Background
Discuss about the Effective Speaking Strategies for a Non-native Kindergarten Class for children between.
Investigation is the major part of the research on which the results and outcomes depend formulating the achievement of the research from multiple aspects. In this research the topic was Effective teaching strategies for non-native Kindergarten level children. Learning English as a second language often becomes very stressful and complex for non-native children especially in pre primary level education. Most of the children in this level are 5 to 6 years old. The educational procedure and learning method act as the foundation of any student that influence the future learning capability and comprehensiveness of any student. Therefore, the appropriate teaching strategies and practices should be identified for the betterment of educational procedure at pre-primary level in learning English as second language. According to the research proposal and the progress update, this paper has discussed the findings of the conducted research considering the declared method and regulatory issues. In the following section the research purpose, the chosen research methods and mainly the finding have been discussed. A reflection on the research report has been presented at the end of this paper considering the viability and influence of this research.
Finding appropriate strategy of teaching and learning in early age of education is chiefly essential. At the same time guiding the student at pre-primary or Kindergarten level, is comparatively critical. In this context, this research is focuses on the learning needs and scopes for non-native students of 5 to 6 years age in the language learning procedure. . Learning English as a second language often becomes very stressful and complex for non-native children especially in Kindergarten level education. The aim of this research is to suggest effective and tangible communication and teaching strategies for the educators that can improve the overall learning and educating method of learning English as a second language. Considering the aim this research has formulated the essential objectives or waypoints, which have been presented below:
- To identify problems experienced by non-natives in learning to speak a new language
- To determine factors influencing non-native learners adoption of a second language at a lower primary level
- To highlight the role of strategic teaching practices in shaping non-native learners
- To suggest solutions to challenges experienced by non-natives in speaking a new language
The research questions have been formulated considering the major attributes and constrains of the objectives of this research. Focusing on the aim and objectives of this research the research deliverables have been planed and presented in the following section:
- Identification of the most effective way to equip non-native children with speaking skills
- Analysing the effective activities for learning English as second language
- Finding out the best familiar and alternative teaching strategies and speaking techniques
- Measuring and investigating the language adaptation process of non-native children
- Finding the Stimulating factors of language learning skill at Kindergarten level
- Formulation of the improvement procedure of teaching to increase the learning skill of the students
Focusing on the aim, objectives and design of the research the methodology has been designed. The method of this research considers the inductive research design to find out the cause and effect relationship of the existing teaching strategy of educating Kindergarten level student. No research hypothesis or assumption was declared at the beginning of the research. Therefore, the research explored the topic and overall context under the exploratory research approach. The research based on qualitative data analysis of the collected data from the online article, journal, book, authentic report and other secondary resources. This approach of the research has been followed guided by the interpretivism research philosophy. Apart from the secondary data collection from various online resources and through the online discussion with colleagues, several new aspects of this study have been perceived. The findings of the research which have been presented in this paper, accumulated by the qualitative analysis of the collected secondary data and information. The ethical consideration is another essential part of this research that holds the morale of the research method while ensuring the authenticity of the research. The research approval from reflects the transparency and accountability of the research to the assessor as well as the peers.
Research Methodology
Non-native children often experience very difficulties in learning procedure with listening, comprehension and learning new language. The existing method of teaching holds the major responsibilities of these difficulties and complex situation. Children of age 5 to 6 years usually face multiple challenges in the second language learning procedure. The learning procedure of English as a second language among the non-native students is not an exception. The learning procedure involving both teachers and students faces a consistent challenges because of the age factor, communication, early age responsiveness and insufficient cognitive development. At this early stage of development, the complexities include pronunciation problems, unfamiliar environment, lack of interest on the study techniques, lack of confidence on new language, and the influence of mother tongue. As per the report published by the British Council in 2016, the council acknowledged that speaking English with comprehensive knowledge and confidence is a challenge for Kindergarten and pre-primary level students due to the difficulties in acceptance. Poor pronounciation has been found as one of the major issues among the problems faced by non-native students at this level. One of the major causes of lack of fluency is poor pronunciation and confidence issues.
Listing can be as challenging as speaking for non-native pre-primary level student especially for them who have less interaction with English language in their daily life. At the same time, the amplitude of the difficulties varies from students to students depending on their cultural and lingual background (Yanagi & Baker, 2016). At the initial stage, learners often face challenges coping the pattern of language pronunciation from the instructors or teachers depending on the employed strategies. Therefore, learners at the foundational level needs appropriate assessment procedure to assess and improve the traditional learning and educating procedure. It has been found that, most of the students who are under 5 years old usually show their interest in alternative learning process (Kirkpatrick, 2014). From various case studies, it has been found that a large amount of the students who face these kinds of complexity are either come from Asian countries and or from the western part of the Europe. However, because of having a completely different origin of the mother tongue, students from Asian background faces more difficulties in learning English as a second language. There are very negligible amount of students who perceive the traditional reading learning and writing procedure as an interesting way of learning new language because of their exceptional linguistic intellect. Apart from that, the secondary research also reviled that most of the pre-primary level students who learn English as their second language do not listen or interact using English in their regular life.
