Teaching English to preschool children

A foreign language is a necessity of our time, so laying the foundation for further education is a really important task. If your credo is “Do not be afraid of difficulties, do not lose heart and see in everything only reasons for personal growth”, then working with the younger age group is for you.

Teaching kids is a matter for a true professional in the field of pedagogy. In addition to English, it is necessary to thoroughly know the psychology of preschool children, the features of mental and physical development, to understand the methods and techniques of teaching. And, of course, it is important to have a certain character warehouse:

• be patient and calm about the fact that the lesson plan may not be 100% completed;
• be friendly, be able to play and talk with the child at his level;
• be ready for all sorts of improvisations and be able to cope with children's emotions and whims in an environmentally friendly way;
• understand modern educational literature, as well as know interesting online platforms for teachers, sites with games, songs, cartoons, crossword puzzles;
• be able to identify gaps in knowledge, teach from scratch;
• find an approach to parents;
• understand the responsibility that lies with the teacher and try to connect English with other areas of education and development.

Methods of teaching kids

It should be noted that whatever learning strategy is chosen, it pursues the following global goals:

• the formation of a number of skills that help to communicate in another language;
• the ability to convey their thoughts and use knowledge to achieve goals;
• creation of a base for learning a foreign language at school, college and university;
• the formation of a positive attitude towards the culture of the country of the language being studied, interest in other nations.

The chosen methodology should not only include all aspects of the study, but also develop speech and mental functions in general. Indeed, at 2-3 years old, a person only learns to speak, listen and understand speech. Thus, a competent teacher teaches:

• pronounce words correctly in both Russian and English;
• works with auditory perception;
• expands vocabulary in the native and studied language;
• strengthens knowledge of grammatical constructions also in both languages.

Game as a form of organization of the educational process

The play method is ideal for toddlers aged 2 to 5 years. Children memorize a lot of songs, proverbs, words, nursery rhymes. Games should not be held from time to time - they must be transformed into a full-fledged educational process. The game form is a positive motivation and at the same time an effective educational tool. Let's look at which games are used most often:

Situational role-playing games as a teaching method for preschoolers

Situation modeling is an important stage in the formation of many personal qualities. In this way, you can teach your baby to behave correctly in unsafe situations, find a way out of problems and learn English along the way.

The most common role-playing games are:

• seller buyer,
• doctor patient,
• two friends,
• fairy tale character and baby,
• celebrity reporter.

Sometimes toys can be used, which are also assigned roles. While playing, you can learn to conduct a dialogue, reproduce memorized words or phrases, improvise, understand addressed speech, form the right reactions, and also learn the correct communicative behavior. Such exercises are one aspect of the very popular  communicative teaching methodology.

Game methods are especially good because you can come up with something new every lesson - imagination is not limited. The most effective and common forms are:

• What's this? The teacher scatters the toys, and then takes them one by one and asks “what is this?”. The child must name the object. There are also options when the student, with his eyes closed, must determine what is in his hands and say it in English.
• What's missing? Children close their eyes, and when they open something, they see that there is not enough object or toy. They must remember and name it.
• show me. The teacher calls the word (the name of the toy, piece of furniture, fruit, etc.), and the kid must find and show. in this format, you can play at the initial stages, when the child is shy. In this case, you can even use toys brought from home.
• What's not to belong? From a number of homogeneous objects, such as fruits, it is necessary to determine the excess, for example, a vegetable or a ball.
• Where did I go wrong? An adult lists the names of what he sees around and when he calls something wrong, for example "seal" (seal), then the children should clap and stomp.
• Who is my friend? The teacher or student describes any character, animal or cartoon character, and others must guess who they are talking about.
• My dream today is. A teacher or preschooler describes what he wants, and another brings him this object or performs an action, for example, draws a sun on the blackboard.

Role-playing games require a minimum of didactic material and a large amount of interest in the process. It is allowed to use cubes, balls, any toys, constructor, cards - the most important thing is to tune in to an easy and relaxed transfer of knowledge.

