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 with teaching English as a foreign language to children.

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

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

Available now

Learning on this course

If you'd like to take part while our educators are leading the course, they'll be joining the discussions, in the comments, between these dates:

2 May 2022 - 12 Jun 2022

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

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.

What do people say about this course?

"I want to thank the British Council for giving me the opportunity to learn about how children learn English in early childhood. I learned about how children learn, about learning through play, about how to talk to young children and about watching children learn. Now I feel more confident about child development and language learning thanks to this course and I will certainly apply what I learned here in the future because I hope to become an early childhood practitioner. "

Anna Arrisico

"I definitely feel more confident about child development and how it really works, teaching English to very young children. I'm now more confident about how to explain the learning process to parents. It's important to share this knowledge with the parents so they can support their children in the best way."

Teodora Kobor

Who will you learn with?

Sheona Gilmour

More than 20 years experience working with early years children and young learners in kindergartens, schools and teaching centres. I never stop learning, growing and changing.

Tracey Chapelton

I have been teaching languages for over 25 years. I love the creative aspects of teaching and learning, and I now mostly work in the areas of teacher development and materials writing.

Who developed the course?

British Council

The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language.

We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million people overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.

Learning Time with Timmy - British Council

The British Council presents an innovative approach to learning English for 2-6 year olds in partnership with animators Aardman.

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Access to this course
Access to ALL eligible short courses
Learn at your own pace
Discuss your learning in comments
Digital certificate when you're eligible

Buy this course

$59

One-off payment

Unlock your expertise

Access to this course
Learn at your own pace
Discuss your learning in comments
Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Buy this course

Join with limited access

Free

Try before you buy

Limited access to course content for 6 weeks

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