Some Ideas for Newbie Teachers of English to Young Learners

I’ve been teaching children for seven years now. And the beginnings were tough both for me and for the kids, I guess. I can still recall my first class. It was a total disaster.

That is why I have decided to write some tips for those of you who have just started or will begin teaching young learners in the future. Hopefully, the following ideas will help you get the hang of dealing with the little monsters ;)


Young Learners in general:

• cannot concentrate as long as adults

• cannot understand abstract concepts easily

• tend to learn and forget quickly

• have high energy levels

• tend to be good at pronunciation

• do not worry about making mistakes

• pay little or no attention to accuracy

• are usually externally motivated

• are NOT interested in everything

• tend to acquire language as opposed to adults who actively go about learning it

• are very interested in talking about themselves


What has to be taken into account while teaching children?

• routines and rules help to solve behavioural problems in the YL classroom

• we need to consider motor skills when teaching Young Learners

• it is crucial to make the meaning of language clear for children because they do not ask a lot of questions

• it is important to do creative and imaginative activities with kids

• we should not encourage young learners to transfer their reading/ writing skills from L1 to L2


Had I known all of that when I started teaching kids, everything would have been so much easier :)

Good luck to all of you!

A webiste review

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/more/management/contents02rewards.htm

There are many ways that help us reward our students.
Some of them are useful and some, though effective, negate the very idea of teaching.

The ones I particularly dislike involve ‘bribery’ i.e. offering students sweets, toys or stationery in order to reward good behaviour. Obviously, if we promise a 7 year old a toy for being good, the chances are he will do everything to get the prize. We must not forget however that methods based on behaviourism can lead to a dead end. Namely:

• The student will learn to get a prize for anything good he does and will expect it all the time.


• In case a prize is not provided, a teacher may encounter tantrums or any other outbursts of negative behaviour (in my view, fully justified)


• The child’s focus will be on getting something material not on appropriate behaviour or educational objectives


• Any attempt to change the system into more humanist oriented type of rewarding will have consequences as the ones mentioned above


• It is an unnecessary expenditure as there are other ways to maintain good behaviour in class


Most of us have heard of the Star and Smiling Faces types of rewarding good behaviour. They are easy to implement and require minimal preparation on the part of the teacher.

Some of the attention-grabbing ideas I have found on the website discussed are:

• Behaviour Ladder
• Behaviour Train (similar to the ideas I have discussed earlier but more elaborate)
• Class Celebrity
• Peacock Targets (with a downloadable sheet)

Have fun using them in your classes!

Classroom Management - Football English

The Football English activity works best with older students who have at least some idea about football. It works particularly well in classrooms where the kids are mainly boys.
To make it work you need to prepare a set of YELLOW and RED cards.

You set up the activity by explaining the rules:

• if a student talks, interrupts, refuses to engage in an activity etc, s/he will be given the first YELLOW card
• s/he will be given one more chance but in case s/he continues to misbehave, another YELLOW card will be given
• if the situation continues,  a student is given a RED card
• a RED card means extra homework, detention, a talk with the principal etc.

The students will realize immediately that the game is similar to football with one exception i.e. the players are given two yellow cards instead of one and the second yellow card does not automatically generate a red card.


A problem that might occur while you try the activity out is the students themselves. They will most probably start writing on the cards or damaging them in some way. In such a case, a good solution might be using colored chalk. Instead of giving the cards to naughty students, mark their desks with red and yellow chalk and you will get a very similar effect. It will also save you time on preparation of the cards.