CONTENTS

ABOUT THE METHOD…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

3
I. WHAT IS ‘TEDDY EDDIE AND HIS SOCK’?.................………………………………………………………….
4
II. THE IDEA OF THE METHOD AND THE TEACHING LEVELS…………………………………………...
5
III. WHY TEACH A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TO PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN?.......………………………………..
6
IV. METHODOLOGICAL GROUNDS…..………………………………………………………………………………
8
V. THE ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE SKILLS IN TEDDY EDDIE……….....................
10
VI. ACQUISITION versus LEARNING………………………………………………………………………………….
12
VII. THE SYLLABUS………………………………………………………………………………………......................

THE COMPONENTS …………………………………………………………………………………….. 14

14
I. STUDENT’S SET……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
15
II. TEACHER’S SET……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

COURSE STRUCTURE, UNIT STRUCTURE, LESSON STRUCTURE………………………………………………………… 17

17
I. COURSE STRUCTURE……………………………………………………………………………………………...
21
II. UNIT STRUCTURE…………………………………………………………………………………………………...
22
III. LESSON STRUCTURE………………………………………………………………………………………………

HOW TO WORK WITH THE METHOD……………………………………………………………………………………….. 24

24
I. THE MAIN THEME: THE WORLD OF TEDDY EDDIE AND HIS SOCK……………………………………….
28
II. THE THREE LEVELS ………………………………………………………………………….
32
III. SCAFFOLDING CHILDREN’S TALK AND LEARNING (article by Carol Read)...…………………………….
43
IV. OTHER TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES……………………………………………………………………..
46
V. WHY WE LIKE deDOMO? (article by dr Grzegorz Śpiewak)…………………………………………………….
49
VI. TYPES OF ACTIVITIES AND GENERAL FRAMEWORKS (FOR THE RED, YELLOW AND BLUE BOOK)
49
1. ROUTINES……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
49
2. UNIT STORIES………………………………………………………………………………………………….
50
3. STORIES FOR PLEASURE……………………………………………………………………………………
51
4. SHOWTIME…………………………………………………………………………………………………......
52
5. FLASHCARDS…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
53
6. SONGS AND RHYMES .…………………………………………………………………………………….....
54
7. EXERCISES……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
56
8. EARS UP! …………………………………..………………………………………………………..………….
57
9. GAMES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

1
 59
10. PHOTOCOPIABLE PAGES……………………………………………………………………………………
59
11. THE COMMAND SET………………………………………………………………………………………….
59
12. THE FLYING CARPET….………………………………………………………………………………………
62
VII. TYPES OF ACTIVITIES AND GENERAL FRAMEWORKS (FOR THE GREEN BOOK) …… ……………..
62
1. ROUTINES……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
62
2. UNIT STORIES………………………………………………………………………………………………….
63
3. STORIES FOR PLEASURE……………………………………………………………………………………
64
4. SHOWTIME…………………………………………………………………………………………………......
65
5. FLASHCARDS…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
66
6. SONGS AND RHYMES…………………………………………………………………………………….....
67
7. EXERCISES……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
68
8. GAMES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
70
9. PHOTOCOPIABLE PAGES……………………………………………………………………………………
70
10. THE COMMAND SET………………………………………………………………………………………….
70
11. THE FLYING CARPET….………………………………………………………………………………………

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 72

72
1. THE 7 ROLES OF A TEACHER……………………………………………………………………………….
76
2. FUN AND PLAY…………………………………………………………………………………………………
77
3. CHALLENGE – YES, COMPETITION – NO! ……………………………………………………………….

4. REPETITION AND REVISION……………………………………………………………………………….. 78

5. USE OF ENGLISH AND MOTHER TONGUE……………………………………………………………… 79

6. DISCIPLINE AND ‘FOCUS POCUS’…………………………...…………………………………………….. 83

7. MOTIVATION AND REWARDING…………………………………………………………………………… 87

8. PAIR-WORK AND GROUP-WORK………………………………………………………………………….. 89

9. HOW TO INTRODUCE AND CLOSE ACTIVITIES? ………………………………………………………. 91

10. CLASSROOM ORGANISATION……………………………………………………………………………… 92

ENGAGING PARENTS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 93

EVALUATION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 97

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 100

THE GAME CORNER…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 101

2
 ABOUT THE METHOD

I. WHAT IS ‘TEDDY EDDIE AND HIS SOCK’?

✓ it is a text-based course with many stories, songs and rhymes, which expose children to whole

sentences and structures in context

✓ it is highly flexible so as to meet the needs of pre-school children of different ages and levels

✓ it is enjoyable since children learn through play

✓ it is challenging and it provides children with rich language input tuned to their level

✓ it takes great care of developing natural listening comprehension skill

✓ there is a lot of humour appealing to children

✓ it is as close to natural acquisition as it is possible in the classroom where time-limits prevail

✓ it is easy-to-use for teachers

✓ the classroom language is a vital element of the course, which gives basis for real

communication

✓ it is a multi-level method taking children through levels of learning English from the age of 2 to 7.

The method ensures development, smooth transition and continuation

of the learning process

✓ the Student’s Set and Teacher’s Set are rich in materials and include
funny mascots

✓ the Parent’s Guide and tips in the Course Manual and Teacher’s File help activate
parents to participate in the language development of their children

3
 II. THE IDEA OF THE METHOD AND THE TEACHING LEVELS

WHO IS TEDDY EDDIE FOR?

The TEDDY EDDIE method consists of five levels represented by five different books: ORANGE, GREEN,
RED, BLUE and YELLOW, a PDF supplement (ABC), and a workbook (Eddie’s Schoolbook). They are designed
for children aged 2 to 7.

Teddy Eddie MINI (the Orange Book) is for children aged 2 and younger (it is a pre-course aimed specifically
at very young students). Teddy Eddie PLAY (the Green Book) is for children aged 3 to 4. Teddy Eddie
STANDARD (The Red Book, The Blue Book and The Yellow Book) is meant for children aged 4 to 6. Teddy Eddie
ABC (The Red Book, The Blue Book and The Yellow Book plus a corresponding PDF supplement called “ABC”)
is meant for children aged 5 to 6 (the last year of kindergarten), the goal here is to introduce global reading.Teddy
Eddie SCHOOL (The Red Book, The Blue Book and The Yellow Book plus corresponding Eddie’s Schoolbooks)
is meant for children aged 6 to 7 (first grade of primary school). It practices global reading on a higher level.

This Course Manual does not cover the Teddy Eddie MINI and Teddy Eddie SCHOOL in detail as we provide
specialized training for all teachers working with these specific groups.

WHY IS IT POSSIBLE TO USE THE BOOKS WITH DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS AND LEVELS?

Each Book can be used at different levels and in various age groups of children within the above mentioned
ranges. For example, The Red Book may be used for teaching both beginners and more advanced children aged
4 - 7. This aspect of the method is its certain advantage and novelty. Depending on the age and level of students,
a teacher adjusts the way of conducting particular tasks and the expectations of what the students are to achieve.
The students can cover the same content regardless of their age or level but the degree of the course’s exploitation
and expected results will differ.

WHY IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE BOTH BEGINNERS AND CONTINUING STUDENTS IN ONE GROUP?

The level and age of children can be mixed within one group and teachers can differentiate the expectations
towards individual learners. This sort of structure makes the method highly flexible. Every book contains most
of the basic structures and classroom language, but it differs as far as topics and vocabulary are concerned.
That is why no previous knowledge of English is needed and beginners can start with any book. At the same time
students who are more advanced learn new things every year. The difference between beginners and more
advanced students in using a particular book, is that the latter can exploit the material at a deeper level and
develop more communicative skills. Like in a nursery school or with siblings the less advanced or younger
children follow the actions of the more advanced ones. After a silent period, the less advanced or younger children
finally join in the activity. The more advanced children benefit in such a way that they lead the tasks and perform
most of the communicative work and thus train their skills to reach a higher level.

WHAT ARE THE LEVELS IN TEDDY EDDIE METHOD?

HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT OUR STUDENTS’ LEVEL IS?

4
We have distinguished three levels of learning and teaching within Teddy Eddie method. They depend on the level
of advancement and general development of students. The time of transition from one level to the next one
is influenced by student age and general ability. Depending on these factors the duration of particular levels varies
for individual students. The youngest naturally take longer than the older beginners at level 1, but they also stand
the best chance to get to level 3 and may enjoy the deepest exploitation for the longest time. This is the ultimate
goal of Teddy Eddie method.

The degree of the material exploitation is different at every level. The expectations concerning students’ verbal and
non-verbal reactions are also different, as well as the ways the teacher conducts lessons and introduces particular
tasks.

In this Course Manual there is a detailed description of what is expected from both students and teachers
at particular levels (see the THREE TEACHING AND LEARNING LEVELS CHART on the ‘HOW TO WORK WITH
TEDDY EDDIE page). Also the notes in the Teacher’s File give teachers suggestions on how to work with particular
types of tasks and texts with students at different levels.

III. WHY TEACH A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TO PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN?

GENERAL DEVELOPMENT

• learning a foreign language greatly develops LEARNING STRATEGIES in general and has a positive
influence on BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
• learning a foreign language BROADENS CHILDREN’S HORIZONS and rises their SOCIAL
and CULTURAL AWARENESS
• learning a foreign language is fantastic MEMORY TRAINING
• learning a language in the form of play is possible at this age and as it is intended to be a PLEASANT
EXPERIENCE, it comes EFFORTLESSLY, which is hardly achievable with older age
• young children are EASY TO MOTIVATE and they are likely to completely engage in activities (Pinter
2006, Harmer 2001)

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

• young children are better at acquiring the PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM of the new language and are more
likely to acquire NATIVE - LIKE PRONUNCIATION as their speech apparatus is still flexible (Harley and
Swain 1994, Harley et. al 1995)
• learning two languages at the same time (young children are still learning their mother tongue at this time)
is beneficial for children as it raises their LANGUAGE AWARENESS and ability to manipulate and label
language items (Pinter 2006)
• young children naturally and quite effortlessly acquire LISTENING SKILLS, while their older peers can
find it more challenging (Harley and Swain 1994, Harley et. al 1995, Cameron 2001)
• children’s brains have a certain plasticity which makes foreign LANGUAGE ACQUISITION EASIER
AND MORE NATURAL (Pinter 2006)
5
COMMUNICATION BENEFITS

• young children quickly ACCEPT THE FACT THAT ENGLISH IS A NATURAL MEANS FOR
COMMUNICATION. This fact means that learning can be less artificial and language use more
instrumental
• young children have a NATURAL NEED FOR COMMUNICATION – when encouraged, they quickly
attempt to express ideas in English
• young children are LESS INHIBITED AND SELF-CONSCIOUS than older learners so they do not feel
embarrassed when making mistakes or attempting to communicate (Pinter 2006, Harmer 2001)
• young children are used to the fact that they do not understand every single word in their mother tongue.
That is why they are usually ABLE TO GRASP THE MEANING OF AN UTTERANCE EVEN IF THEY
COME ACROSS UNFAMILIAR WORDS OR CHUNKS. The skill is very valuable while learning a new
language and is not so natural for older learners (Harmer 2001)

THE REALITY OF LANGUAGE TEACHING

• assuming that limited time can be devoted to learning a foreign language (typically not more than two
lessons per week in school) the earlier children start, the MORE TIME THEY SPEND ON LEARNING
ENGLISH. This will inevitably lead to HIGHER LEVELS of proficiency (Pinter 2006)
• as lessons are intended to be pure fun and play children usually develop a POSITIVE ATTITUDE
TOWARDS ENGLISH and it very often becomes their “favourite subject”. This obviously fosters strong
internal motivation and better results also at later levels of education
• during formal school education there is a great emphasis on teaching grammar and testing (especially
in the Polish educational system). PRE-SCHOOL COURSES CAN FOCUS MOSTLY ON
COMMUNICATION AND INSTRUMENTAL USE OF LANGUAGE – the concepts that are natural for
mother tongue acquisition

IV. METHODOLOGICAL GROUNDS

Teddy Eddie uses selected techniques found in different popular teaching methods. The choice was determined by
the characteristics of pre-school children. Below we enumerate the methods and approaches incorporated in the
method.

TEXT BASED

Teddy Eddie includes a large number of aural texts in form of stories, rhymes and songs. They are the main source
of language taught in the classroom.

THE NATURAL APPROACH

The natural approach is a method of language teaching developed by Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell in the
late 1970s and early 1980s. It emphasises communication, and places little importance on grammar study
and explicit correction of student errors. In the natural approach, language output is not forced, but allowed
to emerge spontaneously after students have attended to large amounts of comprehensible language input.

6
Terrell outlines three basic principles of the approach:

• ‘Focus of instruction is on communication rather than its form.’

• ‘Speech production comes slowly and is never forced.’
• ‘Early speech goes through natural stages (yes or no response, one- word answers, lists of words, short
phrases, complete sentences.)’

(Terrell, cited in Dhority 1991, p. 32)

These principles result in classrooms where the teacher emphasizes interesting, comprehensible input and low-
anxiety situations. Lessons in the natural approach focus on understanding messages in the foreign language,
and place little or no importance on error correction, drilling or on conscious learning of grammar rules. They also
emphasize learning of a wide vocabulary base over learning new grammatical structures. In addition, teachers using
the natural approach aim to create situations in the classroom that are intrinsically motivating for students.

We strongly believe that the most efficient way to learn a foreign language in the classroom is through instructions
and common expressions used in an instrumental way. The introduced metalanguage (which means classroom
language first of all here) gives students a great L2 input and develops most of their communication skills. Learning
English in conditions close to natural acquisition as in the case of L1 is a desirable goal.

THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD

We assume that learning is greatly enhanced by multiple drill repetitions. Along with the method’s assumptions,
a special stress is put on listening comprehension and there is some focus on automatism of utterances
and language reactions.

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR)

It is a method developed by James Asher. It relies on the assumption that learning a foreign language can have
similar developmental patterns to that of first language acquisition. A child responds physically to the speech
of their parents. The responses of the child are positively reinforced by their speech. In the initial period the child
absorbs the language without being able to speak. After this stage the child is able to reproduce the language
spontaneously. With TPR the language teacher tries to mimic this process in class. (Asher, 1969)

Language input is reinforced by movement and gesture, which promotes better understanding and remembering.
TPR is a form of play children easily engage in which also facilitates learning. Furthermore, a physical reaction
is a clear sign informing that a child has reached the first step of acquisition – understanding.

LISTENING COMPREHENSION ORIENTED

Out of all the language skills, listening comprehension is the one which children are best at. In fact, in this area they
are predisposed to achieve better results than adults. That is why there are multiple recordings incorporated in the
method.

7
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a teaching method with a clearly
defined set of classroom practices. As such, it is most often defined as a list of general principles or features.
One of the most recognized of these lists is David Nunan’s (1991) five features of CLT:

1. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.

2. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
3. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning
management process.
4. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements
to classroom learning.
5. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom.

Although the age of the learners does not allow them to develop communicative skills in a short period of time,
our method stimulates attempts of language production in every possible way. One of the examples is the Shop
Game, where children actively use the words and expressions they have acquired in order to “buy” a particular item.
The stress is placed on successful communication, not on structural or phonetic accuracy. The method creates
a lot of opportunities to use the language in a natural, instrumental and spontaneous way.

TRIAL AND ERROR

As Ashby states in his book, ‘Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure,
making a change, and then trying again.’ (Ashby 1960)

Making mistakes is a natural and necessary stage of learning a foreign language. We accept the fact and perceive
the mistakes as signs of making progress. We think that allowing students to make mistakes is actually the only
way to stimulate communication at lower levels.

V. THE ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE SKILLS IN TEDDY EDDIE

PRONUNCIATION

We deeply believe that pronunciation is a very important skill in the overall learning process. As preschool children
have greater ability to hear and reproduce sounds than adults, we do not want to neglect teaching it at this very
stage. Young children have sensitive hearing and flexible speech organs. These factors enhance their ability
to reproduce natural language melody and discern language chunks, which are usually a big problem for adult
learners. Nevertheless, we do not demand that children pronounce language perfectly, but we pay particular
attention to all of the aural input they come across during the course.

8
VOCABULARY

The vocabulary content in our method is very rich. Younger or beginning students learn the basic words
and phrases, whereas older or more advanced students are supposed to acquire bigger, more challenging sets.
The vocabulary is introduced through interesting stories, rhymes and songs. There are also colourful flashcards,
numerous action games and graphically attractive exercises for practice. In this context children learn words
in a pleasurable and natural way. Our prevailing thought is to teach language in context and use full sentences
instead of single words.

GRAMMAR

It is obvious that preschool children are not ready for learning grammar in the traditional form. There is a dual
approach to teaching grammar in our method. On the one hand, children learn simple structures through drills
and multiple repetitions. They are used throughout the whole course to ensure cyclic revisions. On the other hand,
our purpose was to expose children to structures in various forms and uses, as it happens when they acquire their
mother tongue. That is why we use both full and short forms and teacher’s language is not limited to the basic
structures children learn. Our goal is not that children master all these structures but that they gradually become
familiar with them and understand their meanings in context.

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Since we believe that preschool age is the best for listening comprehension to be developed, teaching it has become
our main target. English is used 90% of the time in our lessons for children. The teachers speak in simple English,
but exaggerated simplifications are avoided. Short forms are used in the classroom as they are more natural than
full forms. The CDs and the PLAYGROUND are the crucial elements of the course and are used both in the
classroom and at home. Rhythmic variety and funny musical arrangements make our recordings very interesting
and amusing for children. Frequent use of the recordings will reinforce the effect of being exposed to English.

SPEAKING

Children learn to speak in steps. The first step is when they respond to instructions and show understanding
in a non-verbal way (through gestures and mime). Then they gradually become more and more independent
and are able to ‘communicate’ through gestures and actions without any help from the teacher or other students.
After some time children start to reproduce words and expressions. Then they make attempts to use phrases
and sentences in a controlled way. The ideal stage is when students try to communicate during plays and games
using English expressions and structures. We support any attempts at speaking and especially encourage
and foster uncontrolled and spontaneous use of L2.

READING AND WRITING

Usually language course books for preschool children do not contain texts as children at this stage do not learn
to read and write. We, however, have decided to place the texts of the stories, songs and rhymes in the book,
on flashcards, and on the PLAYGROUND for two reasons. First of all, it will facilitate parents’ work with children
at home. Second of all, older students will get used to the graphic form of the language and, in many cases,
will learn to recognize single words. It will give great results in the future during and will greatly help children master
reading and writing skills.

9
THE APPROACH USED IN THE GREEN BOOK

In the Green Book there will be almost no drilling or explicit teaching of grammar structures. The focus will be on
listening and speaking skills. The texts and words in the book are provided solely for the use of parents.
The vocabulary content, though still quite impressive, is nevertheless more limited than in the other books.

VI. ACQUISITION versus LEARNING

There are many theories as to how humans are able to develop language ability. According to Stephen Krashen's
acquisition-learning hypothesis, there are two independent ways in which we develop our linguistic skills:
acquisition and learning.

Acquisition of language is a subconscious process of which the individual is not aware, similar to the process that
children undergo when learning their native language. “Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target
language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with
the messages they are conveying and understanding." (Krashen, 1987) Learning a language, on the other hand,
is a conscious process, much like what one experiences in school and it involves formal instruction.

To get the optimum result we incorporated the two approaches in our method. First is as close as possible to natural
language acquisition. The other one assumes structured and controlled learning. The table below summarises
basic characteristics of the two approaches:

FOSTERING NATURAL ACQUISITION STRUCTURED AND CONTROLLED

(as close to L1 acquisition as possible) TEACHING (schooling)
- simplified language
- limited areas of language
- fun and appealing to the age group
language
- random yet natural
selection - structured selection of language items
- many structures simultaneously
- deliberate focus on chosen structures
- instrumental language
- “made up” language
- great importance of metalanguage
- random reappearing - purposeful and time-tabled revisions
revision
- depends on numerous uses in different of specific items
and retention
contexts - depends on memory

basic technique - scaffolding - drilling

speaking - encouraging free production - forces controlled production

- accepting errors as natural and

errors - correcting and mastering language taught
necessary

10
 - understanding language items even if the
context changes
- being able to understand the core
meaning even if there are some unknown - full understanding of controlled content
aims and words used in sentences - memorizing the words, phrases and texts
objectives - spontaneous use of individual - controlled speaking, often with use of full
words/phrases sentences
- creative linking of language items (e.g.
Eddie dance duck meaning Eddie dances
like a duck)
- great impact on future learning
- fosters real communicative skills
- easier for teachers to control and test
-ensures better and more natural
- easier to notice progress (by both
pronunciation
advantages teachers and parents)
- creates permanent connections in the
- induces and forces kids’ production of
brain
language (speaking)
- uses and fosters children’s natural
creativity, flexibility and potentials
- as the results are rather long-term and in - may not lead to real communicative skills
disadvantages a way chaotic, they are harder to notice - limits children’s natural creativity, flexibility
- T cannot control the learning fully and potentials

ACQUISITION versus LEARNING AND THE STUDENTS AGED 2 - 4

With very young children aged 2 to 4 the balance is shifted even more from learning in the direction of
acquisition:

• There is very little drilling as the children at this age have more problems concentrating and repeating
whole sentences. To insist on drilling may result in boredom or frustration for the children.
• The teacher should scaffold any attempt at language use by the children and often ignore
the incorrectness of structures or even complete misuse of words.
• The teacher will often accept incorrect utterances, mix the languages or even accept Polish answers
if they show an understanding of the English text or question. Not limiting or stopping the students at such
points but building on what they try to contribute, will enhance the development of the students’
communicative skills and make them feel safe in the classroom.
• Such young learners are still unable to perform certain tasks like repeating long sentences, substituting
elements in a pattern or producing sentences based on an example. These are the tasks typically used in
more explicit teaching with older children.
• As very young children have short memories, their future success, even more than with the older students,
depends on the degree of exposure to English (lessons, listening to CDs and watching stories on the
PLAYGROUND at home, cartoons, playing with parents etc.). The more the better and the greater the
chance the students will start to understand the language items in a changing context. With exposure,
the groups of the youngest students will be able to spontaneously and creatively use English in the future.

11
 VII. THE SYLLABUS

The syllabus is topic-based and grammar-based. It has been designed in such a way that it covers all the basic
grammatical items and thematic areas pre-school children should be exposed to in order to achieve communicative
success.

TOPIC - BASED

Each Book includes different topics (e.g. food, toys, fantasy, weather) to make it new and interesting to children.
Units focus on different thematic areas. These are appealing and at the same time tangible for children since they
concern their everyday activities and environment. Some vocabulary is practised in more than one Book because
of its basic character (e.g. body parts, colours, basic activities or classroom objects) but they are always dealt with
from a different angle.

GRAMMAR - BASED

The basic grammar content of most books for pre-school children is rather the same and it consists of the following:
1. Imperatives: give, don’t give
2. Pointing and indicating: this, it, there’s
3. Possession: have / has got
4. Likes: like / don’t like, likes/doesn’t like
5. Present tenses: Simple Present and Present Continuous
6. Present Simple forms of to be
7. Ability: can / can’t
8. Indicating people: I, you, (he, she, me, we, they, my, etc.)
9. Plurals
10. Basics of Simple Past
11. Simple spatial prepositions e.g. up/down

Each Book of our method comprises most of the basic grammar concepts mentioned above since they are the basis
for simple communication. This fact is very important for three reasons:

• Children can start the course with any of the books

• Mixed ability or age groups are possible
• Children revise the items throughout the whole course, which influences its effectiveness

Grammar structures are organized in two ways depending on which angle we look at it:
from the “structured and controlled teaching” point of view:

• each unit usually focuses on one grammar concept

• there are carefully chosen sentence patterns for drilling in every unit

from the “natural acquisition” point of view:

• units are not homogenous as far as structures are concerned, especially in texts
• the structures also appear in different forms and contexts than the drilled ones

12
• it is not of great importance which structure comes first (e.g. whether “I am” comes before “I have”) –
all the structures are classified as the “basic ones”. In fact, the order of appearing changes from one Book
to another
• the language used in the method is as close to natural language as possible

13
 THE COMPONENTS
I. STUDENT’S SET:

1. THE STUDENT’S BOOK is composed of six units and a short chapter on holidays, each in a different
colour. The first unit introduces children to routines and some classroom language used throughout the
course. For students who are not beginners it is an excellent way of revising useful words and commands
they were taught in the previous years. The remaining five units are arranged in one, schematic way for
clarity of structure, but there are different types of tasks for the sake of variety.

Each unit starts with a story introducing the main topic, vocabulary area and some structures. It is followed
by sets of flashcards for vocabulary presentation and practice, songs, rhymes, exercises and games.
Although the exercises and classroom games are placed in the last section of each unit, they are to be
used throughout the unit – as a follow-up of particular texts.
The language introduced in the first units is revised throughout the course and many tasks are to be
repeated with slight variations to enhance constant revisions.

2. THE STUDENT’S CD is a compilation of all stories, songs, rhymes and selected tasks for practice
at home. Children should listen to the CD as often as possible; it will greatly influence their progress. It is
the teacher’s role to engage parents so that they take care of students’ regular training also out of the
classroom.

3. THE PLAYGOUND is an interactive platform available online and in a form of an App for all Teddy Eddie
students and teachers. It contains stories, songs and Showtimes along with a collection of additional
interactive games and activities.

4. THE SECRET BOOKLET is a little toy, which is a vital component of the set and the whole method (Books:
Red, Blue and Yellow). It contains cards with pictures of words which are not related to the topics of the
units. It gives students additional language input and a chance to discover words like: money, toilet, bin or
the sun, which are basic, but rarely used in courses for pre-school children. At the same time the little
booklet is something students like to play with and it is used both for games at lessons and for practice
at home. Secret words are introduced at every lesson or sometimes one word is planned for two lessons.
Teachers usually use The Secret Booklet for presentation and practicing all the secret words introduced
up to date.

5. THE STICKERS AND PICTURES IN THE GREEN BOOK

The secret words are also an element of the Green Book, but they are used in a modified, less intensive
way. There are nineteen secret words to be introduced along with the units they are presented in. There
is no Secret Booklet in the Student’s Set. Instead, children get a sticker every time a new secret word is
introduced. They also have all the secret words in the form of pictures on a big ladybird at the end of their
books and The Parents’ Guide. In this way, both the parents and teachers are given new possibilities
for practicing the words with the children.
They can:
 colour the pictures

14
  play by pointing at and naming particular pictures
 play by naming the objects and finding the correct picture
 cover one of the pictures and try to guess what is missing

6. THE PARENTS’ GUIDE is a supplement to the course, which gives parents more insight into what
is happening during the lessons. It also introduces parents to the the general idea of the method the course
structure, students’ aims and objectives and methods used. It is a tool for engaging parents in the process
of teaching their children. The Parents’ Guide helps the teacher to keep parents informed. Lists
of vocabulary and structures for every unit can be found there, as well as translations of texts and various
comments. It also contains some guidelines on how to practise with children at home. The general
philosophy of the course is also explained in the introduction.

II. TEACHER’S SET:

1. THE COURSE MANUAL starts with an introduction describing the general philosophy of the method
and methodological grounds of working with young children. The components of the course as well as
various types of tasks and texts are described there. Aims and objectives for students and descriptions
of both course and unit structure can be found in the Course Manual. Various techniques to be used
throughout the course as well as a practical guide on classroom management and other helpful chapters
are in the Course Manual.

THE GAME CORNER is a very handy and rich set of ideas for games you can implement to practise
various elements of the method. It contains action games, flashcard games, drills and other games children
enjoy and benefit from.

2. THE TEACHER’S FILE contains the syllabus, Lesson Calendar, Unit Checklist and Lesson Schedule.
They all help teachers and Method Supervisors to plan the time span for every unit, the frequency
of particular tasks and time for revising various elements of the method

There is a general overview of every unit followed by a detailed description of every unit.
The descriptions lead teachers step by step through every unit and contain easy to use frameworks
for teaching all elements of the course.

PHOTOCOPIABLE PAGES. There are also some photocopiable pages at the end of the Teacher’s File.
They are to be used for various exercises and games.

TEACHER’S CDs are a rich listening source of elements that are on students’ CD. They also contain many
additional presentations, exercises and different versions of tasks for the texts.

TEDDY EDDIE ABC SUPPLEMENT is a set of activities and student’s worksheets designed to teach
5- and 6-year-old students to read in English. The supplement is available as an e-book and the Teacher
can choose which activities and worksheets to print out and use in the classroom.

15
3. EDDIE’S BOX

Eddie’s box is an integral element of the teacher’s set. Eddie’s Box is used throughout the lessons.
It is a box where the teacher places all the necessary aids for a lesson: flashcards, cut-outs, charts
and gadgets like toys and other objects, which are a supplement to the course, e.g.: a rubber spider,
a magic wand, a microphone or some toys. Each book is accompanied by a specific set. Teachers usually
use the box for storing all their materials for the course, including Eddie and The Sock, between lessons.
It offers an easy way to find all the things they need to prepare particular lessons.

The Teacher’s set also includes Teddy Eddie – the mascot and The Sock. They are used by the teacher
at every lesson and they serve the purpose of binding the whole course, engaging and motivating
the students. The main theme of the books as well as routines are introduced by means of these elements.
They also have emotional meaning for students, help to introduce humour and enhance language
interaction between teacher and students.

THE SECRET BOOKLET has been described above as it is also one of the elements of student’s set.

FLASHCARDS. There are about 150 flashcards corresponding to vocabulary sets and stories which are
used in the classroom. They give teachers many possibilities to introduce and practise words, sentences
and stories in a varied and involving way. Many games in the GAME CORNER involve using flashcards.
They are a perfect resource for revising the language input of the whole course.

CHARTS. The teacher is also equipped with five handy charts: GAME REMINDERS, CLASSROOM
LANGUAGE, THE FLYING CARPET, AND THE COMMAND SET. They can be used quickly whenever
needed, especially when the teacher needs to change plans, has to find a short activity to practise
a particular item or is simply left with five minutes to spare. They are also useful for controlling the language
used and for cyclic revisions.

CHARTS:

• GAME REMINDERS – It is a short version of the GAME CORNER with some basic ideas
for games.
• CLASSROOM LANGUAGE – Teachers are provided with a list of words and expressions
commonly used in the classroom for instructions and basic interaction T → Ss and Ss →T.
It is very convenient for controlling the teacher’s own classroom language and for gradually
expanding the instrumental use of language by students.
• THE FLYING CARPET – It is a list of questions and answers conducted in the form of a dialogue
between the teacher and students.
• THE COMMAND SET – It is a list of all verbs appearing in the Book which can be used as simple
commands.

