When using an authentic audio or video it is important to use only ‘native speakers'.
Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons.
Along with many others in this community, I disagree with this statement. But I do like the quotes around "native speaker" - who is a native speaker anyway? That's a discussion for another time, perhaps.
I don't think I have anything new to say. I teach very young learners, and they haven't developed preferences for accents. They just want to communicate and tell their stories and play. Kid language transcends borders. I'll never forget the two kids playing in the caves in Slovenia who didn't have a spoken language in common so they just played dinosaurs or something and roared at each other and chased each other around.
All that said, much of the audio and video materials we use in my school are made in-house for our students. So they are not in any way "authentic". I would love to learn more about "authentic" materials for very young learners, particularly those that use a variety of Englishes.
Yes, I had the same problem all the years I was teaching very young learners - I couldn't find authentic materials appropriate for them. I remember some time ago I used Cengage / National Geographic books for a year, what's the title... Our world? In that series, the songs for smartboard are recorded in two versions: one by native speakers, and one performed by a group of non-native children, each time from a different country somewhere around the world. I liked the idea. However, you probably know what a group of 4-year-olds sound when they sing a song in English, a capella. Well, imagine now that you don't even know the children, you don't know their accent, and the song is not a popular one :) it was a mess :) cute, but a mess. So it was the publisher's attempt to connect cultures from all corners on the world and to introduce some authenticity. But it did not really work well with my students. Maybe it does with yours, check it out if you haven't yet.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, I will agree it's difficult to find good authentic materials for very young learners.
Margarita Kosior Thank you for your comment Margarita. I also used to use the Our World books. They were great for my elementary students in Korea. Unfortunately, for the context I'm in now, those books are too high a level. I wonder if there are any YouTube channels that were made in other countries with English-medium content for young children of those countries?
ReplyDeleteMargarita Kosior You have made a great point about quality of content. I don’t want to use content that my students don’t find naturally enjoyable. So, I look at the data, YouTube views per video, to see what children like. Note- I have found some great quality stuff from all different tiers of developers. Anne Hendler Elf is one of them.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting thread going on here. I didn't know that about the dual song element in Our World, Margarita. It's great that they tried it out though. I'm going to have a look (or a listen). And yes, quality has to be a key issue.
ReplyDeleteRhett Burton Thanks! Our students like it too. They like the Super Simple songs you used for your assignment as well. I hadn't thought of using those. I guess when I think of "authentic" for VYLs, I think more like Teletubbies-type stuff, so I was at a loss.
ReplyDeleteIt's an odd coincidence that you mention authentic materials for young learners because I thought I would challenge myself and produce something for young learners this week but texts produced for very young children often have literacy or language skills as a secondary purpose so can they ever be truly 'authentic'?
ReplyDeleteAdi Rajan It's a good question and a real challenge! I guess they're authentic if you define authentic as "English-medium materials for English-speaking/multilingual toddlers/young children"
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