The role of music and songs for improving listening skills of A1 level learners on the material of Kid`s English 1
Chapter I. Importance of learning English as a second language
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| Chapter I. Importance of learning English as a second language.
English is the language of international communication in many areas of life: trade, diplomacy, tourism, sport and entertainment. At present English is the most important of the world’s languages. In number of speakers it ranks second. That’s why many people in our country study English as a second language. They study it to read and understand books in the original and to be able to speak. Speaking is considered by many as the main objective of language learning. The knowledge of spoken language will help you to express your opinions and feelings, to give and receive information, to say what you want to say, to listen and understand recorded tapes. Studying of foreign languages enriches the native language, makes it clearer, more flexible and expressive. It gives the great opportunity to compare two languages, to understand the mentality of another nation. Knowledge of a foreign language opens up a whole new world to the one who possesses it. It is like the ship bearing explorers to new continents. Studying of English becomes an absolute necessity for any good specialist – an engineer, a manager or a secretary. 1.1. Language learning in early childhood and teaching English to children of elementary level Early childhood bilingualism is a reality for millions of children throughout the world. Some children learn multiple languages from earliest childhood, others acquire additional languages when go to school. The acquisition and maintenance of more than one language can open doors to many personal, social and economic opportunities. Children who learn more than one language from earliest childhood are referred to as “simultaneous bilinguals”. There is a considerable body of research on children`s ability to learn more than one language in their earliest years. We sometimes hear people express the opinion that it is too difficult for children to cope with two languages. They fear that children will be confused or will not learn either language well. However, there is little support for the myth that “learning more than one language in early childhood is a problem for children”1. Although some studies show minor early delays for simultaneous bilinguals, there is no evidence that learning two languages substantially slows down their linguistic development or interferes with cognitive and academic development. Indeed many simultaneous bilinguals achieve high levels of proficiency in both languages. Ellen Bialystok and other developmental psychologists have found convincing evidence that bilingualism can have positive effects abilities that are related to academic success, such as metalinguistic awareness. Limitations that may be observed in the circumstances in which each language is learned than to any limitation in the human capacity to learn more than one language. For example, if one language is heard much more often than the other or is more highly valued in the community, that language may eventually be used better than, or in preference to the other. There may be reason to be concerned, however, about situations where children cut off from their family language when they are very young. Lily Wong Fillmore observed that, “when children are submerged in a different language for long periods in pre-school or day care, their development of the family language may be slowed down or stalled before they have developed an age-appropriate mastery of the new language. Eventually they may stop speaking the family language altogether”.2 Wallace Lambert called this loss of one language on the way to learning another “subtractive bilingualism”. It can have negative consequences for children`s self-esteem and their relationships with family members are also likely to be affected such early loss of the family language. In these cases, children seem to continue to be caught between two languages. They have not mastered the one language, and they have not continued to develop the other 3. During the transition period they may fall behind in their academic learning. Unfortunately, the solution educators sometimes propose to parents is that they should stop speaking the family language at home and concentrate instead on speaking the school language with their children. Linguist Noam Chomsky challenged old ideas about language acquisition in his first book, “Syntactic Structure”, published in 1957. He rejects the notion that all language must be learned a fresh by each child. Chomsky says, normal children everywhere are born with a kind of hard-wired syntax that enables them to grasp the basic working of language. The child then chooses the particular grammar and language of the environment from the available options in the brain. Thus the capacity for language is a biological inheritance and specific languages are then activated largely through the child`s interaction with the native environment. It`s as if the child`s brain is a CD player already set to “play” language, when the CD for a certain language is inserted, that is the language that the child learns.4 If you are trying to teach English to small kids, the good news is children are incredibly adapted to learning languages, and grammar structures 1.2. Kid`s English – a new type of manual Kid`s English Class1 is the first book in a series of English books for primary classes. It consists of Pupil`s Book, Teacher`s Book and Multimedia DVD resource. Kid`s English Class1 has been developed to fulfill the Resolution № 1875 signed by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on 10.12.2012 “About the measures on further development of foreign language teaching and learning system”. Kid`s English Class1 is based on the Uzbekistan State Standards and line with the requirements of CEFR (Common European Framework of References for Languages). In accordance with the above mentioned Class1 has been designed to develop speaking and listening skills without reading and writing. All instructions in English are given for teachers. Kid`s English has been created by the initiative of the Resolution № 1875 of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on 10 December 2012 “ about the measures on further development of foreign teaching and learning system”. Kid`s English 1 is based on the State Educational Standards and syllabus for foreign languages that were developed in February 2013 in accordance with the above mentioned Resolution and in line with requirements of the CEFR – Common European Framework of Reference for languages. Kid`s English is the first book in a series of books for primary classes (1-4 classes) of English. It consists of a Pupil`s Book, Teacher`s Book, Multimedia DVD and a pack of didactic material, it provides materiel for up to 66 hours of study, arranged in a flexible way to cater for faster and slower classes. The Pupil`s Book is divided mainly into 14 units covering 56 lessons and 10 revision lessons. Each lesson of the book is designed for 45 minutes totaling 66 hours of