Competitions - a form of education for children 4-6 years old

When the base is mastered, you can resort to board games, crossword puzzles, and command execution. You can create pairs, mini-groups, divided into two large teams. The main thing is to be able to maintain friendliness and at the same time set the children on the fact that victory is given to those who are attentive and study well. What competitions are suitable?

• Who will be the first to write 5 words on the letter "D".
• Who will accurately execute all the teacher's commands: Hands up! Sit down! Roll! Clap your hands! smile!
• Who will be the first to guess the riddle and draw the answer.
• Who will find all the items that the teacher named.
• Who will quickly rewrite the text from the board without a single mistake.
• Who can come up with the most small words from one big one.

It is important that the winners feel the advantage and attribute it to the fact that they tried. You can use the reward system: a large sticker, a medium and a consolation prize - a small sticker.

Music games

Necessary as a form of interaction between children. Kids choose a partner, learn teamwork (dance, singing aloud), and also develop phonetic abilities. There are a huge number of entertaining songs for the little ones:

• "If you are happy - clap your hands."
• "Baby shark."
• "Five little ducks."
• "Twinkle twinkle little star."
• ABC song.
• "Heard, shoulders, knees, and toes."

In the process of singing, the correct pronunciation is simultaneously assimilated, new words, numbers, body parts, letters are memorized, they have fun and physically relax. You can even let them dance in their own style - this will improve their mood and make it easier to remember information.

Creative English teaching in kindergarten

Creative activities include the following types:

Artistic activity

Suitable for absolutely everyone: from 2 years old to school, children love to draw. You can draw associations with letters, you can create illustrations for children's fairy tales, you can also invent stories from drawings.

Artistic forms of education actively used in kindergarten include:

• Graphic dictation.
• Coloring pictures by numbers / names of colors in English or anti-stress coloring.
• Application from various materials with repeated repetition of their names.
• Creating characters and thinking through their characters, describing their colors, shapes.
• Origami and staging a scene with created images.
• Illustrations as a continuation of a story or fairy tale.
• Create your own fairy tale and a story drawn out loud.

Children can simply draw what comes to their mind while the teacher reads them a fairy tale or while watching a cartoon. This develops fine motor skills, soothes, and also lays the foundation for future creativity.

Scenes, performances and plays

Children love to feel like characters in cartoons or fairy tales. This interest can also be used for educational purposes, for example, to play a skit about a bear in the forest. You can use props: costumes or masks, or you can do without it. The main thing is to think over the characters of the main characters, jokes and always an unusual scenario. The performances are perfect for group learning and maintaining a friendly atmosphere.

Teachers often use this method at the beginning of the school year to introduce and rally children and on holidays to demonstrate the level of knowledge and skills.

Children memorize phrases, work out intonation, reaction, remember the context, so before choosing a topic, be sure to ask the kids about their favorite cartoons. Today, characters from Smeshariki, Fixies, Malyshariki, Lady Bug, Paw Patrol are. But you can pay attention to the classics: Kolobok, Little Red Riding Hood, Wolf and seven kids, Teremok.

Teaching the little ones with word games

A good way that requires a certain amount of artistry from the teacher, in whose arsenal there should be funny rhymes, tickling, counting rhymes.

It is very effective to use rhymes to memorize rules and some topics:

This is daddy,
This is mummy,
This is sister,
This is brother,
This is me, me, me,
And my whole family.

The child will learn the composition of the family or color, as in the poem below.

Purple is a grape.
Purple is a plum.
Purple is my favorite juice.
Shall I get you some?

There are many verses about body parts, the alphabet, numbers, clothes, animals, flowers, vegetables, transport, holidays. It is recommended to memorize one rhyme every two lessons - this is how children train their memory and active vocabulary.

Watching video

A variety of educational cartoons, short videos and even lessons allows you to alternate creative activities with watching videos.

