Teaching English to Young Learners

Teaching English to Young Learners Today: The Singapore Experience by Dr Willy Renandya & Dr Donna Lim
Date: Feb 18, 2023

This event, sponsored by Tokyo JALT and the TYL SIG, is for teachers of kids to young adults, so teachers of preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school, are all encouraged to come! As always, there will be great presentations and lots of time for discussion and networking.

Abstract:
The presentation will first begin with an overview of some of the widely accepted principles for teaching English to young learners. There is general agreement among ELT experts and practitioners that young learners seem to learn best when they are immersed in highly interesting and accessible language, when they get to practice the language in a fun and engaging way and when they get to use the target language for meaningful interactions. They also believe that while some attention to language forms may be needed, the bulk of classroom instruction should be used to expose young children to rich and meaningful language.

The second part of the presentation will illustrate how these language learning principles play out in a national English language curriculum for young learners in Singapore. Typically starting with receptive skills (e.g., listening to and/or reading highly interesting stories), the learning sequence then extends to productive skills (i.e., speaking and writing), all the while couching the learning in a rich language environment that aims to build greater fluency and enjoyment.