16
 COURSE STRUCTURE, UNIT STRUCTURE,
LESSON STRUCTURE

I. COURSE STRUCTURE

UNITS

There are 6 units in each book, plus a Holiday Unit1:

• INTRO – the first introductory unit, which contains all the routines and gently introduces children to the
course. It concentrates on the classroom theme and prepares students for the course.
• UNITS 2 – 6 – typical course units, each concentrating on a different thematic field and on different
structures.
• HOLIDAY UNIT – an extra unit covering Christmas and Easter lessons. The unit is short and its
purpose is to provide some songs and activities to use for celebrating the holidays.

LESSON CALENDAR

The course has a special CALENDAR - a tool for managing the time spent on each unit.

• The Calendar shows how units in the books should be planned to make sure the teachers cover
all units in the right time frame and that there will be an appropriate number of revision lessons.
• The Calendar is colour-coded. The colours refer to the units in the books
• The Course is designed for sixty lessons. One lesson lasts 35-minutes (2-5 year olds) or 45-minutes
(6-7 year olds). We would not advise lessons lasting longer than 45 minutes.2

R stands for REVISION - during such lessons there will be no new language input.
F stands for the final lesson of the course.

In some lessons two units deliberately overlap, which means that the lesson consists of activities both from
Unit 1 and Unit 2. For this reason:

• in almost each lesson there are some items presented, some are practised and others revised.
This creates a good balance between presentation and practice
• there is a variety of topics (e.g. food and toys) and activities within one lesson, which prevents students
from getting bored
• teachers avoid introducing too many new things at once

1
TEDDY EDDIE MINI has a different structure; see details in TEDDY EDDIE MINI TEACHER’S FILE
2
TEDDY EDDIE MINI is quite flexible and can be planned differently; see details in TEDDY EDDIE MINI TEACHER’S FILE
17
UNIT CHECKLIST

There is no detailed description of individual lessons in the Teacher’s File. Why? The answer is very simple: rigid
courses do not work with little children and the teacher needs to be highly flexible at all times. The lesson plans
need to be adjusted to what happened during the previous lessons. To keep track and not to get confused
we designed a special UNIT CHECKLIST for each unit.

The teacher is supposed to tick the appropriate boxes every time he/she works with a particular item. This helps
to plan lessons and make sure all teaching areas are covered, practised and revised. In less advanced groups
some of the items can be crossed out, however, the Method Supervisor would need to be consulted.

• Each LESSON BOX (a “tick” box) stands for “a lesson where the particular item appeared”. No matter
how many activities during the lesson are devoted to one and the same item, they all count as one
lesson box to tick.
• The lesson boxes in the INTRO column stand for the very first lesson where the particular item occurs.
• PRACTICE usually takes place during successive lessons within one Unit. Each box means another
lesson.
• REVISION takes place at some lessons after the Unit has been completed.

A PART OF AN EXAMPLE CHECKLIST:

UNIT 2 – BODY INTRO PRACTICE REVISION

STORY "MEET EDDIE"   

FLASHCARDS SET 1 - EYES…   
FLASHCARDS SET 2 - LEG…   
RHYME "TEDDY BEAR"   
SONG "HEAD AND SHOULDERS"   
SONG "SPIDER ON THE FLOOR"   

LESSON SCHEDULE

Although the course does not contain a detailed description of individual lessons, it provides you with the LESSON
SCHEDULE, which is the summary of what to introduce or practise during each lesson. It is the ideal, though,
and it is likely that children might spoil it a bit. The Schedule is supposed to help in planning lessons and monitoring
the progress of the course, but it will have to be adjusted to the specific classroom situations. We do advise
sticking to the Schedule as much as possible.
18
AN EXAMPLE OF PART OF A LESSON SCHEDULE (from The Red Book of Teddy Eddie):

secret

MONTH
INTRO PRACTICE REVISION
word
UNIT
UNIT

Meet Eddie – story flash set 2 - door… flash set1 - book…

6
flash set 1 - eyes... Buzzy Bees – rhyme In a Circle – showtime
leaf
ex. 1 - Trucks Toddlers Walk - song The Command Set

Teddy Bear – rhyme Meet Eddie – story

flash set 2 - door...
7 ex. 3 – Classroom flash set 1 – eyes
Toddlers Walk – song
leaf ex. 5 – Ears up! - In a Circle – showtime
The Command Set
Green Clock ex. 1 - Trucks

X Meet Eddie – story

flash set 2 - leg...
flashset 1 – eyes
8 ex. 1 - Colouring Socks flash set 2 - door…
Teddy Bear – rhyme
bird ex. 4 - Word Match Buzzy Bees – rhyme
ex. 3 – Classroom
Pizza Game
The Flying Carpet

Head and Shoulders – Meet Eddie – story

9 song flash set 2 - leg... In a Circle – showtime
ex. 2 – Windows Teddy Bear – rhyme Toddlers Walk – song
grass Shop Game ex. 4 - Word Match The Command Set
Bingo Pizza game

FRAMEWORKS

The Course Manual and the Teacher’s File contain many FRAMEWORKS. They give a detailed description of how
to work with particular items. There are two types of frameworks:

GENERAL FRAMEWORKS – there is one common framework for most activities of the same type, e.g. flashcard
presentations or the EARS UP! exercise. All General Frameworks can be found in this Course Manual.
The following are the General Frameworks:

• the STORY STAGES AND STEPS framework

• the SHOWTIME STAGES AND STEPS framework
• the FLASHCARD PRESENTATION AND PRACTISE framework
• the RHYMES/SONGS framework
• the EXERCISE framework
• the EARS UP! (LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND) framework
• the FLYING CARPET (INTERACTIVE SET) framework

SPECIFIC FRAMEWORKS – The frameworks are in the Teacher’s File and they deal with particular stories, songs,
games, etc. The outline and structure of the frameworks are the same so as to make them easy for teachers to use.

19
COLOURS AND COLOURING IN TEDDY EDDIE

How are the names of colours taught in our method?

Typically in courses for children the first unit is about colours and the teacher spends much time teaching them.
Naturally, all the activities aim at mastering the names of colours.

We decided not to make colours the main subject of any lesson, because:

1. most children already know the words, even those, who have never attended any English course
2. it is natural to use colours in exercises and metalanguage and we believe Ss will learn them anyway without
explicit practice

However, the names of the colours are ever-present throughout the books and are the basic tool for many games
and activities.

Here are some examples of the use of colours in the books:

• Page frames in the Student’s Book are colourful. Each unit has its own colour, e.g. in The Red Book:
Unit 1-red, Unit 2-green, Unit 3-yellow, Unit 4-blue, Unit 5-pink, Unit 6-orange.
• Many exercises use colours as symbols
• Names of colours appear in stories, songs and rhymes
• There are several colouring exercises where names of colours are used in the spoken instruction

Colouring and drawing during English classes

Although many teachers and sometimes even parents expect a lot of colouring pictures in English courses
for children, they will not find many of them in our method. We believe that the English classroom is not an Arts
and Crafts classroom and children should be taught English and not drawing or colouring. Colouring can be used
as the means, but not as the target itself. Colouring also takes lots of time and our lessons last only 35-minutes.
Moreover, not all children enjoy drawing and colouring, and not all have developed the skill equally. It is not an
English teacher’s job to teach colouring skills. In our method, there is some limited colouring and drawing,
but always with the aim of teaching and practising the English language.

What to do when an activity is based on the names of colours and children do not know or remember them
yet?

You can use ADEQUATE CRAYONS or FLASHCARDS to help them along. It is not necessary to overteach
the names of colours. There will be plenty of other opportunities when children will be able to learn them.

GRAPHIC DIVERSITY

The books contain many colourful pictures to appeal to children’s imagination. They are used as important teaching
tools and stimuli. There is purposeful graphic diversity in the pictures. For instance, the word princess is represented
by several different pictures. The same happens with pirate, hat, car, ship, egg and many others. This is because
we believe that graphic diversity helps children understand the concept of words. The purpose is that students
are able to generalise the meanings. It pushes them to use words both in new communicative and visual contexts
and enhances free use of the target language.

20
TERMS AND SYMBOLS

L1 – the mother tongue, in this case the Polish language

L2 – the target language, in this case the English language

Levels 1, 2, 3 – levels of teaching and learning

T – a teacher

S – a student

Ss – students

LANGUAGE INPUT- the language content taught to students

II. UNIT STRUCTURE

Most units have the same structure3. Only the first, introductory unit and the last short unit on holidays are different.

THE STORY

Each of the typical units starts with a story introducing the main topic and basic structures that are going to be
practised throughout the whole unit. The topics and characters differ from story to story to create the opportunity
to practise language connected with various thematic fields. The stories are usually humorous to involve children
and make the characters appealing. The language used in the stories is a combination of drill-like, repetitive
structures as well as natural phrases and expressions used for a particular situation.

OTHER TEXTS AND VOCABULARY PRESENTATION

The stories are followed by sets of flashcards for vocabulary presentation and practice, and other texts like songs
and rhymes. Flashcards are always presented and practised in the same sequence. This helps students get used
to the routine and it saves the effort of technical organisation after they learn it in the first unit. Texts are also
thematically linked with the topic of the unit and provide extension of both vocabulary and structures. The texts are
arranged one after another in a unit but they are not introduced in such a sequence. They are interwoven with the
activities from the last section and the constant revisions of the previous content. THE LESSON SCHEDULE in the
Teacher’s File suggests the order of introducing particular texts and exercises.

EXERCISES AND GAMES – FURTHER PRACTICE

The last section of a unit is composed of exercises and games that provide further practice on vocabulary, structures
and texts. They also comprise some content from the previous units to assure constant revision. Exercise and game
types are limited. This is done so that students can gradually get accustomed to their form and each time they
appear, students are able to do them with less and less explanation.

3
This does not apply to TEDDY EDDIE MINI; see details in TEDDY EDDIE MINI TEACHER’S FILE
21
SECRET WORDS FOR A UNIT

Secret words are an additional set of vocabulary not related to the topics of the units. There are about 6-7 secret
words for a unit and they are placed at the bottom corner of every page. They should be presented one at a time,
when covering the unit they go with. Sometimes they will be introduced one lesson after another, and sometimes
the same word is the secret word for two lessons. For ideas on how to introduce and practise secret words see the
Teacher’s File.

III. LESSON STRUCTURE

Every Teddy Eddie lesson should be planned carefully and thoroughly. We provide you with the tools
(the CALLENDAR, the CHECKLISTS and the LESSON SCHEDULE – described above).

We already described the reasons why there is no step by step description of every single lesson of the course.
However YOU should always plan your lessons taking into consideration your group characteristic (the age of the
children, their character – more lively and energetic, or can easily focus and concentrate, if the group is full or not
etc.)

✓ THE LESSON SHOULD BE PREPARED IN DETAIL

✓ THE TEACHER SHOULD BE PREPARED TO CHANGE THE PLAN DURING THE LESSON

Each lesson should be planned according to these 3 steps:

• children enter the classroom*

1. BEGINNING • small talk before the lesson starts
• routines: hello routine, secret word routine
• activities: static and dynamic elements interweave
• there is usually 20% new elements and 80% revision,
2. CORE
• it may change sometimes, e.g. when you do a revision lesson (100% revision) or
when you introduce something new such as a story (it takes up to 50% of the lesson)
• lesson evaluation (L1 or L2)
• What did we do? What did you like? Did you like…?,
3. ENDING
• routines: secret word routine, bye bye routine
• rewarding (stamps/stickers/others)
* you will find tips on classroom organization in the CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT CHAPTER

While planning your lesson remember to make sure that:

• you follow the CALENDAR

• you do all the necessary elements along with the CHECKLISTS
• you plan both static and dynamic elements during the lesson
• you use the CD

22
• you use Teddy Eddie and the Sock
• your lessons are similar in their structure, contain routines and constant elements, but:
• every lesson is an adventure and has something new, different (a new game, a new song, a new way
of rewarding etc.)
• you introduce elements from the ABC Supplement (only for 5-6-year-olds)

23
 HOW TO WORK WITH THE METHOD

I. THE MAIN THEME: THE WORLD OF TEDDY EDDIE AND HIS SOCK

Teddy Eddie is a little bear the size of a guinea pig. He appeared out of nowhere in the house of Mummy Bear and
Daddy Bear. What they came across first was a big, colourful sock and Eddie emerged out of it. (This is a story
from one of the Teddy Eddie Books). Every year we meet Eddie on the very first lesson of the course. He is the
character who introduces classroom routines, often talks to kids and whispers in the teacher’s ear helping him
or her in the lesson. Eddie is like a little boy. He is sometimes naughty and then the teacher has to gently scold him.
He is sometimes clumsy and then the children can show him how to do things and correct him. But he is always
able to make children laugh.

The Sock is also ever-present throughout the course. It has many functions. First of all it is Eddie’s little house.
The bear goes into The Sock after every lesson and he hides various surprises for children there. The teacher uses
The Sock very often for different games and revision exercises.

A very important thing for Eddie and all the children is The Secret Booklet. It lets the children enter Eddie’s world.
The world of fun and games and fantastic figures where English is spoken. Eddie cannot speak Polish! Every
time a child says a secret word, it becomes the magic way to enter the classroom and meet Eddie. The secret words
have the magical power to make things happen, like start a game or open The Sock full of treasures.

The Crown is another magical object that appears in the classroom at the end of the course. It is a colourful, paper
crown, with pictures of secret words on it and it is very special. First Teddy Eddie gives it to the teacher and he/she
can organise games around it. After a few lessons more crowns appear in the classroom and students can wear
them. On the last lesson children get the crowns as their final course reward. In the Teacher’s File you will find
ideas on how to introduce The Crown, play with it and hand it to the students.

The Ladybird. A new character is introduced in The Green Book: The Ladybird. The mascot is provided in Eddie’s
Box as well. She is the one who keeps all the secret words and reveals them one at a time to the students.
That is why The Secret Word routine is in the form of a rhymed question to the Ladybird. The mascot is used by the
teacher for introducing and practicing the secret words. The Ladybird is also one of the characters in one of the
stories about Teddy Eddie. As it is introduced in Eddie’s world, it is also present during the lessons and can be used
just like Eddie. The ladybird also provides new opportunities for interaction and dialogue between the characters.

But to make the story involving and motivating for children, the teachers need to enter the world of Eddie
with them, act, dramatise the texts and bring themselves down to the level of children.

24
What you can do with:

TEDDY EDDIE, THE MASCOT

1. Eddie is T’s assistant - helps T, whispers in T’s ear, hands T down objects or cards, evaluates Ss’
performance e.g.
- Oh, what did you say Eddie? You want to play bingo with the children? Aha, ok
- Children do you want to play bingo with Eddie? Ok.
- Eddie, they want to play. Hurray! (in Eddie’s voice)
or
- Did you like the song Eddie? No? Why not? Too quiet? (in a soft voice)
- You want it louder? Children, Eddie says it was too quiet. (soft voice, finger on T’s mouth)
- Let’s sing it louder! (voice raised)
or
T can sometimes resort to L1 translating what Eddie said, especially when Ss need to be quieted
down e.g.
- Eddie powiedział, że nie będzie naklejek jeśli będziecie dalej mówić po polsku. No stickers! Musimy
się teraz bardzo postarać mówić po angielsku. No Polish, ok?

What you achieve is that Ss focus better on what is happening, are motivated and have greater fun.

2. Eddie is a ball – either T or Ss ask questions throwing Eddie to a person, who should answer the question
e.g. S asks: “Do you like pizza?” then throws Eddie to another S, who should answer: ”Yes, I do.”
or “No, I don’t.” It is a very useful game for drilling all kinds of structures and keeping Ss from getting bored.

3. EDDIE SAYS – This is a game with Eddie as the leader described in THE GAME CORNER

4. Eddie in stories – Eddie acts out his part. Both T and Ss can mimic his voice.

5. Eddie is a demonstrator – T can show e.g. body parts on Eddie or Eddie can demonstrate some actions
(sometimes in a clumsy way to make Ss laugh).

6. Eddie is an observer – Eddie should always be present during the lessons, even if not actively participating.
He should watch Ss do things and “be ready” to talk (in a special Eddie voice) when invited.

7. Eddie is a judge – He may decide whether or not Ss deserve a reward (a game, a stamp) or whether they
should improve their behaviour or performance. They should always be given a chance to behave well. Eddie
may hand his paw to Ss and congratulate them on their success.

8. Eddie is an interviewer or an interviewee – It is more interesting for Ss to ask Eddie questions than for Ss
to ask the T or another S. The T can prompt the questions and also invent funny answers to the questions
because in Eddie’s world no normal rules apply.

25
THE SOCK

1. The Sock is Eddie’s house – at the end of the lesson Ss say the Bye Bye routine and T puts Eddie
in The Sock. Sometimes Eddie hides in The Sock in games or when Ss are naughty.

2. The Sock can be a bag used in games – e.g. T can hide small objects or pictures there and Ss are to pick
out one at a time and say what it is. It is a very nice revision game. Sometimes Ss can guess an object only
by touching it through the Sock.

3. The Sock can be a place where secret words are found. Also when you practise all the secret words up to
date you can put the cards in it and turn the revision e.g. into a guessing game. It can be done by either
showing the pictures bit by bit or making them guess with some clues e.g. It’s green. It’s very small.

4. The Sock is animated and can talk sometimes. It is an animated character in one of the Teddy Eddie Books,
but you can also use it for making funny dialogues or actions. A good idea is making a hand puppet out of it.

5. The Sock holds the rewards for Ss. Since Eddie is the one who decides whether to reward Ss or not,
The Sock will be a perfect place for keeping rewards like stickers, stamps or sweets for Christmas. It is good
to build the atmosphere of tension before you take something out of The Sock: Wow, there’s something
in The Sock! It’s something for you! Look!

6. Eddie and The Sock can act out some dialogues (the T pretends two voices). For instance, they can play
Good and Bad Cops:
Eddie: Wonderful, children! You will get stamps now!
The Sock: No, no, no, they didn’t sing nicely. It was very quiet…
Eddie: Come on, Sock! They deserve the stamp!
The Sock: All right, but they must sing again first. etc.
Of course the teacher can help students understand by translating some parts.

THE LADYBIRD, THE MASCOT (only for the Green Book of Teddy Eddie)

1. The Ladybird, Eddie and sometimes The Sock are used as ‘model – students’ who act in a mini-theatre.
T gives them instructions and the mascots show how to play a new game, demonstrate a new activity
or dialogue, so the children can then copy their actions.

2. The Ladybird is T’s assistant just like Eddie and helps T, whispers in T’s ear, hands T objects or cards,
evaluates Ss’ performance (these two mascots can argue sometimes or make double comments)
Ladybird, what can we do now? Sing a song?(Teacher)
- Oh, yes! (the Ladybird)
- Eddie, would you like to sing a song, too?(Teacher)

- No, no, no! A game! Let’s play a game! first! (Eddie)

So, let’s sing a song first and then we can play a game! (Teacher)
- O.K. (The Ladybird and Eddie)

26
 This is a perfect opportunity to model some language and keep students focused on the mascots.

3. The Ladybird can also be a ball. – The T asks a question and throws the Ladybird to the person who should
answer the question. Remember to ask the question first and then throw the mascot. Either hand it to a child
or throw it to a sitting child so it lands in their lap – they are not very good at catching it, yet. With very young
children you can repeat exactly the same question with many different students

4. EDDIE SAYS – This is a game with Eddie as the leader. The game is described in THE GAME CORNER.
Here you can introduce a variation where children respond when Eddie says something but cannot respond
when the Ladybird says a command.

5. The Ladybird can take part in stories. – She acts out her part just like Eddie. Both T and Ss can mimic voices.

6. The Ladybird is a demonstrator. – T can show e.g. body parts on the Ladybird or the Ladybird can
demonstrate some actions (sometimes one of the mascots can do everything wrong and the other mascot
corrects the mistakes. It will surely make Ss laugh).

7. The Ladybird is an observer. Just like Eddie she can always be present during the lessons, even if not actively
participating. They can both watch Ss do things and “be ready” to talk when invited.

8. The Ladybird is a judge. – She may also decide whether or not Ss deserve a reward (a game, a stamp)
or whether they should improve their behaviour or performance. They should always be given a chance to
behave well. Eddie and the Ladybird may sometimes have different opinions (play the good cop and the bad
cop), but in the end they both should praise the children.

9. The Ladybird is an interviewer or an interviewee. It is more interesting for Ss to ask Eddie or the Ladybird
questions than for Ss to ask the T or another S. The T can prompt the questions and also invent funny answers
to the questions because in their world no normal rules apply. They can also model both questions
and answers for Ss.

THE SECRET BOOKLET

1. T can check the previous secret word at the door asking what it was. Ss stand in a queue, say the word
and then they can enter the classroom. If they do not remember, they have to ask other Ss.

2. Ss find the secret word in The Secret Booklet at the beginning of the lesson. They try to guess if it is going
to be a new secret word or the one from the previous lesson. T plays The Secret Word routine and they find
the word in The Sock and then in their Secret Booklets.

3. At the end of the lesson Ss may say a secret word from the booklet to get a reward from The Sock (stamps,
stickers).

4. The Booklet Game - Ss sit in a circle with their Secret Booklets. T or one of Ss say one secret word and Ss
try to find it as quickly as possible. Wait for everyone to find it before the next turn.

27
5. There are many other games in The GAME CORNER that can be used for the revision of secret words.

They are marked with a red key .

6. There are 38 secret words throughout the course; up to 6 for a unit. You should introduce them while
teaching the unit they go with, but not necessarily with the content of a specific page in the Student’s Book.
You have got approximately 8 – 10 lessons per unit (apart from the shorter units Hello and Holidays)
and sometimes you will use the same secret word twice. This creates an additional element of suspense since
Ss do not know whether to expect a new secret word or the previous secret word.

7. Little pictures of the secret words are placed in the bottom corner of each page of the Student’s Book.
The pictures and the colourful page frames in the Student’s Book serve the purpose of identifying the pages
for Ss e.g. Open your books at “box”, green.

II. THE THREE LEVELS

There are three levels of students’ advancement within the method, which vary in degree as to how the courses are
carried out. On the basis of this division and observation of students, teachers can determine where their students
are, how to act and what to do to get them to the next level.

The main aspects in which the levels differ in students’ and teacher’s performance are enumerated below.

STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE:

• character of students’ participation in particular tasks

• students’ level of understanding of texts and instructions
• degree of mastering texts, structures and vocabulary
• type of verbal and non-verbal reactions and classroom behaviour
• types of tasks and students’ level of independence in carrying them out
• level of ease of using English to communicate
• degree of creativity in language production

TEACHER’S PERFORMANCE:

• level of instruction in English - ways of conducting tasks and their technical organisation
• expectations about students’ performance
• ways of eliciting language
• degree of help and support in performing tasks by students (scaffolding)
• level of insistence on students using whole sentences
• level of insistence on students’ language production

28
WHAT LEVEL CAN YOU EXPECT FROM 2 – 4 YEAR OLDS?

When teaching a group of such young students you have to adjust your expectations to their potential at that stage.
Do not feel discouraged if your students stay at Level 1 for the whole year – it is natural! Remember most of them
are still learning their first language and some of them may not even speak at all! Consider it a success if your
students recognize some words, follow some of your instructions, are able to stand in a circle or repeat single words.
It takes time to start producing the language. Some children go through the silent period which also takes place
in the first language. You need to be aware of these points yourself, and be able to explain them to the parents so
that you and the parents appreciate what a child achieves. Observe your students (you can even take some notes
on them) and learn to recognize their progress. These actions will also make it easier for you to talk to the parents
and share your observations with them.

Some possible signs of progress (apart from the more spectacular and obvious ones):

• A child, who has not taken part in activities starts to move nearer to you and the group when hearing
something familiar or watching you play.
• A child starts repeating some words or even gives some answers to your questions (sometimes the child
will mumble to him/herself) but does not take an active part in what is going on in the classroom.
• A child does not speak or sing but joins the group in showing some actions or pointing at objects. At first,
they may just mimic what the other children do.
• A child starts watching you and the group when earlier it was more interested in playing with a toy
or looking around the classroom.
• At lessons, a child does not take part in activities and seems not to pay attention, but at home when
listening to a CD, using the PLAYGROUND or playing, it produces some words or shows some actions.
• A child does not take part in group activities but when you specifically ask it about something it is able
to answer or point.

WHAT DOES THE LEARNING PROCESS OF 2 – 4 YEAR OLDS LOOK LIKE?

• At the beginning, children often participate passively in what is happening in the classroom. The teacher
is more in the centre and carrying out tasks. The students depend on him/her to a greater extent.
• Children use quite a bit of mother tongue at first, they also tend to mix languages since they do not
differentiate between them.
• First steps in the classroom mean teaching children social behavior, being in a group with no parents
around.
• The main aim in the first year is to make children enjoy coming to the classes, like the teacher, like Eddie,
as well as feel safe and comfortable in the new situation.

Remember:

- do not let the children bring in any distractions (toys, food etc.). If it is unavoidable and the child feels safer
with a toy make “an observers bench” where all the toys are placed
- children do not understand complicated rules
- a sense of humour is important but you need to teach children what may be funny (eg.Eddie jumping
up and down and laughing or doing somersaults)

29
 - some children need to go through a silent period, like in their mother tongue, before they start to speak –
give them time
- you need to spend more time on every activity and repeat it more often than with older students
- the emotional bond with the teacher and the characters in the book is very authentic and very important
for children of that age (hugging and kissing the bear is what they like, which you can use as a special
reward for children)

THREE TEACHING AND LEARNING LEVELS:

LEVEL 1 - FIRST STEPS

LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND
HOW LONG ON
WHAT IS EXPECTED OF STUDENTS? TEACHER'S ROLE
THE LEVEL?
1. Ss repeat a lot 1. T helps a lot beginning
/younger:
2. Ss become familiar with the language and 2. T uses a lot of mime and gesture
classroom routines 2-3 years old – one
3. T uses simple instructions year
3. Ss recognize some words and react to simple
instructions 4. T progresses to following units 3-4 years old – first
even if the level of mastering it is semester
4. Ss use mime and gesture to show still far from perfect.
understanding
5. T may use some L1 to introduce
5. Ss sometimes use L1 to show understanding new games or texts, focus Ss’
attention or check understanding beginning
6. Ss are not expected to speak /older:
7. Ss start uttering single words 5-7 years old – first
8. Ss do not have to master everything in the unit 2-3 months
before T goes on the next unit

LEVEL 2 - IMMERSION
STRONG UNDERSTANDING; LITTLE USE
HOW LONG ON
WHAT IS EXPECTED OF STUDENTS? TEACHER'S ROLE
THE LEVEL?
1. Ss use single words 1. T helps but gradually tries to let Ss continuing
act independently /younger:
2. Ss recognize, point and say 3-4 years old –
3. T introduces more complicated about 2 years
3. Ss react to many instructions
instructions
4. Ss start speaking in controlled situations 4. T progresses to following units
5. Ss may use some words and simple structures even if Ss have not mastered it in a beginning
spontaneously perfect way /older:

6. Ss remember many words 5. T tries to elicit full sentences 5-7 years old –
instead of single words about 2 years
7. Ss understand the texts in general and are often
able to fill in missing words and phrases
8. Ss may be able to reproduce parts of the texts continuing
/older:
10. Ss use gestures and mime without T's help to
show their understanding 4-7 years old –
whole year or first
semester

30
 LEVEL 3 - ACTIVATION
STRONG CONTROLLED SPEAKING, BEGINNINGS OF FREE SPEAKING
HOW LONG ON
WHAT IS EXPECTED OF STUDENTS? TEACHER'S ROLE
THE LEVEL?
1. Ss are confident and independent 1. T lets Ss be independent when continuing
possible but still scaffolds them if /older:
2. Ss are able to reproduce big parts or even needed
whole texts 5-7 years old – as
2. T insists on Ss using sentences long as they stay
3. Ss use single words and simple structures not single words with Teddy Eddie
spontaneously
3. T models or starts sentences, Ss
4. Ss understand the texts and are able to fill in finish them
missing words and phrases (note: only some Ss
4. T may try to use more complex reach this level and
5. Ss are able to ask and answer questions in structures/instructions acquire all the skills)
controlled situations
6. T induces creative use of the
6. Ss are able to play games using some language by Ss
language spontaneously
7. Ss are able to take over and continue
sentences started or modeled by T

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III. SCAFFOLDING CHILDREN’S TALK AND LEARNING*

*This paper by primary ELT specialist, Carol Read, was originally written for Cambridge ESOL Young Learner
Symposium, May 2004, and is reproduced here with permission of the author. Visit website: www.carolread.com
and blog: http://carolread.wordpress.com/ for more details about the author and her work.

Abstract

Children are increasingly starting to learn English as a foreign language in formal classroom contexts at a younger
and younger age. By the end of primary, there is a general expectation on the part of parents, curriculum planners
and other institutional stakeholders that, as a result of this early start, in terms of oral proficiency, children will not
only be able to do such things as sing songs, say rhymes and name familiar objects but will also be able to interact
with others about matters pertaining to their everyday life and world. Yet evidence from research (see Moon (2004)
this volume) shows that in terms of developing oral proficiency, and in particular, interactive and extended discourse
skills, certain types of experiential language programmes are not necessarily successful in producing this outcome.
In this paper, it is argued that one of the ways to improve oral proficiency in children learning English at primary
level is to develop teachers’ awareness and understanding of the importance of the quality of classroom interaction
in developing talk and learning. It is suggested that on teacher education courses the related concepts of Vygotsky’s
‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD) and ‘scaffolding’ (Wood, Bruner, Ross, 1976) can provide a useful framework
which will equip teachers with the necessary strategies and skills to build up and gradually extend children’s
interactive and discourse skills in appropriate ways at different ages and stages of learning.

Introduction

On pre- or early in-service teacher education courses for teaching English as a foreign language, there is typically
a dichotomy set up between TTT (teacher talking time) and STT (student talking time), with advice to trainees
usually being on ways to reduce the former and increase the latter. While this has undoubted validity in terms
of increasing children’s opportunities to practise the language and creating more symmetrical class participation
(cf Van Lier, 1996), such a dichotomy on teacher education courses runs the risk of missing out on the vital area of
the nature and quality of interaction time between the two. The importance of interactive talk in children learning
their first language (e.g Halliday,1975, Bruner 1978) as well as for second language acqusition (e.g. Ellis 1994, Van
Lier 1996) is well-documented. Vygotsky’s theory of learning (Vygotsky 1962, 1978) as socially co-constructed
between collaborating partners within a cultural context gives a fundamental role to interaction in the cognitive
and language development of children and this provides a framework to describe children’s progress and learning
in a foreign language as well.

Vygotsky’s theory of learning and the ZPD

Vygotsky’s theory is described in detail in a wide range of child development and educational literature
(e.g. Meadows 1993, Smith et al 1998, Light et al 1995, Lee 1999). For Vygotsky, the child develops cognition and
language as the result of social interaction with more knowledgeable others in activities which have specific goals.
As a result of the child’s participation and the interactive, verbal give-and-take with a more skilled or knowledgeable
person in the undertaking of everyday problem-solving and tasks, external, socially-mediated dialogue is gradually
internalised and becomes an inner, personalised resource for the child’s own thinking. At first, the adult or carer
has all the language and cognition necessary to be able to perform a task and guides the child through relevant
32
behaviour until he is able to perform the task independently and successfully. Through modelling behaviour
and language, and familiarising the child with the processes and procedures involved, the adult leads the child to
being able to act competently and confidently on his own. The area in which the child can perform an action or task,
provided that a more skilled or knowledgeable person is available to help, Vygotsky termed the ‘zone of proximal
development’ (ZPD).

