We chatted to Herbert Puchta and Karen Elliott, the authors of the shortlisted teacher resource Activities for Very Young Learners, ahead of the ESU awards next month…
Herbert Puchta:
Why did you want to write Activities for VYL?
Why did you want to write Activities for VYL?In many countries the starting age for teaching young learners is dropping, and so many teachers of very young learners – rarely trained for working with this particular age group – are searching for ideas and materials to help them teach the very young in a way that meets their specific learning needs, and creates classroom fun. So our idea was:
- to write a book that gives teachers lots of practical and innovative ideas in the teaching of very young learners, and inspires them to try some methods new to them,
- to show teachers how they can engage very young children in a natural and multi-sensory way of acquiring the language, and
- to offer activities that make it possible for these very young learners to use the new language meaningfully. This means they can develop a sense of ownership from the very beginning, giving them a strong and durable foundation for their acquisition of the new language.
What is your reaction to Activities for VYL being shortlisted for the ESU award?
I’m delighted, and grateful. It is a great honour to see one’s work acknowledged by the jury of this prestigious award. I’m grateful too to my co-author Karen Elliott. Writing Activities for Very Young Learners with her was a very rewarding and enjoyable process. And I’m grateful to our editorial team: Karen Momber, Publisher at Cambridge University Press, for commissioning us to write the book; Scott Thornbury, our series editor, for his constructive criticism and useful suggestions; and Lucy Frino and Jo Timerick for their excellent work on the manuscript.
Which activities from the book do you particularly love?
It’s really not easy to choose any favourite activities from a book that contains so many highlights, but let me specifically mention Chapter 4, Stories and Storytelling. One of the stories is Are you my Mummy? (Activity 4.1). It comes complete with artwork that is easy to print out and ready-to-use in the classroom. I have used this story with very young learners that were almost beginners and was delighted to see that they managed to act out the story as a role-play only a couple of lessons after they had first heard it. They loved acting the story out repeatedly, and together we gradually extended it by adding more and more animals and their sounds.
Another chapter I love is Chapter 6, Exploring the World. It helps the teacher to get their very young learners to interact with the world in a multi-sensory way and encourages them to talk about and reflect on their experiences. In Activity 6.2 (Does it float or sink?) for example, the teacher engages the learners in an experiment that gets them to think about whether an object will sink or float on water. Then they can test their hypotheses by putting objects in a container filled with water to see if they were right. Such learning episodes offer ideal opportunities for the teacher to use English naturally, and to scaffold the children’s language development in such a way that the new language becomes as real as the experiment the children are engaged in.
Karen Elliott:
Why did you want to write Activities for VYL?
Why did you want to write Activities for VYL?When Herbert Puchta approached me to co-author Activities for Very Young Learners I was absolutely delighted. We’d met a few years earlier at a Cambridge event in Madrid and had spoken about the needs of very young learners. Having specialised in teaching this age group for quite a few years and given that this is a rapidly growing area with its special rewards and challenges, I jumped at the chance to work with Herbert on this book.
Many teachers feel apprehensive when asked to work with very young children.
They worry about grading their language appropriately and they tend to be concerned that they won’t be able to engage the children sufficiently. In my experience, it’s a matter of remembering what it’s like to be a child, learning how to use your voice along with gesture and mime – and to keep the lesson moving at a good pace. Our aim in writing this book was to present ideas and suggestions for working with small children and to ensure that teachers have plenty of different kinds of activities at their fingertips.
What is your reaction to Activities for VYL being shortlisted for the ESU award?
It’s a very special honour! I’m delighted to share the nomination with someone as experienced in the world of ELT publishing as Herbert, who was a pleasure to work with from beginning to end. I’m grateful to CUP for having confidence in the project and to our editors Lucy and Jo for all the hard work they put into the manuscript. It’s been a wonderful experience to write a publication for the Handbooks for Language Teachers series.
Which activities from the book do you particularly love?
It’s hard to choose the activities I love the most; however, it’s rewarding to hear very young children speaking English and I love the way everyone enjoys rhythm and rhyme! We’ve provided lots of simple chants with actions which can be used as part of daily routines, to change from one activity to the next and to practise key vocabulary. I hope that our chants and songs will be enjoyed in classrooms everywhere, and that they will give teachers the confidence to come up with their own.
I’m a big fan of encouraging children’s creativity. The second activity I’ve chosen is A paper shape town wall display, from Chapter 5, Arts, crafts and displays. Children work individually to create part of a street from assorted shapes; these are displayed together to make a town. I really like the way this activity encourages children to share a group identity but still gives them the opportunity to take their work home to show their parents. I have yet to see two street scenes which look the same!
I’ve chosen The circle time chant from Chapter 1, Class routines and classroom management because it’s very helpful for getting everyone ready and paying attention; and children enjoy doing the actions.
Details of where to find more songs, chants and other resources which accompany the activities can be found in Activities for Very Young Learners.