Iwona Gryz

Uniwersytet Technologiczno-Humanistyczny im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego w Radomiu

Trying to activate all senses while teaching lower primary school children

English language teaching methodology for the first stage of education, i.e. lower primary education, promotes holistic teaching (multisensory)1. It involves engaging all the senses. According to Jan Iluk2, if the child actively uses all senses during his/her En- glish classes, the process of learning a foreign language is more effective. He adds that visual, audio and kinaesthetic stimuli must be used simultaneously.

The Multisensory Teaching Method, also known as the visual-auditory-kinaesthetic-sen- sory method, is based on the activating all the child’s senses in the process of acquiring a foreign language. The senses are engaged through music, rhythm, images, touching, feelings and action, and therefore it brings fast and lasting results. The Multisensory Teaching Method is also known as VAK Modalities. The three modalities of learning style have been summarized by the acronym VAK for: Visual (sight), Auditory (hearing), and Kinaesthetic (movement).

Using this approach while teaching a foreign language to young learners means helping them to learn through more than one of the senses. Most teaching at schools is done using either sight or hearing (visual or auditory channel). The child’s sight is used in reading

1 This article is a modified fragment of a PhD thesis written at the English Language Department of the Aka- demia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna in Lodz, entitled The Multisensory teaching method – the most suita- ble method for teaching English to Polish children (aged 3–7) at risk for dyslexia, defended by the author on 18 January 2013.

2 J. Iluk, Jak uczyć małe dzieci języków obcych?, Katowice 2009, p. 43. In the case of teaching English young learners there is a need to take into account linguistic competence such as nasal consonants realization in oral and written communication, see G. Majkowski, Wpływ samogłosek nosowych na błędy w ich zapisie (z obser- wacji polonisty-logopedy), „Językoznawstwo”, 5/2004, p. 115–119.

information, looking at diagrams or pictures, or reading what is on the teacher’s board.

The sense of hearing is used in listening to what the teacher says3.

Multisensory teaching is simultaneously visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic to enhance memory and learning. Links are consistently made between the senses in the process of learning a foreign language. Teachers who use this approach teach children to link the sounds of the letters with the written symbols. Children also link the sounds and symbols with the way of forming the letters. As pupils learn a new letter or a pattern, they carefully trace, copy, and write the letters while saying the corresponding sound. The sound may be made by the teacher and the letter names given by the student. Stu- dents then read and spell words, phrases, and sentences using these patterns. Teachers and their students rely on all three pathways for learning rather than focusing on a sight-word or a memory method, a tracing method, or a phonetic method alone.

Bogdanowicz, M., Adryjanek, A. and Rożyńska, M.4 emphasize that in the process of teaching children at risk of dyslexia, sensory integration is very important. Specific tasks that involve all the senses allow the assimilation of information received from all routes covered in the sensory process of acquiring new knowledge:

• through the visual channel (eyes) students reach all the visual information,

• through the auditory channel (ears) students reach all the auditory information,

• through the channel of touch (hands) students reach all the tactile information,

• the kinaesthetic channel provides a learner with information through the physical movement of the whole body – organs of speech move while speaking, hands move while writing, eyes move while reading.

  How does the child remember? According to Edgar Dale a child remembers: 90% of what he/she says and does, 70% of what he/she says and writes, 50% of what he/she hears and sees, 30% of what he/she sees, 20% of what he/she hears and only10% of what he/she reads5.

  
  

  Multisensory Teaching Method – a sample lesson plan

  Subject: Getting familiar with Four Sisters – introduction of the seasons of the year. Level: beginners / second grade of primary school / lower primary education

  Main goals:

• to introduce new vocabulary items in a sequence – the names of the seasons of the year

  (spring, summer, autumn, winter),

• to check understanding of the meaning of the presented vocabulary,

• to practise the pronunciation of the new vocabulary.

  
  

  Forms of work: the whole class, individually, in groups of varying degrees of difficulty.

  
  

  3 I. Gryz, Teaching English to Polish Young Learners at Risk for Dyslexia: Focus on the Multi-sensory Method, Radom 2015, p. 34.

  4 M. Bogdanowicz and others, Uczeń z dysleksją w domu. Poradnik nie tylko dla rodziców, Gdynia 2007.

  5 E. Dale and others, Techniques for teaching vocabulary, Palo Alto, CA 1971.

  
  

  Teaching aids: the words of the songs and games, a CD-player, colourful objects in the classroom, the class chart of attendance, realia – the symbols of the seasons (a fresh fragrant hyacinth in the pot, a yellow turned-on lamp, a dried rusting leaf, a frozen lump of ice in a plastic bag), a policeman’s helmet and badge, four big posters of the seasons of the year, a worksheet Two Storks, small paper balls, colourful blocks.

