HUE UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGNLANGUAGES
---------------

TEACHING ENGLISH FOR

YOUNG LANGUAGE LEARNERS

TRAN NGOC QUYNH PHUONG

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

HUE, 2021
 ANALYSE THE LESSON

I. The objectives of the lessons:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to
- learn the names of basic colors
- classify objects in their environment by color

II. Target Vocab: red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange, blue, black.

III. Stages and purpose of each stage/activity of the lesson

1. Welcoming and introducing

 The purpose of this activity is to attract students’ attention and activate their
background knowledge about colors. It makes students aware of the content they are
going to learn and also arouse their excitement.

2. Counting

 This activity help SS learn the color words. Students can practice identifying colors
and counting at the same time, which gives them a chance to combine practicing
math skills.

3. Making color water

- T put the paint into the water in each bottle and asked SS what color it is.
 Students can practice saying the colors out loud, which is better for their
memorization

4. Matching colors with the right cap

- T asked SS to match the cap they are keeping to the right bottle that has the same color.
 Arouse their engagement and check their understanding

5. Checking
- Before putting all color bottles into a basket, the teacher asked SS to name the color
again
- T picks one random color water and asked SS what color it is

 Reinforcing colors

6. Magic Box:
- T shows SS that the basket is empty first, then took out from the basket different items
and let them say out loud: a pink ruler, a red apple, a yellow flower, an orange, a
yellow pencil

 Help SS identify familiar objects by color; arouse their curiosity.

  Create a relaxing learning environment where students find the activities entertaining
and exciting.

7. Group-work (Game)
- SS work in groups of 4
- When the teacher said a color, SS took out the color paper and hide it from their friends
- T showed one paper and said the wrong color on purpose then let SS say the right color
by themselves

 Check SS’ understanding and give them more space to practice with less controlled
guidance from the teacher

8. Sing along
- T sang a familiar Vietnamese song – “Kia con buom vang” then sang the song in
English with the same melody but different meanings which relate to the lesson
- The whole class sang together.

 Help SS to remember color words and encourage a positive learning environment.

9. Movement Breaks

 Allow SS to take a short break and refresh their mind.

10. Wrap-up

- T reviewed the lesson “Do you like English? Do you like colors? Tell me the color
you remember”.

- T pointed to real objects in the class such as the students’ jacket uniform, shirt, scarf,
backpack, and had SS identify the colors.

- T sang the song again with the whole class => relate to the objects and colors that
students have already learned in the lesson

 Help students to remember what they have learned.

 SS will feel a sense of celebration and achievement as they can identify and remember
different colors.
 EVALUATION

I. Discuss the flow of the activities

The activities are divided into three stages: starter, main and plenary. The opening activity was
carried out simply through a question about students’ personal preference of colors “Do you like
colors?”, followed by a brief introduction to the topic of the lesson. In general, this stage is brief
with simple language use and requires minimal instruction from the teacher, which enables young
learners to quickly switch on to learning and pay attention to the lesson. However, to effectively
activate students’ prior knowledge and arouse their excitement, the opening activity should be
redesigned to help learners feel more engaged, motivated, and curious. According to Williams and
Burden (1997), it is the teacher’s responsibility to help their learners see the personal relevance
and value of what they are going to study. Sharing similar viewpoint, Tomlinson (2013) also
emphasized that students, especially young learners, must find the content interesting and relevant
if they are to engage in learning.

For the main stage of the lesson, the teacher went step by step carefully and made sure all
students understand the activities. This is particularly helpful when teaching young learners since
most children learn more effectively when a task is broken down into smaller steps, giving them
more time to understand and follow the instructions. Besides, the activities were arranged from
easy to more difficult, from controlled to less controlled. For example, for the initial activity, the
teacher counted the numbers and named the colors along with her students first, later on, she let
students identify the colors by themselves before repeating the correct ones. This was followed by
a group work activity in which students had more freedom to work together, they even corrected
the teacher when she did say the incorrect color on purpose. However, the group work activity
itself had some drawbacks as the rules explained by the teacher were unclear and the rules were
changed when the activity was in progress, which could lead to confusion for young learners.
Besides, only the student who was given the color cards in each group could actively engage in
the activity as the teacher told them to hide the color cards from their teammates, which serves no
purpose and left other students in each group no opportunity to engage in the game.

However, a good point that needs to be mentioned is that a variety of activities were included
in the lesson namely experiments, observations, color call out, song singing, body movements, and
so on. This helps to avoid situations in which students are passive listeners for long periods.
Besides, since there are different types of learners in the class (audio, visual, kinesthetic learners),
creating a variety of meaningful activities will help all students stay interested, which, according
to Tomlinson (2013), has a profound influence on their performance.

Song singing is another meaningful activity that was successfully recycled and incorporated
into the lesson. According to new research by Džanić & Pejić (2016), songs are fun and can keep
students excited. More importantly, the repetitive feature of songs will have a positive influence
on vocabulary retention of young learners since it contains repetitive language and set phrases,
which help students memorize new words effortlessly. Besides, not only does this activity improve
young learners’ memory of color words, extend their attention span, develop their pronunciation,
and rhythm but it also provides a relaxing atmosphere. Since the song was adapted from a
Vietnamese version which all students are familiar with, they could easily relate to the rhythm and
find it easy to remember the target language pattern “What color is it?”. It is also noticeable that
the resources incorporated in the lesson were very flexible, ranging from songs, color cards, to
real-life objects, catering to different learning styles of young pupils.