This he defined as ‘the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem-
solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers’ (Vygotsky 1978, 76). In an everyday classroom context, this might
be paraphrased simply as the gap between a child being able to do a task easily without any help or support at all,
and a task which is simply out of reach for the child at the moment and cannot be attempted without guidance
and help from someone who is more knowledgeable or skilled. In this way, the ZPD provides a valuable conceptual
framework in an educational context for situating the level of challenge in activities and tasks that may
be appropriate for children at any one time – tasks which will challenge, stretch and extend learning but which are
also achievable and which will allow for success. The ZPD contrasts with the area of ‘self-regulated action’ (Van
Lier, 1996) where the child can carry out tasks competently and independently. In interaction in the ZPD, the adult
provides guidance through linking the task to previous knowledge and experience and enabling the child
to participate in carrying out the activity in a meaningful way. Together the adult and child create ‘states
of intersubjectivity’ where ‘participants are jointly focused on the activity and its goals, and they draw each other’s
attention in a common direction’ (Van Lier, 1996, p. 161).

Scaffolding and its relationship to the ZPD

Scaffolding is the metaphorical concept used to describe the interactive verbal support provided by adults to guide
a child through the ZPD and enable them to carry out a task that they would be unable to do without help. In the
same way as Vygotsky’s theory and the ZPD, the concept of scaffolding is discussed in detail in a wide range
of educational and child development literature (cf op cit). As the metaphor implies, scaffolding is temporary and
can be put in place, strengthened, taken down piece by piece or taken away completely, as the child develops
knowledge and skills and is increasingly able to act competently and independently. Originally developed by Wood,
Bruner and Ross (1976) in the context of first language acquisition and parental tutoring of very young children,
scaffolding is a metaphor that is based on the Vygotskyan premise of learning as a socially constructed process
and is frequently adopted to describe teacher intervention and support in other learning contexts as well (eg. Wood,
1998). Scaffolding refers to the particular kind of help, assistance and support that enables a child to do a task
which they cannot quite manage on their own and which brings them closer to a state of competence that will enable
them to carry out other similar tasks independently in the future (Maybin, Mercer & Stierer, 1992).

For Bruner, scaffolding ‘refers to the steps taken to reduce the freedom in carrying out some task so that the child
can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring.’ (Bruner, 1978, 19). It is ‘a process of ‘setting
up’ the situation to make the child’s entry easy and successful and then gradually pulling back and handing the role
to the child as he becomes skilled enough to manage it’ (Bruner, 1983 p.60). The future orientation of scaffolding
together with the principle of ‘handing over’ to the child is important in differentiating and defining scaffolding as
a particular kind of flexible help, assistance or support and relates closely to Vygotsky’s concept of learning and
development as the result of joint participation in goal-oriented activity: ‘What the child can do with assistance today
she will be able to do by herself tomorrow’ (Vygotsky, 1978, p.87). As has been pointed out (e.g. Gibbon, 2002),

33
it can be argued that it is only when scaffolding is needed that learning actually takes place because it is only then
that work is taking place within the child’s ZPD.

The notion of the ZPD and promoting children’s learning through scaffolding is one that generally has a strong
appeal to teachers (Maybin et al 1992), and this is perhaps because of the way it resonates with intuitive conceptions
of what it means to intervene successfully in children’s learning (Mercer, 1994). However, the concept of scaffolding
has also been referred to as ‘elusive’ and ‘problematic’ (Maybin et al 1992), as well as having ‘a slightly slippery
nature’ and with ‘potential fuzzy areas’ (Smith, 2003). This is perhaps particularly so in the context of learning
a foreign language, where language is both the content and the medium or vehicle for learning, and where the
emotional and interactional context (the classroom) differs markedly from the context of first language acquisition
and parental tutoring at home in which the term was originally developed.

Scaffolding in teaching a foreign language to children

In their original formulation, Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) identified six features of effective scaffolding.
These were:

• creating children’s interest in the task

• simplifying the task, for example, breaking it down into stages
• keeping children on track by reminding them of the goal
• pointing out key things to do and/or showing the child other ways of doing parts of the task
• controlling the child’s frustration during the task
• demonstrating an idealised way of doing the task.

All these features strike a chord of validity in the context of teaching a foreign language to children. As Cameron
(2001,10) has pointed out, Bruner also developed the dual concepts of ‘formats’ and ‘routines’ (Bruner, 1983, 1990)
which are also highly relevant in the context of language teaching. These are features of events which provide
a context for scaffolding to take place, in the way that they combine the secure, familiar, non-threatening and
predictable with space for development, growth, creativity and change.

Van Lier (1988, 1996) and others (e.g. Gibbon, 2002) have argued that the processes involved in scaffolding,
by which language and cognitive abilities are developed through interaction with others, may also operate in second
or foreign language classrooms as well. van Lier (1996) emphasises how the notion of scaffolding highlights the
dynamic nature of working in the ZPD and that this is characterised by a number of features and principles which
he characterises as: continuity, contextual support, intersubjectivity, contingency, handover and flow.

Scaffolding as a multi-layered process

Van Lier sees pedagogical scaffolding as a multilayered, or at least a three-stage, process which goes from ‘global
to local’ or ‘macro to micro’ (van Lier, 1996, p.198). Following van Lier’s model of layers and levels of scaffolding,
an example with a group of four-year-old beginners in Spain is as follows:

1. Global level: as part of a classroom learning routine and as a long term aim, but with no rigid time limit,
children will learn to describe and talk about the weather. The intention here (following van Lier, 1996)
is to repeat the procedure regularly, with variations and increasing participation and control by the children
as this becomes possible.

34
 2. Activity level: this involves planning a sequence of steps to carry out the activity, which, in this case,
is incorporated into the lesson just before morning break e.g.
• The teacher (T) walks over to the window and looks out at the weather
• T invites the children to look out and asks what the weather’s like
• T shows flashcards of different weather to the children in turn and asks Is it …? No/Yes.
• T and children talk about the implications of the weather for playtime e.g. Can we play outside
today? / Do we need our coats?
3. Local, interactional level: this involves the teacher in deciding from moment to moment when and how
to prompt, help, encourage, praise, repeat, re-cast, or modify the steps in order to ensure (following van
Lier, 1996) that the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult and that the children are always
‘intersubjectively engaged’.

An example of initial scaffolding

(Note: for reasons of space and the quality of the recording, the children’s responses here are summarised;
they do not all respond neatly together in chorus and some respond in Polish  as well as, or instead of, English.)

T: (walks over to window and looks out, looks at children and opens arms out questioningly) What’s the weather
like today? Let’s see now … (holds up flashcard) Is it snowing?
Ss: No!
T: No, you’re right. It isn’t snowing. (Ss chat excitedly in Polish about snow) Do you want it to snow? Do you like
snow?
Ss: Yes!
T: Me too! I like snow. (T looks out of the window again and holds up the next flashcard) Is it raining?
Ss: No!
T: No, it isn’t raining. Very good. Is it cloudy?
Ss: No!
T: (looking up at the sky) No, you’re right. It isn’t cloudy. Is it sunny?
Ss: Yes.
T: Yes, it is sunny. You’re quite right. It’s a lovely, sunny day. And the sky is …
Ss: …blue.
T: Yes. A lovely blue sky! Can we go outside to play today?
Ss: Yes!
T: Do we need our coats? (using mime)
Some Ss: Yes!
Other Ss: No!
T: No?! Oh, yes. Yes, I think we do. It’s sunny but it’s a bit cold (pretends to shiver) Do we need our hats? (using
mime)
Ss: No!
T: No. You’re right. It’s only a bit cold. So … today is …. (looking out of the window again)
Some Ss: …sunny!
Other Ss: … cold!


originally it was Spanish, but for better understanding we decided to translate Ss’ responses into Polish (with the author’s
permission)
35
 T: Very good! The sky is … (pointing to it)
Ss: …blue.
T: Yes! A lovely blue sky! We need our …(using mime)
Ss: …coats.
T: Excellent. But we don’t need our …(using mime)
Ss: … hats.

Over a period of time, a simple activity such as the one above evolves in a variety of ways according to the children’s
learning and their increasing ability to participate with confidence. The activity shares the features of Bruner’s
‘formats’ and ‘routines’, in that it is safe, familiar and predictable, and yet at the same time allows space for active
learning and creativity (cf Cameron 2004, this volume) to take place.

As with a bedtime story at home (Bruner’s best known example for explaining the importance of formats
and routines), once you have established this or a similar activity as part of a learning routine in class, children will
ritually expect and want to do it in every lesson and be the first to remind you if you forget. Typically, the children’s
initial, receptive understanding of the words to describe the weather soon become part of their output (although the
speed of this varies for different children). This means that, after a time, the children respond to the teacher’s initial
question about the weather (What’s the weather like?), without needing the support of the flashcards and additional
questions (Is it cloudy? etc). They use an increasing amount of vocabulary which has been part of previously
scaffolded events, more extended two or three-word, rather than one-word responses (e.g. It’s sunny or Is sunny
(sic) as opposed to just Yes / No). They also begin to experiment with more creative formulas e.g. It’s cloudy-sunny
(sic) and to offer their own ideas about the implications for play time e.g. We need ‘crema’ (ie sun cream to put
on our faces). There also usually comes a stage in the scaffolding process when the children, in anticpating their
playtime, will initiate the question about the weather themselves. This illustrative example of how scaffolding can
work in a class of four-year-old beginners of English in Spain raises a number of questions about what counts
as scaffolding, rather than other kinds of help, in foreign language classes with children. It raises the issue of the
nature and quality of interaction between the teacher and the children, and the way this may structure and promote
or, conversely, restrict and stifle learning. It also invites consideration of the role of children’s first (or second, in the
case of multi-cultural classes) language in scaffolding their learning and development in a foreign language and,
finally, the way that the strategies and procedures adopted by teachers to scaffold children’s language and learning
need to evolve and change as children develop, grow older and become more proficient in the language.

What counts as scaffolding

Following Maybin, Mercer and Stierer (1992), in order to know whether a particular kind of help counts
as scaffolding, we first of all need to establish that the teacher is aiming to develop a specific skill, concept or level
of understanding. In other words, although scaffolding in a classroom context does not necessarily need to apply
to a well-defined problem-solving activity (such as building a pyramid from wooden blocks as in the original research
by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976)), it does need to refer to the kind of help which is given in the attempt to carry
out a specific learning activity which has clearly defined learning goals. Secondly, there needs to be evidence that
the child can carry out the task successfully with the teacher’s help. Thirdly, and relating to the ‘handover’ principle,
proposed by Bruner (1983) and also included by van Lier (1996), there needs to be evidence that the child has
achieved a greater level of competence and independent functioning as the result of the scaffolding which has taken
place.

36
In the example given above, we could say that the specific goal of the activity is for children to describe the weather
and recognise the implications of this for playtime. The evidence that they can do this successfully with the teacher’s
help lies in their increasingly confident responses over a series of lessons. The evidence of the children reaching
a new level of independence and competence would be seen in the transfer and use of the same language to
a new context, such as a story or game. It could also be seen, for example, in an exchange with the teacher in the
playground, as has happened to me, when a child rushes up and declares with a huge grin It’s sunny!, thus
demonstrating a new level of independence and choice in the language they use.

The nature and quality of interaction

In the weather example cited above, there are at least two instances of the kind of interactional exchange which
has been said to account for over 70% of classroom discourse (van Lier, 1996) and which arguably tends to restrict
and close down communication rather than promote it. This is the Initiation, Response, Feedback (IRF) model
as seen in the exchange above e.g. T: Is it raining? Ss: No! T: No, it isn’t raining. Very good. The drawbacks
of such a model frequently cited include the fact that communication in the real world does not happen like this,
there is a demand on the learners to display what they know, every response is a test which is immediately
evaluated by the teacher for its correctness, rather than responded to for its meaning, the third turn by the teacher
giving feedback closes down the possibility for further communication, it does not represent the joint construction
of discourse, the teacher dominates and the learners have limited opportunities to practise using the language
themselves (cf the ‘two-thirds’ rule Edwards and Mercer, 1994) and the transfer of competence or independence to
the learner is inhibited. In contrast to these considerable drawbacks, potential benefits cited are that IRF exchanges
can enable the teacher to structure the interaction in order to lead the children’s thinking and language output in
a certain direction (van Lier, 1996, Gibbons, 2002), the children know immediately if they have answered correctly,
it enables the teacher to maintain control of the class (although this is cited as a negative as well as a positive
feature cf Edwards and Mercer, 1994) and, if it is used well, can extend learners’ output , prompting them to think
critically and give evidence for or justify their answers.

As van Lier (1996) has pointed out, IRF can only be beneficial in developing interactive oral proficiency if it is used
as a way of scaffolding interaction which leads to ‘handover’ and increased independence. He identifies two broad
orientations of IRF which are display / assessment, on the one hand, and participation on the other. In the context
of working with children, it is this latter purpose and orientation of IRF which may turn out to play a crucial scaffolding
role in the foreign language classroom with young children. It ‘reduces the freedom’ (cf Bruner op cit) and thus the
difficulty of turn-taking with another person in a foreign language. It creates confidence and encourages
engagement and participation through making responses achievable (often also within a predictable format).
In addition to this, the feedback in the third turn allows for instantly positive affirmation and praise from the teacher
which is vital in building up positive self-esteem and creating an appropriate affective atmosphere. As readers with
experience of very young children outside the context of the classroom will know, and as van Lier (1996) also points
out, the IRF format is also not so distant from interchanges which children will have experienced in real life.
For example, an adult and child reading the storybook ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?’ (Martin 1992)
and looking at the last page together, the following kind of exchange, enacted as a kind of game, is easily
conceivable:

Adult: Where’s the green frog?

Child points to frog (possibly with adult guiding the child’s index finger over the animals until it lands on the
frog).

37
 Adult: Yes! Here he is! Very good! And where’s the blue horse?
Child points again.
Adult: Yes! Here he is! Very good! etc..

It seems, therefore, that in the context of young children learning a foreign language, IRF-type exchanges, if used
judiciously as a strategic bridging device, may play an important scaffolding role in developing children’s oral
proficiency, leading over time to greater independence and more contingent types of discourse. Another area which
may play an important role in scaffolding children’s learning in a foreign language is the use of L1.

The role of L1 in scaffolding

As has often been pointed out (e.g. Halliwell 1992), young children bring with them to the classroom a range
of knowledge, skills, experience and language which serve as a springboard into further learning. As part of the
process of scaffolding, teachers need to make a link between the familiar and the new, and in the case of foreign
language learning, a link between the language, which is the shared, habitual mode of communication among the
children, and the language that is to be learnt. This process of scaffolding from the children’s first or second
language (depending on the composition of the class) to a foreign language in a formal classroom context is one
which may also promote independent language use. It is, however, also recognised that the strategy of scaffolding
from the first or second language to the foreign language is not one that will necessarily be available to every
teacher since it does depend on the teacher also understanding the children’s language.

The extract below is taken from a storytelling session to the same group of four-yearold beginners as in the weather
example above. In the previous lesson, the children were introduced to the main character of the story (a gorilla).
They acted out a chant about the gorilla, talked about the gorilla’s size and colour and completed and coloured
a picture of the gorilla. In this extract, they are listening to the first part of the story (Read & Soberón, 2002) for the
first time:

(Note: In this example, the text of the story is underlined and a translation of the children’s interventions in Polish
is given in brackets)

T: Are you ready everyone? Listen, look and ssh!... Adri, Oscar, Naomi ... and then I’ll begin. One day a big
gorilla comes to the house ...
S1: (laughter) Popatrz, goryl!
S2: Ale fajny!
S3: Jaki duży!
S4: Jest taaaki duży... (showing how big the gorilla is)
T: Yes, you’re right! Very good. The gorilla’s big and he’s got a big ... (pauses, points to gorilla’s tummy) t... t...
t... Do you remember ‘Big gorilla, big ....?’ (points to own tummy and mimes ‘big’)
S1: Tak.
T: Tell me then... Big...
T, Ss: ... gorilla!
T: Big ..
T, Ss: ... tummy!
Ss: Yeah!
T: Yeah! (laughs) Very good! Stay back now... Adri, Antonio. Look, Jeni can’t see. Cross your legs ... like David.
Very good. That’s it. Ssh. Listen now. The gorilla’s big and he’s got a big tummy! (points to the pictures)

38
 S1: (with hand up) Ja byłam w zoo z tatusiem i widziałam bardzo, bardzo dużego goryla!
T: Yes?! You saw a big gorilla in the zoo with your Daddy! How lovely!
S2: Ja tez widziałem goryla!
S3: Ja też!
T: Yes?! You’ve seen a big gorilla too! That’s great! Now ssh ... stay back Adri so everyone can see... that’s it,
good ... and let’s listen to the story about the gorilla. One day a big gorilla comes to the house. Hello Children.
(deep voice, points to the gorilla). Hello gorilla (points to the children in the story). Can you say hello to the
gorilla? (shows the book round).
S1: Hello gorilla
T: Very good.
S2: Hello gorilla
T: Lovely.
S3: Hello gorilla
T: Great.
S4: Cześć goryl!
S4: Cześć grubasie! (general laughter)
T: (points to the children in the book again) Hello gorilla. Is the gorilla happy? (points to the gorilla’s smile and
mimes)
Ss: Tak.
T: Yes. Say ‘yes’.
Ss: Yes.
T: Very good. Are the children happy? (points to the children)
Ss: Yes.
T: Very good. Listen now (in deep gorilla voice) ‘Mmm...Delicious food! (points to the pictures) I’m hungry!
(mimes). I’m hungry! (repeats the mime).
S1: Goryl chce jeść!
S2: Jest głodny!
T: Yes, very good. The gorilla’s hungry... hungry. So what happens now, do you think? (gesture and pause)
Co sie teraz stanie?
S1: Wszystko, wszystko, wszystko zje! O tak... (pretends to eat)
T: Yes, maybe ...
S1: Zje wszystkie dzieci...
T: Oh, no. No, I don’t think so. He’s a nice gorilla (smiles and pretends to stroke the gorilla). Let’s listen and find
out... Ssh, now... let’s listen and look (turns over the page and continues telling the story).

As can be seen in this extract, the use of the children’s first or second language (in this case, Polish) plays a number
of contributory roles. The children use Polish to:

• respond in personal, divergent ways to the story

• relate the content of the story to their own personal experience
• express their sense of humour
• show they understand what’s happening in the story
• predict what’s going to happen in the story
• use their imagination to hypothesise and go beyond the story.

39
The teacher, who understands and shares the children’s first language

• accepts their interventions as an integral part of the session (i.e. she does not insist on English
only)
• responds to the children’s meaning
• repeats, re-casts or expands their contributions
• uses their contributions to check and confirm that comprehension is taking place
• gives a lot of positive feedback and praise.

The teacher uses Polish herself once to ask a question. She accompanies asking the question in English with
a look of puzzlement and a gesture of holding out her arms. As she repeats the question in Polish, she reduces her
voice to a stage whisper (something which cannot be conveyed in the tapescript), so that it comes across almost
as a verbal aside or in parenthesis, in contrast to the main language of the lesson. This combining of asking the
question with an exaggerated gesture, and the Polish aside, is an example of scaffolding the children’s initial
understanding of the question. This local scaffolding can then be dismantled in the future as appropriate, when the
same question is used again for different stories, first by dropping the Polish aside and then the accompanying
gesture.

At the global level, the aim of the story telling is that over a series of lessons, possibly as many as eight or ten,
the children will come back to the story three or four times, and that, during this time, their initial receptive
understanding of the story will be scaffolded in order to enable them to act out and join in re-telling the story,
and to personalise and transfer some of the key language to the context of their own lives and world. At the activity
level, every time the children come back to the story, they participate in different ways which draw them into (re-)
engaging with the story and increasingly using the language it contains, in this case through the use of, for example,
picture cards, stick puppets and gorilla headbands.

At the local, interactional level, the nature and extent of the scaffolding changes each time the children come back
to the story. The use of L1 and IRF exchanges, which are an integral part of the initial storytelling event in the extract
above, are no longer needed as scaffolding to the same extent in second or subsequent tellings, and other
techniques, such as the use of more open questions and different interactional patterns, which encourage children
to join in telling the story, interpret the story and relate it to their own lives, come into play instead. Children’s use
of their first (or second) language in the initial story telling event provides an important scaffold from the familiar
to the new. It allows the children to express individual personal responses, relate the story to their own lives, enjoy
humour, predict, guess and imagine, in a way that would not be available to them if they used English alone and,
together with the teacher, they jointly construct their understanding of what the story is about. The scaffolding
in subsequent lessons evolves and moves on, guiding the children through their individual ZPDs, to internalising
more of the language and using it in a more independent way. The shared knowledge, understanding
and ‘intersubjectivity’ initially facilitated by the role of L1 in the storytelling leads the children to new learning.

Implications and the way forward

The discussion above uses the related concepts of the ZPD and scaffolding to begin to explore how these might
provide a framework for developing procedures and strategies for improving children’s oral proficiency in a foreign
language from a young age and over the long term. There are two main implications for current practice and for
future research which arise from this:

40
 1. On teacher education courses, it is vital to raise teachers’ awareness of the potential impact
on learning of discourse strategies they use with children at different ages and stages of learning. The
related concepts of the ZPD and scaffolding provide an invaluable theoretical framework which can
help teachers to situate and understand their professional role in children’s learning and enhance their
practice. Although the area of teacher support for children is addressed in helpful detail in a number
of methodology books for young learner teachers (e.g Brewster et al (2002), Cameron (2001), Moon
(2000), Slattery & Willis (2001), it is suggested here that explicitly surfacing and discussing the two
related concepts of the ZPD and scaffolding, and their application to everyday practice, on pre- or
early in-service teacher education courses, may have a significant impact, firstly in improving teachers’
practical classroom skills in developing children’s oral proficiency, and in particular their interactional
skills, with greater efficacy during the primary years and, secondly, in enhancing teachers’ own self-
awareness and professional development over the long term.
2. As mentioned earlier, the concept of scaffolding is difficult to pin down when it is applied to a learning
context which is different from the one in which it was originally developed. As the examples given
earlier suggest, there is a need for further research into what consititutes effective scaffolding
for young children learning English as a foreign language and how this evolves as they get older and
become more proficient in the language. An example of one way forward would be to take the original
six features of effective scaffolding identified by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) outlined earlier
and to see whether and in what ways they may be applied in the context of learning a foreign language
(see e.g. Simon Smith’s (2003) account of a training session using video on this). A second way would
be to hypothesise additional features, such as those that have been suggested here, e.g. building
on children’s knowledge of their first language and/or using closed discourse exchanges, such as IRF,
to lead to more contingent classroom talk, and test out the evidence and impact of these in a range
of different classrooms with different age groups and levels of proficiency.

Although the scope of this paper has necessarily been limited, it is recognised that scaffolding in children’s foreign
language learning takes place not just at the level of choice of discourse techniques and strategies by the teacher
working with the whole class towards particular learning goals. It is also an intrinsic part of the whole way in which
tasks are planned, designed, set up and organised (Maybin, Mercer and Stierer, 1992) as well as the ways in which
these build on previous learning experiences and are related to purposes and learning goals (Ellis, 2004,
this volume). Similarly, it is recognised, although also beyond the scope of this paper, that scaffolding may be
provided not just by the teacher but also by peers, who may be more, less or equally capable (see e.g. van Lier
(1996), Donato (1998), Gibbon (2002)), and that these are also all areas that would also benefit from further
research and investigation in the context of children learning a foreign language.

In conclusion, the related concepts of the ZPD and scaffolding provide teachers of foreign languages to children
with a framework for understanding important processes in children’s learning, enhancing their self-awareness
and professional development and improving their everday classroom practice and the quality of children’s learning
over the short, medium and long term. As van Lier says ‘Even though it does not show up in lesson plans
or syllabuses, …local or interactional scaffolding may well be the driving force behind good pedagogy, the hallmark
of a good teacher.’ (van Lier 1996, p.199). If this is the case, then we cannot afford not to either undertake further
research to establish what this might involve in teaching foreign languages to children, or include it as a key
component on the teacher education courses that are offered.

41
References

1. Brewster J & Ellis G with Girard D (2002) The Primary English Teacher’s Guide (New edition) London: Penguin
2. Bruner J S (1978) The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In The Child’s Conception of Language
3. Sinclair A, Jarvella R & Levelt W J M (eds) New
4. York: Springer-Verlag
5. Bruner J S (1983) Child’s Talk: Learning to use Language Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. Bruner J S (1986) Actual Minds, Possible Worlds Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press
7. Bruner J S (1990) Acts of Meaning Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press
8. Cameron L (2001) Teaching Languages to Young Learners Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. Cameron L (2004) ref to paper in the same volume to be added
10. Donato R (1994) Collective scaffolding in second language learning. In Vygotskyan Approaches to Second Language
Research Lantolf J P & Appel G. (eds)
11. Norwood NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation
12. Edwards D & Mercer N (1994) Communication and control. In Language, Literacy and
13. Learning in Educational Practice Ed. Stierer B & Maybin J (eds) Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
14. Ellis G (2004) Ref to paper in the same volume to be added
15. Ellis R The Study of Second Language Acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. Gibbons P (2002) Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning Portsmouth NH: Heinemann
17. Halliday M. (1975) Learning How to Mean London: Arnold
18. Halliwell S (1992) Teaching English in the Primary Classroom London: Longman
19. Lee V (1999) (ed) Children’s Learning in School London: Hodder & Stoughton
20. Light P, Sheldon S, Woodhead M (1995) (eds) Learning to Think London: Routledge
21. Martin B Jr (1992) Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? London: Harper Collins
22. Maybin J, Mercer N & Stierer B (1992) ‘Scaffolding’ learning in the classroom. In Norman K (ed) Thinking Voices: The Work
of the National Curriculum Project
23. London: Hodder & Stoughton
24. Meadows S (1993) The Child as Thinker London: Routledge
25. Mercer N (1994) Neo-Vygotskyan theory and classroom education. In Language,
26. Literacy and Learning in Educational Practice Ed. Stierer B & Maybin J Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
27. Moon J (2000) Children learning English Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann
28. Moon J (2004) Ref to paper in the same volume to be added.
29. Read C & Soberón A (2002) Hello Robby Rabbit 1 Oxford: Macmillan Education
30. Slattery M & Willis J (2001) English for Primary Teachers Oxford: Oxford University Press
31. Smith P K, Cowie H & Blades M Understanding Children’s Development (1998) (Third edition) Oxford: Blackwell
32. Smith S (2003) Using video to look at Scaffolding. CATS (Children and Teenagers), IATEFL YL SIG Newsletter, 2/03:4-6
33. van Lier L (1996) Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, Autonomy & Authenticity Harlow: Longman
34. Vygotsky L (1962) Thought and Language New York: Wiley
35. Vygotsky L (1978) Mind in Society Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press
36. Wood D (1998) (Second edition) How Children Think and Learn Oxford: Blackwell
37. Wood D, Bruner J & Ross G (1976) The role of tutoring in problem-solving. Journal of
38. Child Psychology and Psychiatry 17/2: 89-100

42
 IV. OTHER TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES

Above, we put Carol Read’s article on scaffolding. We strongly believe that when working with children, scaffolding
is one of the most important techniques. It should be used as often as possible, until it becomes a habit. However,
there are many other techniques that we believe are essential for classroom use with young children. They are
described below, and they all lead to activating students. Remember to let your students take over as soon as they
are ready.

One important technique to be used from the very start is drilling. A drill is a classroom technique used to practise
new language. It involves the teacher modeling a word or a sentence and the learners repeating, answering
or manipulating it. It is a controlled and teacher-centred technique, but it leads to quick L2 production. Drills are best
implemented in the early stages of a lesson; as target language is presented or to provide controlled practice.

However, you should remember that despite their usefulness as a technique drills do not always equal
comprehension. Sometimes they may lead to mechanical production without real understanding of the meaning.
If you provide a context for your drills and personalize them, you are much more likely to practise meaningful drills.
Then, they will not bore your students to death.

Below we enumerated a few types of drills to be used with young students and tips on how to personalize them:

1. Choral Drills - also known as listen and repeat, are mainly used for modeling target language.
The teacher says a word/sentence/phrase and students try to repeat it word by word with correct
pronunciation. The goal is accuracy. However, a lot of listen-and-repeat can become very boring
and demotivating, especially when using longer sentences. Try to divide sentences into smaller fragments
and use funny voices, e.g.:

T: Mummy
Ss: Mummy
T: Mummy and Daddy
Ss: Mummy and Daddy
T: Mummy and Daddy like
Ss: Mummy and Daddy like
T: Mummy and Daddy like tomatoes.
Ss: Mummy and Daddy like tomatoes.
T: and now we are very happy: Mummy and Daddy like tomatoes. (with a broad smile).
Ss: Mummy and Daddy like tomatoes. (with a broad smile and some giggles).

TIP: Before practising this drill ask your students what their parents like eating. Make sure they understand
what you are talking about. Let them speak freely (even in L1) and enumerate all food that comes to their
minds. Use an example that appears most often (e.g. when most students say that their parents like ice
cream, do not practise a drill with ‘tomatoes’).

To add humour, you can introduce some abstract silly notions, e.g. “Frogs like pink cucumbers.” If children
understand the humour, they will get passionate about the activity.

43
 2. Interactive Drills use target language to ask questions with predictable answers limited by the number
of possible responses. A typical interactive drill might be as follows:

T: Asia, do you like apples?

S: Yes, I do. Do you like apples?
T: Yes, I do.

Students can also drill each other with the teacher moderating using this method, e.g.:

T: Asia, do you like apples?

S1: Yes, I do.
T: Ask Marek.
S1: Do you like apples?
S2: Yes, I do.

TIP: Before practicing this kind of drill tell your students what you will talk about. You may e.g. tell your
group to recall what they have been eating that day. What was delicious and what was not. Use L1 or L2
with more advanced groups. While drilling, confirm understanding by asking extra questions Do you
REALLY like fish? Yes? Is it yummy? (pat you stomach). Show real interest in students answers.

3. Flashcard Drills

Flashcards are mainly used for drilling vocabulary, though they can also be used for drilling sentences. They provide
a visual, rather than oral, prompt for students to respond. Often the cards are simply presented to the students and
they say what is on it. The cards are presented until the students can answer quickly and correctly. More creatively,
they can be used to make a game out of drilling (see THE GAME CORNER for many useful flashcard games).

