Classes for Young Learners
Young Learner Classes
Our Young Learner Programmes run throughout the year and Rose of York prides itself in ensuring that all students are happy, healthy and have a sense of improvement during their time in London. But how do we do it? How do we make sure that our students are improving during their time at school? How can we ensure that our Young Learners are understanding and learning? We’re here to give you a little insight into the organisation and planning behind our Young Learner classes.
Planning
Our teachers get to know the nationalities of the Young Learners they are planning classes for. Teachers also try to get as much information as possible about the Young Learner’s level of English. They take notes during a short conversation with the parents about what they think of their child’s level of speaking, listening, reading and writing in English. It’s important to think about and ask questions such as:
- How many years has their child been learning English for at school and or with private tuition?
- Is English spoken at all at home?
- Has their child ever travelled to an English speaking country?
- Does their child ever look at English comics, read English language books, online material or watch English movies (with our without subtitles in their own language)?
Ways of Teaching
Once the different nationalities in the class are known, it is important for the teacher to understand the teaching techniques in the countries where the children come from. For example, is there a strong oral tradition for learning in general? Are high marks and results very important? Is the learning culture very competitive? How acceptable is it to make ‘mistakes’ in class?
Furthermore, the structure and grammar of the Young Learners’ first language may be very different to English. It is helpful for a teacher to know, for example, that in Latin languages, adjectives usually come after a noun. Similarly, in Japanese adjectives come before the noun. This helps to anticipate the kind of mistakes the learners are likely to make.
Keeping Students Interested
So how can a teacher keep a class of Young Learner’s interested all through the lessons? The normal rules of language teaching apply. Teachers try to make sure that each class has an equal amount of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Normally, children are more excited than adults, they like to speak (or sing / recite rhymes) more. So, teachers need to remember that the education culture that they are used to may not include much speaking. Writing a lot may be normal for them. Therefore, if too much importance is placed on speaking, some Young Learners may not feel that they are really in a serious language lesson. This can demotivate them and create problems of discipline for the teacher.
Therefore, activities such as games, drawing or roleplay can, at first, be negative. Students may be shy to engage in activities that are more creative. The student may spend more energy on trying to interact with the other students to make the teacher happy. But this may be different from their usual experience of language lessons in their own country. Therefore, this way might not be effective for a child to quickly pick up and retain new phrases and vocabulary on a functional level.
Young Learner Classes at Rose of York
Our classes for Young Learners have a very clear focus. Teachers usually use subjects that the students study at school. For example, teachers could focus on child-friendly history of famous events or people in London. These may include events such as the Great Fire in 1665, the story of Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes, or the Legend of King Arthur. Similarly, as we are in the UK, out teachers believe in including British culture and British values in lessons. Therefore, teachers cover topics such as the geography, flags, statues, castles, and towns in the UK and how it is split into three different countries.
Our teachers believe in helping their students in the best way possible. They do this by keeping up to date with teaching methodologies and having fun in the classroom. So why don’t you join us and see for yourself?