Teacher Training for Pre-School English Teachers: Methods and Techniques
Teacher Training for Pre-School English Teachers
An author called Madrid (2005) states that there are three basic concepts related to teacher training (formación de maestros) in the case of pre-school.
Teacher Training:
Teaching-learning of specific competences.
Teacher Education:
Training which allows the teachers to reflect on the teaching/learning process.
Teacher Development:
Autodidactic process of teaching-learning and personal development.
According to Ferry (1983), teacher training includes three dimensions:
• academic and pedagogical (university)
• professional
• related to teaching practice
For English teachers, there are two main areas:
• Theory: Knowledge bases stemming from the field of linguistic and theories on language learning/acquisition,
– Practice: language teaching methodology/teaching practice
According to Richards (1998), an English teacher should be skilled in the following:
1. Selecting learning activities.
2. Preparing students for new learning.
3. Presenting learning activities.
4. Asking questions.
5. Checking students’ understanding.
6. Providing opportunities for practice of new items.
7. Monitoring students’ learning.
8. Giving feedback on student learning.
Teacher Training for Pre-School English Teachers: Methods and Techniques
In the first place, it is important to know the main traits of the teaching of a foreign language in pre-school. Teachers need to work using repetitive techniques (mainly in the form of drills) in order to promote autonomy on the part of the students. Therefore lesson should always have the same structure. An example found in some schools would be the following:
ASSEMBLY-WORK-GAMES
Lesson planning and programming
Generally speaking, a pre-school programme should be based upon evidence-based practices, such as the following taken from Copple & Bredekamp (2009):
• Teaching staff who actively facilitate social, emotional, physical, linguistic, and cognitive development of all students.
• Building positive and meaningful relationships between teacher and student, student and student, and teacher and family.
• Teaching approaches that enhance each student’s learning and development and the meeting of curricular goals.
• Programs that are designed to include children with special needs as well as those who have diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Curriculum, instruction, and assessments that are research-based and that are engaging, yet playful and appropriate for young students.
• Ongoing systematic, formal, and informal approaches for gathering data about students’ learning and development.
• Assessment information that guides instruction and is shared with support staff and
Once the above are taken into account, we should be ready to start planning our lessons. There are several models for lesson planning and each teacher has to decide which one is the most appropriate for him/her and his/her students.
Everybody agrees on how important to have a lesson plan and a programme is.
– A lesson plan is a smaller plan than the programme.
– The lesson plan applies to a session or several sessions and the programme is an annual planning.
– Both programmes and lesson plans must consider several things like building positive relationships between children and teachers, considering children with special needs, assuring playful teaching and assessment, etc.
The one I propose here is based on the following structure:
• Lesson Topic.
• Lesson Goals.
Linguistic content.
Communication tasks.
Learning strategies.
• Structure.
Preparation.
Grammar presentation and practice.
Strategy presentation and practice.
Communication practice.
Evaluation.
Expansion.
• Materials.
Required materials.
Authentic materials.
This is an example of what the structure of a lesson plan would look like. However, it is also necessary to plan the teaching for the whole academic year, which we call Programación Anual.
Designing one of these academic programmes depends on each school’s typology and curricular project, the diversity in each class and each teacher’s experience and pedagogical practice. According to the legal framework and the official guidelines, but also taking into account the flexibility stated above, we should design a programme that is a useful and practical tool for English teachers in pre-school. An example of how this could work is the following:
• Sequencing: where we group the contents into terms.
• Then, for each one of the units we provide:
• Topic.
• Objectives.
• Assessment criteria.
• Active language.
• Passive language.
• Communicative structures.
• Proceduralization.
• Extra activities (both for reinforcement and extension).
• Development of the different areas in pre-school.
• Assessment criteria.