The Silent Period…or is it?

What is The Silent Period?

 Most new learners of English, particularly in the 1^st year of school, will go through ‘a Silent Period’. According to language researcher Stephen Krashen this is normal and even though they can understand much of what is going on around them, they are unwilling or unable to communicate orally.  Children going through this phase should not be forced to speak before they are ready, it doesn’t mean that they are not learning, just that they need time to absorb and digest what language they hear and see around them.

There are a lot of similarities between the Silent Period and when a child acquires their first language. Babies hear a lot of language around them and even when they start to speak their comprehension levels are far greater than their production ability.

It can often be a frustrating time for the teacher, parents and  child as it appears that there is very little ‘progress’ being made. However, responsive behaviour should be accepted as evidence that learning is taking place.

The length of the Silent Period varies according to how much language the child is exposed to and how much pressure is put on the child to produce. It is important that as teachers we acknowledge that not all children are ready to speak but provide plenty of opportunities in chants and songs where a child can ‘experiment’ and try out the different sounds in their voice in the safety of not being heard. It is also important to provide as much language as possible for the children to respond to and absorb in their own time.

So, the Silent Period, doesn’t have to be that silent. Chants, songs and choral work all provide opportunity for the child to prepare to speak, and help with acquiring language and confidence.

How do 6-7 year olds learn English as a second language?

• They acquire English through hearing and experiencing LOTS of examples. Similar to learning their first language- they need to hear masses and masses of English and be absorbed by it.
• They learn through doing, by playing and by being ‘occupied’ with the language.
• They are not consciously trying to learn new words- it’s incidental. Children are not able to organise their learning- they don’t even realise that they are learning- they see it as fun (or should do)
• They love playing with language sounds, imitating and making funny noises. Have fun playing with words or phrases in different styles and exaggerated expressions.
• Their grammar will develop on its own- provided they hear lots of English and learn to understand a lot of words and phrases

How can you as a teacher help them? 

• Make English enjoyable and You are influencing their attitude to language learning. It has to be a positive experience
• Don’t worry about mistakes. Be encouraging. Make sure children feel comfortable and not afraid to take part
• Use lots of gestures, actions, visuals. Be expressive to demonstrate what you mean
• Talk a lot to them in English. Talk about things they can see; the here and now of the classroom and their lives
• Play games, sing songs, say rhymes. These are bonding activities which help create a positive atmosphere.
• Tell stories using pictures and different voices. Stories can be simple. Understanding comes from the context, they don’t need to ‘know’ every single word
• Don’t worry if they speak Portuguese. You can respond in English. If appropriate you can reformulate the question. They will speak in L1 with each other, which is why YOU have to speak in English all of the time.
• Constantly Incorporate structures as well as vocabulary that appear in the coursebook into the classroom.
• Plan lessons with varied Standing, sitting, quiet, noisy. Keep the movement going, no more than 6 minutes on any 1 activity (1 minute per year of age)

‘Listen and Do’ Activities

• Giving instructions

It is often quicker and easier to use L1 when asking children to move or sit or stand while trying to prepare them for the next activity. However, your aim is to teach the English. Using gestures and demonstrating what you want them to do while providing them with English instructions will help them understand and eventually you can reduce their dependence on gestures and increase the structures to include the target instructions.

What instructions do you need in your classes?

How can you use gestures?

• Listen and identify

When asking children to ‘listen and identify’ they are making sense of English words and phrases as well as developing their vocabulary. They are also associating sounds and meanings. Unless they have heard a word several times and associate it with something meaningful they are unlikely to be able to identify it

What things can children ‘identify’?

How can they show you?

• Total Physical Response (TPR)

Total Physical Response is when children listen and follow instructions and often referred to as ‘muscle memory’. The teacher should give instructions using clear pronunciation and natural intonation and can assist learners by also doing the gestures or movements. The children listen carefully to the teacher and carry out the instructions. They can usually all do this together so they are all involved in the activity. Often TPR activities are connected to chants, rhymes and rhythms as this also aids memory.

What TPR activities do you use?

At what point of the lesson are they most useful?

• Listen and respond

Listening activities can be extended when you ask children to respond to a statement you make. It encourages detailed listening, but also involves movement which keeps the learners interested. A typical listen and respond activity would be True/False game where the teacher says a statement like ‘The sky is green’ and the children run to or hold up a ‘false’ card.
What other listen and respond games do you use?

What other responses could you ask the children to do?

‘Listen and Make’ Activities

The objective of a lesson that includes making things is the language that is required to make the object. For this reason it is important that you have thought about the language that you are going to use and have put it into short phrases with gestures that can be understood. You must also anticipate what children may ask you and how you can respond. Particularly important is the language that the children may need and how this could be included in the target language.

• Listen and colour

The first thing to do is to check that all the children have the coloured pens/pencils required. This is a quick listen and identify activity and the opportunity to revise and recycle should be taken. Children can spend a long time colouring, which is not very language generative. Try singing a short colouring song to indicate how long they have to colour and for fast finishers to join in with if they feel confident.

What kind of listen and colour activities do you do?

What language do you use to set up the activity?

• Listen and draw

Children enjoy drawing without instructions, but the aim in a ‘listen and draw’ activity is to get the children to listen to instructions.  A typical listen and draw activity is a ‘Picasso Dictation’ where the teacher describes a face or an animal and the children draw it. This is made more interesting-as all the drawings are different- if the teacher produces a drawing she did earlier and sees whose picture is most similar to the teacher’s.

What kinds of listen and draw activities do you do?

What other language does it produce?

• Listen and make

There are many things children can make, and often these are linked to festivals and holidays. Think about the language that is needed to describe the materials that are used, the verbs that are necessary and the vocabulary linked to the topic. This can lead to a complicated lesson and therefore needs to be well thought out before hand.

What kinds of things do you make with the children?

Do you teach the names of the materials?

What about the vocabulary?

How can you make sure that the craft work doesn’t go on too long?

Using Stories

Stories are an important part of children’s life and can be a useful resource in the English classroom. The context of a story is usually enough to hold a child’s interest, but it can be helpful to use visuals, gestures and to be expressive with your voice. These all help children to understand ‘holistically’, rather than focusing on individual words. Stories can be used to present new structures, revise vocabulary or for general enjoyment. They don’t have to be ‘authentic’ or in the course book; with a little creativity you (and the students) can make up your own, or adapt existing ones, to focus on the language area that you want.

• Structure based eg. Where’s Bob?

Bob! Bob! Where’s Bob?

Is he here? No!

Is he here? No!

Is he here? No!

Oh Bob! There you are!

Adapted from: Wright.A Creating Stories with Children OUP

The structure is repeated on each page and the context is provided by the visuals or gestures. This can easily be extend to Where’s Bob? Is he under the table? No! etc.

How could you adapt this story to fit your teaching situation?

What extension activities could you do after telling this story?

Quickly see if you can write another story like this.

• Vocabulary based eg The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Vocabulary based stories rely on the words to tell the story. Here is an example of a simple list of single words which tell a story

Big…dog…small…cat…run…jump…tree

Wright.A Creating Stories with Children OUP

Practice saying this story to create an atmosphere where you can introduce the characters, then a problem and a solution.

What other vocabulary based stories do you know?

• Context based eg Cinderella.

By choosing a story the children already know you have less to worry about in terms of understanding, which means you can focus on the telling of the story.

Five Green Monsters- CUP

This story is comprehensible because the pictures supply the context. There is enough known language Five green monsters are playing for the children to guess what ‘swing’ is by looking at the picture.

How would you prepare students for a context based story?

Can you think of any other stories you would use?