Running Head: LITERATURE REVIEW ABOUT TEACHING ENGLISH FOR CHILDREN
Literature review about teaching English for children
Literature review about teaching English for children
Introduction
The objective for this paper is based on teaching English for the children which is regarded as the basic stage for learning language. The age at which children are introduced to English in elementary schools has gone down, with the heightened desire to teach English to children. Schools are fostered towards encouraging the use of poems, drama and riddles among others in class (CHANG). The materials that are used are based on the curriculum provided by the ministry of education; which is based provision of clear aims and procedural approach to the syllabus design. Some materials like texts, according to Hynds, are designed for study with little consideration for enjoyment.
Theoretical background
In 2001, it was decided that children should be introduced to a new curriculum as well as their guidelines. This decision came as a result of increased globalization of the language. This consequently led to the desire to create an English rich surrounding. This was fostered to attracting foreign visitors as well as the desire of parents to enlist their children into the school curriculum. In some countries, teaching English was disregarded to teaching mother tongues. Teaching English has all the same continued leading to instances where the teachers are faced with difficulties. These difficulties are reliant on the varied forms of backgrounds that the children come from (Wray, D., & Medwell, J., 2001). Teaching English to children is adversely affected by beliefs held by the teachers themselves Children’s language development is more or less dependent on the quality and quantity of what they receive.
Literature Review: Comparison and critique
Study 1
Study 1 is a research conducted by Kleeck and colleagues (2006); it is based on results of children’s language which can be improved with the involvement of targeted interventions that are created in the preschool setting. The study reported that that there were advantages based on the literal and abstract language skills which were in coherence with the large number of children that were involved in 16 experimental reading period, the experiment took 8-weeks (Ingvarson, L.C., 1998). The sessions were in assistance of trained research assistants, they were composed of questionnaires intended to involve the children in lengthy conversation that were inferential in language. Analysis of the researched proved that the advantages accrued from children’s literal and abstract language skills presented satisfactory interventions methods for hindering comprehension problems for the preschoolers faced with the risk of several problems.
Study 2
Study 2 performed by Lonigan, Anthony, Bloomfield, Dyer and Samwell (1999) based on the gains accrued due to interventions; presented report that showed massive receptive and expressive gains for children that were aged between 2 years to 5 years old. The children participated in a day to day reading sessions carried out in their school setting. The sessions were performed by research assistants that are trained to apply the dialogic technique of reading. In this technique, the adult evokes the children’s participation using varied forms of techniques, like prompts and open ended questions.
Study 3
Study 3 was conducted on the same issue of gains accrued; it was addressed by Girolametto and colleagues (2003), the study incorporated the training of 8 teachers to put to practice a language-focused intervention in their setting. The intervention was based on training the education practitioners to elevate the quality of correlations with children. It involved the application of expansions, models and questions. The training took a period of 14 weeks with an 8 week session that was based on the learner; interactive lectures and videotaped program methods. The education study involved 6 sessions with professional staff, 5 minute interactions with children and 30 minute reflection and reaction.
Analysis of the study displayed high scores of interactions; children’s initiation, turn taking and looking for uninvolved children; this was compared to the teachers. The children that were in the trained teachers group showed high level use of multiword and talkativeness when compared to the other children in the controlled settings (Wallace, Starih, & Walberg). Substantial evidence is provided that the teachers in preschool are in good position to elevate their interactions with children so as to heighten the children’s language skills.
Study 4
A research conducted by Wasik et al. (2006), involved an intervention program composed of 10 Head Start teachers that have gained experience in applying forms of language filled methods that involved reading books and interactions; there involved open ended questions, modeling rich vocabulary and definition of new words. The inventions that led to gains in the reception and exemplary expression of vocabulary skills involved teachers that were involved in training session lasting two hours. The training was followed by a two hours period of in-class coaching mentorship programs monthly. The practice is however proving not to be practical for early childhood educators. This is quite vital considering in the present instances where such interventions are meant to improve the child’s learning capability.
This study was reliant on studying the teacher and the child results with the application of effectiveness research. In reference to the United States Department of Education of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (2006), this was meant to find out whether such interventions when applied would prove typical if put to practice in a school setting. This study examined preschools teachers’ fidelity in applying the curriculum; that is the language-focused curriculum, the research took a period of six years using non-experimental design (Slavin, December 2003). The curriculum is designed to improve the quality and quantity of the learning experience of the children in the classroom setting. Results acquired from researches attribute to advantageous results from the curriculum; the research was analyzed by Rice and Hadley. Rice and Hadley noticed that children were matched according to or even exceeded the learning rate in the total measurements taken. With the varied forms of interventions, the teachers applied several texts that were meant to help the children to improve their language learning skills.
