María Jesús Pinar Sanz
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)
The experience I would like to share with you in these pages
took place in the context of the Allegro project, supported by
the European Community under the Socrates programme.
The
main aim of this project is to bring language learning to EU
citizens who are excluded from language learning from a variety
of reasons (economic, social, physical or geographical, among
others).
There are seven countries participating in this project. Each
country has chosen a variety of groups to teach these disadvantaged
groups through innovative, low-threshold approaches to the teaching
of languages. The idea is to teach them some of the less widely
used languages. However, depending on the characteristics of
the learners, some exceptions have to be made and English has
to be taught. The activity is being carried out in Spain by a
team of teachers belonging to the Language Department of the
University of Castilla-La Mancha.
There are several groups running in Spain: two groups of senior
citizens learning French and English and two groups of children
with Down Syndrome also learning French and English. Here I am
going to talk about the experience with Down Syndrome Children
learning English.
We got in touch with the Down Children Association in Cuenca,
a small town in central Spain. In a preliminary interview with
the President of the Association we suggested the possibility
of teaching them one of the less widely used languages in the
European Community, but we soon realised that these students
didnt have access to French or English, because the slots of
time devoted to foreign languages in their schools were used
to develop their writing and reading skills in Spanish, and if
they ever attended these lessons, they didnt get the attention
necessary for them to become aware of the importance of language
learning. They felt frustrated because they were unable to follow
what the rest of their peers were doing, and this made them dislike
the subject. Our aim, therefore, was to make them enjoy the activity.
At the beginning we thought the group would be difficult to teach,
because of the age difference. The eldest one is 21 whereas the
youngest is only 9 and still struggling to read and write. However,
we soon overrode this difficulty. They are friends and are used
to attending different activities together. Moreover, we realised
that the approach had to be entirely communicative, avoiding
reading and writing, at least in the first stage. In this way,
nobody felt discriminated because of his or her disability.
The social background of these students is also different. Some
of them are constantly being encouraged to do better and are
being raised in a very competitive atmosphere. Most of them take
part in swimming competitions and other sports. Some of them
have won medals at competitions both at regional and national
level. However, some of them hardly get any attention from parents
and thats why we have to find the way to integrate them in the
system.
Some of them are too young to go to lessons on their own. Their
mothers take them to university (the mothers asked us to teach
them at Escuela de Magisterio, because of the location. It is
situated in the town centre and has an easy access) and it is
in the hall where the teacher meets them. We greet them and take
them to the classroom, normally holding their hands. They need
to feel that contact with the teacher and they also want to help
the teacher carry the materials: tape recorder, books, flashcards,
etc.
The students must feel relaxed during the lesson. This is nothing
new, since most of us have felt what it is like to be in a language
lesson struggling to find out whats going on. In this case, however,
the cognitive and affective factors are essential. Sometimes
it is more important to create in them the feeling of well-being
rather than the necessity of communicating in a foreign language,
because if you have the former, the latter will be easier to
achieve. Therefore, it is important to listen to what they have
to say before starting the lesson, because otherwise they are
distracted and are unable to follow the lesson. In this sense,
it is important to remember the concentration time of our students:
"
First ten minutes: transition period to focus attention on the
lesson.
" Between fifteen-twenty minutes, maximum period of concentration.
" Ten minutes of progressive dispersion.
In
the transition period we talk with them about their week, their
plans or achievements. They are looking forward to sharing all
that with us. This makes them feel comfortable and confident,
because we do really appreciate what they are telling us and
encourage them to share their experiences with the group. As
long as it is possible, we try to introduce English words they
know from their daily contact with mass media or computer games,
such as light, coke, stop, and the winner is...
Since
we agreed to have sixty-minute sessions, it was necessary to
plan different activities for the same session. The change of
activity makes them concentrate again, since they are getting
engaged in something entirely new. It is also absolutely necessary
to plan many activities. Sometimes it is impossible to carry
out some of them, because they find it difficult or because it
doesnt catch their attention, whereas sometimes they get so excited
with one that they want to do it for the rest of the session
and they even ask to repeat it in the following lessons. That
is the case with different sorts of bingo or some of the songs,
as we will see later on. Therefore, we need to plan activities
but also be flexible and adapt to the kind of things our students
enjoy most.
When
they are learning and developing their mother tongue, the following
aspects are relevant:
"
Use of simple and short sentences.
" Difficulties in grammatical development.
" Reduced vocabulary.
" Automatic vocabulary.
" They remember words by analogy and not by logical reasoning.
" Even if they are able to maintain a conversation, they may
remain silent.
" Their comprehension level is higher than the production level.
That is to say, they understand what’s going on but find it
difficult to express themselves
All
these aspects are relevant when teaching a foreign language.
They were able to produce short and simple sentences, but we
never went into any explanation of grammar. Rather, we focused
our attention on teaching vocabulary. These students have a good
memory level through which we can develop an acceptable vocabulary.
The visual, aural and tactile aspects are essential in the learning
process. Thats why the use of flashcards, posters and realia
with bright colours is a must.
