ELT FOR YOUNG LEARNERS
The idea to include this panel on the conference program shaped itself
at the very first meeting of the organizing committee. At present most schools, and quite
a few kindergartens across Russia, tend to include English in their syllabi. But
the theory and practice of teaching preschool and primary school children are rarely
discussed at the professional gatherings of such a level. The NATE conference in Saratov
demonstrated that the need for workshops and discussions on the problems of teaching
English to Young Learners is really urgent, and they should be carried out on a regular
basis.
Among the 26 workshops of the pre-conference day on January 27, the one
conducted by Ludmila Kozhevnikova of Samara SU attracted over 40 participants. According
to Ludmila, the SMILE approach helps children to acquire the language without any special
effort. But what is fun for kids is, in real fact, a very serious blend of Skill-Oriented
Learning, Multi-Sensory Learner Motivation, Intelligence-Building Activities, Long-Term
Memory Storage of the Language. Children are exposed to music, movement, rhythm, rhyme,
exciting stories and sketches. To save a lot of preparation for a teacher, the Cambridge
University Press publishes wonderful aids like Playway to English, Join In
and many others. We enjoyed Ludmila’s interactive workshop no less than small kids, and
the smartest got prizes!
The discussion of the burning issues in YL teaching continued on
January 29. Then it became obvious that time is really a very scarce resource with us
teachers. Each 15-minute talk seemed to come to an end too soon for both parties: the
presenter and the participants, who needed more time for questions and comments and
advice. It is worth noticing that the panel united teachers of all levels: kindergarten
through primary and secondary schools to university. But that didn’t mean theory was
presented by university teachers while its practical implementation rested with the
schoolteachers. True, a young university teacher Natasha Maltseva spoke about some
theoretical cross-cultural aspects of child language acquisition; but her colleague Elena
Karpets brilliantly demonstrated a self-developed device of having children remember the
names of the animals by way of chants and bright pictures. A secondary school teacher,
Tatiana Shishova, reviewed some theory related to the psycho-physiological peculiarities
of small children, which allow for their early language instruction. Another rural
secondary school teacher, Marina Ezhova (twice a semi-finalist of the TEA Program), gave a
fantastic show demonstrating her own ways to motivate the students. The participants of
the panel couldn’t help applauding Marina several times during her talk. Last, but not
least, a very experienced university teacher, Lyudmila Glazkova, told us about the amazing
language acquisition potential of the three- and four-year olds which she successfully
developed in the Children’s Center Slovechko – a kind of satellite to the Slovo Center
for Adults at Saratov University.
The participants of the panel were also introduced to the new edition
of the British Council in Moscow: a booklet How to Teach Young Learners Effectively.
It contains a number of papers by the practitioners who share their expertise and
understanding of the subject. This edition is available at the British Council Resource
Centers across Russia and may prove to be extremely instrumental both for the beginners
and the experienced teachers.
Elena Lubnina of the English Language Office at the American Embassy in
Moscow made a short but a very effective presentation of a new publication by the English
Language Programs Division of the USIA Growing Up with Children. This informative
edition contains some theory on YLT and is very conveniently supplied with the examples of
activities you may introduce in your English classroom at once. A very important point is
that Growing Up with Children is copyright free, like all the other publications of
this Division.
As most of the presenters in the panel were from Saratov, we agreed
upon meeting for our professional ends on a regular basis. Elena Gorchilina of Drofa
Publishers was kind enough to suggest Saratovites meeting with some authors of primary
school text-books, for discussion and workshops. While for Moscow educators such meetings
seem to be quite a routine thing, professionals outside the capital view it as an
important novelty and are impatiently looking forward to participation in them. Hopefully,
the first meeting will be conducted in February and may attract no less than a hundred
motivated teachers from schools, colleges, the university and also would-be teachers. Do
we need more proof of the great impact this NATE conference has had on the professional
community of English Language teachers?
By Irina Sipakova,
Saratov Pedagogical Institute,
panel moderator of ELT
for Young Learners
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