Task 1

Read David Nunan’s[1] article and think if you agree or disagree with his views.

What is wrong with the approaches to teach English to young learners?

Curriculum models should be developmentally appropriate to the age and stage of the learner

All too often, models developed for high school students or even adults are imported into the primary classroom.

2. Methodology needs to be age appropriate

This is a crucial point. It is as inappropriate to give young learners formal grammar lessons as it is to ask adults to learn a foreign language by manipulating glove puppets.

3. Teachers must be trained to teach languages to young learners I have done training workshops with foreign language teachers in primary schools who have no training in the teaching of young children. Very often they have no training in the teaching of language. And sometimes they not even trained teachers of any kind.

4. Intensity of instruction must be sufficient

My daughter began learning French in primary school. She had one 45 minute lesson a week. By the time the next week’s lesson came around, she had forgotten what she had learned the previous week.

5. Instruction should cater to all of the learner’s needs; physical, psychological and social

Teachers in primary school have to cater to the whole child, attending to physical and psychological needs as well as cognitive ones. The answer to the question, “What do you teach?” should not be “I teach English” but “I teach children.” Regardless of the subject taught, our overall aim as teachers is to prepare global citizens for the 21st Century. What makes English unique is that it is both the medium and the method of learning. It is through English communication skills that all other skills and knowledge can be acquired.