Ms
Foteini Malkogiorgou has been an EFL teacher for over 25 years and an EAP
instructor in higher education both in Greece and the UK. Since 2013, she has
been the academic director of the English department at New York College (NYC)
and tutor for the undergraduate courses foundations of linguistics, and the
methodology of language teaching, of the BA (Hons) in English and English
Language teaching of the University of Greenwich which is offered by NYC. In
her talk, Ms Malkogiorgou presented a theoretical background on children’s
foreign language education. Her project and main academic interest focuses on
recent research in the field of neuroscience and the theories of learning which
she kindly shared with us. As she indicated, children have only one path of
learning and that is acquisition (Krashen & Terrell 1983). Children learn through
experiencing the world that surrounds them (Piaget, 1997) and as social beings
their development and learning is a product of their social interaction
(Vigotsky, 1997).
Photo by Fani Miniadou
Neurolinguistics
research has shown that social interaction “gates” language acquisition and
that perception of speech is critical because being able to discriminate word boundaries (discriminating one word
from another) correlates with acquisition (Kuhl 2010; Jusczyk 2014). Neuroimaging techniques also tend to show that the right hemisphere of the brain (RH) plays a key role at the beginning of the language acquisition process. The RH (non language-dominant) facilitates language processing in the
left hemisphere and it adopts a holistic strategy to make the language learning
process easier in its initial stages. As children, at least till the age of 10,
have not yet developed
grammatical “automatisms“ they rely on imagery and holistic
thinking to tackle the acquisitional problems. In their world there are no tenses,
nouns, adjectives there are no schemas labelled ‘grammar’ (Paradis, 1994).
Inspired by the work of well-known linguists,
cognitive psychologists and researchers and her intrinsic motivation and love
for children, as a mother of one, Ms Malkogiorgou has launched the “The Young
Learners Project” a volunteer project offered to children of a non-profit
organization for the protection of children’s rights («Το Χαμόγελο του Παιδιού»). The volunteer project aspires
to be also offered to other organisations that protect children in need. Vasiliki
Papadopoulou and Maria Spiliotopoulou two graduates of the BA in English
Language and English Language Teaching of New York College who participate in
the project as volunteer teachers presented some of the resources and
techniques they use to facilitate L2 acquisition in the language classroom.
Photo by Fani Miniadou
Vasiliki and Maria explained the spine of their cyclical
task-based syllabus, a non-linear syllabus which treats learning as a dynamic
process and which uses stories, arts and crafts, games and play, multisensory input,
psychomotor behavior to encourage meaningful interaction. Task-based learning
shifts the focus to the process of attaining an objective while language is a
byproduct that children pick up effortlessly and naturally; as was the case
with the words “cut”, “scissors”, “glue”, and chunks such as “press and hold”
in an arts crafts Bob-Sponge project. Maria and Vassiliki involved the audience
in a lively workshop offering them the chance to experience learning through
the eyes of a child. Responding to their instructions, we drew an elephant. As
the workshop progressed, the two joyous teachers got us dancing and miming
animals and descriptive adjectives. They used a holistic approach and means to
engage all types of learners in the activities. There was a children’s video song
and a choreography that responded to the action verbs of the lyrics. Using beautiful
carton cutout animals they animated the story of the “Sad Elephant” which later
the audience took over to animate as Vasiliki was narrating the story.
Photo by Fani Miniadou
All in all, Ms
Foteini Malkogiorgou and the two volunteer teachers, Vasiliki Papadopoulou and
Maria Spiliotopoulou, shared with us the theoretical background, the techniques
and practical supplies, and allocated the challenge to the educator to build on
children’s
natural orientation to meaning and communication. The suggestion is that the first two years of children’s foreign language education explicit
teaching of grammar and lexis, and reading and writing should be avoided while
facilitating their understanding of speech, promoting holistic strategies for
meaning, creating an environment rich in multisensory input, psychomotor
responses, authentic resources and tasks that offer opportunities for
meaningful interaction will eventually lead to language acquisition and spontaneous production. The results can be magical!
Report by Fani Miniadou
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