Teaching English to Young Learners: Critical Issues in Language Teaching with 3-12 Year Olds

Year: 2015

Book Description: Aimed at student teachers, educators and practitioners, Teaching English Language to Young Learners outlines and explains the crucial issues, themes and scenarios relating to this area of teaching. Each chapter by a leading international scholar offers a thorough introduction to a central theme of English as a foreign language (EFL) with preteens, with clear presentation of the theoretical background and detailed references for further reading, providing access to the most recent scholarship. Exploring the essential issues critically and in-depth, including the disadvantages as well as advantages of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) with young learners, topics include:

task-based learning in the primary school;
storytelling;
drama;
technology;
vocabulary development;
intercultural understanding;
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) scenarios;
assessment.

Innovative and rapidly emerging topics are covered, such as immersion teaching, picturebooks in the EFL classroom and English with pre-primary children.

Reviews

Jane Jones

British Journal of Educational Studies 65.1 (2017): 130-132

A text that brings together all the best bits of older topics and adds value with new research and findings.

Victoria Murphy

University of Oxford

This volume presents a fascinating and important collection of chapters which lay a valuable foundation for anyone interested in learning more about the unique and growing context of language learning and teaching in young learners.

Yuko Goto Butler

University of Pennsylvania

This is an excellent collection of research on teaching English to young learners. The studies presented herein cover a wide range of critical issues – both theoretical and practical – in a highly comprehensive and accessible manner.

Gail Ellis

British Council, France

An important focus throughout the book is on the holistic development of the child and […] how different modes of input – oral storytelling, poetry, picturebooks, technology, drama and play, can engage and motivate children.

Sue Garton

Ashton University

With its focus on school settings and its multi-disciplinary approach, it offers insights into aspects of EYL that are fundamental but often neglected.

Auxiliadora Morales Jiménez

Pulso: Revista de educación 39 (2016): 299-301

… focus on the importance of a rich exposure to language and how to provide opportunities for natural interaction and meaningful repetition in engaging contexts, leading to creative outcomes, whether through the use of drama, play, oral storytelling, picture books or poetry.

Nada Kujundžić

Libri et Liberi 6.1 (2017): 126-129

The editor should especially be commended for the skilful way in which the book is organised.

Maria Eisenmann

Würzburg University

Teaching English to Young Learners is a very well-researched and highly readable book. […] Key scholars with different areas of expertise provide latest ideas and innovative concepts on the topics.

Ewa Suchecka

IRSCL Reviews (2016)

The chapter ‘Grammar Templates for the Future with Poetry for Children’ by Janice Bland illustrates this approach successfully. The author shows in a brilliant and thought-provoking way how poetry can be used as a tool to develop young learners’ phonological and grammatical sensitivity.

Olivia Mair

System – An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics 65 (2017): 177-179

The editor, Janice Bland, has assembled some of the most interesting researchers working on European contexts. […] destined to become required reading for trainee teachers.

Emily Hird

ELgazette

This authoritative work […] provides research-based analyses of the particular methodologies and issues most relevant to primary and pre-primary English language teaching contexts.