Teaching English to Young Learners.
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Transcript of Teaching English to Young Learners.
Teaching Writing To Young Learners:
•Introduction:
• Writing is the fourth skill of the main four language skills:
Listening SpeakingReading
Writing
WHAT IS WRITING?
• "Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet,
punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a
readable form.
• Frazier(2013) argues that to be able to write in english, student
must have a basic foundation and understanding of the spoken
language. They must know how to write alphabetical and some
basic sentenses pattern to begin a good hand. Also the skills
that are helping students to write such as listening, speaking
and reading as part of the prewriting steps.
• Writing in a foreign language is difficult. It presupposes
of a number of language areas such as spelling,
grammar, and vocabulary, as well as skills like
handwrting and punctuation.
• This is why writing is usually not a favourite activity with
young learners.
• On the other hand a good teacher should require some
startegies in order to help students effectivelly develop
their skills.
WHY TEACH THEM WRITING ?
• Writing is as vital a skill to literacy as reading, but is
often not treated as such. We know that by reading we
become better writers, but what is too frequently ignored
is that the reverse is also true.
• Writing allows students a means of processing and reflecting on
their life experiences—experiences that are already so rich with
vocabulary and meaning. It provides them with a way to
practice using words they have read, or maybe words they have
only ever heard spoken. By giving children the opportunity to
tell their stories and express their thoughts, we help them
develop their own unique and confident writer’s voice.
• Many young learners will not have fully developed their own L1 writing skills, and these strategies may not necessarily transfer to writing in English.
• Writing allows young learners to practise new vocabulary and structures.
• It allows for a high degree of personalisation and creativity.
• It provides young learners to take risks and try out new language, with more “thinking time.”
• Writing skills equip young learners with a solid base for future development and learning.
• A focus on writing tasks in the classroom creates variety and caters for different learning styles
• Teachers can diagnose learners’ strengths and areas to
develop in terms of vocabulary, structure, spelling etc.
• Focusing on this area can instil the joy of writing from an
early age
HOW TO TEACH WRITING TO YOUNG LEARNERS:
• One of the biggest challenges teachers have faced in the
classroom has to do with writing. A teacher must put into
consideration different aspects:
Pay attention to the writing process by providing apportunities
for learners to brain storm, plan and draft. Remember that
young laerners will perhaps not use these stategies yet even in
their own langueage. Many of them maybe class or group
activities, which can make writing a less lonely process.
The teacher also should be selectif at the level of topic choice
and choose topics which the children can relate to in their own
experience, for example it is better to write aboute the
playground rather than the bank.
Use pictures to stimulate comments and discussion:
Some of the first recognizable pictures that most children draw
are pictures of themselves and their family. If they have pets,
they often like to draw them. Favorite places, like houses and
landscapes with the sun, are also among the first things that
children like to draw. Therefore, as you prepare your young
students for writing activities, primarily focus on having them
draw these types of pictures.
Help students write down what they have said: For young
writers, this often means that you will do much of the writing at
the very beginning. You write down the sentences that your
students use to describe their pictures. Then you can have the
students trace the sight words or the key vocabulary. As the
children develop more ability and confidence in their writing,
they can start writing the descriptions on their own under their
picture.
• The main goal of this step in writing is to encourage and
capitalize on the natural interest that children have in
describing what they see.
ACTIVITIES:1. Make sentences from
random words: the teacher
hear can give student a
table with random words
and ask them to make a
meaningful sentenses.
2. Fillin the blanks for example of a song
TIPS TO ENCOURAGE YOUNG LEARNERS TO WRITE
• Make writing meaningful. Young writers can express themselves about topics that are important to them.
• Invite young writers to write freely, without worrying about correctness. Children who are just learning to write can build language structures and expression, even if they use imaginary spellings and strange punctuation.
• Ask young learners to write about their own lives and experiences. Whether it’s a holiday, or their experience with their grandparents, or any other experience outside the classroom, young writers write best when they write about something they know well.
• Engage young writers in short bursts of writing. For children under the ages of eight or nine, it’s very tiring to hold a pencil or piece of chalk, shape the letters, and remain focused on the message to be communicated. Writing often, for brief periods, is much more effective than trying to write for a long period of time.
CONCLUSION
• Writing, in any language, can be so much fun! It’s exciting to send messages and letters to people in a language that they understand. Everyone enjoys describing events in their lives, talking about pictures and places, and sharing their thoughts and ideas. Many also like to create stories and songs, too! So, supported by the fact that young learners are not very influenced by writing as it needs more attension and grammatical abilities , how can we, as teachers, help our ELT students develop this type of enthusiasm for sharing and writing in English ?