DOSSIER FOR JUNIOR LEARNERS

Ideas for materials which children might put into a Dossier

Work and products which children would like to keep and show might include:

pictures
souvenirs
e-mail messages
selected written work
photos
audio or video recordings
descriptions and results of project work
copies of letters or e-mail messages sent to a partner school
examples of any listening, speaking, reading or writing games or exercises
a personal word list
a reading record
posters

JUNIOR ELP METHODOLOGY

Using the ELP in the classroom.

Making time for the ELP.

With many different pressures and demands to cope with, teachers may find it difficult to allocate time to the ELP, which does make some additional demands on time in the short term.

First of all, it will be necessary to become familiar with the contents and workings of the ELP and then to explain the essentials and the rationale to children. However, once established, the ELP should encourage an attitude to language learning in children that is beneficial to teachers. Use of the ELP will increase children’s capacity for reflection and self-assessment, thus enabling them gradually to take more responsibility for their own learning.

There are two aspects to this question which you need to consider: first, how often children should colour, draw or write in their ELP, and second, how often the teacher should explicitly devote teaching time to the ELP as a learning tool, discussing children’s learning, reflecting on learning outcomes, setting targets or getting children to assess themselves.

To get most benefit from using the ELP, children need to work with it at regular intervals throughout the year, so that they can reflect on what they will be learning and what they have learned.

An important aim of language learning is to familiarise children with strategies which they can apply to the learning of any language.

For example, children learn and apply effective ways of:

communicating-understanding spoken language and being understood;
practising new language;
memorising words, sentences, texts and rules;
applying prior knowledge to create new language.

Children can draw upon effective language-learning strategies, which have beendeveloped when learning their first language, and for some children, their second language, and apply them to the learning of a new language

How can teachers help to develop children’s language-learning strategies?

Regularly transfer the teaching role from the teacher to children in the class. As children take on the role of teacher they become more aware of how they and others learn most effectively.

Systematically draw children’s attention to the ways in which they are learning a language and encourage them to list and to re-use successful strategies.

Point out that individuals have different learning styles and preferences – what works for one person will not necessarily work for another.

Experiment by trying out different methods of learning with the class. They can evaluate the success of, for example, communicating using some gestures; different methods of memorising words and phrases using rhythm, rhyme, blocking out words; understanding by interpreting gestures, asking someone to repeat something or speak more slowly.

Build up a wall poster of effective language-learning strategies and refer to them frequently.

How to help children to reflect on their learning skills and strategies

Ask children what they want to learn in the new language. This supports reflection on

their existing knowledge and their learning needs. In a simple way it passes some of the responsibility for decision-making to the child.

Encourage children to note down or draw what they have learned in a word list or vocabulary book, for example, list ‘Now I can talk about ...’, list ‘My new words’. This

encourages reflection on learning and the articulation of newly learned items. It also

supports the development of personal strategies for collecting and organising new words and phrases.

Regularly ask children questions along these lines:

What have you done?
For what reason?
Did it work?
How do you know?
Was it hard or easy?
If hard, what would make it easier?
What have you learned from this activity?
What have you learned about your learning and how to make it more effective?

Activities

After practising language through conversations and role plays, encourage children to think about which level in the ‘Better and better!’ charts best describes what they have been doing.
Pick out a statement from ‘Better and better!’. Children working in groups have five minutes to imagine an activity or scenario that would illustrate that statement and level of competence. Children then compare activities and scenarios.
Ask children to describe what they would like to be able to do by the end of the term or year and then ask the group to search ‘My progress in learning languages’ and ‘Better and better!’ in order to find a suitable statement. Discuss some simple, enjoyable ways of achieving the goal.