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| Group Work |
Warm and friendly teacher-pupil relationships and a happy, secure working atmosphere are very important to promote learning, but on their own they are not enough for young learners. I remember, when I first started teaching children, I developed a very exciting game which involved crawling around the floor to hunt the lion. I hadn't considered what would happen with 30 excited children all wanting to join in simultaneously Chaos ensued, I quickly realized that children are less able than adults to regulate and organize themselves and are more easily distracted. We need to organize them in ways that will maximize opportunities for learning.
A key difference between working with adults and children is that adults are able to understand the point of group- and pair work, even if they do not particularly like working in this way. They are usually willing to co-operate in order to carry out the activity m the belief that it may help their language learning. In other words they are able to be analytic about an activity and to regulate their behavior in order to achieve their language learning goals. Children (particularly five to eight-year-olds) will find it much harder to understand the intellectual reason or working m a particular way. They may not be able to regulate their behavior unless the activity makes sense to them in human or imaginative terms. So telling them to get into a group because you want them to practice English won't have much effect on their willingness to co-operate.
However, if we set it within a context which they can relate to on the basis of their previous experience of stories, they are likely to co-operate fully, eg
You are all living in a special country ruled by a nasty dragon When the dragon comes, you have to hide in one of the magical circles. But there is a problem only six children can go in a circle. Let's count together. So you have to count the number in the group each time.
It may also be more difficult for pupils to understand verbal instructions. So we need to keep these very simple, backed up by actual physical demonstration involving the pupils. Their concentration may be limited and so they need many short activities rather than one long one. The activities we choose also need to be quite carefully structured with definite outcomes and clear repeated procedures. This will help them to feel secure and to be successful in carrying them out.