As we can read in the article shared by the Teacher, the best time to learn any language is when we are children. The reason for this is very simple: young children acquire the language in an intuitive and natural way because they are little sponges and do not have their minds full of information, problems and stress. Since young children see everything with curiosity and as a game, games and fun activities can be great techniques to introduce a second language to them.

I want to highlight what I believe is the most important aspect to consider when children are learning a new language. One of the main factors that influence how children learn English is the language learning environment. The environment that should be set is key in the success of this goal. As we can see in the article, we need to consider these points to help young students to absorb new knowledge:

Dunn, O. (n.d.). How young children learn English as another language. British Council. Retrieved from: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/helping-your-child/how-young-children-learn-english-another-language

 

In order to have good communication it is necessary to have two parts; one has to speak at times and the other listens and vice versa; the message has to be clear and have meaning.  Communicative competence is a key point in human socialization and evolution. If teachers are not competent in communicating the topics and the lessons, it would be super difficult for the students to learn; that is why sometimes math teachers do not succeed in teaching, because they only focus on the numbers, but do not know how to share their knowledge and communicate what they want to share.

 

It is hard to make students talk during classes, even the ones that can do it, they do not feel confident enough or simply do not want to show how advanced they are. That is why finding the right techniques and activities to encourage students to speak. Teachers should plan a lesson which encourages students to develop the 4 skills and with the goal to prepare them to reach communicative competence. If teachers have real and rich objectives, they will succeed in their classes.

Other key factors that children call for to learn is active involvement and social participation. Learning requires the active and constructive involvement of learners. Children have to be part of the learning process in order to be effective. PArticipation in the social life of the school is central for learning to occur, because learning is a primarily social activity.  

Communicating effectively in the language requires a good understanding of the linguistic, sociolinguistic and sociocultural aspects of the language. We should not forget that children need to be competent communicators, that is why during the classes Teachers have to focus on helping children develop this marvelous skill that will secure them an important place wherever they go when they grow up. 

Good communication is the bridge that will connect the knowledge and the learning process. When we are teaching and working with diversity it could be a great idea to let students be part of the planning of the classes. 

Main goals that encourage inclusivity:
1 Good relationships

2 Good communication

3 Inclusion, respect and love

It is key to encourage students to be better humans and to make the teachers life easier.

The most relevant highlights of the article in my opinion are that since young children are eager to learn and this comes easy for them, studying English should always be fun and meaningful. Kids should be encouraged to expand their minds and as the article mentioned, grow their brains, so they can have a brighter future. Another important aspect is that it is great to motivate kids to read and practice or listen to English constantly but in short periods of time, because their attention is limited.  

I would like to add that the best way to encourage children to learn English is to do it without pressure or as an obligation, because if children know it is imposed they will perceive English in a negative way and will never learn. The immersion they should have with the language has to be smooth, natural and organic. They should feel happy and interested in continuing their journey with English. 

Reference: 

Singapore Teaching Centre, British Council. (2021, July 12). How to help young children learn English. British Council. https://www.britishcouncil.sg/blog/how-help-young-children-learn-english

Normally I do this activity when we are drawing, coloring or crafting. When they are relaxed they feel confortable to talk

When to introduce conversation in class?

I do it at the beginning of the class I let the students talk whatever they want in Spanish, after that we star with the only english and during the class I encourage them to share their opinions or comment something about the topic of the day. 

I like them to speak with me all the class if not i feel like I am doing a monologue and it is boring.

 

I think it is a great opportunity to explore and explode all the tools that we could have in hand to improve our classes, make them more interesting and challenging to keep students motivated and interested. If everyone knows about and uses them, we can innovate our teaching with different and new activities through social media. 

Although it is true that when it comes to the use of social media, especially when it comes to work with kids; one has to be very careful in terms of hackers, sharing personal or financial information or making a fool out of ourselves, it is also true that we can have access to everything and everyone with only a click and this advantage opens a big door to English, because as we all know, this language is global and almost everything that is read, recorded, spoken, seen, published or shared comes in English. This gives us an amazing opportunity to be in touch with the language and can help us to learn and practice more of our 4 skills. 

In the next squares, I share some other information about different innovate didactic strategy that I found super interesting.