  
  

  The lesson plan:

  1. Warm up

     Goals:

• to create an atmosphere conducive to learning (calm students down after the break),

• to make children interested in the lesson,

• to gain children’s attention,

• to prepare children for the next stage of the lesson.

  
  

  1. ​ The welcome song: Hello! It’s time for English now!

     The children sing the song while walking in a circle and waving their hands:

     Hello! Hello! Hello! It’s time for English now!

     At the end they bow together to each other and imitate the trumpet fanfare.

  2. ​ The imitating game.

     Get up and run, run to school

     Knock! Knock! Come in! School is cool!

     
     

     The children pretend to sleep on the carpet, the teacher plays the song: Get up and run – they get up and run in one direction, Run to school – run in the opposite direction, Knock! Knock! Come in! – they imitate knocking on the door, open it and invite everybody inside with the gesture of the hand. School is cool! – jumping up and down with hands up.

  3. Touching colours game: „Please, touch something yellow”.

     The teacher says different colours in turn. The children look for the proper colour around the classroom and touch it. The teacher counts to three and says “stop” – at the same time the children are supposed to stand still. When the teacher says “ok”, the children come back to the game.

  4. The teacher specifies the topic of the lesson and explains its main purpose.

     She introduces the context of the lesson to children while telling a short story about Four Sisters who quarrel about which of them is the most important in the world; policeman Bob helps them solve the problem by explaining the value of each of them.

     
     

  1. Presentation

     Goals:

• to introduce the vocabulary items – the seasons of the year in the grammatical struc- ture: „It’s (spring / summer / autumn / winter) now.”,

• to practise the names of colours,

• to put new vocabulary items into short-term memory,

  
  

• to provide young learners with the possibility of repeating new vocabulary as many times as it is necessary,

• to prepare children for the next stage of the lesson.

1. ​ The presentation of new vocabulary items.

   The teacher presents four big posters of the seasons of the year. The children are sup- posed to spot the differences in the illustrations and explain them in Polish. The teacher names each season of the year in English.

   
   

2. ​ The teacher uses realia – the symbols of each season of the year:

   a fresh fragrant hyacinth in the pot (spring), a yellow lamp turned on (summer),

   a dried rusting leaf (autumn),

   a frozen lump of ice in a plastic bag (winter).

   First, each child has an opportunity to get familiar with the realia (touch, smell). Next, the learners` sit in a circle and the teacher conducts the repetition drill while pointing at the realia. After that, the teacher divides children into four groups and conducts the substitution drill with touching of the realia by the particular group of the children.

   
   

1. Practice

   Goals:

   • to practise the names of the seasons in the grammatical structure „It’s (spring / sum- mer / autumn / winter) now.”,

   • to put new vocabulary items into long-term memory,

   • to work on the correct pronunciation of new words and whole sentences,

   • to monitor students’ work and notice if all of them understand and use the new voca- bulary items properly.

   
   

   1. ​ The teacher presents the gestures connected with each season of the year and the chil-

      dren imitate them several times:

      spring – picking and smelling flowers with loud sneezing,

      summer – wiping the sweat from foreheads and drinking cold drinks,

      autumn – imitating trees being moved by astrong wind and leaves falling,

      winter – imitating snowflakes falling on the ground and showing how cold it is in winter.

      
      

   2. ​ Matching pictures to the words heard

      The teacher shows four pictures (singing birds, a swimsuit, wellingtons, a sledge) and says the names of seasons in turn. The learners are supposed to point to the right picture connected with the particular season and repeat the name of it after the teacher.

      
      

   3. ​ Matching colours to the seasons

      The teacher says the colours in turn rhythmically. At the same time the learners are supposed to give the proper name of the season that matches the colour heard.

      
      

      white – winter, yellow – summer, green – spring, brown – autumn

      At the same time they say the sentence: „It’s (spring / summer / autumn / winter) now.”

      
      

   4. ​ The movement game

      The teacher says the names of the seasons loudly or quietly / slowly and quickly

      and the children do the actions.

      sleeping – winter, swimming – summer, jumping – spring, walking – autumn

      At the same time they say the sentence: „It’s (spring / summer / autumn / winter) now.”

      
      

2. Production

   Goals:

   • to assess whether students understand, pronounce correctly and are able to use the new vocabulary items,

   • to assess whether further work with children will require more training with regard to the material exercised.

