Listen and do

In this chapter we are going to see how listening and doing activities help children with these things:
- To acquire English by listening to instructions.
- To be active and enjoy doing things in English.
- To use gestures to interpret meanings.
- To get used to understanding general meaning.
- To prepare for spoken interaction
- To absorb good pronunciation and intonation patterns.

    

>> Giving instructions in English 

 It is very easy to use your mother tongue when asking children to sit, stand, or move around in preparation for another activity. It is often easier and quicker. But your aim is to teach them English, not to be quick. At first, while telling them what to do in English, you can use gestures
and demonstrate what you want them to do. After a few days, they will understand without your gestures, and they will have learnt a lot more English. 

>> Listening and identifying 

 When children do 'listen and identify' activities they are
- Practising a basic language skill-listening
- Making sense of English words and phrases
- Developing their vocabulary
- Acquiring meaning and sound together. 

 For 'listen and identify' activities you can use:
- The classroom and all the things the children can see, such as wall
charts, pictures, and picture cards
- Cuisenaire rods or coloured bricks or blocks for colour words or size words
- Objects that you/children bring in.
- Objects that children draw or make from paper, plasticine, or other
craft materials.

>>  Being good - a positive approach to discipline 

 How can you get young children to settle down and listen properly? Here are some things you can say in order to control children but still sound positive and encourage good behavior:
- Please stop talking now. No more talking for a bit. Good,you lot. That is
nice and quiet. You others ... sh ... sh. Calm down now, OK. That's better.
- Quiet please! Settle down now and listen. That's good, Eva. Thank you, Emilio.
- Everyone is sitting really nicely ... except for Tom! Tom, could you sit down
like the others please? Thank you. OK ...

>> Listening and doing- Total Physical Response
Total Physical Response (TPR) is when children listen and follow a whole
sequence of instructions, doing what the teacher says. It is a good way to
start using English for communication in the classroom. The teacher tells the pupils what to do, uses clear pronunciation and natural intonation and helps them understand by gestures or by doing the actions. The pupils have to listen carefully to the instructions, enjoy doing the actions, can do the actions all together or on their own, do not have to speak and understand because the movement and language go together.

>> Listening and performing- miming
When children are familiar with the vocabulary used for a particular
topic, you can introduce mime. Miming means acting silently, without speaking.
The children have to listen carefully when you describe what they have to mime, have to decide how to perform what you describe, may need some thinking time for this and move and act but do not have to speak.

>> Listening and responding games
You can extend the listening activities you do in class in many ways. One way is by playing games that demand careful listening. These games help children have fun and make them listen while you
are speaking English.
Examples of games: "Right or wrong", "Simon says"...