YOUNG LEARNERS - YLT
YOUNG LEARNERSTHE NEWSLETTER OF THE YOUNG LEARNER SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (CATS: Children and Teenagers)Autumn 2007 Issue 2/07 ‘Learning in the Third Millennium’4 Yemen: Basic English Education in the Third Millennium Coralyn Bradshaw6 Studying English the Bulgarian Way Lyubov Dombeva8 Learning English in Vietnam: Children’s Views on Learning English at School Jayne Moon12 Motivating Hong Kong Chinese Boys to Write Mary Carney15 Teaching and Learning through Music, Movement and Art M. Teresa Fleta17 Classroom Assistants Project: A Spanish Success Story Trevor Doble19 Families’ Views about Spanish / English Bilingual Programme for Very Young Learners Maria José Brioso Valcárcel22 Differences in Teaching and Learning: Observations on Language Classes in Britain and China Liu Ting26 Mission Impossible or Model for the Future? David Vale29 Looking at a Learner: Russian Teenager Varia Bokuchava30 YLSIGs Around The World: Portugal Cristina Bento and Raquel Coelho32 Book Review Jackie Holderness33 Web Watcher Jennifer UhlerPrice 4.00ISSN 1026-6747www.iatefl.org
CLIL ad.qxd1/8/0710:56 amPage 1More support for teachersusing English to teachother subjects Practical ideasand resources for11 – 18-year-olds Over 60 activitiesto support avariety ofsubjects Appendix ofclassroomlanguageMore words and more support for students using English to study other subjects preparing for international English examslike IELTS and TOEFL For more information visit www.oup.com/elt1
Norwich Institute for LanguageEducationNILE offers a range of professional development courses forteachers and trainers of English—please see the website for full detailswww.nile-elt.comNew for 2007! Content and Creativity in Primary ELT: Using Arts and Crafts, Games andToys for Language LearningCreativity in ELT: Drama, Story and SongLanguage and Methodology: A Refresher Course for TeachersManagement in ELTFrom Teacher to Trainer: Developing Effective Trainer Skills for ELTCELTA—Cambridge ESOL Certificate in Teaching English to Adults.plus the continuation of the following highly successfulcourses: Advanced Language and Intercultural Awareness Advanced Language, Materials and Methodology British Studies: Language, Literature and Life Communicative Language Teaching and Testing CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning Multimedia and the New Technology in ELT Multiple Intelligences and NLP in the ELT Classroom Teaching Business English Teaching English to Young Learners/Very Young Learners MA in Professional Development for Language Education (with Leeds Metropolitan University) New: CLIL moduleAll of NILE’s Teachers’ courses are eligible forComenius fundingNorwich Institute for Language Education82 Upper St Giles Street , Norwich, NR2 1LTEmail:sarah@nile-elt.comTel/Fax: 44(0)1603 664473/664493www.nile-elt.com
up to date with everything that’s happening in theworld of YL English language teaching.To find out more about the YL SIG contact:YOUNG LEARNERSSPECIAL INTERESTGROUPIATEFL,Darwin College,University of KentCanterbury, Kent CT2 7NY, UKTel: 00 44 1227 824430Fax: 00 44 1227 824431Email: generalenquiries@iatefl.orgIATEFL Website: http://www.iatefl.orgYL SIG .httmThe Young Learners Special Interest Group wasinitiated in 1985 and is now a worldwide network ofteachers of children and teenagers up to 17 years.Aims To provide information on recent developmentsin the education of young learners in the field ofEnglish as a foreign, second and additionallanguage. To help teachers and trainers circulate ideas,research findings, news etc. and to meet thedemand for communication in the expandingworld of teaching EFL to young learners.YL SIG Committee MembersSIG Co-ordinatorsWendy Arnold, Hong Kong arnold@netvigator.comNiki Joseph, Portugal niki.joseph@netcabo.ptFinance and MembershipHans Mol, Australia connexxions@bigpond.comEvents Co-ordinatorsWhat do we offer?Gordon Lewis, USA weynta@yahoo.deHarry Kuchah, Cameroon hkuchah@yahoo.comCaroline Linse Poland clinse@aol.com‘CATS’: This is a bi-annual publication concernedwith teaching English to children and teenagers. Itis available online and through the post. It includes: practical ideas for teachers of young learners, articles on methodology and theory, details of future events such as conferencesand seminars, reports of recent events book reviews.Website ManagementChristopher Etchells, UK etchells@countryschool.comWebsite Resources EditorHans Mol, Australia connexxions@bigpond.comPublication EditorsKerry Powell, France. kezza powell@yahoo.co.ukJanice Bland, Germany janice.bland@uni-duisburgessen.deKay Bentley, UK kay bentley@btinternet.com (Publicity)Other publications: Joint SIG publications areavailable from the IATEFL office. These are theproceedings of joint seminars and conferenceswhich have been held recently.Discussion List ModeratorDennis Newson, Germany djn@dennisnewson.deConferences and seminars: The SIG organises aYoung Learner 'track' at the annual IATEFLconference and other UK and international eventswhich are often organised in conjunction with otherSIG groups. The SIG 'track' covers topics whichinclude infant, primary and secondary practice aswell as teacher training issues.Business Development ManagerGordon Lewis, USA weynta@yahoo.deCATS is produced twice a year. We welcomecontributions or suggestions for future publicationson any aspects of teaching English to YoungLearners up to 17 years.Internet discussion list: A lively forum toexchange ideas, discuss key issues and keep fully1IATEFL Young Learner Publication 2007-2
