Active learning

Children learn in many different ways and have different learning styles. Opportunities for children to experience language through song and rhyme, storytelling and games offer children ways to interact with the new language and with one another in a dynamic and social environment.

Through active methods and physical response children feel safe to explore and experiment with the new sounds. For those who prefer to listen and observe, they absorb the new language by watching others and gradually increase in confidence, until they too are joining in, responding to what they hear and see and engaging with others in short conversations and role-play.

Drama

Using props and authentic materials brings the language and culture alive. Children can act out role-plays following a model from a song or a script developed by their teacher or they can be encouraged to improvise in pairs and groups, recalling all of the language that they have learned so far.

Enabling children to role-play using the new language should be encouraged from an early age. Drama gives children the necessary freedom to experiment and test out their growing awareness of the sounds, sound patterns, words and phrases that they have learned. They can begin to make new meanings and through the sensitive intervention of their teachers can take the first steps towards independent communication in the new language.