Primary success stories: Getting primary learners interested in learning English

Explore ideas for generating interest in English with a large group of primary pupils, shared by a primary school teacher from India.

A young Indian teacher stands at a whiteboard teaching her learners in a low-resource classroom

In this video, Indumati from Bihar, India, talks about how she has managed to generate interest in learning English in a context where English is not a compulsory subject.

With only a blackboard and a class of 200 primary learners, Indumati explains how she takes a short simple text and exploits it in a fun, engaging and interactive way. Using only gestures and 'slap the board', Indumati has managed to engage and motivate a large group of learners who had no reason to learn English.

Watch 'Getting primary learners interested in learning English'

Reflection and discussion

One of the purposes of these resources is to help you with your own teacher development in related contexts. If possible, discuss the following questions with colleagues.

  • Would the activity that Indumati describes would work well with your classes?
  • Can you think of any other ways that you could generate interest in reading texts in your context?

If this video is not available for viewing in your location, you can watch the video here.

The video was first published in 2016.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 08/11/2016 - 14:45

I teach English language in a school (PMS) in a town near Lahore. It's a fact that there are inadequate facilities in most of the elementary and high schools in my country. But I think still we have ways to make the pupils interested in English language. Of course, the size of the classes is too big in my school. There are average 45 students in each class. I often conduct different game activities in pairs and small groups from grade six to ten. Students in these classes take part energetically in activities. I wonder that they wait for the 'English language period' anxiously. It was really difficult in start for me, but once you are able to bring them on track, it becomes easy to teach. Although result are not satisfactory at this stage but I believe most of the students will be able to acquire sufficient knowledge and proficiency in English language in near future.

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