WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY-PHILIPPINES

A Methodist Autonomous University

Topic: Teaching Language
Professor: MRS. SALLY V. MATEO
Discussant: JENNYLYN B. GAMBOA
Course: Master of Arts in Education-Early Childhood Education

Here are 11 tips for teaching the children in your care a second language.

1. Learn by doing. Play grocery store, make a snack, or take a walk. While you are interacting with the
children during these activities, speak a second or third
2. Reinforce with pictures and sounds. Say the sounds of the language that accompany a picture in a
playful way. For example, "A is for apple
3. Learning should be fun. The more fun it is to learn a language, the more a child will want to stay with it.
Learning while playing is the best way to learn because it creates emotional attachments, and emotion is the
door to learning
4. Learn with music and rhythm. Music is one way to use the whole brain. Do you still remember the
songs you learned in early childhood? Most people do because lyrics combined with music are easier to learn
5. Learn with lots of movement—use the body and the mind together. The brain and the body are one.
However, the traditional education system encourages students to sit all day long. Now we know that we
learn more when we move as we learn. Encourage children to dance and move to the rhythm when learning a
second or third language
6. Learn by talking to each other. Having students practice a language by talking to each other over a
meal, for example, is a great way to learn
7. Learn by reflecting. It is important to let children take time to "simmer." There is a dormant stage to
language learning. First children absorb the language. Later they begin to speak).
8. Learn by touching .Do little finger rhymes in a second language. While you sing or say "Itsy, bitsy spider"
have the fingers of each hand touch another finger, as if the spider is climbing.
9. Learn by tasting Have youngsters celebrate language learning by eating foods and saying the food name
in the new language.
10. Learn by smelling.Play smelling games. Hide objects in a sack, and have the children guess what is inside.
Encourage them to say the new word in the language they are learning.
11. Use the whole world as your classroom Turn every outing into a learning experience. You can learn a
new language while counting oranges; comparing leaves; classifying different birds, food, or anything that
interests the children.

Pre-K | Oral Language & Comprehension

Kids can learn valuable skills through small, teachable moments during a normal day. This means no
gruelling work sessions with flash cards, buying expensive educational toys, or completing tedious worksheets!

Experts agree that children must have repeated exposure to “pre-literacy” activities to build their skills
and enable them to become successful future readers. These skills set the stage for reading: (1) print awareness,
(2) phonemic awareness, (3) vocabulary, (4) writing, and (5) oral language and comprehension.

Here are effective ways to sneak in literacy skills anywhere you go to give your child a head start for school:

Polite Expressions

Polite phrases are important when learning a language. For anyone who has traveled, it is obvious that
please and thank you are some of the most useful things to learn in any language. In the classroom, you will
probably be the only one appreciative of polite language however if your students ever have the opportunity to
speak English outside the classroom, this will be the most important thing you can teach them.
1. Context
When introducing questions for the first time, it is important to put them in context. After the
introduction of vocabulary, phrases and meaning, drill the target language and then ask your students to
think about when they would use the new structure. For instance, you would not randomly walk up to
someone on the street and say “Where is the bookstore?” When demonstrated, your students will see
that in a real life situation, it would be best to add some polite words and phrases around the edges of
the request..Practicing model dialogues is always an excellent opportunity to use polite phrases. For
example, when teaching students the structure “How much is this ~?” have them practice a model
dialogue or role-play based on the one below:
 A: Excuse me. How much is this book? A: Oh, thank you!
B: It’s 20pesos B: You’re welcome.
2. Classroom English
Classroom English is another chance to have students practice polite phrases. If possible, make a set of
flashcards for these words and phrases to post throughout the classroom. This will help students
remember them and make prompting them much easier. Here are some examples of phrases for students
to use in class:
- May I have another handout? - Please.
- Can you please repeat the question? - Thank you.
- Excuse me. - You’re welcome.
You can create your own set and add to it as necessary throughout the year. When working with very
young children, it may be enough to have them say “Paper please.” instead of just “Paper.” when they
would like a piece of paper or a handout from you. It is a very simple thing but important to reinforce as
much as possible. Whenever students ask you for something, you can wait for them to say please before
giving it to them. It will not be long before students automatically say please when making a request.

