DIPLOMA EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

SEMESTER 5 / 2019

HDPS 2603

ENGLISH FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

MATRICULATION NO : 970412085096001

IDENTITY CARD NO. : 970412085096

TELEPHONE NO. : 011-36006083

E-MAIL : anne.mary863@yahoo.com

LEARNING CENTRE : IPOH LEARNING CENTRE

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Content Page

1. PART 1 WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

1. 1 INTRODUCTION 3
1. 2 THEORIES OF LISTENING SKILLS 4-9
1.3 IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING SKILL 10
1.4 DIFFERENT LEVELS OF LISTENING SKILLS 11-12

2. PART 2 LESSON PLAN

2.1 LESSON PLAN 1 14
2.2 LESSON PLAN 2 15

3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 13

REFERENCES 19

APPENDIX 17-18

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1.0 INTRODUCTION.

Listening skill is a ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication
process. Listening is key of all effective communication, without the ability to listen effectively,
messages are easily misunderstood. As a results communication breaks down and the sender of
the message can easily become frustrated or irritated. Effective listening is a skill that underpins
all positive human relationships.

1.1 OBJECTIVE OF ASSIGNMENT.

The objective of the assignment is to expose learners on importance of listening skill,
differences of listening skills and how a teacher can plan lesson according to their listening
skills. Moreover, another objective of the assignment is to find different level of listening skills
and their underlying theories on listening skill.

2.0 THE UNDERLYING THEORIES OF LISTENING SKILLS.

2.1 Nativist Theory.

2.2 Behaviourist Theory

.
2.3 Interactionist Theory.

2.4 Cognitive Theory.

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2.1 NATIVIST THEORY.

The nativist view of language development can be traced to the work of Noam Chomsky(1928-
present). Chomsky strongly believes that language acquisition is an innate of the biological structure. This
theory came about as children have been observed to pick up grammar and syntax without any formal
teaching (in spoken language). They seem to learn these fundamentals of their native language(s) purely
from the input around them.
Chomsky believes that the LAD helps children decipher the grammatical structures of their native
language(s), subconsciously mapping new lexical items to their corresponding word class and syntactic
position. The LAD could in theory mean that children while possessing this part of the brain could easily
pick up the grammatical structures of any input language as they already have the building blocks in their
mind. This theory is contested by a lot of linguists due to the fact an LAD has never been found on brain
imaging or in other studies of children's brains. There are many other approaches which contradict
Chomsky's theory but the nativist approach is still widely held in high regard by many language
development experts.

The nativist approach in no way suggests that children are born with a lexicon, the majority if not all
linguists agree that lexical items are learned from input and social environment. The different approaches
to language development mainly focus on how children learn grammar and syntax.

Input:
Primary Linguistic Data
LAD:
General Language Learning Principle.
Grammatical Knowledge Rules.
Output:
Child’s speech.

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2.2 BEHAVIORIST THEORY.

Behavioural theories of child development focus on how environmental interaction

influences behaviour and are based on the theories of theorists such as John B. Watson, Ivan
Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner. ... Operant conditioning utilizes reinforcement and punishment to
modify behaviours.
Behaviourism, also known as behavioural psychology, is a theory of learning based on the
idea that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs through
interaction with the environment. Behaviourists believe that our responses to environmental
stimuli shape our actions.
The work of Skinner was stock-still in a very read that conditioning was so much too
oversimplified to be a whole rationalization of advanced human behaviours. .
He believed that the most effective thanks to perceive behaviour is to seem at the causes of
Associate in Nursing action and its consequences.
He called this approach operant conditioning.
According to this principle, behaviour that's followed by pleasant consequences is probably
going to be continual, and behaviour followed by unpleasant consequences is a smaller amount
probably to be continual.

According to Skinner, this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is

likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be
repeated.
Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect - Reinforcement. Behavior which is
reinforced that is strengthened to be continual behaviour that isn't strengthened tends to die out-
or be destroyed (i.e., weakened).

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 In addition, he also made a clear distinction between two types of verbal responses that a child
makes:
Verbal behaviour that is reinforced by the child receiving something it wants.
Verbal behavior caused by imitating others.
The following are key concepts of operant conditioning:
Positive reinforcement.
Negative reinforcement
Positive punishment
Negative punishment

When child imitate something positive because we are adding some stimulus or we can take
something away (negative) because we are subtracting something from it. However positive
reinforcement can make children to try something best to complete their task.
For example, when a child imitates their parents or care taker to speak the language he/she will
be rewarded accordingly and become more skilful.

