Choose a story:


Goldilocks and the Three Bears Little Red Riding Hood
 The Three Billy Goats Gruff
 The Three Little Pigs

 

These animated fairy tales are designed for early readers, ideally in Years 3 & 4, although children of all ages will love these delightful stories.

 

How is it different from traditional language teaching methods?

Traditional language teaching tends to rely heavily on memory skills. Set phrases, or vocabulary lists, are taught which children hear and repeat.  The teacher is the all knowing expert who imparts knowledge in short, sharp bursts.  Great techniques are often used to aid memorisation which children often delight in.  However children’s learning is limited to the scope of the knowledge imparted.  They cannot learn more because the exposure is so controlled.

Each fairy tale in the series contains a wealth of rich and stimulating language.  There is no explicit demand on memory skills. The activities engage the brain in what the brain likes to do best – thinking, problem solving, looking for patterns, making connections.  This brain activity leads to much deeper learning and it gives children a vast range of material that they will be able to draw upon when analyzing more complex language in later years. The teacher isn’t a language expert here, but a skilled facilitator who asks the kind of questions that probe deeper learning.

 As you become more confident in this role of skilled facilitator you might like to add breadth and depth to your own and your children’s language learning experience by comparing the fairytales in different languages.  The activities in our comparing languages section engage these same thinking skills of looking for similarities and differences, spotting patterns and making connections.  They focus on building up knowledge about language and language learning strategies.  You will find that your children will start to respond personally to the languages they are exposed to and feel like real language learners.  They will also be in a strong position to make an informed choice if and when they are called upon to choose a language to study at a later date.