Teach English in Beima Zhen - Yantai Shi

For the summative task of the TEFL online course I have chosen the topic of working with students with very short attention spans. The reason is because I am currently preparing to teach English in a primary school in my home country Germany. Here, the children start English lessons from grade 3. They are then about 8 years old. Class sizes are about 20 pupils. Most of the children have no prior English language skills. However, due to globalization there is more and more exposure to English language through the media and social networking, song texts, advertisements etc.. This can be elicited in many playful ways through guessing games or picture work. In most of the classes there are one or two children from other countries. Some of them speak English almost fluently. The challenge can be to include them in the class activities without over focussing on them. They also should not get bored. They can support the learning process by adding from their own knowledge of the language. They can also occasionally help children who need extra learning support. It is important to be able to differentiate in order to address to all their needs. From this TEFL course I learned that a patchwork lesson according to the ESA system might be particularly appropriate for these very young learners. This method gives the chance to vary teaching methods and to divide one lesson into smaller chunks. Especially helpful for working with children is to use all their senses, even in learning a new language. They love pictures, music, drama, realia, physical movement, dance, creative work and so on. English as a language is very popular in Germany, therefore the motivation for English classes is very high. A typical lesson for these grade 3 or 4 classes, let’s say on the topic of telling the time, could include: Engage phase. Using previous vocabulary, eliciting form the children when they are doing which activities during the day. In this phase it is sufficient to divide between morning, afternoon, evening etc.. Using pictures and noting these activities on the board seems appropriate. Activate phase. In pairs or small groups they can now use these list of activities and sort the items according to the times of the day (full hour), and this way make their own timetables. They can use their previous knowledge of numbers. Colourful timetable as posters, previously installed by the teacher, can be used by each group. Study – from there the teacher can introduce the proper use of telling the time: at one o’ clock, two o’ clock, (or am and pm). This can be practiced orally with the whole class, including asking the question: When do you... get up? I get up at 7 o’ clock. Activate – now the students can walk through the classroom asking their peers about the listed activities: When do you...? Study- after this episode of physical activity, the children should be ready to sit down again and fill in a worksheet individually. This could be a gap filling exercise about given activities and times of the day. Activate – a final exercise could then encourage the children to be more free and inventive with telling the time. The could invent mini role plays (2 min), e.g friends making plans for the afternoon and discussing when they have time to meet. Or at home when the parent inquires about a child’s weekend activities. A homework could be a mini survey, asking their parents, friends or siblings about planned activities and times. For the English lessons at primary level in Germany, a course book is required by the educational authorities. For the school were I will be working it is called PLAYWAY. The pupil’s book as well as the activity book are designed to learn in small steps. The books contain many pictures and visual aids. They are accompanied by DVD and audios. The activities are short and fun to get into. Therefore the course material will be a good start to work with the children in many playful ways. However, I will certainly ensure to use additional materials like children’s songs or quizzes, role plays or drawing posters and making classroom decorations with the new vocabulary. This approach of differentiation and divers learning processes which is taught by TEFL is also within the core curriculum of the German education authorities. Thank you for offering a very well structured and very inspiring course for teaching English as a foreign language! 