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Teaching English to Young Learners in Sunday School
Patricia Thornton-Houser
Kinjo Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan
As a Christian living and working in Japan, I am sometimes asked to help in Japanese churches by doing English lessons with young learners in Sunday School programs. This has become a popular way for local churches to provide a service to their communities. However, finding appropriate materials is challenging. There are a lot of good resources for teaching English to children, but few of these use the Bible or Christian stories as their foundation. There are also many good Sunday School materials, but they are mostly designed for native English speakers. So, over the past few years, I have been putting together short units that combine Bible stories with English teaching for young learners in Japan who have not yet learned to read in English.
A Story and Theme-Based Approach
Preschool and early childhood educational curricula are often organized by themes such as “the community” or “penguins” and provide multiple opportunities for children to learn about the topic through stories, games, writing, and songs. The use of a thematic curriculum has also been used in language teaching, especially for young learners. McClosky (2002) suggests that thematic organization offers educators opportunities to cycle and recycle related language and concepts so that children are supported in their efforts of developing the complex connections that lead to learning.
In the materials developed for Teaching English to Young Learners in Sunday School, a Bible story is used as the basic unit around which a thematic lesson is developed. The theme is then reinforced with other activities such as singing, playing games, or role-playing. Appropriate language is taught for each activity. Because young learners need to change activities frequently, there are a variety of short activities for each theme.
Stories
The Bible is a rich source of stories for young learners, however care must be taken to make the story simple and comprehensible to language learners. What makes a good language-learning story?
Stories are not too detailed in terms of the story line or the visuals used.
Stories are comprehensible to young learners (language that is at the right cognitive and linguistic level).
Stories are supported with pictures and/or actions. The storytelling is as interactive as possible.
Stories use repetitive phrases and language to help young learners remember and use the language.
Example Bible story for young learners of English
Abraham Follows God
Before you begin tell the children to listen for the word “listen”. When they hear “listen” put their hands behind their ears to show they are listening.
This man’s name is Abraham. (Show a stick puppet of Abraham.)
He lived in a place like this. (Show a picture of a sandy area with a few trees and a hill; elicit or teach the vocabulary.)
One day God talked to Abraham. (Show a picture of Abraham looking at the sky with rays coming down from the clouds.)
Abraham loved God and listened to Him. (Children put their hand behind their ears to show they are listening.)
God told Abraham to move to a new place. (Show a picture of a different place—a place with green grass.)
So, Abraham went. (Show a picture of a map and move the stick puppet of Abraham from the first place to the second place.)
He didn’t go by himself. He took his family—his wife, Sarah (Show a stick puppet of Sarah), and his nephew Lot (Show a stick puppet of Lot).
He also took his animals. (Show stick puppets of cows and sheep.)
They walked for a long time until they came to the new home God gave them. (Move all the stick puppets together along the map.)
Abraham loved God and listened to Him. (Children put their hand behind their ears to show they are listening.)
Story follow-up:
Today’s story was about a man who listened to God and went on a long journey (demonstrate journey by moving figures on a map). He had to move his family and animals to a new home. They had to walk. They had to take bags like this (show a backpack). What would you take if you were going on a long journey? (show pictures of things to put in the backpack such as food, clothes, etc.) Have children volunteer items or say the name of items on the picture cards.
Storytelling variations
Make a shadow play using an overhead projector
Use flannel boards and figures
Make stick puppets by cutting out pictures of the characters and objects in the story and attaching them to craft sticks
Have children role-play the actions while you tell the story.
On the Teaching English to Young Learners in Sunday School website, you will find links to simple Bible stories and some suggestions for language activities based on the story.