   
   

   1. ​ The children are divided into two teams and are given a large picture of: an autumn tree or a snowman. They have to decide which season it is and colour the picture with the proper colours. Each person has to add one more thing to the illustration which should be connected with the season of the group.

      
      

   2. ​ Listening activity: discovering the sounds of the seasons. The teacher provides the children with a sheet of paper with four symbols of the seasons and crayons. Then, she plays a CD with the following sounds: squeaky snow, singing birds, the mur- mur of a river, a buzzing bee, splashing water in the swimming pool, rustling leaves, cracking ice, the wind moving the trees. The learners are supposed to draw pictures of the information heard on their work sheets.

      • For the stronger group: children are provided with worksheet 1. They are suppo- sed to find two similar flowers in the picture of the spring meadow and colour them with their favourite spring colours.

      • For the weaker group: children are provided with worksheet 2. Firstly, they are sup- posed to match pictures in pairs. Secondly, the children are to draw the missing parts of the small illustrations. Finally, they are supposed to colour pictures colours provi- ded by the teacher.

        
        

   3. ​ The teacher provides each learner with worksheet 3: an illustration of two storks. The children are supposed to find six differences in the pictures and mark them with a coloured pencil in the illustrations.

      
      

3. Closing remarks

   Goals:

   • to finish the lesson in an interesting way,

   • to combine the new knowledge with material already learnt and put it into practice,

     
     

   • to provide students with the possibility of practising the new words and grammatical structure at home one more time.

   
   

   1. The Mind the traffic lights! Game.

      The teacher pretends to be a policeman (she wears a policeman’s helmet and badge) and shows three big blocks in turn: red, green and yellow. The red block means: stop, the yellow one means: get ready, the green one means: go. The children must obey the road rules explained to them by the policeman.

      
      

   2. Checking the register.

      The learners draw lots – they each choose a little paper ball from of balls of different colours (connected with the particular season of the year). The teacher checks the register while calling the seasons: „It’s (spring / summer / autumn / winter) now.” The children who have green balls are the first – they are spring, next yellow / summer, brown / autumn and white / winter. If a child was polite, she / he draws a happy face on the class chart next to her / his name, if not, the child draws a sad face there.

      
      

   3. Singing the song:

      One! Two! Three! Hop! Hop! Hop! Four! Five! Six! Now, let’s stop!

      The children build a train and jump together while singing the song (slowly / quickly, quietly / loudly).

      At the end everybody falls down.

      
      

   4. The goodbye song: Goodbye! Goodbye and see you soon!

Appendices

Appendix 1. Worksheet 1

Appendix 2. Worksheet 2

Appendix 3. Worksheet 3

The lesson observation sheet

5 = excellent, 4 = good, 3 = average, 2 = weak, 1 = very poor, 0 = not applicable

= group I, = group II, = group III

According to the observation conducted in the classroom during the English lesson with the standard class procedure and comparing it to the lesson with The Multi-Senso- ry Teaching Methods, difficulties in learning English as a foreign language are clearly visible. What is more, due to Marta Bogdanowicz’s opinion the considerable numbers of symptoms of dyslexia left without help of specialists can lead to the developmental dyslexia in the future (Bogdanowicz, 2011). Teaching English to Polish young learners at risk for dyslexia enhances the pupils’ ability to learn foreign languages while using The Multi-Sensory Teaching Method. The findings of the introduced lesson study support- ed the assumption considerably. The result was expected in the light of the lesson plan composed by the author of the study on the key factors of The Multi-Sensory Teaching Method. It is strongly believed by the teachers that the most important of them is the di- rect impact on all the senses of each learner, therefore the plenty of exercises of this type were included to the lesson plan. The comparison of the standard teaching methods

