I currently teach at an International Kindergarten in South Korea. At the beginning of the next theme, I will be teaching my pre-K class (age 2-4) about farm animals. In this theme we will learn about different type of farm animals and their features (animal sound, colors etc.).
According to researchers there are six stages of language acquisition (Robertson & Ford):
- Pre-Production
- Early Production
- Speech Emergence
- Beginner Fluency
- Intermediate Fluency
- Advanced Fluency
I have 4 students who fits four of the stages of language acquisition in my class. I would have to adapt the lesson on farm animals to accommodate them and support their learning and participation in different ways.
Objectives of lesson
- Introduce vocabulary (cow, dog, sheep, duck and pig)
- Teach and practice vocabulary
- Encourage speech
- Pre-Production
Also known as "the silent period," the student cannot speak the language yet, but only absorbs the new language through attentive listening.
For this stage I would make use of a lot of visuals, songs (“Old MacDonald had a Farm”), read-alouds and role-play. Using plastic farm animal toys for “playtime” is useful for introducing vocabulary. This will also encourage them to be more comfortable and confident in learning the new language. The teacher would use the following language (speaking slowly so they can repeat your words):
- “This is a pig - oink, oink!”
- “This is a cow - moo, moo!”
A flashcard game can help the teacher observe the students’ understanding of the new vocabulary: Take 5 animals toys sitting on their flashcards. Give an animal toy different students and ask them to place it back on the correct flashcard.
- Early Production
The student will use short words and sentences, but the emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language.
The teacher should follow the strategies of the previous stage, but with additional created opportunities for simple language production.
- The teacher can ask Yes/No questions: ex. Point to a flashcard and ask: “Is this a cow?” “Does this animal go quack?” The student can say yes or no and then the opportunity is there to encourage more verbal response: “No, it’s a duck!”
- For the previously mentioned flashcard game, the teacher can pair them in groups and give each group an animal. First they need to talk to each other about the animal and then they need to match it with the correct flashcard.
- Speech Emergence
Speech becomes more frequent, words and sentences are longer, but the individual still relies heavily on context clues and familiar topics. Vocabulary continues especially in common or repeated interactions.
The teacher should focus on more academic language use. Questions can be asked to encourage this:
- “What sound does a cow make?”
- “Which farm animal can swim”
- “Which animal is white?”
The flashcard game can be adapted to a touch game: Put the animal toys away. Keep the flashcards on the floor. Tell your students to sit around the flashcards on the floor (or on a table) and to put their hands up in the air. Say a flashcard (e.g. "pig") and students have to quickly touch the correct card. Play a few rounds.
- Intermediate Fluency
Communication is fluent, especially in social language situations. The student can speak almost fluently in new situations or in academic areas, but there will be gaps in vocabulary knowledge and some unknown expressions. There are very few errors, and the individual is able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills in the second language such as offering an opinion or analyzing a problem.
To encourage more speaking, the teacher can create an assessment where students need to present in the class.
- “What is your favourite animal and why?”
- “Did you ever visit a farm? What was it like?”
To support a comfortable environment, the students can first pair up in groups and talk about their favourite animal and maybe give ideas to each other of why they would like a certain animal. Then they can make a drawing of that animal/ farm experience and present it to the class.
The flashcard game can be adapted again through testing their language memory skills.
- Missing flashcard game: After that, tell your students to close and to cover their eyes. Turn over one of the cards. Say “Open your eyes”. The students have to shout out the missing card.
Even though the teacher will not correct the speech of the other stages too much, he/she can do it during this stage as they are more comfortable with the language already and this will prevent habits in using wrong sentence structure or grammar.
In my experience, the most important goal of teaching these different levels is to help the students and support them in learning English as a second language in a comfortable and pressure free environment.
