My little House of English

Teaching very young learners is one the most challenging, yet, most rewarding things in the field of TEFL. In our school after lots of studying and training we launched an innovative programme called “My little house of English” which focuses on exposing young children to the target language through messy play, CLIL, Art, storytelling and activities that place the child in the centre of the learning procedure, giving them reasons to use the language and engaging them meaningfully through fun and creative activities. 

We have created a learning environment that promotes learning for students of that age by:

Making sure that carpet time and kinaesthetic activities take up most of the lesson’s time and table time is limited to only 20% of the lesson. 

Having incorporated a special section during our lessons called “Science Lab” when we carry out simple yet fun experiments taking advantage of children’s curiosity about the natural world. Children learn simple vocabulary related to the experiment and are encouraged to use the target language too.

Introducing Art not only to practice fine motor skills but also to learn new vocabulary in a meaningful and creative way. 

Using “Motherese” when needed to make young children feel comfortable and safe. 

Having organised storytelling sessions using different materials such as big books, story cards, storytelling aprons or storytelling gloves. Students retell the story and create wonderful follow up tasks from crafts to cooking activities.

Role playing part of the book’s stories wearing props to make the students feel comfortable and get into the characters. 

Messy play and play based activities, so that little students use the language while having fun. We encourage messy play a lot in our school because very young learners enjoy experimenting with different textures and getting their hands dirty.

All in all, teaching very young learners has been an amazing experience in our school. Teaching pre-schoolers and kindergarten students focuses on teaching the language by creating experiences. Actually it focuses on teaching English the way it should be taught in all levels regardless the age of the students. Meaningfully, through experiential learning, focusing on communication.