The only good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of development and leads it.
(Vygotsky)
The teacher’s role in helping learners reach their potential depends on the relationship with each child. For children to begin to develop their self-educating strategies, they needs to feel secure when taking risks and know that their opinions and efforts to learn are valued – by peers as well as the teacher.
The right kind of experience and support can help children to become confident, creative, motivated doers and thinkers so that the early years build a strong foundation for all they will encounter in the future.
(Stewart)
2.7 Teacher input
Interaction with adults through talk involves children in the adult’s ways of thinking, and children’s efforts to understand lead them to attempt to express similar meaning.
(Tough)
The child’s innate aim is to speak as much English as possible and be able to read and write quickly. The child will, if motivated, be keen to use all the English they know and will find it frustrating when he or she is unable to convey thoughts, emotions and creative ideas.
The tuned-in teacher’s role is to support children in achieving their goals by showing how and when to use English – bearing in mind this might be different from when and how their L1 is used. For example, in some societies please and thank you are used differently from how they are used in English. Teachers cannot expect children to know that speaking in the lower-primary English classroom is welcomed, when in L1 classrooms the teacher might be the only person who ever talks.
Although individual face-to-face contact is still important for conveying messages, lower-primary children can now follow the teacher when spoken to in pairs, groups or as a whole class. Spoken and written language needs to go beyond any actual text content – it needs to include the sharing of thoughts in order to help children begin to think of themselves as learners and critical thinkers. They need to be encouraged to initiate talking about their feelings, emotions and ideas. Children are innate communicators if they like the people they are talking to, and feel they are liked, too.
2.7.1 Teacher-talk
The use of voice is crucial to the success of a lesson. The teacher’s commentary throughout the lesson (on what is taking place, what has been achieved and what is coming next) is a key part of input for revision, as well as for new spoken language. However, lower-primary children working together in pairs or small groups may also begin to talk amongst themselves in English. The teacher should encourage this, recasting what children have said and repeating it so all the class can hear. Teachers need to be ready to develop and expand any language produced by the children. For example: Aisha says it’s very cold today but Abdul says it isn’t. What do you think?
It is important not to over-question children as they soon begin to feel the teacher is giving them a test. Where possible, questions should be open-ended rather than having only a Yes or No answer. Open-ended questions lead to children giving a thoughtful and meaningful answer. Teachers should use Wh- question words whenever possible (who, what, where, why, when, which, etc.), for example:
What do you think about …?
Which is the best one?
What if he fell?
Where do you want to go? To the seaside, a big town, or somewhere else?
That’s interesting. Why a big town?
The use of the teacher’s voice is crucial:
to convey a calm, warm, feel-good atmosphere
to motivate and remotivate
to make use of the Playful Approach
to socialise behaviour
to co-share in pair and group work
to mediate and introduce new language activities
to repeat target language
to express emotion
to encourage the use of English
to reassure that ideas are valued.
2.7.2 Management language
The structures used in managing classroom activities are more complex with lower-primary children than with pre-school children. Management language has developed to include other situations, such as children playing games themselves in small groups, or taking part in responsible activities like tidying up.
Management language might sound like this: Now it’s tidy-up time. Hannah is collecting the pencils so please give your pencils to Hannah. Have you got all the pencils, Hannah?
2.7.3 Mediating language
Mediating language can be used to introduce new formal literacy, or something brought to a ‘My secret’ session during ‘Circle time’ (see 6.3.1). Mediating language might be introduced as follows:
The teacher, during ‘My secret’, shows the children his or her favourite flower and introduces associated vocabulary, such as flower, stalk, colour, roots, etc.
The teacher links this vocabulary with honey, showing how a bee visits a flower.
She introduces buzz and bumble bee, so children can hear how the word buzz sounds like the noise the insect makes.
2.7.4 ‘Teacherese’
Teachers of young children often modify their speech (either by simplifying or including L1) when interacting with children who are still new to learning another language. This is known as ‘teacherese’. Once children have a basic grounding in spoken English the amount of ‘teacherese’ needed diminishes, except when the teacher is introducing new language in an activity or in formal literacy. Although language content has increased by lower primary, the basic ‘teacherese’ strategies for dealing with code-switching and error correction remain the same.
A focused ‘teacherese’ session in a face-to-face dialogue can help comprehension greatly, particularly when a teacher finds a child has not understood and needs to revisit a topic.
2.7.5 Scaffolding
Scaffolding is a method of brainstorming, but in sustained, shared way. It helps children to focus and become conscious of their concentrated thought. Scaffolding can be used to revisit something that a child has not fully understood. Lower-primary children are more mature and they can scaffold with the teacher as a pair, in groups or as a class.
Co-thinking is exciting and motivating; it challenges a child, pair or group and takes them on to the next level. Often suggestions for follow-up ideas at home are included, for example the teacher might say Look for a photo at home. Let’s make a class book about …
2.7.6 Repetition
Repetition gives a chance to try again. Children need to learn the saying If at first you don’t succeed try, try, and try again (a saying originally popularised by Thomas H. Palmer in his Teacher’s Manual). Children naturally do try and try again if they are interested and motivated. Watch them learning a skipping skill or repeating a physical game until they get it right! Teachers need to engage them repeatedly so they continue trying.
It takes time to build up a classroom routine and there are sessions when there seem to be steps backwards rather than forwards. This is normal in learning, and children may have absorbed