Curriculum Developing for Young Children

One quality of a good curriculum is its inclusiveness. A good curriculum ensures that all children benefit from the teaching that is taking place.  One common barrier in this regard is language. While the teacher may want to teach all the children in one language, some students only use English as their second language or do not use it at all. It is therefore the role of the teacher to ensure that such students both develop their English skills and continue to grow even during the period when their English language is still wanting. Various strategies can be employed to ensure that a child’s learning needs are met. Most importantly, the teacher should not prohibit the use of the other language with those students who understand it as well as with the teacher. This will promote interaction with other students as well as enable the children to learn the English language.

English learners provide a wealth of knowledge and ability along with a different culture to the early childhood setting. They          also need curricular adaptations to ensure their abilities are exploited while working towards complete proficiency in English. When developing the curriculum, various aspects should be put to consideration to ensure that the most is obtained from an education system for young children. First, the curriculum should accommodate the other language of the child by providing opportunities for developing both languages. This will provide the chance for the two languages to support each other. AS the child is developing, the some situations may require one language or the other to communicate. Providing a chance for the child to develop both languages enables the child to communicate more effectively and completely.

Secondly, the child should be provided with opportunities to speak and listen to English. This can be done by providing speaking in English to the child and prompting for responses. This will enable the child to speak the language sooner. For younger children, the task of learning the new language is less challenging and the child would not find it abusive in any way. Instead, the child may find the challenge enjoyable and stay focused to learn the new language. Peers will also engage the child in English. This will make learning English much easier.

The curriculum should also have situations where the different languages are appreciated. It is important that the teacher shows the children that each language is important. Teaching children to appreciate diversity will help to make children more accommodative of each other as well as supportive. Where possible, the teacher should provide bilingual support to the child. In situations where the children’s languages are not too diverse, the teacher may be able to speak the other language (Cole, 2008). In that case, the teacher should help the children learn their first language better by extending their vocabularies and so on.

The teacher can provide children with opportunities to write in both languages. When children are able to write tin both languages, they develop the ability to develop in both languages as well as compare the two languages in their daily learning experiences. Greater understanding is achieved in this way in regard to language use and writing. The teacher should also provide the children with opportunities to listen to the two languages they are interacting with (Cole, 2008). This can be done by playing audios and videos for the children. This way, the teacher can promote better pronunciation among the children as well as provide the children with a chance to appreciate diversity. While doing this though, the teacher should ensure that the children are not made to feel inferior on the basis of the accents they adopt. The teacher should instead use different accents in teaching about diversity.

The curriculum of diverse children who have no knowledge of English should also involve the use of pictures and shapes. Visuals are important for the children as they help children to associate better what they see with what they hear their teacher saying. Labeled and unlabelled pictures should be used to teach the language as they are appropriate (Cole, 2008). As the children get more and more exposed to the same combinations, they get understand the message the teacher is trying to pass. This way, they will be learning the use of the second language. Sometimes the teacher may also require using gestures and facials. Most gestures and facials are used across cultures. As the child gets exposed to a combination of gestures and certain words, they become more aware of what certain words and phrases mean. This enables the child to associate and learn the English language.

In conclusion, while the English language is widely known and accepted, some children still join the education system without having used the English language. In such cases, it is important that the curriculum accommodates them and exploit their abilities. A good curriculum should exploit what is already known to learn the unknown. The use of gesture, the first language and pictorials can help in resolving the language problem. Eventually, with sufficient exposure, the child will learn the second language soon.

References

Cole, R. (2008). Educating everybody’s children. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.