Cross-curricular
activities are essential. Long talks with Diana, their motor-skill
teacher, gave us very interesting clues. From these talks we decided
to use some of the techniques used by Diana, thinking it would be
interesting to integrate in the language lesson things they did in
an entirely different context and with which they were familiar. The
use of chants and songs with a very marked rhythm is very useful.
First of all, they relax listening to the chant or song, they dance,
and ask to listen to the song again because of the rhythm. After several
times, they are able to repeat the song. Working with flashcards,
we teach them the meaning of the different words in the song, which
they are able to repeat when we play it.
It is necessary to name the word as many times as possible, trying
to relate it to actions or attributes connected to it. It is important
to make the students manipulate the objects as well as show them images
of the objects. As we mentioned before, the use of chants, songs and
routines is very important. Through repetition, especially if it has
a marked rhythm, students learn vocabulary quite easily. We must revise
items every session, not only because of the needs of these students,
but as part of the methodology in every language class.
The teaching of vocabulary was organised by means of semantic categories.
That way, our students learnt the colours, animals, parts of the body,
members of the family and food, as well as basic routines, such as
greetings, which were repeated at the beginning and end of each session,
sometimes with a song, sometimes in an spontaneous way.
Colours and animals were introduced with flashcards and reinforced
with songs or word-searches. In the case of colours, they were asked
to point to something red, yellow, black, etc. We let them manipulate
flashcards and ask their peers what colour the flashcard was or what
animal was in the card. We gave them photocopies with animals and
ask them to colour the animals and name them.
Numbers were introduced using flashcards, fingers and objects. We
then played a song with a very marked rhythm which they loved and
finally we played bingo. This was one of the most popular activities.
We found that the shyest of the group enjoyed calling out the numbers,
whereas the others enjoyed the competition. The teacher only kept
an eye to see that everything was running smoothly. We gave little
prizes such as sweets or stickers, which they loved.
Parts of the body were introduced with flashcards and also pointing
to parts of our body. Then we played the game Simon says..., which
they found very funny because they had never played it before. (It
is not a popular game in Spain). Crosswords, word-searches and bingo
were used to teach parts of the body. The bingo was created with pictures
of the different parts of the body, and even though the number bingo
was more popular, they also enjoyed this activity. As a way of revising
and reinforcing this semantic field, we introduced two songs which
were also very popular with them: Head, shoulders, knees and toes
and The hokey-cokey.
Food was introduced with the same techniques and reinforced with different
photocopies and leaflets from supermarkets. At this stage we introduced
I like, and they were able to create short sentences, first using
items related to food, then with colours and animals. At
the end of the activity we thought it would be necessary to evaluate
not only the students learning process but also the activity itself
as part of the Allegro project.
Since we have a small group, it is easy to follow their learning process,
which is assessed every session. We took notes about motivation, and
the acquisition and production of linguistic items. One of the students
was especially difficult to motivate. He did not want to take part
in any of the activities, but he eventually participated and enjoyed
the lessons. We achieved that giving him plenty of attention and affection.
We could feel that his parents were not much interested in his activities.
We tried to make him feel important and able to produce words in a
foreign language.
The students level of acquisition is higher than that of production.
It is quite difficult to make them say words in English during the
lesson. However, after the lesson, and in an entirely different context
(in the hall, when their parents come to pick them up), they repeat
things that have been taught in the lesson.
One day, while we were in the hall after the session, the youngest
of our students said she would be the teacher and I would be the student.
She then started to ask me the kind of questions I normally used in
the class, such as What is this? or What colour is this? I had to
answer to these questions. She was imitating me all the time, holding
her ears while she said Listen! or putting her finger in her mouth
when saying Quiet! or Silence, please! She then asked me to stand
up, sit down, touch my nose and a series of things we had been practising
during the lessons. If I made a mistake (on purpose, of course!),
she told me off and asked me to repeat again. After that, we had to
sing and dance some of the songs, such as Head, shoulders, knees and
toes or the numbers song.
Her pronunciation was not good, but I could realize she had learnt
most of the things that had been taught and was enjoying repeating
them in front of the parents and the other children. She went on and
on, and when I said it was time to go and her parents were clapping
and congratulating her, she gave me a big hug and a kiss, and I had
tears in my eyes. It has been one of the most satisfying experiences
in my life and has made me think about my teaching practices (I am
a university teacher) and the big field we have ahead.
We will continue this activity in October, when academic activities
begin again. I am looking forward to going on with these lessons.
It will be interesting to find out what they remember after the summer
and how their learning process develop.
Should you have any questions about the material or methodology we
have used, the way we are going to continue the activity or the activities
carried out by the group doing French (they based the experience on
the use of computers) please feel free to contact me: MariaJesus.Pinar@uclm.es.
Maria
is a lecturer at Castilla La Mancha University, teaching English,
Morphosyntax and Discourse Analysis. Previously she worked as a Secondary
School Teacher, teaching English to children between 11 and 16, some
of them with learning problems. She spent one year in a school in
London, teaching Spanish and French, and has always been interested
in innovative ways of teaching languages.
