Background to early language learning at Joensuu University Teacher Training School

Rhymes Used in Teaching English

Eija Liisa Sokka-Meaney

Abstract

This article gives a brief description of the early foreign language learning project at the Joensuu University Teacher Training School and subsequent developments and then describes the place of songs, rhymes and games in teaching and learning English at this stage.

1. Background to early language learning at Joensuu University Teacher Training School

Finnish children start school in the year they have their 7^th birthday, which means that there can be almost a year’s age difference between the youngest and the oldest children in the class. In regular comprehensive schools they usually start their first foreign language in the third year, when they are 9-10 years old.

1.1. Early Foreign Language Learning Project

In 1992 the Joensuu University Teacher Training School initiated a development project for the early school years (i.e. the first and the second grade). It had three main areas:

• the development of reading, writing and mother tongue skills,

• developing science teaching and learning

• starting early foreign language learning, English.

This project lasted three years 1992-1995, but it has continued to influence work at the school. I shall concentrate in describing some features of the foreign language project.

At that time the annual intake of pupils into the first grade was about sixty. Parents were offered the option of having their child in a class which started English in the first school year and about 20 children started the programme each year and the influence of the project continued after it was over until 2003 and even later.

The pupils had 21 lesson hours a week in different school subjects including two lesson hours of English. They were also taught some other lessons or parts of lessons in English. The subjects varied;

mostly they were music, crafts and science but sometimes other subjects were involved, too. English lessons involved not only learning from a book in a traditional way, but also songs, rhymes, games, pictures, stories, miming, making things etc.

Learning subject content in a foreign language or studying multilingually is not a new phenomenon; it dates back to Roman times and it was the norm for Finnish speakers during the centuries when Swedish was the language of culture and education in Finland. In the Middle Ages many Finnish scholars went to study in Central Europe.

(Takala 1994, 73-74).

Today teaching a school subject such as music, science, or crafts in a foreign language is called CLIL-teaching, Content and Language Integrated Learning. It is a method used in several European countries for teaching young pupils as well as older students (Marsh, 1998). One of its aims is to give children some degree of bilingualism and thus strengthen their foreign language skills (Järvinen, 1999, 13-14, 23-24).

The amount of teaching can vary from a few hours weekly or monthly to nearly 90% of all tuition. The percentage at our school varied a little from year to year and from class to class but mostly it was between 15-25% a week (Sokka-Meaney, 1995). There was some informal follow-up, which involved asking foreign language teachers at later stages for feedback, and it looks like pupils benefited to some extent from an early start in English learning.

1.2. The role of the curriculum in the project

When the early English project started, the class teachers and the teachers of English wrote an attachment to the curriculum drawing up the main lines for teaching. This gave the teachers guidelines, but it also left a lot of room for them to develop their own methods and materials.

In Finnish schools, teachers have the freedom to choose teaching materials and thus the teachers could choose their own materials for use in the project. The first book used was Chatterbox 1, Pupil’s Book and Activity book (1991).

In 1999 these guidelines were incorporated into the curriculum.

At that time children could start the first foreign language either in the first school year or in the third school year. Those who started in the first year had a choice of English or Russian; those who started in the third year, had a choice of English, Russian or German. The choice in the first year was usually English, and there was a Russian club for the pupils of grades 1-2. (Joensuun normaalikoulun perusasteen opetussuunnitelma, 1999)

1.3. Starting the first foreign language today

In 2004 schools got a new National Core Curricula for Basic Education 2004 (NCCBE), the first of its kind for thirty years. Subsequently, local school boards or individual schools developed their own curricula within the framework set by the NCCBE. In doing this our school took the opportunity to restructure the foreign language learning programme and widen the choice of languages.

Today pupils at the Teacher Training School start their first foreign language (called the A1 language) in January of their first school year, and they have one lesson hour a week. The second year is the same: one lesson hour a week. In the third year pupils have two lesson hours a week.

Pupils have a choice from English, German or Russian, which is a wider selection than at any other school in Joensuu or in North-Karelia.

At the moment there are groups in all these languages and there is a

Russian club once a week for pupils who want to learn Russian as a hobby. Participants in the club come from grades 1-3.

(http://jnor.joensuu.fi/index.php?978) The objectives in the foreign language curriculum for grades 1-2 are

• become conscious of language and its meaning

• feel encouraged to speak at the word and phrase level by listening and understanding the language

• acquire a foundation for language study skills and subsequent language studies

• take an interest in learning language, and in life in various cultures

The core contents in the foreign language curriculum for grades 1-2 are

• everyday life and immediate environment, home and school

• age-appropriate songs, rhymes and games

• key general information on the target language’s culture and language region

(http://jnor.joensuu.fi/index.php?1042)

As the curriculum shows songs, rhymes, games play an important role in foreign language learning in the first two school years.