Activating young learners in the teaching/ learning of foreign languages (Dinocrocs travel to Romania)

Abstract

This article aims at describing how the innovative methodology used in teaching foreign languages to young learners (three and eight years of age) was applied in Romania by Euroed Foundation, Iasi. The method has been developed by the “The Adventures of Hocus and Lotus” project cofinanced by the European Union under the Lifelong Learning Programme. One of the most important innovations of the project which was highly appreciated in Romania was that it gave kindergarten teachers the possibility to teach a foreign language in their classes without them being language teachers or having an advanced level in the foreign language. The key of the method is the fact that it aims at teaching a limited amount of linguistic content and, as a consequence the kindergarten teacher has to master the foreign language to a certain extent, mastery that can be acquired through a training programme, less extensive than one of qualifying foreign language teachers. The paper focuses on the training programme. Instead of blanketing the teachers with theory, it aims to provide them with an educational model whose pedagogic lines are consistent with the natural developmental processes of language acquisition. An added value of having foreign languages taught by the class teachers is the special communicative and emotional relationship between the children and their teacher. The method was also applied to the mentally disabled children with good results