2.3 INTERACTIONIST THEORY.

Interactionist theory is an origin of the social psychology of early twentieth century

sociologiss George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley. Mead and Cooley examined the
ways in which individuals is related to society through ongoing social interactions.

According to this theory, language is not an inborn endowment of a child. The child is driven
by a need to speak and to be spoken to. Language, is this respect, is seen to develop through a
process of negotiating of a child’s home and cultural environment.

The biggest name in the interactionist theory is the Russian scholar Lev Vygotsky(1896-
1934),he feels that children need more than just a desire to express themselves, more than innate
LAD, or more than a model to parrot. He claims children learn language to communicate with
the world around them.

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 Social interactionist theory which is an explanation of language development emphasizing the
role of social interaction between the developing child and linguistically knowledgeable adults.
According to Lev Vygotsky, it is based on largely on the socio-cultural theories of Soviet
psychologist.

The main assertion of the Vygotsky theory,is that the cognitive development of children is
advanced through social interaction with other people, particularly from those who are more
skilled. In other words, Vygotsky believed that social learning comes before cognitive
development and that children construct knowledge actively, Lev Vygotsky.

Vygotsky also is the most recognized for his concept of Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD) pertaining to the learning process of children. According to the Vygotsky theory, children
who are in the zone of proximal development for some particular task can almost perform the
task independently, but not quite there yet. They need some help in order to perform the task
successfully.

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2.4 COGNITIVE THEORY.

psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the 20th century’s most influential
researchers in the field of developmental psychology. He posited the idea that a child’s
propensity to acquire language is actively linked to his mental or cognitive development.

Piaget’s argues that a child’s understanding of a particular concepts pre-empts his ability to
know which particular language he needs to use to express that concepts.

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four
different stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how
children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence. Piaget's stages
are: sensorimotor stage to 2 years old.

Concrete Formal
sensori motor Preoperational
Operational Operational
( 0-2 year) (2-7 year)
(7-11 year) (12-adulthood)

Figure 1.1 Four stages of cognitive development.

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During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge
through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. A child's entire experience at the earliest
period of this stage occurs through basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses.
It is during the sensorimotor stage that children go through a period of dramatic growth and
learning. As kids interact with their environment, they are continually making new discoveries
about how the world works.
The cognitive development that occur during this period takes place over a relatively short period
of time and involves a great deal of growth. Children not only learn how to perform physical
actions such as crawling and walking; they also learn a great deal about language from the
people with whom they interact.

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3.0 IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING SKILL.

Poorly developed listening skills may also have an impact on a child's language
and communication development. Listening to other people speaking enables children to develop
vocabulary, comprehension and language skills. These important communication skills are the
building bricks of literacy and learning.

Listening and attention skills are vital in a child's development because they allow the child to
function properly in society. When developing these skills, it is important that your child become
an active listener, which means that he use what he hears from you and others as part of the
communication process. By setting a good example and working with your child to develop these
skills, you can give him academic and social advantages in the future.
Improves Language and Communication.

Children retain information through their interactions with others and this includes language
skills. The more your child listens to what others have to say, the better her vocabulary and
communication become. By helping her to develop her listening and attention skills, you make it
easier for her to communicate with others once she goes to school. Overall, listening and learning
go hand in hand.

Develops Literacy and Comprehension.

As the child develops, he will begin using his listening skills to improve his vocabulary, grammar
and reading ability. If he lacks listening skills or does not pay attention, he might struggle to pick
up on mistakes he is making with his speech, since he will not hear what others have to say.
Reading skills can also suffer if the child does not have adequate listening skills, since he might
not pay attention to the words when someone else is reading to him.

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4.0 THE DIFFERENT LEVEL OF LISTENING SKILLS.

Listening can be divided into to three main levels:

Beginning
Intermediate
Advance

Beginning Level of listening skills in young children.

Listening is a passive operation. The importance of understanding this concept of listening

being an active engagement. That is, as a listener, the mind is actively searching for meaning.
This seems to imply the importance of ensuring that the language level is matched to the
learners, which means teachers must understand their learners' abilities.

Keeping in mind that listening is an active process. Ellis and Girard caution that asking children
to 'listen and remember' can make them 'anxious, places a great strain on their memory and tends
not to develop listening skills.'

