In this section, I am going to express my opinion about two different topics. This opinion is based on the observation I have been able to do in the different schools that I have been doing my internship in, specially the one I have been throughout this year.
Strategies for checking understanding
One of the most important things to take into account when teaching a second language to students is to check their understanding. Students first need to understand what the source of informations is conveying so as to learn from it; that is, understanding is the first step for learning.
The information that students are provided with can have different forms such as the teacher’s (oral) explanations, something written on the blackboard, a flashcard, a worksheet, information online, a message transmitted through a video, etc. That is why teachers need to focus their “checking for comprehension” in two different ways: oral and reading.
Regarding the former, checking for oral comprehension, there are several strategies that can be used to make sure that students understand the information that is conveyed orally (either through a video or an oral explanation).
TPR (Total Physical Response) is a well-known method for teaching a foreign language in which the students are asked to do something in the target language by doing a certain action or movement. For instance, children can learn vocabulary about daily routines by miming them; that is, get up, brush my teeth, comb my hair, have a shower, etc. First, the teacher can do the actions with the students and ask them to repeat them (both orally and by doing the actions). Then, the teacher can say the actions in the same order but without doing the movements, so that the students have to do the actions (by only having the input of the teacher saying the action). Once the students know the daily routines, the teacher can say the actions randomly and check if students know the meaning of each of them.
If it is the case in which the information is provided through a video, students could be asked to do some simple tasks while watching the video to check if they are following the explanations. For example, students could be asked to order some pieces of paper (which contained the information in the video) as they appear in the video. They could also be asked to answer some questions after or while watching the video, they could be asked to cross out the topics that appear in the video (from a list of more topics than the ones that truly are dealt in it), etc.
A different strategy that could be used is exchanging the roles of the teacher and the students. So, when the teacher is giving an explanation, a student could try to explain what the teacher is trying to say. It would be great if the teacher could encourage the student to try it in the target language, or at least incorporating some words in the foreign language. Even better would be if the teacher could take one student out of the classroom and explain to him or her what the following activity will consist of; so that, when they enter the classroom, this student can give the explanation to his/her classmates (promoting as much as possible the incorporation of words in the foreign language). With this strategy, the comprehension of all the students is not checked at the same time; but it can be used in several occasions so as to check the understanding of different students each time.
And finally, another strategy that could be used is translation. In it, if it is the case of a teacher’s explanation, s/he can first speak in the target language and later translate it to make sure that nobody has missed any piece of information. Nevertheless, following this strategy, the students’ understanding of the target language is not promoted since the translation is provided at the end of the explanation. However, another way to use translation could be asking another student in the classroom to translate what the teacher is saying. That way, the teacher checks the comprehension of the students who are asked to translate, instead of providing the translation himself/herself.
This last method, in my opinion, is not so recommendable since the use of the foreign language is not fostered much. That is why teachers should seek ways of facilitating students’ understanding. To do so, body language is key. Teachers need to exaggerate the movements they do with their body in order to exemplify what they are saying. It is extremely important to sympathize with the students and be aware that they can feel as if someone is talking to them in a language that they do not understand at all; for that reason, teachers need to help them with everything they can appart from the language (gestures, facial expressions, drawings, etc.).
With regards to the latter, checking for reading comprehension, there are some strategies that teachers could use to make sure that students understand the information that is conveyed in a written format.
One of them could be an exercise of filling in the gaps. For example, students are provided with a text and they have to complete it with some given words; so, they have to read the whole text and choose the word that best fits each gap (they need to have a general idea of what is being conveyed in the text).
In fact, the same strategies exposed before when pointing out some ideas of strategies to check students’ comprehension when the information is conveyed through a video could also be useful in this case. So, marking the odd one out could be a good exercise to check that students understand a text. That is, students have to cross the parts of a story that do happen and leave the ones that are not used in the story.
Another strategy could be to write parts of a story (or any type of text) in different pieces of paper and making students order a it. That way, students have to understand what is written in each of the pieces of paper and think of the logical order of the story.
Doing mindmaps, doing the drawings for a story, thinking of dialogues that could be added to a story, among others could be useful to check that students truly understand what the text is saying so as to complete that information with the drawings and dialogues or summarize it with the mindmap.
However, as it has also been recommended before, it would be extremely useful to provide students with helpers when being asked to understand a text. So, giving them a little glossary with the most important or difficult vocabulary, making them work in small groups so that they can help each other understand the text, etc.
Indeed, cooperative groups are a great tool when helping students take the most of a text and making them work together to overcome the challenge of reading in a foreign language. Each student can adopt a role and they all can work together to read and understand a text. So, one member of the group can start reading the first sentence aloud, then the text student has to explain to the others what the first person has read; that way, teachers make sure that all the students in the group are understanding what they are all reading. If the person who has to explain the sentence read does not understand it, the rest of the group can help him/her.
