SPOTLIGHT ON

YL TEACHER EDUCATION
Talking to Peter Clements and Martin Sketchley

Teachers who successfully complete an initial teacher training course in ELT are often required to teach
primary and/or secondary learners immediately on graduation. Young learners are not a major focus of
many initial ELT training courses and therefore newly qualified English language teachers often feel thrown
in at the deep-end. However, there are additional training courses which focus specifically on teaching
children and/or teenagers. In this Talking to piece, David Valente (DV) interviews Peter Clements (PC)
and Martin Sketchley (MS) who share experiences of taking YL ELT qualifications and offer many tips for
teachers making the transition from adult-focused teaching to more age appropriate pedagogy.

DV: Which YL ELT training courses did you

take?
PC: I took the Cambridge Young Learner Extension
to CELTA which as you know, is due to be
discontinued at the end of 2016.

MS: I took the Trinity Young Learner Extension

Certificate (TYLEC) to complement my CELTA

back in 2013.

DV: Did your initial ELT training have a useful

YL focus and how beneficial was this for
teaching children and teenagers?
PC: I took my CELTA in 2012. There was a small YL

focus, I think it was just two short workshops.

One focused on the different approaches to
teaching YLs, and offered some tips for adapting
materials. The second focused on storytelling
- particularly keeping children engaged. I still
remember that session, it was really fun! Overall
though, input on teaching YLs was limited, and
although the sessions were enjoyable I cant say
they informed my practice.

MS: I took the CELTA in 2007 and there was only one

day dedicated to the teaching young learners. It

was a very short look at activities to incorporate
in YL classes. One thing that I remember from the
session was stirrers - activities to engage and
generate interest - and settlers - activities to
calm children and encourage more focus. It was
limited and it would have been a great idea to
have more than a day dedicated to the different
age groups.

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DV: How long had you been teaching children

and teenagers before taking a young
learner training course?
PC: A large chunk of my experience has been with

YLs. Id been teaching secondary for about 5

years before taking the extension course, but
had very little experience teaching primary. I
knew how to engage teenagers (well, at times!)
and had a set of tried and tested materials.
The problem was, I didnt really enjoy teaching
children and teenagers - I much preferred
teaching adults. For some reason I felt much
more nervous when teaching YLs.

MS: The majority of my teaching career has been

dedicated to teaching young learners, even prior

to the CELTA course. I had taught adults for about
two years full-time post-CELTA and then young
learners for the rest of my career. I had probably
taught young learners for around five years prior
to taking the TYLEC.

DV: Why did you decide to take a young learner

extension course?
PC: I wanted to gain more confidence teaching

YLs, and I wanted to refresh my basic skills. I

figured that I might enjoy teaching children
and teenagers more if I felt more confident. The
extension course was free at my school, so I had
nothing to lose really. I try and make the most of
every opportunity for professional development,
especially those I dont have to pay for!

TEYLT Worldwide, Issue 1, 2016: The newsletter of the IATEFL Young Learners and Teenagers Special Interest Group

MS: I really wanted to enhance my skills in teaching

young learners and improve my lessons. This

was the main reason for doing the TYLEC. I
also wished to develop as a young learner
practitioner, as I enjoy teaching different age
ranges, and wanted more experience, skills and
confidence as peer observations and formal
observations were one component of the course.
As with Pete, the course was free and so why
not?!

DV: How useful was the course and would

you recommend taking a young learner
extension?
PC: Yes, I would recommend it. Its a useful add on,

a good opportunity to reflect on your practice

and a chance to gain some formal recognition for
your skills as a YL teacher. Many of the workshops
were informative. I found input on how to
differentiate activities was really good, as was
the session on whole child development, which
is something Id overlooked when planning.
Developing storytelling techniques was also
something I enjoyed, as well as input on SLA.
I see the course as worthwhile and Im glad I took
it, however in my view, it isnt essential. I have
colleagues who have been teaching children
and teenagers for years and are excellent at it.
Having said that, it is something that looks good
on your CV - someone on my course has proven
that already by being offered the role of YL
Coordinator.

