The Best Way to Engage the Elementary School Students at English Class

The Best Way to Engage the Elementary School Students at English Class

The best way to engage the elementary school students in English class

041048 Ayano Chihara

Introduction

These days, more and more people think that it is important for the pupils to study English. There are a lot of primary schools which have started to teach English. One of the purposes of teaching English at primary school is that teachers can train the attitudes so that pupils are interested in other people and can express their own feelings and so on. English activities should be interesting for the sake of helping them study English.

Student – centered learning

Student-centered lesson happens when the students can enjoy learning and practice with activities which suitable for their own levels. It is important for students to learn language in this way because if there is only Teacher-centered learning, the studentsmay not be engaged.

Student-centered learning

・The students can enjoy themselves

・They can learn actively and of their own accord

・Their eyes shine brightly

Teacher-centered learning

・The teachers can plan a lesson carefully

・They can use time efficiently

・They can teach clearly and logically

・The students behave well and do not chat so much

Advantages and Disadvantages of TCL and SCL

Both Student-centered learning and Teacher-centered learning have advantages and disadvantages, so we need to be aware of not only the advantages of Student-centered learning but also the advantages of Teacher-centered learning.

Advantages / Disadvantages
Student-centered
Learning
(SCL) / ・It is possible for the teachers to use time more effectively because the students can learn language that they need
・It is good chance for the students to think for themselves and learn to grow on their own. / ・The students may be likely to regard the activities as games and not useful.
・The teacher does not ‘teach’ and as such, some students may stop respecting the teacher – they may see the teachers only as guide.
Teacher-centered
Learning
(TCL) / ・The teachers can teach the key points clearly.
・It is effective to teach many people at once / ・The teachers can adapt the lesson to the average students, so the students of higher level and lower level may be bored.

Besides, we should not distinguish fun from learning because only teacher centered learning may not engage the students, and only enjoying activities may not ensure that the students learn meanings or patterns. If we divide class into some stages or into groups, this will be better to motivated students but this will be not good for to the lower students because they often prefer to play games.

In the Student-centered lesson, we have some stages and we regard them as The Questioning Cycle. This cycle will help the teachers to understand what stages the students are at.

Notice Link

↓ ↑

Want Succeed →

↓ ↑

Challenge → Play

Noticing

The students notice new words or patterns while they are playing.

The teachers include them in activities and make the students notice them butthe teachers do not “teach” these words or patterns in this stage.

The example of activity is “flash cards” or teacher explanation.

Wanting

If the students enjoy the activity if they think that they want to find out what these new words and patterns mean. This is like Engage of ESA.

Challenging/taking a risk

If the students have techniques for trying to find out the meaning of the new word or patterns, they are likely to try. The aim is to start experiment with the new language and patterns in a controlled way.

Playing/experimenting

The students will learn with a lot of activities – often in less controlled ways, trying to find out the meaning, making mistakes, meeting many examples of the new pattern, and using it to express their own feelings.

Succeeding

if the new language target is at an achievable level, the students can be successful in understanding and using individual words.

Linking

If our language syllabus fits together well, and if the students do activities where the new language target is mixed with targets already learned, the students are more likely to link it into the mental model they are building up as they try to make sense of the world of English.

Some differentapproaches to language teaching in Japan

Grammar – Translation Method
/ Reading Method
(文法訳読教授法) / ・This method was used in Europe to learn Latin in medieval times and the main point is the explanation of grammar, reading the textbook.
・It seems that this method is may be impractical in some ways because it focuses on reading than listening or speaking.
Direct Method / Natural Method / ・This method tries to help students learn in the way that the infant learn language naturally.
・The teachers must not use the native language and they will direct the studentsthrough the skills in this order.
1) listening 2) speaking 3) reading 4) writing
Oral Approach /
Audiolingual Method / ・Habbard said that this method is widely used at the time of writing and a very large number of textbooks are based on it.
・The teachers direct the students in the same way as Direct Method.
1) listening 2) speaking 3) reading 4) writing
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) / ・To acquire the ability of communication, it is important for the teacher to know not only grammar but also use appropriate language.
・According to Canale, we need 4 abilities.
1)Grammatical Competence (文法的能力)
2)Discourse Competence (談話的能力)
3)Sociolinguistic Competence (社会言語的能力)
4)Strategic Competence (方略的能力)
・The example of the activities are Problem Solving, Information Gap and Role Play.
Total Physical Response (TPR) / ・James J. Asher who was a psychologist suggested that the teachers make students learn English using their five senses.
・It is important for the students to all for responding to obey the order of the teacher.
Natural Approach / ・This method takes over from TPR and it is thought that listening is more important than speaking.
・There is o mental pressure for the students in this method because the teachers don’t practice which focus on automatic repetition and patterns, and then they give the linguistic materials which is hosen to the students.
・The teachers use paraphrase to make sure that the students really understand and the teachers repeat to practice, taking a hard look at a plan.

Conclusion

To engage the students, the teachers should plan carefully and should use not only the Student-centered learning but also Teacher-centered learning because they have both advantages and disadvantages. They can teach English by mixing both of advantages.

Moreover, it will be good for the studentsif the teachers mix TPR and Natural Approach.

They will maybe engage a lot of students and the teachers can indicate that learning English is fun.

References:

David Paul (2003), Teaching English to Students in Asia Longman

Tuyoshi Kanemori (2003), The English Education at elementary school. Kyouikushuppan

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