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Variables a tener en cuenta en la organización de la clase de lengua inglesa: agrupación del alumnado, distribución del espacio y tiempo, selección de metodologías, papel del profesor, etc.

RESUMEN DEL TEMA 22 DE LA ESPECIALIDAD DE MAESTROS DE INGLÉS DE PRIMARIA

 

Autora: Mayte Agudo Crespo

 

CONTENTS

1.- Introduction

2.- Working in group

2.1.- Pair work

2.2.- Group work

2.2.a.- Introducing group work

2.2.b.- Who works with whom?

3.- Organising space and time

3.1.- The physical surroundings

3.2.- Classroom displays

3.3.- Organising time

4.- Choosing the right methodology

4.1.- Dealing with errors

4.2.- Classroom language

4.3.- Checking comprehension

4.4.- Routines

4.4.a.- Global routines

4.4.b.- Warm up

4.4.c.- Closing routines

4.5.- Paving the way to speaking freely

4.6.- Learning to learn

4.7.- Mixed ability

4.8.- Evaluation

5.- The teacher’s role

5.1.- Abilities

5.2.- Attitudes

5.3.- Helping the children to feel secure

5.4.- The role of parents and teacher-parents communication

6.- Conclusion

7.- Bibliography

 

 

1.- Introduction

The Ministry of Education and its Organic Law for the Improvement of the Quality of Education (LOMCE) dating 9th December,2013  and the Royal Decree 126/2014,  28thFebruary 2014, that establishes the curriculum for Primary Education, both provide guidelines to developed basic objectives, contents and methodological approaches for the teaching of English. According to the Law, children should develop a communicative competence in at least a foreign language at the end of their compulsory schooling. Therefore the principal aim of learning English is to communicate orally and in writing. 

Classroom management has to do with organising different aspects of the learning environment and the relationship with students in order to enhance the teaching-learning process. According to the law, the schools organization and functioning, the teaching activities, the different ways of interaction between members in the educational community, etc can also facilitate the achievement of competences. That is, every aspect of the child´s life in the school can help him to learn better. In this way, classroom management helps teachers to organize their teaching practice to make the most of it. And it helps students to achieve the basic competences. 

The main aim of classroom management with children is to create a happy, relaxed and working atmosphere in which the norms and rules of classroom behaviour are respected and in which children feel secure and supported by the teacher at the same time as they are helped to become increasingly independent in the way they approach their own learning.

In order to get this learning atmosphere, teachers need to think carefully and organise the space and time in the class, the distribution of furniture, different materials and teaching moments, how children are going to work together in groups or individually, the right methodology for every moment or his/her own role during the class. In this theme I will develop the main points to take into consideration when thinking about classroom management.

 

 

2.- Working in group

When teaching a foreign language, working in groups becomes an essential way of working in order to interact and communicate with others, which is the main objective to achieve. Therefore working in groups will help our students to develop the  linguistic competence. But it will also help them to develop the social and citizen competence because they will have to listen to others, understand, participate, and find solutions and strategies to get to agreements and common goals.  Finally working in groups will also help our students to develop their Autonomy and Personal initiative since they will have to think by themselves, get personal ideas and take the initiative to cooperate and to sort out different problems and situations within the group. 

 

2.1.- Pair work

Pair work is a very useful and efficient way of working in language teaching. It is simple to organise and easy to explain, and group work should not be attempted before the children are used to work in twos first. According to Gerngross,G. and Puchta, H.  the following should be taken into account to ensure good results in pair work activities:

  • Information exchange must be a real need. Children must get information from their partners in order to complete the activity.
  • Motivation will increase if there is a final objective: to complete a timetable, a survey or an interview.
  • Linguistic ability will define the way children match together; for certain activities they should have similar ability, but for others, advanced children could mix with slower ones.

