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Ker stin Klein

children tend to change their mood every other minute, and they find it

extremely difficult to sit still. On the other hand, they show a greater motivation

than adults to do things that appeal to them. Since it is almost impossible to

cater to the interests of about 25 young individuals, the teacher has to be inven-

tive in selecting interesting activities, and must provide a great variety of them.

My teaching approach is neither purely communicative nor audiolingual

(AL); it also involves features of total physical response (TPR), which is partic-

ularly appropriate for young children. I do not consider any of the abovemen-

tioned approaches sufficient of itself to bring about a high degree of language

proficiency in the learner. The goal is to achieve communicative competence,

but the manner of teaching includes audiolingual features, such as choral/single

drills, and activities deriving from TPR.

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The lesson I will describe is designed foreight- to ten-year-olds at the beginning level.The topic of the unit is Everyday Life. Thelearners must describe their day and what isgoing on at home at certain times. The gram-

matical focus is on the present tenses (simpleand continuous). As the present continuousdoes not exist as a tense form in the studentsnative language (German), the teacher mustmake the time reference very clear to them.The present continuous has several functions,but, since the new form is challenging enough,we will stick to the present time reference andwill focus only on action in process. The struc-tural pattern of the verb is also new. In orderto automatise it several drills are necessary.

Having set up the lesson plan as shown onthe next page, we can now discuss it step by

step. The discussion follows the order of thelesson plan.

Warm-upThis step is essential in preparing the learn-

ers for the lesson. Imagine that their previouslesson was mathematics or history, and howfar away their thoughts may be from English.My experience shows that children respondenthusiastically to songs and welcome them asa warm-up activity. Using songs in the class-room has a whole range of advantages. Someof them are listed by Garcia-Saez (1984), e.g.,

creating a positive feeling for language learn-ing, awakening interest during the lesson,stimulating students to greater oral participa-tion, and breaking the monotony of the day.The song chosen for this lesson (Are yousleeping, are you sleeping) has an addition-al function: when singing the song, the learn-ers are using the new tense form subcon-sciously; thus, it breaks the ice in introducingdifficult and strange grammar.

IntroductionThe purpose of the next step is to familiar-

ize the students with the topic. Although to thelearners switching to the picture (we chose onewith a boy reading a book and dreaming ofbeing the leading character) seems to be coin-cidental and only topic-related, the teacher hastwo other purposes: (1) to introduce the idea ofdescribing a picture, and (2) to have the learn-ers continue using the new grammatical formsubconsciously. This step consists of informalteacher-learner talk (t-l talk) and leads directlyto the following stage.

Goal SettingThere is an old rule in theatre that, when

the house lights go down, the audience is neverto be left in the dark for more than a briefmoment. A ray of light is shown on the curtain

even before it opens. These metaphoric wordsare used by Meyer and Sugg (1980, 33) toexplain the need of clear goal setting in a lesson.Students should always, at all stages, knowwhatthey are doing and whythey are doing it. Thisis necessary not only so they will feel a certainsatisfaction about their achievement at the endof the lesson, but also for good motivationthroughout the lesson. Research has also shownthat students are more attentive to their work ifthe teacher explains the goals of the lesson. Thegoal for this lesson is skill oriented, whereas thenew grammar feature serves only as a means to

achieve this goal. This communicative goal set-ting derived from my personal experience, aswill be seen in the following stage.

Presentation of theNew Grammatical Item in Context

I still remember vividly my English teacherin high school destroying any motivation andenthusiasm I had by opening the lesson withthe unforgettable phrase Today we are dealingwith grammar. The same unpleasant feelingcame over me years later, when, as a young, in-experienced teacher, I was approached by one

of my pupils, who shyly asked me Machenwir heute etwa Grammatik? (Are we dealingwith grammar today?). It took a while to getrid of that feelingnot by making studentsget used to such phrases but by showing thema different, more integrated and communica-tive approach to grammar.

