My teaching approach

The importance of teaching a second language at an early age has many benefits and also challenges. Mourao (2015, p. 1267) “highlights the importance of adapting language learning activities to learners’ age, to the pre-primary context and to educational ”. That is why it is important to adapt the activities to a familiar context, so that students feel they know the place. For example, one of the activities carried out with Room 5, was based on going to a fictional ice cream shop. Students were asked to assemble an ice cream cone, respecting the amount of bowls that the teacher asked them to put on. When creating the context of the ice cream parlor, the students immediately felt at ease and excited to create their own ice cream.

                       


To understand the development of the psychological process in which they are in that age, it is important to study about the characteristics that a child has in that age. Making a psychology approach, in conjunction with teaching strategies. As Martínez Mendoza (2004, p.10) notes .. "we should gain knowledge about the developmental process of child language (its characteristics, conditions and critical stages and its relations with other psychological processes)." In the first test planning I did, I did not take into account the psychological state or the stage in which the students were, so I did activities that mostly involved students writing or reading. It is now, after having read in greater didactic depth and having done my practices, that I realize the importance of taking into account the knowledge and constructions that students have when they are in the garden.

                               

Regarding the use of teaching materials, it is important that kindergarten students interact and experiment with different teaching resources, in this way they will know different ways, textures and ways of learning. For my part, the incorporation of different teaching materials was not a problem, since I love experimenting with different resources. That is why, during my practices, I used a variety of materials, with things such as: tempera, cuts, ice cream sticks, colors, posters, and I also incorporated the puppets with the use of cleaning gloves and another with a stocking. Creativity, both teacher and student, is an invaluable tool, with art being a way for students to connect from other places with concepts, with their peers and commit themselves in a different way to carrying out activities.

My method of teaching during practices was based on constructivism, a pedagogical current based on the theory of constructivist knowledge, which postulates the importance of giving students the tools that allow them to build their own procedures to solve a given situation. In this way, they may make a modification of their own ideas themselves, and continue learning.



                                

About my students

The best way to motivate students is to create a climate and context in which they feel they start from the activity. In this way, they will want to participate and be part of the activity. The way to achieve participation was also given by asking open questions, of interest, in a short and concise way, asking several times and in different ways, making gestures according to the question.

Through the game, students can learn while they play, we could say that they do it almost without realizing it.



“Halliwell’s (1992) key text for teacher education includes a number of references to fun and enjoyment, emphasizing the importance of balancing enjoyment with cognitive engagement in the task, in order to stimulate motivation. This argument is related to the role of play in early childhood as part of the developmental process. ”

When students have difficulties to participate, what worked best for me was to explain the activity in a different way, so that they can understand it. And when they had difficulties to carry out activities alone, I approached them, to explain them individually. To develop their autonomy in carrying out activities, I approached them to tell them the good work they were doing, in this way they continued their work with greater security.

                       

Some of the most important achievements of my students were: the correct understanding of most activities, the internalization of new concepts, the correct use of different materials and the internalization of concepts already seen.