Net Languages - English 4 Kids
Pedagogical Guide for Teachers
Contents:
A: Course description
1) Introduction
2) Level
3) Objectives
4) Organisation and content
5) Mode of use
6) Evaluation
B: Course outline
C: Module-by-module guide for tutors
1) Module features
2) Approach to use in the classroom
3) Module-by-module guide
D: Appendices
A: Course description
Introduction
The Net Languages English 4 Kids course materials constitute a bank of resources delivered via Internet that are designed for students in the 10- to 12-year-old age group. The courses aim primarily at consolidating and recycling language areas previously encountered in the classroom, although they can also be used for initial presentation. They are designed for both individual and group work, and are indexed (and therefore accessible) according to topic, lexical area and grammatical structure.
Level
The course is targeted for children at beginner to elementary knowledge of English (A1 or A2 of the Common European Framework) and complements existing coursebook provision. Although the grammar and vocabulary presented and practised in the course are selected for these levels, many of the texts (songs and stories) provide challenges for children with a higher level of English.
Objectives
· To provide alternative opportunities for exposure to English, as well as reinforcement and development of language areas studied in the classroom.
· To provide opportunities for learners to work independently of the teacher, thereby developing their autonomy as learners.
· To provide opportunities for learners to work collaboratively on tasks, thereby promoting the formation of a positive group dynamic.
· To motivate learners and to instil a positive attitude to the learning of a second or another language through exposure to easy, attractive and enjoyable materials, including many with a game-like element.
· To cater for mixed-ability groups by including a range of degrees of challenge within each module.
· To develop basic computer-literacy skills through regular use of computers and experience with a variety of standard IT processes (typing, clicking, clicking and dragging, etc.).
Organisation and Content
The resources consist of the following components:
· Two courses containing 10 theme-based modules each, and each module corresponding to approximately one hour of study time (20 hours of study time in total).
· A teacher’s guide with suggestions as to how tasks can be accessed, sequenced and used. Follow-up classroom ideas are also provided.
The course content has been designed to complement thematic and linguistic areas typically covered in published coursebooks and in the Movers UCLES YL exam for this level and age group.
Two characters – brother and sister Danny and Tessa – and their family feature throughout the material (such as when learners solicit task feedback, for example) in order to provide cohesion and to enhance a sense of familiarity. The characters also offer a point of access to British culture and society, and learn important ethical lessons along the way.
List of topics
The following topics and vocabulary areas are covered:
Course A:
- describing people
- jobs and places of work
- objects in a pencil case
- pets, and what they can do
- sport
- family
- household chores
- the school day
- free-time activities
- dinosaurs
Course B:
- types of transport
- describing animals
- telling the time and talking about daily routine
- fairy tales
- fast food
- places in a town
- endangered animals
- days, months and birthdays
- science-fiction stories
- diet and nutrition
Organisation of modules
· Each module includes a vocabulary focus (relevant to the theme) and treatment of one or two grammatical areas.
· Each module consists of at least 15 automatically marked tasks, including matching, ordering, text completion, word searches, pelmanisms, crosswords, and more – all enhanced with visuals and sounds. The activities are logically sequenced within a module and follow a progression from word-based to sentence-based to text-based tasks.
· Tasks are mainly receptive, involving reading and listening, and including identification, recognition and discrimination tasks, but there are also some controlled writing tasks (such as text completion).
· The materials are designed for selective use, whereby learners can choose the following from a menu:
- at which point to enter the sequence (for example, vocabulary, grammar, reading, and so on)
- how many tasks to complete
· Each module also includes a longer text, with associated tasks, including a pronunciation focus.
Mode of use
Learners can work either individually or in groups, monitored or unmonitored.
The material is self-sufficient and self-explanatory.
Access to other Web-based resources (Internet, chat rooms, and so on) is not required.
A menu of activities for each module is provided, and learners can select whether they wish to focus on vocabulary only, grammar only, or on a text, for example.
Evaluation
All tasks are automatically marked on completion, and a score is given (for example: ‘Well done! You got 10 out of 10!’). Learners are invited to improve their score by correcting their work or attempting the exercise again. Note that scores are not accumulated; teachers wishing to keep track of individual scores should ask learners to keep a pen-and-paper record.
Each module finishes with a self-evaluation task, in which learners rate their own progress and identify items that they have learned.