 

2.2.- Group work

Anything that has been said about pair work applies to group work. Group work offers children the possibility of making the most of their linguistic abilities. It is a very especial way of working in which children need to develop some attitudes and techniques. We cannot put children into groups, give them an exercise and assume that it will work. Children must know before hand group working rules such as listening to each other, taking and respecting turns, writing down the results, cooperate, etc.

 

2.2.a.- Introducing group work

2.2.b.- Who works with whom?

 

 

3.- ORGANISING THE SPACE AND TIME

 

3.1.- The physical surroundings

Young children respond well to surroundings which are pleasant and familiar. This is a classroom which needs to be a little more “special” than others. There should be more space to move around and all the furniture and materials should be child-friendly- they should be safe, easily accessible, easily visible, colourful, etc.

  • A “video viewing” space can be provided, so that children can sit on the floor when they watch a video. Either a light removable carpet or individual cushions or mats could be provided.
  • Children should be able to reach both the notice board and the blackboard in order to stick their work up or re-arrange flash cards for example.

 

3.2.-Classroom displays 

As well as organising the arrangement of desks and chairs, it is important to organise notice-board and wall space in the classroom. Find a place where the materials produced by the children can easily be displayed on the wall. Decorate the place nicely using coloured cardboard, cut outs with English motifs and props that the children bring to class. Change the decoration from time to time and update displays of children’s projects regularly. 

 

3.3.- Organising time

Teaching time should be organised in several steps:

  • Year plan: At the beginning of the school year, teachers must organise aims, topics and contents throughout the whole school year, terms and weeks. This planning should be a draft of the whole school year and will allow teachers to make sure they cover all the contents. To design this plan, holidays, festivals, excursions and different timetables along the year (June, September) should be taken into account. This year plan is a general one and it could be modified depending on particular circumstances that may occur along the year as well as children’s needs.

 

 

4.- Choosing the right methodology

In this section I am going to show how to work in different moments of the teaching learning process. English teaching general methodology is explained  in Tema 21 and here I will  just provide some methodological tips for dealing with errors, checking comprehension, mixed ability and other issues.

 

4.1.-  Dealing with errors

The ultimate long-term aim when teaching a language is that the learner can communicate using the language correctly. Teachers should always bear in mind that it would be too ambitious to expect correct production from all children. Errors should be recognized as part of the learning process.

When correcting errors teacher should always take into account the following ideas:

  • Never interfere when a child is saying something. Do not interrupt. Let him/her finish. When he/she has finished you can use correct English to gently paraphrase what he/she was trying to say.
  • Encourage children to risk saying things in English even if their production is far from accurate. Don’t forget to praise their attempts.

 

4.2.- Classroom language

If cooperation and communication are to be part of the process of learning a language as well as part of the process of growing up, then the sooner the pupils learn simple, meaningful expressions in English, the easier it will be. A very important way of helping pupils progress from dependence on the book and on the teacher to independence is to give them the necessary tools. One of the tools is the classroom language.

 

4.3.- Checking comprehension

When we learn a foreign language, we are constantly putting ourselves at risk of not understanding everything we hear or read. We understand what is known to us and we try to guess what we do not understand from the context. The teacher tries to help the children understand as much as possible by conveying the information through different sensory channels: auditory, visual, and motor. Watching the children when they are performing tasks gives the teacher clues as to how much  they have understood.

 

4.4.- Routines

English teaching involves constantly changing classroom scenarios. The children watch and listen to a story, and show that they have understood it by putting together a puzzle, for example. They learn a song, they practise and revise a rhyme they already know well, they work in pairs and ask their partner for words, and so on.

Alongside the changing scenarios, other processes are constantly taking place at a socio-emotional level.  One child is being disruptive, another wants the teacher’s attention, a third explains an activity to their partner, another is looking for their pencil or borrowing a rubber, etc.

