The teaching of English as a foreign language is now, in many places, expanding into primary (elementary) school settings

Teaching speaking

2. 
   What should a teacher know about children
   

1. 
   Principles of learning and language learning
   

1. 
   The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget(13) and his colleagues have demonstrated that children in primary or elementary school are usually in the concrete operational stage of cognitive development. This means that they learn through hands-on experiences and through manipulation of objects in the environment. Children in primary or elementary-school settings generally learn by doing. If this principle were extended to the English teaching setting, it would mean that children in language classes need to be active than passive; they need to be engaged in activities of which language is a part; they need to be working on meaningful tasks and use language o accomplish those tasks. So when the teacher wants to teach children how to speak he should not only show them how to do it but give them tasks and practical exercises.
   
2. 
   This principle, which comes from the work of the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (15), suggests that children need not only hands-on or direct experiences, but also experiences where they are interacting with and learning from others, both adults and other children. In terms of language classes, an implication would be that children need to use the new language with each other and with the teacher. Another implication would be that the teacher, as the one who knows more English that the children, needs to interact with the children in English, using the language that is related directly to activities in which children are engaged. So when teacher wants his children to speak he should use not only method of asking questions, but such methods of group work or work in pairs to teach them how to speak to each other in informal situations.
   
3. 
   Language acquisition occurs through learners figuring out how the language works, through learners making and testing out hypotheses about the language. Language acquisition involves the cognitive work of creative construction of the rules of the language (7). So teacher should not be afraid of children’s mistakes, when they speak and experiment with the new language, it is a natural and inevitable part of language learning.
   
4. 
   Language acquisition occurs through social interaction, through having to use the language with others in authentic communication settings. Language develops as speakers try out the language they are figuring out in situations with others, and as others respond to their efforts. Interlocutors work together both to be understood and to understand each other. So one of the methods of teaching speaking is to give children tasks to speak to each other more then to speak to teacher.
   

These principles suggest a communicative approach to language teaching, which focuses on involving pairs and small groups of learners in authentic communicative situations and in problem–solving and information-gap activities. They suggest an approach in which the teacher uses English both to introduce and oversee the activities and to talk with children as they work together. So these principles help teacher, who wants his children to speak English, to be focused on the communicative approach in teaching. (1)



Children learn by doing

Pic. 1. Principles of learning and language learning

2.