Engels

Development
The last ten weeks we learned about the English subject in schools. Much of the
theories and lesson ideas were new to me. I learned some new fun things to do in
class and how a English lesson should be built. We also got the option to
classroom English exercises. However, I found these exercises very easy. The
time spent making those exercises is in my opinion better used when doing more
important and challenging work.
Below are several subjects that I found interesting.

Why English?
This week was our first English College. We started the lesson by describing
ourselves in English. Then we read an article about why English is a subject in
grade school. We found that English is an investment. As teacher you make it
possible for children to be able to work, study, communicate and basically live
outside of the Netherlands, since English is the Lingua Franca of the world.
When pre-schoolers learn English, the teachers usually use playful ways to
communicate with the pupils in English. Higher classes mostly focus on short and
easy dialogs, e.g. pupils can talk about themselves and give directions. In 7 th and
8th grade, pupils are also expected to be able to write quite a few easy words in
English.

The Five Components

We studied the model of Gerard Westhoff. It is a theory about how children (and
adults) learn an additional language. According to Westhoff, there are five
components:
- The exposure to input: The second language should be (re)presented in an
rich and interesting way.
- The processing of contents: What was that input all about and what can I
do with it? We want children to ask these questions about the information
theyve gathered in their additional language.
- The processing of form: Children should also be able to correctly formulate
a sentence in the second language.
- The production of output: Children must be able to correctly speak (and
pronounce) the second language. These come more often than not in
chunks: standard sentences as How are you? and What is that? that are
very easy to reproduce and understand.
- Compensating strategies: These include listening and reading strategies,
communication strategies and social skills.

The Four Phases

We have also seen that a by-the-book English lesson has four phases.
- An introduction phase to open the mind of children. They will remember
things they already know. This also helps the teacher to adjust his view of
the class, focusing on what-is-known.
- An input phase: children are exposed to new English words, sentences and
information. This can be brought by the teacher, but also by a video or
text. The input phase is also called the quiet phase, because if children

begin speaking English during this phase, there is a big chance for them to
be wrong or misinformed.
A practise phase: children practise English in role-playing games and
various exercises. Children practice with fixed and variable notions.
A transfer phase: the step between the classroom and the real world.

Principles of Early English

The principles of early English are several principles that must be part of a
lesson. When all of these are present, your lesson is successful. The principles
are:
- Input first
- Beginners can understand the English
- Choose suitable materials
- Make the lesson enjoyable
- Teach English in English; Very important.
- The teacher uses positive reinforcement to stimulate the children to speak
English.
- Mistakes are natural
- There should be active involvement from the children.
- There is communicative interaction between the children and a second
party.
- There are changes of pace and activity, for diversity of the lessons.

Classroom language
Classroom English is the language you speak when you give an English lesson in
class. It is crucial that the teacher continuously speaks English when teaching
English classes.

Fun activities
We talked about TPR activities (total physical response activities). These are fun
ways to introduce your class to English. The idea is that you first tell your pupils
what to do, and do the action with them. A higher level could be you only telling
the children what to do. This way, theyll have to perform with no example.
There are other fun activities to do with your class to stimulate English. For the
productive vocabulary you could play Guess Who?, Pictionary or I always have
for breakfast. Examples of games for the receptive vocabulary could be Twister,
Memory or Simon says. TPR activities also fall under that category. Other fun
ways to bring English are songs, rhymes and tongue twisters.
The switch between English and Dutch classes can be unclear for children. It
could be helpful for you and your class to use an object as a gateway. For
example, every time you speak English, you put on your English glasses or
English bowtie.