English in Early Childhood: Language Learning and Development (FutureLearn)

Teaching English to children while they’re still learning their mother tongue is a challenging but rewarding prospect. In this online course, you’ll learn how and why children learn best through play. What can parents and practitioners do to enable children to get the most out of a learning experience?
This course for parents and practitioners will explore how young children learn English and investigate many more aspects of early childhood learning and development.
British Council educators will share their insights and experiences, so that you can learn how to best talk to young children; how to create the best environment for them to learn English as an additional language; and how to monitor their progress.
Through articles, videos and live events you will hear from early childhood experts and parents, and see for yourself how young children learn inside the early years classroom. At every stage, you will be offered tips, advice and downloadable resources that will help you at teaching english as a foreign language to children.
You will join discussions and have the opportunity to interact live with our experienced educators.
What topics will you cover?
How children learn

• Early childhood development
• Children and language acquisition

Learning through play

• The importance of play
• Creating the right environment for play
• Developing language through play

How to talk to young children

• Encouraging emotional development
• Developing language through interactions

Learning: English and everything

• Developing the whole child
• Learning English in context
• Guiding the learning experience

Positive relationships and enabling environments

• Helping children feel safe and happy
• The importance of knowing the child well

Watching children learn

• Every child is unique
• Observation
• Assessment in the early years
• Planning: building on what children can do

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

• Investigate how children learn and how they acquire language
• Discuss the importance of play and look at language development opportunities
• Reflect on ways to communicate effectively with young children
• Explore meaningful learning and developing language in context
• Demonstrate the connection between learning and a child’s well-being
• Identify ways to support and challenge children, and measure their progress

Who is the course for?
This course will be of interest to you if you are: a parent of young children who wishes to support their child learning an additional language; an English teacher or an early childhood practitioner; or someone who is interested in the area of child development and language acquisition.
If English is not your first language please be reassured that this course is suitable for those who have learnt English to around intermediate level (approximately B1 on the CEFR).
The principles of learning an additional language during early childhood apply to all languages, so if you are a parent, teacher or practitioner interested in teaching languages other than English, you will find plenty of relevant methods in the course.