Instituto De Enseñanza Superior N°2 – Humahuaca

Didáctica Especifica I – revision

Young Learners

1. For questions 1–9, match the descriptions with what they are describing
A–J. There is one extra option that you do not need to use.
A Avatars F Games
B Birthday line G Living clock
C Board game H Movement
D Cards I Pairwork and groupwork
E Chants J Puppets
1 Older children may enjoy using these ‘new identities’ when they create conversations and play games
online.
2 Students often don’t realise that they are learning when they take part in these – they just have fun.
3 Students tell the time with their arms.
4 These are helpful for encouraging young learners to work together.
5 This is important because young learners should not be expected to sit still all the time.
6 We can put pictures on these which the children can use for games like Snap or to say what the pictures
show.
7 We can use these so that students all speak at the same time – and in rhythm. They are good for stress
practice.
8 We can use this to get students to stand in a different order. This helps us to make new pairs and
groups.
9 Young learners enjoy talking to these, and using them to talk to the rest of the class.

2. For questions 1–15, complete the text with words and phrases from the
box.
Classroom – conduct - counting chant - do the actions - in order - move their arms - pictures – rhythms -
round - softer - songs - songs, rhymes and chants - sounds –
word or phrase - words or phrases -

Teachers of young learners have always known that using (1) _______________ can be great fun and
very useful in the (2) _______________. They help students understand the stress and (3)
_______________ of a language. When students speak or sing themselves they can get used to making
the (4) _______________ of the language.
We can do many things with chants and rhymes. For example, we can get students to (5)
_______________ of the chant – they can (6) _______________, stand up or sit down. If we use a (7)
_______________, students leave the group one by one (where each time something – a person or an
animal – leaves the scene).
(8) _______________ are also very useful in young learner teaching. We can give different students (9)
_______________ from the song. Each time an individual student hears their (10) _______________
they have to stand up. We can give students (11) _______________ which tell the story of the song and
they have to put them (12) _______________ as they listen to the song. Students can sing a (13)
_______________, where they all sing the same song, but they start at different times. It can also be
great fun to ask individual students to (14) _______________ the class singing. They can make the song
faster, slower, louder or (15) _______________.

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 Instituto De Enseñanza Superior N°2 – Humahuaca
Didáctica Especifica I – revision
Young Learners
3. For questions 1–11, match the descriptions with what they are describing A–L. There is
one extra option that you do not need to use.

A Chorus G Same or different

B Disappearing dialogue H Snake
C Formal operational stage I Song
D Mime J Spaghetti (ball of string) pictures
E Puberty K Stress
F Puppets L Wordsearch puzzle
1 Students have to find words in one of these.
2 Students have to follow lines to match words and pictures.
3 This is an activity where students have to compare themselves (and their lives) with someone else’s
(a puppet, for example).
4 This is often thought of as the last part of a child’s intellectual development.
5 This is the stage where children grow and change – and become capable of thinking about abstract
concepts.
6 This is when students say words, sentences or even dialogues together.
7 We can ask students to demonstrate this by getting them to write words where some part of the word
is bigger than the rest of the word.
8 We can gradually remove the words so that students have to remember everything from memory.
9 We can use these for students to talk to, or to make dialogues between two of them.
10 We can write a series of words on a picture of one of these. The students have to separate the words
to find out how many there are.
11 We use this to demonstrate an action or event without using any words.

4. For questions 1–9, match the descriptions with what they are describing A–I. There is
one extra option that you do not need to use.

A Book cover F Reading circle

B Describe and draw G Runner
C Interactive whiteboard H Stories
D Listening I Text
E Mime actions J Total physical response activities

1 You need to do a lot of this if you want to be able to speak a language.

2 Young learners love it when these are told and retold.
3 At the end of the day the students all sit and listen to a story from the teacher.
4 One student has a picture. His or her partner has to make the same picture without looking at the
original.
5 Students can do this while they listen to the story that the teacher is reading.
6 Students do things the teacher tells them to do – and then the students tell each other what to do.
7 We can show students this so that they predict what the story we are going to read them is all about.
8 We read one of these and the students have to stand up or sit down when they hear their word.
9 You can find this on the wall of a classroom and you can see videos on it, write on it, show pictures
on it and be connected to the internet.

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 Instituto De Enseñanza Superior N°2 – Humahuaca
Didáctica Especifica I – revision
Young Learners
5. For questions 1–7, choose the best option (A, B or C) to complete each statement.
1 Students can throw a ____________ around the room. When the child catches it he or she has to speak.
A puppet B book C soft ball
2 We can give the __________ to a child and the other students can ‘interview’ it.
A puppet B book C soft ball
3 We can ask a student to choose a __________ and the other students have to ask yes/no questions to
find out what it shows.
A picture B puppet C book
4 When we __________ stories that the students are trying to tell, we help them, bit by bit, to put the
story together.
A write B make C scaffold
5 We can get students to make the stories they have heard into _______, where they take different parts.
A dramas B songs C stories
6 We can get our learners to __________ a visit to a store, a restaurant or a zoo.
A have B roleplay C write
7 We can get students to write or design ________ so that they can find out who likes what (for example)
in the class.
A pictures B questionnaires C dramas

6. For questions 1–9, match the descriptions with what they are describing A–J. There is
one extra option that you do not need to use.