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B: Course outline
COURSE A
MODULE / TITLE / TOPIC / LEXIS / GRAMMAR / TEXTS / GAMES1 / Monster / Describing people / Adjectives (tall, fat...) /
What’s your name?
How old are you?What do you look like?
What colour hair have you got? / Dialogue
Song
Story / Maze
Concentration
Anagrams
2 / This Is a Job For... / Jobs / Jobs (waiter, superhero...)
Places of work (hospital, shop...) /
Verb to be
Possessive pronouns
What’s your job?
I’m a teacher.What’s his/her job?
He’s/she’s a doctor. / Dialogue
Song
Story / Maze
Word search
Anagrams
Memory
3 / Pencil Case / Pencil case / Pencil case contents (felt-tip pen, rubber...)
Colours (red, blue...) / Have got
Functional shop language
I haven’t got a calculator.
Have you got a ruler?
Can I have a pencil?
How much is the sharpener? / Poem
Dialogue
Song
Story / Memory
Hangman
4 / Goal / Sport / Sport verbs (do judo, play tennis...) / Present continuous
What are you doing?
I’m playing football.
What’s he/she doing?
He’s/she’s skateboarding. / Dialogue
Song
Story / Memory
Maze
Hangman
5 / Pets / Pets / Pets (tortoise, budgie...)
Verbs (fly, climb trees...) / Can/can’t for ability
Revision of introductory information
His name is Dennis.
He’s six years old. / Dialogue
Pet profiles
Quiz
Story / Concentration
Word search
Word fall
The shuffle
6 / Family Photo / Family / Family members (auntie, cousin...)
Prepositions of place (in, behind...)
Living room furniture (sofa, mirror...) / Possessive s
Where’s my sister?
She’s under the table. / Story
Song
Chant / The shuffle
Crossword
Memory
7 / Chores / Home chores / Household chores (feed the dog, mow the lawn...) / Present simple
Imperatives
What chores do you do?
I make my bed.
Wash the car!
Don’t water the plants! / Poem
Song
Story
Dialogue / Memory
The shuffle Concentration
Catch the falling letter
8 / School Days / School subjects / School subjects (maths, art...)
Days of the week (Monday...)
The time (one o’clock, two o’clock...)
Conjunctions (and, but, or) / Present simple
What subject do you like?
I have maths at two o’clock on Monday.
I don’t like art. / Timetables
Song
Story / Maze
Concentration
9 / School Holidays / Free time activities / Free-time verbs (read a comic, go to the cinema...) / Expressing likes and dislikes
Going to for plans
What do you like doing?
What are you going to do tomorrow?
I’m going to visit my visit my grandmother. / Dialogue
Chant
Story / Memory
Anagram
Chant
Word fall
10 / Dinosaurs / Dinosaurs / Adjectives (enormous, sharp...)
Parts of the body (neck, brain...) / Past simple (was/were/had)
Triceratops was a plant-eating dinosaur.
It had four legs. / FactFiles
Interviews / Memory test
Word fall
Crossword
COURSE B
MODULE / TITLE / TOPIC / LEXIS / GRAMMAR / TEXTS / GAMES1 / Wheels and Wings / Transport / Fifteen types of transport
Transport verbs (drive, sail...)
No/one/two, etc.
/ Present continuousThere is/are
There was/were
/ Traffic signsDialogue
Description of a picture
Song / Pelmanism
Word search
Crossword
2 / Tooth and Claw / Describing animals / Fifteen body parts (tail, beak...)
Eight adjectives (long, sharp...)
Animals / Has got statements and questions
How many?
/ DialogueAnimal FactFiles
TV quiz programme
Picture dictation
Song / Pelmanism
Word search
Anagrams
Crossword
3 / My Day / Telling the time and daily routine / Times (ten past eleven...)
Daily routine verbs (get up...) / What’s the time? –It’s...
What time do you...? –At...
Present simple for routines / Dialogue
‘My typical day’ texts
Interviews
Story / Maze
Pelmanism
Memory test
Catch a falling letter
4 / Pizza, Please! / Fast food / Pizza toppings (cheese, ham...) / Expressing likes and dislikes (can’t stand, don’t mind...)
Requests and offers / Picture dictation
Dialogue
My likes and dislikes
Chant
Story / Pelmanism
Hangman
5 / Dragons and Dungeons / Modern fairy tales / Generic characters (witch, frog...)
