Эффективные способы обучения иностранному языку для детей

Variation

To make this exercise more oral, pair the students and ask them to sit facing each other. Give Later-comer A to one student and Late-comer B to the other in each pair. They then have to do very detailed listening to each other’s texts.

Feeling and grammar

Typical questions

Grammar:	Question formation-varied interrogatives
Level:	Beginner to elementary
Time:	20-30 minutes
Materials:	None

In class

1. Ask the students to draw a quick sketch of a four-year-old they know well. Give them these typical questions such a person may ask, e.g. ‘Mummy, does the moon go for a wee-wee?’ ‘Where did I come from?’. Ask each student to write half a dozen questions such a person might ask, writing them in speech bubbles on the drawing. Go round and help with the grammar.
2. Get the students to fill the board with their most interesting four-year-old questions.

Variations

This can be used with various question situations. The following examples work well:

• Ask the students to imagine a court room-the prosecution barrister is questioning a defense witness. Tell the students to write a dozen questions the prosecution might ask.
• What kind of questions might a woman going to a

foreign country want to ask a woman friend living in this

country about the man or the woman in the country?

And what might a man want to ask a man?

• What kind of questions are you shocked to be asked in an English-speaking country and what questions are you surprised not to be asked?

Picture the past

Grammar:	Past simple, past perfect, future in the past
Level:	Lower intermediate
Time:	20-40 minutes
Materials:	None

Class

1. Ask three students to come out and help you demonstrate the exercise. Draw a picture on the board of something interesting you have done. Do not speak about it. Student A then writes a past simple sentence about it. Student B write about what had already happened before the picture action and student C about something that was going to happen, using the appropriate grammar.

I got up at eight a.m.

I’ve just got off the bus

I’m going to work today

2. Put the students in fours. Each draws a picture of a real past action of theirs. They pass their picture silently to a neighbor in the foursome who adds a past tense sentence. Pass the picture again and each adds a past perfect sentence. They pass again and each adds a was going to sentence. All this is done in silence with you going round helping and correcting.

Umbrella

Grammar:	Modals and present simple
Level:	Elementary to intermediate
Time:	30-40 minutes
Materials:	One large sheet of paper per student

 

 

In class

Ask a student to draw a picture on the board of a person holding an umbrella. The umbrella looks like this.

1. Explain to the class that this ‘tulip-like’ umbrella design is a new, experimental one.
2. Ask the students to work in small groups and brainstorm all the advantages and disadvantages of a new design. Ask them to use these sentence stems:

It/you can/can’t…

It/you + present simple…

It/you will/won’t…

It/you may/may not…

3. For example: ‘It is easy to control in a high wind’, ‘You can see where you’re going with this umbrella’
4. Give the students large sheets of paper and ask them to list the advantages and disadvantages in two columns.
5. Ask the students to move around the room and read each other’s papers. Individually they mark each idea as ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘intriguing’.
6. Ask the student how many advantages they came up with and how many disadvantages. Ask the students to divide up into three groups according to which statement applies to them:

I thought mainly of advantages.

I thought of some of both.

I thought mainly of disadvantages.

7. Ask the three groups to come up with five to ten adjectives to describe their group state of mind and put these up n the board.
8. Round off the exercise by telling the class that when de Bono asked different groups of people to do this kind of exercise, it turned out that primary school children mostly saw advantages, business people had plenty of both while groups of teachers were the most negative.

Note

Advantages the students offered:

In a hot country you can collect rain water.

It won’t drip round the edges.

You can use it for carrying shopping.

It’s not dangerous in a crowd.

It’s an optimistic umbrella.

It’s easy to hold if two people are walking together.

With this umbrella you’ll look special.

It’ll take less floor space to dry.

This umbrella makes people communicate. They can see each other.

You can paint this umbrella to look like a flower.

You’ll get a free supply of ice if it hails.

 

FAIRY TALE FUN – JIGSAW STYLE! [1]

 

Divide students into five equal groups. Each group will get one fairy tale to read. The stories are "The Ugly Duckling," "Snow White," "Hansel and Gretel," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and "The Three Little Pigs." Each group is responsible for collecting the following information:

• Who are the characters in the story?

• Where does the story take place?

• What are the major events of the story?

• Are there any magical or supernatural events? If so, what are they?