Findings of the Research
Many strategic and atmospheric attributes significantly influence the adoptability of the learner at lower primary and Kindergarten level students. The teaching and presentation method is the major factor that defines the adoptability of the student from other lingual background. Along with the interaction and communication techniques in the classroom, the approach of the teacher also plays an important role to influence the learning pace of the students. Multiple factors influence the learning and speaking fluency including vocabulary development, conversational cues, listening strategies and language response. Focusing on the learning strategy instead of the learning outcomes can influence the overall learning practices to some positive extent. As opined by Pesce (2018) regular participation in language learning classes and interacting using English language for socail and educational purpsoe improves the learning experience od the students. Verious intersting creatibe and nin liniear activities improves the learning capability and adoptibility of the students at the pre-primary level education. At the early stage of learning children often prefer the fun plaing, games, creative and interactive activities. Strategic learning and teaching activities for the student of 5-6 years age often involve dramatic representations, linear and nonlinear storytelling, indoor lingual activities, interventions of music and rhymes and other audio-visual techniques.
Along with the student participation, other two critical influencing attributes in teaching and learning technique are Students Talking Time (STT) and Teacher Talking Time (TTT). Both of this attributes are beneficial depending on the implementation on the formulated learning techniques. As per the secondary data collected in this research, the Student Talking Time (STT) can improve the involvement of students better than the increment of the Teacher Talking Time (TTT) in vocal communication in learning procedure. Teaching English as a Second Language to young learners can involves the students individually or in a group. Audio-visual learning and teaching techniques including music, showing animation stories and applications are some of the most influencing practices in the development of the learner’s psychological, behavioural and linguistic abilities (James, 2013). These developments of the students are essential for common problems such as pronunciation and phonological interpretations. Apart from the educational techniques in the educational institutes some other factors can also influence the learning capability and the adoptability of the students at the pre-primary and kindergarten level. As an example, in the online platform, numerous YouTube tutorials, practice classes, virtual training materials are available for practicing and participation through alternative methods of teaching. The major strength of these process is that, it gives the learner an opportunity to familiarise with language through an audio-visual platform (Roberts, 2014).). Despite that, students of this particular age can access popular TV shows, cartoons, learning videos in both online, and offline by free of cost.
Recommendations and Strategies
According to the Slavin & Chambers (2017) it has been identified that the existing developments of learning techniques regarding the language learning and teaching environment the curriculum design with evidence-based programs can be strategically implemented to bring an upgrading the different levels of education. Many strategic interventions of curriculum-based study can be found in the alternative way of teaching and learning techniques. These methods are also viable for the non-native students at the pre-primary and kindergarten level. These curriculum programs can improvise a variety of activities to provide an interesting platform for improving the reading and writing skills that can also enhance the adaptation capabilities of the students at the early stage of development. Implimenting multiple strategies in an inconsistent presentation for forming playing, comunicating, problem solving sessions can upgread the learning strategies and their involvement and support. These strategies also encourage the eddicators through the literacy materials, to make the teaching experience delighful and interesting for the children of 5 to 6 years age. Veriosu researchs and reports suggest these strategies as the optimum way of teaching and learning practice at the pre-primary level.
The strategic program designing for the development of oral fluency among the students involves pronunciation, grammar and verbal communication. On the other hand, the task-based learning programs including interactive games, playful communication, and storytelling are very effective for the learners, because children at this age enjoy creative and productive learning. Considering the two interacting techniques namely Students Talking Time (STT) and Teacher Talking Time (TTT) there are two types of teaching strategy as well, namely Direct method of systematic approach and behaviourist approach. Direct methods are commonly used in teaching of a native language to non-native student of any level (Geay, McNally & Telhaj, 2013). This strategy focuses on the development grammar, translation, oral skills, pronunciation and writing skills through visual materials and induction. In these strategies, the learners learn about vocabularies, grammar, pronunciation, language presentation through diffident teaching practices. These teaching practices involve the question and answers, dictation, reading, paragraphs and verbal communication based learning activities. However, the effectiveness of this method is limited because of its systematic nature that ignores multiple attractive presentation of the new language. On the other hand, the behaviourist approach involves training using the native language of the student to introducing new words through conceptual interpretation. Thus method is useful for improving writing fluency, aiding the reading constrains, and listening. Considering its implementation trends it can be said that, this method focuses on training of grammar using the core mechanics of behavioural psychology. Therefore, this tactic supports better interactive possibilities through aligning the teaching style to the behavioural psychology of the student. It often consists of simple language dialogue tasks include role-plays, comprehension, storytelling, music, interactive games, group discussion and communication. It allows the student at Kindergarten level to learn about the patterns in speech, performance and language adaptation of the new language.
