3. LEARNING LANGUAGE SKILLS

3.1 LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is the skill that children acquire first, both in their mother tongue and in any foreign language. What children hear is the main source of information about the language: its pronunciation and patterns... Of course, it is usually accompanied by visual aids such as facial expression, objects, etc

Listening in a foreign language is difficult especially as we cannot normally go back to what we have just heard. For this reason, it is important to provide pupils with as many opportunities as possible to listen to the target language, for example, listening to the teacher giving instructions, questions, stories, etc.

However, listening is not a passive activity. It is usually supported by visual elements or the pupils’attention is focused to specific elements. These techniques are called“scaffolding” as they actively support children’s understanding.

When planning listening activities we should:

·Give children confidence: they will not be able to understand every word and they should know we do not expect this form them. Help children understand the new words, or the general idea, or particular information with your intonation, miming, visuals, etc and praise their efforts to do so.

·Give children a purpose for listening: tell them what you expect from them, this reduces anxiety and prepares them for the listening task. In real life we listen for different reasons and these reasons should be the same in the classroom: to relax, to “wake up”, for enjoyment, to interact with others, to find out information, etc

·Strategies for listening: an important strategy is guesswork. Pupils use their knowledge of the world to guess what is going to be said. It is useful to encourage them to predict what they are going to listen to, check their predictions while listening, and what may come next. This keeps their attention and motivation high. Another useful strategy is to learn to guess meaning from the context and recognising discourse markers (and, but, then, finally, etc)

·Set specific tasks before listening (to prepare them), while listening (to remain active)and after listening (to check comprehension)

3.2 . READING SKILLS

Listening is the main source of L2 input. However, once children can read, this skill is the main source to reinforce and expand their linguistic knowledge as well as the easiest to keep up along the life.

Reading means constructing meaning from the written text. This involves knowing the alphabet and recognising how letters sound; knowing which sounds usually go together (graph phonic knowledge); knowing chunks of words or words that normally co-occur (lexical knowledge) and what may come next (syntactic and semantic knowledge).

It seems that the development of Reading skills in L2 is assisted by reading skills in L1. Therefore, we shouldn’t introduce the written form before they have acquired basic reading skills in L1.

It’s very important to develop a positive attitude towards reading by creating a print rich environment in class (labels, signs, instructions…) so children become familiar with the written form of know words and sentences. It’s also useful to read aloud for them from books while they follow the story from the pictures and the written text.

The priority when learning to read and/or write should be meaning, not correctness. We want children to recognise familiar words first. Then we’ll move on to making the connections between familiar sounds and written words and phrases, then to spell known language items and to be able to predict how a new word is pronounced based on their previous knowledge.

Which method to use? A combination of all, as long as they concentrate on meaning from the beginning and provide a meaningful context and activities which are enjoyable and purposeful.

LEARNING A LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW PHONETICS, HOW?

¿ HOW WORK THE SOUND?


Jolly Phonics is a fun and child centred approach to teaching literacy. With actions for each of the 42 letter sounds, the multi-sensory method is very motivating for children and teachers, who can see their students achieve. The letter sounds are split into seven groups as shown below. Letter Sound Order The sounds are taught in a specific order (not alphabetically). This enables children to begin building words as early as possible. How does Jolly Phonics work? Using a synthetic phonics approach, Jolly Phonics teaches children the five key skills for reading and writing. Complemented by Jolly Readers and Jolly Grammar, it provides a thorough foundation for teaching literacy over three years in school. The five skills taught in Jolly Phonics seven letter sounds


1.Learning the letter sounds Children are taught the 42 main letter sounds. This includes alphabet sounds as well as digraphs such as sh, th, ai and ue.


2.Learning letter formation Using different multi-sensory methods, children learn how to form and write the letters.


3.Blending Children are taught how to blend the sounds together to read and write new words.


4.Identifying the sounds in words Listening for the sounds in words gives children the best start for improving spelling.


5.Tricky words Tricky words have irregular spellings and children learn these separately. For more information on Jolly Phonics products visit our Products section.