A Big books F Morpheme cards

B Chorus G Reading aloud
C DEAR H Reading corner
D Dialogue I Story
E Extensive reading J Word cards

1 Drop everything and read.

2 If we give students a chance to choose the sentences they want to use and then give them some time
to practise before they do it in public, this can be really useful.
3 Students can read this and then put pictures in order based on what they read.
4 This is a good place for students to relax, use their imaginations and get involved in stories.
5 This is the name we give to reading for pleasure – and taking some time to do it, often on our own.
6 We can ask students to match these with pictures to help them recognise word shapes.
7 We can use these in reading circles so that everyone can see the pictures clearly.
8 We can use these to help students understand word endings and affixation.
9 We can write this up line-by-line on the board. Students can look at it to help them put words and
phrases in order to make the same thing.

7. For questions 1–6, choose the best option (A, B or C) to complete each statement.
1 When we use __________ we ask students to write down what we say.
A dictogloss B dictation C process writing
2 When we use __________ students write down paragraphs that we have previously said more than
once (and they have listened to).
A dictogloss B dictation C process writing

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 Instituto De Enseñanza Superior N°2 – Humahuaca
Didáctica Especifica I – revision
Young Learners
3 It is useful for students to have a __________ where they can write down new words and phrases
that we show them (or that they find).
A coursebook B copybook C picture book
4 We can ask students to keep a __________ where they keep examples of their work.
A book B portfolio C cupboard
5 We can get students to write similar paragraphs, poetry etc. based on __________ that we give
them.
A ideas B models C words
6 When they are a bit older, we can ask young learners to keep __________ in which they write about
things they have done.
A copybooks B coursebooks C journals

8. For questions 1–9, match the first halves of sentences about planning a sequence of young
learner lessons with their completions A–I.
1 Organising a sequence around a topic or a theme does not mean
2 Planning a sequence of lessons around a topic or theme allows us to bring
3 The way we plan a sequence of lessons will depend
4 Topic-based teaching is
5 We can make a topic web to
6 We can plan a sequence of lessons by organising everything
7 We have to decide how many lessons
8 We may want to introduce facts about the wider world in order
9 When planning a sequence of lessons based on a topic or theme we have to consider what
A a form of soft CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning).
B activities and language learning opportunities we are going to include.
C around a topic or theme.
D help us see how different areas of the curriculum can be included in a sequence of lessons.
E in a lot of cross-curricular content.
F on the developmental stage the children are at.
G that we have to do the same thing in every lesson.
H to develop the children’s intercultural understanding.
I we can give to a topic or theme.

9. For questions 1–9, match the descriptions with what they are describing A–J. There is
one extra option that you do not need to use.
A Can-do statements
B Continuous assessment
C Fill in
D Formative assessment
E Information-gap activities
F Learner language profile
G Portfolio assessment
H Proficiency test

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 Instituto De Enseñanza Superior N°2 – Humahuaca
Didáctica Especifica I – revision
Young Learners
I ‘Sudden death’ test
J Summative assessment
1 These help students (and teachers) to describe their ability to use language.
2 This is a kind of test item where students have to write words where there is a blank in a sentence or
paragraph.
3 This is the kind of evaluation which tells us how good a student is, and whether they match a certain
pre-decided level.
4 This is the name for a kind of test where 100% of a student’s final grade depends on one exam.
5 This is the kind of testing that takes place bit by bit over a semester or a year.
6 This is the kind of testing we do when we want to see how the students are getting on so we can help
them to do better.
7 This is the kind of testing we do when we want to see what the students have achieved.
8 This is the kind of testing where we look at examples of work that the students have been collecting
over a semester or a year.
9 This is where we describe a student’s ability in detail.

Reflect

1. Do games have any disadvantages?

2. Find as many songs for young learners of English as you can. You can look in coursebooks, use a
search engine or ask friends and colleagues. Find out the following.

What kind of songs and rhymes/chants are used.

What songs are very common.

What is your favourite song for young learners?

3. Consider the following questions.

Why is mime useful in a language learning situation?
4. What are the advantages of reading aloud to children? Is it the same when parents read to their
children and when teachers read to learners?
5. When young learners are speaking how much should we correct what they say, do you think?
What is the best kind of correction?
6. What is your opinion of topic-based planning? How useful is it in comparison to planning
individual ‘stand-alone’ lessons?
7. Some people think that young learners are tested too much in state school systems. Other people
believe that testing is important in order to know how well the education system works. What is
your opinion?

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