Teaching that works
Practical tools for the EFL classroom
Thailand Educators went international as we welcomed Dr Yael Bejarano, Former Head of the EFL Department at the Open University of Israel and currently Academic Director for English Adventure a leading program in teaching EFL and in particular young learners.
After speaking at the Thai TESOL, TEFL Asia Conference 
and talking with interested schools about English Adventure, Dr Yael joined TEN to share her ideas and thoughts about Teaching that works – practical tools for the EFL classroom.
Speaking on the theme “What makes a successful language lesson?” Dr Bejarano dealt primarily with young learners and the role story telling can take in making lessons both enjoyable and productive.
Beginning her talk with an overview the three stages in language instruction, she reviewed how Stage 1 for young learners is oral/aural in which students’ lexical knowledge and oral communication skills are developed.
In Stage 2, as development of emergent literacy skills occurs simultaneously with oral language development. The development of Oral and Communication skills as well as Emergent Literacy skills continue to appear in Stage 3, when the teaching of beginning reading and writing begins and includes pre-reading skills, reading and writing skills and comprehension skills.
“Stories”, she explained, “are a natural context for asking and answering questions and can lead into a myriad of activities including role play.” The key she explained is that with the right books, which means books that are fun for young learners, with a storyline they like, a bit of suspense and, judging from books she had brought along, filled with beautiful pictures.
The teaching of EFL to young learners has become part of the elementary school curriculum in many countries all over the world with many programs, such as the very successful First English Adventure, teaching young learners using authentic, experiential, motivating and cognitively 
appropriate language activities.
“Stories offer a major and constant source of language experience for the young learner. They serve as an authentic contextual framework through which children are introduced to vocabulary and language structures.”
Using stories as context and based on vocabulary based on family and school, Dr Yael suggested, are motivating to young learners since they are a source of enjoyment for children as they are always willing to listen to them. In addition, stories are appropriate to the cognitive level of young learner since storybook genre is familiar and deals with topics they can relate to as children.
In addition, through stories, children develop literacy skills that will help them later in reading and writing. Stories offer a major and constant source of language experience for the young learner. They serve as an authentic contextual framework through which children are introduced to vocabulary and language structures.
