Collections of Professor Dr David Ngin Sian Pau

2.Teaching English to Primary School Children

Primary education is the first stage of compulsory education. It is preceded by pre-school or nursery education and is followed by secondary education. In North America this stage of education is usually known as elementary education. In most countries, it is compulsory for children to receive primary education, though in many jurisdictions it is permissible for parents to provide it. The transition to secondary school or high school is somewhat arbitrary, but it generally occurs at about eleven or twelve years of age. Some educational systems have separate middle schools with the transition to the final stage of education taking place at around the age of fourteen. The major goals of primary education are achieving basic literacy and numeracy amongst all pupils, as well as establishing foundations in science , geography , history and other social sciences . The relative priority of various areas, and the methods used to teach them, are an area of considerable political debate.

Primary level children age group is from 6 to 9.Children of this age group like to learn English by seeing movements that involve the body as a whole such as jumping, hopping and running, and movements that occur with the involvement between the hands and fingers in conjunction with the eye such as writing, cutting and pasting.

2.1. Dealing With Child Development

The early years of a child's life are crucial for cognitive, social and emotional development. Therefore, it is important that we take every step necessary to ensure that children grow up in environments where their social, emotional and educational needs are met. Piaget was a French speaking Swiss theorist who posited that children learn through actively constructing knowledge through hands-on experience.^[1] He suggested that the adult's role in helping the child learn was to provide appropriate materials for the child to interact and construct. In middle childhood, intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. Operational thinking develops, which means actions are reversible, and egocentric thought diminishes. Children go through the transition from the world at home to that of school and peers. Children learn to make things, use tools, and acquire the skills to be a worker and a potential provider. Children can now receive feedback from outsiders about their accomplishments. If children can discover pleasure in intellectual stimulation, being productive, seeking success, they will develop a sense of competence. If they are not successful or cannot discover pleasure in the process, they may develop a sense of inferiority and feelings of inadequacy that may haunt them throughout life. This is when children think of themselves as industrious or as inferior.

Student at this stage will understand the meaning of words through gestures and other forms of nonverbal communication. They may even possess the potentiality for

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Foot Notes:
[1] Wood SE, Wood CE and Boyd D (2006). Mastering the world of psychology (2 ed.). Allyn & Bacon.