Learners are alert, have focused their attention on the new language and are
responsive to cues that show them that something new is coming up. A simple way to
ensure some of the above is if the teacher makes the target language interesting to
the students.
The language will of course, be of more interest to the students if it is put into some
type of context that the students are familiar with. In the case of likes and dislikes for
young learners a visual associated with a facial expression will be something they can
relate to. Naturally, the easier it is for them to relate to the context, the more likely they
are to be interested in the language presented.
We want to ensure that the learners both see and hear the target language easily. So
if a whiteboard is being used, it should be well organized with different colors being
used to differentiate between different ideas. If images are being used, there should
be no ambiguity as to what they represent and sounds made by the teacher should not
only be clear, but should be repeated and the teacher needs to check the material has
been perceived correctly, and can do this by asking the students to repeat the sounds
he or she is making.
Learners will be bombarded with a series of images corresponding to sounds made
by the teacher during the presentation stage and it is the teacher’s responsibility to
ensure that they are not overloaded with information and that clear links are being
made between the images and the associated sounds.
The learners must be able to understand the meaning of the material. So in the case
of likes and dislikes they perhaps need to see an image of a happy face and associate
it with liking something and a sad face and associate that with disliking something.
The learners will have to retain the information from the presentation and use it further
on in the lesson when we have consolidated their learning of the material and we will
give them an opportunity to produce it on their own.
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