Study 5
Study 6 six is meant to determine the implications that children have after applying an intensive language curriculum; the Language-Focused Curriculum in the classroom setting. The study also involved the detection of the child’s level detector of language that involve expression while attending the preschool programs in addition to the impact of exposing the child to a language curriculum and what it is composed of; language simulation techniques like open questions and models.
The study involved fourteen preschool teachers that were randomly allocated two conditions. Experienced teachers were involved in applying the experimental curriculum for an academic year. The number of children involved was a hundred. This was compared to teachers who applied the prevailing curriculum; in this case 96 children were involved in the classroom setting. The education practitioners were assessed three times a year. The children were assessed with measures taken from language samples; the speed of using nouns, number of varied words and upper bound index.
An analysis of the study showed that the skill attributed to the children considering their socioeconomic status and day to day attendance was quite important and an advantageous prediction of applied uses the language in spring. The implication of curriculum and exposure to the LST was based on the attendance of the children to class; the increased attendance of the children to class relatively le to the increased language experience.
The applied use of the system; curriculum leads to a value added advantage based on certain circumstances. According to the results, the children in preschool setting that acquire large amounts of curriculum based on the quality of the language used in accordance to the number of attendance in an academic year, leads to heightened increase in language skills and experience.
Study 6
This research is based on the use of authentic children’s literature as a strategy to be applied in a classroom setting; the teaching systems applied were ancient and the available resources minimal. This research was performed in an elementary school setting. The research involved stories, the use of books that were in relation to their English language classes. The students were involved, still as an assessment program, in creating lesson plans that would be used while teaching English using stories and orally, this was performed in a period of two weeks. The research is performed in an elementary school that composed of eighteen classes and later in junior high.
The students presented a positive opinion concerning the EFL teaching method that was applied through stories. An approximate percentage of seventy showed an improved response of the English lessons as well as their participation in the lessons. The reading of the literature was newly applied from the initial textbook based activities (Government, December 2005). The lessons require the full concentration of the children when storytelling and the varied form of activities those were available. More than half displayed a likeness for the lesson when the teacher read a story while even a bigger percentage, 75, liked the lesson when the teacher did the reading from a textbook. The results showed that the children’s story motivated EFL materials. The stories are quite useful in classes. A wide range of communication activities that involved language skills are necessary for language learning by applying stories.
Rationale
The language development of children is influenced by the desire to interact with people in the social contexts. This aspect of life in relation to the interaction using the language that children enhance thought and language; similarly the applied use of the book helps to enhance the model of the child’s mastery skills (Liao, 2007). The development of literacy is effectively done using a book that is rich in text with the available opportunity of objectified communication.
Several scholars among them Huck is of the view that literature is quite significant in several aspects or oral development. Reading aloud has an importance of elevating the complexity of the complexity of the children’s word selection (Pence, Justice, & Wiggins, July 2008). Activities that are based on literature and oracy are believed to elevate the vocabulary use of the children, provision of opportunities for creation of complicated sentences and their syntax and allow the children to hear sounds of varied forms of words.
It is a belief that the good form of literature is well handled without considering the context. While considering that the most effective way of assessing children’s literature is by effectively acquiring and addressing the responses of the preschoolers (Justice, Mashburn, Pence, & Wiggins, 2008). According to Stewig, this form of evaluation must not only external but may as well as be internal on an established model of format. The evaluation method must involve several consideration of the literary advantage, the challenges accrued to them, the readability and the level at which it is appealing. Challenge is taken into consideration due to its importance based on the varied forms of issues brought up.
Conclusion
The biggest difficulty that is involved when considering children’s literature to enhance the advancement of English for the children is in the selection and methodology (Rass, March 2010). The aspects considered in acquiring and applying children’s literature with the advancement of language as the principle aim. It is therefore quite necessary and of consideration to be clear to the children as well as the aims and desired results. When considering how to apply children’s literature, the education practitioners are to take into account the curriculum, the size of in-class exposure to the English language that the children will acquire at the varied stages as well as the competency of the children. The aspects that guide the choice and application of the children’s literature in English will be based on the number of children. The educational practitioners, teachers in this case, are required to take into consideration that the preschooler’s at a certain age may not be relevant for the language learners are similar age.
Bibliography
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