                   Trying to activate all senses while teaching lower primary school children             

to The Multi-Sensory Teaching Method conducted by the author presents quite interest- ing results. To start with, well chosen meaningful and motivating context that is helpful in maintaining the goals of the lesson appears during the lessons with The Multi-Sensory Teaching Method, whereas it is not very frequent during the standard classes. Moreover, the teacher systematically provides children with effective classroom routines and rules, supports the lesson with useful classroom discussions, exercises and visual aids, as well as sets high but achievable challenges for pupils, which seems to be important while working with very young learners. In addition to this, the permanent features of the lesson with The Multi-Sensory Teaching Method are: well organised classroom management, pupils’ enthusiasm to participate in the classes, the sense of humour used in an appro- priate way, the atmosphere conducive to learning, attractive display of children’s works and well organized walls – large and legible, as well as the clever manners of maintaining the discipline in the classroom which never deprecate student ignorance or misunder- standing. On the other hand, the well-structured lesson with all well-organized stages was expected on the basis of the methodology of the subject. One of the most important element of the lessons for young learners is the way of assessing pupils’ engagement in the lesson – their active participation, as well as regularity of this activity. It appeared in the lesson with The Multi-Sensory Teaching Method and made children really engaged in the exercises introduced by the teacher. According to the observations conducted during the lesson planned by the author, only the lesson with The Multi-Sensory Teaching Method included the presentation of new vocabulary items while activating all pupils’ senses. What is more, the constant movement (The Total Physical response Method),

e. g. while singing or repeating the chants, guaranteed children a lot of fun, as well as

the faster assimilation of the new material. Finally, during both types of the lesson it was easy to notice that the teacher has a good contact with all learners (effective eye-contact, body language, voice intonation, gestures).

As far as the evaluation of conducted lessons and exercises included in them are concerned, the learners suggest an increased use of The Multi-Sensory Teaching Method chosen by the teacher.

The teacher’s role in getting children interested and motivated to learn a foreign lan- guage is critical6. The teacher is the main person responsible for creating an atmosphere conducive to learning and for conducting the lesson in an effective and interesting way. The teacher should do her / his best to use all possible senses during the lesson with lower primary school children. The Multisensory Teaching Method seems to be of great importance and help while working with the youngest children7. This can be observed in the table presented above.

6 M. Szpotowicz, M. Szulc-Kurpaska, Teaching English to young learners, Warszawa 2012, p. 81.

7 M. Kotarba, Przedszkolak, język obcy i… ty. Metodyka nauczania języków obcych w przedszkolach, Pułtusk 2007, p. 39.

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References

Bogdanowicz K. M., Dysleksja a nauczanie języków obcych. Przewodnik dla nauczycieli i rodziców uczniów z dysleksją, Gdańsk 2011.

Bogdanowicz M., Adryjanek A., Rożyńska M., Uczeń z dysleksją w domu. Poradnik nie tylko dla rodziców, Gdynia 2007.

Dale E., O’Rourke J., Bamman H. A., Techniques for teaching vocabulary, Palo Alto, CA 1971.

Gryz I., Teaching English to Polish Young Learners at Risk for Dyslexia: Focus on the Multi-sen- sory Method, Radom 2015.

Iluk J., Jak uczyć małe dzieci języków obcych?, Katowice 2009. Komorowska H., Metodyka nauczania języków obcych, Warszawa 2009.

Kotarba M., Przedszkolak, język obcy i… ty. Metodyka nauczania języków obcych w przedsz- kolach, Pułtusk 2007.

Maas V. F., Uczenie się przez zmysły. Wprowadzenie do teorii integracji sensorycznej, Warsza- wa 1998.

Majkowski G., Wpływ samogłosek nosowych na błędy w ich zapisie (z obserwacji polonisty-

-logopedy), „Językoznawstwo”, 5/2004. Maley A., Very Young Learners, Oxford 1997.

Odowska-Szlachcic B., Terapia integracji sensorycznej. Zeszyt 2, Gdańsk 2011.

Pamuła M., Metodyka nauczania języków obcych w kształceniu zintegrowanym, Warszawa 2009.

Przetacznik-Gierowska M., Makiełło-Jarża G., Psychologia rozwojowa i wychowawcza wieku dziecięcego, Warszawa 1992.

Szpotowicz M., Szulc-Kurpaska M., Teaching English to young learners, Warszawa 2012.

Abstract

Trying to activate all senses while teaching lower primary school children

This article deals with the practical application of the multisensory method in teaching English language to lower primary school children. At the beginning the author briefly explains the essence of the multisensory method, and stresses the importance of the method in working with new vocabulary during foreign language classes. Next, the author presents a sample lesson for pupils of the second class of primary school in connection with using the multisensory method. In addition, the author introduces the detailed observation sheet where it is clearly visible that activating all the senses while working with the youngest children during foreign language lessons brings great results.

Keywords: Multisensory Teaching Method (i.e. the visual-auditory-kinaesthetic-sensory method) is based on activating all the child’s senses in the process of acquiring or teaching a foreign language; VAK Modalities – the acronym for three modalities of learning styles: Visual (sight), Auditory (hearing) and Kinaesthetic (movement); Lower primary school education – the first stage of education in primary school (classes 1 – 3).