 

4.4.a.- Global routines

4.4.b.- Warm-ups

4.4.c.- Closing routines

 

4.5.- Paving the way to speaking freely

The emphasis in teaching children lies in language intake, in reception. Only a certain amount of what the children understand and absorb will later be used in language production.

Young learners learn to speak by practising mini-dialogues, presenting sketches, reciting rhymes or chants, playing guessing games and by communicating in the classroom.

 

4.6.- Learning to learn

Learning to learn is an essential ability to develop autonomous learning and it can already be developed with young learners. The goal is for children to gradually become slightly conscious of how they understand what they are presented with, what helps them remember words, phrases, texts, and whether or not the pace of the lesson is adequate for them. In order to reach this goal, it is important to talk with children about goals and how they are learning.

 

4.7.- Mixed ability

Clearly, not all the students learn at the same pace and the teacher needs to offer revision or extension activities to his/her pupils according to individual progress. These activities should be used only when needed to help children to achieve the minimum objectives fixed and to cater for mixed ability.

 

4.8.- Evaluation

The assessments of the children’s progress should not be limited to evaluating the pupils’ language performance. As teachers, we also need to monitor constantly whether our learners are showing an interest in English, and how their cognitive, social and motor skills are developing. The Assessment Criteria and the Assessment Standards defined in the Royal Decree 126/2014,  28th February 2014 are the base of any English assessment.

 

 

5.- The role of  the teacher

We come to our job with our personalities already formed, but there are abilities and attitudes which can be learnt and worked on. As a teacher of young children it helps a lot if you have a sense of humour, you are open-minded, adaptable, patient, etc. , but even if you are if you are the silent, reserved type, you can work on your attitudes and abilities.

 

5.1.- Abilities

We may not all be brilliant music teachers, but most of us can learn to sing or even play a musical instrument. All music teachers would agree in any case that everyone can sing, although perhaps not always in tune. We can all learn to mime, to act and to draw very simple drawings. We can all learn to organise our worksheets so that they are planned and pleasing to look at. 

 

5.2.- Attitudes

Respect your pupils and be realistic about what they can manage at an individual level, then your expectations will be realistic too.

As a teacher you have to appear to like your pupils equally. Although at times this will certainly include the ability to act, the children should not be aware of it. Children learning a foreign language or any other subject need to know that the teacher likes them. Young children have a very keen sense of fairness.

 

5.3.- Helping the children to feel secure

Once children feel secure and content in the classroom, they can be encouraged to become independent and adventurous in the learning of the language. Security is not an attitude or an ability, but it is essential if we want our pupils to get the maximum out of their language lesson.

 

5.4.- The role of parents and teacher-parent communication

Parents deserve to know and we need to explain to them the educational rational behind the methodology we use.

At the beginning of the school year and before your classes start, invite parents to attend an orientation meeting where teachers can discuss the following points with them:

  • Children should have positive learning experiences; they gain self-esteem and motivation and lose their shyness about expressing themselves in English.
  • Parents should not expect their children to be able to speak English from the start. Children should learn above all to understand language, and later to respond orally in simple language.

 

 

6.- CONCLUSION

In this unit I have explained the main aspects of classroom management as an essential aspect of our teaching practice. A correct use of space, time, group work activities, interaction with students and methodological hints, will definitely enhance our work as teachers and will help our students to achieve the linguistic competence, the social and citizen competence and their autonomy and personal initiative.  

 

7.- Bibliography

  • MINISTERIO DE EDUCACIÓN. Law for the Improvement of the Quality of Education (LOMCE) dating 9th December,2013.
  • MINISTERIO DE EDUCACIÓN. Royal Decree 126/2014,  28thFebruary 2014, that establishes the curriculum for Primary Education,
  • RD 7 December 2006 establishing the minimum requirements in Primary Education
  • GERNGROSS,G. AND PUCHTA, H. Playway to English. Teacher’s guide. Cambridge University Press.1998
  • NUNAN,D. Language teaching methodology. Prentice hall. London,1991.

 

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