odpowiedzialnosc


"The challenge of teaching children"
                     - mgr Oliwia Słowińska - Szych


Teaching young learners a foreign language is one of the most difficult and challenging tasks.
Needless to say, the role of the teacher in moulding pupils’ learning habits is obviously invaluable.

 

He is not only a role model, but also an organizer and participant of children’s activities.
Thus, being responsible for raising children’s motivation and enthusiasm, the teacher should be familiar with his students’ interests and fancies, basing the teaching on the skills and instincts they bring to the classroom.

 

In fact, the problem of children’s favorites in connection with acquiring language has been analyzed for many years by all sorts of methodologists. They all have come to the same conclusion: children learn best through fun. It can be singing, acting, drawing, manual activities or the most effective solution – a combination of them all, but all those activities should aim at generating enthusiasm and pleasure.

Only then can children become more talkative, less inhibited and respond to meaning even if they do not understand all the words in the foreign language. What I would like to point out is that the teacher should get to know his students very well and should be exceptionally passionate and devoted to teaching young learners in order to have some remarkable achievements in that field.

 

Furthermore, the ‘teacher development’ is absolutely necessary, particularly while working with children. When teachers continue to develop, listening to their students, learning from their colleagues, attending conferences and visiting appropriate websites, they continue to grow, gaining deep respect and heartfelt gratitude of their students. Thus, it should always be stressed that when teachers are learners too, they become much better pedagogues.

 

With regard to methodological matters, music and songs are one of the most flexible resources a teacher can bring to the classroom. Yet, although they are such invaluable teaching aids, music and songs have not found their proper place in classroom procedures and still there are many teachers who prefer to stick to the old, traditional teaching habits than to take an interest in modern, stimulating techniques. After careful observation of this problem in kindergartens and primary schools I decided to explore this subject and I can safely conclude that such evident reluctance to using songs in teaching has something to do with deeply-rooted feeling that songs and music, which in fact represent entertainment, have no place in serious learning. As a result, teachers do not exploit all the potential out of songs to maximize their impact on learning.

 

In the light of this evidence, my principal objective as a teacher of young learners is to promote using music and songs in teaching English to children and I will do my best to use this technique in my present and future teaching practice.