Our child’s profile

In the last three classes we have been working with several roles. In the role playing, some people were teachers and others were doing like if they were children.

In the classroom we found different children, and all of them were different. So we decided to do a naughty child, because it is easy to find children like these in any classes. Our child has these characteristics:

ü  Our child is a girl and is four years old.

ü  Is very naughty.

ü  She gets lost easily.

ü  She doesn’t pay attention.

ü  She talks with the other children when the teacher is giving explanations.

ü  She gets bored.

ü  She doesn´t understand most of the words in English.

Exercises for the Uxue was born project

We decided to do different types of activities.

First activity:

Teacher: Good morning!! Today I have some news for all of you. Like you know, this year four new children have been born in our small village. Do you know their names? Yesterday, Ane met them and their names are: Itsaso, Nora, Olatz and Ane. So we are going to start with Itsaso. This name start with I, whose name starts with I?

Child: Yes! Ixiar!

Teacher: ok! So let’s continue. Next babies name is Nora. Someone of you have a N in her name?

Child: Yes! Oihane, Miren, Nerea, Maialen ….

Teacher: Perfect! the next name is Olatz, whose name starts with O?

Child: Oihane!

Teacher: Now we have a surprise for you! We are visiting the nursery, small babies school, and we are going to meet, Itsaso, Nora, Olatz and Ane! Do you want going there? Ok, so put on the jackets and let´s go! If you want, you can pick up things which are in the road, such as leafs, flower...Then, we are going to collect all of the things you have taken.

Second activity: ( in the nursery)

Teacher: Now we are in the small babies school and we are going to count how many are: one, two, three, four … ok, we are going to repeat; one, two, three, four …

Child: One, two, three, four …

Third activity: ( in their school)

                 

                Teacher: As I told you, you have to take things that you found in the road, like flowers, leafs … So can I see what you take? Oh, Ixiar you have taken a lot of leafs! And Nerea you have taken some flowers! Very good!

So in the year we have 4 seasons:

Autumm: the weather in Autumm is cold and windy. Because of the weather the leaves fall down from the tree.

Winter: is the coldest winter. Because of the weather you have to wear an scarf and a hat, not to get cold. And as you see in the photos in this season it snows.

Spring: The weather starts improving, so the weather is hot. In that season, we can see a lot of beautiful flowers.

Summer: The weather in summer is hot. If you see the trees, the color of the leaf is green. Where do you go usually in summer, do you go to the beach or the swimming pool? Because of the weather, you wear short jeans.

( this activity we will do showing them different photos) http://es.slideshare.net/norit93/ingelesa-jarduera

Fourth activity:

Teacher: As you saw in the small babies school, the babies have small eyes, small ears, small nose, small mouth … 

( here we will say the part of the body and then we will out our finger in the part said)

Then, will ask the children questions like this:  Maialen, where do you have the eye? Ixiar, where is your mouth? Esti, where are your ears? …

Fifth activity:

Teacher: now we are going to play Simon Says. First I’m going to say for example, Simon says touch your eye, Simon says touch your mouth, Simon says touch your shoulder … and you have to do what I say. Then, I’m going to say Simon says touch your ear or only touch your ear. If I don’t say Simon says you don’t have to do the activity. Ok? Have you understand?

Sixth activity:

Teacher: Finally, we are going to sing a song. Do you want to sing a song? Ok, so first I’m going to sing and dance and then we will do all together.

               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxphoOOwTbo

IS IT CLIL?

In the school of Zerain, they start with a project called “ Lau jaioberri Zerainen” . Kontxi Errasti, who is a teacher in this school, decided to teach mathematics without a book. The birth of four babies in the town get the students interested, so this become the started point of the project.

The projects consists of six exercises:

-     The students visit the babies; they ask to the baby’s parents some questions and they take photos. Later, they write down the answers in a paper.

-      The students ask their parents how they were like when they were babies.

-     Taking account the songs that their parents sang when they were child, they work on it, learning the lyrics and writing down again.

-   The students work concepts like height, weight, time: years, months, age difference … For example, answering to this question: How old was Aitor when Julen was two?

-         The students practice Spanish and English doing a family tree.

-         Finally, they explain the work that they did to other students of a different school.

This project was a rewarding experience for all of them. They had a very good time and they learn different concepts without a book.

So is it CLIL?

Yes, it is CLIL because the students are learning content and language. For example, they learn a foreign language like English doing a family tree. This activity improve the communicative competence of students, especially the oral expression. We think that the oral comprehension is very important because one of the best ways to learn a language is to put into practice with each other. Another important point is that this project also integrate content based on the student knowledge.

 Finally, with this work that they do they can see that English language is a way of communication that is used in a normalized environment.

WHAT IS CLIL?

CLIL,  Content and Language Integrated Learning, refers to situations where subjects are taught through a foreign language with dual objectives; the learning of a content and the learning of a foreign language. ( Marsh, 1994).

In  school context can be very successful learning subjects like history or geography through a foreign language.  According to research, multilingualism at school, taking advantage of resources, strategies and abilities that the student develops when he/she is learning a subject or a language, helps being better the communicative competence.

Do Coyle ( 2002), says that CLIL have four basic principles:

-   Content and acquisition of knowledge in the learning process.

-    Language, an essential tool for the communication and learning.

