The multilingual child in the classroom: how much language *does* he have, anyway?

Palingui - making early language learning visible! Last March, I joined a few dozen colleagues from all over Europe for an online workshop, organized by the ECML. The topic was a project dubbed 'Palingui'. A strange name, in my view, but the title is clear: 'the language learning pathways of children - making learning visible'. …

CLIL and language of instruction

https://youtu.be/dFuCrxRobh0?t=296 (Here is a video of the lesson I will be referring to the rest of this blog entry.  Please watch it, it's a great example of work compiled by Clil4U) How many of us have tried to teach a CLIL lesson, only to find out that our learners cannot complete the task we set …

Roads to Rome and language learning

All roads lead to Rome: Tabula Peutingeriana (section), borrowed from https://kosmossociety.chs.harvard.edu There are a lot of different ways to teach a foreign or second language.  Foreign language instruction has been evolving throughout time, depending on pedagogical beliefs, scientific insights, and changing didactical needs. Some of us may be familiar with the Grammatical-Translation approach, Audio-Lingualism, or …

The ART of conversation: CLIL and Art

Sometimes children don't want to talk.  They just want to draw.  Or paint.  Or play with clay.  Making art is a natural way for children to relax and express themselves without having to say a word.  I remember a child at school who cried every morning as him mom said goodbye.  He was unconsolable - …

CEFR descriptors for young learners

After a few months of teaching EFL, the children in my various classes were able to name the pictures I held up on my flashcards, point to the correct object, and happily sing along every time we learned a new song.  I remember that it was at about this point that I started wondering about …

Story table: elements and introduction

Many teachers around the world have discovered the joys of a story table in the class for their developing language learners.  As I explained in a previous blog, a story table is an excellent way to activate the narrative skills of the young learner.  For those of you just stepping into this new adventure, it …

Playing with language at the story table

On a large, round, short table, the children and I re-created the landscape for the book "Elmer in the Snow".  Using the toilet-paper roll technique for making individual elephant finger puppets, each child had already made his own version of an elephant for the story.  We used paper-maché to create the mountain, crafted jungle trees …

Science in the EFL classroom: an experiment worth trying!

Children love to explore!  Sometimes, their exploration seems random, like tinkering around.  Other times, children explore in a more organized, or scientific, fashion.  As teachers, we can combine children's love of exploration with language by teaching using the Content and Language Ingrated Learning approach, otherwise known as CLIL. In this video, you can see a …

Early Language Learning Resources

    Last September, I went to Graz as part of a two-day workshop about teaching foreign languages in primary education.  I'd written a blog about the plurilingual classroom, but hadn't gotten as far as the resources that this group had created.   The European Center for Modern Languages (ECML) is very ambitious: they want to …

Language awareness in the plurilingual classroom

Last September, I traveled to Graz, Austria, to attend a 2-day workshop entitled “Early Language Learning”, hosted by the European Center for Modern Languages.  Each participant at the workshop represented a different European country, and I had the honor of representing the Netherlands.  During the round of introductions, it soon became apparent that each country …

Language development in a broad perspective: the kindergarten class

One of the challenges unique to kindergarten teachers is making good use of the various corners of their classrooms: a house corner, a maths corner, an arts and crafts table, a painting corner, a writing center, a math and science center, a reading corner - the list can be quite long!  Each corner offers opportunities …

A little humor goes a long way :)

At the end of my lessons, I often have a joke like this to share with the class.  When I forget, the students remind me to tell the joke of the day.  After all, a day without laughter is a day not lived, and though they complain, they enjoy the joke.  The puns are often …

A tale of how a bunny inspires my teaching

There are days when I don't know what to do with my teaching.  Uninspired, paging through teacher's manuals and clicking through Pinterest, looking for something that will feed the creative spirit.  That's where I was, when I saw my rabbit chewing greedily on my yellow roses.  Did you know rabbits like roses?  I did, but …

Encouraging teacher development

We teachers might like to think we know it all...... or we're really uncertain about how to further our own development... or we're looking for a way to improve our performance, but uncertain of how to go about it.  At the end of the day, there's always a way to improve our teaching, and usually …

Policy planning part 3: a plan of action

Now that you've created a complete picture of the language curriculum, it's time to make a list of "Points of Action" for each section of the language policy.  Points of Action are things that need to be done, in order to realize the ideal English program.  These actions may be big or small, as long as …

Policy planning part 2, continued:

Last time, we looked at a few basic elements that pertain to the English curriculum at your school, such as materials, time, and history of the program at your school.  This time, we are going to look at something even more important: the teachers themselves. Teachers are fundamental to the entire curriculum, regardless of time …

Policy planning part 1: vision and ambition

How do you see education?  What is the goal of education?  What are important aspects of education?  What do you think? At your school: How are children viewed, in their role as learners?  What aspects of learning are important? What kind of education does your school provide?  What is the role of the teacher, of …

Following the “method”

Yesterday, I was playing a game with my students called "stand in line".  I asked questions, they had to figure out what place in the line was theirs, and then they had to give their answers.  Questions such as "How old are you" and "How long does it take you to get to school?" were …

Mixed-ability dialogue cards (2.0)

Last time, I shared an idea about how to create dialogues that allowed learners of mixed abilities to talk together in a meaningful way. After that, I practiced using the dialogue cards, and soon discovered that while I had hit upon a great idea, I still needed to refine the process of creating these cards.  …

Mixing and matching in the mixed ability group

One of those things every language teacher has to learn to deal with is the broad ability range in any given class.  No matter how homogeneously (single-leveled) the class has been put together, there are always students who are far ahead of the group, and a number of learners who are far behind.  That's just the way …

A new school year – getting started

In many countries, a new school year is getting started, and it's important for teachers to take the time to give shape to their class, together with their children.  One important piece to begin with, is the class rules.  I've written about this earlier, in the blog "The happy classroom".   Children feel safer in a …