Oita English Language Teaching Seminar 2010

Thank you to everyone who came to the event yesterday – I hope you enjoyed the presentations and went home with some new ideas for your classes. Big thanks to all the presenters too.

Simon’s Presentation Notes:

Oita English Teaching Seminar 2010 handout

Oita Godo Shinbun report on the seminar

OkiNet2010

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September 27th Event

Another successful Sunday night!! Over 20 people attended the second ETJ/JALT workshop in Oita and were treated to presentations on using songs effectively, and a selection of tried and trusted games for Elementary School students.

Neil Millington, a lecturer at APU, gave a very useful presentation on using songs as the basis for a number of activities. These are the presentation note. Also, go to http://groups.google.co.jp/group/etjoita  (the documents section) to download a sample lesson plan “Beach Lesson Plan”:

‘Using Songs Effectively’

Presented by Neil Millington

1. 1.      Using songs as a warm up or introduction to a topic or theme.

Write down the titles of a few children’s songs that you know

 2.      Language Learning

Songs, rhymes, and chants play an important role as far as the development of language in young children this is also true for Second Language Learning.

a)      Listening                                                 f)  Repetition

b)      Speaking                                                 g) Real life

c)      Vocabulary Learning                h) Memory

d)     Grammar                                                 i)  Fun

e)   Culture                                                       (Murphey 1992)

1. 3.      Classroom tasks for children learning a foreign language

• have coherence and unity for learners
• have meaning and purpose for learners
• have clear language learning goals
• have a beginning and an end
• involve the learners actively

(Adapted from Cameron 2001:31)

 4.      Three stages

preparation                                     core activity                        follow up

 (Adapted from Cameron 2001:33)

1. 5.      Developing a song into a task

 6.      Being creative with songs

 References

Brewster, J., Ellis, G. & Girard, D. (1992) The Primary English Teacher’s Guide Harmonsworth: Penguin

 Cameron, L. (2001) Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: CUP

 Moon, J. (2000) Children Learning English Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann

 Murphey, T. (1992) Music and Song Oxford: OUP

 Phillips, S. (1993) Young Learners Oxford: OUP

 Useful links

 Words to popular songs

 http://www.esl-kids.com/songs/animalfair.html

 Videos and words with advice

 http://www.supersimplesongs.com/cds.html

 British Council – Songs for Kids

 http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-songs.htm?mtklink=kids-songs-kids-popular-offers

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