After the students read, discuss, and record the above information, split them into jigsaw groups. One person from each fairy tale assemble in a new group. In their new groups, students are each given three minutes to tell the other group members about the story they had read as well as the information they have collected. After that, the group has to create a poster and give a presentation that addressed two points:

1. What do all five stories have in common?

2. Using what you found in common, write your own definition for a fairy tale.

 

Debate Activities

 

 

INTRO

This is a well known theatre exercise which is extremely effective for encouraging controlled but spontaneous interaction in ESL classes.

STEP 1 PRESENT

Begin by presenting a list of debate expressions such as those listed.

STEP 2 MODEL

Model a discussion. Choose yourself as conductor and 4 other students to be conducted. First, the conductor presents a topic. He then selects a student and an expression for the continuation of the discussion.

Conductor: Elephants shouldn't be allowed into Bangkok. Student B "Furthermore"

Student B: Furthermore, the government should fine their owners.

Conductor: Student A "On the other hand"

Student A: On the other hand, people in Bangkok are very generous when they see elephants.

Conductor: Student C "For example".

Student C: For example, when they see elephants they feel compassion and give them food and money.

Conductor: Student D "You may have a point".

Student D: You may have a point. Nevertheless, the pollution and traffic are terrible for the elephants' health.

STEP 3 WRITING

To reinforce the use of these expressions further, follow this activity by a debate or writing exercise

 

Project method Activity

	№1. My Favourites. Children prepare at home material (press-cuttings, pictures) which illustrates their interests, hobbies. At the lesson on the lists of colour paper they design the album where every pupil tells about his favourite things and pastime (about favourite colour, sport, town, etc.)
Рiс.1

	№2. Picture poem. Children are suggested to draw picture – poem, so that its shape is concerned with its meaning.
Рiс. 2.

 

	№3. Washing Line. Children draw different kinds of clothes, write the names on it and then hang them on the clothes-line with the help of the pegs.
Рiс.3

 

Brainstorming

Questioning Authority Divide the class into small groups (4-6 students). Have each group make a list of ten unwritten rules that they seem to follow each day. Examples might be where they buy groceries, what time they get up in the morning, and what television programs they watch. Have the groups discuss why they follow these "rules" and what it would take to get them to break them. Alternative: Try the same sort of activity, this time having students list beliefs they accept without question-truisms like "Recessions are bad" or "It takes money to make money."

New Devices Break students into groups of three. Have each group member draw a picture of someone doing something. (The ideal subject will be someone caught mid-movement.) After all the drawings are complete, have the students study them with the object of creating for each a device that will support the position shown in a steady state. Explain that the devices the students create can be made of paper, wood, plastic, or metal. (What the students will end up with are various forms of furniture, but they will have designed their creations without limiting themselves to their prior knowledge of furniture. The object of the exercise is to show the value of ambiguity in stimulating creativity.)

Troubleshooters Once again, break the students into groups of three. Name a problem with which everyone is familiar—say, how to reduce the number of homeless people on the streets. Then assign each group a familiar figure from history, fiction, or current events, and have them determine how that person would solve the problem. For example, what if Martin Luther King, Jr. were to tackle the homeless problem? What if the Ninja Turtles were to try it? Barbara Walters? General Schwarzkopf? As a starting point, suggest that the students consider what particular expertise the person would bring to the problem and what his or her objectives would be.

Not Just for Breakfast Place a box of ready-to-eat cereal (like Cheerios or Trix) on a desk or ledge at the front of the room. Ask the students to generate as many uses for the product as they can in two minutes. (Some of the more creative suggestions students might come up with—using the cereal as fertilizer or a component in jewelry.)

 

 

Housemates Roleplay

Duration:  20–25 min

Aim:  Oral fluency practice; politely disagreeing

Summary:  Two housemates try to resolve their conflicts.

Introduction

This short roleplay activity requires no materials apart from a blackboard. The situation is actually roleplayed twice, with some phrases for "politely disagreeing" introduced before the second round. The idea behind this is that the first round will hopefully help the students realise the importance of being polite in order to avoid arguments, and so they will be more receptive to the new language which helps them achieve this.

Preparation

Write this on the blackboard before the activity:

 

A

 * I can't live without music!

 * I have a bad memory.

 * I'm a bit short of money right now.

 

B

 * I can't concentrate on my study.

 * I'm always tripping over your things.

 * Didn't we agree to take turns buying food?

 

Procedure

Explain only that these sentences are from two different people, A and B. Ask, "Who are these two people, and what are they talking about?" Give the students a minute or two to discuss it with a partner (make it clear that they should only discuss your question, not attempt to roleplay the situation yet!).