Irregular verbs (go, have...)
Verb + noun combinations / Past simple (irregular)
Can/can’t statements / Chant
Dialogue
Story / Word search
Word fall
Pelmanism
6 / Downtown / Places in a town / Sixteen places (shops, amenities...)
Twenty things you can buy (sweets, toys, clothes, pets)
Prepositions of place /
Where do you...?
There’s a... / Shop dialoguesDescriptions of towns
Song / Pelmanism
Hangman
Word fall
Memory test
Crossword
7 / Animal Planet / Animals / Fifteen wild animals
Actions (swim, jump...)
Foods (leaves, meat...)
Continents / Can for ability
Present simple statements and questions / Animal FactFiles
Dialogues
Quiz / Pelmanism
Memory test
Word search
Crossword
8 / Happy Birthday / Birthdays / Days (Monday...)
Ordinal numbers (the second...)
Months (May...)
Birthday words (party, cake...) / Present simple questions / Birthday customs
Interviews
Puzzles / Pelmanism
Crossword
Hangman
Word fall
Word search
Memory test
Catch a falling letter
9 / Good for You! / Diet / Foods (rice, sweets...)
Food groups (meat, fruit...) /
Which...?
Good/bad for you.Present simple third person statements and questions / Dialogues
‘My diet’ texts
Quiz / Maze
Pelmanism
Odd one out
Word fall
Crossword
10 / Space Duck / Science-fiction story / Regular verbs (like, open...)
Story words (alien, forest...) / Past simple regular statements / Rap
Dialogues
Stories / The shuffle
Catch a falling letter
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C: Module-by-module guide for tutors
Module features
· Each module has a carefully selected theme relevant to children’s daily lives and/or interests (sports, pets, birthdays, monsters...).
· There are 15 exercises in each module, which are all closely related to the module theme.
· Each module starts with an amusing animation featuring the recurring characters, to introduce the module theme to the children.
· Each module is clearly staged, each exercise building on the previous one. Each module starts by teaching lexis connected to the theme, and then the grammar structure is presented or focused on, and finally there are texts for skills practice of the selected lexis and grammar.
· The majority of exercises in each module have a listening component, providing the children with frequent exposure to correct native-speaker pronunciation of the target language.
· The language used in texts is graded appropriately for the level.
· Language is always presented and practised in context. Additionally, children are always exposed to texts containing the target language before they have to identify or manipulate it. Grammar is presented lexically (as a chunk), rather than analytically. For example, ‘What are you doing?’ is taught as a fixed expression rather than analytically as ‘question word + verb to be + subject + gerund’. This is appropriate to children’s learning style and cognitive development.
· The texts are varied and include songs, stories, comic strips, dialogues, interviews, FactFiles and diary entries. All texts are closely related to the topic and use the lexis and grammar taught in the module. Most texts feature the recurring characters and are humorous.
· There is a test at the end of each module that reviews the lexis taught.
· The lexis and grammar presented is implicitly recycled in texts in other modules.
Approach to use in the classroom
The following are ideas that can be used at different stages of all modules. See below for a module-by-module list of teaching ideas.
Before you start
Below are ways of creating interest in the module topic and drawing on what students already know:
Lexis
· Brainstorm. Get students to brainstorm lexis related to the theme. For example, before the ‘Chores’ module ask students what chores they know in English; or before the ‘Pizza, Please!’ module ask them what pizza toppings they know in English.
· Top Ten. Put children in teams and ask them to think of 10 words from a lexical set (chores, pizza toppings, etc.). The first team to think of 10 words wins.
· Word race. Children in teams have exactly two minutes to write down as many words as they can think of related to the topic. Teams get one point for every word and two points for words that none of the other teams have thought of.
· Alphabet race. Children in teams try to think of a word related to the topic for each letter of the alphabet. The team that comes closest wins.
Theme
· Talk about the theme. Ask students questions about the theme (in L1 if necessary). For example, before the ‘Chores’ module ask them if they have to do any chores at home and if they like doing them. Ask them who generally does the chores at home and if they should do more to help. Before the ‘Pizza, Please!’ module ask them if they like pizzas, where they eat them, how often and which is their favourite type of pizza, or what pizza toppings they know in English.
Recording lexis
As students progress through the modules it’s important for them to record the new words they learn. They can do this in a number of ways: