Essentials: Teaching English to Young Learners in Primary School

This contribution is about selected key issues related to the teaching of English to young learners (TEYL). Focusing particularly on primary school education, it reflects upon central theories and evidence-based research related to how young learners acquire and learn English. After an outline of central teaching principles, we develop the notion of a principled mindset. This provides the basis for a discussion of competence development and the integration of materials – focusing particularly on the role of authentic materials, scaffolding, classroom phrases, and the importance of literary texts. A basic introduction into how to plan competence-based lessons or lesson sequences follows. Throughout this contribution, examples aim to highlight the importance of a theoretical grounding for teaching practice.