Resources for Teaching and Learning English in Infant and Primary Education
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 14 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 and a genuine interest in the field of foreign language teaching.
Important Notice on Course Suitability and Activities:
Some Summer School courses are designed for students with prior academic background in a specific discipline and may be unsuitable for participants without that preparation.
In addition, certain courses include discipline-standard practical activities (for example, laboratory work with biological specimens, dissections, use of clinical or forensic material, field sampling, or other hands-on procedures) that may be unfamiliar or unsettling for some participants.
Students are responsible for reading the course descriptor carefully and ensuring (i) that they meet any stated academic expectations or prerequisites, and (ii) that they are comfortable participating in the methods and activities described.
If you are unsure about suitability, please contact the course lecturer(s) before enrolling.
| Week | Contents | Activities |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Self- access materials (videos, readings, quizzes, fora, etc.) on these topics: Day one: Getting started Day two: Theories, approaches and methods June 24th: Holiday Day three: Methods, approaches and techniques Day four: Lesson planning |
| 2 |
|
Self- access materials (videos, readings, quizzes, fora, etc.) on these topics: Day five: Integrated skills and classroom management Day six: Storytelling in the foreign language classroom Day seven: Drama in the foreign language classroom Day eight: Poetry in the foreign language classroom Day nine: Music in the foreign language classroom |
| 3 |
|
Self- access materials (videos, readings, quizzes, fora, etc.) on these topics: Day ten: Using technology for teaching young children English Day eleven: Gamification versus Game-based learning Day twelve: Designing an online learning environment Day thirteen: ICT Tools and strategies for creating Flipped Classrooms Day fourteen: Peer Assessment: Time for Reflection and Interaction |
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.
Please notice that although the course is online, and you can freely organise your schedule, you need to invest three hours every day to go through all the materials and complete the tasks successfully.
Online
From Monday to Friday (July 24 is a local holiday)
From 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
TASK ONE: Formative Assessment Tasks (50% of the course mark). Accessing the materials and taking active participation in class activities and discussions is compulsory. On doing so, participants are expected to display a positive attitude and to demonstrate critical thinking. As the course is very experiential, the completion of a minimum of 80% of the individual and collective tasks proposed in the virtual classroom (16 out of 20) is requested. Formative assessment tasks can only be delivered on the same week they are presented. Tasks submitted in the following weeks will not be assessed and will count as not done.
Deadlines for task 1: Week 1-> June 26th; Week 2-> July 2nd; Week 3 -> July 10th.
TASK TWO: Caring is sharing (20% of the course mark). A special effort will be given to have time to share. Attendees will be asked to share with all course participants 2 resources for teaching English to young and very young children:
3A. Realia for Classroom Management. Deadline: June 26th
3B. Song/Poem/Story: Deadline: July 3rd
These two tasks are related to specific course contents that must be accessed and completed beforehand.
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—individually or with a partner—a practical class activity (25% of the course mark). Individually they also need to comment on one designed by a peer (5% of the course mark). More detailed instructions will be given in due course.
Deadline: Class activity -> July 9th; Peer Assessment -> July 10th.
Academic integrity notice: any form of plagiarism in work submitted for this course will be treated as a serious academic offence and may result in an automatic fail grade.
- A+ Project (2020). StandAPP and Speak up: the game is about to start. APAC ELT Journal, 92, 20-32. Available here.
- Copland, Fiona; Garton, Sue & Davis, Monika (2012). Crazy animals and other activities for teaching English to young learners. British Council. Available here.
- Dooly, Melinda, Masats, Dolors, & Mont, Maria (2021). Launching a solidarity campaign: Technology-enhanced project-based language learning to promote entrepreneurial education and social awareness. Journal of Technology and Science Education, 11 (2): 260-269. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/jotse.1224
- Dooly, Melinda, Mont, Maria, & Masats, Dolors (2014). Becoming little scientists: A case study of technologically enhanced project-based language learning. APAC Journal, 78: 34-40. Available here.
- Garton, Sue, & Copland, Fiona (2019). The Routledge handbook of teaching English to Young learners. Routledge. Available here.
- Masats, Dolors; Mont, Maria, & Gonzalez-Acevedo, Nathaly (Eds). (2019). Joint efforts for innovation: Working together to improve foreign language teaching in the 21st century. Paragon Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3064130
- Masats, Dolors; Moore, Emilee, & Llompart, Júlia (2025). Key concepts for educating in and for plurilingualism. Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Available here.
- Pinter, Annamaria (2006). Teaching Young Language Learners. Oxford University Press. Available here.
- Torras-Vila, Berta (2021). Music as a tool for foreign language learning in Early Childhood Education and Primary Education. Proposing innovative CLIL music teaching approaches. CLIL Journal of Innovation and Research in Plurilingual and Pluricultural Education, 4(1), 35-47. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/clil.60
- Wright, Andrew (2011). Storytelling with children. Oxford University Press. Available here.
Dolors Masats is a lecturer, researcher and teacher-trainer from the Department of Language and Literature Education and Social Science Education and a member of the Research Group on Education, Interaction, Plurilingualism and Pluriliteracies (GREIP). She 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. Additionally, she has led and participated in different national and international projects on plurilingual education and published widely in this field. She studies plurilingual practices in classrooms that apply pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures. She has won the John McDowell Award twice.
- E-mail: dolors.masats@uab.cat