-  CLIL must suppose a cognitive challenge for the students: in this way they can improve their communicative abilities.

-  Understand the multiculturalism, considering that language skills, thinking skills and culture are associate. CLIL gives students the opportunity to be in contact with other cultures. 

CLIL PROJECT IN PRECSHOOL

The CLIL project, content language integrated learning, is a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language. It is advisable in the last level of preschool and it is composed by six didactic units which have been done from a global and interdisciplinary perspective.

The main objectives of CLIL project:

•  Communication focusing on fluency instead of accuracy.

• Learn contents from other areas using English.

• Conceive English as a way of communication.

• Develop children´s selves intellectually and emotionally.

THE PLANNING:

1)      Stories: The starting point of every didactic unit is the story which can be a story book, DVD,  a song, a dance …
2)      Activities: The activities are written and oral. However, the important key is to make the children be in touch with the language in a natural way. It is essential to take into consideration this points:

-          In the oral, try to use the same grammatical structures.

-          When the children answer in their mother tongue language it is important to repeat it in English.

-          Open questions and discussions are useful for improving children´s understanding.

-          Visual and body language is also important for the understanding.

                The written activities are always going to be a extension of the oral ones.

  

 3) Grouping: There are going to be different type of groups (individual, pair, group of 4-8 pupils, whole group …)

The topics of the CLIL project:

• Transport.

• Dinosaurs.

• Healthy.

• Feelings.

• Wild animals.

• I am different.

               

 NEW IDEAS FOR OUR PROJECT

   In the last classes, we have been discussing different ideas for our project. The main question is how to teach English to small children efficiently. We are not sure yet but we agree in different points which are going to be explained now.

                First of all, there is an agreement about the importance of the fluency and not so much the accuracy of communication. In that age, grammar is not easy to understand as their skills are not enough. However, oral capacities can be improved quickly and more over, if their curiosity is promoted.

                For that, teachers should know children´s interests and motivations. It is also essential to prepare a clear structure of the class planning (beginning, central part and the end). The structure must be adapted to children´s wants.

                One way to discover their interests is to offer them cameras and go outdoors. Based on the taken photos, children can explain what they have seen and why the matter is of their interest. Like this, the teaching of a language is not only focused on the classroom and the environment allows the learning in a dynamic way.

                 We also take into account that we are not only English teachers. As preschool teachers, we must strongly follow their development and detect any difficulties that could affect their improvements. Moreover, we should respect the different rhythms, adapt the classes and promote a cooperative way of learning. 

                Educational materials are also a key factor. It is really important that a native speaker has created them, in order to make children get used to hearing English accents. For example, the use of songs or videos is very useful.

                Finally, we feel that we must analyze the method more profoundly. There is not a unique method, on the contrary, sometimes the method has to be adapted to school location, children´s characteristics and to the school general policy. All these considerations will be changed, adapted, and improved while we advance with this subject.

ELEANITZ PROIEKTUA

ELEANITZ PROIEKTUA

The Eleanitz Proiektua is a linguistic project that applies only to the Ikastolas. Students of this type of school are taught entirely in Basque, but they also learn Spanish as a second language. According to the members of the Ikastolen Elkartea, it is positive for students to learn a third language and thus they decided to embark on the Eleanitz Proiketua, whose main purpose is to teach students how to communicate in English both orally and in writing.

In addition to the benefits of learning a third language, this project has several advantages. Among others: the development of students’ creativity and a greater plasticity of their minds, the ability to communicate and socialize in a foreign language, and the facility to learn more languages. These are the materials used by this project:

-          4-6 years:  ‘Ready for a Story’

-          6-8 years: ‘The Adventures of Hocus and Lotus’

-          8-10 years:  ‘Story Projects’

-          10-12 years:  ‘The Explorers’

-          12-14 years: ‘Subject Projects’

-          14-16 years: ‘Social Sciences’

-          16-18 years: ‘European culture’

Therefore, after having analyzed the Eleanitz Proiektua, and indeed, having studied English with this methodology, our group drew the conclusion that the project is very suitable for students. We think that it is a good way to study English due to its appropriate methodology and funny materials, which are well adapted to satisfy the needs of every age.

When, where and how to start learning English

                Nowadays, the importance of learning languages has become very important, and English is by far, the most studied and spoken language in the world. In the Basque Country, children learn three languages at school: Basque, Spanish and English. As a consequence, the policy about languages is a bit different compared to other countries. Because of that, parents and teachers are worried about when children should start learning English as the third language.

                Researchers say that having the first contact with English when children are 4 years old is beneficial. However, this might not be true as many factors can change children`s learning quality such as methodology, number of children at class, school´s location, rural or urban environment.

                From our point of view, small children are used to speaking each other using words of any language. Shyness is not a big problem in the early childhood, so we think the speaking and pronunciation can be worked since the beginning. Moreover, a small child will easily learn how to pronounce words in a new language. We also agree that learning depends on two factors: The exposure (the time you are in contact with a language) and the quality (how to learn a language). However, high exposure does not necessarily correlate with higher competence so, for us, the best way to start studying English is the learning without any kind of pressure. This issue is essential for English teachers as we think their main objective should be to teach English in a creative and funny way. For instance, teachers could use songs, dances, or theatres.

                In conclusion, English should be introduced at school as part of children enjoyment while they develop cognitively and socially.