A lot of children's learning is dependent on making connections between that they know and
what they are able to understand in the speech they hear but they don't learn only listening,
motivation for learning language is to be able to communicate

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 Intermediate Level of Listening skill.

Children can recognise and recall facts. They are able to identify specific information.
Other than that, children can recognise attitude and feelings of the speakers. Moreover, they can
recognise process of causes and affect. Children also can recognise relationships between
speakers, Children also able to identify sequence and variation of listening.

Advanced Level of listening skill.

Children able to recognise main points of any topics. Recognise roles and relationships.
Nevertheless, Children also can interpret information and provides meaning. Advance listening
level may also seeks ways to solve problems. Follow flow in dialogues and plots

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5.0 CONCLUSION.

Explain why the children have to listen. Make sure the learners are clear about why they are
listening, what the main point and purpose of the activities.

Help children develop specific strategies for listening. An important strategy that the teacher
should teach is 'intelligent guesswork'. Learners will used to drawing on their background
knowledge to work out something they are not sure of.

They may set specific listening tasks to train learners on listening activity. Listening has three
stages, pre-listening, while-listening, post listening and have activities for each stage.

Listening does not have to rely on the availability of a cassette or pre-recorded material. Most
listening activities based on teacher’s talk.

There are numerous ways to train young learner on listening skills are:

Keep sentences short and grammatically simple. Limiting the topics talked about to what is
familiar to the child. Use exaggerated intonation to hold the child's attention. Teacher should
emphasize words. Frequently repeating and paraphrasing

Listening is an active process. As the mind actively engaged in making meaning. It is therefore
our duty as teachers to ensure that the materials we use are comprehensible to our young chidren.

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Lesson Plan 1

Title: Body Parts

Date: 17/10/2019.

Age: 5 years

Duration: 40 minutes

Learning Objective:
1.0 Listening and speaking.
BI 1:1 Listen to and identify body parts.
BI 1:1:1 Listen to and respond to stimulus.

Materials: Charts, flash cards, worksheet

Procedure and extension of activities:
1.) Teacher ask learners to point their body parts.
2.) Teacher use visual aids (flash cards) to teach learners about body parts.
3.) Teacher teach them about rhymes.
4.) Teacher did some simple reading in charts given.
5.) Learners responding to simple words.

Assessment: Learners able to listen to words said aloud and match pictures accordingly.
Learners able to sing action song, Example,” My head, my shoulder” and able to read flash cards
correctly.

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Reflection: The lesson was carried out effectively. 80 % of the learners able to understand and
follow the teacher instructions whereas 20% of the learners struggles to point their body parts
and the teacher manage to make the learner to understand by repeating the words and manage to
understand.
Lesson Plan 2

Title: My Body Parts

Age: 5 years

Duration: 40 minute

Learning Objective:
BI 1.1.1 Listen to and identify main body parts.

BI 1.1.2 Play Simon Says. Example: “Simon Says, Touch your nose.”

BI 1.1.3 Read and spell simple words.

BI 1.1.4 Cut out pictures from old books.

BI 1.1.5 Make collage out of different body parts which has been cut.

Materials: Charts, flash cards, old books, A4 paper, scissors and glue

Procedure and extension of activities:

1.) Teacher ask the learners to name some body parts they know.

2.) Teacher use flash cards to recap the lesson about body parts.

3.) Teacher ask them to do some activity on body parts such as collage.

4.) Learners name the body parts correctly using pictures they sticks.

5.) Learners stick picture of body parts and name them accordingly.

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Assessment: Learners able to paste parts of body correctly. Learners able to listen and identify
body parts. Learners able to make random body parts from collage accordingly, from teacher
instructions. Learners able to show and identify body parts well

Reflection: 90 % of the learners able to understand and follow the teacher instructions and able
to carried out the activity perfectly whereas 10% of the learners struggles to label the body parts
and the teacher manage to make the learner to identify by repeating the words and they manage
to label it correctly.

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APPENDIX.

Pictures of activity from lesson plan 1.

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Pictures for lesson plan 2.

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6.0 REFERENCES.

1.) Module HDPS 2603 English for young children module. Topic 1

2.) Module HDPS 2603 English for young children module. Topic 5

3.) Google search Wendy Arnold, Teacher, Trainer, Author, IATEFL YL SIG e-list moderator

4.) https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html.

5.) KSPK (KURIKULUM BERSEPADU PENDIDIKAN KEBANGSAAN)-Lesson plan

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