evdokia karavas
TRANSCRIPT
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Introducing English in the first grades of primary school: The
teachers response and their emerging training needs
New foreign language
education policies in schools:
learning English in early
childhood
code. MIS 299506, 299512 & 299514
Poliglotti4.eu Expert Seminar
on Early Language Learning
9-10/2/2012
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Dr Evdokia Karavas
Faculty of English Studies
University of Athens
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The EYL Project
The project entitled English for Very Young
Learners is part of the Action: New foreign
language education policies in schools:
learning English in early childhood
Action:New foreign language educationpolicies in schools:
learning English in early childhood
Project:English for Very Young
Learners
The project is co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Greek state
through the Regional Operational programme (Education and Life long
learning), is implemented by the University of Athens and realised by the
Research Centre for English Language Teaching, Learning and Assessment
of the Faculty of English Studies (http://rcel.enl.uoa.gr).
http://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/http://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/ -
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The project
Design and development of
the curriculum, the syllabi,the learning materials andtasks (for the first and secondgrade of primary school) andthe design of an e-learning
educational portal forteachers and parents.
Training of teachersappointed to teachEnglish in the first
and second grade ofprimary school for
the first time
Evaluation (internaland external) of the
project which seeks tomonitor and assess theimplementation of each
phase of theprogramme and eachstage of the training
programme.
The internal evaluation will take place during the first two yearsof the
project implementation (2010-2012),while the external evaluation will take
place during the third year (2012-2013).
The external evaluation will be carried out by experts in the field who will also
act as plenary speakers in an international conferencethat will be held in
Spring 2013for the dissemination of the project results.
The project (launched in 2010) involves the introduction of English to students of the first
and second grades of Greek public primary schools and is part of the wider interventionsin the educational system implemented by the Ministry of Education for the development
of the New School.
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The project implementation timeline
Development of the curriculum and learning materials and tasks forfirst/second grade learners; implementation of the programme in 800 all
day primary schools throughout Greece.; development of the EYL
educational portal; information seminars to school advisors and primary
school teachers; specialized training of 15 in-class teachers (project
partners) in teaching English to Young Learners (JuneAugust 2011);
bottom up evaluation of the materials; revision of materials for the first
grade and development of materials for the second grade; internalevaluation of the project; development of the textbook for the third grade
of primary school(available onlinehttp://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/peapabc/cclass.htm)
Implementation of the revised materials and tasks for the first and second
grade in 950 all day primary schools; ongoing evaluation of the materials for
the first, second and third grade; development of online teacher training
modules and materials for face to face training; training school advisors and
trainers; ongoing internal evaluation of the project; hard copy developmentof materials for the first and second grades in the form of a dossier.
Nationwide
implementation of EYL
programme in the first
and second grade of
primary schools;
ongoing training all
primary school English
language teachers;external evaluation of
the Project ; monitoring
of the nationwide
implementation of EYL
during which teachers
will be asked to
develop cross-curricular
activities (in
cooperation with
teachers of other
subjects and primary
school teachers).
2010 - 2011 2012 - 2013
2011 - 2012
http://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/peapabc/cclass.htmhttp://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/peapabc/cclass.htmhttp://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/peapabc/cclass.htm -
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The EYL curriculumThe curriculum
is learner centred and task based facilitating the development oflearners cognitive, social, affective, psychomotor skills.
taking into account Greek young learners needs and interestsaims at the development of social literacies that learners have
already developed in their mother tongue and the developmentof learners intercultural awareness
consists of a series of graded tasks on familiar everyday topicsorganised in cycles which correspond to each school semester.
All material is accessible and downloadable from the EYL website
http://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/englishinschool
http://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/englishinschoolhttp://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/englishinschool -
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Each task is accompanied by description, aims, teacher notes on
activity implementation, supplementary materials (activity pages,
pictures, songs, stories etc)
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First year of EYL project implementation:
Baseline and formative internal evaluationBaseline evaluation - September-December 2010:
Survey of the profile of 897teachers engaged in the
project through aquestionnaire completed
during the informationseminars and online.
Survey of the profile of schoolunits through online questionnaires
that were filled in by the pilotschool headmasters. They provided
information about their schools,their teachers and their students.
The data was used as a springboardfor reports and articles written by
the Project Team.