The Actions
s Weave hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss
a Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants crawling on you and say a, a, a.
t Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t. 
i Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at end of nose and squeak i, i, i.
p Pretend to puff out candles and say p, p, p.
n Make a noise, as if you are a plane - hold arms out and say nnnnnn.




ck  Raise hands and snap fingers as if playing castanets and say ck, ck, ck.
e Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it into the pan, saying eh, eh, eh.
h Hold hand in front of mouth panting as if you are out of breath and say h, h, h.
r Pretend to be a puppy holding a piece of rag, shaking head from side to side, and say rrrrrr.
m Rub tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmmm.
d Beat hands up and down as if playing a drum and say d, d, d.


g Spiral hand down, as if water going down the drain, and say g, g, g.
o Pretend to turn light switch on and off and say o, o; o, o
u Pretend to be putting up an umbrella and say u, u, u.  
l Pretend to lick a lollipop and say l l l l l l.
f Let hands gently come together as if toy fish deflating, and say f f f f f f.
b Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b.


ai Cup hand over ear and say ai, ai, ai.  
j Pretend to wobble on a plate and say j, j, j.  
oa Bring hand over mouth as if you have done something wrong and say oh!
e i Stand to attention and salute, saying ie ie.
ee or Put hands on head as if ears on a donkey and say eeyore, eeyore.


z Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee, saying zzzzzz.
w Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh.
ng Imagine you are a weightlifter, and pretend to lift a heavy weight above your head, saying ng...  
v Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv.
oo ooMove head back and forth as if it is the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock, saying u, oo; u, oo. (Little and long oo.)


y Pretend to be eating a yogurt and say y, y, y.
x Pretend to take an x-ray of someone with an x-ray gun and say ks, ks, ks.  
ch Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch.
sh Place index finger over lips and say shshsh.
th Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th, and further for the th sound (this and thumb).


qu Make a duck's beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu.  
ou Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou.
oi Cup hands around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi! ship ahoy!
ue Point to people around you and say you, you, you. er Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say ererer. ar Open mouth wide and say ah. (UK English) Flap hands as if a seal, and say ar, ar, ar. (US English)






What is Jolly Phonics?

THE HIGH FRECUENCY WORDS

 

High Frequency Words There are lots of lists of high frequency words available, all slightly different as they are based on different research. This site usees the high frequency words suggested in the UK's Letters and Sounds phonics programme, since that is the order in which most schools in the UK will teach the words. What are High Frequency Words? High frequency words are quite simply those words which occur most frequently in written material, for example, "and", "the", "as" and "it". They are often words that have little meaning on their own, but they do contribute a great deal to the meaning of a sentence. Some of the high frequency words can be sounded out using basic phonic rules, e.g. "it" is an easy word to read using phonics. However, many of the high frequency words are not phonically regular and are therefore hard to read in the early stages. These words are sometimes called tricky words, sight words or camera words. In addition to being difficult to sound out, most of the high frequency words have a rather abstract meaning which is hard to explain to a child. It's easy to learn words like "cat" and "house" because they can easily be related to a real object or a picture, but how do you represent the word "the" or "of"? Why learn the High Frequency Words? Researchers reckon that learning just 13 of the most frequently used words will enable children to read 25% of any text (OK, that 25% wouldn't make much sense on its own, but it's a very good start). Learning 100 high frequency words gives a beginner reader access to 50% of virtually any text, whether a children's book or a newspaper report. When you couple immediate recognition of the high frequency sight words with a good knowledge of basic phonics, that's when a child's reading can really take off . />

3.3. SPEAKING SKILLS

Speaking is the most difficult skill in a foreign language. Why? Ir involves: putting your ideas into words, structuring them to make sense and pronouncing them accurately and at the righy speed and with the appropriate intonation. More over, we do not normally have too much time to think what we are going to say and how and we cannot “play backwards” what we have said to change it (this makes speaking more complicated than writing)

Besides, we usually think learning a language means being able to speak it as we speak our L1: without much thinking or effort; we do not remember the silent period we had to go through when we were little.

Children need plenty of opportunities to speak the L2 as soon as possible and as much as possible to feel they are making progress in their learning.

Initial stages: It’s important children get used to the sounds of the L2 in connected speak, not only in isolated words and to have enough confidence to try to speak themselves. Classroom language like instructions, greerings, routines, provide children with some language to “take away”. It is not spontaneous speech but ir means they begin to feel confident and successful.

Speaking activities should start with controlled practice tasks sucha as Look and Say (repeating single words or short phrases and sentences) and move on to less controlled ones until the pupils are ready to speak without the teacher’s help.

Creating a motivating and supportive climate in the classroom is always important bus even more for speaking. The teacher should speak a lot in the L2 to provide examples of the language, rephrase what the children say in L1 and show interest in what they say. Children need the teacher’s support and approval so in speaking activities we should focus on the message and the effort they have made to express it than in correcting all their mistakes.

Speaking activities should be well adjusted to the children’s linguistic, cognitive and development level (always lower than the level of their comprehension and receptive skills). They should be fun and purposeful as well (personalization)

We should also bear in mind that speaking in front of a large group can be intimidating and children feel more comfortable and participate more if they are working in pairs or in small groups.

HOW WORK SPEAKING?

