Eeny, meeny, miny moe...

How many of u are teaching to young learners? If not ,think that u do, would you like to use it?

Are they effective? How do they effect learners’ langauge acquisition?

Let’s have a look at some points mentioned below.

A rhyme ,chant or poem, for young children, are a complete, short experience, which goes well with their limited attention span. It is like a compact story: it has a beginning and an end, and its own content. Once children have worked out these sequences, they feel confident, as they know that the language content is fixed.

Especially with young learners it really works well. It is usual to chant to small children and teach them through chants, rhymes and Poems. Children who participate in these activities usually express themselves easily and pick up a lot of new words in their own language. The same method works when a child is learning a second language. The rhythm of the verses helps the pupil to put the stress in the right place, to create a natural flow of language and to build up fluency.

Picking up and repeating the particular language of rhymes are another form of play for young children. They learn rhy mes unconsciously and effortlessly.

Young children want to communicate immediately in English and are frustrated that they can’t say what they want. Rhymes give them the opportunity to feel that from the first sessions they can ‘say a lot of English and say it quickly just like adults’. Deep satisfaction that motivates does not come from having fun playing games in English, but from persisting until a defined task, like knowing a rhyme, is successfully completed.

For most learners, singing or reciting a rhyme is much easier than talking. This makes chants and rhymes particularly useful for practicing difficult sounds, and chanting can also help the pupils to learn vocabulary and gain fluency. Chants and rhymes can be used with many different types of learners. They are suitable not only for small children, but can also be used with older learners or even adults to encourage them to speak English without the fear of making a mistake, as attention is not on any individual person. Everybody can join in when they feel they are ready. Repetitions become a part of an activity , so are not boring. Chants allow no time for translation, so children do not try to translate everything, they guess the meaning of most words, expressions and collocations. They are meaningful; so pupils fix in the memory a lot of useful words. Rhymes and chants are memorable, if they are well taught, they are seldom forgotten.

A chant gives us the opportunity to repeat the same words or structural items many times without risk of boredom. If children are to consolidate their learning, they need time to browse in order to work out and compare words, sounds and meanings in their own way and time. Children should not be hurried and made to work at an adult’s speed, especially in the initial stages of learning a new rhyme.

Repetition may seem boring to adults, but it is important to children as it gives them opportunities to subconsciously revise language and sounds. It also gives them an opportunity to confirm what they know, which gives them self-confidence.

Children usually like singing, role playing,chanting and acting out dialogues and do not think this is learning. Making them chant or play a game in a foreign language is a very important part of their education. They pay attention to playing, not to learning. Even if a teacher decides to correct some important mistakes, they do not feel uncomfortable, because the game is the most important. Here, the most crucial point is to create a positive learning environment.