An English language companion for young children learning a second language

Abstract

The proposed research aims at developing an English handbook of activities for 7 year old Maltese children as they are introduced to English as a second language. The activities will be prepared with a view to providing practitioners with readily available material to support an interactive and practical approach to the teaching of English amongst young children. By means of a variety of activities incorporating the use of ICT, games, poems and authentic text, the handbook will complement the prescribed syllabus emphasising the four major language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing and simultaneously introduce children to cultural aspects associated with England. The activities in the workbook will be adapted to complement the English syllabus for Year 2 children in the State Sector. The compilation of activities will be drawn from actual resources such as school textbooks, journals and publications of a pedagogical nature. These activities will be tried out in one state school having one or two year 2 classrooms. The class teachers will be provided with the necessary resources and invited to try out the activities and judge them for their level of challenge, interest and success in helping children engage with the language. A theoretical underpinning and rationale for the inclusion of the activities will be supported by theories of second language acquisition together with characteristics of how young children learn.