I try to make the learner conscious of whats/he is already able to use sub/unconsciously.That means that the grammatical structureshave already been used by the students (some-times only in repeating the teachers words)

before they are explained. In the lesson I am de-scribing, the learners had used the present con-tinuous in the song and in the t-l talk about thepicture. For elicitation the teacher could useeither his/her questions to the students (e.g.,What is he reading?) or the students (correct)answers. Of course, the teacher should alwaysprovide more than one or two examples.

ExplanationIn the explanation phase students are forced

to think about the elicited sentences and analyse

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LESSON PLAN

time stage teachers activity learners activity

2 min. warm-up Sing the song Are you sleeping. . . . (teacher and learners)

4 min. introduction Presents a picture, e.g., showing a boyreading a book, asks simple questions, e.g.,Now John is not sleeping anymore. He isreading. What is he reading?

Reply to the questions.

Repeat answers in chorus andindividually

2 min. goal setting Using a second picture, s/he provides thegoal for this lesson, e.g., Look, here is anotherfunny picture. At the end of this lesson wellcome back to this and well see whatsgoing on there.

Listen and comprehend.

Perhaps make some remarks aboutthe picture or ask questions about it.

6 min. presentation Asks questions about picture 1 and writessome answers on the blackboard.

Answer the questions.Repeat answers.

explanation Asks students to read and translate elicitedphrases, questions related to the use andstructure of the verb.Switches to L1 for explanation.

Read / translate.Answer.Try to explain the rules.

5 min. formal drill Introduces jazz chant, conducts the chorus.

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Speak and perform the chant.

6 min. less formal drill Tells some students to do various things andthen asks others about it, e.g., Go to the door.What is s/he doing? Is s/he going to thedoor or to the window? Where are you going?

Do the actions.Answer.Repeat answers.

4 min. pair work Sets task, gives examples, monitors the work. Work in pairs.Ask and answer using flash cards(showing people doing differentthings).

6 min. group work Sets task, gives examples, monitors the work. Use different cards.Discuss order of cards, find theappropriate phrase, write them down,one pupil writes on OHP foil.

2 min. evaluation Provides feedback. Read and check work (use OHP foil).

10 min. writing1st2nd

3rd

Sets task, reintroduces picture 2.Asks students to describe only one part,e.g., one person.Asks to describe the whole picture orally/in writing, puts some relevant words orphrases on the blackboard.

Comment on or talk about it.Describe orally, then in writing.

Describe it orally (1 or more students).Write it down (with the help of wordson the blackboard).

2 min. (Finish and evaluate the description of the picture in the next lesson.)

them for themselves. The teachers questionsserve as hints or clues to point the learner in theright direction. I always prefer a cognitive, in-ductive approach, which involves the learners inanalysing and explaining the use and form of astructure, because this supports their under-standing of it. In this lesson, at this early stageof language learning, the teacher might be jus-tified in switching to the mother tongue bothto save time and to keep things from getting too

complicated. The Natural Approach to languagelearning holds that only acquired (in contrast tolearned) knowledge is effective in use, whileknowledge of rules applies only to monitoringthe language output (see e.g., Krashen and Ter-rell 1983); nevertheless, it is thought that famil-iarity with language rules and their automa-tisation will facilitate the language-learningprocess. In my experience, students do not hes-itate to make use of structures they have learnedonce and automatised to such a degree that they

are able to use them subconsciously.

In learning the present continuous, Ger-

man students are faced with an item that does

not exist in their mother tongue. Contrastive

Analysis would predict difficulty in acquiring

and using this structure. In fact, I have never

had problems in introducing the students to

this tense form; it causes only minor difficulty

as compared to other structures. Moreover,

they tend to overuse it.