Strategies to make very young learners or primary students to speak
Speaking is the part of the language which is more difficult to learn because only speaking we can improve. Most people are embarrassed when making mistakes, and thus, they are shy and prefer not to speak (so as to avoid making mistakes).
That is why teaches have to bear in mind that creating a comfortable environment is key. Students need to get rid of their fears to speak in the foreign language, at least try it. Nobody is born with the ability to speak a language without making mistakes; and children need to know it. The teacher should make sure that students are not afraid of making mistakes and that nobody in the class is going to laugh at others if they say something wrong.
Once everybody is open to try to speak the language and accepts that s/he will make mistakes but learn from them, the teacher has to encourage students to incorporate the foreign language as much as they can. Even mixing their mother tongue with words of the target language is great because it means that students are making an effort to improve their level of the foreign language. Moreover, it is great that students experiment with the target language; that is, if in their speech they need to use a noun and they know that some nouns in English (to put it as an example) are formed with the suffix -ation, they can invent a word that maybe it does not exist but they are making connections between the languages. When they do so, it is the time for the teacher to congratulate them for having made the effort of speaking in the target language and providing them with the correct way to say what they were trying to say.
One way to praise these students who make the effort to use the foreign language would be giving them a shiny sticker. All students love them and it could also be a way to encourage the rest of the students in the classroom to try speaking in the target language.
Once they all feel comfortable and willing to speak in the foreign language, several strategies can be used to make them all participate; and avoid that always the same students are the ones taking part in the lesson. One of them, for example, could be passing a ball. As for them it can be seen as a game, all of them want to catch the ball and they know that when they have it, it is their turn to speak; so, they have to say something in the foreign language (depending on the task that is being done).
The same could be done using colored sticks with the name of each student. The teacher can have all of them in a small container and pick one randomly; this person has to answer the question that has arisen in the lesson. It would be a good idea to ask the question before picking the name, so that all students think about the answer in case the name that is chosen is their own.
There are hundreds of online tools that are designed to pick a name randomly. The names of all the students in the class can be written in the website; as well as in the colored sticks strategy, the question should be asked before saying the name of the student who is going to answer it so as to make them all think.
However, there are some students who might be shy and who prefer not to speak in front of their classmates, even less if they are supposed to do it in the target language. That is why working in cooperative groups can be a great idea. When students are asked to solve some questions or do some activity, they can be arranged in small groups. Once all the groups have finished their task, the teacher can ask one student of each group to solve one of the questions; that way, the idea that this student has to say is from the group (all of them have agreed on that answer and they have prepared how to give the best answer possible to it) and s/he only has to say aloud what the group has decided to be the best option. So, there is a shared responsibility and the student has been able to prepare his/her speech before saying it in front of their classmates.
The tasks that students are asked to do have to be engaging for them as well; otherwise, they will neither be motivated to do it nor to speak in the classroom. If the tasks or activities involve interaction among students or are game-like, it is more likely that students will enjoy them and thus, they will be more participative.
With regards to promoting interaction among students, teachers should bear in mind that this interaction may (with a high probability) take place in their mother tongue. This should not be a problem. However, when transmitting this information they have gathered to the rest of the class, the teacher should encourage these students to use the foreign language as much as they can.
Some students may reject participating in class using the foreign language because they do not feel sure about their level of the language. This is not bound to happen in Primary Education, but if it is the case, the teacher can provide these students with digital tools they can use to work on the language at home. Applications such as Duolingo can be fun for kids and they are practising the language without realizing it. There are some kids that if they are not sure that what they will say is correct, they will not say it aloud. What the teacher can do in these cases is ask this student to say what s/he wants to say to the teacher as a secret (whispering) while all the others are finishing their tasks (before doing the discussion, for example) and help him/her build the sentence correctly so that then s/he is brave enough to say it in front of their classmates.
The teacher could also arrange a part of the classroom with useful sentences that students may need to use during the lesson such as “Can you repeat it, please?”, “I don’t understand”, “How do you say … in English?”, “What does it mean?”, etc. That way, instead of saying in their mother tongue what they do not know how to say in the target language, they can ask “How do you say … in English?”; and thus, they are using the foreign language a little bit more.
Besides, it could be a good idea to ask students to perform small dialogues in pairs or small groups. The teacher can provide them with the script and each student has to say a not very long sentence using some structure that can later be worked in class such as “How much is it?”, “It is 5€”. In this way, students start being familiar with some useful structures that they can use in their lives if they travel abroad and they get the chance to practice in small groups instead of in front of all the class.
Another small activity could be listening and repeating. The teacher can read aloud a particular sentence or piece of a text and students have to repeat it all together, or by small groups. This could be one strategy to help students gain confidence when speaking in the target language.