Puppets
real attachments to their puppets and
inprimary
Devin Unwin gives his students a helping hand.
T
his article aims to answer the
questions why, how and what about
puppets. It was conceived after a
workshop about using puppets in
ELT primary classes was given at our
school. After numerous hours of
classroom experimentation, and after
consulting with the colleague who led the
workshop, I feel ready to share my ideas.
We teach at an ELT extracurricular
school in Madrid, and we work with
students over a range of ages and levels,
as young as five (pre-A1 CEFR) and as
old as 18, some preparing for their
proficiency exam (C2 CEFR). Obviously,
puppets are best suited to younger YL
classes but, that said, there may also be
scope for using them with older
learners. More on this later, though.
Why?
Puppets can have a variety of uses with
real benefits for young learners, if the
teacher invests time and effort in using
them in the classroom with a proper
pedagogic aim in mind. Most young
children find puppets engaging so, first of
all, they are a great way of grabbing their
attention. The teacher can then have the
puppet interacting with the students,
either giving instructions or taking part
in a spoken exercise. For example, the
puppet, rather than the teacher, can
model pronunciation during drill work
(completely controlled practice) or the
puppet can ask the students about their
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 96 January 2015 •
day or their family (relatively freer
practice). Puppets can thus be seen as
an interactive resource which can
encourage the students to use the
language in a number of different ways.
For a fairly comprehensive list of
activities which can be done with
puppets, see ‘Using a class puppet with
very young learners’ by Carol Read,
which is available on her website at
http://carolread.com/ideas/VYL_puppet.pdf.
According to Stefan Chiarantano, a
puppet ‘actually introduces another
native speaker in the classroom’. This is
a great advantage in an ELT context,
since we are trying to create a language-
rich environment for our young learners.
A puppet may thus give the teacher
another option when it comes to
teacher talking time – why not have
your puppet say it for you?
When placed in the hands of young
learners, puppets can become a way of
encouraging second language use.
Mistakes made while speaking can be
attributed to the puppet, rather than
the student. Puppets can, therefore,
offer a level of security to younger
learners, and they can also encourage
quieter students to take more risks.
Young learners also seem more open to
peer-correction when they are
interacting through their puppets.
Children have an amazing capacity
for imagination and creativity; puppets
can act as a key to unlock this potential
in class. I have had classes who formed
gave them detailed personas. This
increased their sense of ownership of
the puppet and the language it was
producing. It also led to enthusiastic,
lively speaking on the part of the
learners as they experimented with the
language through their puppets. I even
had classes request homework which
involved their puppets – showing that
children’s creativity is not limited to or
by the classroom.
Puppets may also offer solutions to
more practical problems. As Sarah Phillips
notes: ‘If you have real space problems,
puppets may be a solution.’ In a classroom
with limited space, kinaesthetic learners
can be catered for by allowing them to
use their fingers or hands. This is true of
older children as well as their younger
counterparts. Puppets, especially ones
made by the students themselves, offer
more physically-oriented learners an
opportunity to use their hands while
practising the language. Thus, puppets
allow for more physically active
activities without the need for the
students to stand up and move around
the classroom, with all the disruption
and time wastage that setting up these
types of activity can entail.
Finally, creativity breeds creativity.
Teachers who bring their own creativity
to the classroom, even in limited ways,
may inspire their learners to do likewise.
Students who are encouraged to use
English in a creative and meaningful way
are more likely to engage with the
language on a deeper and more personal
level. Puppets may be a practical way to
begin to bring more creative freedom
into the class, by allowing the students to
see creativity as something constructive
and beneficial.
How?
Depending on the teacher’s needs,
more than one puppet might be
appropriate in a class. This would mean
that the different puppets could have
different roles. Although a teacher
could have one all-purpose puppet, they
could just as easily have one puppet for
classroom management and another to
practise pronunciation and speaking.
23
Puppets
inprimary
This raises the question of whether
the puppets should talk, make noises or
remain silent. Any of these is a possibility,
depending on the purpose of the puppet.
A colleague recently mentioned a spider
glove-puppet which she uses for pointing
things out on the board or in the book,
which is an excellent example of how
puppets can be used silently to focus
the students’ attention.