Resources for storytelling from a language learning perspective
The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers, Penguin Press
Tell it Again! The New Storytelling Handbook for Teachers, Penguin Press
Story as Vehicle, Multilingual Matters
Storytelling with Children, Oxford University Press
Songs, Chants, and Fingerplays
Songs, chants, and fingerplays can be used to support language development by providing repetition of structures and words in a fun way. They will also aid in teaching pronunciation since they involve putting stress in the right places. Look for songs and chants that are either based on the general language theme or the Bible story. The language structures and vocabulary should be comprehensible and at an appropriate cognitive level for the children. If the words are simple, you can teach the words by having the children recite them together. If they are more complex, you could make a rebus story with the words, substituting some words with pictures, to make it easier for the children to remember. Point to the picture as the word is said or sung. Adding motions or actions is another good way to involve the children and help them make language connections.
Teaching a song or chant
1.Listen to the song/chant without singing.
2.Teach the words
3.Teach the words + actions
4.Sing the song (at least twice)
Songs and chants should use language that is clear and simple for young language learners. There are a few traditional Sunday School songs that I have found easy to teach and that children enjoy singing. On the Teaching English to Young Learners in Sunday School website, you will find words to these songs or links to the words and music as well as some simple songs with familiar tunes for some of the Bible stories. It is also easy to write your own easy lyrics for familiar tunes such as Row, Row, Row Your Boat or London Bridge. For example, with the Abraham story you will find a simple song to the tune of Farmer in the Dell on the website.
Traditional Sunday School songs for English language learning
If you’re happy and you know it (action words)
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah
I’m in-right, out-right, up-right, down-right happy all the time (opposites)
Climb, climb up sunshine mountain (action words; substitute other words for climb such as walk, run, jump.)
Deep and wide (adjectives, nature)
Jesus loves the little children (colors)
Father Abraham (body parts)
Be careful little eyes (body parts)
Resources for songs, chants and fingerplays
KIDiddles (http://www.kididdles.com/): a website with words and music to children’s songs
Games
Games provide a great motivation for young learners to practice the language they are learning. Children need a rich learning environment that includes movement and the opportunities to observe, touch, listen, and talk that games offer. To be useful in a language learning setting, the game must have a clear linguistic element. The language element could involve the children speaking or listening as they respond physically to something the teacher says.
There are many popular games that can be adapted for use with Bible stories and themes. For example, with the Abraham story mentioned above, children could play a follow the leader game and say and do the action that everyone has to mimic (walk, jump, sit, etc.). With the same theme of going on a journey, the teacher could make a board game and use picture cards as the clues. There is a link on Teaching English to Young Learners in Sunday School to a board game pattern and ideas for a game for Abraham’s journey. With a story like the Good Samaritan, a game like “Poor Joe” could be used to practice body parts.
Resources for game ideas
Games for Children, Oxford University Press
Genki English website
Games and Activities for the ESL Classroom—ITESLJ website
Please Contribute Your Ideas
The Teaching English to Young Learners in Sunday School website currently has thematic activities for the following Bible stories: Creation, Noah, Tower of Babel, Abraham’s Journey, the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Treasure, and the Good Samaritan. In addition, there are links to commercial and online resources that could be useful for teaching Bible stories and songs to young learners.
If you are teaching English to young learners through a Christian school or church school program and have lessons or ideas you would like to share, please send them. I will post them on the website with credit to you. You can find more information on the Submissions page of the website.
References
Ellis, G. & Brewster, J., (1991), The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers, Penguin.
Ellis, G. & Brewster, J. (2002). Tell it Again! The New Storytelling Handbook for Teachers. Penguin.
Games and Activities for the ESL Classroom: http://iteslj.org/c/games.html
Garvie, E. (1990). Story as Vehicle. Multilingual Matters.
Genki English. http://www.genkienglish.net/games.htm
Lewis, G. (1999). Games for Children. Oxford University Press.
McClosky, M. (2002). Seven Instructional Principles for Teaching Young Learners of English. TESOL Symposium. San Diego.
Wright, A. (1995). Storytelling with Children. Oxford University Press.
Please
contact Patricia Thornton-Houser with any questions and visit their website athttp://www.studypatch.net/sunday
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