10 Techniques in Teaching English to Young Learners

Naturally, various methods employ various techniques. A technique is the implementation of a method and it is also defined as every single activity that derives from a procedure. According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), the position of a technique is at the implementation phase and it is often called procedure while approach and method are at the level of design.

 Because children have short attention in their focus on learning a certain subject, the teachers should design their learning and teaching to be more enjoyable and fun. Scott &Ytreberg (1990) suggested the activities that were useful for children in the classroom. They are given below:

1.      Listen and do activities

Communication is two ways, and it can be easily understood by looking at the learners whether they have received the massages or not. In most classrooms, language is a type of “listen and do” activities, therefore teachers should make use of this from the moment they start lessons by giving genuine instruction.

2.      Moving about

Activities like moving about let the teachers know whether learners are able to understand the instructions by listening or not. Classroom vocabulary, movement word, counting,or spelling can be done using activities. Children enjoy role-playing, they can role-play as an ‘instructor’ which will enhance speaking.

3.      Mime stories

Mime stories are also interesting for young learners. Here teacher tells a story and the learners and teacher do the actions. It is again providing physical movement.

4.      Drawing

“Listen and draw” is a favorite type of listening activity in almost all classes, but drawing takes time, we need to keep the picture simple. In this activity the teacher or one of the learners tells the others to draw.

5.      Questionnaires

Questionnaire type of exercise involves a little bit of writing or filling in of numbers, which are very useful for language exercise.

6.      Listening for information

Listening for information is really an umbrella heading which covers a very wide range of listening activities. However, we are taking it to mean listening for detail, for specific information.

7.      Listen and color

Children love coloring pictures and this can easily be a listening activity. Instead of letting children to simply color the picture teachers can make it into a language activity.

8.      Listen and repeat activities

(Rhymes, songs) ‘Listen and repeat’ exercises are great fun and give the children a chance to get a feel for the language: the sounds, the stress and rhyme and the intonation. When they are done in combination with movements or with objects or pictures, it helps learners to establish a link between words and meaning.

9.      Creating stories

Making up stories with the learners at all stages helps them to put their thoughts into words. And also this gives a real feeling of a shared story and one cannot predict how it is going to end but it does, usually rather unconventionally.

10.  Reading stories

The more young learners hear the better they will be able to speak. Teachers can read aloud a book instead of telling a story. Learners like to have their favorite stories repeated, and they will very often be able to tell you the story word for word without changing the word.

References

Richards, J. C. and Rodgers, T.S. (1986/2001): Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: A Description and Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Scott, A., & Ytreberg, L. 1990. Teaching English to Children, London New York: Longman.