Page 11 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Introduction

The main purpose of the book is to explore the key principles and several
practical considerations related to teaching English in the primary classroom
(pupils 6 to 12 years of age). Over the last 20 years, we have witnessed the
publication of a number of comprehensive guides to research and issues sur-
rounding the teaching of a foreign language to young learners, references
such as The Primary English Teacher’s Guide (Brewster et al., 2002), Teaching
Young Language Learners (Pinter, 2006), Teaching Languages to Young Learn-
ers (Cameron, 2001), Teaching English to Young Learners: Critical Issues in Lan-
guage Teaching with 3–12 Year Olds (Bland, 2015), Innovative Practices in Early
English Language Education (Valente & Xerri, 2022), and a great number of
others which have been consulted and referred to extensively in this book.
However, teaching English or other foreign languages to primary school
learners is a fast-developing and exciting area which has taken many turns
and encountered various challenges. It is also fair to say that we are living
in a fast-changing world which has far-reaching implications for the young
learners’ classroom. One of such changes is undoubtedly the wide accessi-
bility of web-based resources and learning spaces which provide plenty of
opportunities for learning foreign languages more independently and au-
tonomously.
The boundless possibility of being exposed to both spoken and written
forms of a foreign language in authentic online environments is an impor-
tant factor in language teaching which needs to be taken into account at all
levels of instruction. This is also related to one of the most significant chal-
lenges in the primary classroom today, namely the varying degrees of pupils’
background knowledge which may range from beginner to advanced levels
already in the first grades of primary school. One of the implications of this
phenomenon is that teachers and teacher educators should dedicate con-
siderable efforts to developing more efficient strategies for teaching mixed-
ability classes. It is the aim of the present book to capture these new develop-
ments and provide pre-service and in-service teachers with an overview of
the fundamental concepts which underlie foreign language teaching for this
age group and at the same time present them with practical guidelines and
reflection activities to create efficient primary classroom teaching practice.
Before we continue, it is worth looking at some terms which will be used

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