The first block of my “High Flyers – English for Children” courses in Kronberg-Oberhöchstadt is coming to an end. Time to review how it’s gone. After eight weeks, I would sum it up as follows: All the children had fun and learned a lot. I also had fun and learned a lot. And we are all looking forward to the next course block, which starts on 16 January 2023.
The aim of the classes is to make learning English fun for children in the German school system, and to show them how useful the language can be. Of course, they should also be gaining/or improving English language skills, but without any pressure to succeed. The motivation to participate and learn should come from the children. Within the scope of their possibilities (after all, they are primary school children and not robots), this works amazingly well and I notice how even small successes are a great motivating factor. I am proud of every single child, because they have all put in a lot of effort and learned a lot. The children are so excited when, for example, they understand excerpts from a real English children’s book, or can “decipher” a small illustrated poem, or can remember a word from a few weeks ago and impress me (and themselves!) with it. Movement games and songs are particularly popular with the “wriggle bottoms”, and well-known games such as Dobble or Bingo that I adapt to suit our course content are also well loved. We have also done craft, puzzles and role play. In addition to weekly rituals such as the welcome song, the greetings round, the “Biscuit Break” where we sample a typical English treat each week, and the farewell song, I strive for variety, to keep each child interested.
We combine knowledge about England and other English-speaking countries with learning the English language. For example, when I was in England for the autumn holidays, our mascot “Feathered Fred” came with us, and I wrote a photo book for the 4th graders about our experiences. I also brought the infamous Marmite spread back with me. Almost all the children were brave enough to try it, but unfortunately only three children gave it a “thumbs up”! Their marketing department is aware of this problem, because even their adverts say “you love it or you hate it”!
When the World Cup kicked off, we focused on the topic of football. As a “balance”, the topics of dancing and animals followed, so that those less obsessed with balls also got to cover their favourite hobby. For the next block of courses, I’m planning topic days where we will look at the countries Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. When we touched on it whilst looking at winter sports, the children were amazed to learn that you can ski in New Zealand in the summer.
Feedback like “thank you for your great English lessons. My child loves it and would like to continue in January”, “My son is so happy with his English classes and definitely wants to continue” and “My child really wants to continue! He thinks the English lessons are great! Thank you for making language learning fun for the children!” confirm my impression that the participants enjoy coming to the classes, and come voluntarily.
I am really looking forward to the next block of courses. By the way, there are plans for further courses, e.g. in Kronberg or Oberursel, with courses on Wednesdays directly after the school day. If you are interested or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.