Midway through the lesson, the teacher asked students to perform some physical activities to
help them relax, and also to boost their focus, memory, creativity, and mood. In research
from Savina et al. (2016), it has been proved that physical activities integrated into the teaching of
academic content, or classroom exercise breaks offer pupils the opportunity to re-energize their
body while giving the brain the time it needs to process learning and prepare for the next task. It
is clear that the teacher has planned well for this part of the lesson.

For the plenary activities, the teacher wrapped up the lesson by summarizing the main learning
focus, getting students to identify real objects in class by color. The lesson ended when the whole
class sang the song they had learned together. In general, the teacher had planned plenary activities
well while making sure the lesson finished on time. The activities were closely connected with the
objectives and outcomes of the lesson as a whole.

Most of the tasks given were immediately accessible to most pupils since they did not involve
complex instructions or extended activities which are too challenging for students. Some
meaningful tasks such as Making color water attracted pupils’ interest since the teacher had
incorporated the element of mystery, curiosity, and novelty to the task successfully. The interaction
among the teacher and students was good. The teacher went around the class to make sure all
students took part in the lesson, not only those sitting in the front and center positions. There was
an interaction between teacher and students, and among students-students though the latter seems
a bit insufficient due to a lack of group-work and pair-work activities. In general, the activities
went smoothly and fit the objectives of the lesson but it still needs to be modified.

II. Comment on the language use

The teacher always gave students nice compliments such as “Thank you, Good boy! Good girl!
You are so good, Very good! Excellent” to encourage students’ learning. She also asked for
students’ comments “Do you like it? Do you like colors?”, which is particularly important when
teaching young learners since praise can encourage students in many positive ways—like giving
them more incentive to try harder and letting them know the teacher is caring about them.
Neuroscience research has shown that learning is not only a cognitive but also an affective process.
According to Gilbert (2002) and LeDoux (1993), as cited in Tomlinson (2013), emotion is
considered critical for learning, especially for young learners. If the teacher's words convey faith
in children’s abilities, they will likely to perform better in class. This is why the teacher should
pay attention to students’ feelings and make sure they feel their contributions are valuable and
appreciated.

The teacher’s language use is very simple and understandable. This is consistent with the
findings of many researchers who had emphasized the importance of teacher talk in class for young
learners. Nunan (1991) pointed out that teacher talk is of critical importance not only for the
organization of the classroom but also for the process of acquisition. Therefore, for young language
learners, the teacher’s instructions must be straightforward, and easy to comprehend.

Since students are primary school students, apart from using verbal language, the teacher also
used her body language including gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, and other non-verbal
cues to explain her instructions. According to Tai (2014), thanks to its three features (intuitional,
communicative, and suggestive feature), body language in English teaching can help teachers to
deepen students’ understanding and impression. Visual body language can arouse students’
interest in English studying, especially young learners. It is also a good tool to facilitate the
development of their imagination.

III. Suggestions

There are some parts that need to be modified in this lesson. First, instead of directly
introducing the lesson topic, a warm-up activity should be added. A great way to start is by playing
a music video. A good ESL song will motivate, energize students and get them ready for class.
The teacher can play a song and ask students to guess what they will study today. Then, she can
elicit some color words from the students to activate their prior knowledge. (Rainbow colors song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLZcWGQQsmg can be a good option). Another fun way is
organizing a mini-game in which the teacher lays out colored paper in the order of the colors
mentioned in the song, and gets students (work in groups) to touch each color as the song is played.
Through this game, the teacher can get an overview of students’ prior knowledge and create an
exciting atmosphere for the whole class.
Another suggestion is that there should be more group-work and pair work activities to
facilitate independent learning. Students need more chances to practice on their own without the
teacher’s control. Since the former group work activity was ineffective, it could be replaced by
another similar one. First, the teacher needs to use color flashcards to help all students practice
keywords together. Once students have practiced enough, it is time for a fun flashcard game to
practice some more. In groups of four, one student puts all the flashcards on the desk and then tells
others to close their eyes. Next, that student will remove one of the flashcards, point to the missing
flashcard, and ask the others ‘What color is it?’. Other students must try to remember what color
is missing. This is a great way to make learners try to recall the vocabulary they just learned. It’s
also a good way to introduce the key expression, ‘What color is it?’. The teacher can model for the
whole class before letting them practice in groups.

REFERENCES

Džanić, N. D., & Pejić, A. (2016). The Effect of Using Songs On Young Learners and Their

Motivation for Learning English. NETSOL: New Trends in Social and Liberal Sciences,

1(2), 40–54. https://doi.org/10.24819/netsol2016.8.

Nunan, D. (1991) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Savina, E., Garrity, K., Kenny, P., & Doerr, C. (2016). The Benefits of Movement for Youth: a

Whole Child Approach. Contemporary School Psychology, 20(3), 282–292.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-016-0084-z.

Tai, Y. (2014). The Application of Body Language in English Teaching. Journal of Language

Teaching and Research, 5(5). https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.5.5.1205-1209.

Tomlinson, B. (2013). Applied Linguistics and Materials Development (1st ed.). Bloomsbury

Academic.

Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. (1997). Psychology for Language Teachers: A Social Constructivist

Approach (Cambridge Language Teaching Library) (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press.