Back to Basics: Teaching primary school kids By: Oksana Kharenko

The main point The main objective of teaching young learners is not to produce geniuses, but to develop boundless abilities of a personality thus to add more happiness to the existing world.

Recommendations for teachers Teachers must use different kinds of pictures and visuals Use method of Total Physical Response Use different teaching games Vary the activities throughout class Use activities that require class repetition Provide positive motivation

Recommendations Continued Use communicative approach Use activities that allow children to develop creative thinking –Drawing, craftwork, dramatization Use authentic materials –Songs, rhymes, chants Use activities that correspond to your class level

4 basic teaching skills Listening Reading Speaking –Vocabulary Writing –Grammar

Listening Listening is the ability to comprehend and understand other English speakers Start with the basics of listening then work your way to higher levels of listening Teachers need to speak mostly English since сhildren dont hear English a lot out of their lesson Phonetics Example: Pattern –sentence- What is your name? word- what sound- /w/ *children must repeat vice versa

Reading and Listening games & activities Listen and Do (clap, mime, matching, drawing) Listen and Repeat (songs, poems, rhymes, doing actions, chants) Listen and understand (fill in the blank, sentences in order, find the incorrect word)

Reading Reading is a skill that should be trained everyday through demonstration and speech patterns. Text level should be increased as students master reading. Students should aim for perfect intonation and phonetic levels. Students should be able to find new information through reading by a full understanding of the text. Reading should be done everyday and used to train the other skills. The same activities can be used to train reading as are used to train listening

Vocabulary/Speaking Children possess A1 level of English after primary school The concept of teaching vocabulary is providing relevant speech in everyday communication

Steps for vocabulary training Introduction- a teacher should not translate but use visuals, songs, rhymes, miming, gestures Training- Form an automatic pattern on a phrasal level Communicative practice- Must provide this language practice through different skills not just speaking

Vocabulary games & activities Vocabulary Training Listen and repeat Play vocabulary game Solve crossword and puzzle Find the right word and read it Write the words with missing letters Draw the words Fill in the blanks in the sentences Put the correct word instead of the picture Look at the picture and express your opinion Guess what is hidden behind the frame Communicative Practice Describe a picture Speak in pairs Re-tell the text or stories Write a short story Role games

Writing Start teaching writing with teaching letters, words, sentences, short stories The aim of teaching writing is for students to practice handwriting, spelling, and written speech.

Writing activities and games Handwriting Exercises -Match capital letter with the small letter -Put the words in alphabetical order -find the letter among the words -Match the words to the picture -make up a word out of given letters -decode the word Spelling Exercises -write out: the words with the same pronunciation but different spelling (for, four), words starting with B or C, colors, seasons -fill in the gap -language games: crosswords, puzzles, word search, word scramble -translation - dictation: highest level of activities

Writing activities and games continued Written Speech Exercises -make up story using the given words -write a letter (First introduce the letter pattern then finish the letter followed by writing their own letter) -describe object and people -create short stories -write an essay (History of Lesky)

Grammar The aim of teaching grammar is to form grammar competence –Grammar competence is the ability to use grammar patterns in oral and written speech and understand it while listening or reading. –Primary school only teaches the basic grammar structure to provide a basis for further understanding.

Grammar Training steps Reception (introduction) –Listen and show, listen and clap, listen and point, look and choose, listen and repeat Accuracy (training) –Complete, replace, look and say, look and answer, look and guess, play a game, fill in the gaps Fluency (communicative practice) –Describe, talk, retell, compose, write, dramatize

Thank you for listening!! Questions or Comments