We will now switch to the practice stage ofthe lesson. The view of practice I prefer can be

adapted from the traditional one:

PRESENT CONTROLLED PRACTICE

FREE PRACTICE (cf. Brumfit 1979)

into:

SUBCONSCIOUS USE ELICITATION

CONTROLLED PRACTICE FREE PRACTICE

Littlewood (1981) divides activities intopre-communicative and communicative activ-

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ities. Using his terminology we will start withpurely pre-communicative activities.

Formal DrillThe controlled-practice phase of the lesson

starts with a simple repetition of the new lan-

guage feature in different variations. In orderto distract the young learners from the gram-mar point, a jazz-chant variation is used as afirst drill:

Im saying: Hsh, Hsh. Tom1 is sleeping.

What are you saying?

Im saying: Hsh, hsh. Tom is sleeping.

Who is sleeping?

Tom is sleeping, he is sleeping.

Is he sleeping?

Yes, he is. Aaaaanot any more.

Based on the work of Graham (1978), thisshort jazz chant reinforces the present-contin-uous structure. As Graham (1978, ix) pointsout, jazz chants are highly motivating becauseof their rhythms and humour. In addition, theyoung learners need not patiently remain intheir seats. They can move, clap their hands,snap their fingers, or tap their feet; they areinvolved both mentally and physically. Songs,poems, chants, and similar activities reduceanxiety and increase the personal involvementof second-language learners. This kind ofpractice is certainly not a formal drill of the

traditional stimulus-response kind.

Less-Formal DrillThis part of the lesson is based on an idea

from TPR. Although TPR has some obviouslimitations, it can facilitate the language-learningprocess by enhancing memory, by providingvariety through physical movement, and by thefun it creates (cf. Tomscha 1986). The learner-s movements are used as a kind of visual aid(instead of pictures, etc.) for describing actionsthat are going on at the time. Learners can talkabout an action that they are involved with at

the very moment of speaking.Thus, the combination of form and func-

tion is emphasised. The teachers stimuli andstudents responses can progress along a line ofincreasing difficulty. Depending on the stu-dents level of proficiency, the questions can,after a time, be asked by the students them-selves, and/or they can describe more than oneaction that is taking place. Hence, it is possi-

1. Use the name of a student in your class, who hasto play the role of a sleeping boy/girl.

ble to link such actions as going to the black-board, writing a word (sentence, question) onit, reading it aloud, erasing it, etc.

Pair WorkSo far, the learners have, for the most part,

only had to respond to the teachers stimuli.Now the mode is changing from teacher-cen-tred to learner-centred. The learners dependmore on each other and engage in interactivetasks. Certainly, the pair-work activity at thisstage belongs to the pre-communicative activ-ities in Littlewoods taxonomy. But even thiskind of mini-dialogue can support the learner-s speaking proficiency. The pattern that theteacher may introduce as a model to guide thestudents can, for example, have the followingstructure using appropriate flash cards:

Whats going on here? They are speaking.

What is she doing? She is singing.

or by adding adverbs (if they are alreadyknown):

How is he singing? He is singing loudly.

or using yes/no questions:

Is the sun shining? Yes, its shining. / Noits raining.

Some of the phrases have already been prac-ticed in the jazz chant and the previous exer-cise. The illustrations on the flash cards serve

two purposes. First of all, they can be quitehelpful in creating the motivating, game-likeatmosphere so conducive to learning (Meyerand Sugg 1980, 33), and secondly, they pro-vide visual support for the speaking activity.

Learners are expected to create a certainlevel of awareness when they perform, i.e., theyhave to consciously make use of the new struc-ture, but they also have to focus on meaningand probably shift from focus on form tofocus on meaning during the practice period.In exchanging the flash cards and performing(for instance) dialogues with more than one

exchange learners also get involved with suchfeatures of conversation as turn-taking.

Because pair work is learner-centred, theteachers role is less dominant. The teachermust monitor the learners performance inorder to provide feedback and help where nec-essary. S/he can also take part in the conversa-tion as a participant.