Letter from theCoordinatorsGoodbyes and HellosThis year there have been changes to thecommittee: we are sad that Karen Widl, Austria - EventsEvents! Publications! Changes! Kay Bentley, UK – CATS EditorThese three items sum up what coordinating thispast year has been about.have decided to step down but wish them bothevery success in the future. They will continue toremain on the committee handing over to the newcommittee members.EventsIt was our first PCE as joint coordinators and it wasa success. Over 60 of you attended informativetalks and workshops by our eminent speakers.They gave us some clear and helpful insights intoliteracy, how to teach it and what aspects to focuson. We were generously sponsored by UsbourneBooks and Oxford University Press. A big thankyou to all – speaker, participants and sponsors! Wendy Arnold:‘I am standing down as Discussion List Moderatorbut continue as Joint Coordinator’.We are very pleased to welcome the following newmembers: Janice Bland , Germany -CATS Co-EditorIn fact so successful was our Literacy PCE, that it isbeing replicated in Hong Kong and Singapore inpartnership with the British Council and LornaWhiston Study Centres. Some of the speakers aredifferent – but the basic outline for the day remainsunchanged. Dennis Newson, Germany - DiscussionList Moderator Caroline Linse, Korea - EventsWe are currently busy planning a very importantevent in Bangalore, India in partnership with theBritish Council. This is a country case study eventwhich will look at how Primary English is beingimplemented in countries around the world. Checkout the website for more information.http://www.primaryeltconference.org Harry Kuchah, Cameroon - EventsWe look forward to meeting all our YLSIG membersin India or in Exeter or indeed online! Seeinformation on pagesWe are also planning our PCE in Exeter 2008which will focus on ‘differentiation’ at both primaryand secondary levels. We hope to see many ofyou at our major annual event.Wendy Arnold, Hong KongPublicationsNiki Joseph, PortugalWe are now in the age of online publications andthere are now two that members can download –one from last year’s CLIL PCE and the other fromthis year’s Literacy PCE. As a subscriptionmembership based group, it makes financial sensefor us to publish online.(Joint YLSIG Coordinators)2IATEFL Young Learner Publication 2007-2
observations of learners from both countries andgives insight into how cultural differences have aneffect on teaching and learning. David Vale’sarticle on a teacher training programme as a lowcost model for the 21st century completes the articlesection.EditorialKay BentleyI write this as my final editorial for CATS. Editingthis publication has been a joy and a challenge. Ajoy, as it is very exciting commissioning articles,persuading advertisers to promote their wares andworking with a committee who share a wealth ofexpertise about Primary and Secondary younglearners and their teachers. A challenge, as thedesign changed and brought with it a few ITglitches. We hope that this issue will be readable!CATS continues with our regular features: ARussian pupil, Varia Bokuchava, is featured in‘Looking at a Learner’ and Portugal is the countryfeatured in ‘YLSIGs Around the World’. CristinaBento and Raquel Coelho include photographs ofvery creative work being done there. Our review isby Jackie Holderness who writes about CarolRead’s (former CATS editor) excellent new bookon 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom byMacmillan. Discussion list information follows thenyou’ll find Jennifer Uhler’s Web Watcher news.The theme of autumn 2007 CATS is a general one.It concerns what is happening today in Englishclasses for young learners around the world. Thelanguage learning experiences and contexts they,their teachers, their trainers, their classroomassistants and their parents are involved in at thebeginning of the third millennium.So, a marvellous selection of writing which will helpYLSIG members build on their knowledge of whatis happening in English classrooms today.Please send contributions for the next two CATS to:We open with two articles from places not writtenabout in CATS before: Yemen and Bulgaria.Coralyn Bradshaw and Lyubov Dombeva paintvivid pictures of the language teaching and learningenvironments that exist in their countries. Readerswill be amazed at the developments in education inboth places. Kerry Powell kezza powell@yahoo.co.uk (Spring2008: Learner Differences/ Multiple Intelligences)And /or to the new editor who takes over from me Janice Bland janbla@arcor.de (Autumn 2008:Drama)The