Conclusion
It has been observed throughout the secondary data collection that, the multisensory approach including the audiovisual techniques interventions and interactive communication based activities enhances the language recognition skill, interpretation and participation of the student at the pre-primary level. This multileveled participation of the students as well as the educators plays a significant role in the broader literacy skill development. As per the suggestive literatures, the non-native students can be helped to develop a proficiency level in English through interesting and interactive curriculum design that would allow them to participate willingly with an assertive mentality. The curriculum design should have creative topic selection and presentation techniques considering the interests of the target student. At the same time the wide range of vocabulary can only be adopted quickly when the learning process follows a package formatting of learning. In this system, the teacher can design a trees of vocabulary where each nodes of the tree is delivered in a single session. The phrase ‘Creativity of topic’ emphasise the presentation of a list of different topics in an interesting that can successfully engage the non-native student is the English learning class. Teachers can also measure the attractiveness of a creative topic by executing a demo class the will help to measure the potential effectiveness of the topic selection and distribution of learning strategy.
Many factors are is necessary while designing a learning session for the non-native speakers aiming a pre-primary level class. One of these essential factors is social integration that is highly familiar as per the previously discussed learning techniques that works well with non-native students. The teacher can arrange a multilingual class to shape the learning environment by effective interaction through avoiding the tendency to communicate with mother tongue. The language speaking session should be incorporated with the regular lesson plan while improvising the song, storytelling, group discussion and games that can make the learning process interesting. The teaching session should also incorporate the fun games because it will allow them to practice and find experience of the effortless learning (Foster, P, 2013). Apart from that the competitiveness in these interactive and fun games will enable the learners to self analyse and reconfigure the language presentation in a cooperatively better way. Despite that, there are few environmental recommendations as well to develop more competent learning model. In this regards, having an open mind in a multilingual environment is chiefly essential. Along with that, the learners of this foundation age also need the motivation and a creative learning environment that can boost up the overall learning capacity. Children of 5 to 6 years of old often finds drama, storytelling and signing class more interesting because of the nature of this techniques that allows the learner to repeat multiple words of the new language. Group discussion and communication with other learners in an interactive study should also be incorporated in regular basic language learning techniques (Gill, 2013). At the same time, different linguistic games are also very attractive way of learning and teaching that allows perceptive communication while developing social interaction, abilities, creativity, self-regulation. This strategic lesson choice also helps the student to explore their emotions and interact with reality.
Prior to this research the my perception on the teaching method for the early stage of development involves only the systematic approach with very few interventions of behavioural psychology. This research will enable me to formulate more effective teaching procedure for the non-native students during the course of learning English at the pre-primary level education. In the next phase of my educational planning, I would consider the attractive way or presenting the learning session. At the same time I will maintain a multilingual environment in English learning class for my future. Moreover, this research helped me to gain in-depth knowledge about the appropriate learning and teaching procedure of the student at the age of 5 to 6 years.
In a conclusive learning English as a second language often becomes very stressful and complex for non-native children especially in pre primary level education. It can be said that the educational procedure and learning method act as the foundation of any student that influence the future learning capability and comprehensiveness of any student. From the above discussion, it can be said that the appropriate teaching strategies and practices should be identified for the betterment of educational procedure at pre-primary level in learning English as second language. Many strategic and environmental attributes significantly influence the adoptability of the learner at lower primary and Kindergarten level students. At the early stage of learning children often prefer the fun plaing, games, creative and interactive activities. Strategic learning and teaching activities for the student of 5-6 years age should involve dramatic representations, linear and nonlinear storytelling, indoor lingual activities, interventions of music and rhymes and other audio-visual techniques. Apart from that, the learners of this foundation age also need the motivation and a creative learning environment that can boost up the overall learning capacity.
References:
British Council, (2017). Teacher Talking Time. [Online] Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teacher-talking-time
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James, C., (2013). Errors in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis. s.l.:Routledge.
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Pesce, C., (2018) 7 Techniques that will increasse student talking time-exponentially!. [Online] Available at: https://busyteacher.org/13959-how-to-increase-student-talking-time-7-techniques.html
Roberts, T. A., (2014). Not so silent after all: examination and analysis of the silent stage in childhood second language acquisition. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(1), 22-40.
Slavin, R. E. & Chambers, B., (2017). Evidence-based reform: Enhancing language and literacy in early childhood education. Early Child Development and Care, 187(3-4), 778-784.
Yanagi, M. & Baker, A. A., (2016). Challenges experienced by Japanese students with oral communication skills in Australian Universities. TESOL Journal , 7(3), pp. 621-644.