Teacher License – English 1 Complete Review Guide 2026–2027

4. Bottom-up listening relies on decoding sounds and words; top-down listening relies on prior knowledge and context. A good listener combines the two.
5. Total Physical Response (TPR, from Asher's work): the child carries out commands with movement without being required to speak. It suits young beginners.
6. Indicator 6.39.6.2: speaking strategies. Accuracy activities include repetition, drills and chants; fluency activities include information gap, role play, and pair and group work.
7. Information gap: each learner holds information the partner lacks, so they ask and answer to complete the task. Speaking then has a real purpose.
8. Error correction: in accuracy work the teacher corrects immediately; in fluency work the teacher notes common errors and discusses them after the activity (delayed correction). One technique is recasting the child's utterance in correct form.
9. Indicator 6.39.6.3: reading strategies. Reading usually starts with phonological awareness and phonics, together with common sight words such as "the" and "said" that cannot be read entirely by sounding out.
10. Blending is joining the sounds of a word to say it (/k/ /æ/ /t/ then cat); segmenting a word into its sounds is used for spelling.
11. Shared reading: the teacher reads a big book while the children look on and join in. Guided reading: small groups at a similar level read a suitable text with teacher support. Reading graded readers freely builds fluency.
12. Reading skills: skimming for the general idea, scanning for specific information, and predicting from the title and pictures (top-down). With young learners, pictures serve as context.
13. Indicator 6.39.6.4: writing strategies. For young learners, start with letter formation (left-to-right direction, capital and small letters), then copying, semi-controlled writing, and free writing.
14. Process writing: prewriting (gathering ideas), drafting, revising (improving ideas and organisation), then editing (correcting spelling and grammar). A sentence frame such as "I like ___." supports beginners.
15. Indicator 6.39.6.5: vocabulary strategies. Present words with real objects, pictures, actions and context; review at spaced intervals; use word cards and games. Teach chunks such as "Can I have...?" as a single unit.
16. Indicator 6.39.6.6: grammar strategies. The inductive approach gives examples in context and learners notice the pattern; the deductive approach starts with the rule, then examples. For young learners the first suits better, through stories and songs, with focus on form when needed.

Common mistakes in this chapter

• ✕ Confusing phonics (a way of teaching reading by linking sounds to letters) with phonetics (the study of speech sounds). For a question on teaching a child to read words, the answer is phonics.
• ✕ Confusing bottom-up listening (from sounds and words up to meaning) with top-down listening (from prior knowledge and context down to meaning). Activating prior knowledge and predicting belong to the second.
• ✕ Correcting every mistake at once during a fluency activity. It is better to delay correction until after the activity so communication is not interrupted; immediate correction suits accuracy work.
• ✕ Treating drills as a fluency activity. A repetition drill controls form, so it serves accuracy; information gap and role play serve fluency.
• ✕ Confusing skimming (reading quickly for the general idea) with scanning (reading quickly to find a specific piece of information such as a name or number).
• ✕ Starting grammar by explaining the rule with its terminology to a young child. That is a deductive approach suited to older learners; for young learners, present language in context with examples and let them notice the pattern (inductive).
• ✕ Presenting a new word only once. Remembering vocabulary needs spaced repetition, varied activities (recycling) and several occasions of use.
• ✕ Asking young learners for free writing before preparing them. The teacher should begin with copying, then guided writing with a sentence frame, and give freedom gradually.