Collecting data from 1135
teachers across the country thattook part in information seminars
organised by School Advisors.Information about the teachers
was collected through schooladvisor reports
of their seminars.
Survey of parents attitudes and
viewswhose children attendedEYL project classes (7250
completed questionnaires). Thesurvey was conducted through
questionnaires distributed by theEnglish language School Advisors.
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First year of EYL project implementation:
Formative - internal evaluation
175 teachers who taught in the first andsecond grade evaluated the educationalmaterial by filling in questionnairesdistributed by the School Advisors.
The teachers evaluated the educationalmaterial and reported on their experience.
The results of this evaluation were used bythe materials development team (consisting
of practising teachers) for the revision andenrichment of the first and second grade
tasks and materials .
At the end of the 2010-2011 school year,online questionnaires were filled in by 405teachers in order to evaluate the entire
Project.
Data was collected with regard to their
experience, their cooperation with othercolleagues, their students and the schoolunits.
The data collected were analyzed and
evaluated for further development andimprovement of the EYL Project.
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Investigating the profile of first and second
grade primary English teachers
Questionnaireeliciteddataon
Questionnaire completed by 897 teachers (163 online and 734 during
information seminars)
2010-2011: 800 all day primary schools throughout Greece, 2000teachers
a) teachersbackground
b) thecomposition
of classes
c) availabilityand quality of
school resources
d) teachers
perceived difficultiesin teaching young
learners
e) teacheridentified
training needs
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28,9%
39,7%
31,4%
Age25-35 years old 36-45 46+
40,2%
35,2%
22,8%
Teaching Positionpermanent position
hourly paid
seconded from secondary schools
Profile of teachers: Biodata
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1-5
years
26,9%
5-10years
19,9%
11-20
years
47,9%
Teaching experience in thepublic sector
65%12,9%
22,1 %
Teaching experience in
primary/secondary education
experience in primary education
experience in secondary educationexperience in both
Profile of teachers: Biodata
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Profile of teachers: Biodata
50,6 %
49,4 %
Teaching first/second grade
taught either 1st or 2nd grade learners
taught both grades
89,4%
10,6%
Attitudes towards the
introduction of English in the
first and second grade
positive or very positivenegative or neutral
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Profile of classes
Teachers reported
having on average
20 students/class
89,6% reported having 1-10
learners from different
ethnic backgrounds in
1stgrade
92,3% reported having 1-10
learners from different
ethnic backgrounds in2ndgrade
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Learners attending English lessons outside school
%
teachers
No of first grade
students attending
English lessons
outside school
%
teachers
No of second grade
students attending
English lessons
outside school
16,8% 0 2,5% 0
62,5% 1-5 43,2% 1-5
15,2% 6-10 36,7% 6-10
3,7% 11-15 12,1% 11-15
1,9% 16-20 5,4% 16-20
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Teacher perceived difficulties in
dealing with young learners
Do you experience difficulty
with the following:
Great difficulty % Some difficulty % No difficulty %
Getting learners to
concentrate on task17,2 75,9 6,8
Training learners in following
class rules23,8 70,2 5,9
Training learners in respectingothers 15 70,7 14,3
Adapting activities to suits the
needs of my class3,8 49,2 47
Designing appropriate
activities for my class7,3 51 41,7
Dealing parents concerns and
anxieties2,9 32,8 64,6
Cooperating with class
teachers4,3 16,6 79,1
Accessing writing materials 27,1 49,5 23,4
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5.7
60.6
19.9
10.3
8.5
5.9
1.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Lesson plans
Activities/materials
Audiovisual materials
Guidelines for teaching young learners
Model lessons
Websites with EYL activities
syllabi
% teachers (437 responses)
Need for extra material
C i hi i
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Comparing teaching experience
with perceived difficulties
Teachers with no experiencewith very young learners
reported having difficulties or
great difficulties in dealing withyoung learners (training in followingclassroom rules, helping learnersconcentrate on the task at hand)and in designing and adaptingactivities for very young learners.
Teachers with experience reported
experiencing less difficulty in these areas
C i hi i i d d
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Comparing teaching situation and postgraduat
studies with perceived difficultiessecondary school
teachersseconded toprimary school
primary schoolteachers
Marked tendency for secondary school
teachers seconded to primary to experiencegreater difficulties in dealing with students
and in designing appropriate activities than
their primary school counterparts.