The best way to practise drills is with our FLYING CARPET (Interactive Set) – see TYPES OF ACTIVITIES
AND GENERAL FRAMEWORKS CHAPTER. However, we would like to see the teacher slowly go from pure drilling
and repetition into a conversation, where students can take over asking questions. A perfect drill should end up with
students’ asking and answering about their real life interests. Tips on how to carry this transition out are also placed
in the TYPES OF ACTIVITIES AND GENERAL FRAMEWORKS CHAPTER.

More techniques that help students to take over are: prompting and elicitation. Prompting is presenting a stimulus
to assist the child in producing the targeted response. Prompts are like crutches – they are a kind of artificial
support. There are different varieties of prompts: verbal prompting is the providing of a verbal instruction, or model.
Physical prompting involves actually touching the child. It may mean just touching a hand or shoulder to get the
child started on the behaviour. Gestural prompting includes pointing to, looking at, moving, or touching an item or
area to indicate a correct response. Prompting may help in games and storytelling, in singing and also in all attempts
of L2 communication. It should be faded slowly when you see your students can manage without it.

Elicitation is a technique by which the teacher gets the learners to give information rather than giving it to them.
It makes learning memorable as students can link new and old information. It can help to produce a stimulating
environment. You can use this technique to activate your students, too. When you tell a story with your students

44
you should resort to this technique: ask questions that will lead students to answers, to retelling the story,
to confirming understanding. They will feel it is their story and that they have discovered it.

You will find examples of prompting and elicitation in the frameworks (of all kinds of activities) placed in the
TEACHER’S FILE.

Pair work and group work are also very important. This is where the “taking over” really starts. We described the
ways of introducing them along with practical examples of the course activities in the CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER. Before you manage to exercise pair work and group work though, you should also try small steps such
as limiting visual help. When you sing a song or tell a story with your students first support them, help and
encourage with gestures, mime, flashcards and pointing to things. It will make them feel safe and help them
to understand what is expected and what they should do. It allows children to comprehend the texts or commands
better. For example, when you sing a song about body parts you should point to or move the body parts that appear
in the lyrics. After some time though, you should try to limit your assistance so that your students are forced to
understand spoken English.

The same should happen with the spoken help. When you are playing a game, first help students with saying
the sentences required e.g. while playing the police officer game first tell your students to repeat sentence “Police
officer, can I cross the street?” after you. Than say just the beginning: “Police officer….” After some time say nothing
and let them try to do it on their own. It may be imperfect but it is theirs.

Young students tend to quickly sing or speak along with a recorded song or story. It is a good idea to stop the CD
while playing a piece and make children finish the utterance. This will motivate them to say a word, a phrase,
or even a sentence which comes next in the recording.

You will find advice on limiting the visual and spoken help in the frameworks (of all kinds of activities), placed
in TEACHER’S FILE.

Lessons with young children are teacher-centered on principle. However your goal should be to rebalance that
proportion as much as you can and switch more and more talk to your students. It cannot be 95% teacher-talk
and just some drilled words or utterances spoken by the children, which unfortunately very often happens in young
children’s classroom. Remember to evaluate your lessons taking your speech into consideration:

How much did I talk?

Did I allow my students to talk?
Did I give them a chance to express their ideas?

Even if it is L1 at first, then L1 and L2 mixture, still it is very valuable and important. By using all the above described
techniques you should one day reach the desired point of 50% teacher-talk and 50% student-talk.

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 V. WHY WE LIKE deDOMO?

Engaging parents in our courses is necessary for the full success of our students. Since the amount of exposure
to English is one of the major factors influencing a child’s linguistic success, the assistance of parents is of great
value (see: the Course Manual, p.94). As the authors of Teddy Eddie we believe that:

• The amount of continued exposure to English is one of the most important factors influencing success
in learning.
• Parents of pre-school children can contribute highly to the success of their children's learning of English.
• The most effective combination of English teaching materials and methods includes; a large number
of texts using natural language, vocabulary taught in context and a balance between structured learning,
for example via drilling structures, and prompted yet natural communication.
• The most valuable input children get and output they produce is the instrumental language
and communication that is used between the tasks.

We share some of these views with dr Grzegorz Śpiewak, who has created deDOMO - a method of teaching
and practicing English at home designed for parents and their children. deDOMO takes the form of an educational
game making use of everyday situations called “domestic occasions” (“okazje domowe”) which prompt for real life
communication in English. The philosophy of the method is explained by the author himself in the article below.

Teddy Eddie and deDOMO are two educational concepts that when combined and supporting each other can give
a child learning English in a non-English speaking country a chance of genuine immersion in the target language.
We want to exploit every opportunity to enhance the English of our students and make it a medium of authentic
communication as early as possible. With the help of deDOMO this looks even more achievable.

Angielski udomowiony!
[source: http://www.swierszczyk.pl/dla-rodzicow/nauka-jezykow/]

Czy próbowali państwo dowiedzieć się kiedyś od dziecka, co było w przedszkolu lub w szkole
na angielskim? I pewnie usłyszeli państwo „nic” albo „nie pamiętam”. Frustrujące, prawda? Nawet
dla kogoś, kto tak jak ja jest ambitnym tatą i jednocześnie anglistą, więc wie , że przecież coś
dobrego dzieje się na lekcjach ,a dziecko oswajane jest tam z językiem obcym na przyszłość.

A właśnie: na przyszłość, ale ja chciałbym, żeby moje dziecko już teraz pokazało, że nauka
w ogóle ma sens, na przykład mówiąc przy stole: Can I have some juice? albo Can I watch
Sponge Bob at 7?, zanim pozwolę mu włączyć ulubioną kreskówkę. Mówiąc wprost, chciałbym,
by moje dziecko pokazało mi, że jest w stanie coś powiedzieć w języku obcym przy tej czy innej
okazji.

Codzienne domowe życie jest pełne takich właśnie okazji, o ile zechcemy je dostrzec
i wykorzystać do wspólnej z dziećmi zabawy w język obcy. Każdego dnia pomagamy dziecku
myć się i ubierać, podajemy mu śniadanie, organizujemy popołudniowe zabawy, przytulamy się
na dobranoc. Te sytuacje to idealny kontekst językowy, z którego już raz skorzystaliśmy, jako
rodzice, ucząc nasze pociechy języka ojczystego. Dlaczego tego nie wykorzystać po raz drugi?

46
Ale, ale – zaprotestuje w tym miejscu uważna mama, czy spostrzegawczy tata – przecież w tych
okazjach dziecko mówi do nas, polskich rodziców po polsku. Po co miałoby się nagle zacząć
wysilać po angielsku (czy w innym języku obcym) ?!

I to jest klucz do całej zagadki, a zarazem odpowiedź na wcześniejsze pytanie o to, dlaczego
dziecko tak mało pamięta z lekcji poza domem. Nie pamięta, bo nie ma powodu! A czy mama
i tata mogą dać dziecku jakiś powód, by pamiętało i by próbowało w domu powiedzieć coś
po angielsku? Mają! Okazji dostarcza domowe życie, szczególnie te sytuacje, gdy dziecko czegoś
od nas chce, a my nie mamy ochoty mu tego dać – na przykład kolejnej porcji deseru. Albo nie
tyle, ile by chciało – na przykład dodatkowych 30 minut gry na komputerze. Albo nie wtedy, kiedy
by chciało – na przykład kolejnej zabawy klockami, gdy tata akurat chciałby spokojnie poczytać
gazetę.

A zatem może wprowadźmy domową zasadę obopólnej korzyści, którą nazwiemy roboczo
„Mówisz i masz!” Oczywiście mówisz po angielsku , lub w innym dowolnie wybranym przez
mamę lub tatę, języku obcym. A wtedy zwiększasz sobie bardzo szansę na to, że uszczęśliwiona
z tego powodu mama czy dumny tata zgodzi się na to, o co prosisz. Mały wysiłek
i natychmiastowy pozytywny skutek. Także dla mamy i taty, którzy zaczynają wreszcie słyszeć
od dziecka pierwsze sensowne wypowiedzi w języku obcym.

A jeśli dziecko zwyczajnie nie wie, jak poprosić po angielsku o 30 minut gry na komputerze?
Odpowiadamy: jeśli nie wie jak, ale chce poprosić, bo liczy na nagrodę, czyli zgodę, to mama
i tata mają właśnie okazję, by czegoś dziecko nauczyć! Może mały przykład?

Dziecko: czy mogę pograć na komputerze?

Ma/Ta: A jak to powiesz po angielsku?
Dziecko: nie wiem
Ma/Ta: Can I play on the computer?
Dziecko: jak?!
Ma/Ta: [wolniej] Can I play – on the computer? Możesz powtórzyć?
Dziecko: Can I play... jak dalej?
Ma/Ta: ... on the computer.
Dziecko: Can I play on the computer?
Ma/Ta: Yes you can! Go ahead, honey!

Jak widać, taka okazja to nie lekcja. Nie trzeba jej planować, nie trzeba się na nią umawiać
ani dyscyplinować siebie i dziecka, by o niej nie zapomnieć. „Okazja” to autentyczna, domowa
sytuacja komunikacyjna, najlepiej inicjowana przez samo dziecko, które po raz kolejny od nas
czegoś potrzebuje. Okazja trwa bardzo krótko, na ogół nie dłużej niż 1 – 2 minuty. Za to powtarza
się bardzo często.

Fakt, że te domowe okazje powtarzają się z dużą częstotliwością, na ogół codziennie, to wielka
zaleta z punktu widzenia ich skuteczności w tworzeniu odruchów w języku obcym. Okazja czyni
mistrza! I to nie tylko z dziecka, ale z mamy i taty także. Oni też przecież mogą ćwiczyć domowe
reakcje językowe znacznie częściej, niż na jakimkolwiek kursie. Stopniowo język obcy staje się
w ten sposób mniej obcy, bardziej przyjazny, „udomowiony”.

47
Czy, korzystając z takich okazji, jesteśmy w stanie udomowić cały język obcy? Raczej nie,
podobnie jak nie byliśmy w stanie kilka lat wcześniej nauczyć dziecko całego języka ojczystego.
To udamawianie dotyczy tylko tej części języka, jaką posługujemy się w codziennych domowych
sytuacjach. Uczymy tylko tych nazw kolorów, w które dziecko lubi się ubierać . Oswajamy
to słownictwo dotyczące jedzenia, które na pewno przyda się naszym dzieciom, kiedy będą
chciały o coś poprosić. Nie pora tu ani miejsce na pełną prezentację lingwistyczną, ale chyba
można przewidzieć, że najłatwiej „udamawiać” się będą pewne typy struktur gramatycznych
np. pytania w pierwszej i drugiej osobie czy tryb rozkazujący. Będzie mnóstwo okazji, żeby
przećwiczyć czas teraźniejszy i przeszły. A wtedy , kiedy będziemy umawiać się na wspólne
wyjścia czy zabawę „udomowimy” czas przyszły.. Taka wspólna domowa zabawa językowa
utrwali w głowach naszych dzieci ok. kilkuset obcych słówek.

Oczywiście nie od razu. Oprócz zasady „mówisz i masz” bardzo istotna jest też druga: „krok po
kroku”. Jak pokazuje przykład z prośbą o czas na komputerze, przy jednej okazji rzadko uda nam
się oswoić więcej niż jedną wypowiedź w języku obcym. Nie próbujemy też tzw. „pełnego
zanurzenia”, czyli nie mówimy do dziecka wyłącznie w języku obcym, bo zamiast efektu
zanurzenia, spowodujemy zatonięcie i „ciszę na morzu”, a mówiąc poważnie, sposób
na zablokowanie siebie i dziecka. Pożądane tempo wprowadzania kolejnych zwrotów podpowie
rodzicielska intuicja. Rodzice najlepiej wiedzą, kiedy dziecko jest już gotowe na nową porcję
języka.

Najważniejsze jest to, że okazji jest mnóstwo, powtarzają się wciąż, a dziecko zaczyna mówić
praktycznie od zaraz, gdyż widzi w tym sens i cel. A przewodnikami w tej przygodzie z oswajaniem
języka obcego są dla dziecka, jak zwykle, mama i tata. Bo wszystko, co w życiu najlepsze,
zaczyna się w domu.

Czytaj więcej w serwisie www.angielskidlarodzicow.pl i na blogu http://dedomo.wordpress.com

O autorze:

Dr Grzegorz Śpiewak, współtwórca projektu „Angielski dla rodziców deDOMO”, wieloletni

wykładowca w Instytucie Anglistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, obecnie związany
z nowojorską New School. Członek komitetu honorowego IATEFL PL – Międzynarodowego
Stowarzyszenia Nauczycieli Języka Angielskiego w Polsce, prezes DOS-Teacher Traininng
Solutions, niezależnego centrum doskonalenia nauczycieli języków obcych, naczelny doradca ds.
metodyki nauczania wydawnictwa Macmillan Education.

48
 VI. TYPES OF ACTIVITIES AND GENERAL FRAMEWORKS (FOR THE RED,
BLUE AND YELLOW BOOK OF TEDDY EDDIE AND HIS SOCK)

1. ROUTINES

Small children like rituals. They hardly get bored with listening to the same elements or doing the same actions.
Reoccurance of familiar elements makes lessons predictable. Young students feel safe when they know what
comes next. This is the main reason why each Book of Teddy Eddie contains a set of rhymes called ‘Routines:’

• Hello Routine should be the first element of every lesson. It indicates the moment when students close
the door and focus on the teacher. This routine usually makes children sit down or stand in a line/group,
so that they are ready for the next element of the lesson.
• Bye Bye Routine is the last element of every lesson. When it is played, students recognize the lesson
is over and after saying that particular rhyme they will be allowed to leave the classroom.
• Secret Word Routine is used to introduce secret words at the lessons. It can be played at the beginning
or/and at the end. It can be also repeated a few times during the lesson. This routine always ends with the
repetition of a secret word.
• Be Quiet Routine is a short rhyme which is designed to calm students down. They must first learn to react
to the rhyme; to quiet down when they hear it. Later on, this routine may be used when needed.

The Routines encompass some basic classroom language and many simple expressions. They stay in children’s
memory for good as they are repeated at every lesson. Their major function though, is to set up lesson frames.
It is important that the routines are always performed in the same way and they must never be omitted. They will
work well and help you in planning and managing lessons.

You will find practical tips on how to introduce and perform each routine in the Teacher’s File.

2. UNIT STORIES

There are always five stories in each Book of Teddy Eddie and His Sock. They are funny, engaging and they present
language in context that is easy to understand. They are always supported by visual and audio aids. The stories
are vital in the lives of pre-school children, as they offer a major and constant source of language experience
(Cameron, 2001, Wright, 1995). They are motivating and rich in natural speech and above all students love them!
Our stories are meant to enhance acquisition. They teach in such a way as to understand natural language flow,
where new words and unknown chunks do not disturb the understanding. Some stories encompass elements
of drilling, which is a great stimulus for speaking. Young learners first simply repeat certain words and expressions.
Then they learn parts of the stories by heart. They end up using some phrases in adequate contexts in life. Stories
can be retold many times. The language item will then be repeated again and again, each time in a meaningful
context.
Below there is a general framework which helps in understanding the stages and steps of introducing
and practising a story. In the Teacher’s File you will find a detailed framework for every story. Specific instructions,
ideas and useful tips are included.

49
 STAGE DECRIPTION STEPS
It is the first time when you introduce the story and
make sure your Ss understand it. There is no harm
if you use L1 at this stage to confirm Ss’ thorough
understanding. Ss use L1 to retell the story in 1. FOCUS on the story
detail. More advanced Ss can put in some L2 2. listen and FOLLOW the pictures or watch
(encourage it but do not push). the story on the PLAYGROUND
A 3. What is it ABOUT?
When you read a story remember to do it vividly 4. TEACHER reads
with some mime and gesture. It will help especially 5. listen or watch and ACT
less advanced Ss at the beginning. At first Ss will
simply try to follow your actions in listen and follow
activity.

At this stage Ss will confirm whether or not they

can associate the appropriate sentences with the
pictures in their books or on flashcards. They also 4. TEACHER reads OR 5. listen and ACT
gradually learn the words and phrases in games 6. listen and put in ORDER
and frontchainings. Younger Ss may need some 7. listen and CHOOSE
B
help with all the steps. You may also skip or modify 8. FLASHCARDS / VOCAB games
some more challenging games requiring the use of 9. reading with GAPS
whole sentences. Less advanced Ss will probably
finish at this stage.

The last stage requires Ss to have quite a good

understanding of the story. The games will be
4. TEACHER reads OR 5. listen and ACT
more challenging and the gaps will gradually
8. FLASHCARDS / VOCAB games
require longer and longer utterances. Ss are able
9. reading with GAPS
to correct T when he or she says a false sentence.
10. story MANIPULATION
C They join in retelling the story and gradually do it
11. DRAMA 1
independently on the basis of visual aids. The
12. RETELLING
ultimate goal and perfect stage for more advanced
13. DRAMA 2
Ss (Level 3) is acting out the story without any
help.

3. STORIES FOR PLEASURE

There are two STORIES FOR PLEASURE in each Book of Teddy Eddie. They revise the vocabulary and structures
from all previous units. These stories are also meant to:

• practise listening and comprehension

• let students deal with natural language and thus increase the opportunity for natural language acquisition
• be pure fun and thus get students used to longer English recordings/texts

Dealing with these stories differs from working with the unit stories, the framework below is to refer to.

STAGES DECRIPTION
• revise the vocabulary used in the story
A • focus Ss
introduction • tell Ss what the story is about (do not reveal too much!), OR
• play the story with no introduction and ask Ss what they understood from
it (set up a pre-listening or pre-watching question/questions, then)

50
 B
listen, don’t look Now it is time to play the story, you can do it in three ways:
OR • Ss sit still or lie on the carpet, T plays the CD, there are no visual aids
listen and look • Ss listend to the CD and look in their books/look at the flashcards
OR • Ss watch the story on the PLAYGROUND
watch

C • Talk about the story with your Ss (L1 or/and L2), ask questions to confirm
what was it about? – understanding
comprehension • Make sure your ss understand what is it about and that they get the humour
questions in the story
• After that you can play the story again

This stage is optional at level 1 and 2. At level 3 it is advised to add the following
steps:
• T reads the story with gaps
D
• T reads the story and replaces some words (Ss correct the words)
(parts of stages B
• Ss retell the story
and C from the story
• Ss watch the story on the PLAYGROUND without volume and say
framework)
the dialogues
• Ss can perform the actions from the story along with CD
• Ss act out the story

4. SHOWTIME

Showtime is a type of activity that appears twice in each Book of Teddy Eddie. It is a typical representation of the
TPR (Total Physical Response) method. First T acts out the expressions (along with CD) so that students
understand their meaning without translating. Later on they follow teacher’s actions and start to associate spoken
sentences with certain actions. Movement is natural for young learners. Their concentration span is still very short
and such activities work very well. Showtime is always recorded in a rhythmical way, which makes students
interested and engaged. The actions are quite easy to demonstrate, which involves children even at an early stage.
The text may be repeated many times because it is a lot of fun and the children feel like they are playing. Students
gradually remember whole sentences, which is the ultimate goal of the activity.

Below there is a general framework helping to understand the stages and steps of introducing and practising
a Showtime. In the Teacher’s File you will find a detailed framework for every Showtime which contains specific
instructions, ideas and useful tips.

STAGE DECRIPTION STEPS

It is the first time when you introduce the
Showtime. Make sure your Ss understand it.
Sometimes it is useful to resort to some L1 to
1. SHOWTIME introduction
confirm Ss understanding. Remember to act out
A 2. listen and ACT
the actions vividly with some mime and gesture to
help especially less advanced Ss at the beginning.
Ss will simply imitate your gestures.

51
 At this stage Ss will confirm whether or not they
can associate the appropriate sentences with the 2. listen and ACT
correct gestures and pictures. Encourage 3. listen and FOLLOW the pictures
repetition, accept inaccurate phrases. Do not be 4. listen and CHOOSE
B
discouraged if some children are not ready to 5. REPEAT
speak yet – they will gradually learn the words and
phrases.

The last stage requires that the Ss have quite a

good understanding of the Showtime. Focus on
2. listen and ACT
practicing whole sentences. Ss start to say the
5. REPEAT
C sentences themselves on the basis of visual aids.
6. PAUSES for Ss to FINISH
Ultimately, Ss should be able to produce all
7. text MANIPULATION
sentences by describing the flashcards.

5. FLASHCARDS

Each course contains about 150 flashcards, which illustrate vocabulary from a particular Book of Teddy Eddie.
There are also story and Showtime flashcards. Some of the songs and rhymes have their own illustrations, too.
Vocabulary flashcards are useful while presenting new words as well as for practicing them. We insist on introducing
each set of flashcards in a similar way – according to the framework below. After the first few times, your students
will get used to that form of introducing new words and it will become one of your lesson routines. To discover
the full potential of the flashcards you should read THE GAME CORNER with more than 20 games.

FLASHCARDS PRESENTATION AND PRACTISE FRAMEWORK

NOTE: When Ss do not know the procedure yet, do not worry if you must take time to
STEP explain it – if you do it properly, next time will be easier and quicker. Do not give up even if
introducing the procedure takes a few attempts.

• Ss sit in a circle / line

FOCUS
• use “be quiet routine” to quiet Ss if necessary or use one of our FOCUS POCUS
ideas from this Course Manual

PART A • T presents flashcards or real objects while Ss listen to PART A on the CD

• Ss listen to PART A on the CD and point
listen and OPTION:
look/point • Ss open their books
• Ss look at the flashcards in their books, listen to PART A on the CD and point.
• Ss stand up
PART B • T displays the flashcards AROUND THE CLASSROOM – they should be some
distance apart (you may use some blue tac to stick the cards to the walls)
listen, find • Ss listen to PART B on the CD and point rhythmically to the right flashcard
and point • as Ss get confident, T introduces CHEATING GAME (description see THE GAME
CORNER).
(jumbled NOTE:
order) • It is more fun for Ss to turn and point to the right flashcard than to do it while sitting,
so make sure the flashcards are around classroom (not in a line)
• It is a suitable exercise for revision, especially with the CHEATING GAME

52
 • Ss look at the flashcards in their books. Ss listen to the CD and repeat.
PART C
or
listen and
• Ss close their eyes. Ss listen to the CD and repeat
repeat
NOTE: This is a good time for focusing on sounds and good pronunciation, so T should pay
particular attention to this part.
T shows the flashcards and says the words using different voices.
FUNNY
VOICES a) high / low
b) quickly / slowly
listen and c) loudly / quietly / whispering
repeat
Ss repeat in the same way

GAMES Flashcards game / Action game, see THE GAME CORNER.

NOTE: try to practise words in sentences more than in isolation

6. SONGS AND RHYMES

Children like the world of music and rhythm – they learn songs and rhymes in nursery school or at home.
They come across many songs on TV. Young students usually do not feel embarrassed or ashamed to sing, even
if they are not predisposed to do it. We try to use these facts and that is why there are so many songs and rhymes
in Teddy Eddie Books. They are a great source of language in context and they are always linked to the unit
content. When children encounter full phrases there is a good chance that they will remember the whole sentences
as they go along with the catchy melody and memorable rhythm. If you enrich the singing with gestures, you are
likely to make students love the songs and quickly remember them by heart. It is important though not to teach the
rhymes or songs in a way children do not understand it thoroughly. Meaning should be more than clear to students,
so that the kids learn more than a mixture of unknown sounds.

Each song and rhyme has a specific way of presentation and specific tips to be followed. They are all described
in the Teacher’s File. Below there is a general framework which will help you to understand the steps of introducing
songs or rhymes.

STEPS STAGE DESCRIPTION

When you introduce a song/rhyme for the first time, tell your Ss what it is about.
It is useful to resort to some L1 or just say a few words from the song that Ss
already know.
1. SONG/RHYME
INTRODUCTION e.g. Listen! (point to the CD player, or point to your ear) A song about robots!
Robots! Do you know robots? (pretend to be a robot) Now shhh…! Let’s listen!
(L2)

Play the song/rhyme and use gestures and mime to express the meaning.
2. MIME AND GESTURE
Play it again and encourage Ss to follow your actions.

While playing the song or rhyme stop the CD and explain more difficult chunks.
3. CONFIRMING
UNDERSTANDING
Confirm Ss’s full understanding by telling them and/or making them tell you what
the rhyme/song is about. Ss can resort to L1 when needed.

53
 Encourage Ss to sing the song along with the CD or to say the rhyme without the
CD. First you will have to help Ss a lot, later on they should be able to do it
themselves.
4.SINGING
Tip:
/SAYING ALONG
to encourage quiet Ss to sing more loudly – put your hand to your ear and pretend
you cannot hear. It works!

This works better with songs, but you can also try it with a rhyme.
5.PAUSING FOR
CHILDREN TO FINISH Play the CD and stop it from time to time, so that your Ss finish the line. There
are suggestions on where to pause particular songs in the Teacher’s File.

Scaffolding is described thourougly in this Course Manual, you cannot forget

about this techinque when dealing with songs/rhymes.
6.SCAFFOLDING TO
SING/SAY Scaffold your Ss when they say a rhyme/sing a song by pointing to the objects
they sing about or performing the actions with them. you can also whisper the
beginning of words they forgot.

Some songs and rhymes can be played like a game (you will find instructions in
7.(GAMES BASED ON
the Teacher’s File). This can be successful only when Ss know the pieces well.
RHYMES/SONGS)

7. EXERCISES

There are several types of exercises in every unit of Teddy Eddie Book. The basic types are:

1. Choose one of two or three. Circle.

• Ss listen to T and mark the right answer by circling it.
• If you have very young Ss, do the exercise orally first (Ss listen and point to the right answer)

2. Colour according to the instruction.

• Ss listen to T and colour the objects as is indicated.
• If Ss do not know the names of colours very well, pick an appropriate crayon or flashcard to help
Ss.

3. Match.
• Ss listen to T and match the pictures/numbers according to the instructions.

4. Draw the missing parts.

• Ss draw missing elements (body parts, faces, smiles, etc.). Sometimes the instructions may be
funny e.g. Draw two big noses.

5. Find in the picture and point/mark.

• Ss have to find the mentioned element in the picture. Ss point to it or mark it.

Each exercise is thoroughly described in the Teacher’s File. Below there is a general framework which outlines
3 versions of exercise presentation.

54
 EXERCISE FRAMEWORK

The exercises should be demonstrated in English, though with younger or beginning students there might be
a little use of L1, especially before Ss get used to this kind of activity. We suggest versions A and B for less
advanced Ss and A and C, or just C with more advanced/older Ss. Do not do all three versions with one group.

• Ss sit in a circle
FOCUS
• Use “Be Quiet routine” to quiet Ss if necessary or use one of our FOCUS POCUS
IDEAS from this Course Manual.
• Put only your book on the floor and show what is expected to be done in the
exercise – use gestures. Ss’ books remain closed – otherwise Ss might get
distracted.
VERSION A
• Perform the stages slowly – Ss may not focus on the words, but they will watch
only T does the your movements. Do not hurry.
exercise in his/her • Involve Ss in the process of completing the exercise. Let them help you and you
book help Ss: ask questions, confirm guesses and make sure everyone understands
what is going on.
• Take time showing the completed task – make sure that all Ss understand that
“it is ready”.
• Thank Ss for help and praise them for their engagement
• Prepare a copy of the exercise so that you can write on it and place it in front of
you. Ss’ books remain closed.
• Do the exercise slowly involving Ss in the process of completing it. Let them help
you and you help Ss: ask questions, confirm guesses and make sure everyone
understands what is going on. Ss’ books remain closed – otherwise Ss might get
distracted
• Take time showing the completed task – make sure that all Ss understand that
VERSION B “it is ready”.
• Only then give out the books to Ss. Call the appropriate colour and picture so that
T does the Ss can find the right page. Ss should lay the book open on the floor in front
exercise first, of them.
Ss follow • Close your book or hide a copy with the completed exercise. In case of difficulty
T can show them his/her copy again.
• Ss do the exercise with T’s supervision and support. Ss call out: Ready!
• Evaluate the activity and give feedback praising children for their work, e.g. Oh,
everybody’s ready! Show me. Very good! Yes, that is right. I like it very much! And
look, Eddie likes it – he is smiling.
• Reward Ss (you may place a stamp/sticker or simply draw a flower/smiley next to
the completed exercise). You will find more ideas on how to reward Ss in this
Course Manual.
• Give out the books to Ss. Call the appropriate colour and picture so that Ss can
find the right page. Ss should lay the book open on the floor in front of them. Give
Ss necessary instructions and help them with completing the exercise.
or (with a very lively group of Ss):
VERSION C • Give Ss the necessary instructions first and help them with completing the
exercise: ask questions, confirm guesses and make sure everyone understands
T gives
what is going on. Ss’ books remain closed. Ss see the exercise only in your book
instructions, Ss do
– otherwise they might get distracted.
the exercise
• Take time showing the completed task – make sure that all Ss understand that “it
is ready”. Ss call out: Ready!
• Evaluate the activity and give feedback praising children for their work, e.g. Oh,
everybody’s ready! Show me. Very good! Yes, that is right. I like it very much! And
look, Eddie likes it – he is smiling.
• Reward Ss (you may place a stamp or sticker next to the completed exercise).

55
 8. EARS UP!

There is always one exercise called EARS UP! in each unit. It is a listening comprehension task, composed
of phrases and vocabulary from a particular unit, as well as revised elements from previous units. There are
no visual aids for this task. It is challenging, yet very beneficial for children. They learn to listen, understand
and possibly enjoy spoken texts. This exercise also confirms whether students mastered a certain unit.

Frameworks with comprehension questions to this exercise are placed in the Teacher’s File. Below you will find the
general framework and tips for the EARS UP! exercise.

EARS UP! FRAMEWORK

It is going to take time to get children do it right. Do not worry and do not quit the exercise – it is really worth the
effort. If you try hard, it will get easier with time and your Ss will get to the higher communicative level and enjoy
it very much.
T should not help children to understand until it is necessary.

• Very often you will mix L1 and English while working on the exercise, which is a
benefit here: at first L1 is dominant, but as Ss learn and understand more, you can
and should switch into English as often as possible. Sometimes you might mix two
languages in one sentence.
• With less advanced groups T can explain the exercise entirely in L1, and rarely switch
USE OF L1/L2
to English. It will still be a profitable activity assuming children are able to comprehend
the natural flow of recorded foreign speech.
• With older/more advanced groups all the questions could be asked in English, but
make sure Ss really understand both the procedure and the recording.
• Usually accept answers in L1. Only if you are sure Ss are able to say the sentences
in English, then make them do so.
• Ss sit in a circle/a line
• Use “Be Quiet routine” to quiet Ss if necessary or use one of our FOCUS POCUS
FOCUS
IDEAS from this Course Manual.
• Tell Ss it is an important exercise and they’ll get a reward for completing it
• Do not start the exercise if Ss are not focused – it is crucial here
• When Ss are focused, ask a pre-listening question. Use L1 or L2 – depending on the
group’s level.
• It is extremely important to do it BEFORE listening - otherwise the exercice might not
work and the Ss get distracted and/or bored
• Play the recording.
• Elicit the answer to the pre-listening question.
NOTE: If you cannot do that, prompt them, talk about the topic (with less advanced groups
PROCEDURE even in L1). Ask the question again and play the recording again. You can use Teddy
Eddie to motivate Ss to listen: I’m sure Teddy Eddie will find stamps for you, if you
listen carefully! (L1)

• If Ss are still focused, ask them another question/questions (but 2-3 maximum!) and
if they cannot answer, play the recording again
NOTE:
• If Ss get bored or distracted, end the exercise, but come back to it later.
• Do the exercise more than once and each time try to ask different questions.

