This was a project conduct with very young learners which used Flow Theaory and active learning strategies in order to foster storytelling and language production. Presented at the 2019 IATEFL International Conference.

1. Crafting puppets and telling
stories:
ludic learning for young learners
Valéria Benévolo França
Forum on Early Years and Primary Learners

2. This talk will show how young learners, who crafted their own
puppets and then created new narratives, were able to engage
in an experiential language learning cycle. Through this
transformative ludic experience, a new understanding and
knowledge of the additional language was enabled. An
enjoyable and safe learning space was also created, which
fostered learners’ cognitive and emotional development.
The Abstract

3. - Play is free: it is freedom
- It steps out of real life
- It is limited: it plays out
- It follows its own boundaries of order: time
and space
- It is not related to material interest
(Huzinga)
Ludic Learning

4. Ludic Learning
"The child is making an
image of
something different,
something
more beautiful, or more
sublime, or more
dangerous than what he
usually is." (Huzinga)

5. “The puppet is empty until filled with the
puppeteer’s expression. Positioned between the
player and the audience, the puppet is a go
between, translating the human’s thoughts and
feelings into movement, image and text; in essence,
the puppet is a medium and mediator.”
Rene Baker, 2015
Crafting Puppets

6. Crafting Puppets

7. Safe Learning Spaces

8. “-Optimal challenge, achieved by balancing the level of difficulty and
the students’ current language skills,
-A focus on performing and accomplishing the task rather than on
practising language,
-Relevance to students’ interest,
-A students’ sense of control over the task processes and outcomes,”
(Egbert, 2003, after Csikszentmihály (1990)
Safe Learning Spaces
Flow Theory

9. Creating & Sharing Narratives

10. Creating & Sharing Narratives
“This is Dash. He is fast. He flies”
“ This is a dragon. Roar!!!!”
“This is a plane. It flies”
“This is a Pikachu. He is hero.”

11. Language Use
“Glue please”
“Red please”
“Please cut.”
Scaffolding throughout the crafting session by the class teacher and
myself.
Provision of language item in English, repetion and encouragement of
use.

12. Lessons Learnt
- Children really absorbed in task, and didn’t
wish to stop the activity. Need for clear and
well-defined sign-posting of stages and time.
- Concept of puppet needed to be further
developed
- Repetition of task to understand the dynamics
of the process and reach the narrative part
with greater confidence.
- Allow freer expression in class and less overly
structured tasks
- YL learning encompasses all areas of cognitive
and social development

13. This talk will show how young learners, who crafted their own
puppets and then created new narratives, were able to engage
in an experiential language learning cycle. Through this
transformative ludic experience, a new understanding and
knowledge of the additional language was enabled. An
enjoyable and safe learning space was also created, which
fostered learners’ cognitive and emotional development.
The Abstract

15. References
Baker, R. (2012) Puppets and objects: Medium and mediator, in Moving In! Art based
approach to work with Youth, Turku University of Applied Sciences. Retrieved from:
http://julkaisumyynti.turkuamk.fi/PublishedService?file=page&pageID=9&itemcode=97895
22162250
Egbert, J. (2003). A Study of Flow Theory in the Foreign Language Classroom. The Modern
Language Journal, 87(4), 499-518. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1192800
Huzinga, J. (1949) Homo Ludens: A study of the play-element in culture, Routledge &
Keegan Paul.
Kubanyiova, M. (2018). Creating a Safe Speaking Environment. Part of the Cambridge Papers
in ELT series. [pdf] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.