ROUTINES FOR THE CLASS

The children with learning a idiom is important to work for the routines. In me shool all days repeat:
Godo mornig/ good afternoon
Hoy aré you today?
I am fine thanks you! Thanks you You aré welcome

Once children is the help person And he tells.
My name is....
I am :.....years old
I have.........
I can........
My favorite........is.......
I like...........
I dont like..............
I am from to.........

The children ask what the weather like today? Its is sunny, hot, cold, cloudy etc
Then remember the number, monts or days the weekend and the sounds.


And then repead the phases:-
May I go to the toilet please?-
May I ask a questions please?-
May I sharpen my pencil please?-
May I play a game please?-
May I take a book, please?-
May I sit with Pepito, Please?



3.4 TOPIC EXAMPLE HALLOWEEN

ACTIVITIES

FIRST ACTIVITY:

This activity will consist in playing to the bingo. The teacher will distribute to every child a cardboard and a counters to be able to play. The teacher will be the manager of the drawings are extracting that will agree with those of the cartons. The child who first completes his cardboard will win. The prize will be a few typical cookies of Halloween.

·         Competences: Language

·         Aims:

-          To recognize and to identify the different character.

-          To familiarize with Halloween's typical words.

·         Contents:

-     Recognition of words.

-     Association of words with drawings.

·          Resources:

-     Twenty cardboard.

-     Counters.

-     The pictures that appear in the cardboard.

-     Halloween’s cookies.

·          Groupings:

-     Individually.

SECOND ACTIVITY:

To do this puppet, students will need the help of their teacher, because some points are difficult for them.

First, teacher will sew the puppet’s body. Next, teacher´ll give students fine cardboard for to do a cone. This cone´ll be covered with hygienic paper and gun with water. With this mixture, the cone will be more resistant. While the mixture is drying (one day), students´ll continue with the puppet.

Next they will decorate the puppet’s body with stars and moons. It will be of paper or material. If it is of paper, students´ll cut it, but if it is of material teacher cut it. When stars and moons are cut, students stick it on the puppet’s body.

Second day, students´ll put again mixture of hygienic paper and gun with water in the cone and they´ll leave to dry again (one day).

Today, also, students´ll make the face of pumpkin with plasticine. They will make a small ball and put it in one of extreme of stick. Then, they’ll draw the eyes, nose and mouth and put hair on puppet’s head with wool.

Third day, students students´ll put again mixture of hygienic paper, gun and water in the cone and they’ll leave to dry again (one day).

Fourth day, student will paint cone with painting of finger. Then, they will leave to dry (one hour).

Fifth day, pupils stick puppet’s body in cone and they put it in cone. Next, they’ll make other ball with plasticine and they’ll put it in the other extreme of stick. Finally, students´ll decorate cone with glitter and…they will have finished the puppet.

To make this puppet, teacher will give students a paper with pictures that explain how to make the puppet.

·         Competences:

-          Develop of different plastic skills

-          Recognition of typical elements of Halloween

·         Aims:

-          To acquire knowledge about manipulation of paper

-          To acquire certain autonomy using different technical

·         Contents:

-     What      -to make a puppet of a pumpkin following different dried

-     How       -doing different parts of puppet and joining it.

-     Feeling   -the students´ll be happy, because they´ll have had a representative symbol of Halloween

·         Resources/materials:

-          Black and purple material

-          Thread and needle

-          Scissors and stick

-          Filter paper

-          Fine cardboard

-          Hygienic paper

-          Gum and water

-          Orange plasticine

-          Felt-tip pen

·         Groupings:

-          Students will do the activity individually.

·         Preparation:

Before to do this activity I would have to prepare every material. Also, I would sew the puppet´s body. Finally I would give students a photocopy with some pictures and indications about how they do the puppet.

THIRD ACTIVITY:

The costume is made with two orange cardboards where the teacher has drawing the pumpkin at the front and at the back. Children have to draw the eyes, the nose and the mouth with black paint or black tempera, even with black crayon. The nose and the eyes are made triangle-shaped and it will do the teacher, so children only have to paint it.

When the pumpkin is finished, they will cut out it, always with teacher’s help, and they will put the straps to fasten the pumpkin to each child.

FOURTH ACTIVITY:

Firstly, the teacher gives to their students plastic glasses which will be the spiders. Each child must paint the glass with gray or black spray and they will punch four holes in the glass (always with teacher’s help). They will insert the leg in the holes of the glass (in this case “limpiapipas”). The eyes are made with moving eyes which will give the teacher to each one. Then, they will draw the mouth with a felt-tip pen.

HALLOWEEN POEMS

PUMPKIN

Piles of candy

Under the bed

Make for a delicious snack

People

Know

It’s been Halloween because

No one is without candy