In our place in Kerala, where Malayalam is the Mother tongue, there are many English Medium schools, which impose a fine if the children talk in Malayalam and not English. Whenever this leaks out there is a public hue and cry, and every one says that the mother tongue is being killed. But, there remains the fact hat if children are improve in any Language, they SHOULD SPEAK AND COMMUNICATE IN THAT LANGUAGE. And the children in the schools where they impose fine definitely speak better English!

You have to ensure that in addition to being taught, the children do use it on a regular basis. If it is not the medium of teaching, make sure that there are some periods when they do have TO SPEEK IN ENGLISH ONLY. This may sound harsh.

Narayanan

The best way to lead children to near-native competence in a language is to let them hang out with native speakers of that language on a regular basis. It does not require sacrificing another language to accomplish this.

Glenn is right; sacrificing mother tongue should not happen. But in Kerala it happened. Till recently every Govt paper, Court proceedings, etc. were in English. All our text books on Science above Secondary, and even in Secondary in most schools, are also in English.

I remember that, nearly 50 yrs ago, while I was in 5th std (ie 12 yrs or so) I was in English medium, yet we used to speak only in Malayalam. There was a Convent school nearby, where the penalty fine system was on, and those children had to speak in English in the school (at home they can speak in any language); the result was that their spoken English was far superior. I can write better English than most only because I loved stories (I still remember Silas Marner of 5th std) and read voraciously.

Another way would be to let them see English movies, cartoons, etc with plenty of conversations. Now a days plenty of teaching CDs are available for this.

Narayanan

In order to improve the communication, it is very essential to provide them a context. I believe on the contextualized teaching and students' motivation. I think by integrating the students in an English speaking context at least once a week would give an opportunity for them to practice their English.

Dear Elle,

Teaching Young learners English (TYLE) ) is indeed an interesting area of language techniques. Many researchers like Nation emphasize on narrative techniques such as shared reading, guided reading and independent reading. Using bed time stories, for instance, is a good way to start the task. However, since TYLE ranges from the age of three to fifteen, age is an important factor.

Best regards,R. Biria

Good morning Elle!

Working with children is always delightful, because they are very willing to learn and participate. I love doing projects. You can think about a project that may be of interest for the children (considering age and context, of course), and have them develop it.  Children are very creative when they like what they are doing. So, they will combine fun and learning. You will be amazed with the progress and what they do when presenting their projects!!!

Download cartoon clips in English and play them in the classroom. Just engage them in the teaching learning process. You do some role play and ask the students to observe carefully. Ask everyone to do one role play at least. Definitely it will work out. Learning by imitation.......

I'm from Colombia and here the English is taught in most of the schools as a foreign language. I got a daughter, she is 5 years and what I try to do is to speak in English as much as I can. With many children (depending on the context and the age) is good to play games where they can talk in English, singing songs and presenting role plays. Those are good techniques for children that have a lot of energy and want to do something different from writing and reading texts just on their tables.

Recent research suggests that a Flexible Multilingual Educational policy may be best - allowing children to codeswitch between their home language and the language they're learning (English) to build strength in all of their languages simultaneously. The new book on Flexible Multilingual Education for children by Jean-Jacques Weber (2014) does a fantastic job explaining this.

In this case it is about ‘sequential bilingualism’ and not ‘simultaneous bilingualism’. In this, the children are going to use their knowledge of and experience in their first language. The use of substitution tables (i.e. making use of sentences with identical structures) will be useful. Phonetic exercises based on identical sounds in the two languages will also go a long way to improve upon their communicative skills in English.

Children may be grouped ; familiar contexts or scenarios are to be planned; guided conversation for dialogue delivery in frequently experienced situations will make it really natural and easy for communication. A graded pattern of this kind will ensure quick acquisition of communication-both verbal and nonverbal.