home | newsletter | web resources | summaries | get involved | feedback
Is it right to stick to prescribed wordlists for young beginners where both teachers and learners know exactly where they are, where the boundaries are set by what everyone knows, and where the teachers (and course book) have tight control of what is learnt? Jane Myles thought otherwise, being a deviser of language teaching magazines, but had a few nagging doubts which in fact were completely dissipated by the lively and ensuing on-line discussion which settled after a day or two into a brilliant brainstorm session on science, art and craft projects for use with young learners. Everyone agreed that simple science projects in particular have that sense of wonder and "hey presto!" magic that transport children visually and mentally so that they forget they are hearing, using, and repeating sentences in simple English. It was generally agreed that experiments are also useful because the children are using language around a live "happening" so they're engaged in real communication.
A few simple suggestions were:
Standing on one leg with eyes closed to see how balance is affected compared with eyes open.
Screwing up a piece of paper, putting it in a glass then quickly plunging the upturned glass into a jug of water...and taking it out again quickly. What happens to the paper? It stays dry!
Filling a bottle with hot water then emptying it. Putting a balloon over the top, plunging the bottle into cold water and watching the balloon get sucked down into the bottle.
Making a pin float on water (by putting it on kitchen paper which eventually absorbs water and sinks leaving the pin miraculously on the surface)!
Growing cress ("The seeds were placed in a set of plastic cups and then treated differently -one cup had nothing but seeds, one had seeds and water, one had seeds and water but was kept in the dark, one had seeds, water, plant food, etc. By the end of the second week the children had a magnificent range of growth form the various seeds. they had checked the plants daily and noted any differences, and ended up displaying the results with little notices and explaining the experiment to the children in the other classes")
Science is useful for:
Predicting before the experiment, using the future tense (e.g. I think the tomato/rubber band/onion will float/sink.)
Listing the materials. (jar of water, tomato, onion, rubber band, bean, bottle lid) -all these are good because they're unpredictable so the children will all disagree with each other and learn to be wrong; even you will, because some tomatoes/rubber bands sink and some float!)
Using the past tense to record what happened. (The...... floated/sank.)
Surmising: (I wonder if Sam's bottle lid sank because he put it in sideways /it's a heavy material /it's got a hole in it, etc. I wonder if Anna's bottle lid floated because she put it in flat /it's a light material /it's a boat shape, etc.)
Analysing (e.g. I think the candle went out because.../the water came up inside the jar because.../the top of the jar went black because...)
The one practical concern for some members of the group was how feasible are science experiments in a simple classroom with no access to water, etc., but in fact there are hundreds of simple activities which require no more than a jug of water or a few sheets of paper, a bottle, a balloon, a spoon, etc. Also, some teachers questioned the difficulty of preventing children lapsing into L1. The secret seems to be finding experiments or craft activities which, by their nature, require a frequent repetition of a particular question or response. The detailed rainbow experiment below is a good example:
Content aim: To investigate the order of colours in a rainbow.
Learning and thinking skills: Carrying out a simple science experiment by hypothesising, observing, comparing and reporting.
Attitudes and social skills: Interest in the properties of light and colour; willingness to listen to the ideas of others.
Language focus: numbers, colours, verb "to be", questions with "What?"
Materials: glass of water, piece of plain white papre, sunny window
Organisation: pairs, whole class.
What to do
Draw a large arc with your right hand and pre-teach the word "rainbow". Ask the children "How many colours are there in a rainbow?" (7). Write the numbers 1-7 in a list on the board.
Show the children an example of something indigo (a blend of blue and purple), say "This is indigo" and write the word next to number six on the board. (As indigo is an unusual name for a colour and only really used in the context of talking about rainbows, it is important to give the children this word).
Divide the class into pairs. say "Now talk about the other colours in the rainbow". demonstrate the activity with one child e.g. What's colour number 1? /(I think) it's orange. /No, it isn't. It's yellow. In pairs children talk about and guess the order of all the colours in a rainbow in the same way. if you like, they can also write a list.
Ask the children to report back their ideas and record all their guesses on the board e.g. What's number 1? / (We think) it's yellow.
Hold up the glass of water and piece of white paper and say " Now let's find out the order of colours in a rainbow". Walk over to a sunny window and hold the glass of water over the white paper. Change the angle of the glass until the sun shines through leaving a "rainbow" on the paper. Invite groups of children to come and have a look and compare the order of colours with their guesses on the board. (The order is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple).
Follow-up: Children can draw, colour and write about the colours in a rainbow based on their observations. They can do further activities on the colour spectrum, the difference between primary and secondary colours and the ways colours combine. Children can also listen to the well-known song "I can sing a rainbow" and identify the colours in the song that are wrong. If you try out this activity, hope your children enjoy it! The only thing to watch is that you've got a sunny window and it isn't cloudy or raining!!
Perhaps the overall response to the initial question was summed up by one of the group members who said: Using authentic material is very useful, and the important point is to make the material fit the learners rather than the learners fit the material.
Websites mentioned:
There are good ideas for science provided by Scholastic for Key Stage 1&2 mainstream which can be found on their website: www.scholastic.co.uk
The web site for Mary Glasgow/Scholastic, who publish the Kids Only mag, as well as lots of others is www.link2english.com
Science Across the World (SAW) an organisation which presents itself as being relevant both to science and FL teachers. www.scienceacross.org
A good website for art and craft is www.enchantedlearning.com