3. Teacher's English
Your language in the classroom will affect your students as well. Say please when giving directions,
thank you when students hand in worksheets and you’re welcome in response to students. The more you
model polite language in your daily interactions with students, the more familiar they will be with when
certain phrases are used and they will feel more comfortable using them when interacting with you and
other students.

Preschool Classroom Rules

When it comes to preschool classroom rules it’s always best to keep them short and simple. The more
rules you have, the more difficult they’ll be for young children to remember. Use simple words for each rule so
your kids can easily understand the meaning of the rules.

Preschool Classroom Rules

Adding visuals (pictures) to the rules in your preschool classroom will help young children better understand
the meaning of the rules.

Positive Rules

Vague or abstract classroom rules don’t hold any meaning for young children. Abstract rules might includes
words that young children don’t understand or know the meaning of, like “respect,” “obey,” or “responsible.”

Our Rules

 Helping Hands (hold our your hands in front of you)

 Listening Ears (tug on one earlobe)
 Quiet Voices (put your finger to your lips)
 Eyes Looking (point to your eyes)
 Walking Feet (make a walking motion with the first two fingers of one hand)

How Do You Introduce Classroom Rules?

At the beginning of the year, on the very first day and each day afterwards, we review the rules during
our large group time. I begin by asking the children “Does anybody know why we come to school?” After a few
responses I may prompt them and say “We come to school to learn.”

Teaching Pronoun

He She Step 1: Make Sure She Knows The Difference Between a Boy and a Girl

He She Step 2: Using He and She in Short Phrases

He She Step 3: Using “He” and “She” in Sentences

He She Step 4: Using “He” and “She” When Describing Story Books or Making up Stories

He She Step 5: Correct Your Child In Conversational Speech

Verbs

The teacher introduces the topic of verbs to the preschoolers by discussing the following questions and points
with the entire class:

1. Do you know what a verb is?

2. Do you know what an action is?
3. Do you know what a state of being is?
4. Name something you do.

How to Teach Prepositions Of Place (8 Simple Steps)

Prepositions of place are an important part of the English language and will enable students to
create more complex sentences. The meanings of basic prepositions and prepositional phrases are
incredibly easy to demonstrate in a classroom and students can often guess their meanings.

1. Warm up – Prepositions
Use this opportunity to review vocabulary you plan on using in this lesson. In this example words
including book, desk, chair, clock, pencil, and teacher would be good to review. Crisscross is an
excellent game to start the class with. Have all the students stand. Ask questions like “What is this?”
while holding up a pen or pointing to an object. Have students volunteer to answer by raising their
hands. Choose a student and if he answers correctly he may sit down. Repeat until all students are
seated. In large classes the volunteer can choose either his row or column of students to sit. Usually no
more than about ten questions are asked. The exercise should take approximately five minutes.
2. Introduce – Prepositions Pronunciation
Write the target vocabulary on the board. The words below are a good set to begin with:
- in - under
- in front of - above
- on - between
- behind - next to
The vocabulary you introduce may depend on the textbook being used. Demonstrate the
pronunciation of each word one at a time having students repeat it after you. If certain students
appear not to be participating, call on them individually to pronounce the word for the class
participate.

