Teaching English to Very Young Learners Through Art

Περίληψη

Teaching very young learners is one of the most challenging, yet, most rewarding things in the field of TEFL. Teaching kindergarten students and first graders focuses on teaching the language by creating experiences. This paper is about teaching English to very young learners (5-7 years old) through Art. The paper explores some of the key characteristics, needs and strengths of the very young learners and the way some Art forms can be used in order to teach English to them. It focuses on how teaching very young learners through Art, means exposing students to authentic paintings instead of flashcards, turning them into live works of Art, having them create individual and group Art projects and exposing them to performing arts, while learning and producing the target language. Finally, the paper shows how Art places the children in the centre of the learning procedure, giving them reasons to use the language and engages them meaningfully in the learning procedure.