Page 56 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom
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Approaches to Language Teaching


              Classroom Insight: Crazy Pizza
              Teja decided to carry out a task-based activity  She encouraged the use of the structures ‘On
              with fourth graders related to the topic ‘food.’  our pizza, we have ...’ and ‘The name of our
              In the pre-task stage, she explained the task  pizza is ...’
              which was to prepare a new type of pizza for  In the follow-up activity, after each group
              a pizza restaurant to include on their menu.  presented their pizza, the teacher wrote the
              An important part of the task was also to give  names of the pizzas on the whiteboard (chil-
              the pizza an attractive name. Before the task  dren came up with expressions such as Crazy
              itself, the teacher and the children discussed  Pizza, Rocket Pizza, Pizza Big bang and so on).
              the words for different ingredients usually  In addition, they classified the pizzas into two
              put on a pizza and the names of pizzas the  categories, ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ which pro-
              children were familiar with.       voked a lively discussion. Reflecting on the
              In the main part of the activity, pupils were  lesson, Teja commented that she had rarely
              workingingroupsofthree drawingtheir piz-  seen the children so engrossed in an activity.
              zas on a poster and writing down the names  When they were preparing their pizzas, they
              of ingredients. They also had to come up with  kept looking for her to ask for the words they
              an interesting name. During this time, Teja  needed for their task. There was a lot of noise
              helped them with the words of ingredients  in the classroom, some groups had heated
              they needed for their pizza. A time limit was  arguments about the names of their pizzas,
              set for the learners to finish this part and then  some asked the teacher for translations into
              they had 15 minutes to prepare the presenta-  English, for example, they asked how ‘štirje
              tion of the pizza. Again, the teacher was avail-  letni časi’ (‘the four seasons’) would be trans-
              able for support with presentation language.  lated in English.



                       Key Takeaways
                        • The communicative approach has significantly changed the language
                          teaching theory and practice by introducing the concept of communica-
                          tive competence and meaningful communication.
                        • The teacher may play different roles in the language classroom, from class-
                          room manager or organiser to tutor and facilitator.
                        • The one-method approach to teaching an FL is today seen as ineffective,
                          combining different approaches for different learner types is preferred.
                        • Some approaches, such as TPR and the story-based approach, are particu-
                          larly effective with YLLs.

                       Further Reading
                       Brewster, J., Ellis, G., & Girard, D. (2002). TheprimaryEnglishteacher’sguide. Pear-
                          son Education.
                       Garton, S., & Copland, F. (Eds.). (2019). The Routledge handbook of teaching En-
                          glish to young learners. Routledge.
                       Valente, D.,&Xerri,D.(Eds.). (2023). InnovativepracticesinearlyEnglishlanguage
                          education. Palgrave Macmillan.





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