Cross-curricular Teaching English

CROSS – CURRICULAR APPROACH IN TOPIC – BASED TEACHING ENGLISH OF YOUNG LEARNERS’ by Ewa Auguścik-Joppek interesting and motivating with the help of using materials stemming from other subjects. It is of the great importance as far as young learners are concerned because if they are encouraged to acquire and improve their knowledge from the very beginning of their educational development this fact will have profitable effects in their professional future. Additionally, I would like to point to the significance of the ‘topic – based learning’ as far as young children are concerned, because it is crucial not to treat English as isolated subject but place it in a real context.

Most people seem to believe that teaching children is rather unchallenging activity and suitable for beginning teachers because young students are not extremely ‘demanding’ learners and therefore you do not have to possess any special linguistic knowledge to teach them (this fact is crucial when you begin teaching and haven’t acquired enough practice yet). What is more, some people think that a teacher of children does not have to be really prepared for the lesson because pupils are usually beginners and the language structures they learn are quite uncomplicated. Some time ago my point of view was quite similar to the one I presented, however, when I begun my teaching practice everything turned out to be quite different. I realised that teaching children is quite challenging and, at the same time, enjoyable. Moreover, young learners are so different from older learners that teaching them is unique and never monotonous.

Talking about ‘young learners’ (children), ‘cross – curricular teaching’, ‘topic – based learning’, it is crucial to explain these notions and other concepts connected with presented topic. First of all, I would like to describe the notion of children as ‘young learners’. During my school practice I work with the first and the second grade of primary school (7 – 8 year – old children). Although there isn’t great age difference between them, pupils from the 2nd grade possess quite distinct attitude and way of thinking from their younger colleagues. We actually may divide them into two separate groups. According to Wendy A. Scott and Lisbeth H. Ytreberg – the authors of ‘Teaching English to Children’ – 7-year olds may be placed in the first age group (4 – 7 years old) and 8-year old pupils belong to the second group (8 – 10 year – old children). Pupils from the 1st group are aware of the

Apart from that, according to the latest teaching programs cross-curricular teaching is now the basis of school education. As far as teaching English is concerned, the way of applying some methods has not changed much. However, I would like to present that language lessons can be still more

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fact that the world is governed by some rules, however they may not understand all of them. They are very sensitive to the surrounding world.

Apart from that, it is characteristic of younger children that they sometimes have difficulty in differentiating between fact and fiction. Contrary to 8-year-old pupils who are able to recognise what is false and what is true and possess their own views about the world. Additionally, children from the ‘2nd group’ have already acquired some basic structures of their mother tongue and they are competent users of it. Furthermore, they can learn through spoken rules not only through visual and kinaesthetic senses. They are also more likely to co-operate and share things with others. As we can see these two groups of children are quite distinct, however they also possess similarities, e.g. self – centredness – the need for teacher’s attention, which increases their motivation. Generally, at around 7 or 8, things seem to fall into place for most children and they begin to make sense of the adult world as we see it. This is, of course, a theoretical division, however it is close to reality as I could learn while working with young students.

[…] ‘Their own understanding comes through hands, eyes and ears. The physical world is dominant at all times.’ (Scott & Ytreberg 1990:2)

They are generally self – centred: […] ‘They are happy playing and working alone. They can be very reluctant to share with others – they very often don’t see a point in working with somebody.’ (Scott & Ytreberg 1990:2)

This is basically a characteristic of younger representatives of this group, however still a great majority of 7-year old children do not like to share anything with their classmates. Moreover, they are willing to acquire the knowledge. According to the authors of ‘Teaching English to Children’

The second concept to explain is ‘topic – based learning’. It is especially useful as far as teaching children is concerned, because it is a method of conducting lessons while focusing on a particular theme. According to Scott and Ytreberg’s book this technique possesses many advantages:

[…] ‘Children are enthusiastic and positive about learning. They can even improve their attitude after being praised […] we should praise children for the smallest progress in order to keep their enthusiasm.’

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(Scott & Ytreberg 1990:3)

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Concentrating on a particular issue a teacher puts greater emphasis on the content of the lesson and at the same

time he/she can relate it to real students’ experiences.

of English in Polish reformed school. According to it a teacher is able to connect topics from English lessons with general issues being taught during the early education. Moreover, they can use methods of teaching characteristic for 1-3 grades of Primary School. This fact enables us to treat English as an integral part of a real world and, what is more, it facilitates associating and memorising language structures and vocabulary.

[…] ‘Children can associate words, functions, structures and situations with a particular topic. Association helps learning language in context and both understanding and memory.’

In my early teaching practice I created a sequence of lessons aimed at the group of pupils attending the second grade of the primary school in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The general idea of this sequence of lessons was to present the method of teaching English with the adaptation of materials from different subjects such as mathematics, music, art etc. Moreover, I wanted to create this module taking into account ‘topic – based learning’ therefore it was connected with one theme, which is ‘traffic’ (the title of the sequence is ‘The street’). I’ve chosen this topic because I believed that 8-year old children possess some knowledge about traffic regulations, furthermore they know what, for instance, particular signs or traffic lights mean (red light – stop). Generally, I found this topic interesting, since it is placed in a real life – apart from the classroom, children can find ‘street objects’ in their nearest surrounding, e.g. on their way to school. It is very important considering the fact that young learners who possess some information about traffic can easily acquire foreign expressions connected with it. Apart from the language expressions I decided to connect this theme with mathematical calculations (adding numbers), art (drawing), music (singing), psychomotor activities etc. in order to vary

(Scott & Ytreberg 1990:84)

This fact leads to paying more attention to individual students’ needs. […] ‘How you organise your materials within a topic is very personal and is dependent on the particular class that you are teaching at that particular time.’ (Scott & Ytrberg 1990: 84)

Furthermore, ‘topic – based learning’ offers a teacher more freedom to arrange lessons while taking into account individual pace of learners and, what is also worth mentioning, it enables to adjust topics to general school curriculum. The last concept is cross – curricular teaching but, strictly speaking, making use of materials from other subjects in English lessons. This aspect of teaching is especially promoted by the new approach to teaching English the aim of which is to integrate different knowledge areas into one inner - connected unity. As far as integration is concerned, it is the basis of a school curriculum ‘ Język angielski w zintegrowanym nauczaniu początkowym’ printed by Oxford University Press which describes the role 3

the lessons and create the atmosphere of fun. Additionally, the module included activities developing all language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Consequently, students had a chance to practise vocabulary in various situations, which enabled them to memorise.

The whole sequence of my lessons turned out to have a positive influence on my pupils. Possessing some basic knowledge of traffic regulations, they were very eager to learn new English vocabulary. Due to communicative activities my young learners could memorise new words and useful phrases very quickly. Moreover, the children were also able to practise their knowledge in everyday situations after school, for example, going back home. Summing up, integrating different subjects (placed in reality) in teaching English enables us to teach effectively. And for our students (no matter of age) it is certainly a motivating way of gaining new language knowledge.

As I have already written, this sequence of lessons was created especially for pupils I teach. They are 8 – year – old children attending the second grade. Their primary school is one out of the few where English is taught in early education, therefore it is their second year of L2 learning. They have already acquired some English words and simple expressions, however we can consider them as beginners.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Scott, W. A. and Ytreberg, L. H. 1990 Teaching English to Children, Longman.

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