study which are enough for Year. Each unit is broken down into 4 lessons. Each lesson takes up two pages with the exception of lessons which are on one page each. The units are divided into as follows: 1st Term (18 hours): 4 units + 2 revision lesson; 2nd Term (14 hours): 3 units + 2 revision lesson; 3rd Term (18 hours): 4 units + 2 revision lesson; 4th Term (16 hours): 3 units + 2 revision lesson; The order of the units and lessons progresses from simple to complex according to the level of difficulty of themes and the units and consistency or grammatical structures. The first three lessons of the units contain new vocabulary and grammatical structures. As regards to the last lesson, i.e.4th lesson, it`s titled “Let`s play” which can be considered as a small recycling within the unit. During “Let`s play” lessons, pupils play languages practice lessons of the unit by preparing posters, drawing or coloring pictures, role-playing, etc. Revision lessons are designed for revising the language materials of the preceding units and do not contain new vocabulary or grammar. They are supposed to develop the attained skills through different interesting activities. At the back of the Pupil`s Book there are parent`s Corners for every lesson which are designed for parents. They include tips for parents on how to handle with their child`s homework. The Multimedia DVD contains natural recordings of texts, dialogues, videos, etc performed by kids, native speakers of English and by good Uzbek speakers of English. If the teachers do not have Multimedia DVD, they can read out the tape script themselves. All tape scripts are included in the Teacher`s Book. The Multimedia DVD is designed for use during the lesson. The Teacher`s Book is an essential part of the Kid`s English 1 package. Teachers must have and use it in order to conduct their classes effectively. The Teacher`s Book contains objective of every lesson and activity, tape scripts for the Multimedia DVD and clear explanations for teachers on how to organize the activities in the Pupil`s Book and suggestions for faster/slower classes/pupils. At the primary level learning another language must be as close to a natural way of learning mother tongue as possible. More than that learning a foreign language in classes 1 is very different from the language without learning language without learning ABC, reading or writing. Classes 1 children will learn the language through the language trough actions, role plays, listening to stories, songs, poems and various language games. Multimedia technologies play a very important role in achieving the goals. Kid`s English encourages leaner-centered approach to teaching. What does this mean? We feel that in the past there has been too much focus on the role of the teacher in the learning process and not enough on the learners themselves. Of course teachers are very important too researches have shown that pupils learn to communicate more effectively if they are given frequent opportunities to practice and experiment with new language. So the learner- centered methodology used in Kid`s English aims to put the pupils - the learners – at the center of most things that happen in the classroom. For this reason Kid`s English contains many activities, exercises and games, which is encourage using the new language naturally through working in pairs or in groups. Of course teachers will still need to present new vocabulary and structures to their pupils, but in the learner – centered classroom they will also spend a lot of time organizing and monitoring pair and group work. One of the reasons that pupils are often unsuccessful in real life communication is that the types of interaction they are most used to as follows:
The teacher lectures a class. The interactions all to the teacher or through the teacher. The teacher asks one of the pupils to come to the front of the class and either listens to her/him or talks with her/him. The teacher listens to or talks with one of the pupils, who remain at her/his desk. The teacher asks two pupils to speak to each other. If pupils are asked to speak to each other they usually take turns in speaking rather than communicating naturally. Moreover, the teacher is at hand, listening to everything that is being said. The following illustrations of some types of classroom interaction should help to show that in most cases only one interaction at a time takes places in the classroom and that the teacher is usually one of speakers. Here we see the type of interaction is appropriate for the group-work activities in Kid`s English. As can be seen, the teacher is free to listen, monitor, think ahead, re-plan the next stages and hear her pupils teaching one another the vocabulary and the grammar they know. While communicative activities are in progress, the teacher no longer “teaches”, she/he organizes, set up activities and “monitors” them discreetly, that is she/he listen to the pupils and makes sure that everything is in order. The teacher should help only if she/he quite certain that his/her pupils cannot manage on their own. The teacher should be like the conductor of an orchestra: conduct but not play. Many teachers nowadays find it difficult to decide whether they should or should not correct every error their pupils make. In the traditional classroom the emphasis is usually on accuracy and all mistakes are corrected immediately. The problem with this is that a lot of pupils will be reluctant to speak for fear of making mistakes and being corrected. The author of Kid`s English believes that English is best learned through English so we expect the teacher to use English as much as possible in the classroom. At this age songs are very effective way or means of learning English. They help them memorize the vocabulary or structures very easily although they do not know how to read or write. For this reason the early lessons in Kid`s English start with songs where pupils sing and at the same time and learn how to greet. Topical songs can be met nearly in all lessons through the Pupil`s Book. First pupils listen to song. During the next two lessons pupils listen and repeat the same song in the final lesson pupils will sing the songs themselves. Songs tend to be repetitive and have a strong rhythm. They are easily learnt by primary children and quickly become favorites because of their familiarity. They are fun and motivating for children. They allow language to be reinforced in a natural context both with structures and vocabulary. All songs build confidence in young learners and even shy children will enjoy singing or acting out a song as part of a group or whole class. This also develops a sense of class identity. Children are often proud of what they have learnt and will like having the opportunity to “show off ” what they have learnt to friends or family. Many songs can help develop memory and concentration, as well as physical co-ordination, for example when doing the actions for a song. For the teacher, songs can be a wonderful starting point and can fit in well with topics, skills, language and cross-curricular work. Here are some tips for using and exploiting songs in the classroom.
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