Marked tendency for teachers with
postgraduate studies but no primary teaching
experience to experience greater difficulties
than their less advanced but experienced
counterparts in dealing with young learnersand designing activities.
Non experienced
teachers withpostgraduate
studies
Less advancedbut experienced
teachers
Fi di d th i i li ti
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Findings and their implications:
Facts, realisations, decisions
Fact 1
Over half of our teachers were well experienced (11-20 years of teaching experience)
and over 60% had experience teaching in the primary sector BUT despite theirexperience these teachers had never received formal systematic training in younglearner methodology.
1/3 of our sample were novice teachers (1-5 years) and lacked any kind of formalsystematic training in EYL methodology.
Over 60% of our sample did not have any prior teaching experience with very younglearners which meant that the majority of our teachers were not familiar with the
special characteristics and challenges posed by the particular age group. In the vast majority of EYL project classes a significant number of students are from
different ethnic backgrounds and are learning English as a third language
Realisation
The training programme addresses a very diverse group of teachers with a wealth ofdifferent training needs.
Decision
The training programme had to include a range of general and more specialized trainingmodules in order to cover the needs of the less and more experienced teachers.
Fi di d th i i li ti
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Findings and their implications:
Facts, realisations, decisions
Fact 2
As data from the teacher profile were being analysed we were
informed that due to school mergers which were decided by thegovernment as one measure against the financial crisis, the projectschools in the following year would rise to 960. As a result of thesemergers, the teaching body in project schools would change by40%.
Realisation
Designing a long term coherent training programme with face toface seminars spanning the three years of the project is not viabledue to constant changes in the composition of our teaching body
Decision
The training programme had to be viable and sustainable regardlessof changes in the composition of the teacher body or in thecomposition of our trainer group. The training programme had tobe coherent offering training in more general areas of EYLmethodology and progressively leading to training in morespecialized areas
Fi di d th i i li ti
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Findings and their implications:
Facts, realisations, decisions
Fact 3
We had managed to collect data from less than half of our project teachers despitethe fact that a) seminars by school advisors were offered throughout Greece and b)teachers also had the option of completing the questionnaire online. This shed doubtson the effectiveness of the cascade model of training in this particular context.
Given that a number of our project schools are located in remote areas and islands inGreece, providing face to face seminars to these teachers is extremely costly in termsof time, money and human resources.
Realisation
Difficult to ensure the quality and reliability of training through the cascade model.Difficult to coordinate and manage a large group of trainers (who have not specializedin EYL methodology) and to ensure that a consistently high level of training will bedelivered to all project teachers throughout Greece.
Decision
The EYL training programme could not focus exclusively on face to face seminars
delivered by trained multipliers. In order to ensure that all teachers have the sametraining opportunities, in terms of quantity and quality, the training programmeshould take the form of a distance learning on line programme consisting of a range oftraining modules each focusing on a different area of EYL methodology andresponding to the needs of the less and more experienced EYL teacher. The onlinetraining modules will also be developed for use in face to face seminars organised byschool advisors.
Th EYL i i
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6. Dealingwith parents
5. Storytelling for
young learners
4. Organising theatre
activities and classevents
3. Using games &crafts
2. Using chants &action songs
The EYL training programme:Training Modules
1. INTRODCUTIONUnderstanding and
managing the younglearner classroom:
Teaching YoungLearners
The pre-primarylearner
Teacher as Manager:Class Management
Teacher as materialsdeveloper (T's Kit)
Using the L1 and L2
in the young learnerclassroom
Culture throughLanguage
Cooperating with theschool principle andfellow teachers
Each module consists of:
a) lively powerpoint
presentation with
information relating
to the module theme
b) extracts from videotaped
EYL project lessons
c) pre-while-post viewing
activities
d) awareness raising and
self-assessment quizzes
e) suggestions for further
reading and suggested sites
with related material.
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The training programme 2012-2013
Development of threefurther training
modules
Developing crosscurricular projects
Using technology in theyoung learner
classroom
Assessing younglearnersMaking the on-line
training platform moreinteractive
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Questions?
Thank You!