Collins Introducing English to Young Children by Opal Dunn

Author:Opal Dunn [Dunn, Opal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007556823
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2012-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

4.4 Creating methods of communication

4.4.1 Dialogue

In the first lesson, as the teacher is the only English speaker in the classroom, it is difficult to start language interaction. Adult learners use their life experience to communicate in a foreign language and can work out a reply to a question from words they already know or have just learned. For young beginners, knowing how to start off and build a conversation in English is beyond their experience, and before they can be expected to initiate communication they have to listen to some examples. In some schools there may be a young child who has lived abroad and the teacher can arrange to borrow them or the teacher can invite an English-speaking parent to help for the first few lessons, so the class can hear English in meaningful dialogues. Where a teacher has access to DVD, YouTube videos or other screen materials, these can also be used to provide examples of dialogues. However, in all these cases the same problem exists. The teacher cannot control the replies to her questions and the questions themselves may be too complex for this first stage of learning. For this reason, many teachers prefer to use a puppet or a soft toy (eg a bear), whose spoken language is controlled by the teacher.

From the first lesson the teacher can use the puppet to create simple dialogues that can initially be between the teacher and puppet, providing the role model, and then between the teacher and a child. Some teachers use two puppets, making them talk to each other without any ‘human’ taking part. This can be a useful variety of activity, but should not replace the teacher/puppet dialogue, as many young children appear to see themselves in the place of the puppet talking to the teacher or adult. The two dialogues below show how you can repeat basic language in two different situations.

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