Enhancing English language learning in Year Four in the primary school

Abstract

The New National Minimum Curriculum insists that pupils should learn and consolidate their knowledge of the English Language through a holistic experience. This dissertation attempts to illustrate one way of achieving this by providing a series of English language learning activities suitable for a Year Four class in the primary schools. A review of the literature dealing with classroom management and the teaching of the four language skills is first presented with the aim of using recognised theoretical research as the basis for the language activities presented. It is not the aim of this dissertation to add to accepted theory in the field of language learning. Rather it is intended to show how theory can be put into practise in a way that is thoroughly enjoyable to pupils. In this way the pupils' enhancement of the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills is maximised. The approach adopted is thematic; the varied resources are adapted to the skill being learned; seating arrangements depend on the particular learning and teaching requirements; and an assessment of the effectiveness of the activities proposed, involving practical workshops based on a fifty percent sample, was carried out. The workshops clearly established the effectiveness of the proposed learning activities.