1. TEACHING ENGLISH FOR
PRIMARY EDUCATION
1.2.Children´s creative use of limited language resources
Cecilia Maller, 2014

2.  In early stages of mother tongue development Children (=ch.).
very creative with:
 1. Concepts
 2. Grammatical forms.
 Ex.
 1.Don´t unring? (= wait, hold on) ( knowledge of UN, as a
negative prefix).
 2. Switch off the dark.

3. FUNDAMENTAL PHENOMENON TO
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT.
 A. Creation of words by analogy.
 B. Invention of new words.
 It´s also present in people who are learning a L2.

4. IF THEY UNDERSTAND MESSAGE…
THEY UNDERSTAND LANGUAGE
 To maintain this first source of understanding is fundamental part
of human communication.
 Highly developed ability in primary for this, but difficult for them
to follow purely verbal instructions and info.
 How do we know it´s not working? They get it wrong.

5.  Ch. have interpreting skills ability to
understand messages.
That´s how they learn new words ,concepts and expressions in L1.
How do they learn a new lg.?
Ch. call on same skills to interpret new:
sounds, words and
structures.

6. WHAT TO DO TO SUPPORT
AND DEVELOP THIS?
 Use: gestures, intonation, demonstration, actions, facial
expressions.
 What for?
 To convey meaning of what said.

7. Ch. abilities:
 Perceive meaning
 Have great skill in producing meaningful lg. from limited sources.

8. WHAT IF A ? GRAMMATICAL
STRUCTURE IS ?
 Different ways to convey meaning:
 Make up new words-
 Say words from their mother tongue in a foreign accent.
 May produce temporarily inexact and inept lg.
manage to communicate

9. WHAT´S THIS?
 A way to build up our grasp (= ability to understand a
complicated idea or situation, to take sth. and hold it firmly) of the lg.
 We are building up our grasp of the lg.
 Why?
 We are actively recombining and constructing it for ourselves.

10. WHEN DOES THE
PHENOMENON APPEAR?
 Always and naturally, when there´s need to communicate..
 To make the most of the creative lg. Skill, we should provide
occasions where:
 1. the urge to communicate makes ch. find some way of
expressing themselves.

11.  2. The lg. demanded by the activity is impredictable, it´s not only
asking to repeat set phrases, but is encouraging kids/ learners to
construct lg. Actively for themselves.
 What can we do, then?
GAMES
Use

12. WHY GAMES?
 They are fun
Create desire to communicate
Create unpredictability
Fun
elements

13. WHAT NOT TO FORGET…
 Close T´s guidance should not be avoided, it´s also an important
partof learning.
 Freer activities: give the chance to make mistakes.
 Ch. are impatient to communicate, so…more not fewer mistakes.

14. WHAT DOES THE DESIRE TO
COMMUNICATE BRING?
 Brings next capacity….
 Which one?
 Their aptitude for indirect learning

15. HOMEWORK
Read and summarize ( study)
1.3. Children´s capacity for indirect learning
Pgs. 5 and 6, Chapter 1. Teaching English in
the Primary Classroom