issue then zooms in on particular classroomissues in Vietnam and Hong Kong. Both articlesare truly fascinating. Jayne Moon explores whatpupils enjoy while learning English and MaryCarney reveals an example of using technology asa way to motivate teenage boys to write. I am surethat both these articles will make readers reflect onhow their own pupils respond to English.And Kerry writes:‘If you have any activities, or have done researchon aspects of the above themes, please write andshare them with our YLSIG colleagues. Articles areabout 1500 words. Please contact us for moreinformation and contributors’ guidelines.There will also be a new column for letters andviews. These could be on YLs in general, YLs inyour particular context, feedback on past issues ofCATS or suggestions for future issues’.Three different aspects of teaching English inSpain are then described: how multipleintelligences are developed through Music,Movement and Art (Teresa Fleta), the success of aclassroom assistant project (Trevor Doble) andparents’ opinions on their children’s new Englishprogramme (Maria José Brioso Valcárcel). Allthree articles are cutting edge as they providemuch needed research on Content and LanguageIntegrated Learning (CLIL) approaches andinitiatives. They are must reads!I wish Kerry and Janice all the very best as editorsof CATS. I know they will continue developing thenewsletter in a dynamic way to celebrate the joysand meet the challenges of teaching pupils Englishin the 21st century.Happy reading,A comparison of language learners in China andBritain follows. Liu Ting offers first handKay Bentley kay bentley@btinternet.com3IATEFL Young Learner Publication 2007-2
It soon became clear that this newly emergingcountry was facing several educational problemssuch as lack of budget, leadership, qualifiedteachers, overcrowding and inefficiency. Variousdevelopment partners and stakeholders such asthe World Bank, UNICEF, WFP, ILO, UNESCO, thegovernments of Germany, The United Kingdom, theNetherlands and France, became involved withYemen’s Basic Education Development Strategy.Finally, after the G8 Summit in June 2002, Yemenwas invited to participate in the Education for All:Fast Track Initiative (EFA: FTI). This led directly tothe Third Millennium Development Goals for 2015to which the Yemeni Government is currentlycommitting 21% of its general budget. An importantcomponent of the Basic Education DevelopmentStrategy is the introduction of English as a secondlanguage in Grade 4 of basic education whenchildren are aged between eight and nine yearsold. English is usually introduced in Grade 7.Yemen: Basic EnglishEducation in theThird MillenniumCoralyn BradshawThe third millennium and the Yemen is not acollocation that slips easily from the tongue. Tothink of Yemen is to think of medieval windingstreets, towering stone and mud houses, blackshrouded female figures hurrying about theirbusiness, beggars huddled outside mosques andchildren trundling wheelbarrows as they sell theirwares. With a population of twenty-one million,Yemen is one of the poorest nations in the Arabregion. Over 40 % of the Yemeni population lives inpoverty, the majority concentrated in rural areas.Yemen’s adult literacy rate of 49% is indicative ofthe low average net enrolment in basic education,which at 72% is one of the lowest in the MiddleEast and North Africa regions. This figure concealsthe greatly lowered enrolment rate for girls whichsinks to 30% in rural areas where poverty andtraditional attitudes to girls’ education limit femaledevelopment.The British Council is now providing support to theMinistry of Education in the form of a primaryteacher training pilot project which began in thecapital city of Sana’a in March 2006. The trainingconsists of an eight week in-service primarymethodology course based around a primaryEnglish course book which has been selected forthe pilot. A further two weeks of peer microteaching completes the ten week course. Thecourse participants come from a variety ofbackgrounds. Both newly qualified male and femalebasic and secondary education English teachers,together with inspectors, have attended the course,which was run in Sana’a in the north, Aden, in thesouth, and Taiz, in the centre of the country during2006/7. The methodology course started with afoundation of two weeks of theory and continuedwith six weeks of workshops and hands-onactivities aimed at simultaneously increasing theparticipants’ understanding of teaching children,increasing their creativity, and building their selfconfidence. A second strand to the training is a fourweek mentoring course for the inspectors who willbe involved in supporting the newly trainedteachers.The government’s effort for education started in1962 when the Yemen Arab Republic wasestablished. Traditionally, North Yemen had been acompletely closed society with a history of centuriesof Imamate rule, characterised by a lack roads,electricity, running water, hospitals, andcommunication system. Even radios wereunknown. Education was limited to religiousschools and the memorisation of