10.
Providing learners with a record of their achievement will happen at the
end of the learning process. This is known as ______:
a. Formative assessment.
b. Summative assessment.
c. Diagnostic assessment.
Answer key
Contents, resources, and recommended learning activities
Week 11
Unit 5. Techniques for Teaching Children
5.1 Teaching Listening
Note. Taken from Picture of a teenager listening to music by using headphones
[Photography], by Freepik, w. d., freepik, CC BY 2.0
Teaching listening to young learners can be challenging but is crucial, as it is a
key receptive skill and the primary source of input for acquiring a new
language. Nunan (2011, p. 48) states that “listening provides learners with
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models that they can follow when the time comes for them to speak”. Then the
importance of applying effective strategies that help young learners learn the
language by appropriately developing the listening skill.
Nunan presents different activities to be used in the classroom which provide
positive results. Among those activities we have the following:
Figure 10
Listening activities.
Note. Adapted from Teaching Listening to Young Learners (p. 51), by Nunan, D., 2011,
Anaheim University Press.
The following information provided by Nunan (2011, p. 55) explains the
purpose of each activity:
• TPR: Focuses on listening and physical actions using commands and
games like Simon Says.
• Stories: Engage learners with drawings, puppets, and predicting events in
repetitive, familiar stories like Goldilocks.
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• Songs and Rhymes: Songs like The Itsy-Bitsy Spider reinforce vocabulary
through rhythm, repetition, and actions.
As you just read, one of the activities is listening to and retelling stories.
Students need to be exposed to stories and storytelling because they are
fundamental to early learning. But, as Nunan states, simply reading a story
aloud to the students is not enough since it is necessary to involve them as
much as possible in the story. Then how can teachers make it possible? Well,
there are some suggestions involving learners in a story-based lesson such as
making children draw characters or scenes from the story, telling students a
story using puppets, and making them sequence pictures from a story,
arranging them in the correct order, or predicting the sequence before hearing
the story.
To have a clear idea about the use of activities that involve physical actions, I
invite you to watch the following video which is focused on TPR: Total Physical
Response (TPR) - Teacher Training film no. 8
Now that you have finished watching the video, it is important to give your
opinion about it. Please use your notebook or a Word document.
An additional activity that can help young learners to improve the listening
activity is listen and repeat. Scott and Ytreberg (1990) states that the activities
that involve learners to listen and repeat provide them the opportunity to
practice with sounds, stress, rhyme and the intonation which are parts of the
language. Then the idea of using story refrains can help to reach this goal. A
good example of it is the following: Michael Rosen performs We’re Going on a
Bear Hunt
What do you think about this story refrain? How would you use it in the class
with your students?
Note: Please complete the activity in a notebook or Word document.
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5.2 Teaching Speaking
Note. Taken from Tres niña sonriente linda en chismes de camisetas coloridas -
aislado en blanco [Photography], by valuavitaly, w. d., freepik, CC BY 2.0
Communicating in the target language is challenging because, as Nunan
(2011) explains, it requires mastering four types of competencies:
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Figure 11
Competences
Note. Adapted from Teaching Speaking (p. 64), by Nunan, D., 2011, Anaheim University
Press.
All these competences will help students to become fluent conversationalists
but mastering them will take a long time. For this reason, it is important to
consider different aspects to teach speaking to young learners effectively in
order to provide them with a strong background which will help them to
succeed in the future. To reach this purpose Nunan suggests the disguised
drills and dictogloss techniques as well as the use of songs and rhymes.
Now, let’s watch a video on a different activity that can help students improve
their speaking skills: Using puppets to get children talking in English.
As you watched in the video, the use of puppets can be a great resource for
making young learners speak while having fun. What do you think about it?
How would you use puppets to make your students speak?
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Note: please complete the activity in a notebook or Word document.
Recommended learning activity
Dear student, let’s continue learning by participating in the activity
described below:
Create a lesson plan that focuses on the improvement of both skills
"listening and speaking".
Note: please complete the activity in a notebook or Word document.
Contents, resources, and recommended learning activities
Week 12
Unit 5. Techniques for Teaching Children
5.3 Teaching Reading
Note. Taken from A young boy studying at the library [Photography], by Pressphoto, w.
d., freepik, CC BY 2.0
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Writing is also considered as an unnatural skill since not all people learn to
write. This ability requires a lot of practice over many years (Nunan 2011). But
why is it important to be able to write? The author provides the following
reasons:
Figure 13
Reasons for teaching writing
Note. Adapted from Teaching Writing (p. 95), by Nunan, D., 2011, Anaheim University
Press.
Working on all of the previously mentioned activities will be possible by
developing the writing skill effectively. Therefore, it is important that teachers
apply effective strategies that help learners to succeed in this field. Nunan
(2011) suggests the following writing tasks:
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Did you enjoy the game? Do you think students will enjoy it? Great!
As you may have noticed, this game combines words, images, and audio which
is important for students to associate the meaning of a word along with its
correct pronunciation.
5.6 Teaching Grammar
Note. Taken from niña hispana dulce en clase escolar con cola de pontón y escritura
uniforme con tiza en la pizarra del aula en aprendizaje de inglés, sabiduría y exitoso
concepto de educación [Illustration], by Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley, w. d., shutterstock,
CC BY 2.0
Teaching grammar is challenging especially when working with young learners
because it is not motivating for them to focus on rules and all of the issues
that this field involves.
Dear student, to deepen your knowledge I invite you to review the following
didactic module on factors and techniques in teaching grammar.
Factors and techniques in teaching grammar
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Now let’s review the document titled “ELT Methods and Practices Unit
3.2:Teaching Grammar to Young Learners”, to know additional information that
will help you as future teachers when teaching grammar to young learners.
In the document that you have just read, different aspects that future EYL
teachers have to keep in mind are mentioned. Based on that information, you
are ready to answer the following question: What are the types of “noticing
activities”?
Note: complete the activity in a notebook or Word document
The following video shows an example of a class that involves teaching
grammar to children. Let’s watch it: Teaching grammar
What do you think about the class? Do you consider appropriate the
methodology applied by the teacher?
Note: please complete the activity in a notebook or Word document.
5.7 Teaching Pronunciation
Note. Taken from Retrato de un chico lindo hablando con sus compañeros de clase en
el lugar de trabajo [Illustration], by Pressmaster, w. d., shutterstock, CC BY 2.0
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