EnglishClub TEFL Forums (archived)

Hi There

I am at the end of my TEFL course and onto teaching Young Learners. Some of the first questions being asked would be pure guess work answers... please how can I find the information I need. For example... which letters of the alphabet would you teach in your first class (5year olds). What would you hope to teach in your first year !!!!! How on earth as a student of TEFL would I know the answers to such questions?

Hi, Sparky

I'm sorry, I haven't answered your question because I never taught kids that young.

But I googled the words "young learners esl kindergarten" and found tons of sites. One of them is so nice, I don't know if it answers your needs, it's http://www.english-4kids.com/nursery.html .

Also in http://esl.about.com/od/teachingchildre ... rs_ESL.htm there are lots of information, and links to sites.

I hope you find what you are looking for!


Syl
Syl's English Corner - Learn English and Have Fun
http://www.ginnegar.0catch.com

Thank you Syl I will take at look at the sites !!!

Dear Sparky

I hope my post to you is not too late.

Teaching preschoolers is fantastic - as long as you have a small group of course - otherwise it can be quite a bit trickier.

Anyway I use games, stories, puppets, songs and movement as the main things.

You can receive a selection of free games and a story, plus flashcards and story pics on my site and follow that as a series of lessons. All you do is give your name and email (full privacy respected of course) here:

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/3-5.htm

It's best if you add [email protected] email to your address book because that will help the games and story actually get delivered to you - and you'll get the games immediately.

You receive flashcards for the vocab with that free series but in fact it's better to use real objects when you can.

Re teaching the alphabet - no great hurry for this - imagine you are five, what do you prefer learning, lion, giraffe and tiger or ABC?

Anyway when you do the alphabet break it down into chunks - a few letters at a time, and remembering to go back and revise frequently. Then you can combine the alphabet and the words that you have already taught such as L for Lion - and the children rage around the room like lions.

All the best
Shelley Vernon
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com

Shelley

Thank you so much for your reply the links you have given are great and I am very grateful for your help and advice !!!

Sparky

Hi Sparky

Thanks.

I've got a treasure trove of info here for you - I wanted to see if you were still around seeing as my post came some time after yours.

It's the result of an extensive survey of 250 preschool teachers and it's full of wonderful tips and some lovely anecdotes from teachers - it should really help you:

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/3-5 ... g_Twos.htm

It was written for teaching two year olds but in fact the activities and ideas there are applicable to all preschool ages.

All the best
Shelley

Hello!

I just recently started teaching English at an organization, and I was asked to help develop a curriculum for the preschool/kindergarten class (something that could be used by whoever is teaching the class). I have never done anything with curriculum development before, so I would be very grateful for any advice anyone has to offer! I'm not even sure where to start, although this week I have been thinking about the overall goals of the English program here and am going to use that as a basis for the curriculum. Beyond that, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to go about developing a curriculum? Our idea is to have a book/folder to guide the teachers in their day-to-day lessons.

Thank you so much!