MS: The course was an invaluable part of my

professional development. I gained a lot of

new practical ideas and activities which I could
use in my day-to-day teaching. Things such as
giving the children responsibilities e.g. to hand
out worksheets or organising the classroom in a
specific manner so as to use the space in the best
possible way. Would I ever recommend other
teachers to do a similar course? Absolutely! It is
such a rewarding course and as a (young learner)
teacher, you cannot stop developing. One thing
that stood out for me was the invaluable focus on
class management techniques.

DV: Can you describe your YL extension course

in three words:
PC: Harder than expected.
MS: Challenging, rewarding, inspiring.

DV: Do you have any tips for teachers about to

take a YL ELT training course?
PC: I browsed some YL-focused methodology books

before the course. I found English for Primary

Teachers (Slattery and Willis, 2001) had some
good advice and ideas for the classroom. Also,
it might be a good idea to read key concepts
related to child development and SLA. In
particular, its worth looking up Piaget, Vygotsky
and Bruner. Regarding class time, just enjoy it
and try out a lot of new things. I also learned a lot
from other teachers on the course.

MS: Everything you are taught during the input

sessions or the feedback that you receive from

lesson observations, take on board. It can be
quite overwhelming but if you try a lot of the
tasks or learn from other teachers, it can be an
invaluable experience. I would also consider
looking at how CLIL (Content and Language
Integrated Learning) is incorporated in YL
lessons. It seems popular with many countries
adopting a CLIL-based approach to language
teaching, especially for primary. I also remember
developing a weekly lesson on the life-cycle of
a caterpillar. We first looked at different types of
food and drink, then we focused on the story
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The
children (aged 7) made their own caterpillars there is a particular focus on using art and craft
and how children are still developing fine motor
skills and then the children retold/rewrote the
story using a storyboard.

DV: What were the most useful things you

learned about how children learn and its
application to ELT?
PC: The need for age appropriate class management
techniques with primary due to their shorter
attention spans. Ive learned to add far more
variety into my primary lessons since taking
the course - shorter stages, more stirrers,
multisensory tasks, changing interaction
patterns often. This has helped my classes a lot.

MS: That children and especially teenagers often

have more extrinsic motivation (i.e. their parents

/ caregivers have told them to study English).
This means that when teaching young learners,
there needs to be great emphasis on motivation,
engagement and interest. Throughout
the course, I was reminded to engage my
primary-aged learners by adapting material,
demonstrating an activity or showing heres one

TEYLT Worldwide, Issue 1, 2016: The newsletter of the IATEFL Young Learners and Teenagers Special Interest Group

25

I made earlier as well as using songs and rhymes

to develop phonics.

DV: What was the most memorable aspect of

your YL training course?
PC: Giving really, really clear instructions. Staging

them well too. I have always been quite bad at

this and some of my instructions on the YL course
were awful, especially when I was trying to set
up pair or group work. Still, I realise that this is
an area I need to continue to work on, and the
course tutors gave me some great guidance.

MS: During one formal observation, I had asked the

learners to move their desks to one side and

then step toward the front. Chaos ensued and
I learnt quickly that it was better to stage the
steps involved: nominate particular learners to
move the desks and then move to the front of the
class. This was the most memorable area of my
professional development with young learners
and something that I also like to encourage the
teachers I now supervise to think about with
their own classes.

Martin Sketchley is Young Learner Coordinator at LTC Eastbourne and has taught for over 10 years in three countries.
He currently runs the award-winning blog ELT Experiences (www.eltexperiences.com), delivers YL teacher training,
develops materials for young learners and also creates videos for teachers (www.youtube.com/ELTExperiences).
You can contact Martin at martinsketchley@gmail.com
Peter Clements has taught in South Korea, Hungary, Spain, Vietnam and Thailand. He currently works in Bangkok for
the British Council. He has a Trinity DipTESOL and an MSc in Reading, Language and Cognition. His interests include
mentoring teachers and data-based teacher development. He is a regular contributor to ELT publications and blogs at
www.eltplanning.com. You can contact Peter at pgclements27@gmail.com

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TEYLT Worldwide, Issue 1, 2016: The newsletter of the IATEFL Young Learners and Teenagers Special Interest Group