Practice shows that the Discovery Channel about our planet, animals, children from other countries are especially interesting. With the help of social short films, you can draw the attention of the younger generation to the problems of pollution of the Earth, racial wars, the need to respect resources, animals, and your body.

You should choose intuitive videos that will help you form your own point of view and memorize new words.

It is important to discuss the videos you have watched and draw conclusions. But videos can also be entertaining. With their help, you can learn songs, listen to fairy tales and just watch cartoons.

We do projects

Children at the age of 5 are interested in exploring everything around, so project-based learning is great. Its peculiarity is that the teacher selects a list of particularly exciting topics and problems for each topic. Then he conducts a series of classes with his favorite didactic materials available. It is allowed to organize a trip to the museum if the topic is related to history or to nature, if biology is being studied. After full disclosure of the chosen topic, the student prepares a project at home related to one of the problematic issues.

The project can be in the form of a large-format drawing, an application made of plasticine or paper, a filmed video clip - everything is accepted. The main thing is that the kid learns the topic and “solves” the chosen problem on his own.

How to teach kids with CLIL?

The CLIL method ( Content and Language Integrated Learning or Content and Language Integrated Learning) is one of the most striking and promising tactics for teaching foreign languages.

It consists in studying any subject (geography, mathematics, life and health protection, drawing) in English.

Several important approaches are combined here:

1. immersion in the language (lessons are taught in English),
2. associative (children memorize words and immediately images associated with them),
3. communicative (children communicate with the teacher and with each other in another language, learn to be friends),
4. audiovisual (the teacher tells and shows, for example, drawing a picture),
5. applied (the student learns something new and immediately puts it into practice).

If there is an opportunity to conduct, for example, art in another language, then you should definitely use it. The strengths of CLIL are:

• unobtrusiveness of English, because the emphasis is on the main subject,
• expanding horizons, because the child learns 2 new subjects at once,
• active application of the new and, as a result, the acceleration of free speech,
• parallel strengthening of all areas: listening, speaking, understanding, vocabulary.

If the teacher makes digressions to explain grammatical constructions, then this is 100% success. Modern courses for teachers actively implement the module with CLIL.

Author's methods of teaching in kindergarten

There are also techniques with proven effectiveness that you can dilute your own approach with:

• From 6 months to 2 years, Gleb Doman's technique is actively used. Its essence is in the demonstration of cards with pictures and the pronunciation of what is depicted there in English. The card has 2 seconds. Of the benefits: the author stated that the child remembers a large number of words. Of the minuses: the passive role of the baby.
• From 2 to 5 years, you can apply the method of Maria Montessori. Its meaning is to help the baby to study independently, freely, without limiting him to control and rules. The emphasis is on a special learning space: a room with didactic materials. Of the benefits: the formation of some independence and interest. Of the minuses: the lack of creative interaction with the teacher, separation from the real format of education.
• From 5 to 7 years old, you can teach reading according to the Zaitsev method. The main tool: cubes with syllables, from which you can make words. Of the benefits: a large number of exercises for creating and reading words. Of the minuses: lack of consistency in the educational process, one-sided development of skills.
• From 4 to 7 Total Physical Response (TPR) exercise-based method is used in some cases The essence of the approach is that the child remembers commands in English, reinforcing them with physical activity. "Jump", "Stand up", "Roll around". Pros: it can diversify the lesson if you do not study in this way all the time. Cons: tiring and monotonous for young children and the teacher.

How to teach English to young children?

The most important key to success is voluntary participation. If part of the group is not ready, then it is better to take the time to get to know each other and create the right atmosphere.

It is difficult for a kid to be motivated by an increase in wages or a career, so the teacher needs to think about how he will interest children. These can be entertaining didactic materials or a playful approach, original interactive exercises or excursions.

Monitor the level of comfort and relaxation of students and change the method if the one used causes difficulty or resistance.

It is equally important to follow the sequence in the study and make checkpoints to track progress.

Feel free to ask parents to let the kids take their favorite toys. And remember that fantasy in activities with children is your best assistant!