Group WorkThe next stage of the lesson switches from

oral activities to writing. For developing writ-

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ing skills we use the process approach. Thisgroup activity presents the learners with a taskthat becomes gradually less difficult, preparingthem for the more challenging goal at the endof the lesson.

A cooperative (in contrast to competitiveand individualistic) goal structure helps stu-dents achieve greater success in group-workactivities (Jacobs 1988), as well as educatingchildren to be more cooperative. In our lessonthe group must first discuss the appropriatetime for each action and then write up theactivities. Each group is given a different set ofpictures and times, so that the ultimate successof the story depends on the participation ofeach group. As an outcome of the group workthey write their sentences on an OHP foil,which makes the evaluation phase far easier

and visible to the whole class. Following thesubprocesses of writing, this stage belongs tothe prewriting phase. Several structural drillsare demanded as a prewriting activity. Theactual writing task at the lesson end is subdi-vided, too, as we will see.

Writing

The first step is to re-introduce the picture.This re-introduction should achieve familiari-ty with the subject, i.e., the description of thepicture. (We chose a picture showing a typicalGerman family at the Sunday morning break-

fast table.) The teacher should not use a for-mal expression like Lets describe the picturenow, but should use words that call attentionto the content more than the form, e.g.,Look, what is going on one Sunday morningin this family? What can you see? First, letsfind some names for the people. Thus, thelearners will focus more on the content of thepicture. They may use words that dont go inthe direction the teacher wants to lead them,but a friendly teacher-learner / learner-teachertalk can inspire motivation and the enthusi-asm to communicate. For the prewriting

phase many activities, such as exchange ofexperiences, thinking, remembering, talking,reading, or noting, are required. The studentswill not stick to using only the present contin-uous, but remember, it is only onemeans toachieve the goal.

The next step in this process could be thedescription of just one person, e.g., the boy.The learners have to do this in writing. Onepupil could, for instance, write on the black-board as an example for discussion afterwards.

The teacher could then change the modeagain and ask the students to describe orallyeither one more person or the whole picture,using their written notes as a beginning.Another possibility is to start with the begin-

ning sentences from the blackboard and carryon, involving different students in a sequence.The teacher can collect catchwords from thestudents and note them on the blackboard ina kind of brainstorming activity.

There are several ways to continue this activ-ity, depending on classroom circumstances andthe particular learners. In any case it might besupportive for the learners to find some wordsor phrases to help them write it up.

As we cannot expect, in a 4550 minutelesson, to finish this work, the teacher shouldhave the students complete it as homework. It

might be a good start for the next lesson tocompare the different stories that the pupilscome up with. S/he can then go ahead withmore authentic situations for using the presentcontinuous, either in the form of dialogues orsimply in describing different actions, e.g.,Look out of the window and tell me whatsgoing on in the street.

References

Brumfit, C. 1979. Communicative language teach-ing: An educational perspective. In The commu-nicative approach to language teaching, ed. C.

Brumfit and K. Johnson. Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press.

Garcia-Saez, C. 1984. The use of songs in class as animportant stimulus in the learning of a language.Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of theSouthwest Conference on the Teaching of For-eign Languages. Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Graham, C. 1978.Jazz chants. New York: OxfordUniversity Press.

Jacobs, G. 1988. Cooperative goal structure. Eng-lish Language Teaching Journal, 42, 2, pp.97101.

Krashen, S. D. and T. Terrell. 1983. The natural ap-proach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Littlewood, W. 1981. Communicative languageteaching. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Meyer and Sugg. 1980. Never let them in the dark.In Teaching children, ed. S. Holden. London:Modern English Pub.

Tomscha, T. 1986. Using TPR communicatively.Paper presented at the IATEFL Conference,Brighton, England.

This article was originally published in the

April 1993 issue.

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APPENDIX | ARE YOU SLEEPING?TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS Kerstin Klein

from Old Favorites for All Ages: Songs for Learners of American Englishby Anna Maria Malko. Printed in1993 by theUnited States Department of State.