This document discusses using sports and dance as a vehicle to teach English to young learners aged 4-7. It describes a pilot project between a secondary school and university in Slovenia that uses a 90-minute English class each week incorporating physical activities. The goals are to motivate students and develop language skills like pronunciation through activities that engage different learning styles. Teachers use team-teaching approaches to combine language and motor skill instruction. The project aims to find more authentic cross-curricular activities and applications for other foreign languages.

1. The Very Young Learner and Learning English Language through the Vehicle of Sport and Dance

2. A Case study Polona Oblak, M.Sc. Matjaž Vehovar, BA

3. Who are we? Co-operation between Secondary Grammar School (SSD Borci) and Faculty of Education Maribor Pilot Project (4 years)

4. Target Group Children aged 4-7: Old Enough to Socialise ‘ Young’ Enough to Acquire a Language?! Being the most Receptive Whole Person Development/ Life-long Learning Develop Skills and Abilities

5. Why? Needs Analysis: Emotions Knowledge Motivation Children Resources Parents Teachers

6. How? Sportshall 2 Professionals (Sports,English) Small Groups (10 - 12) EFL (English as a Foreign Language) 90 Minutes per Week

7. Collaborative Activities and Skills Vehicle for Learning (Language, Sports) Complementary Tasks Lesson Planning New Vocabulary Exercise Revision/ Repetition New/ Old Activity Practise Warm up English Sports

8. T eam-teaching Traditional Team-teaching Diferentiated Split class Team-teaching Parallel Instruction Complimentary or Supportive Instruction Monitoring Teacher English Corner Warming up Activities Stations

9. Cross-disciplinary Goals Stimulative Enviroment Engagement of Students in Authentic real-world Tasks Satisfy Different Learning Styles Develop Child’s Multiple Intelligences Student-centred and Teacher Facilitated Approach

10. Main Sport Objectives Functional Capabilities (cardio-vascular system, heart, and loungs) Psychomotor Development Learning the Motor–physical Skills Relaxation (Yoga for Children)

11. Main Dance Objectives Rhythm Music Appreciation Posture Group Work

12. Main Language Objectives Positive Attitude towards Foreign Language Learning Pronunciation Acquire Chunks of Language Grasp the Meaning Develop Child’s Imagination and Be Creative Use their Instinct for Talk and Interaction for FLA

13. Project Perspectives Find Cross-curricular Activities that would link Sports/ Dance and English Produce more Authentic Situations Include Native Speaker Apply to other Languages (German, French, Spanish) Write and Publish own Materials (activities, tasks, audio-video) Develop Methods of Assessment and Evaluation for Very Young Learners

14. Conclusion Life-long Learning Methodology: Team-teaching Approach: Collaboration Activities: Synergy Worthwhile Activity Motivation: High Achievers

15. Further Reading Bergen D. (1994). Child Education: Developing Art and Science od Team Teaching. Davis, J. R. (1995). Interdisciplinary courses and teamteaching: New arrangements for learning. Phoenix: Orxy Press. Dunn, O. (1984). Developing English with Young Learners. Hemel Hampsted. Practice Hall. Lightbown, M.P. and Spada, N. (1999). How Languages are Learned. Oxford: OUP. Oblak, P. (2003). The Young Learner and Learning a Language through the Vehicle of Sport: A Case Study. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University.

16. Thank you for your Attention!