56
 9. GAMES

Playing games is a basic activity in a pre-school child’s life. It fulfills children’s need to be active, provides different
experiences as well as joy and fun. Games play a major role in children’s development stimulating their cognitive
and social skills. Children learn through playing: games motivate and develop creativity. Games are an important
part of our method because we believe that they are a great opportunity to teach a foreign language. They can be
used to introduce, practise and revise vocabulary and structures and, above all, they are always fun for young
learners.

REMEMBER! DO NOT USE GAMES TO TEACH ENGLISH –

INSTEAD USE ENGLISH TO PLAY GAMES.

Our games:

• teach English – they always provide foreign language input (from vocabulary and phrases to sentences and
simple dialogues)
• teach rules and classroom behavior – to play a game students must learn to stand in a line, open their
books to a certain page, ask for something in English
• introduce group work and pair work (with more advanced students)
• develop social skills – children need to interact with teacher and other students
• teach to focus – students need to concentrate to learn the rules and they are really motivated to do so when
a game is at stake
• are simple to explain and play, as they rely on pre-school children’s abilities
• end up with a general feeling of achievement (there is no “winner” as pre-school children do not compete;
actually, everybody is a winner)
• enhance students’ memory

Below there is a description of all kinds of games that you will come across in the Books of Teddy Eddie.

THE GAME CORNER

It is a special part of this Course Manual which contains a selection of 20 vocabulary/sentence games, 5 action
games and 3 drill games. All are designed to practise and revise words, structures and sentences taught in the
course.

You can reach for one of the games:

• after the flashcard presentation

• at a certain stage of story manipulation (there are suggestions in every framework)
• whenever you need to practise or revise something
• when you have some spare time left during the lesson
• when something goes wrong and your students cannot or do not want to do the planned tasks
• when students cannot focus on less active material

NOTE! Read the whole GAME CORNER once you start teaching with Teddy Eddie. Choose a few games to play
at the lessons. Students will naturally prefer some games. Do the preferred games more often. Every month read
THE GAME CORNER again to use some new ideas during your lessons.
57
We provide a special chart called GAME REMINDERS which you should always keep at hand. You can find it at
the end of the Teacher’s File and also on a separate chart. It contains all the game ideas with short descriptions.
One glance at it will remind you of games you might want to play.

PIZZA GAME AND BINGO

These two are revision games which appear at the end of each unit of the Student’s Book. The Pizza Game always
revises words from a particular unit, while Bingo practises selected words from all previous units. As children play
these games in their books, they learn to focus and they see how fun a book can be. Both games are described in
detail in THE GAME CORNER. You will find a few ways of playing Bingo (for less and more advanced students)
and two options for the Pizza Game. The Pizza Game can be used to practise single words, but we also added
a list of suggested sentences to be revised while playing it. You will find the list in the Teacher’s File. We suggest
trying to use full sentences instead of separate words whenever you have the opportunity to do so.

NOTE! It is very important to spend enough time explaining the rules of the Pizza Game and Bingo in the first unit,
even if it takes a lot of time. After a clear explanation the children should be familiar with the procedure and be able
to easily play the games in the future. They can also play at home since they have their books and know the rules.

SHOP GAME
It is an activity which appears in a few selected units of each Book. It encourages interaction between children.
Students simply “play shop;” they pretend to go shopping and buy things. Children imagine and act out a situation
resembling real life. This is one of the greatest opportunities to encourage spontaneous use of L2. Nothing motivates
students more than the need to obtain something they want. If you stick to the “No Polish” rule they will quickly start
uttering their first natural English sentences. Remember to encourage, scaffold and motivate students but do not
drill or correct persistently at this point.
You will find more information on how to play this game in the Teacher’s File.

NOTE! Pay special attention to the ways of arranging the group during the game. The success of the Shop Game
lies in the proper organization. See Teacher’s File for more information.
Also, make some effort to set up a scene resembling an actual shop. This will help children get into the roles
and they will enjoy playing shop very much.

MAZE
Maze is a labyrinth which students follow with their fingers. They listen to the CD and move their fingers following
recorded instructions. You will find more information on how to play the Maze in the Teacher’s File.
Maze appears twice in each Book. It always revises vocabulary from a particular unit. The goal of this game is to
reach one of the destinations at the end of the maze. This game engages all students and they can all “win.” The
Mazes are recorded on the student’s CD, so they can be practised at home, too.

NOTE! While playing Maze you should watch the less advanced students and help them in case they get confused.

58
OTHER UNIT GAMES
Most units contain games which are specially designed to practise the language taught in the particular unit. These
games always refer to the main theme of the unit e.g. the Fantasy unit has a game based on magic and the act
of disappearing.
Some of the games are very simple and last no longer then one minute. Other games are more complicated
and require children to utter full sentences or act out different real life situations (e.g. travelling by bus).
There is always a detailed description of each game in the Teacher’s File.

10. PHOTOCOPIABLE PAGES

The Teacher’s File contains some photocopiable pages to be used for different activities. You may cut out some
pictures yourself to use during the lesson. Sometimes you may ask parents to help you and cut a picture out at
home and help their child to colour it. There are cut-outs to be given to every student to use along with the singing
or when acting things out. The cut-outs are used, as a prop. There are also black and white images of some
vocabulary from particular units to be used in games which require more than one set of pictures. In the description
of each unit you will find many tips and options for each photocopiable page.

11. THE COMMAND SET

All imperatives that appear in a particular Book of Teddy Eddie are gathered together in the Command Set. The
phrases/verbs are put in a table according to which unit they appear in. Each unit table is marked with a different
colour corresponding to the unit colour used in the Student’s Book. The set is a helpful device to practise verbs
during the lessons. It enables you to practise all of the imperatives that occur in a particular book. It is very practical
as it appears at the end of the TB and on a separate chart. We suggest you put the Command Set in Eddie’s Box
to have it at hand.

Teacher can use the Command Set to simply give commands to students. You can also use it to play any of the
action games described in THE GAME CORNER. In the Teacher’s File you will find frameworks which will help you
to modify the Command Set for a specific unit content. For example when you learn about Sophie, the Robot,
your students can do the commands in a robot-like way.

12. THE FLYING CARPET

It is a series of questions with prompted answers. It contains all the basic structures taught through the course.
Frequent use of the set helps students remember the structures and since it is a controlled speaking exercise,
prepares them for real language use in the future. More advanced children should practise questions, too (see the
procedure). The set is very practical as it appears at the end of the Teacher’s File and on a separate chart.
We suggest you put the chart in Eddie’s Box to have it at hand.

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 THE FLYING CARPET FRAMEWORK

As the Interactive Set may be a bit tiresome for students, we invented a play-like procedure to
start with. There is a piece of cloth in each Eddie’s Box to be used as THE FLYING CARPET.

FOCUS: Students must speak English on THE FLYING CARPET. English is like fuel which makes the
carpet go (remind your students about that fact during the exercise).
THE FLYING
CARPET You always start the activity with the same routine:
Take the cloth out of the box say the rhyme:

1,2,3, flying carpet come to me (spread the cloth on the floor)

3,2,1 sit down (children sit on the cloth, they can hold hands and try not to “fall down.”)
Invite Teddy Eddie to sit on THE FLYING CARPET with you and take part in this activity:
• Eddie can ask or/and answer questions in a funny voice
• his humorous answers will add fun to this exercise e.g. Eddie do you like cheese? Oh, yes
TEDDY
I do, I like purple cheese, Eddie can you jump?” Yes, I can, look! (and Eddie falls down)
EDDIE
• throw Eddie to S who is supposed to answer next. Establish a rule: only the person holding
Eddie can speak. This helps Ss to focus and quiets down those who are not supposed to
speak.
• T asks questions to individual Ss and scaffolds answers if needed. Sometimes T needs to
model the answer and S just repeats it.
• As it is more of a drill exercise, you should demand fairly correct sentences, but you cannot
bore Ss, so do not push too much.
• At the beginning accept answers Yes/No, later scaffold short answers like Yes, I do./No, I
don’t.
• You should ask only a few questions at a time – the activity should be no longer than 2-3
PROCEDURE minutes. It should be revised frequently though.
• If you have a more advanced group, you can add the “ASK HIM/HER” part. Ss ask exactly
the same question you did before, and you (or S) point at another S to answer.
• The dialogues below are perfect examples of practising the interactive set. Do not get
discouraged when it takes time for your students to master them.

NOTE: This drill-like exercise should resemble a real conversation. It is important to show true
interest in Ss’ responses. Tell Ss to give true answers, they will be much more motivated when
talking about their real life situations.
VERSION 1
T: Have you got a doll?
less S1: Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t
advanced Ss, T: Have you got a teddy bear?
one type of S2: Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t.
question

T: Have you got a doll?

S1: Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t.
T: Ask him (T points at S/throws Eddie to S)
VERSION 2
S1: Have you got a doll?
S2: Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t.
more
T: Ask him (T points at another S/throws Eddie to another S)
advanced Ss,
S2: Have you got a doll?
one type of
S3: Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t. etc.
question
NOTE: This is a perfect way for exercising the question forms, so only if your Ss are able to do
it, practise it this way.

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VERSION 3

T: Do you like bananas?

less
S1: Yes, I do. / No, I don’t.
advanced Ss,
T: Can you swim?
different
S2: Yes, I can. / No, I can’t.
types
of questions

T: Have you got a robot?

S1: Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t.
VERSION 4 T: Ask him (T points at S/throws Eddie to S)
S1: Have you got a robot?
more S2: Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t.
advanced Ss,
T: Can you swim?
different S3: Yes, I can./No, I can’t.
types T: Ask him ‘run’(T points at S/throws Eddie to S)
of questions S3: Can you run?
S4: Yes, I can. / No, I can’t. etc.

NOTE: This is a perfect way for exercising the question forms, so only if your Ss are able to do
it, practise it this way.

T: Have you got a robot?

S1: Yes, I have.
T: Really? Is it big or small?
S1: Small.
*VERSION 4 T: Do you like your robot?
S1: Yes, I do.
more T: Ask Marek: Have you....? (T prompts as S may have forgotten the question, T points at
advanced Ss, another S/throws Eddie to another S)
S1: Have you got a robot?
different S2: Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t.
types
of questions T: Can you jump?
S3: Yes, I can.
resemblance T: Oh, really? Can you jump very high?
to real S3: Yes, I can.
conversation T: Show me.
[S3 jumps]
T: Oh, great! Look at Kasia, she can jump very high! Now Kasia ask Tomek ‘run’ (T points
at S/throws Eddie to S, T prompts as S may have forgotten the question)
S3: Can you run?
S4: Yes, I can. / No, I can’t. etc.

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 VII. TYPES OF ACTIVITIES AND GENERAL FRAMEWORKS
(FOR THE GREEN BOOK OF TEDDY EDDIE AND HIS SOCK)

1. ROUTINES

Small children like rituals. They hardly get bored with listening to the same elements or doing the same actions.
Reoccurrence of familiar elements makes lessons predictable. Young students feel safe when they know what
comes next. This is the main reason why each Book of Teddy Eddie contains a set of rhymes called ‘Routines:’

• Hello Routine should be the first element of every lesson. It indicates the moment when students close
the door and focus on the teacher. This routine usually makes children sit down or stand in a line/group,
so that they are ready for the next element of the lesson.
• Bye Bye Routine is the last element of every lesson. When it is played, students recognize the lesson
is over and after saying that particular rhyme they will be allowed to leave the classroom.
• Secret Word Routine is used to introduce secret words at the lessons. It can be played at the beginning
or/and at the end. It can be also repeated a few times during the lesson. This routine always ends with the
repetition of a secret word.
• Be Quiet Routine is a short rhyme which is designed to calm students down. They must first learn to react
to the rhyme; to quiet down when they hear it. Later on, this routine may be used when needed.

The Routines encompass some basic classroom language and many simple expressions. They stay in children’s
memory for good as they are repeated at every lesson. Their major function though, is to set up lesson frames.
It is important that the routines are always performed in the same way and they must never be omitted. They will
work well and help you in planning and managing lessons.

You will find practical tips on how to introduce and perform each routine in the Teacher’s File.

2. UNIT STORIES

There are always five stories in each Book of Teddy Eddie and His Sock. They are funny, engaging and they present
language in context that is easy to understand. They are always supported by visual and audio aids. The stories
are vital in the lives of pre-school children, as they offer a major and constant source of language experience.
They are motivating and rich in natural speech and above all students love them! Our stories are meant to enhance
acquisition. They teach in such a way as to understand natural language flow, where new words and unknown
chunks do not disturb the understanding. Some stories encompass elements of drilling, which is a great stimulus
for speaking. Young learners first simply repeat certain words and expressions. Then they learn parts of the stories
by heart. They end up using some phrases in adequate contexts in life. Stories can be retold many times.
The language item will then be repeated again and again, each time in a meaningful context.
Below there is a general framework which helps in understanding the stages and steps of introducing
and practising a story. In the Teacher’s File you will find a detailed framework for every story. Specific instructions,
ideas and useful tips are included.

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 STAGE DECRIPTION STEPS
It is the first time when you introduce the story and
make sure your Ss understand it. There is no harm
if you use L1 at this stage to confirm Ss’ thorough 10. FOCUS on the story
understanding. Ss use L1 to retell the story in 11. listen and FOLLOW the pictures or watch
detail. the story on the PLAYGROUND
A 12. What is it ABOUT?
When you read a story remember to do it vividly 13. TEACHER reads
with some mime and gesture. At first Ss will simply 14. listen or watch and ACT
try to follow your actions in listen and follow
activity.

At this stage Ss will confirm whether or not they

can associate the appropriate sentences with the 5. TEACHER reads OR
pictures in their books or on flashcards. They also 6. listen and ACT
gradually learn the words and phrases. Ss may 15. listen and put in ORDER
B need some help with all the steps. You may also 16. listen and CHOOSE
skip or modify some more challenging games 17. FLASHCARDS / VOCAB games
requiring the use of whole sentences. Some Ss will 18. reading with GAPS
probably finish at this stage.

The last stage requires Ss to have quite a good 5. TEACHER reads OR

understanding of the story. The games will be 6. listen and ACT
more challenging and the gaps will gradually 14. FLASHCARDS / VOCAB games
require longer and longer utterances. Ss are able 15. reading with GAPS
C
to correct T when he or she says a false sentence. 16. story MANIPULATION
They join in retelling the story and gradually do it 17. DRAMA 1
independently on the basis of visual aids. 18. RETELLING

3. STORIES FOR PLEASURE

There are two STORIES FOR PLEASURE in each Book of Teddy Eddie. They revise the vocabulary and structures
from all previous units. These stories are also meant to:

• practise listening and comprehension

• let students deal with natural language and thus increase the opportunity for natural language acquisition
• be pure fun and thus get students used to longer English recordings/texts

Dealing with these stories differs from working with the unit stories, the framework below is to refer to.

STAGES DECRIPTION
• revise the vocabulary used in the story (use a game from the Game
Corner)
A
• focus Ss
introduction
• tell Ss what the story is about (do not reveal too much!), OR
• play the story with no introduction and ask Ss what they understood from
it (set up a pre-listening or pre-watching question/questions, then)
B
listen, don’t look Now it is time to play the story, you can do it in three ways:
OR • Ss sit still or lie on the carpet, T plays the CD, there are no visual aids
listen and look • Ss listen to the CD and look in their books/look at the flashcards
OR • Ss watch the story on the PLAYGROUND
watch

63
 C • Talk about the story with your Ss (L1 or/and L2), ask questions to confirm
what was it about? – understanding
comprehension • Make sure your Ss understand what is it about and that they get the
questions humour in the story
• After that you can play the story again
This stage is optional :
• T reads the story with gaps
D
• T reads the story and replaces some words (Ss correct the words)
(parts of stages B
• Ss retell the story
and C from the story
• Ss watch the story on the PLAYGROUND without volume and say the
framework)
dialogues
• Ss can perform the actions from the story along with CD

4. SHOWTIME

Showtime is a type of activity that appears in each unit of the Green Book of Teddy Eddie. It is a typical
representation of the TPR (Total Physical Response) method. First T acts out the expressions (along with the
CD) so that students understand their meaning without translating. Later on they follow teacher’s actions and start
to associate spoken sentences with certain actions. Movement is natural for young learners. Their concentration
span is still very short and such activities work very well. Showtime is always recorded in a rhythmical way, which
makes students interested and engaged. The actions are quite easy to demonstrate, which involves children even
at an early stage. The text may be repeated many times because it is a lot of fun and the children feel like they
are playing. Students gradually remember whole sentences, which is the ultimate goal of the activity.

Below there is a general framework helping to understand the stages and steps of introducing and practising
the Showtimes. In the Teacher’s File you will find a detailed framework for every Showtime, which contains specific
instructions, ideas and useful tips.

STAGE DECRIPTION STEPS

It is the first time when you introduce the
Showtime. Make sure your Ss understand it.
Sometimes it is useful to resort to some L1 to
confirm Ss understanding. Remember to act out 3. SHOWTIME introduction
A
the actions vividly with some mime and gesture to 4. listen and ACT
help Ss at the beginning. Ss will simply imitate
your gestures and actions.

At this stage Ss will confirm whether or not they

can associate the appropriate sentences with the
correct gestures and actions. Encourage 6. listen and ACT
repetition, accept inaccurate phrases. Do not be 7. listen, do and REPEAT
B
discouraged if some children are not ready to
speak yet – they will gradually learn the words and
phrases.

The last stage requires that the Ss have quite a

good understanding of the Showtime. Focus on
3. listen and ACT
C practicing whole sentences. Ss start to say the
8. text MANIPULATION
sentences themselves on the basis of gestures.
This will not probably happen with the first or

64
 second Showtime that Ss learn but later on when
they get used to this kind of activity.

5. FLASHCARDS

Each course contains about 100 flashcards, which illustrate vocabulary and stories from the Green Book of Teddy
Eddie. Vocabulary flashcards are useful while presenting new words as well as for practicing them. We insist
on introducing each set of flashcards in a similar way – according to the framework below. After the first few times,
your students will get used to that form of introducing new words and it will become one of your lesson routines.
To discover the full potential of the flashcards you should read THE GAME CORNER with more than 20 games.

FLASHCARDS PRESENTATION AND PRACTISE FRAMEWORK

NOTE: When Ss do not know the procedure yet, do not worry if you must take time to explain it
STEP – if you do it properly, next time will be easier and quicker. Do not give up even if introducing
the procedure takes a few attempts.

• Ss sit in a circle / line

FOCUS
• use “Be Quiet routine” to quiet Ss if necessary or use one of our FOCUS POCUS ideas
from this Course Manual

PART A • T presents flashcards or real objects while Ss listen to PART A on the CD

• Ss listen to PART A on the CD and point
listen and OPTION:
look/point • Ss open their books
• Ss look at the flashcards in their books, listen to PART A on the CD and point.
PART B • Ss stand up
• T displays the flashcards AROUND THE CLASSROOM – they should be some distance
listen, find apart (you may use some blue tac to stick the cards to the walls)
and point • Ss listen to PART B on the CD and point rhythmically to the right flashcard, or go to the
correct flashcard
(jumbled NOTE:
order) • It is more fun for Ss to turn and point to the right flashcard than to do it while sitting, so
make sure the flashcards are around classroom (not in a line)
• Ss look at the flashcards in their books or T shows the flashcards. Ss listen to the CD
PART C and repeat.
or
listen and
repeat • Ss close their eyes. Ss listen to the CD and repeat.
NOTE: This is a good time for focusing on sounds and good pronunciation, so T should pay
particular attention to this part.
T shows the flashcards and says the words using different voices.
FUNNY
d) high / low
VOICES
e) quickly / slowly
f) loudly / quietly / whispering
listen and
g) pretend to be a mouse / a monster
repeat
Ss repeat in the same way

GAMES Flashcards game / Action game, see THE GAME CORNER.

NOTE: try to practise words in sentences more than in isolation

65
SONGS AND RHYMES

Children like the world of music and rhythm – they learn songs and rhymes in nursery school or at home.
They come across many songs on TV. Young students usually do not feel embarrassed or ashamed to sing, even
if they are not predisposed to do it. We try to use these facts and that is why there are so many songs and rhymes
in Teddy Eddie Books. They are a great source of language in context and they are always linked to the unit
content. When children encounter full phrases there is a good chance that they will remember the whole sentences
as they go along with the catchy melody and memorable rhythm. If you enrich the singing with gestures, you are
likely to make students love the songs and quickly remember them by heart. It is important though not to teach the
rhymes or songs in a way children do not understand it thoroughly. Meaning should be more than clear to students,
so that the kids learn more than a mixture of unknown sounds.

Each song and rhyme has a specific way of presentation and specific tips to be followed. They are all described
in the Teacher’s File. Below there is a general framework which will help you to understand the steps of introducing
songs or rhymes.
STEPS STAGE DESCRIPTION
When you introduce a song/rhyme for the first time, tell your Ss what it is about.
It is useful to resort to some L1 or just say a few words from the song that Ss
already know.
4. SONG / RHYME
INTRODUCTION e.g. Listen! (point to the CD player, or point to your ear) A song about robots!
Robots! Do you know robots? (pretend to be a robot) Now shhh…! Let’s listen!
(L2)

Play the song/rhyme and use gestures and mime to express the meaning.
5. MIME AND GESTURE
Play it again and encourage Ss to follow your actions.

While playing the song or rhyme stop the CD and explain more difficult chunks.
6. CONFIRMING
Confirm Ss’ full understanding by telling them and/or making them tell you what
UNDERSTANDING
the rhyme/song is about. Ss can resort to L1 when needed.

Encourage Ss to sing the song along with the CD or to say the rhyme without the
CD. First you will have to help Ss a lot, later on they should be able to do
it themselves.
7. SINGING
Tip:
/SAYING ALONG
to encourage quiet Ss to sing more loudly – put your hand to your ear and pretend
you cannot hear. It works!

8. PAUSING FOR This works better with songs, but you can also try it with a rhyme.
CHILDREN TO
FINISH Play the CD and stop it from time to time, so that your Ss finish the line.

Scaffolding is described thoroughly in this Course Manual, you cannot forget

about this technique when dealing with songs/rhymes.
9. SCAFFOLDING TO
SING / SAY Scaffold your Ss when they say a rhyme/sing a song by pointing to the objects
they sing about or performing the actions with them. you can also whisper the
beginning of words they forgot.
Some songs and rhymes can be played like a game (you will find instructions in
10. (GAMES BASED ON
the Teacher’s File). This can be successful only when Ss know the pieces well.
RHYMES / SONGS)

66
 6. EXERCISES

There are several types of exercises in every unit of Teddy Eddie Book. The basic types are:

Colour.
• Ss listen to T and colour the objects as is indicated.
• If Ss do not know the names of colours very well, pick an appropriate crayon or flashcard to help
Ss.

Listen and circle.

• Ss listen to T and mark the right answer by circling it.
• If you have very young Ss, do the exercise orally first (Ss listen and point to the right answer).

Listen and match.

• Ss listen to T and match the pictures according to the instructions.

Use your fingers to show actions.

• Ss listen to T and use their fingers to show actions such as walk, hop, etc.

Each exercise is thoroughly described in the Teacher’s File. Below there is a general framework which outlines
3 versions of exercise presentation.

EXERCISE FRAMEWORK

The exercises should be demonstrated in English, though at the beginning there might be some use of L1,
especially before Ss get used to this kind of activity. There are 3 versions of doing exercises, choose the most
appropriate for your group.

• Ss sit in a circle
FOCUS
• Use “Be Quiet routine” to quiet Ss if necessary or use one of our FOCUS POCUS
IDEAS from this Course Manual.
• Put only your book on the floor and show what is expected to be done in the
exercise – use gestures. Ss’ books remain closed – otherwise Ss might get
distracted.
VERSION A • Perform the stages slowly – Ss may not focus on the words, but they will watch
your movements. Do not hurry.
only T does the • Involve Ss in the process of completing the exercise. Let them help you and you
exercise in his/her help Ss: ask questions, confirm guesses and make sure everyone understands
book what is going on.
• Take time showing the completed task – make sure that all Ss understand that “it
is ready”. Teddy Eddie may help you – congratulate on completing the exercise,
shake hands, give a kiss.
• Thank Ss for help and praise them for their engagement
• Prepare a copy of the exercise so that you can write on it and place it in front of
you. Ss’ books remain closed.
• Do the exercise slowly involving Ss in the process of completing it. Let them help
VERSION B you and you help Ss: ask questions, confirm guesses and make sure everyone
understands what is going on. Ss’ books remain closed – otherwise Ss might get
T does the
distracted
exercise first,
• Take time showing the completed task – make sure that all Ss understand that “it
Ss follow
is ready”.
• Only then give out the books to Ss. Call the appropriate colour and picture so that
Ss can find the right page. Ss should lay the book open on the floor in front of
them.

67
 • Close your book or hide a copy with the completed exercise. In case of difficulty
T can show them his/her copy again.
• Ss do the exercise with T’s supervision and support. Ss call out: Ready!
• Evaluate the activity and give feedback praising children for their work, e.g. Oh,
everybody’s ready! Show me. Very good! Yes, that is right. I like it very much! And
look, Eddie likes it – he is smiling.
• Reward Ss (you may place a stamp/sticker or simply draw a flower/smiley next to
the completed exercise). You will find more ideas on how to reward Ss in this
Course Manual.
• Give out the books to Ss. Call the appropriate colour and picture so that Ss can
find the right page. Ss should lay the book open on the floor in front of them. Give
Ss necessary instructions and help them with completing the exercise.
or (with a very lively group of Ss):
VERSION C • Give Ss the necessary instructions first and help them with completing the
exercise: ask questions, confirm guesses and make sure everyone understands
T gives
what is going on. Ss’ books remain closed. Ss see the exercise only in your book
instructions, Ss do
– otherwise they might get distracted.
the exercise
• Take time showing the completed task – make sure that all Ss understand that “it
is ready”. Ss call out: Ready!
• Evaluate the activity and give feedback praising children for their work, e.g. Oh,
everybody’s ready! Show me. Very good! Yes, that is right. I like it very much! And
look, Eddie likes it – he is smiling.
• Reward Ss (you may place a stamp or sticker next to the completed exercise).

7. GAMES

Playing games is a basic activity in a pre-school child’s life. It fulfils children’s need to be active, provides different
experiences as well as joy and fun. Games play a major role in children’s development stimulating their cognitive
and social skills. Children learn through playing: games motivate and develop creativity. Games are an important
part of our method because we believe that they are a great opportunity to teach a foreign language. They can be
used to introduce, practise and revise vocabulary and structures and, above all, they are always fun for young
learners.

REMEMBER! DO NOT USE GAMES TO TEACH ENGLISH –

INSTEAD USE ENGLISH TO PLAY GAMES.
Our games:

• teach English – they always provide foreign language input (from vocabulary and phrases to sentences
and simple dialogues)
• teach rules and classroom behavior – to play a game students must learn to stand in a line, open their
books to a certain page, ask for something in English
• develop social skills – children need to interact with teacher and other students
• teach to focus – students need to concentrate to learn the rules and they are really motivated to do so when
a game is at stake
• are simple to explain and play, as they rely on pre-school children’s abilities
• end up with a general feeling of achievement (there is no “winner” as pre-school children do not compete;
actually, everybody is a winner)

Below there is a description of all kinds of games that you will come across in the Books of Teddy Eddie.
68
THE GAME CORNER

It is a special part of this Course Manual which contains a selection of 20 vocabulary / sentence games, 5 action
games and 3 drill games. All are designed to practise and revise words, structures and sentences taught in the
course. Some of the games are marked with a green smiley symbol – those are appropriate for the youngest Ss
who use the Green Book. Those are the games to start with but we strongly suggest that T tries to use more complex
games, too, when the group gets older and more capable of understanding specific game rules.

You can reach for one of the games:

• after the flashcard presentation

• at a certain stage of story manipulation (there are suggestions in every framework)
• whenever you need to practise or revise something
• when you have some spare time left during the lesson
• when something goes wrong and your students cannot or do not want to do the planned tasks
• when students cannot focus on less active material

NOTE! Read the whole GAME CORNER once you start teaching with the method. Choose a few games to play
at the lessons. Students will naturally prefer some games. Do the preferred games more often. Every month read
THE GAME CORNER again to use some new ideas during your lessons.

We provide a special chart called GAME REMINDERS which you should always keep at hand. You can find
it at the end of the Teacher’s File and also on a separate chart. It contains all the game ideas with short descriptions.
One glance at it will remind you of games you might want to play.

PIZZA GAME AND SPOT IT!

These two are revision games which appear at the end of almost each unit of the Student’s Book. The PIZZA GAME
always revises words from a particular unit, while SPOT IT! practises selected words from previous units.
As children play these games in their books, they learn to focus and they see how fun a book can be. Both games
are described in detail in THE GAME CORNER.

NOTE! It is very important to spend enough time explaining the rules of the PIZZA GAME and SPOT IT! in the first
unit, even if it takes a lot of time. After a clear explanation the children should be familiar with the procedure and be
able to easily play the games in the future. They can also play at home since they have their books and know the
rules.

THE FUNNY SNAKE

It is an easy labyrinth (only one route) which students follow with their fingers. They listen to the CD and move their
fingers following recorded instructions. You will find more information on how to play the FUNNY SNAKE in the
Teacher’s File. This game appears three times in the Green Book. It revises vocabulary from previous units. The
FUNNY SNAKE is recorded on the student’s CD, so it can be practised at home, too.

SHOP GAME
It is an activity which appears in a few selected units of each Book. It encourages interaction between children.
Students simply “play shop;” they pretend to go shopping and buy things. Children imagine and act out a situation
resembling real life. This is one of the greatest opportunities to encourage spontaneous use of L2. Nothing motivates
69
students more than the need to obtain something they want. At first accept their use of L1, then simple pointing
at the objects they want or some L2 resembling chunks. If you scaffold your Ss and stick to the “No Polish” rule they
may start uttering their first natural English sentences. Remember to encourage and motivate students but do not
drill or correct persistently at this point. You will find more information on how to play this game in the Teacher’s
File.

NOTE! Pay special attention to the ways of arranging the group during the game. The success of the Shop Game
lies in the proper organization. See Teacher’s File for more information.
Also, make some effort to set up a scene resembling an actual shop. This will help children get into the roles
and they will enjoy playing shop very much.

