Young Learners

Teaching English to Elementary School Children

The PPP model of teaching (presentation - practice - production) has long been a popular model for EFL classrooms. The usual form it takes is the teacher presenting the language to be taught, the students practicing it in a controlled way and then the students having to use the language in a more natural situation. The presentation stage is usually teacher-centred, the practice stage is usually also teacher-centred, and the production stage is more student-centred. This model was intended for older EFL learners choosing to attend a language school and with motivation for studying English. How effective is this model for teaching children?

If we present the new language to the children at the beginning of the class in a teacher-centred way e.g. holding up a picture and saying the associated word or sentence the children will feel that this new language is something the teacher “owns” and wants the the children to learn. It may be effective for some children but there will probably be quite a few who don’t really see any point in learning the new language and will make a corresponding amount of effort. If the children practise the new language in a teacher-centred way e.g. repeating words after the teacher or chorally responding to questions from the teacher, the language will have no real meaning for them. It will just be a classroom exercise and the new language is unlikely to be really internalised by the children. When it comes to the children having to produce the language in a more real-life situation they will probably have a lot of difficulty. The lesson is likely to never really have a production stage as the lack of internalisation will mean that the students are always relying on the teacher to prompt them with what to say.

Teaching through games overcomes these problems. When we teach through games the three stages are all still there but they are not discrete steps. The practice and production stages become mixed together in games because as the students need to use the language in order to play the game, they are practising it as we can tell when they forget the word and need a prompt or make a mistake with the pronunciation, but at the same time they are producing it in a natural situation - in a game.

What is production for one child may be the presentation for another. This can be illustrated by the Missing Card game. In this game several cards are laid on the desk or stuck on the blackboard. Some of the cards may be previously taught items while some are new. The teacher removes a card while the children close their eyes. They open their eyes and try to guess which card has gone. The correct guesser can be the one to remove the next card and so on. When a new card is the one to be removed, some of the students may know the English word while some won’t. When a student who knows the new word guesses the card, they are producing the language. For the students who don’t know the new word, the language is being presented to them by their classmate.

If no-one knows the new language, the teacher can tell them. In this case, although it is the teacher who is telling the children, it is the children who are demanding to know what it is from the teacher. It is therefore a very child-centred method. Once the children know this game, what usually happens is that when they see that there are some new cards that they don’t know, they will ask the teacher or a classmate what they are before the first round of the game so that they are not at a disadvantage. This completely reverses the traditional presentation stage as it is the children wanting to know the new words in order to play the game. The words therefore are “owned” by the children rather than by the teacher.

Teaching through games gets rid of the need for the teacher to present the new language while the students passively wait and listen. Some teachers find it hard to make this final leap. They are happy to practise the language through games but feel the language still needs to be given to the students first. Having done both myself and having watched many classes taught by other teachers using both methods, I have seen that introducing new language through games is more effective, more fun and more time-efficient.

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