learning, acquisition) produces fluency. Both are necessary, so we should develop both in class.

o They love to imitate and mime, they have no inhibitions to act out roles. Routines and repetitions make them feel secure. They are great imitators, if you mime, point, etc while you speak, let them copy you.

o Children are good at interpreting meaning even when they do not understand the meaning of every word. Words aren’t enough; they make use of all their senses to get the meaning from the situation. They use facial expressions, gestures, intonation. Children pay attention to individual words later on. You don’t have to speak more slowly or to cut your speech; they will get used to hearing the new language and understand what you are saying.

o Children like talking about themselves and their world, although some are quieter than others. They have a great skill to use their limited language knowledge in a creative way. They usually create new words by analogy or they invent new vocabulary and use it. They experiment with the language so we should make use of this ability in class. They will make mistakes but it is necessary to make mistakes to learn. As they grow up they will become more self-conscious and will lose this spontaneity. They like talking about their things. Any topic they talk about in their mother language is a suitable topic for the foreign language class. They go from naming things, to expressing their opinions or showing preferences. This is one of the most powerful motivators to learn a language.

o They use “chunks” of language (expressions, complete sentences, groups of words) they’ve heard from somebody else. They haven’t learnt them formally (structure, meaning of individual words) but they know them and know when to use them.

o They have a great instinct for play and fun; they make a game for any situation. When they are having fun they want to continue with that activity and do not realise they are learning. Moreover, having fun while learning English helps them develop a positive attitude ng to a group (peer pressure) gains relevance.

o They have a ready imagination. They test their image of the world through fantasy, they check what is possible or not.

o They have a limited span of attention and need to be physically active. We should change activity, pace, voice or grouping every now and then. o It’s accepted that children go through a silent period before they start using L1, so expect some children to start using the foreign language straight away while others need more time.

4.2 CLASSROOM CLIMATE

Look at the following statements, each one describes a teacher’s behaviour in class. Which of them have a good effect on the classroom atmosphere? Which would have a bad effect? Give a score to each one on a scale from

-2= very harmful; -1=harmful; 0=no effect; +1=beneficial; +2= very beneficial

1. the teacher corrects every error: -1
2. the teacher hardly ever corrects mistakes: -1
3. the teacher lets students know who is 1^st, 2^nd, … in the class: -2
4. the teacher praises students who answer correctly: 2
5. the teacher criticises students who repeatedly make mistakes: -1
6. the teacher punishes students who behave badly: 1
7. the teacher usually chooses good students to answer: -2
8. the teacher often chooses weaker students to answer: -1
9. the teacher uses only English in class: 1
10. the teacher mostly uses English in class: 2
11. the teacher translates everything into the student’s own language: -

4.3 CONDITIONS FOR LEARNING

CONDITIONS FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING

o   CONTEXT: Children make sense of the world and language through the context they are in. The context for activities in primary school should be: natural and real; relevant; allow for discovery and active learning; encourage the use of the L2 for a real purpose and support their understanding.

o   CONNECTIONS: to make language learning relevant, it should be connected to other areas of knowledge such as other subjects, their home, culture in comparison with the L2 culture; what and how they learn before and after the class.

o   COHERENCE: we should create meaningful contexts and make connections to other learning as we mentioned above but also to give internal coherence to what is being learnt. At the same time, we should break down the contents into sequenced steps and to ensure we provide reasons and situations to practise the language so that learning doesn’t become fossilised.

o   CHALLENGE: it is important to get the right level of linguistic and cognitive challenge. Activities should be in what is called the ”Zone of Proximal Development” (ZPD) which means what we are teaching should be in the area between what a child can do without help (too easy)and what cannot be achieved without help (too difficult). Anything out of this area means there will be no learning.

Another factor related to challenge is “flow”: the positive feeling towards a learning activity and your own performance. This motivates more strongly than any external rewards because it builds up confidence and self-esteem and normally leads to better behaviour and better levels of performance.

o   CURIOSITY: it is important to create and maintain a desire to learn. We should make learning interesting, relevant and enjoyable. Classroom activities should allow children to be curious, and to encourage asking questions and investigating.

o   COMMUNITY:  the sense of community in the classroom is created by sharing experiences, cooperating and collaborating to achieve a common goal, recognising the contributions made by all the children and valuing their diversity, and by giving children opportunities to express their opinions and personal views.

o   CREATIVITY: Developing the creative potential all children have in the language classroom allows them to develop greater fluency; it makes learning more memorable and makes the lessons more enjoyable. In language lessons it is easy to create activities which develop creativity, imagination and fantasy.

Around these, there are other factors that influence the learning experiences the provide filters and parameters that shape the way the optimal conditions are met in different cultures and contexts.

4.4. STAGES IN LEARNING

They are three stages for which the pupils happen at the moment of learning a foreign language: presentation, practice and production:

o   PRESENTATION:

In this stage, the teacher introduces the topic that one is going to work, besides presenting the activity and his structure. It must do a small introduction with the vocabulary that one is going to work. Some examples of activities that can be realized are: storytelling, poster, flashcards, song, rhyme, video, listening and discussion.

o   CONTROLLED PRACTICE:

We divide this stage in two parts; in the first one of them simple activities are realized by the help of teacher, whereas in the second one the same exercises but they are realized by the pupils, they will not receive help of the teacher:

-       Controlled practice: activities children to do with the teacher’s help to start using the new language items.

-       Freer practice: activities children can do without the teacher’s help to start using the new language independently.

Some examples of activities that can be realized in this stage are: drills, pointing, talking, collecting, gap-filling, matching, games.

o   PRODUCTION:

In this stage, the pupils must remember what they have learned and to be able to realize activities with this knowledge acquired in the previous stage.

 Some examples of activities that can be realized in this stage are: role - plays, information-gup, rhyme, song, story, poster, project, make up dialogue, game.