Teaching EFL in a Kindergarten

Teaching EFL in a kindergarten

The demand for a second or third language at an early age has increased over the last years. Many parents decide to raise their children bi- or multilingual and therefore more and more kindergarten and preschools offer English as a second language. 

There are many advantages in teaching English as a foreign language at such an early stage in a child’s life. Learning a language for a child is a lot easier than for adults. They listen and learn without analyzing sentence structure, grammar, stress or intonations such as adult learners. The child will simply grow up having two first languages. 

English is generally taught as the first foreign language in school. A child having been exposed to English in kindergarten will have head start in school and even later when he or she wants to learn another foreign language due to similar vocabulary, grammar or sentence structure. Multilingualism has proven to help the child develop superior reading and writing skills. They also tend to have over all better analytical, social and academic skills. Knowing an additional language especially English helps your child feel at ease in different environments. It creates a natural flexibility and adaptability and therefore will increase his/her confidence and self esteem. A child that is raised bi- or multilingual will also appreciate other cultures and innate acceptance of cultural differences. 

English is one of the most commonly spoken languages worldwide and one of the easiest to learn (next to Spanish). The demand for English is raising and a must in the business world today. Most of the school English doesn’t seem to match the standard due to lack of conversation classes or listening classes. Exposure to the language at an early age will increase the ability to speak the language long before the child starts school. 

There are however some aspects why teaching two first languages at an early stage may raise doubt in a parents decision. Being exposed to two languages at the same time may cause confusion in the child and the child will begin speaking later than other monolingual children. This however is not the rule and the delay of speaking will normally be no more that 3-6 month. This is a small price to pay if your child ends up being bi- or multilingual. A bilingual child may also mix up his/her native tongue with English words and create a mixed sentence. This is a temporary phenomenon that disappears as soon as the vocabulary of both languages increases. Parents may be eager and are the first reason why their child needs to go to an English speaking kindergarten. However by sending their child to learn English the parents take over the responsibility of making sure they continue doing so and don’t expect the child to be fluent within a month time. Extra language exposure and encouragement by the parents is needed to make sure that learning English will not be a ?waste? of time. 

Hearing and listening to the environment is the first step in an infant’s life to language. (Doctors tell pregnant women to talk to their babies before they are born so that the baby develops a connection to the mother.) By simply being exposed to a language a child will form or copy sound and then words and by the age of 2 start forming sentences. This is how we slowly learn to communicate in our native tongue. Therefore the best way to learn another language such as English is by being exposed to it at an early stage in one’s life. The child will develop a listening, understanding and in the end responding reaction to what he/she is exposed to. A kindergarten that offers English as an additional language will help the child to learn a new language by talking and interacting, playing games and singing songs with the child. Therefore a kindergarten can have a great influence in teaching a child English as a foreign language.

Teaching EFL in a Kindergarten

Teaching English full time in a Kindergarten setting is much different than even some of the younger age classes. In many cases the teacher will be initiating any writing activities. The teacher along with the parent will teach all graphomotor skills at this time. The EFL teacher will teach many social and skills and they probably have not had any experience dealing with such activities before. The most important point to note is class time is much like a nursery school between 4 to 8 hours long depending on the student. In such a case I have made my own point to follow initially with my language goals to follow in a secondary manner. Since all exchanges take place in English on a daily fashion the child’s acquisition rate will be quite high when compared with any other cram school or private lesson.

I have my personal emphasis goals for my class posted for myself and my assistants to read when we feel frustrated or are in need of a mental boost. Here is the list that I have created viewed from the child’s mind: We want you -

1.to ask questions whenever you feel uncertain.

2.to be able to express what you feel in song and dance and to be able to create you own movements and gestures.

3.to draw pictures and make things representing what you see and know.

4.to find uses for items that are in our school.

5.to value and treasure your own creations and treat your own and other children’s creations with respect.

6.to view your own and other children’s creations intelligently and to be able to discuss them

7.to have an interest in making your space comfortable and pleasing.

8.to acquire proper eating habits, and develop a joy of eating all types of food.

9.to know proper posture, when to sit, stand, and lay down.

10.to understand how to rest, and sit quietly, and when it is time do so.

11.to be kind to others, and if your classmates are kind to you, to express appreciation for that.

12.to listen to what is told to you by your parents, teachers, and classmates.

13.to keep agreements and promises.

14.to be able to take charge of a task that is assigned and complete the task.

15.to speak in a good voice to the teacher and to other children.

16.to be able to use all of the tools and classroom objects and to avoid risks when not supervised by the teachers.

17.to have an appreciation for time and how time controls our daily lives.

After we focus on these main points I then teach what English we can cover in the rest of the day. I believe in a theme task oriented type of learning. All vocabulary for the month should be loosely targeting toward a theme. Our course book on basic ABC writing should be completed by the ninth month of the school year, so I will have time to focus on writing problems for the remaining portion of the year. I am mainly trying to construct an English foundation of sorts; because I know in many cases after the kindergarten years all English classes will take on a less frequent and less important role in the children’s lives. My students hopefully will remember this information when they move into the secondary school years.

All English acquisition occurs through games, songs, and reading. Chorusing of structures is very important, but in many cases the children will be grappling with terms beyond the capabilities. So a quick and changing day is very important. All daily language use is in English, which is important. Also singing songs for over 40 minutes or more a day is not uncommon. Songs are necessary for picking up toys, cleaning tables, washing hands, and brushing teeth. Any activity is tagged with song that is played on a daily basis until the students memorize and understand the song. Then fun variations to the song can be introduced to liven up the students. 

The main idea though for Kindergarten is stability and even handed discipline. Children do not like a lot of change. Keeping the day the same is comforting. If you think of the stress on a kindergarten student’s mind of being forced to take a secondary language even before their own mother tongue is fully understood, it is fully understandable to the teacher that you want to keep the stress level low. Children cannot learn when they cry for 2 or more hours and it is quite stressful on the classmates. As long as the teacher is patient though this is a wonder level to teach.