the Koran. Not allchildren had access to these schools and few girlsattended. Meanwhile, South Yemen had had acompletely different educational history. UnderBritish occupation, education of a more westernnature was made available in Aden. After theBritish departure in 1967, the People’s DemocraticRepublic of South Yemen started a process ofeducational development which finally merged withthat of the North in 1990, when, after years of strife,unification occurred to create the Republic ofYemen. The educational system currentlycomprises eight or nine years of Basic and three orfour years of Secondary segregated tuition.Carefully selected pilot schools in the three citieswill then be involved in the pilot scheme ofintroducing English at Grade 4. As conditions withinschools varies considerably, it is important at thisearly stage to select schools where the conditionsare more favourable and where the schooladministration is sympathetic to the early4IATEFL Young Learner Publication 2007-2
introduction of English. Yemeni schools typicallyserve as secondary schools in the morning andbasic education schools in the afternoon. Theschool administration is thoroughly briefedregarding the conditions which should apply in theEnglish fourth grade classes. The following is a listof basic requirements for the fourth grade teachersin order for them to be able to implement themethodology and teaching techniques that theyhave acquired. Teachers should be provided with: atape recorder, basic arts and craft resources, alockable cupboard, permission and support in usingthe classroom walls for display, and exemptionfrom regular examinations and grading. Mostimportantly, there should be an upper limit of sixtychildren to a class.school in Sana’a, reported, “Teachers are beatingchildren for simple reasons such as talking in classor not completing homework”.It is against this backdrop that the basic educationalreform is taking place, and it is with experience ofthese conditions that the training of the Grade FourEnglish teachers is being implemented. Thesituation begs the question: What did theparticipants make of a course based on thepremise of understanding children’s developmentalneeds, understanding how children’s brainsdevelop and learn, understanding children’s needsfor creativity, movement and involvement,understanding the concept of cognitivedevelopment and problem solving, understandingthe principles of classroom management? Therehad not been a single aspect or element of thecourse with which any of the participants had beenfamiliar. Nor had any of the participants ever donepeer micro-teaching, and for some of the femaleparticipants this was particularly challenging due tothe presence of male participants. They couldeasily have been forgiven for being overwhelmed.In order to gauge reactions, questionnaires wereused. In answer to the question: “What have youlearnt about yourself?” the following response isheart warming and is not atypical of the generalresponse. Elham from Taiz writes:In order to provide a vignette of general conditionsin Yemeni urban schools, course participants wereasked to complete a questionnaire about typicalproblems in their schools. This is what theyreported:Classes can have a hundred children or more; theage range in a class may vary by up to five years;blackboard surfaces are poor; some schools haveno toilet facilities; contact with parents is difficult;lack of flashcards, tape recorders, course cassette,teacher’s book etc; late arrival of course books;pupils without books; high absenteeism; pupilsarriving hungry; lack of support from theadministration; too many contact hours; low salary.The latter point is significant as all male teachershave a second job to supplement their income.Lesson planning therefore is something that is notgenerally practised. Not surprisingly, most teachersreported that pupils were unmotivated andundisciplined. The conditions in rural schools werereported in some places to be as basic as lessonsunder the trees carried out by teachers who hadonly a basic education themselves.“I have learnt that the idea of progressing bit by bit,by thinking and asking questions. I learnt to be agood model for my children. I learnt to be aware ofmy children’s needs. I learnt to assess myselfgradually. I learnt to be more fair and kind withchildren. The important thing I learnt about myselfis that if I want to learn and do something, I’ll do it.”The way ahead for Yemeni teachers is not an easyroute. Never did the words of Robert Frost ringmore true:“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I?I took the one less travelled by,And that has made all the difference.”In addition to these proble
YOUNG LEARNERS THENEWSLETTER OF THE YOUNG LEARNER SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (CATS: Children and Teenagers) Autumn 2007 Issue 2/07 ‘Learning in the Third Millennium’ 4 Yemen: Basic English Education in the Third Millennium Coralyn Bradshaw 6 Studying English the Bulgarian Way Lyubov Dombeva 8 Learning English in
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