Teach English in Erlang Zhen - Chongqing

Teaching EFL in a KindergartenIt is important to be aware of the development level of the children. This knowledge will influence your methods greatly. Two types of students enter at kindergarten level. One group will take risks and follow along with other students, observe, participate in classroom activities and communicate orally. The other group will only observe and is threatened by any teacher intervention or anything perceived to be forced inclusion in activities. The second group is more challenging for the teacher, but needs to be allowed to integrate at their own pace. It might take months, but they?ve found that children?s instinctive curiosity and their need to be with other children will eventually draw them into the group. Forcing children to speak and participate before they?re ready only minimizes trust between teacher and students. To have attention focused on the student, will only make it worse. Studies have shown that learning occurs best in a low-pressure, enjoyable environment. The study concluded that the greatest gains in kindergarten oral language skills were made with more play time and social interaction. Remember children need variety and excitement as their attention span is very short. Routine and fair and consistent discipline is important for all young children. The security of predictability is crucial for developing self-confidence. Establish and maintain routines. Instructions for activities require visual representation and repetition for emphasis and language acquirement. Children are immersed in theme related vocabulary. Themes can continue for a few weeks to familiarize students with theme related oral language. Visuals and written words related to the theme can be used to create a bulletin board. Pictures on activity tables, movies, simple stories, posters, etc. can be used to reinforce themes. They have found that one of the greatest motivators is to bring animals and experiences into the school as the children generate more vocabulary and interest around animal-related themes than any other. To teach kindergarten children use methods that include more sense organs. Teaching aids are very useful, e.g. flash cards. Show them fruit to touch and smell. Using the concept of sense you can teach them sweet or sour with relevant items. Sometimes we only have to see and feel, without tasting, to know what it is. Soft voice and hard voice can be created with big stones in a tin or small stones in a tin. Language learning is considered an academic process for many and writing and reading skills are prioritized, but the arts have value in kindergarten. students can learn language through art activities which will include dance, drama, music and visual arts. Teachers don?t have to be artistic to introduce arts to young children. It requires a creative approach to curriculum design. According to Rabkin, co-author of the book Putting the Arts in the Picture ?Reframing Education in the 21st Century (2004), When the appropriate materials are used for the child?s development, it promotes the child?s verbal and non-verbal expressions, physical development, and social and emotional skills. Since art is much more than painting, educators have to step up to the responsibility of integrating meaningful art activities into the existing curriculum. Think of activities related to the topic of discussion in the class. There are practical guidelines as to how teachers can elicit language learning through art activities. A key place arts can be integrated is through story. After story reading ask students to draw a picture of their favourite character. If the students are very young ask them about the picture and write their words or labels for the picture. Magazines can be used to teach students about ?feeling?. They could find pictures to describe sad, happy or angry. Leaflets at the grocery store can be used to teach about healthy and unhealthy food. Clay can be used to make sculptures. Popular English songs can be used to do exercise. Usually they start singing these songs spontaneously when the song becomes familiar to them. Songs can be used to introduce new vocabulary or sentence structure, instead of intensive drills Drama can be integrated by making animal masks and pretend to be an animal. It can be used to put a play together. The relationship between drama and the development of literacy skills among young children is well documented. The following examples resulted from a study by Ruppert (2006) on how the arts benefit student achievement. The results showed that the use of dramatic enactment can make a measurable difference in helping students reach such important curricular goals as story understanding, reading comprehension and topical writing skills. Allowing pre-kindergarteners to act out their favourite part of a story fosters the development of their literacy skills. Dramatic play also serves as a motivator for learning. students? overall understanding of a story improves once engaged in the enactment of the story. Artistic learning allows children to explore their own creativity as well as promotes their creativity and imagination. It can be more meaningful for students by integrating it in everyday learning, instead of having an art class at the end of the week. Research References: Goldenberg, C. ?Research directions: Beginning Literacy Instructions for Spanish Speaking Children?, Language Arts, Vol. 67, Oct. 1990. Thomas, K., Rinehart, S.D., Wampler, S.K. ?Oral Language, Literacy and Schooling: Kindergarten Years?. Reading Horizons Vol. 33, #2, 1992. Koop Karen, Hunt Cindy. ?An Eclectic Approach to ESL in Kindergarten?. Rabkin, N. and Redmond, R. ?Putting the Arts in the Picture?Reframing Education in the 21st Century?. Columbia College Chicago, 2004. Wright, S. ?The arts, young children, and learning?. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2003. Helena Aletta Sophia Prins. ?Benefits of the Arts in Kindergarten ? An ESL Perspective?. Ruppert, S., ?How the arts benefits student achievement?. Critical Evidence, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, 2006.