Young Learners

Teaching English to Elementary School Children

I have recently started giving mini tests most weeks in my lower level children’s classes. Being against testing for children in general, this went against my natural inclination at first, but I could see lots of advantages to it so I decided to try it. The purpose of the tests is to give the children a sense of achievement rather than to assess what they know or don’t know, so the tests are designed to be easy for the students. My aim is for all the students to get all the answers right, or at least most of them. In this respect then, they are perhaps not tests in the usual sense of the word, but they have a test format and we call them tests in class.

The students number from 1-10 in their notebooks, then I either dictate words or show pictures and the students write the words. When I dictate words, some of the words are real and some are nonsense, as they are learning to read and write phonetically. After we have finished all ten, I ask the students what number one is, what number two is, etc, and I write the correct answers on the board. The students mark their own tests and we are finished. I don’t ask how many they got right but they often tell me or each other. Sometimes I make intentional mistakes when I write the answers on the board, and hope the students will notice and tell me I have made a mistake.

The main benefit of these tests is that the students get a sense of achievement from them. They almost always can get at least 8 out 10. They do not dread these tests in any way. They look forward to them, enjoy doing them and get a feeling of satisfaction from them. Now that they are all confident with them, I can throw in some more difficult words and they readily tackle them, and don’t mind if they make mistakes. It is easy to see how confident they are when they are able to point out the mistakes I have made.

Another advantage is that the students seem to take more notice of any mistakes they make and also seem to think more carefully about words they are not sure about. Another dictation exercise I often do is dictating words for them to write into a bingo grid in preparation for playing bingo. They often rush this activity and don’t think carefully when they do this type of writing. This kind of quick, fluent writing is also useful I think, but it is also good to have the opposite kind of writing where they do think carefully.

Asking students to tell me the answers provides an opportunity for reading practise as they have to read what they have written. Noticing how easily students write the words during the tests and also their shouts during the marking help me see where there are areas that need extra review.

All of these advantages can of course be obtained in other activities and I am still not sure whether I am doing the right thing by giving these tests, but so far I certainly don’t think they are doing any harm, and they do seem to be having a positive effect. Students have to face a lot of tests in this country and I certainly don’t want to add to that test-taking burden but because of the easiness of the tests we do, I don’t think that is the case. I hope that, maybe, developing a positive attitude towards tests by doing these little English tests could help them face other tests with more confidence.

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• Curriculum (2)
• English in Elementary Schools (5)
• Games and Activities (10)
• Teacher Development (2)
• The Four Skills (8)

• Tests in Class
• Ten ways to use an eggtimer in class
• Homework Checking (2)
• Homework Checking (1)
• A Quick Analysis of Lesson Balance
• A Success Story
• Games and PPP in the children's EFL classroom
• English for engaging with English speakers
• Using concentration cards in large classes
• Topic-based or pattern-based curriculum

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