HOLA PEPE

SPANISH COURSE FOR KIDS

Introduction

This course is designed to introduce young children to the language and everyday life of Spain. The emphasis is on speaking, listening and learning Spanish to communicate in real situations appropriate to the needs of younger pupils. The first few lessons are designed to help the children introduce themselves, working with greetings, talking about themselves, exchanging personal information and finding out information about other people.

The course introduces new vocabulary and structures at a deliberately slow, steady pace. All the new words and concepts are introduced through flashcards, games, rhymes, songs and arts and crafts. The course offers plenty of lively and interesting activities before progressing to the next step. Before the introduction of new words of a same group (i.e. animals) the teacher will always review what was previously learnt in that specific group and once reviewed will reuse it in a slightly more complex context.

Building confidence: Games and Activities

Every class includes a variety of activities and games to practise the new vocabulary in a lively and enjoyable way. The first step in developing active use of a new language is to “hear” the new words as much as possible and “repeat” them. They need time and practice listening to the teacher and repeating those new words themselves.

The flashcards used in the class help children understand the meaning without even translating and in time they will develop the capacity to follow the “gist” of what is being said as the course progresses. Some audiovisual material will also be used from time to time to consolidate new words in a fun and different way.

The first activity of every lesson is always echoing as a group. This gives children practice in making the sounds of the language as they hear them, imitating the teacher or any native speakers on a DVD projection.

Other activities will help them to demonstrate their growing understanding by listening and responding to the new words and phrases physically; for example, by pointing, choosing, and finding and through games like “jump to the number” and “swap colours”. There is plenty of repetition in every class to make the new vocabulary memorable.

The course starts with teacher-led activities and games, then pair group and group work when they become more familiar with new words. As the course progresses the children will be able to take ownership of their language and choose vocabulary to suit their own communications needs.

The four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing

The majority of the games and activities in the course involve listening and speaking so the children become familiar with the sounds and patterns of the language before seeing them written.

If students were to first meet a Spanish word by reading it, there would be an obvious risk that they might mispronounce it by reading it in an “anglicised” way.

This skill, of understanding the words by listening rather than reading first, works especially well in young children who still can not read and this will be the main way of introducing new words in this age group.

With the older students there will be some activities involving reading and writing, but they will be kept to a minimum. The course works on the basis of treating all children as beginners regardless of their academic abilities, therefore, applying the same methodology of listening and repeating to all age groups.

Culture awareness

This course is about Spain and Spanish culture as well as their language. The programme combines activities with background information about Spanish life and culture. Some activities are designed to develop pupils’ awareness of similarities and differences between their own lives and those of Spanish counterparts. Through these activities children will look at the language they and their friends and family use in different contexts and at language used by other people in their community. This has particular richness in a multicultural school.

These activities help to draw out notions of how social forms work and help children become aware of the differences and similarities in something as simple as greeting people you meet. By discussing what is polite and accepted in their own culture first before talking about Spain we aim to open children’s eyes to how much they share a common culture with their counterparts in modern Spain.

Question time

A small amount of time is available in every class for a “question time” where the students can ask anything connected with their classes that they are not sure of. This way children know that it is safe to ask about absolutely anything without worrying whether the question is not appropriate or if they feel shy about it. This not only is a valuable tool for the teacher to see their progress but a fantastic way to avoid future inhibitions among them.

Lesson summary

At the end of each class the children will be provided with a lesson summary including all the words learnt in that particular class. This is a great way to make them remember and practice at home. Each summary also contains the phonetic transcription of the Spanish words into English so the parents can help them with the learning process by practising together at home.

Term 1. Syllabus

Lesson 1: ¡Hola! (Hello!)

Lesson 2: ¿Qué tal? (How are you?)

Lesson 3: Colores (Colours)

Lesson 4: ¿Cómo te llamas? (What is your name?)

Lesson 5: Números (Numbers)

Lesson 6: Animales (Animals)

Lesson 7: Partes del cuerpo I: Cabeza y manos

(The Body I: Head and hands).

Lesson 8: Halloween

Lesson 9: Más Colores (More colors)

Lesson 10: Más Numeros (More numbers)

Lesson 11: Revisión Primer Trimestre (Review of Term 1)

Lesson 12: Navidad (Christmas)

Goals and achievements

Experience shows that children attending language courses are more prone to continue learning languages in the future with enthusiasm and very useful skills.

Furthermore children will be more open-minded towards other countries and other cultures.