OTHER UNIT GAMES

Most units contain games which are specially designed to practise the language taught in the particular unit. These
games always refer to the main theme of the unit. The games in the Green Book are very simple and last no longer
then one - two minutes. There is always a detailed description of each game in the Teacher’s File.

8. PHOTOCOPIABLE PAGES

The Teacher’s File contains some photocopiable pages to be used for different activities. You may cut out some
pictures yourself to use during the lesson. Sometimes you may ask parents to help you and cut a picture out
at home and help their child to colour it. There are cut-outs to be given to every student to use along with the singing
or when acting things out. The cut-outs are used, as a prop. There are also black and white images of some
vocabulary from particular units to be used in games which require more than one set of pictures. In the description
of each unit you will find many tips and options for each photocopiable page. The cut-outs are very important
for the youngest children as they like to have something in their hands while singing or playing a game. They will
be less distracted and they should restrain from interrupting.

9. THE COMMAND SET

All imperatives that appear in a particular Book of Teddy Eddie are gathered together in the Command Set.
The phrases/verbs are put in a table according to which unit they appear in. Each unit table is marked with a different
colour corresponding to the unit colour used in the Student’s Book. The set is a helpful device to practise verbs
during the lessons. It enables you to practise all of the imperatives that occur in a particular book. It is very practical
as it appears at the end of each unit in the SB and on a separate chart. We suggest you put the Command Set
in Eddie’s Box to have it at hand.

Teacher can use the Command Set to simply give commands to students. You can also use it to play any of the
action games described in THE GAME CORNER.

10. THE FLYING CARPET

It is a series of questions with prompted answers. It contains all the basic structures taught through the course.
Frequent use of the set helps students remember the structures and since it is a controlled speaking exercise,
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prepares them for real language use in the future. The set is very practical as it appears at the end of each unit
in the SB and on a separate chart. We suggest you put the chart in Eddie’s Box to have it at hand.

THE FLYING CARPET FRAMEWORK

As the Interactive Set may be a bit tiresome for students, we invented a play-like procedure to
start with. There is a piece of cloth in each Eddie’s Box to be used as THE FLYING CARPET.

FOCUS: Students must speak English on THE FLYING CARPET. English is like fuel which makes the
carpet go (remind your students about that fact during the exercise).
THE FLYING
CARPET
You always start the activity with the same routine:
Take the cloth out of the box say the rhyme:
1,2,3 flying carpet come to me (spread the cloth on the floor)
3,2,1 sit down (children sit on the cloth, they can hold hands and try not to “fall down.”)
Invite Teddy Eddie to sit on THE FLYING CARPET with you and take part in this activity:
• Eddie can ask or/and answer questions in a funny voice
• his humorous answers will add fun to this exercise e.g. Eddie can you jump? Yes, I can,
look! (and Eddie falls down)
TEDDY
• throw Eddie to S who is supposed to answer next. Establish a rule: only the person
EDDIE
holding Eddie can speak. This helps Ss to focus and quiets down those who are not
supposed to speak.
• when you practise asking questions Ss may first ask Teddy Eddie (in unison) before they
ask each other individually
• T asks questions to individual Ss and scaffolds answers if needed. Sometimes T needs
to model the answer and S just repeats it.
• as it is more of a drill exercise, you should demand fairly correct sentences, but you
cannot bore Ss, so do not push too much.
• at the very beginning accept answers in L1, but always scaffold answers in L2
• accept answers Yes / No, later scaffold short answers like Yes, I do. / No, I don’t.
PROCEDURE • you should ask only a few questions at a time – the activity should be no longer than 2-3
minutes. It should be revised frequently though.
• If you have a group of 3-4 year-olds, you can add the “ASK HIM/HER” part. Ss ask exactly
the same question you did before, and you point at another S to answer.

NOTE: This drill-like exercise should resemble a real conversation. It is important to show
true interest in Ss’ responses. Tell Ss to give true answers, they will be much more motivated
when talking about their real life situations.
VERSION 1
T: Do you like milk?
the
S1: Yes. / No.
beginning of
T: Do you like cookies?
the school
S2: Yes, I do. / No, I don’t.
year

T: Can you swim?

S1: Yes, I can. / No, I can’t.
T: Ask him (T points at S)
VERSION 2
S1: Can you swim?
S2: Yes, I can. / No, I can’t.
later during
T: Ask him (T points at another S.)
the school
S2: Can you swim?
year
S3: Yes, I can. / No, I can’t. etc.

NOTE: This is a perfect way for exercising the question forms, so only if your Ss are able to
do it, practise it this way.

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 CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

1. THE 7 ROLES OF A TEACHER

English teachers of pre-school children face a real challenge when entering the classroom. In many respects it is
the most demanding group of students to teach, although at the same time teaching such young learners may give
a lot of satisfaction. In order to become successful a teacher must take on a lot of roles.

GOOD AUNT / UNCLE

Being a GOOD AUNT / UNCLE is essential. Little children need to feel safe and they need to feel liked
and accepted. You have to behave as a benign and good natured person to gain their trust. Try to establish good
contact with them. A positive attitude and a smile are very important. If children get to like you, they will enjoy
coming to classes, will eagerly take part in activities and will be much easier to settle down or persuade to participate
in a lesson.

You also have to be patient and gentle and never lose your temper with children in order not to scare or discourage
them in any way. Being sensitive to children’s moods, needs and feelings is a necessary condition
for a successful teacher of this age group. You have to make sure that no child feels omitted or worse. Sometimes
it involves bending the rules and praising equally all your students regardless of their achievements.

Remember about safety at all times. Do not allow children to run wildly in the classroom or step on objects like
chairs or tables. Pay attention to the arrangement of furniture, to any sharp edges, and to narrow spaces. It is your
responsibility to keep children safe.

Help your students every time they turn to you or if you can see that they cannot deal with something. It does not
mean you should do something instead of them but show your support, give tips, encourage and assure them they
can do it.

How to be a GOOD AUNT / UNCLE:

• Smile at children a lot

• Show your students that you like them and you are interested in them
• Be patient, do not show annoyance
• Pay attention to your students’ moods and accommodate your actions
and plans to them
• Praise all the children regardless of their achievements
• Make sure no child feels omitted or worse

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CAPTAIN

A good pre-school teacher must also be like a CAPTAIN. You are usually in the centre of the classroom and the
centre of attention for your students. You have to be the leader, who gives clear instructions and behaves
confidently while organising tasks. It is a skill which comes with experience or, if you do not have much, it requires
planning and preparation.

If you add a bit of soldier-like training and your students have to obey some commands it will be both fun for children
and beneficial for the sake of organising tasks.

How to be a good CAPTAIN

• Give clear instructions supported with mime and gesture

• Plan how to organise a task
• Speak in a confident, energetic way
• Demonstrate new tasks in a clear way
• Do not change rules or ways of performing tasks (it may confuse your students)
• Model actions and language where necessary so that students can copy you
• Introduce ways of doing activities (the position of the students, typical steps to follow, typical instructions)
and practise them. Students should reach the point where they know what to do when you call the name
of the game or task

CHAMELEON

Small children are easily distracted and lose interest easily. This is why it is so important to change tasks very
often and react to their moods. You must be like a CHAMELEON showing adaptive skills and having many
faces. Put on one face when presenting a story or building an appropriate atmosphere and another when giving
commands to your students which require energetic actions. When your students get out of control, surprise them,
change moods and styles and you will always find a way to get through to them.

How to be a CHAMELEON:

• Change styles of presentation or how you lead into a task

depending on its character
• Change the mood if you feel the children are growing tired or disinterested
• Put on different faces to dramatise stories and other texts or when
interacting with children or Eddie to make sure students are involved

ELASTIC

Children are highly unpredictable in their behaviour. Because of this fact you cannot always stick to your plan.
Planning a lesson is important but you need to be flexible like ELASTIC. When you see something does not work
because either your students are not in the mood for a particular task or it needs some adjustment, be ready to stop
it immediately and start something new. Otherwise children will either get bored or start to misbehave. With small
children you must be able to change according to the situation. If you are an experienced teacher such changes

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usually come naturally. If you lack experience, though, make sure you have got some emergency tasks at hand so
you do not panic when you need to change the course of actions.

It is also very important to be able to take advantage of spontaneous situations during the lesson. They are often
the best opportunities for real, meaningful communication. Do not smother such situations for the sake of sticking
to the plan. Use them by reacting in English to what students say in between the tasks, ask questions, show your
interest, praise even for simple words or misused phrases. This will definitely build students’ confidence and
creativity in using the language.

How to be ELASTIC:

• If a task does not work, stop it. Think why it did not work
and either change the way you introduce it or motivate
students before you try it next time or simply come back to
it when students are in a better mood for it.
• React and modify your actions according to what your students say or do
• Have some emergency ideas / tasks at hand
• Do not worry if you cannot follow your plan every time.

ROCK

A pre-school teacher must be solid like a ROCK. Children need to feel secure in the classroom environment if you
want them to enjoy coming to lessons. A certain degree of stability is necessary. Children love constant, repetitive
elements of the lessons like routines, types of games which are often used and your rewarding them
for participation in a lesson. To give children a feeling of security you must remember to introduce them to the
routines. Students will gradually learn what to do and what to expect. If you want students to respect your rules,
you must be consistent. If you want to succeed, your students have to trust you. They will trust you if you give
them clear rules to abide by. They must also feel you are supportive and that they can count on your help and
encouragement when they perform certain tasks.

How to be a ROCK:

• Give your students clear rules to follow and be consistent

• Always abide by the rules you introduce
• Use constant elements during lessons to give your students
a sense of being safe
• Make sure your students feel they can count on you even in a moment of crisis (when they cannot concentrate
or do not understand the task). Give positive encouragement, do not threaten with serious consequences

CIRCUS CLOWN

A Sense of humour is of great value in an English classroom, especially when you teach small children. But just
like with other skills and abilities your students need to learn what is funny. A bit of clowning in the classroom
cannot be underrated. Children will laugh to tears and at the same time get involved when you make fun of yourself
by showing how clumsy you are or by making deliberate, obvious mistakes. You can also do funny things with Eddie
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showing that he falls down, bumps his head or gets stuck in the sock. Remember your students’ sense of humour
is still very basic and unrefined and in many cases imitative so it is quite easy to induce. It is also of great importance
that you are able to underline humour in stories, songs and other texts laughing and showing what is funny. Seeing
your students smiling eyes and engagement will confirm that clowning around is worth the effort

How to be a good CIRCUS CLOWN

• Be able to make fun of your own actions, pretend sometimes you are clumsy or unwise
• Make deliberate mistakes and let students “catch you” and correct you
• Imply that something is funny by exaggerated reaction (laughter,
facial expression, raised voice, gestures)
• Underline humour in texts and tasks
• Fool around with Eddie or with students

A ROLE MODEL

Pre-school children learn by imitating adults and their peers. That is why your role of a MODEL is so crucial. Your
students will remember and try to imitate your language so pay attention to your pronunciation and use simple but
natural sentences. Try to take advantage of classroom situations to elicit natural communication. You will be more
than surprised when you hear your students use something you have not drilled but used in a real situation in the
classroom. Children will also copy your actions. That is why you need to be a good actor. Model for your students
gestures and facial expressions to help them match the language with its meaning.

Remember that small children are also learning social rules and they will imitate your behaviour. If you want them
to be calm, you must be calm. If you want them to support one another you have to be supportive.

How to be a good MODEL:

• Pay attention to your pronunciation and do not simplify your speech too much
• Repeatedly use a set of expressions you want children to remember
• Expand the set and use classroom situations for natural communication
- one never knows what children have acquired
• Use vivid gestures and facial expressions to express meaning
• Remember to set a positive example as children will copy your behaviour
• When you want students to get involved in acting out a story, do it with
involvement yourself
• Model for them concentration, active engagement, how you expect
students to react, how to pretend to be e.g. surprised or how to respond to something funny.

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 2. FUN AND PLAY

You need to think through, analyse and thoroughly understand the sentence below:

DO NOT PLAY AND USE GAMES TO TEACH ENGLISH –

INSTEAD USE ENGLISH TO PLAY GAMES, INTERACT
AND BUILD RELATIONSHIP WITH CHILDREN.

• Try to remember what kind of activities and games children like when they play at home, on the
playground or at kindergarten. It is a good and valuable experience to just play with kids of a given age
in L1 before you start teaching in an English classroom.
• Remember that young children cannot separate language as an abstract notion. Take interest in actions
and reactions, in meaning, in instrumental and meaningful use of language during lessons.
• Manipulating the language itself (e.g. non personalised drilling) is not a meaningful activity to children and your
teaching must be meaningful. This means you should not teach English, but teach games, plays, songs etc.
where English is a means and not the purpose itself. Kids should be interested in games, plays, interacting
with you and each other, discovering new things, expressing themselves and getting rewarded.
• In order to be interested and willing to take part in activities, children need to be engaged emotionally.
They do not learn for the sake of knowing a foreign language – they engage when an activity is meaningful
and interesting to them (not in a linguistic sense).
• Get to know your students – what they like, what they do outside the classroom and what inspires them.
These are the best opportunities for real communication so take advantage of them.
• Like with siblings or in a group in kindergarten during play, children learn from their peers. The more
advanced or outgoing ones lead and demonstrate. The weaker or more shy ones can join in and imitate
in a non-threatening situation and learn at their own pace.
• Only lessons organised in the form of play are pleasurable and motivating for children. They should
feel they are playing, not learning. When they enjoy what they do, they engage and remember more.
• As Ss like playing they are willing to repeat the games at home and thus practise more.

How to make your lessons fun?

• Remember there is not one universal way and you need to watch the group and test their reactions to different
things you do.
The Method itself provides a lot of humorous texts and funny elements, but remember that young students
are still learning what is funny. They shape the idea of what is fun just like they are still learning other skills
and social standards. You have to point out such humorous moments. Make students realise they can laugh
at something, underline what is funny and sometimes explain why.
• Do not be afraid to pretend you are clumsy and cannot do something. Go ahead and make intentional
mistakes – it will definitely make children laugh.
• Do funny things with Eddie – children enjoy it when he bumps his head, trips over something or makes
mistakes.
• Make children do funny things – invent funny, abstract commands to perform (e.g. smell your feet, eat black
tomatoes), let children invent such commands creatively, ask some of them to make mistakes on purpose,
make them imitate funny situations from stories and songs. Laugh and praise their attempts.

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• Doing things is fun! Do not just talk about things, do them! Act out and mime the stories and songs,
manipulate with flashcards (put them in order, hold them up, put them in a box etc.), role play situations like
buying in a shop, going to a doctor etc. Introduce a lot of movement. Children have lots of energy and they
usually have fun when performing actions.
• Avoid competition among children – even the greatest activity can turn into a source of misery if somebody
loses. You can compete with the whole group but make sure they win.
• Change tasks into games or play. Below are some examples of how this can be done:

EXAMPLE 1: practising commands

 plain way: teacher reads the commands, students stand in a line and do the commands

 likely outcome: students get bored, distracted or misbehave

☺ better way: teacher pretends to be a wizard (has a magic wand and speaks with characteristic voice) and casts
spells

☺ likely outcome: students get involved, have fun, listen to the teacher, have a meaningful purpose to do the
activity

EXAMPLE 2: a SB exercise

 plain way: teacher explains the exercise, students do it, then close their books and proceed to the next task

 likely outcome: students get bored, distracted or misbehave

☺ better way: teacher promises that when students complete the exercise they will play a game called “fool” with
Eddie (explain what “fool” means in L1). When students are ready make Eddie lie/say false sentences about the
exercise e.g. Marysia’s apple is brown (when it’s red)/This girl likes bananas (when she likes oranges). Students
should correct Eddie: No, Eddie, it is red/No, Eddie she likes oranges. Point out that it is funny and laugh at it
yourself.

☺ likely outcome: students get involved, have a meaningful reason to do the exercise, have fun and practise more

3. CHALLENGE – YES, COMPETITION – NO!

Competition is usually very motivating for learners, but not for such small children. Even if they like to compete,
they are not ready yet to face any kind of failure. Those who lose tend to fall into despair (including loud crying)
while those who win forget it in a short while. The fact that children should not compete does not mean you should
not challenge them. Quite the contrary, presenting a challenge is a great way to involve children entirely.
Some of your students need to be challenged very much to become fully engaged in some tasks. You must be very
sensitive in setting up challenges, though.

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How to challenge your students in a safe way?

• Challenge your students as a whole group, not as individuals

• Promise a reward for the whole group for doing something right. Remember it does not have to be something
material like a sticker or stamp every time. Your applause, playing a favourite game or Eddie’s handshake will
often do the job.
• Challenge them to perform well and tell them Eddie will judge their performance. Do not accept a task as
done until students engage enough. Tell them Eddie wants them to repeat it as he knows they can do better:
sing a song louder, do some actions right or point at flashcards with more energy. You can make up some
gestures showing Eddie’s approval or disapproval.

How to set up competition without risk?

• You can organise “a group competition for singing a song”, after which you will give children some stickers
and praise how well they did.
• You can make children compete as a group against you or Eddie. It is easy to lead the competition in such
a way that the children win with you, which will be very motivating and enjoyable for them. Students should
not win easily, though. Make sure, they put in an effort and try really hard to win.
• Organise games in such a way that each child has a chance to succeed e.g. a shop role-play. Children will
buy only the objects the names of which they already know. Some of them will be choosing items more difficult
to name, while others can pick up the easier ones. In the end they all will leave the shop with a ‘full basket’
• When you play a game where individual students collect something or score points, you must make sure
every child collects something or scores. Sometimes it requires bending the rules. Do not worry, being fair
does not matter here as much as being sensitive to children’s feelings. Praise the overall success, do not
focus on the score.
• Individual students can collect points during the lessons, but all the points land in a common “bag”, e.g on the
board. At the end of the lesson, Eddie counts the points and evaluates wheather the whole group have “won”
the lesson or not. Then, students get rewards, e.g. stamps or stickers.

4. REPETITION AND REVISION

Children love repetition, singing the same songs, playing the same games. They enjoy elements like routines that
reoccur at every lesson or activities carried out in a set sequence. Such a set pattern is provided by frameworks
in our method.

Remember that the amount of things learned by children depends primarily on you. Their deficiencies cannot
be explained by their lack of involvement or their not doing homework. Learning must take place during the
lesson. It is your task to work with children on manipulating the language, to drill it during games, to revise
vocabulary through play, to repeat and act out the stories, to sing songs with appropriate moves, to practise
structures with The FLYING CARPET (Interactive Set) and The Command Set, to repeat some
of the exercises etc. Parents’ cooperation can only increase the guarantee of children’s success. Do not
worry too much though if your students forget what they already knew – it is natural. Your task is to make
sure they are exposed both to the new and old content throughout the course. Still, they will probably forget

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some words, songs and stories during the summer holidays, but what stays in their minds is the ability
to get around in English. They will probably learn old and new bits of language much faster.

The role of such activities like drills or flashcard games is mostly to enhance the process of learning. No less
important, however, is providing opportunities for the other process, which is acquisition. For it to take place, the
vocabulary and structures have to be used in a wide range of contexts. They need to be used in a meaningful way.
When your students use words and structures during revisions, make sure they express themselves. They should
talk about how they feel and what is real to them e.g. when they use the structure “I like...” let them say what they
actually like instead of naming abstract ideas in the pictures. Try to take advantage of situations during lessons,
which need some kind of reaction. Respond to what children say, ask them for information (it does not matter if you
need to mix L2 with L1). Get them genuinely involved by having real conversations with them. When you use the
language taught throughout the course in such a way, your students have a chance to truly understand concepts
and later use these language items creatively and spontaneously.

Children can remember only as much as we will teach them. That is why it is so essential to revise all the
content systematically. Some ideas for revision:

• Use the games from THE GAME CORNER to practise vocabulary and structures from the previous units.
Change the games for the sake of variety, although there will be some favourite ones you are likely to use
frequently. It saves time for explanation and children like familiar things.
• Sing the songs not only from the previous and current unit but come back to the old ones as well.
• Revise older stories from time to time.
• Tell your students and remind their parents to listen to the CD starting from the beginning or watch older stories
or Showtimes on the PLAYGROUND.
• You can come back to exercises which have been already done, and do them again in a different way
• Play pizza game, maze or bingo from the previous units or suggest that your students and their parents
do it at home.
• Revise all the secret words using the Secret Booklet and games from THE GAME CORNER
• Let all children choose their favourite text/activity from the book. Collect the ideas. Revise them during the
lesson.
• Use The FLYING CARPET to revise all the structures up to date.
• Use The Command Set to revise the actions from all the units, mix them creatively.
• Repeat the EARS UP! exercises but ask different, more detailed questions.
• Use stories or illustrations from previous units and talk about them, ask some questions

5. USE OF ENGLISH AND MOTHER TONGUE

It is important to give instructions in simple language and repeat them during lessons in a similar form. Children
can easily guess the meaning from the context, especially, if you use gestures and mime. At the beginning they
will associate a given action with a corresponding gesture. Then they will understand the instruction itself. Gradually,
increase the challenge and check if the instruction or phrase is already understood without gestures or actions.

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Remember, this is your goal. Build up classroom language and control your use of it so your students gradually
learn new phrases and understand more and more. The Classroom Language CHART will be of great help here.

In the first month of learning (if you teach the beginners) it is allowed to use more mother tongue, but it should be
limited with time. We aim at using 90% English during the lessons. It does not mean though that Polish should be
totally eliminated from the lessons - actually it can be quite beneficial, because:

• mother tongue is an integral part of everyone and for young children it is even more important. Allowing kids
to be themselves makes them feel safe. We cannot deprive them of their identity, possibility to express
themselves and show interest for what they are doing.
• at first, when children are not able to express themselves in L2, they use L1 to show what they understand
• using L1 is the best way to confirm that students understand thoroughly the meaning of a language item.
It is important at the presentation stage and when misunderstanding or misuse of language happens.

Should the teacher use Polish during the lesson? – YES, but only in specific situations.

When?

• during presentation of new language items or preparation for a new activity, e.g. when it is necessary
to explain a complicated game or play.
• in some management crisis, especially when:
- you can see tears or you feel that children, especially the small ones, need support, cheering
or a hearing out.
- you are forced to reprimand a child (if the child disturbs the lesson, destroys something,
hits other students etc.)
- the whole group misbehaves and you need to calm them down – use L1 with a serious voice,
then switch to L2 and also change your tone
• when confirming meaning: in some cases it is good to use some mother tongue to confirm understanding
of texts or phrases, especially in the phase of introducing new ones. Be careful not to overuse L1 though
• when correcting their understanding - if you ask students what they understood about a story or song,
you can explain misunderstood items in L1
• when setting a goal for an activity – sometimes you may e.g. ask a pre-listening question in L1 to raise
the interest and give your students a clear goal for listening (to answer the question they have
to understand English anyway)
• occasionally, when it is impossible to create an atmosphere of mystery and suspense in English,
you may want to use L1. Using L1 may help you focus your students and raise their interest.
• when relating to the children’s lives (occasionally and always with a time limit – make sure to try to
implement at least some ideas in L2. Such occasions can be the best opportunities for real communication)

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Should children use Polish during the lesson? – YES, some.

When?
• when they tell you what they understand of a story/song/rhyme, etc. You may allow for some answers
in L1, especially with younger and less advanced students. Such answers also mean that they
understood what they were supposed to
• when they react to your presentation of new language items or an activity
• when they need to express themselves on matters related to the lesson
• if you feel that a child(ren) have a strong urge to tell you something and they cannot do it in English.
You can take a two-minute break and when everyone says something in their mother tongue then go back
to the ‘English only’ rule

Should the teacher try to implement a “No Polish” policy? – YES.

Why?
• Because otherwise students will not try to use English for meaningful communication. They will perceive
it as something practised during activities but not as a means of expressing what they want to express.
It is one of the ways to restrain their talking in L1. It also allows for better concentration and keeps them
from disturbing and distracting others.
How?
• First, you have to explain the ‘No Polish’ rule to your students. They need to know that they are learning
English and if they try to use it and remember not to speak Polish they will be rewarded by you.
Their parents will also be proud and Eddie will be happy because he will be able to understand them.
• You should use the ‘No Polish’ command every time children tend to speak Polish too much, especially
on topics not connected with the lesson. Show them that the same rule applies to you. When you finish
explaining something in Polish say, “Shh, no Polish!” and turn to English.
• When a child starts chatting in Polish and cannot stop, use a simple trick: listen for a while, show interest,
but after that show that you “zip” the child’s mouth and remind of ‘No Polish’ rule.
• Act out a lot with Eddie showing he does not understand, feels excluded and ignored when they speak
Polish, hides in his Sock, cries etc.
• There are also play-like ways to motivate students not to use Polish:
1. MAGIC KEYS: tell students they have magic keys that lock their mouths for Polish at the
beginning of the lesson. The key is imaginary and you should pretend to turn the key in front
of your mouth and hide it somewhere or throw it away.
2. MAGIC BEADS: give students magic beads (something edible, small and soft, e.g. Rice Krispies
or cheerios) that have this power – once they eat the beads they can speak only English
3. CODE: you can program children or they program themselves (like robots) using imaginary
keyboards on their arms. When you type the English code on the keyboard you cannot speak
Polish.
4. SPELL: you cast a spell with a magic wand or a magic cloth put over students’ heads. If they
forget about the rule you can repeat the action during the lesson.

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What are the risks of overusing ‘English only’ and how to avoid them?
The possible risks are:
• Lack of understanding and learning meaningless chunks by heart.
• Lack of possibility to precisely correct their understanding.
• Depriving children of their selves and the possibility to express themselves.
• Lack of emotional connection of teachers and their students and thus making the lesson an artificial
situation without any link to the students’ real lives and needs
• Convincing children that using Polish is something wrong.

You can avoid such situations by introducing a reasonable balance. Of course, you are to teach English and you
want your students to use every opportunity to listen to and practise the foreign language. Some usage of Polish
on both sides in the situations enumerated above is not a crime. Just the opposite – it will make your teaching more
efficient and meaningful.

How to use a foreign language?

• Support your instructions with non-verbal actions. They will be easier to understand.
• Do you remember how parents talk to two-year-olds in their mother tongue? They use ‘caretaker speech’
to make it easier for children to understand. Below are some characteristics of such speech which might
be used by English teachers:
- Short sentences
- Slower rate of speech
- Repetitions
- Simple structures: active verbs, no subordination etc.
- More questions and commands
- Nouns rather than 1st or 2nd person pronouns: “mummy’s here”
- “Here and now” topics (commenting on what you can see) and topic areas immediately relevant to
the child such as the family, home environment, toys, animals, body parts, and food.
- Exaggerated intonation patterns
- Adjustments to pronunciation

• At the beginning use short sentences and simple language. To monitor yourself, it is advisable to have
the Classroom Language CHART in front of you (attached to the Teacher’s File). You can mark the already
introduced phrases there and try to use them as often as possible. Use the already introduced phrases
also during games and activities.
• Remember not to restrict yourself to using only simple and set phrases. If you see that your learners
understand you, talk to them using longer and natural sentences. Our ultimate goal is to make children
understand the natural, everyday language.
• Require a reaction from your learners (e.g. stand up). When you are not sure if they have understood,
ask them in L1 or help by showing them what to do.
• Do not resort to Polish immediately when you can see that only some students understood and the rest
simply follow their actions. Since the language is often connected with movement, students who have not
understood the sentences will copy the other children’s actions first, but gradually they will learn as well.

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 • Use all the visual aids, pictures, toys to support communication. Both real objects and pictures draw
children’s attention, help to remember, stimulate imagination and help them to grasp the meaning.
• Get your children motivated to use a given phrase instrumentally e.g. ‘you will get a crayon if you ask
me in English’. Here are some examples of the classroom language, which children should master:
• Can I have .... please?/Give me.....please.
• Thank you!
• Here you are!
• Can I go to the toilet/bathroom?
• I’m ready!/Ready!
• What’s this?
• (I’m) sorry.
• Can I speak Polish?

The above phrases should be gradually taught and should not be accepted in L1. Scaffold children
in speaking, but require more and more independence. Teach the phrases until children start using them.

6. DISCIPLINE AND FOCUS

Pre-school children may not be used to discipline. That is why in most cases the teacher has to teach rules
and classroom behaviour. This may take time during the first lessons. It may take even a month or so, before
students start acting as you wish them to. Actually, if you teach a group of beginners, the first lessons are hardly
about English, but rather about arranging children around the classroom.

The golden rules are:

✓ TAKE TIME TO TEACH THE CLASSROOM BEHAVIOUR
✓ BE CONSISTENT

How to teach classroom behaviour?

With young learners you will not be able to explain all the classroom rules during the first lesson. You will not
be able to write them down nor expect children to remember. Your job is to introduce discipline elements gradually.
Start with a new element only when they get used to the previous one.

The suggested order of introducing classroom behaviour:

This is the first, most basic ability your Ss should learn. You will be using it during every lesson.
Most of activities which you do on the floor (e.g. exercises in books, flashcard games, listening to
a story) require sitting on the floor.
I.
It helps if you:
1. first say the command: “stand in a circle”
sitting in a
2. make Ss hold their hands
circle
3. use gesture to show them what “a circle” means
4. later say “now sit down”
5. praise your Ss when they do it well

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 Note! Sometimes you will need your students to sit in a bigger circle (to work with their books)
or smaller circle (to play a flashcard game). How do you do it? Use the big/small balloon:
1. first make your Ss stand in a circle and hold hands
2. say “big balloon” and make the circle grow bigger (Ss stretch their arms)
3. then say “small balloon” and make your Ss come closer to the middle
4. say “big balloon” again and while Ss are stretching their arms say “stop” in the appropriate
moment, so that the circle is as big as you wanted
5. then tell your Ss to sit down
You will have to resort to L1 to explain this rule as it is very difficult for many children to obey. Young
Ss have a natural need to talk and communicate all their thoughts immediately. They love being the
centre of attention.

