Resources for Teaching and Learning English in Infant and Primary Education

11-Resources for Teaching and Learning English - Dolors Masats

Teachers are bombarded with proposals to innovate in their lessons but teaching English is sometimes a rather solitary task. The course's main purpose is to offer people interested in the field of foreign language teaching “food for thought” and resources to make children’s learning experiences much more updated, fun, simple, dynamic and adapted to the 21st century competencies and skills they need to master.

The course is divided into 15 three-hour thematic sessions. Each session will evolve around one particularly relevant topic related to the teaching of English to young and very young learners (students aged 3-12), but connections will be made between one session/topic and the others. All sessions will combine brief theoretical explanations with a broad array of practical activities in which participants are expected to take an active role. Attendees will also be asked to participate and/or lead group discussion to share (and contrast) their opinions, ideas, knowledge, beliefs, doubts, and experiences upon the implementation of the practical activities done in class.

No prior experience in teaching English to children and very young children is required. Yet, the course is designed to suit the needs of in-service teachers, too. The lessons will be carried out entirely in English; consequently, participants are expected to have a good command of this language.

Resources for Teaching and Learning English in Infant and Primary Education
Week	Contents
1	Teaching theories, methods, and approaches The role of language learners and teachers
2	Folklore & Children’s literature as learning resources. Drama techniques as a resource for learning English.
3	The challenges of teaching digital natives. CT resources for teachers & flipped lessons

This is a PRACTICAL COURSE, therefore listing here all the teaching/learning activities we will experiment in class is far from being a worthy task. Theory will be constructed while participants conduct the tasks proposed by trainers in a virtual environment. These tasks will engage participants in the process of discovering and exchanging educational materials. All tasks are interactive and combine theory and practice. Some of the tasks are to be done individually and are self-corrected. Other tasks will be done collaboratively, but asynchronously, among participants in the virtual environment. Students will always receive direct feedback from the course trainers.

In order to get a passing mark in this course (minimum total score 50/100), participants will be asked to complete four tasks, each of which is compulsory and contributes 25% to the total assessment mark. A minimum score of 40/100 is required in each task to be considered complete.

TASK ONE: Accessing the materials and taking active participation in class activities and discussions. Deadline: End of course. As the course is very experiential, participants are expected to conduct a minimum of 80% of the individual and collective tasks proposed in the virtual classroom. Participants are expected to display a positive attitude and to demonstrate critical thinking when participating in class discussions. Accessing the materials and attending the three synchronous sessions is compulsory to be able to take part in the class activities and discussions.

TASK TWO: Elaboration of a short reflective essay to be submitted at the end of session 6. Participants should deepen into the study of one of the issues linked to the course contents and produce a two-page reflective paper. First, they should read one article on the topic chosen, then they should briefly present the theoretical considerations made in the selected article, and finally they should present a methodological proposal illustrating how to incorporate the theoretical postulates contained in the article into the classroom. More detailed instructions will be given in due course.

TASK THREE: Micro-teaching simulation. During the course, participants will be provided with a pool of resources, practical tools, and teaching strategies. In return, they are expected to contribute to this pool by designing and implementing a practical class activity in our course. Participants are allowed to choose the language in which they want to implement this task. They need to videorecord a five-minute activity illustrating how they would teach the chosen contents to young learners.

TASK FOUR: Deadline. End of course.

A special effort will be given in having time to share. Attendees will be asked to share with all course participants and the three trainers 4 resources to be used for teaching English or foreign languages to young and very young children: realia (week 1), a story (week 2), a song (week 3) & a digital tool (week 4). Accessing the materials is compulsory to be able to take part in this task.

A+ Project (2020). StandAPP and Speak up: the game is about to start. APAC ELT Journal, 92, 20-32
Copland, F. (2012). Crazy animals and other activities for teaching English to young learners. London: British Council.
Dooly, M., & Masats, D. (2015). A critical appraisal of foreign language research in CLIL, YLL and TELL in Spain (2003-2012). Language teaching: surveys and studies, 48(3): 1-30.
Dooly, M., Masats, D., & Mont, M. (2021). Launching a solidarity campaign: Technology-enhanced project-based language learning to promote entrepreneurial 5 education and social awareness. Journal of Technology and Science Education, 11 (2): 260-269.
Dooly, M., Mont, M., & Masats, D. (2014). Becoming little scientists: A case study of technologically-enhanced project-based language learning. APAC Journal, 78: 34- 40.
Masats, D., Mont, M., & Gonzalez-Acevedo, N. (Eds). (2019). Joint efforts for innovation: Working together to improve foreign language teaching in the 21st century. Rothersthorpe: Paragon Publishing.
Murphy, V. A. (2014). Second language learning in the early school years: trends and contexts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wright, A. (2011). Storytelling with children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dolors Masats, Maria Mont and Nathaly González-Acevedo are lecturers and teacher-trainers from the Department of Language and Literature Education and Social Science Education and members of the Research Centre for Plurilingual Interaction & Education (GREIP).

Dolors Masats has ample experience as a teacher of Catalan, Spanish & English as foreign languages in formal and non-formal settings. She is also a materials designer and a curriculum advisor.

E-mail: dolors.masats@uab.cat

Maria Mont is an enthusiastic English teacher and a translator and interpreter. She has worked as an English teacher for 15 years in a state school and is a teacher trainer and an educational advisor at Vallès Oriental IV resource centre.

E-mail: maria.mont.algamasilla@uab.cat

Nathaly González-Acevedo is full-time preschool teacher at an international school. She is interested in very young learners’ agency and in the use of technology in the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language.

E-mail: nathaly.gonzalez@uab.cat

Resources for Teaching and Learning English in Infant and Primary Education

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