The Prague Post
December 1st, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague Center Hotel

Home » Archives » Schools & Education

English classes for the young masses

Prague 10 starts language project for preschoolers

August 27th, 2008 issue

By Martina Čermáková

COURTESY PHOTO
Children who start learning English at an early age are taught in small-group settings a couple of times a week.
COURTESY PHOTO
English teachers play games with their young students.
COURTESY PHOTO
Starting this fall, preschools in Prague 10 will offer their students free English lessons on a weekly basis.
AKCENT International House Prague




Bítovská 3
Prague 4
Tel.: 261 261 880
E-mail: akcent@akcent.cz
Web: www.akcent.cz

FOR THE POST
The Czech proverb “That which you learn while young, you’ll find readily when you are old” receives a new twist with Prague 10’s efforts to provide English-language education to all public preschools in the neighborhood.
Following a successful testing phase last spring, the project Angličtina do škol, or English to Schools, will officially start in September. To keep its campaign promises rooted in English-language education for children, the newly elected Prague 10 City Council has partnered with the language school AKCENT International House Prague to introduce “Anglophonics” to the district’s 21 preschools. The project’s vision to create awareness of foreign languages at an early age underscores the fact that English instruction isn’t just a thing for private preschools anymore.
Each preschool can choose between two forms of education — a twice-weekly 30-minute lesson or a three-hour block once a week. The City Council says it has allocated 1.5 million Kč ($97,800) a year for this project.
“The three-hour lessons are done in an integrated manner,” notes Heda Elstnerová, AKCENT’s marketing manager. “The children do the same things that they would normally do during a preschool morning, but they are surrounded by English when they do it — that is, exercises, washing hands, eating a snack, playing in the garden, etc.”
This integrated approach appeared as a strong model in the testing phase. About two-thirds of the area’s preschools used it, according to Viera Pávková, a member of the Prague 10 District Council. She adds that feedback has been positive, and all involved participants have praised the project in spite of initial fears about the children’s response to native English speakers teaching the courses.
One preschool, MŠ Chmelová, participating in the project sits in Prague 10’s Záběhlice. Hana Tausingerová, a teacher at the school, says the preschool has offered English-language courses since 1991, outsourcing most of the instructors. This is the first time native speakers have taught the subject there, and Tausingerová calls it a “pleasant novelty.”
One recent morning, about 20 preschoolers squatted in a crooked circle in their playroom inside a two-story prefabricated highrise that acts as their classroom. It was just past 8 a.m., but the group was wide-eyed and rambunctious. The children introduced themselves in English, each chirping out: “Hello, my name is …”
During another game, the children repeated, “Hello, Mr. Crocodile,” in a unified voice, following their teacher’s lead. “Please, may we cross your river? Only if you’re wearing …”
“Blue!” the instructor responded in a British accent.
“Nemám blue,” — “I don’t have blue,” — crocked one boy, who actually had a small patch of blue on his T-shirt.
Apart from colors and numbers, the children also studied and learned the English names of dozens of common, everyday objects. Along with songs and rhymes, they played guessing games, danced and, essentially, repeated the dozen words or so they’d memorized. They played in an inflatable pool outside, occasionally tugging their English lecturer’s sleeve, shouting, “Teacher! Teacher!”
“It’s amazing,” notes Harriet Taylor, the morning’s lecturer. “If [the children] start with English at an early age, they are much more advanced than those who start at 10.”
Psychologist Vlasta Rezková of Prague’s Pedagogy-Psychological Clinic agrees that an early start helps ease language studies at a later age. Not only are youngsters more receptive to language, they lack the shyness that limits adults and older schoolchildren, Rezková explains.
For preschoolers, English education is merely a game, so, as long as the class assumes a game format, Rezková believes the children can learn a lot.
Receptive age, however, isn’t everything. Chmelová’s Taunsingerová says she witnesses large differences in how much is absorbed by each child.
“Some soak it up,” she says. “Some don’t.” A handful of kids, for example, might shout words during a lesson, while others sit silently.
For instructors to be successful, according to Taunsigerová, they must have exuberant personalities and some kind of background in teaching. Apart from possessing at least a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults, AKCENT’s preschool lecturers must also hold the International House Certificate in Teaching Young Learners.
“We considered AKCENT to be the best when it came to children’s education,” district council member Pávková says, adding that five agencies and language schools had originally applied for the project.
The syllabus for each class is something that is worked out between AKCENT, the individual lecturer and the preschool. Taylor, for instance, teaches whatever she thinks will work best for the children. Other preschools have stiffer outlines. Magnitogorská preschool’s pricipal, Lenka Čápová, says visiting instructors are requested to work with the school curriculum.
Magnitogorská has chosen the 30-minute class scheme. Besides her concern over youngsters’ attention spans, Čápová worries about the student’s transition to elementary school. English isn’t compulsory until third grade, so many children will see a two-year gap before they start speaking the language again. In Prague 10, there are currently 11 schools offering English-language classes beginning in first grade. The decision of when to start language instruction is up to each school.
The English to School project is just one example of the overall rise in foreign-language education in Czech preschools. According to statistics from the Czech School Inspection, nearly half — 47.2 percent — of the 635 preschools surveyed offer foreign-language education. The demand for English dominates, but there is a notable call for German in some border regions, according to the Education Ministry.
Teachers in Prague 10 say they are simply hoping kids will get a jump start on their language education.
Martina Čermáková can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


Other articles in Schools & Education (27/08/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.