Useful resources
- objects from around the class – pencil, rubber, ruler, felt tips, etc.
- other objects – plastic fruit, toys (e.g. vehicles)
- sets of pictures dual language books and cds
- picture dictionaries
- games like the pairs games, pelmanism
- simple worksheets – especially those involving matching picture to word
| number | vocabulary areas | examples of words to be taught |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | social language | please thank you sorry hello goodbye etc |
| 2. | classroom objects | pencil rubber book board chair table carpet tray folder door felt-tip paint scissors glue rubber ruler milk crisps etc |
| 3. | areas of the school | classroom hall playground toilet dining hall office stairs staff-room library corridor car-park upstairs downstairs etc |
| 4. | school routines | assembly/playtime/dinner time/whistle/home time/ etc |
| 5. | clothes | shoes dress coat trousers trainers shorts swimming costume towel shirt blouse vest pants T-shirt socks jumper etc |
| 6. | parts of the body | head face eyes ears hair nose mouth teeth tongue body arms hands legs feet etc |
| 7. | health | tummyache/toothache/earache/cut/bleed/hurt/broken |
| 8. | colours | black white red blue green yellow |
| 9. | people | girl boy man woman children teacher etc. names of the teacher, headteacher, other children, other adults in the class, etc |
| 10. | family | mother father sister brother |
| 11. | reading | book page word picture story etc |
| 12. | maths – counting | 1-10, 10-20, 20-100 etc |
| 13. | maths – money | pound penny |
| 14. | maths – computation | add take away multiply divide etc more less |
| 15. | maths – shapes | square circle triangle rectangle etc |
| 16. | maths – measuring | scales centimetre, metre, gram, kg etc |
| 17. | meals/food | breakfast, dinner, tea, supper food usually served for school dinners, other food as necessary |
| 18. | meals/utensils | plate knife fork spoon bowl rubbish bin cup saucer mug etc |
| 19. | instructional verbs (classroom) | sit down/stand up/stand still/write stop draw colour paint listen line up go and get/show me your/stick/ etc |
| 20. | instructional verbs (PE) | jump hop climb roll throw catch etc |
| 21. | street (nouns) | road pavement zebra crossing traffic lights etc shop house car lorry van etc. |
| 22. | street (verbs) | look cross stop be careful go etc |
| 23. | time | now yesterday tomorrow last week next week dinner time play time home time 9 o’clock half past seven etc |
| 24. | house – outside/rooms | roof door wall garden etc sitting room/bedroom/kitchen etc upstairs downstairs |
| 25. | house – furniture | bed bath cooker etc |
| 26. | day/months | Monday, Tuesday, March, April etc |
Functions and sentence patterns
As well as teaching individual words, it is important that pupils are taught sentence patterns. The following lists some key language functions and associated sentence patterns that are useful for beginners.
| Functions | Sentence patterns |
|---|---|
| Identifying objects | What’s this? It’s a ….. What are these? They’re ….Is this a ….?Yes it is/Not it isn’tAre these ….? Yes they are? No they aren’t |
Polite English
| Can I have a/some ….. please? Can I go/etc. to ….. please/ I’m sorry. Excuse me. |
| Identifying actions | What are you doing? I’m ……ing What is she/he doing? S/he’s ….ing Are you …..? Yes I am/No I’m not. Is s/he ….ing? Yes s/he is/No s/he isn’t. etc. |
| Locating objects | prepositions:- Where’s the/my/your …? It’s here/there It’s on/in/under/beside/etc. |
| Describing problems | What’s the matter? I’ve hurt/lost/broken … My …… hurts/is broken/is missing/etc. |
| Expressing likes/dislikes | Do you like …..? Yes I do/No I don’t. |
| Expressing possession | That’s mine/his/her/ours/etc. I’ve got a ……. Have you got a …….? Yes I have/No I haven’t |
| Describing objects | What colour is this ….? It’s red/blue/etc. How big/long/wide is this …..? It’s … cm long/wide. They’re the same/different. What’s it made of? It’s made of wood/paper/etc |
| Counting | How many … are there? There is/are …1/2/3/etc. a lot/many/some/a few/etc. |
| Describing ability | I can …../Can you ….? Yes I can/No I can’t. |
| Reporting and narrating | simple past tense:-
|
| Describing lifestyles and regular events | What does a chemist/bus driver/etc. do? What do you do after school? etc. |
| Predicting the future | I’m going to be an astronaut/film star/zoo keeper … We will look at that tomorrow. I’m holding a party on Saturday. etc. |
| Referring to past and present | I’ve hurt/broken/lost my ……. Has s/he gone/seen/written etc. |
| Expressing obligation | You must/mustn’t/have to/ought to/should |
Based on guidelines from Gordon Ward.