Explain to your Ss how important it is to be quiet and pay attention to T. Often repeat the following
sentences to encourage and motivate Ss to listen. Use L1 or L2 with mime and gesture:
1. Oh, I will be really happy and pleased if you listen carefully now!
2. If you listen carefully now, we will be able to do funny things later/we will play your favourite
game
3. I’m sure you want to get these beautiful stickers, right? Ok, then, listen carefully now and you
II. will get them!
4. Wow! Look what I’ve got here! Stamps! Would you like some? (now whisper) Let’s listen and
being quiet then we’ll get the stamps, shhhhh...
and 5. Eddie says that if you are quiet and listen he’ll be very happy/he’ll give you a hug/he’ll play a
listening game with us.
6. If you are quiet and listen to me I’ll tell your mummy and daddy how good you were, they will
be very proud of you!
Other ideas:
• Introduce “Be Quiet” routine and practise it so many times that whenever your Ss hear the
first words/sounds of it, they will know that they must immediately calm down and be quiet.
• Put your finger to your mouth and say “shhh” and require your Ss to do the same. Wait until
everybody is quiet.
• Pretend you are getting cross when Ss talk, make funny-angry faces, but as soon as they
are quiet – give them a big, pleased smile.
• Pretend Eddie is sad when Ss do not want to stop talking.
When Ss are familiar with sitting in a circle, it is time to introduce the notion of a “line.” The best way
III. is to encourage Ss to stand at the wall. Always support your command with the proper (and always
standing in the same) gesture. Help confused Ss who are wandering around the classroom.
a line It is very important as all songs and rhymes are best performed when Ss stand in a line and T stands
in front of them. Ss do not get distracted by others and they watch T’s movements.
This is one of the easiest things to teach, as it comes quite naturally to children. When you
IV.
perform an action and tell Ss to do the same (use L1 in less advanced groups) they will probably
copying T’s
follow with no problem or hesitation.
move-
Sometimes it is enough to start acting out things and Ss will immediately follow. It is very important
ments
to make Ss stand in a line or in a circle before you start, so that all Ss can see you.
When you start teaching your Ss to repeat after you, invent a gesture which suggests to Ss that
now it is time to repeat. A suggested gesture is: put your index finger to your mouth and move it
to and fro, then put your hand to your ear pretending you are listening. Always when you say
something and show this gesture Ss should know to repeat.
V.
Very often when children learn to repeat they will start repeating everything they hear, even T’s
repeating
commands and comments. Do not worry about it – it is a good way for them to learn extra
after T
expressions.
There may be a few Ss in your group who will not repeat. Encourage them individually, but do not
force. We know from our experience that all Ss start repeating eventually.
In their ‘silent period’ they also listen and remember many things they hear.
VI. If you manage to teach your pre-school Ss to raise their hands to speak, you can consider yourself
raising the master of discipline! It is a very difficult thing for young Ss as they have such a drive to speak
hands and and communicate, that waiting for their turn seems impossible. Some older Ss who attend

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 waiting to kindergarten may be familiar with that rule – they will help you in introducing it and other Ss will
speak follow.
Although it is difficult, try to encourage children to raise their hands. Explain to your Ss why it is
so important and tell them this is how older kids at school behave.
Always praise and even reward Ss for obeying this principle.

Why is it so important to be consistent?

Being consistent is the second very important rule in disciplining children.

• Always notice and comment when children do something right and when they stick to the principles
e.g. raise their hands to speak or help their peer. If you promise to do something when students behave
well, you have to fulfil the promise. If you forget to do it what motivation will your students have to behave
well in the future?
• Always react when children misbehave or do not obey the rules. When you scold them once and then
ignore the same behaviour, students will be confused of what is expected of them during the lesson. If you
warn them of consequences of their misbehavior, remember to give them a chance to amend their ways.
It usually works, but if they still do not listen, there must be consequences (see tips below). Remember!
You must never punish your students!

Below you will find some ideas on how to get students’ attention when you need them to be quiet and focused,
especially before doing a task that requires them to be attentive.

DISCIPLINE AND FOCUS WITH 2 – 4 YEAR OLDS

With the youngest learners it is worth remembering that they continue to learn classroom behaviour throughout the
year, and it is natural that they keep forgetting. So be patient and consistent. Do not give up introducing
and reintroducing the routines. Your students will gradually learn them.

Do not worry if:

• you spend a lot of time during the first lessons teaching children how to sit around you on a carpet, how
to stand in a circle, and how to form a line along a wall
• not all the children join in the activities (some just observe, some play at the side, some look around
and move a lot)
• you see progress in your students’ behaviour and then some of them fall behind and you need to start
all over again

FOCUS POCUS: How to focus students’ attention?

1. Put away all objects that may distract Ss (toys, flashcards etc.)
2. Teach and use the “Be Quiet” routine
3. Make Ss sit in a circle, put your finger to your mouth and say Shhh. Wait for them to calm down;
encourage Ss to copy your gesture, or:
4. Make Ss sit in a line instead of a circle – they are less likely to distract one another.
5. Make up and use a FOCUS POCUS POSITION e.g.:

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 a. Ss sit with their legs crossed and put fingers to their mouths
b. Ss sit with their legs crossed, elbows on their knees, index fingers pointing to the ceiling
c. Ss sit with their legs crossed, hands behind their back

Note: teach FOCUS POCUS POSITION until your students react to the command as soon as they hear it.

6. Teach and use the FINGERS UP! technique before an exercise or activity which requires pointing
to objects:
a. say: “fingers up! fingers up!” and raise your index finger up
b. make Ss raise their index fingers and unless they all do, do not continue
c. ask “are you ready?”, Ss answer “yes”

Note: only when everybody is quiet and the index fingers are all up, you can start the activity

7. Give Ss the sense of mystery and build some suspense. Whisper what you are going to do but make
it sound really special (Now we are going to listen to a very special story. It’s about a naughty hamster.
Oh, no! Something scary is going to happen to him! Ooo!) You can mix L1 and L2 on this occasion*
8. Try to gain Ss’ attention and engagement through your own enthusiasm, Who wants to listen to a funny
story?! I want to listen to a funny story! Eddie, do you want to listen?! And you?! You can mix L1 and L2
on this occasion*
9. If you need to carry out an important exercise and you worry children will not get focused enough, “bribe”
them. Offer them a unique sticker, two extra stamps, a happy face drawn in their book, their favourite game
– whatever makes them happy. Remember to be creative with rewards. One stamp at the end of each
lesson is a good idea, but after some time it stops to be something special and is hardly a reward.
10. Be really enthusiastic when the exercise/listening/activity goes well. Praise your Ss, tell their parents how
great they were, give Ss extra rewards. This may help the next time you will need to focus them. Such
praise and rewards will help Ss remember that concentrating and engaging pays off.
11. If none of these works, it may mean that your Ss are having one of those days when no focus exercise will
work. Let them play some action games during which they can speak and move ☺.

*NOTE:
Do not use L1 to focus your Ss’ attention if your group is talkative and L1 encourages them to speak their minds,
or:
Let Ss say all the important things that are bothering them at the moment – sometimes 3 wasted minutes bring
6 minutes of peace and quiet.

FOCUS POCUS: How does the Teddy Eddie Method

help to focus children and enforce good behaviour?

1. Our Routines, repeatable tasks and procedures help to set up lesson frames and provide the feeling
of safety and predictability. Young children tend to behave better when they know what is expected
of them. The reoccurring tasks mean you will spend time explaining most of them only once.

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 2. We strongly believe in positive reinforcement. That is why the method offers special stickers for teachers
to give away to students as rewards. We also underline the value of praising and rewards at many points
in this book

3. Teddy Eddie as teacher’s assistant can do much more than teacher himself:
a. Eddie does not understand Polish, so he can tell children to speak English only. T: Look! Eddie put
his hands to his ears. He doesn’t understand what you are saying! He can’t speak Polish! Shhh…
b. Eddie can get offended and hide when Ss misbehave and come out to play only when Ss are good,
e.g. T: Oh, no! Where is Teddy Eddie? Oh! He’s in his sock! Come out Eddie! Oh, no! He says he
won’t come out until you’re good. And he’s crying there… Sorry Eddie… The children will be good
now, won’t you?
c. Eddie can be stricter then T and threaten Ss with consequences. Eddie “whispers” something to
T’s ear, and T repeats it with a scared/sad face: Eddie says that if you misbehave like that he will hide
in his Sock and won’t play with you... Oh, no!
d. Eddie can even tell Ss off with a funny voice. It is fine as long as you are also a part of the “naughty
group” and apologise to Eddie for your misbehaviour and make it a sort of game.

Assuming you have taught your students proper classroom behaviour and you are really consistent in your actions
and follow all the rules above, there will still be some students who misbehave.

What to do when children misbehave?

• Try to promise a special reward for being good and doing the tasks. This usually works well. You must
remember to reward Ss as promised, obviously. You will find the list of rewarding ideas below.
• Never get offended or angry at students – this is unprofessional and it never helps.
• Pretend being mildly cross. Threaten students will not get the promised reward. Do not stay “cross”
longer than 1 minute!
• Exclude a naughty child from an activity and make him/her sit on the side. After 1-2 minutes let the
child join the group (if he/she promises to behave well).
• Switch to L1 and with a sad but serious tone tell your Ss that you are sorry they are misbehaving.
Make them promise to change and be good.
• Talk to the Method Supervisor if you have any disciplinary problems. He/she will help you to work
out possible solutions.
• As the last resort, talk to parents and ask them for help; they might be able to give you advice or talk
to the child and promise a reward for good behaviour.

7. MOTIVATION AND REWARDING

Children will follow your instructions, perform tasks, enjoy the lessons and engage in activities only when they
are motivated. “Do it because I say so” does not work! Motivation is one of the crucial things T must remember
about in the classroom.

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CBG (Catch Them Being Good) is the golden rule in motivating children.

Always see the good sides of children. Rather than telling them off, praise them and reward them, it can work
miracles.

Praising
• The first, the simplest and the most successful way to motivate kids is to praise them. Children
need to be appreciated as they need confirmation that they are doing well. Your job is to find things you
may admire your students for – the whole group or individual students.
• Praising should be one of your routines and natural things you do. Remember: there is never
too much of it in a young learners’ classroom.
• Even if a child is naughty and disturbs the lesson, praise the moment when he or she takes an active
part in an activity (CBG!)
• If you have got a very quiet child in your group, you may tell the child that you appreciate him or her for
being good and behaving well (CBG!)
• Often repeat: You were great today! Wow! You’re doing really well! Fantastic! and other approving
expressions.
• When the lesson is over, come out and tell the parents how proud you are of the group. Both students
and parents will feel greatly motivated. It is also good to pick a few kids to praise to their parents individually
after a lesson, this really gives them a lift! Remember to pick different children after every lesson, so that
all of them are eventually praised.

NOTE: once you get used to praising students regularly, there is the danger that you will start to treat it as a bad
habit – with an indifferent voice and empty look. Remember that praise works only if it is true and you express
it with some true emotions. Beware also of overusing praise. Some teachers forget what it is really for
and out of habit say the words of praise all the time – even if a child does something inaccurately.

Other rewards / positive enforcements:

• Everybody claps their hands when the group (or some students) do well
• Eddie kisses or gives a handshake (girls prefer the former, boys the latter)
• teacher or Eddie gives students a “high-five”
• students can play their favourite game or sing their favourite song
• teacher does something that is usually done by students (especially in a funny way) – students can give
orders to teacher (students become teachers, captains or bosses – kids love it!)
• stickers (in the book or on students’ clothes)
• stamps (in the book or on body parts)
• pluses/smileys/flowers collected on the board or a sheet of paper during the lesson. Students collect
them as a group (NOTE: there are only pluses, do not give minuses in this age group as they are very
demotivating). At the end of the lesson count the items with all students, praise them and reward them with
something, e.g stamps or stickers.
• sweets – only for special occasion
• colouring pages with e.g. children’s favourite characters from a cartoon. You will find lots of them
on the Internet. (NOTE: they should colour it at home, not during the lesson)
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NOTE: if your students are enthusiastic and motivated and they eagerly join all the games and activities,
the activities are a reward in themselves. There is no need to give children special rewards then. You had
better keep them up your sleeve for when you need a special motivator.

8. PAIR-WORK AND GROUP-WORK

Teacher-students interaction is dominant during pre-school courses, however, we strongly suggest that teacher
should begin to introduce S-Ss and S-S interaction by means of simple pair-work and group-work. For such work
you need a lot of patience. You cannot be discouraged after a few failed attempts, and remember that at this point
the lesson may become a little chaotic. But as soon as these short spans of pair or group-work get going, they will
be extremely beneficial for many reasons:

• they make lessons more efficient (more students are able to speak at the same time)
• they make more students interested and involved in an activity as they do not have to wait a long time
for “their turn,” and they feel that the game/exercise depends on them
• they prepare students for later stages of education, when pair and group-work are crucial
• they encourage the first real communication and creativity in using L2 (with teacher’s proper
scaffolding)

How to introduce pair-work?

The table below shows steps of introducing pair-work using the example of the Pizza Game and Commands. These
two are the easiest to start with. If you succeed with pair-work here you will be able to introduce it in other activities,
too. We always place instructions on where and how to introduce pair-work in the exercises and games descriptions.

PIZZA GAME COMMANDS

1. Spin a crayon or move your index finger around 1. Make Ss stand in a line and say some
the pictures. Ss say, ‘Stop’ and you say the commands from the Command Set. Ss do the
word/sentence. actions.
2. Every S spins the crayon/moves the finger in 2. Pick a S and let him/her say the commands to
turn. Other Ss shout, ‘Stop’ and the S says the others.
word/sentence. 3. Pick a pair of Ss and explain that one should
3. Pick two Ss and explain to the group that only say the commands and the other should react.
these two are playing – one spins the crayon Tell all the children to watch the pair as they will
while the other says, ‘Stop’ – use L1 for better have to do the same (you might use L1 here).
understanding. 4. Make Ss stand in pairs facing his/her partner
4. Make Ss sit in pairs facing each other and tell and tell them they are to do the same they have
them to do the same thing they have seen seen before.
before. 5. Support weaker and confused Ss
5. Support weaker and confused Ss. 6. Monitor the group. Praise when they try and
6. Monitor the group, praise when they try and reward whenever they succeed.
reward whenever they succeed.
NOTE: It will be more fun and Ss will be more
involved if you let them “do magic” (or pretend to be
robots, or soldiers) – instead of “jump” Ss say
“Abaracadabra, jump!” and move their “magic wands”
(which may be ordinary markers or crayons).

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How to introduce group-work?

The table below shows the steps for introducing group-work based on the Shop Game and Bingo Game. These two
are the easiest to start with. If you succeed with group-work here you will be able to introduce it in other activities,
too. We always place instructions on where and how to introduce group-work in the exercises and games
descriptions.

SHOP GAME BINGO GAME

1. First play the game in a “traditional” way. Use a 1. Check which BINGO option suits your Ss best.
chair to imitate a counter and sell 2. Play the game with your Ss. First you call out the
things/flashcards to Ss. words.
2. Choose one S to take T’s part (become the shop 3. Choose one S to take T’s part.
assistant) 4. After that ask Ss if they all want to be teachers –
3. After that ask Ss if they all want to be shop they always do!
assistants – they always do! 5. Divide Ss into 2 groups and choose one S to be
4. Divide Ss into 2 groups and choose one S to be “the teacher” in each group – make them sit in
“shop assistant” in each group – make them front of the rest.
stand/sit next to a chair (the counter). Distribute 6. Monitor and scaffold Ss.
the flashcards/items equally. 7. Alternate the roles until each child has become
5. Monitor and scaffold Ss (both shop assistants the teacher.
and customers).
6. Alternate the roles until each child has become
the shop assistant. Remember! Spend some time on arranging the
groups. Ss should sit in two lines and the “teachers”
Remember! If you want this exercise to work and in front of them. The groups should not mingle. If they
your Ss to have fun, do not control language are scattered on the carpet the game will not work.
accuracy too much. Scaffold Ss and help them, but
do not force them to repeat correct and ideal
sentences every time. Your job is to encourage
natural communication.

Forget about using these types of interaction with the youngest groups. It takes a lot of effort to organize tasks
with the whole group and keep them all engaged even for a short period of time. They are not yet ready for more
independent work. It would be a waste of energy and time especially since the lessons are short.

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 9. HOW TO INTRODUCE AND CLOSE ACTIVITIES?

When you teach, use the golden rule:

FIRST SAY WHAT IS GOING TO BE DONE.

THEN DO IT.
FINALLY, SAY WHAT YOU HAVE JUST DONE.

It is very important to properly start and finish activities. Very often it may determine the success or failure of it.
Young students like to know what is going to happen, e.g. what “great game” and what surprises the teacher has
prepared. It is important to set the goal of each exercise or activity. Very often students are reluctant and not eager
to do things because they do not see the point of it. Who would like to repeat meaningless sentences for the sake
of pure repetition? Surely, not the pre-school child.

HOW TO INTRODUCE AN ACTIVITY (the Flying Carpet as an example)

yes No
1. Ss do the FLYING CARPET PROCEDURE.
2. Ss sit in a circle on the “carpet”.
3. T says: Listen! We’re going to do something
1. Ss sit in a circle.
special with Eddie. We’re going to interview
2. T focuses Ss.
him! (L1/L2)
3. T starts the Interactive Set: Have you got a
Now I’m going to ask you about your toys.
doll?
Have you got many toys at home? Sure you
4. Ss answer and the activity continues that
have!
way.
First you tell me about your toys and then we
will ask Eddie about his toys, OK?
Note: Students have no idea what and why they are
4. Eddie whispers sth to T’s ear.
doing and what is the point of this activity. They may
T says: Eddie promised that if you tell him
quickly get bored.
about your toys and do not use any Polish, he
will give you some special stamps. Do you like
stamps? Yes? Ok, let’s start.

HOW TO CLOSE AN ACTIVITY (an exercise in SB as an example)

yes no
1. Some Ss finish an exercise.
2. T checks the exercise and evaluates: Wow,
that’s great! You’ve done very well. Good job!
3. T individualises the evaluation and asks extra
questions: Ania what colour is your apple? Do
1. Some Ss finish the exercise.
you like apples, Ania? And do you like apples,
2. T says: OK, close you books now and stand
Sonia? Yes? Oh, I like apples, too.
up. Olek are you ready? No? That’s ok, you
(During that chat the slower Ss have a chance
will finish at home. Now close your book,
to finish.)
quickly. Stand up. We will sing a song now.
4. T says: Ok, I see everybody is ready, yes? Are
you ready?
Note: No sense of completing the exercise (especially
Ss answer: YES!
poor Olek) and no sign of teacher’s appreciation may
T: Ok, I’ll show Eddie the exercise, look Eddie!
discourage and confuse students.
Do you like it?
Eddie: Yes!
Eddie claps his hands as a reward.
5. T: Well done! Now when the exercise is ready,
we can close our books and put them away.

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Through proper closure of activities you will be able to build up some learning awareness and simple evaluation.
Do not only discuss and evaluate single games or exercises but also whole lessons. Ask students what they liked
most and what they really enjoyed during the lesson. Give them two activities to vote for (which was more fun),
ask what was, in their opinion, the “hit” of the lesson.

The pluses of these approaches are: students will remember what was going on during the lesson and the lesson
will not be a half an hour of random and easily forgettable exercises but an adventure with different hits and extra
events.

10. CLASSROOM ORGANISATION

If you do not prepare and think your lesson over, there is a chance it will change into total chaos. This will not only
discourage children from learning, but will also make you feel washed out and frustrated. Predicting problems
and flexibility in reacting to problems is an ability which is usually acquired with time. So do not give up if you are
a beginning teacher or if it is the first time you have taught such little students and your first lessons did not go
as well as you wanted them to. Always prepare your lessons thoroughly; the time you put in will pay off .

HOW TO ORGANISE THE CLASSROOM AND THE TEACHING MATERIALS?

• Provide enough space on the carpet as your whole lesson will take place there. Move all the tables and chairs
away (or, if it is possible, remove them from the classroom).
• Remember about the children’s safety: there must be no sharp edges standing out, no dangerous objects
lying around.
• Put away everything that might divert students’ attention like toys, crayons, markers, books. If not, students
will surely find them much more interesting than you.
• Put the CD player on the floor/on a shelf next to you. This will save you from running to and fro while students
wait ready to sing.
• Have flashcards and other necessary items prepared next to you and arrange them in a logical way. You can
keep all the things in Eddie’s Box. You should prepare all flashcards you want to use in piles (1 st set, 2nd set,
story etc.). This will make them easier to find during the lesson.
• Students should not be distracted by their own toys, books, crayons. Establish the following rules
at the beginning of the school year:
1. students’ toys stay outside of the classroom
2. students’ bring in only their books and the Secret Booklets (we provide crayons). Children leave
bags, clothes and other things outside, usually with their parents.
3. students hand in their books when they enter the classroom. The teacher puts them in a pile.
During the lesson students must not look into their books whenever they feel like it.
4. during the lesson it is the teacher who distributes the books when needed (children cannot read
their names yet)
5. children take off their shoes and put on slippers (or wear socks). It is more comfortable and less
dangerous than hard soles on active children.
• Check the CD before the lesson. Try to plan your lesson in a way that will not require changing the CDs too
much. Fiddling around with changing, always takes time and is distracting.
• Always have the CHARTS at hand (the Game Reminders, the Command Set, the FLYING CARPET).
They may prove very useful when you need an extra activity.

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 ENGAGING PARENTS

We believe that activating parents and engaging them in their child’s course is the way to the child’s success.
Your role as a teacher is to provide parents with information, advice and support. However, not every parent wishes
to be engaged, has time or has the ability to help. So, do not burden parents with too much homework if they
do not want it.

We provide parents with a GUIDE FOR PARENTS which contains the description of our method, a syllabus of each
chapter with the content of teaching, lists of vocabulary and the description of recordings, all with Polish translations.
Moreover, the parents get ideas and exercises for practicing at home with their children.

REMEMBER! REGULAR CONTACT WITH PARENTS IS YOUR DUTY!

1. Small children are usually brought to a lesson by their parents. Find a moment before or after the lesson
to talk with them, tell them what the lesson looked like or will look like this day. Instruct them about what
children should listen to at home, what has been already covered, what to bring to the lesson next time.
Two minutes will not cost you a lot of time and you will gain the trust of parents. They will perceive you as
a dedicated and responsible teacher.
2. Sometimes talk to parents individually and discuss the progress of a child. The important thing
to remember is to not only talk to parents but also to listen to them. Always ask whether their child likes
the lessons. Ask whether he/she talks about the lessons at home and how keen he/she is on practising at
home. If a child is not brought to the lessons by parents, it is necessary to contact them at least two times
a semester. Make a call and invite them to a meeting or discuss everything on the phone. Do not wait for
parents to contact you first; it may never happen.
3. Once a week send the parents an e-mail. This is a very important form of contact and that is why we
dedicate a section below on it as well as a chapter in the Teacher’s File where you will find e-mail samples.
4. Twice a year invite parents to visit your lesson. The first open lesson should be organized after about
3 months of teaching the group. The second can be organized at the end of the course and involves giving
out diplomas.
• Invitations should be written with the accurate date and time and given directly to parents.
• It is very important to talk to parents at the end of the lesson. You should briefly discuss the lesson,
explain what the main point of the lesson was and what the main assumptions of our method are.
Praise the group and emphasise things they do well and remember. Then ask parents to come
to you individually to talk about their child if they wish. Refrain from scolding children; at this age it is
a huge demotivator both for children and their parents.
5. Twice a year you should give parents a PROGRESS REPORT where you describe their child’s
individual progress in different fields (vocabulary, stories, songs, commands, questions and games). In the
EVALUATION CHAPTER you will find instructions on how to write this letter and how to evaluate individual
students. The Teacher’s File contains helpfull charts to be filled in during the evaluation lessons.
The Method Supervisor will provide you with electronic versions of the PROGRESS REPORTS.

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HOW TO WRITE AN E-MAIL TO YOUR STUDENTS’ PARENTS?

1. once a week write an e-mail to your students’ parents, it should be the same e-mail, where
you describe the group’s progress and what the children did during the lessons
2. from time to time you may write individual e-mails, where you praise individual children and describe
their special achievements. Do not scold any students in such an e-mail. Any negative information should
be given to parents in person.
3. always use a proper heading: Drodzy/Szanowni Rodzice, remember about capital letters!
4. give 2-3 sentences of information about what the group did at the lessons, what new things the children
learnt, what was revised (give pages and CD numbers). Do not use the word: przerabiany (instead:
ćwiczony, powtarzany, utrwalany, wprowadzany). Do not use the word: lekcja (instead: zajęcia).
5. praise the children (for their good behaviour, being active, telling a story well, singing nicely etc.),
your praise must be honest!
6. Useful expressions::
7. ZAUWAŻAM, ŻE DZIECI CORAZ CZĘŚCIEJ/ Z CORAZ WIĘKSZĄ ŁATWOŚCIĄ…
8. JESTEM BARDZO DUMNA PONIEWAŻ DZIECI….
9. CHCĘ BARDZO POCHWALIĆ DZIECI/ GRUPĘ ZA/PONIEWAŻ….
10. DZIECI ŚWIETNIE OPANOWAŁY/ DAŁY SOBIE RADĘ Z ….
11. CORAZ LEPIEJ WYCHODZI GRUPIE/ DZIECIOM….
12. from time to time praise the parents, too, e.g. Widać, ze praca w domu daje świetne efekty; Bardzo
dziękuję za czas poświęcony na zabawę w domu z dzieckiem – efekty widać na zajęciach, etc. The praise
must be honest!
13. give some information on what can be practised at home (about 2-3 things that may be listened
to/revised)
14. Useful expressions:
15. ZACHĘCAM DO…..
16. W RAZIE MOŻLIWOŚCI PROSZĘ O…..
17. W WOLNYCH CHWILACH MOŻNA…..
18. write Secret Words and their Polish translations
19. write other information which may be relevant, e.g. remind them about on open lesson, give information
about Christmas-Easter break etc.
20. End with: Pozdrawiam i bardzo / serdecznie dziękuję za współpracę, lektor……

REMEMBER!

✓ Do not praise or scold individual children in an e-mail addressed to the whole group!
✓ Check the ENGAGING PARENTS section in Teacher’s File. You will find e-mail samples there.

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CLASSROOM BEHAVIOUR OF 2 – 4 YEAR OLDS, AND PARENT INVOLVEMENT

The greatest advantage of attending an English course at the age of two or three is “being immersed in the
language”, listening to English as often as possible, and assimilating not only new words or expressions but most
importantly the way English sounds. To take full advantage of this fact, it is especially important with this age group
to engage parents in the course. As such young children are more prone to acquisition not learning, it is vital they
are exposed to the language as often as possible.

• Ask parents to play the CD to children as often as possible. Children do not need to actively listen.
They can play while listening, or do whatever they want.
• Ask parents to act out the showtimes with their children. Tell the parents to mime together with their
children at the beginning and gradually let the children mime on their own. Parents can also give children
random commands. The children may also try to give the commands to their favourite toys.
• Ask parents to play the PLAYGROUND games with their children
• Introduce parents to simple questions like ‘What’s this?’ ‘Where’s the…?’ ‘What colour’s the…?’
and ask them to practice with children using these phrases.

INTRODUCING RULES

Most of the children who first come to your lessons are in a totally new situation. They are not used to being
in a group of peers, to you and your instructions, or obeying the rules introduced in the classroom. They are very
young, so they may be moody at times, they may be sleepy or distracted. They do not yet know how to control their
behaviour and their basic needs have to be satisfied. Be sensitive to this fact and try to be flexible but also eliminate
any additional factors that may interrupt the lesson.
• Organize a meeting with parents at the beginning of the school year and every time you feel some rules
should be reminded or introduced. We recommend one at the beginning and then a second one after
a short period of time, but organize short meetings every time you need.
• Ask the parents to make sure children ate or went to the bathroom before the lesson.
• Tell them not to allow the children to bring in any toys or food and drink because it ruins their
concentration.( If they have to bring in a toy to feel safe, organize “an observer’s bench” where all the toys
are put to “watch” the lesson.)
• Always justify your requests so the parents know that what you want is for the children’s well-being
and for an effective lesson.
• Be consistent! Parents often resist changes, believing they are protecting their children.
• If a child wants to leave the classroom during the lesson try to keep them inside, tell them the lesson
will soon be finished. If children insist on going out - let them, but the parent should know they are to return
to the classroom as soon as possible. Such behaviour is usually “contagious”: if one child wants to go to
the bathroom, suddenly all of them need to. Tell the parents they are expected to take care of their child
outside the classroom as you need to continue the lesson and have a group to look after.
• Be clear about what the children need to bring. Actually all they need are the books. You should collect
the books as the children enter and only distribute them to the children during the lesson when you want
them to work with the book. It will save a lot of unnecessary confusion.

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THE PRESENCE OF PARENTS DURING THE LESSONS

The nature of our method requires activating parents and engaging them in their child’s course. It does not require
the parents to be present at the lessons. Quite the contrary, from what we observe, such a presence often distracts
children and sometimes prevents them from truly joining the group and learning social behaviour in a group
of peers.

Sometimes, especially with such young children, there needs to be a transitory period when a parent is present in
the classroom. If a child cries and is afraid to part with a caretaker, it is better to let them in, than struggle for the
whole lesson to calm the child down. Stay relaxed, the parent is not there to judge you, but to support their child in
a new situation. After some time, when the child feels safer with you and the group, suggest that the parent try and
stay outside; eventually it will work. It is important to try and do this because otherwise other children may become
jealous, and even though they had no problem separating from their parents at the beginning, they may start copying
the behaviour of the less independent child. Explain to the parent what your goal is and why their presence may be
harmful in the long run and ask for cooperation. Sometimes the fears of the parents are greater than those
of a child. If this is the case assure them you will let them know any time their presence is necessary.

If you invite parents inside, discuss these rules with them:

• Tell them they should stay as “invisible” as possible not to distract the children.
• Ask them not to discipline or interact in any other way with their child unless it is necessary and you
specifically ask for it.
• Tell them you are in control of the group and the children need to learn to follow your instructions and react
to the changing situation in the classroom you create.

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 EVALUATION

It is very important to set goals and objectives for students and evaluate their achievements. It will help you
to teach the group successfully and approach individual children properly. The aims of the evaluation are:

✓ to observe students’ progress

✓ to be able to inform parents and give them accurate information about their child’s performance
✓ to see how to modify lessons and teaching in order to achieve the best results
✓ to reach the maximum potential of the group and individual children
✓ to develop an individual approach to the children

The Course Manual and the Teacher’s File provide various tools for evaluation.

Firstly, it is immensely important to read carefully the THE THREE LEVELSchapter in this Course Manual (see the
HOW TO WORK WITH TEDDY EDDIE chapter). There is a table with a description of each level, as well
as information about what is expected of students and what the teacher’s role is on each level. You should analyse
this chart and think it over before you start teaching. Then come back to it when necessary while the course lasts,
as the whole evaluation system in the method is based on this THREE LEVELS distinction.

Your goal as a teacher should be to guide your students to reach the highest level possible. To do that you should
check your students’ progress regularly. To simplify this process we created a few EVALUATION TOOLS:

I. THE EVALUATION CHART

In one group of children you may find students of different ages and skills, as well as students at different language
levels. In a group of ten preschool children there are always some that master most of the material and some that
will surely lag a bit behind. Your role as their teacher is to observe and record the performance and progress
of each individual student. We prepared THE EVALUATION CHART which will let you do it in an easy and effective
way.