Elicit the fact that A and B are housemates, and then explain the situation in more detail: they are not close friends, but they are living together in order to save money. However, lately B has been quite annoyed by some of A's habits. Write these habits on the blackboard, explaining them at the same time:

A: * plays loud music (all the time!)

 * leaves his/her things all over the house (books, clothes, bags, etc on chairs, tables, and even the floor)

 * doesn't pass on messages (if one of B's friends calls and leaves a message, A never remembers to pass it on)

 * never buys food (when they moved in they agreed that A would buy the food one week, B the next week, and so on)

Ask who probably starts the conversation. B, of course. Suggest a polite conversation starter, such as:

"Could I have a word with you please?"

Then get the students to roleplay the situation in pairs. Afterwards, get some feedback from a few pairs. Was the conflict resolved, and if so how?

Now introduce and drill some phrases for politely disagreeing:

 * No offense, but... (I don't like your music)

 * I see your point, but... (I have a bad memory)

 * I understand your feelings, but... (I can't concentrate)

Now get the students to swap roles and repeat the activity, making use of the new phrases. It's a good idea to get them to swap partners too—this should help keep the momentum up. At the end, get more feedback on how their conversations turned out.

Notes

If you intend to ask the students to swap roles and also swap partners before the second round, you should plan it carefully to avoid wasting time. In most of my classes, the desks are arranged in three columns which are each two desks wide, so here is the way I managed it: for the first round, I assigned roles so that everybody on the left-hand desk was A and the others were B (check that everybody knows their role by getting them to put their hands up). Then for the second round, I simply asked all the "A" students to stand up and move to the desk in front of them.

Variations

Short Roleplays, each character's three prompt sentences could be written on a roleplay card instead of on the blackboard. In this case, the 4 conflicts still need to be written on the board.

Find the Differences

Duration:  10–15 min

Aim:  Oral fluency practice

Summary:  Students speak in order to find the differences between two similar pictures.

Introduction

This is a well-known activity, and a classic example of the principle of an "information gap" in communicative activities. If you put two pictures in front of a pair of students and tell them to talk about the differences, there is not much to motivate them. But if you arrange the activity so that each student only sees one picture, then an information gap is created. Cooperating with their partner to identify the differences becomes an act of genuine communication.

Although suitable pairs of pictures are provided in many modern textbooks, this activity is included here to remind teachers that it is not too difficult to create picture pairs by oneself, especially with access to the internet. For example, cartoons can be adapted. A suitable picture can be found to fit with almost any theme-based lesson.

Preparation

The first step is to find a suitable picture. These might come from books and magazines, or from the internet. For example, try a search on Google Images (note that the Advanced Image Search allows you to limit your results to black and white, or a particular size). There are also several websites which sell cartoons online, such as CartoonStock. 

 

In Discussions that Work (Cambridge University Press, 1981), Penny Ur writes:

 "The preparation of such pictures is fairly simple and fun to do. You need a black and white line drawing (not photograph) with a fair amount of detail but without shades of grey (these do not reproduce well). The content of the drawing should not entail vocabulary beyond the level of the students. You photocopy it and then make the requisite number of alterations to the original drawing, using either a black fibre-tip pen (for additions) or white type-correcting fluid (for erasures)."

Alternatively, the modifications could be done on a computer using even the simplest "paint" application. If you create any picture pairs in this way, please send them to us for inclusion on this page.

See the Resources section for examples.

You need to make enough copies so that each student will receive either one copy of "Version A" or one copy of "Version B".

Procedure

If the students are already familiar with the concept, then you just need to repeat the "check" questions. But the first time you do this activity, it is helpful to explain the concept using the blackboard: draw two simple pictures with one or two differences and explain that partners will each receive one version. They must not show their pictures to each other, instead they have to talk to each other and circle the n differences. Check:

* Are these pictures the same? (no)

* How many differences are there? (n)

* Can you show your partner? (no)

* What do you do when you find a difference? (circle it)

After the activity, you can either provide the answers, or elicit the answers from the students, or simply tell the students to put the pictures side by side so that they can check whether the differences they found really exist or not.

 

 

Conclusion

 

From all above-stated it is possible to draw the following conclusions.

The purpose of this work was to discover the most effective ways of teaching a foreign language to children.

For achievement of the purpose the works of home and foreign authors on the given problem have been studied.

In formation of interest to a subject the huge role is played by the person of the teacher. Therefore a pledge of successful mastering a foreign language by the pupilss is professionalism of the teacher which should in the work not only take into account the methodical principles underlying teaching, but also to be in constant search of new receptions and means of teaching which will recover a lesson, will make it fascinating, cognitive and remembered.