Key themes and future directions in teaching English to young learners: introduction to the Special Issue

Copland, Fiona; Garton, Sue

doi:10.1093/elt/ccu030

Cited by 78 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…These problems could make it difficult to provide effective ELT, in that students cannot be provided with visual materials and authentic language. Therefore, young learners cannot be offered age-appropriate teaching, which is critical in TEYL (Copland & Garton, 2014). Considering these findings, initiatives should be undertaken to make technological resources sufficient and accessible in English classes at primary schools.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pre-service and In-service English Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs about Teaching English at Primary Schools

Uztosun¹

2016

İlköğretim Online

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ABSTRACT. This study investigated pre-service and in-service English teachers' efficacy beliefs about teaching English at primary schools in Turkey by revealing the teaching aspects that they felt most and least efficacious. The study also attempted to understand pre-service teachers' views about the effectiveness of pre-service teacher education and explore which major problems in-service teachers encountered while teaching English at primary schools. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 170 pre-service and 129 in-service teachers through a questionnaire. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis, respectively. According to the findings, both groups held similar positive or negative efficacy beliefs about most teaching aspects: while they reported feeling most efficacious in 'using visual materials', 'giving simple instructions', and 'using gestures, facial expressions and body language effectively', they reported feeling least efficacious in 'using mainly kinaesthetic activities', 'managing class time effectively', and 'knowing how each language skill can be developed'. Pre-service teachers agreed that the 'teaching practicum' was the most ineffective aspect of the programme, followed by 'lack of practice-based courses', 'inadequate number of teaching English to young learners courses', and 'language courses'. In-service teachers reported having problems because of 'limited class hours', 'poor textbooks', 'lack of technological resources', 'lack of learner preparedness', 'lack of learner motivation', and 'large classes'. In the light of these findings, implications were generated to improve the effectiveness of pre-service and in-service teacher education, which could increase the quality of education for English language students at primary schools.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Teaching English to young learners (TEYL) requires developing competencies that are essential to provide age-appropriate teaching (Copland & Garton, 2014), and therefore, could be considered as a specialised area of teaching English. Therefore, it is essential that teachers are specifically trained to TEYL.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-service and In-service English Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs about Teaching English at Primary Schools

Uztosun¹

2016

İlköğretim Online

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“…Based on this fact, the teacher should more emphasize on the concretization in learning a foreign language without giving them the abstract concept, in order to ease young learners in understanding the lesson. Young learners are students who are at pre-primary and primary level, from the age of 3 up to 11 or 12 years old [14]. Specifically, there are some important characteristics of young learners [15,16], namely: (1) young learners have a short attention, (2) they are active learners, (3) they are happy with appreciation, (4) they do not feel embarrassed, (5) they like to imagine, (6) they love to play [17], and (7) they like to imitate what they hear.…”

Section: The Nature Of Teyl and Local Culture-based Picture Storybooksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local culture-based picture storybooks for teaching English for young learners

Ratminingsih

Budasi

2018

SHS Web Conf.

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Abstract. This paper reports the theoretical perspectives underlying the development of local culture-based picture storybooks for teaching English for young learners. It is a library research which derives from three main sources, journal articles, reference books, and internet articles. Local culture-based picture storybooks are kinds of printed materials which basically contain stories adapted from local culture stories accompanied with visualization in the forms of pictures telling the characters and the settings to help young learners easily understand the stories. They are developed considering the good criteria of storybooks [1,2]. The benefits of its development are (1) to improve reading skill of young learners, (2) to build children English literacy through listening to the story read by the teachers and communicating interactively with them through dialogic reading, (3) create a fun learning atmosphere which enhances motivation and participation to take part in understanding and using the language, and (4) to preserve local culture. The books are developed using a combination of model [3,4] which has 5 main steps namely need analysis, developing product, expert validation, and quality assessment by experts and users (teachers), and main product revision.

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“…Kindergarten is a period in which children experience a rapid intellectual development and language growth with a tremendous capacity to learn new words (Senemoğlu, 1994). However, learning a language in a school environment is a very different experience due to social, individual and environmental factors (Copland and Garton, 2014). Social factors include sociocultural class and the status of English in the society.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Project Based Learning in Teaching EFL Vocabulary to Young Learners of English: The Case of Pre-school Children

KİMSESİZ¹

2017

ijlet

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English language teaching has newly been introduced to pre-school curriculum in Turkey. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching EFL vocabulary to pre-school children through Project Based Learning (PBL). For this purpose, an experimental design, consisted of observation checklists, exam scores and a short survey, was adopted. Firstly, through a short online survey, 150 kindergarten teachers were asked to specify which techniques they commonly used in their English classes. The primary aim here was to define traditional techniques and the rate of PBL use in Turkey. After defining common techniques, 28 children were randomly assigned to experimental (PBL instruction) and control groups (traditional instruction) equally and the data was collected in real time classroom setting for 8 weeks. The results showed that (1) PBL was rarely adopted in EFL classes in Turkey, (2) PBL instruction could increase EFL vocabulary learning gains when compared to common methods and (3) young learners were observed to have been more active in PBL classes. The effect of PBL instruction was discussed in local, cognitive and motivational perspectives in the light of previous related research. The potential benefits of further PBL use for young EFL learners and implications were also discussed.

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Key themes and future directions in teaching English to young learners: introduction to the Special Issue

Cited by 78 publications

References 5 publications

Pre-service and In-service English Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs about Teaching English at Primary Schools

Pre-service and In-service English Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs about Teaching English at Primary Schools

Local culture-based picture storybooks for teaching English for young learners

The Effect of Project Based Learning in Teaching EFL Vocabulary to Young Learners of English: The Case of Pre-school Children

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