If you are planning to use a speaking
puppet, a key consideration is the puppet’s
voice. As a general rule of thumb, don’t
make the puppet’s voice too different
from yours or difficult to perform for
sustained periods. The puppet’s voice
definitely shouldn’t strain your normal
voice. It is also worth bearing in mind
that your puppet’s personality will be
expressed largely through its voice, and
you can decide how the class will interact
with it: is it a light-hearted, fun-loving
puppet or a stricter, gruffer character who
demands better pronunciation? Avoid
putting on an accent which is not your
own, as this may make consistency
more difficult. If you are embarrassed or
nervous about using a puppet for the first
time, try practising at home alone first.
Also think about having a silent puppet,
which is introduced to the class as such.
Remember, your classes will only ever
be as invested in the puppet as you are.
Silent puppets are also excellent for
classroom management, since they can
be timid creatures who are scared by
loud noises and rowdiness.
An obvious use for a talking puppet
is to have it interacting with the students.
Why not, then, have two puppets that
can interact with each other, with you,
the teacher, and with your class? Another
option would be to have your students
make their own puppets in class. This
could be done as a project task, possibly
one which involves the students
following English instructions given by
you in order to construct their puppets.
They could then customise their puppets,
before making them act as characters
24 • Issue 96 January 2015 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
during roleplay activities. This may
encourage quieter students to
participate, and may even work with
older groups of children and teenagers.
The obvious benefit for kinaesthetic
learners has already been mentioned.
Puppets can also be put into the
hands of students to practise things like
prepositions. The teacher can say
‘Now let’s put our puppets under our
tables. Good. OK, everyone, where are our
puppets?’ With a little planning and
creativity, puppets can be used to
practise productive as well as receptive
skills – which is great for very young YL
classes where the students may not
have much productive language yet.
As a final thought on how to use
puppets in class, remember that routine
is essential in a young learner classroom.
So make sure that you use your puppet
regularly and consistently with your
classes. Remember that the sooner the
students get used to having a puppet in
the classroom, the sooner you will start
to see the pedagogical benefits which
these simple props can provide.
What if ...
you don’t have access to a
‘real’ puppet?
This is a fair question but, as Carol Read
points out, with a little creativity on the
part of the teacher quite a number of
everyday household items can be used as
a puppet. Things like soft toys or novelty
oven mitts which look like animals are
perfect. Homemade puppets are also a
definite possibility, and these can
generally be put together on a shoestring
budget, with a little imagination on the
part of the aspiring puppet maker. For
those teachers with a bit more time or
capital, and the inclination, the internet
offers a range of options either for
making professional-looking puppets or
simply ordering them online.
you have older students?
With teenagers, it is crucial to explain the
pedagogic purpose of the puppets in the
classroom, so they don’t feel patronised.
Explain that a puppet gives them a
persona through which they can use the
language in roleplay situations. These
situations, as far as possible, should be
ones in which the learners might find
themselves, eg planning a birthday party
or a shopping spree. A good first activity
for older young learners, which can be
done as a warmer, goes as follows. First,
give your students some pictures of faces,
and ask them to speculate in pairs or
small groups about these people: name,
age, nationality, occupation, hobbies, etc.
Second, select one of the faces for each
student (or let them pick their own).
They have to make up details about their
character and introduce themselves to
the group or perform a speaking activity
as their persona. If classes enjoy this
activity, it’s a small step to introducing
the idea of using puppets to represent a
persona that the learners themselves
have come up with.
Puppets can also be a way to
introduce drama into older YL classes.
If your students enjoy using puppets,
why not let them write a puppet show
to be performed for the class? As with
younger learners, a teacher must enter
into the spirit of using a puppet with
older classes, and it is highly
recommended that teachers also use a
puppet of their own if they want
students of any age to follow suit.
I hope this article has given you some
useful ideas and shown how puppets are
a multipurpose tool that can be used for
a variety of reasons in a young learner
classroom. Teachers certainly shouldn’t
shy away from experimenting with them
in their YL classes. So whatever their
purpose in your classroom, let’s give
puppets a big hand!
Chiarantano, S ‘A bag of tricks for the
traveling YL ESL teacher’
www.tefl.net/esl-articles/bag-of-tricks-esl.htm
Retrieved 14/10/2013
Philips, S Drama with Children OUP 2003
Devin Unwin has been
teaching English since
2008. He has a Trinity
ELT Diploma, a
post-graduate degree in
English literature and is
currently completing an
MA TESOL. He started
working at the British
Council Madrid Young
Learners Centre in 2010.
devin.unwin@britishcouncil.es