| Title: | Teaching English as an Additional Language to Very Young Learners with the Hippo and Friends Course |
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| Authors: | ID Rupnik, Maja (Author)
ID Jurančič, Klementina Penelope (Mentor) More about this mentor...  |
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| Files: |  MAG_Rupnik_Maja_2016.pdf (4,59 MB)
MD5: EF0C8E80F402124D9CA8D71AD54F4DB6
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| Language: | English |
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| Work type: | Master's thesis/paper |
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| Typology: | 2.09 - Master's Thesis |
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| Organization: | FF - Faculty of Arts
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| Abstract: | The main subject of the master's thesis research is teaching English as an additional (foreign) language in early childhood (pre-school period) to learners between 3 and 6 years of age with the Hippo and Friends (Starter, 1, and 2) course, written by Selby and McKnight and released by University of Cambridge in 2006. After presenting theoretical principles of teaching and learning an additional (foreign) language at an early age together with the presentation of the Hippo and Friends course, the empirical part of the thesis analyses and evaluates the course’s teaching outcomes. These were acquired between October 2015 and March 2016 by carrying out a 3-leveled Hippo and Friends English language course for very young learners. 5 courses (2 groups at the H&F Starter level, 2 groups at the H&F 1 level and 1 group at the H&F 2 level) were attended by a total number of 45 pre-school children. The courses took place on five locations in North-Eastern Slovenia (Oplotnica, Kebelj, Slovenska Bistrica, Poljčane and Pragersko); the teacher taught them in a form of a student work at the ‘Bla Bla’ language school. In addition to general evaluation of the Hippo and Friends course aims achievement and self-evaluation of teaching, particular focus is placed on the analysis and evaluation of learners’ emotional responses to the first contact with English, their linguistic progress and instructional factors that affected it the most. The Hippo and Friends course has made the majority of very young learners’ first contact with English enjoyable and fun. In addition to developing the very basic listening, speaking and discourse skills, the majority of very young learners have exceeded the suggested target vocabulary by the end of the course. Throughout the course, the majority of very young learners has more successfully acquired and, at the end of it, more correctly orally produced the target vocabulary items (TVI) presented in lessons with a lower number of newly presented TVI, the TVI taught with a higher practising rate, the TVI of thematic units the learners enjoyed the most and the TVI taught through songs and stories. |
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| Keywords: | very young learners, teaching English, learning English, Hippo and Friends course |
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| Place of publishing: | Maribor |
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| Publisher: | [M. Rupnik] |
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| Year of publishing: | 2016 |
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| PID: | 20.500.12556/DKUM-60329 |
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| UDC: | 373.2/.3:811.111'243(043.2) |
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| COBISS.SI-ID: | 22418696 |
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| NUK URN: | URN:SI:UM:DK:GP7BIJSE |
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| Publication date in DKUM: | 11.08.2016 |
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| Views: | 2023 |
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| Downloads: | 159 |
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| Metadata: |    |
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| Categories: | FF
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