Bài giảng Teaching English To Young Learners: Module 3 - Nguyen Thi Hoai Minh, M.A in TESOL

The development of robust listening and speaking skills is paramount in the early stages of language acquisition for young learners. These foundational competencies not only underpin effective communication but also significantly influence a child's overall linguistic and cognitive growth. This document delves into critical aspects of teaching listening and speaking to young learners, emphasizing pedagogical strategies that cater to their unique developmental needs. It highlights the importance of creating engaging learning environments and employing targeted techniques to foster comprehensive language input and expressive abilities from an early age.

Educators, English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers, language instructors for young learners, and curriculum developers focused on early language acquisition.

This academic overview outlines essential strategies for teaching listening and speaking to young learners, segmenting the complex process into manageable components. It begins by identifying diverse listening sources within the classroom, such as teacher talk, recordings, and peer interactions, underscoring the teacher's role in providing vital language input and familiarizing learners with intonation patterns and sounds. Effective comprehension is facilitated through the strategic use of context, gestures, and visual aids. The document further dissects listening sub-skills into two core processes: bottom-up processing, which involves understanding individual linguistic units to construct meaning from the whole, exemplified by simple sentence structures and visual cues; and top-down processing, which leverages a learner's existing schemata knowledge to anticipate meaning, fill in gaps in understanding, and make informed interpretations. Crucially, the text emphasizes listening activities designed for young learners, advocating for methods that elicit nonverbal responses. Recommended activities include 'listen and do', 'listen and make', and engaging with rhymes, songs, action stories, and miming, alongside initial-stage exercises like 'Bring me...' games and 'Hit the answer' tasks focusing on vocabulary. By integrating these varied approaches, educators can cultivate a rich linguistic foundation, enabling young learners to develop both receptive and productive language capacities effectively.