READY Teacher's Guide-April 2026 - Flipbook - Page 11
Presenting a listening activity should be done in three stages: Pre-Listening, While Listening and PostListening. Each stage is explicitly noted in the Teacher’s Guide and carefully integrated within the teaching
procedure.
Stage I Pre-Listening:
Prepare pupils for the listening activity by doing one or more of the following: introduce the topic of
listening, activate pupils’ existing or prior knowledge, define a purpose for the listening activity,
and/or predict information about the text.
Stage II While Listening:
Pupils listen to the text at least twice. The first time allows pupils to get a general idea about the
topic and verify the accuracy of their predictions. The second and subsequent times help pupils to
derive the information they need to complete the tasks identified in the pre-listening stage.
Stage III Post-Listening:
Pupils act upon what they have heard to give evidence that they understood the text.
12. Songs
Songs are an important element in language learning for young pupils. “Music lowers affective barriers and
assists in making students more relaxed, thereby more receptive to language learning.” (Engh 2013: 117).
The use of music in the language learning classroom increases motivation and engagement, while decreasing
stress and apprehension. In addition, songs and music have been seen to aid significantly in learning
vocabulary and language patterns, specifically in foreign language acquisition. “Songs have a positive
outcome on the students’ language acquisition and…lexical patterns stored in long-term musical memory
can be retrieved with ease at a later date for mental rehearsal, memorization, or during oral interaction.”
(118). Learning and reviewing lexical items through songs is an effective method of entering them into longterm memory (Laufer, Meara, and Nation 2005) and a step toward advancing from receptive to productive
knowledge.
Throughout the units, songs in READY provide an opportunity for pupils to reinforce vocabulary, practice
grammatical structures, and produce oral language. In addition, through some of these songs, pupils are
exposed to authentic music from the English-speaking world. It may take several exposures of a song for
pupils to reach a level where they “can recite and sing using appropriate stress, rhythm and intonation.”
(English Curriculum 2020: 24). The teacher should be sure to repeat the songs as necessary to give pupils the
opportunity to gain the confidence to be able to chant and sing independently.
13. Teaching Reading and Writing
In READY, pupils continue to develop their reading and comprehension skills, on their way to becoming
fluent English readers. The program is carefully designed to incorporate different areas of reading
instructions and a large variety of text types. READY provides the framework for supporting strong and fluent
readers.
a. Ready to Read with Words I Know - Phonics
It is recommended that phonics be included in your lesson to reinforce pupils’ reading skills and to
help those pupils who experience difficulties in decoding. Phonemic awareness facilitates growth in
phonological representation recognition (Kahn-Horowitz, Shimron, and Sparks 2005; Good,
Simmons, and Kame'enui, 2001; Torgesen 2004). Learners who can differentiate the individual
sounds of a word, recognize their identity, and put the word together again, have the foundation
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