Below you can see an example chart from The Red Book of Teddy Eddie and His Sock:

GROUP: EVALUATION CHART, SEMESTER 1

NAMES:

VOCABULARY:
CLASSROOM: board, chair, door, floor, table, window, book,
crayon, paper, pencil
BODY PARTS: eyes, ears, finger/fingers, nose, mouth,
hand/hands, leg/legs, knees, neck, shoulders, toes, tummy
TOYS: ball, balloon, blocks, car, doll, robot, ship, teddy bear,
train
SECRET WORDS: box, bin, house, leaf, bird, grass, sweet,
forest, sun, toothbrush, spoon, ghost, plate, money, towel, traffic
lights, camera

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 TEXTS:
STORIES:
Meet Eddie
Goodnight Lucy
SONGS AND RHYMES:
Hello, Secret Word, Buzzy Bees, Bye bye, Teddy bear
disappear!, Two little eyes, Playing with a ball, Toddlers walk,
Head and shoulders, This is how, Pizza and spaghetti
SKILLS:
ANSWERING QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH:
What is this?, Is it a (pencil)?, Are you ready?, Where is...?,
What's the secret word today?, What colour is (the pencil)?,
What's your name?, Are you happy?, How many (legs) have you
got?, How old are you?, Have you got (a ball)?
REACTING TO COMMANDS AND ACTING OUT ACTIVITIES:
close the door, close your eyes, jump, jump again higher, look at
(the clock), open your eyes, run, sit down, sit on (the floor), stand
in a circle,
look around, pull your ear, put your finger on your nose, shake
your hands, smell your feet, touch your toes
build with blocks, feed a doll, kick a ball, play (with toys), roll the
ball, sleep
PLAYING GAMES:
I spy with my little eye…, Pizza game, Shop game, Maze, Bingo,
How many fingers? What's in the bag?

You will find this chart in the Teacher’s File. It contains blank spaces to be filled in with appropriate symbols
(1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3) from THE LEVEL ASSIGNMENT CHART, which is described below.

THE EVALUATION CHART allows the teacher to keep an individualized record of each child’s performance.
The chart also enables the teacher to clearly record the progress of the whole class during the year. It gives you
valuable information to help you address the specific needs of individual children and provides a useful basis for
reports and meetings with parents.

II. THE LEVEL ASSIGNMENT CHART

It is a chart which describes all the possible achievements on all three levels in the method. The teacher just chooses
the appropriate assignment for each students in the area of VOCABULARY (not only single words but also words
in context and building sentences), TEXTS (stories, songs, rhymes) or SKILLS (asking and answering questions,
reacting to commands and playing games). Below you can see a fragment of THE LEVEL ASSIGNMENT CHART.

LEVEL ANSWERING QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH

1A The student* can answer some questions in L1.

LEVEL 1
1B The student* can answer some questions in L2 using yes/no or simple words.

98
 The student* can answer most questions in L2 using yes/no or simple words and repeat
2A
some question after the teacher.
LEVEL 2
The student* can answer most questions in L2 using yes/no or simple sentences. The
2B
child can ask a question with the teacher’s help.
The student* can answer all questions in L2. The child can ask and answer questions
LEVEL 3 3A
without the teacher’s help.

*when you copy and paste the text to the Progress Report replace “The student” with the student’s name

You will find the complete LEVEL ASSIGNMENT CHART in the Teacher’s File.

III. THE PROGRESS REPORT FOR PARENTS

It is a version of THE EVALUATION CHART from above, modified for parents. As the method requires regular
contact with your students’ parents you are obliged to hand in a PROGRESS REPORT to the parents twice a year
(after each semester).

In the Teacher’s File there are two PROGRESS REPORT sheets, one for each semester, with Polish translations
of all vocabulary, questions or commands. You will receive electronic versions of these REPORTS as well as of the
THE LEVEL ASSIGNMENT CHART. It will enable you to copy and paste the right sentences about each child’s
achievements. This should save a lot of work and let the parents receive a thorough and specific summary
of their child’s performance and progress.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU EVALUATE YOUR STUDENTS?

You should observe your students while working on a unit and fill in the EVALUATION CHART after the unit
is completed. Come back to the old notes to check if your students performance has changed. During the revision
lessons check the previous units as well, to see if there was any progress in your students achievements.

99
References:

Ashby, W. R. (1960). Design for a Brain. London: Chapman & Hall.

Asher, J. The Total Physical Response Approach to Second Language Learning. The Modern Language Journal,
Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan., 1969), pp. 3-17

Asher, J. (1977). Learning Another Language Through Actions: The Complete Teacher’s Guidebook Sky Oaks
Productions

Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dhority, L. (1991). The ACT Approach: The Use of Suggestion for Integrative Learning. Philadelphia, PA: Gordon
and Breach Science Publishers.

Ellis, R. (1997) Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Harley, B., J. Howard and D. Hart (1995) Second language processing at different ages: Do younger learners pay
more attention to prosodic cues than sentence structure? Language Learning 45, I: 43-71.

Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Johnson, J., and E. Newport (1989) Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of
maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology 21: 60 – 99.

Krashen, S. D., Terrell, T. D., Ehrman, M. E., and Herzog, M. (1984). A theoretical basis for teaching the receptive
skills. Foreign Language Annals, 17(4), 261-275.

Krashen, S. (2003). Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Krashen, S. (1987). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Prentice-Hall
International.

Lightbown, P., and N. Spada (1999). How languages are learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moon, J. (2000). Children Learning English. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann.

Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology. London: Prentice Hall International.

Patkowski, M. (1980) The sensitive period in the acquisition of syntax in a second language. Language Learning
30/2: 449 – 72.

Pinter, A. (2006).Teaching Young Language Learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Read, C. (2004) “Scaffolding children’s talk and learning.” written for Cambridge ESOL Young Learner Symposium,
May 2004.

Richards, J.C. and T.S. Rodgers, (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Śpiewak, G, „Angielski udomowiony” http://www.swierszczyk.pl/dla-rodzicow/nauka-jezykow/

Terrell, T. D. (1977). A natural approach to second language acquisition and learning 1. The Modern Language
Journal, 61(7), 325-337.

Wright, A. (1995). Storytelling With Children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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 THE GAME CORNER

 this symbol means that it can be used as a Secret Word Game

☺ this symbol means that the game is appropriate for Teddy Eddie PLAY and sometimes even for MINI

FLASHCARD GAMES


YOU NEED:
1. POINT AND CHEAT ☺ a set of flashcards, some magnets or blue
tac (optional)

1.
T puts the cards around the classroom (you can hang them or put them in different places).
2.
Make Ss stand up so that they need to turn around to be able to point to the right pictures.
3.
T says a word which is on one of the cards. Ss point to the correct card.
4.
The best Ss are allowed to cheat and point to a wrong card on purpose. Gradually all Ss are allowed
to cheat.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Ss who mastered the words best and become bored should be the first to cheat
• As cheating is the greatest fun of the game allow all Ss cheat, even if it messes the game up at the
end
• With young Ss the pointing itself is a nice game to play. They are not able to do the cheating part.


YOU NEED:
2. AM I CHEATING? ☺ a set of flashcards

1. T shows Ss a card and says: This is a car.

2. If there is a car in the picture Ss say Yes/True.
3. If there is something else in the picture Ss say No/ False. T asks What is it then? Ss answer.
4. S should take on the T’s role as soon as possible.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Later you can introduce Yes, it is. /No, it isn’t. as an answer.

• This game can be also played in pairs, if you provide all pairs with a set of (or a few) flashcards.
• With young Ss you can accept one word answers e.g. “a bike”.


YOU NEED:
3. MUSIC CIRCLE ☺ a set of flashcards, a CD player and some
music

1. Ss sit in a circle, some Ss are holding cards (2-4 cards per group).
2. T puts some music on. Ss pass the cards around when the music is on.
3. T stops the music and calls out a word.
4. S with the card stands up and repeats the word.
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OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Use the course CD and play well known songs, Ss like to sing along when they play
• For young Ss it takes a lot of time to learn to pass the flashcard around. Some groups may find it
impossible


YOU NEED:
4. DEAD PHONE ☺ a set of flashcards

1. Ss sit in a circle or in a row, T (or S) whispers a word to the first S. He/she whispers the word to the
next S and the game continues in that way.
2. There are some flashcards in the middle of the circle or at the end of the row of Ss. The last S says the
word aloud and picks the correct card.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Young Ss tend to „whisper” the words rather loudly, do not worry, it does not spoil the fun,
• You can correct S if you hear that the word they’re saying is completely different from what it should
be
• With young Ss simply ask them to whisper the word to Eddie’s ear.


YOU NEED:
5. DEAD FAX ☺ a set of flashcards

1.
Ss sit in a circle or in a row, T passes a card around to the children so that each child has it in their
hands then each child passes the card to the next child.
2. Ss must look at the card and whisper the word on the card.
3. The last S says the word loudly.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Explain to Ss the notion of fax machine, they probably do not know it (L1)
• It is a great game to revise words that Ss do not know very well yet
• Remember it’s /fæks/ NOT /faks/ ;-)
• To make the game challenging for more advanced students you can pass a few flashcards at the
same time and in different directions (clockwise and anti-clockwise if Ss sit in a circle)
• You may ask all Ss to say the word out loud, instead of only the last S.


YOU NEED:
6. WHAT’S MISSING? ☺ a set of flashcards, some magnets or blue tac
(optional)

1. T puts the cards on the floor/on the board. T tells Ss to remember the cards.
2. T says Close your eyes and hides one flashcard.
3. T says Open your eyes and asks What’s missing?
4. Ss guess.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• To make the game more challenging you can hide more than one flashcard.
• S can take over T’s role.
• With young Ss start the game with only 2 flashcards and gradually add more.

102
 
YOU NEED:
7. FLASH THE CARD ☺ a set of flashcards

1. T flashes a card quickly, (T holds the card and moves it sideways quickly).
2. Ss must guess what is in the picture.

OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Encourage Ss to use full sentences, e.g. This is..., You’ve got... I think this is...
• This game can be also played in pairs, provide all pairs with a set of/a few flashcards.


YOU NEED:
8. PICTURE BIT BY BIT ☺ a set of flashcards, a cloth/a piece of paper

1. T shows Ss a flashcard bit by bit (T can cover the card with a cloth/a piece of paper).
2. Ss must guess what is in the picture.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Encourage Ss to use full sentences, e.g. This is..., You’ve got... I think this is...
• This game can be also played in pairs, provide all pairs with a set of/a few flashcards, a cloth or a
piece of paper


YOU NEED:
9. LIP READING ☺ a set of flashcards

1. T puts some flashcards on the board or places them on the floor.

2. T whispers a word.
3. Ss must lip read the word and point to the correct flashcard.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Instead of pointing to the correct flashcard Ss can repeat the word/pick up the card/cover it etc.
• As it can be a difficult task to lip read the words, T should whisper the words clearly enough for Ss to
understand.
• Young Ss can play this game only if they are extremely focussed.


YOU NEED:
10. PASS THE BOX ☺ a set of flashcards, a box, a CD player and
“PASS THE BOX” song.

1. Ss sit in a circle, Ss pass around a box with flashcards in it.

2. T plays the music.
3. When T stops the music, S who holds the box must draw a card and say what it is.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• There is a special song recorded for this game: “PASS THE BOX.”
• You can use flashcards with vocabulary, stories or showtime pictures.
• The box with flashcards can be placed on the floor in the middle of the circle of Ss, Ss pass a
mascot/a ball then.

103
 • Make sure that all Ss score some points. Do not count the points and compare Ss – you do not want
tears during your lesson.
• With young Ss it takes a lot of time to learn to pass the box around but it is worth trying.


YOU NEED:
11. TIDY UP ☺ a set of flashcards, a box

1.T scatters the flashcards on the floor (or on the chairs/tables etc). The pictures are in a mess, Ss must
“tidy up.”
2. There is a box next to T.
3. T picks one S and says: Ania give me…/Ania put the… in the box
4. Chosen S picks the correct card and gives it to T/puts it in the box. T calls out the next person, or:
5. The same S can call out the next person and tell him/her to give a card/put a card in the box.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• To make the game more challenging you can give commands to more than one S at a time.
• Explain the purpose of the game – tidying up (L1), you can introduce the phrase What a mess!


YOU NEED:
12. UP AND DOWN
a set of flashcards (2 sets of flashcards -
optional)

1. T gives Ss some flashcards, each S must have one card.

2. T calls out a word. S with the right card must stand up and sit down quickly.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Ss can hold more than one card.

• After some time one S can call out words.
• Some Ss can have the same cards (when you have 2 sets of flashcards), then both Ss stand up.
• Other option for UP AND DOWN GAME: T holds the flashcards, T shows Ss a card and says what it
is. If T uses the correct name for the picture– Ss stand up, if T gives an incorrect name – Ss sit down.


YOU NEED:
13. PULL MY EAR, DISAPPEAR!
a set of flashcards , a cloth, a magic wand

1. Ss sit in a circle. T puts some flashcards on the floor.

2. Ss should look at the cards and remember them.
3. Ss say and perform the actions from the rhyme: Pull my nose, pull my ear, abracadabra, disappear!
4. While Ss say the rhyme T covers the cards with the cloth and moves the magic wand above it.
5. T takes one or two cards from the set (Ss cannot see which ones).
6. T lifts the cloth and Ss guess which ones have disappeared.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Use 4 cards the very 1st time the game is played progressing to more cards as Ss become familiar
with the game.
• Let Ss “cast spells”, they can pretend that pencils or crayons are the magic wands.
• Explain to your Ss what “disappear” means.
• Teach Ss the rhyme first.
• Try to play the game as if you were really doing a magic trick, it will change the game into something
extraordinary and special.

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 YOU NEED:
14. STORY PASSWORDS
a set of flashcards, a CD player, recorded
story/exercise

1. T places a set of flashcards on the floor.

2. T says/plays from a CD a story which contains the words from the cards.
3. When Ss hear a word from a card, they must point to the card.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Ss do not point to the cards but put them in correct order/cover them/pick them up etc.
• Ss clap their hands when they hear a word form a card.
• Ss have a card each and they stand up/clap hands when they hear their card.
• The goal of this game is listening comprehension, you can use the recorded stories from the books or
“LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND” exercises.
• Remember to give Ss different flashcards to “hear out” (not only one category)


YOU NEED:
15. MY SECRET CARD
a set of flashcards

1. T shows Ss a set of cards, Ss look, repeat and remember the words.

2. T takes the cards and chooses one (Ss cannot see it).
3. T asks What is it?/ What have I got? Ss guess.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• This game can be also played in pairs, provide all pairs with a set of/a few flashcards.
• Encourage Ss to use full sentences, e.g. This is..., You’ve got... I think this is...


YOU NEED:
16. MAGIC EYES
a set of flashcards, some magnets or blue tac
(optional)

1.T displays a set of flashcards on the floor/on the board.

2.Ss repeat the words (in unison) in the same order as they are placed on the floor/on the board.
3.Then T points at the cards randomly and Ss “read” the words.
4.When Ss are familiar with the pictures T takes one card away. T asks Ss again, pointing also at the
space left after the word that has been taken away. Ss must recall what it was.
5. Gradually T hides more and more pictures.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• It’s a standard game for stories/Showtime

• Encourage Ss to say all sentences describing one flashcard (especially more advanced Ss – level 3)
• The perfect stage is when all the cards are covered and Ss can still “read” them
• Praise spontaneous production! Even if Ss are not correct but produced a phrase or a sentence,
appreciate it!

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 YOU NEED:
17. POLICE OFFICER 1
a set of flashcards (preferably two or more same sets)

1.Ss stand in a row, at one end of the classroom. T stands at the other end, T is the police officer. Each
S gets a few different flashcards (some Ss can have the same pictures).
2. Ss should hold the flashcard in such a way that the T can see them.
3. Ss say in unison: Police officer, can I cross the street? T answers: You can cross the street if you’ve
got… (T says a word from the flashcards Ss are holding).
4. Ss who have the picture that was called out, take one step forward and say: I’ve got a …
5. The game stops when Ss reach the “police officer.”
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Explain to Ss and act out the idea of, police officer and crossing the street (L1)
• Teach Ss the phrase: Police officer, can I cross the street?
• The goal of this game is to practise the words and „have got” structure
• Remember to help all Ss reach T at almost the same time, there cannot be any winners or losers!


YOU NEED:
18. FLASHCARD BINGO
a set of flashcards (preferably two or more of
the same sets)

1. Each S gets a set of flashcards (4-9). Ss sit in a circle and display the cards in front of them.
2. T calls out words. When S has the correct flashcard he/she puts the card face down.
3. Ss who have all the cards placed faces down shout BINGO and win.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• You can finish the game when one S shouts BINGO or continue until all Ss have BINGO.
• Remember that there cannot be a winner and losers, all Ss must have the chance to shout BINGO
eventually.

YOU NEED:
19. MEMORY GAME
2 identical sets of flashcards

1.Ss sit on the floor, in a circle.

2.T places the flashcards in the middle of the circle, face down.
3.Ss uncover two cards each, one after another. Each S says: I’ve got a… and a…
4.When S uncovers 2 identical pictures he/she keeps them, if not S must put the cards back on the floor,
face down.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• You can introduce more words: the same/different (when Ss uncover the cards), I’ve got a pair (when
S finds two identical pictures).
• Instead of practicing I’ve got… you can revise This is… or There is…
• The goal of this game is to practise the words and „have got” structure.
• With less advanced Ss use very limited sets (5, 6 pairs) and you can play the game twice.

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 
YOU NEED:
20. A PILE ☺ a set of flashcards

1.Ss sit on the floor, in a circle.

2.T puts a pile of flashcards (face down) in the middle of the circle.
3.Ss draw a card from the top of the pile and say I’ve got a…
4.If S says a correct sentence he/she keeps the card, if S is wrong he/she puts the card under the pile
and tries again.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Instead of practicing I’ve got… you can revise This is…

• It’s a great game to revise words that Ss do not know very well yet
• Before S puts the card under the pile revise the word with Ss so that they’ll remember it when they
draw it next time
• The goal of this game is to practise the words and „have got” structure
• With young Ss you can accept one word instead of a full sentence at first.

SECRET WORD GAMES


YOU NEED:
THE SECRET CIRCLE
Secret Booklets, a CD player and some
music

1. Ss sit in a circle. Every S holds a Secret Booklet.

2. T plays some music, Ss find a secret word they want to ‘show’ to the rest of the group.
3. Ss who have found a secret word they know raise their hands.
4. T stops the music and picks one S, who stands up and says his secret word.
5. S sits down and the music (and the game) goes on.
6. Secret words cannot be repeated!
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• This game is great in every group. It works well even in mixed classes.
• If it is possible, with more advanced Ss, try to encourage sentences instead of single words.
• This game should be played quite often, to revise secret words from previous lessons.


YOU NEED:
THE SECRET QUEUE
Secret Booklets

1. Ss queue in front of T.
2. Each S holds a Secret Booklet.
3. Ss find a secret word they know in their Booklets.
4. The first S in the queue says his/her word and goes to the end of the queue.
5. The next S does the same and so the game goes on.

OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• This game is great in every group. It works well even in mixed classes.
• This game should be played quite often to revise secret words from previous lessons.
• Another option: only T holds a Secret Booklet. T chooses a secret word and shows it to first S in the
queue. When the S says the word, he/she can go to the end of the line.

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 ACTION GAMES

YOU NEED:
1. SILENT SHOW ☺ a set of flashcards (optional)

1. T chooses one S and whispers to him/her an action.

2. S performs the action, other Ss guest what it is.
3. S who guessed first can perform next action or you pick the next S at random.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Instead of whispering, you can show S a flashcard with an action

• You can use Showtime flashcards
• You can use story flashcards (tell Ss in advance what story they can expect)
• Young Ss are not very good at performing actions, help them or whisper (L1) what they should do. T
can perform the actions and expect Ss to say the action.

YOU NEED:
2. JUMP, BANANAS! ☺ a set of flashcards

1.
T divides Ss into small groups/pairs. Each group/pair gets a different flashcard (e.g. one group gets an
apple, the other a banana).
2. T gives commands and only the group/pair with the correct flashcard performs the action. E.g.: Apples,
sit down! Bananas, jump!
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Make the game funny! The funnier the commands the better, Ss can “be” the flashcard and perform
an action, imagine “happy bananas eating pyjamas” or “sad pizzas jumping on the bed” ☺
• With young Ss it is much better to make Ss work as a whole group not as individuals or pairs. They
are usually not able to act on their own.

3. EDDIE SAYS ☺ YOU NEED:

• Teddy Eddie mascot

1. T gives commands. Some begin with “Eddie says:”
2. Ss perform only the orders beginning with “Eddie says”. Otherwise they remain still.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Use a mascot, pretend that the mascot is giving orders

• Instead of Eddie you can introduce a character from the story, e.g. “Lucy says”
• With younger Ss you may always use the phrase “Eddie says…” as they may not understand why
they should not do the commands when you do not say the phrase “Eddie says…”

4. ROBOTS ☺ YOU NEED:

a remote control (optional)

1. T explains to Ss that they are robots and they must perform actions in a robot-like way.
2. T gives a command (pressing a button if you use a remote control) and Ss perform it (in a robot style).
3. S can replace T in giving orders.
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OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Introduce the notion of robot (L1), show Ss how a robot acts

• This game can be combined into “Robot Eddie Says”
• As soon as it is possible Ss should play the game in pairs.

YOU NEED:
5. CAST A SPELL ☺ a magic wand

1. T pretends to do some magic. T casts a spell: Abracadabra, touch your nose.

2. T turns around and when he/she looks back at Ss they must freeze in the “touch your nose” position.
3. When S moves the spell is over and T casts a different spell e.g. Abracadabra, dance!

OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Explain to Ss what “cast a spell” means.

• Use magic wand and pretend that you are a real magician. The game will become a lot of fun!

DRILL GAMES

YOU NEED:
1. MASCOT DRILL
Eddie, the mascot

1.
Ss sit on the floor, in a circle. Ss throw the mascot to one another. S who throws the mascot asks a
question, S who catches it – answers.
2. T starts the game, suggesting the questions that should be asked, e.g. Do you like…?
3. T must catch the mascot from time to time, to change the question model.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Other questions to ask: Have you got...? Can you...? What colour is...? How many...? What’s this?
(you might use questions from the Interactive Set)
• Explain to Ss that they cannot throw the mascot hard at one another, the second S must be able to
catch it.
• Usually young children are not very creative in asking questions. Catch the mascot often to change
the question model. Help Ss to produce a question.

2. POLICE OFFICER 2 YOU NEED:

1.
Ss stand in a row, at one end of the classroom. T stands at the other end, T is the police officer.
2.
Ss say in unison or one at a time: Police officer, can I cross the street? T answers: You can cross the
street if you’ve got… (something yellow, a sister, blue eyes, a red pencil etc)
3. Ss who have the thing that was called out, take one step forward and say: I’ve got a yellow skirt, a
sister…etc.
4. The game stops when Ss are able to reach T.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Explain to Ss the idea of police officer and crossing the street. (L1) Crossing the street can be acted
out.
• Teach Ss the phrase Police officer, can I cross the street?
• Remember to help all Ss reach T at almost the same time, there cannot be any winners or losers!

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Other dialogues to practise:

• You can cross the street if you can… (swim, dance, fly etc). S: I can… (S also performs the action)
• You can cross the street if you are… (swimming, sitting etc). S: I am… (S also performs the action)
• You can cross the street if you are wearing… (a skirt, jeans etc) S: I’m wearing…

YOU NEED:
3. STAR INTERVIEW
a toy microphone (optional)

1. One S sits on a chair, in the middle of the classroom. He/she is the star. Other Ss sit around him/her.
2. Ss ask the star different questions. The star answers.
3. After a few questions a different S becomes the star.
OPTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Explain to Ss the idea of interviewing a star (L1)

• Use a toy-microphone to make it look “real”
• Usually young children are not very creative in asking questions, you must help them/prompt them.

• Easier option: T is a reporter and asks Ss questions, with a toy-microphone it can also be fun, though
it’s less productive then
• You can use Eddie as an interviewed star. Then your answers can be more inventive and funny.

STUDENT BOOK GAMES

PIZZA GAME
you need: general comments:
your finger ;-)
• PIZZA GAME practices and revises vocabulary learnt in the unit;
a crayon/a pencil (optional) • Always encourage Ss to say full sentences e.g. “I like apples”
instead of “apples”,
• You will find sets of sentences to be used in each unit, in
Teacher’s File.
how to play:

1. T moves his/her finger around the PIZZA.

2. Ss say stop, T stops his/her finger on a picture.
3. Ss say what it is.
4. OPTION: You can also spin a crayon/a pencil on the PIZZA, look where the tip is and say the
word/phrase.
5. After you explain and show how to play the game, Ss play the game in pairs.
6. Monitor the game and encourage Ss to use full sentences.

you need: flashcards or real
objects from the particular unit
option: you can use more
flashcards from previous units
and play a CRAZY REVISION
SHOP where Ss can buy all
sorts of things (ears, doors etc)
SHOP GAME
general comments:
• This game practices natural dialogues and words in context, Ss
must say a sentence to get sth, so this is a great motivator!
• This is a great game to start introducing group work with. After Ss
are familiar with the game, they can be divided into groups and
play the game in two “shops” with Ss as shop assistants.

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 (Teaching group work on the basis of the SHOP GAME is described
thoroughly in the HOW TO WORK WITH THE METHOD CHAPTER).

With young Ss at the very beginning you can accept pointing or L1 for
indicating the product Ss want to buy. As they progress introduce LEVEL 1.

how to play:

1. Explain (L1) to Ss that you are going to play the shop. Practice the dialogues. Teach them to stand in
a line.
2. Place a chair or a small table in front of you, this will be the counter.
3. Ss queue and buy things in the shop, one after another (using the dialogues below).
example dialogues to be practised:

LEVEL 2,3

LEVEL1 Can I have a ….., please?

A ……, please. What colour?

Here you are. ……….

Here you are.
Thank you.
You’re welcome.

MAZE – only for Teddy Eddie Standard

you need: CD, SB general comments:

• This game is a great fun with Ss, although it may be difficult when
played for the first time.
• Explain to Ss how to play (L1), make sure they understand.
• For the first time stop the CD after each word and check if Ss
follow the recording, help the weaker Ss.
• For the first time or for less advanced groups you may decide to
read out the words instead of playing them from the CD.
how to play:

1. Ss put their index fingers on “start.”

2. Ss listen to the recording and point to the words they hear.
3. The goal of this game is to reach the colour squares/circles at the end of the MAZE.

BINGO GAME – only for Teddy Eddie Standard

you need: general comments:
a pen/a pencil
• This game practices and revises the vocabulary Ss know from
optional: little pieces of paper previous units.
• BINGO GAME has many options, you can choose an appropriate
option for your group or play differently each time.
how to play:

1. First revise the words from BINGO. You can ask What is it? , say Point to… or play I spy with my little
eye… Encourage the same in pairs.
2. Then say a word. Ss say the colour of the correct square (where the object is). Encourage the same
in pairs.

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 3. Play the game (see different options).
4. Always call out full sentences if possible e.g. “She can dance” instead of “dance.”

OPTION 1A: PLAY ONCE, EVERYBODY WINS.

Decide with Ss which square is playing, e.g. blue. Say different words. If they are on the blue square Ss circle
them or cross them. When all the blue words are circled Ss shout BINGO.

OPTION 1B: PLAY ONCE, SOME Ss WIN.

Each S chooses a colour square. T says words, S can cross them out if they are on the chosen square. When
all the words from one’s chosen square are crossed S wins and shouts BINGO!

OPTION 2A: PLAY MANY TIMES, EVERYBODY WINS.

Prepare little pieces of white paper (the size of the pictures). Read out the words, Ss must cover the word they
hear, with a piece of paper. When all red words are covered Ss shout “RED BINGO”, the same with blue,
green and yellow.

OPTION 2B: PLAY MANY TIMES, SOME Ss WIN.

Prepare little pieces of white paper (the size of the pictures). Ss choose 4 pictures from different colours and
cover them with the pieces of paper. T calls out the words, Ss cover them. When S has all pictures in one
square covered, he/she wins. This way the game can be played many times.

THE FUNNY SNAKE – only for Teddy Eddie Green

you need: general comments:
you finger! • This game practices and revises the vocabulary Ss know from previous
CD, SB units.
• THE FUNNY SNAKE has a few options. You can choose an appropriate
option for your group or play differently each time.
how to play:
1. Ss open their books to the Funny Snake Game.
2. Tell your Ss (L1) that this snake is very unusual – it likes different things, such as: colours or objects. The
snake has a funny pattern on its back – a pattern made from his favourite colours and objects. But there is
one problem with the snake – it cannot see the objects and colours. Ss must help the snake to find them.
3. First revise the words from THE FUNNY SNAKE. You can ask What is it? , say Point to…
4. Play the game (see different options).

OPTION 1A: FOLLOW WITH YOUR FINGER PART 1

Ss listen and follow the words with their fingers. Even though the recording is quite slow and the words are
recorded in the same order as they are drawn in the book, young Ss may get lost. Scaffold and monitor their
attempts. Stop the CD and help Ss get back on the right picture.
When Ss finish (and reach the snake’s head) tell them that the snake is very happy. Everyone claps their
hands. Give Ss a stamp as a reward for completing the activity.

OPTION 1B: FOLLOW WITH YOUR FINGER PART 2

If Ss are still quite focused and interested, you may do the second part of the Funny Snake. Tell Ss that the
Funny Snake wants to thank them. This time, Ss will follow the pictures back to the snake’s tail. The snake will
say “thank you” for each thing.

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OPTION 2: LISTEN AND POINT
T calls out a word and Ss point to it (random order). Later on Ss do the same in pairs.

OPTION 3: Ss ARE SNAKES

Ss pretend to be snakes (they may lie down next to the open book, to add some action to the game). T calls
out a word (random order), Ss find it, point to it, and say: “Thank you for the….” (the phrase the snake says).

SPOT ME! – only for Teddy Eddie Green

you need: general comments:
your finger! • This game practices and revises the vocabulary Ss know from previous
optional: little pieces of paper units.
(e.g. cut-out ladybirds), a little • SPOT ME! has a few options, you can choose an appropriate option for
mascot or another little object your group or play differently each time.
how to play:
1. First revise the words from SPOT ME!. You can ask What is it?
2. Then say a word. Ss point to the correct picture.
3. Try to encourage the same activity in pairs.
4. Always call out full sentences if possible e.g. “She is happy” instead of “happy.”

OPTION 1: SPOT ME AND CHEAT

T points to a picture and names it. When what T says is true Ss also point to the picture. When T lies Ss do not
point (they can say No!)

OPTION 2: SPOT ME AND HIDE

Ss need small pieces of paper. T calls out a word (a sentence), Ss find it and cover it with a piece of paper. It
will be more fun if Ss had little cut-out ladybirds and put the ladybirds on the pictures.

OPTION 3: THROW AND SAY

Each S has a little mascot (or another little object). S throws the mascot on the SPOT ME! page, and checks
where it landed. S must say the word it landed on.
You can play this variation as a group, or if Ss are able to do it – in pairs.

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