Nowadays, in a globalized world, it is very important to learn a foreign language to find a job or even just for travelling.
We believe that introducing a foreign language is very important in preschool because children learn better a language than adults. As future teachers we have to work in that with our kids and teach english in a completely different way than in primary. We also have to try making our children to see english like a new and interesting thing to learn but never like a obligation.
The most important way for teaching a foreign language to children at preschool is using different methods, but they should be interactive, attractive, funny, easy...for our children.
We think that activities need to be centered in the learning of vocabulary, songs, series, stories, videos, painting, flashcards, short stories, speaking, listening.
We have found these links that can be used for teaching English in preschools.
APPUSERIES
That channel of youtube is for children and it contains four chapters in english whose characters are animals: an elephant and his family, a couple of giraffes, a girl and her dog, some monkeys and all of them have different adventures.
EDUCANAVE
That webpage has a lot of activities to work in the different grades of education, each grades are different islands (preschool and primary) and two more islands ( games and english) if you enter you can find activities about vocabulary, songs and stories. The quantity of activities are variety and a good way for work with children.
SESAME STREET
Another good resource that we can use for teaching English in preschool is Sesame Street (http://www.sesamestreet.org/) It is a group of muppets that teach English for little children. It is a tv programme and also you can find it online. There are games and videos on the webpage that are interesting for kids.
BRITISH COUNCIL KIDS
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
In this webpage you can find different sections: listening and watching, reading and writing, speak and spell, grammar, kids games and one called made where you can download flashcards or crafts.
THE LITTLE ANIMALS CENTRE
In the little animals centre we can find 6 different animals and each animal contains different activities like numbers, little stories, sounds, word games, puzzles and different activities to print and to make with the children at the class.
STARFALL
That web page it’s very easy and intuitive for children and if you look for activities to learn english with numbers, vocabulary, read, sing it’s a good resource to practice this thing with preschool and first grade of primary.
Realized by:
María Parra Díaz
Inés Richmond-Hope Castro
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! I think the best time for children to learn a second language is in preschool because as it’s said children are like sponges. I have to confess that I've been playing a long time on the web page of Sesame Street. Very good resources!
Very good, cris!! Hahaha I hope that you enjoy the game 😂😂
DeleteHi Maria and Inés. I really liked the resources you have found and as Cristina said I also think that little kids are like sponges and they learn very quickly. So teachers have to take advantage of this fact!
ReplyDeleteFor that reason I found very interesting your post because it is very important that kids start to keep in contact with a foreing language when they are just two or three years old.
And what better than learn with games, short stories,songs, etc. Doing that students will start to practise the listening and speaking skills wich is very important!
I totally agree with your post and your comments. Children at pre-school learn new things almost without realizing that they are learning. Moreover, experts say that learning new language in pre-school improves children´s attention and memory.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I have to say that I really like your resources. I think that all of them can help a lot teachers in pre-school education.
You are absolutely right! The best time to learn a language is in childhood. We, as teachers, we have access to a lot of information in order to know how to teach a language to young children, so there is no excuse not to work English in pre-school.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting for our profession.
I totally agree with what is told in this article. The best time to learn English is when kids are younger; they assimilate very well the language. Bilingualism also improves attention and it has been proven that bilingual children find it easier to learn other languages.
ReplyDeleteHi girls!
ReplyDeleteCertainly, children brains are like sponges and teachers should take advantage of this fact. I've heard that between birth and 3 years of age, the human brain increases to 80% of its adult size.... and this is awesome! Considering that preschool years are so important in terms of brain development, I think that children should be exposed to multiple languages at this age. That's the key for building effective social communication skills.
I also like the useful teaching resources you mentioned and, particularly, the Sesame Street videos. They really brought back good memories!
Yes, María and Inés, I agree with you about the importance of learning English in PreSchool and I agree about the different kinds of activities you suggest too. Most of the web resources you link to and comment on are excellent – I too like the Sesame Street material as well as Appu, the meditative elephant! My only discrepancy is with the EducaNaves page, where it would have been better to reference directly the English island: http://www.educanave.com/ingles/indexingles.htm
ReplyDeleteOne other little thing – I’m not sure if it’s just on my computer but I found the black font quite hard to read on the brown background, I think it would have been to have used a white font throughout☹