3. Introduce – Prepositions Meaning

Try to have the students come up with the meaning or translation of each word. Use example
sentences such as “I am in front of the board. Now I am in front of the desk. Now I am in front of Jane.”
and change your position in the classroom accordingly.
4. Practice
To test comprehension, do a short exercise. Tell students to put their hands on their desks, above their
desk, behind their backs or to put their books in their desks, under their desks, etc. Perhaps a few
students would like to give it a try so why not have them give a few instructions as well. A simple
worksheet where students match prepositions with pictures would be good practice as well.
5. Introduce – Prepositions Q & A
Ask students questions such as “Where is my/your/the book/pen/desk/clock?” Demonstrate the
pronunciation of the question and answer. The model dialogue for this lesson should resemble the
structure below:
- A: Where is (my/your/Sam’s/the) (noun)?
- B: It’s (preposition) the (noun).
6. Practice
Ask your students to practice the model dialogue in pairs for about five minutes taking turns being A
and B. Next ask for volunteers to demonstrate their conversations and encourage them to be creative
instead of being limited to the vocabulary you’ve already used in the lesson. Correct any errors with
clear explanations and demonstrations before moving on.
7. Production
Ask students to write five sentences using prepositions or use a game for further practice of
prepositional phrases and sentence construction. An exercise like Jumbled (where students work in
groups to arrange a set of words into five to ten sentences in a race against other groups) or
Scrambled (where students have a worksheet with sentences written out of order that they must
rearrange) would be great practice.
8. Review
As a class review the exercise from the previous step. Students can volunteer to read one of their
written sentences aloud, groups can take turns reading one of their sentences from Jumbled, or
 students can read their un-Scrambled sentences aloud. Whatever exercise you’ve done, this is a key
stage in catching mistakes. Often other students can assist their peers in making corrections but if not
you may need to review certain problem areas.

Teaching Adjectives in 5 Easy Steps

Teaching Adjectives

Descriptors are an important part of our vocabulary. They are the words that describe other words.These
can be adjectives (words that describe nouns) or adverbs (words that describe verbs). We use these throughout
our everyday conversation to convey information or add interest to what we’re talking about

Teaching Adjectives Step One, Choose a Concept

The first thing you will need to do when teaching adjectives is to choose one concept to work on. The
tendency is to try to teach several related concepts at the same time, such as all of the colors, or all of the
shapes. However, this can be very confusing to a child with a language delay. You will want to start with one
very simple concept, such as one color, one shape, big (but not big and little), etc.

Descriptor(s): Age of Mastery:

Up and Down 2 years

One/Many, Sizes (small, medium, big) 3 years
Different, Colors (red, blue, etc.) 4 years
Superlatives (big, bigger, biggest), Time Concepts, Thin, Whole, First, Middle, Last 5 years
Opposites, Left/Right, Number Concepts 6 years

Teaching Adjectives, Step Two: Model the Concept

Now that you have chosen your concept, it’s time to model that concept for your child. Now, when I say
“model”, I don’t mean you have to be Vanna White, though if that gets your child more interested you’re more
than welcome to put on a sparkly dress and hold it up! What I mean is that you will be showing your child the
concept over and over again.

Teaching Adjectives, Step Three: Following Directions

Now that you have bombarded your child with the concept until you’re blue in the face, we want
your child to start following directions using the concept. Keep in mind, this is easier than having your child say
the concept out loud, so make sure you take these steps in order.

Teaching Adjectives, Step Four: Yes/No Questions

Once your child can follow simple directions with the concept, we want him to answer yes/no
questions about the concept.

Get out your examples and non-examples again and this time hold up one of the objects and ask “is this ___?” using
the target concept. Make sure you have the non-examples present so he has something to compare it to. For
example, if you says “is this big?” but there’s nothing any smaller to compare it to, the term “big” kind of loses its
meaning.

Teaching Adjectives, Step Five: Say the Word

Now that your child is able to follow directions with the concept and answer questions about it, you’re
finally ready to start having your child say the concept word out loud.
This time when you get out your examples and non-examples, you will want to ask your child a question that will
encourage her to say the concept word out loud. If you chose a color, you could say “what color is this?”. Or, if you
chose a texture you could say “how does it feel?”. Think about the question you want to ask ahead of time.