Policy: primary ELT programme

Policy: primary elt programme

 While ever more young learners in formal primary education learn English as a second or foreign language as part of their compulsory curriculum, the circumstances of learning and teaching vary a great deal.  The status of English is a very important variable in a given country. In some contexts, very high stakes will be attached to English because children have to shift to English from their mother tongue in order to access secondary and tertiary education. This happens in many African countries. While in Japan, the stakes are not quite so high. English is desirable, but without it, children can still progress to good schools and successful careers. Whatever its status, it is also important to consider learners’, teachers’, and parents’ attitudes to English. In this case, these beliefs and attitudes are still malleable. Children whose parents speak any language and have wide knowledge about other cultures will certainly be able to develop positive attitudes and accept different cultures easily. While children who are brought up in a monolingual environment may meet a new culture and new languages through the experience of a primary foreign language programmer. 

In this chapter, we will pay attention to the way of exploiting local opportunities and resources in order to implement primary foreign language teaching programmers with the best possible potential for success. Individual teachers play a key role because their understanding of the benefits and limitations of their own contexts and thus their informed decisions can make a real difference with regard to the success of particular programmers. 

• Contextual factors in language teaching

Contextual factors are factors that play into the way that language teaching is conducted. There are three types of contextual factors which introduce any type of language program, namely: Language settings, Educational frameworks, and Status of English and attitude to English. 

The introduction of any language course whether for adults or children will be affected by a large number of contextual variables. The two main contextual variables that will the introduction of any language course or programmers are the political influences and the totality of language use. The political influences are associated with the views of the education ministry in a given country on language in general. The totality of language use within a given context covers all the language and their varieties used by speakers in all communities either at home or at work (language settings). 

• The role of motivation

Motivation is decisive in learning a language especially if it is not your mother tongue. Motivation also can be defined as a key in learning other languages. The first language is a natural part of growing up, whereas the second foreign language is a result of motivation and hard work. When children move to another country and have to learn a new language, their motivation to learn is related to wanting to fit in with children in their new community. In formal foreign language learning contexts, the main source of motivation for children is usually their teacher and the enjoyable activities they experience in the English classes. According to Dornyei, there are four main stages or components of motivational teaching:

1. Create motivating conditions for learning. This means creating a pleasant and supportive environment in the classroom. 
2. Introduce initial motivational techniques such as talking about values, showing positive attitudes to learning, creating materials that are relevant for the learners, and establishing expectations of success.
3. Teachers need to take care to maintain and protect their learners’ motivation by offering stimulating activities and fostering self-esteem, self-confidence, and cooperation among learners. 
4. Motivating teachers take care to turn evaluation and feedback into positive experiences.

• Aims and Expectations

    There are many good reasons why primary school children can benefit from foreign language learning but I am going to focus on two main ones, which are: developing children’s basic communication abilities in English and encouraging enjoyment and motivation. The first one is about teaching children to talk about themselves and their environment. It may add an important target which is the cross-cultural aim, it raises learners’ awareness about otherness through different languages. On the other hand, the second main aim is to make English an unattractive school subject to children. When we move to the expectations it's crucial for teachers to familiarize themselves with the aims and objectives of the program so, they can set their expectations accordingly. For example, in many contents, linguistics gains in the first few years of primary school will be limited, but there may be substantial gains in increasing language learning motivation and cultural awareness. Parents/carers may have unrealistic expectations of children’s progress, so it is a good idea for teachers to make the expectations very clear and transparent

• Exposure to English

How much English children hear and how often they have opportunities to interact in English are important variables. It is, of course, not possible to achieve in the EFL classroom the levels of exposure found in acquisitions-rich environments (for example the immersion classrooms in Canada), but the success of naturalistic learning can be built on. 

• Teachers skills and knowledge

In order to create the ideal conditions for learning, teachers need to be equipped with methodological skills and knowledge and to be competent in English. In addition, teachers’ confidence and willingness to use the language naturally in the classroom is a key component of success. Knowledge of the curriculum means that class teachers can integrate English easily and naturally into the day. Through this, teachers know the children and their specific needs, such as a safe and encouraging environment, stimulation, fun, and variety as well as plenty of recycling. 

For the successful introduction of English into primary schools in any country, the government needs to invest in recruiting and training teachers. This applies to both pre-teacher

• Integrating English into the curriculum

Another question related to total time and timetabling is whether the school will follow programme were English is as naturally as possible into the existing primary programme or treated as a separate subject. While in some countries follow quite rigid subject-based teaching in primary school.  In these contexts, English is timetabled for about two hours a week, and a specialist teacher delivers to English lessons, as opposed to the children’s class teacher. Other countries have already opted for an integrated approach where English is carefully embedded into the primary curriculum. English is taught by the class teacher. Why? Because through the teacher, the children have the opportunity to link their knowledge in other school subjects with English.