An account of a keypal project for Korean children

The main reason for teaching English at primary level is to enable our children to use language in real situations. Children see little purpose in studying sentences that do not make sense in their world, yet they do understand the purpose of language to communicate, identify, persuade and find solutions (Holderness 1991).

Traditional language-based teaching tends to place emphasis on language structures rather than meaning, and therefore denies children a real purpose for learning English. Brewster(1991), however, describes current approaches to English language teaching which make use of projects to provide opportunities for children to use English in a meaningful way. Holderness (1984) points out that if children are given interesting project topics they will be motivated to search for meaning and explore in greater depth. Projects can therefore be far more stimulating and challenging than those language exercises which concentrate solely on form. Moreover, task-based learning can make teacher-centred classrooms more learner-centred, as students are invited to help each other and become actively involved in their own learning process (Nunan 1989).