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Malisa Iturain, Teacher, British Council, Barcelona
The Passport section of portfolios summarizes the owner’s linguistic identity, language learning experiences and language qualifications in an internationally transparent manner. Obviously for young learners this means opening their eyes to the possibilities for learning and practising English in their own world. It also means becoming aware of children in their own class who have had different language learning experiences.
The type of things which learners can include in their passport are:-
- School reports
- Certificates of any English exams they have taken
- Tickets to theatre, museums, cinema or any event they have been to in English
- English and Me (worksheet included)
- My English World (worksheet included)
- My Passport (worksheet included)
Procedure
- I start the class by putting a world map on the board and asking learners to come up to the board to do any of the following things:-
- Show where they are now
- Indicate any countries where they speak English
- Tell the class any places where they have got family or friends in English speaking countries
- Show any English speaking countries they have visited
- In the ‘show and tell’ activity I sit next to the blackboard to write up the names of the countries and support the ‘volunteer’. It’s also a good time to check pronunciation.
- I then tell the class that they are going to do some work to include in their portfolio and hand out the worksheets
- We read through them together and brainstorm vocabulary on the blackboard.
- Learners are then ready to work on their own at their own pace. At this stage I move round the class giving support, holding up and praising good work and putting vocabulary on the blackboard.
As they finish, learners can personalize both their worksheets and portfolios which increases their sence of ownership and raises motivation.
Follow up
- This involves making a small book from the visual aids on the worksheet
- Each picture represents a way learners can come into contact with English.
- Learners select the pictures that are representative of their own language learning experiences and cut out the icons and glue them to one of the pages of a 6 page booklet.
- In the examples I have put in italics sentences that can be elicited in class and then written in My English World
Rationale
This activity raises awareness for learning and practising English in their own world.
Find more activities like this on our Teaching English site
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