Educating young learners: The importance of developing fine motor skills

Hawys Morgan
A female teacher sat in a classroom with a young child playing with toys
Reading time: 5 minutes

Teachers of young learners will be familiar with the importance of developing children’s fine motor skills. Building muscle strength, hand-eye coordination, and control are essential parts of students’ development during their early years.Ìý

A holistic approach to education

For young learners, their education is frequently holistic. A single game or activity might develop their speaking and listening skills, mathematical knowledge, social interaction, artistic development as well as motor skills. In the same way, improving fine motor skills can form a natural part of students’ English classes and can have the following benefits:Ìý

  • Builds concentration and self-esteem
  • Actively engages students in their learning
  • Develops the ability to switch between physical and mental activities
  • Improves social development and autonomy

Below are some simple ways you can develop fine motor skills in your classroom.ÌýÌý

Building muscle strength

Holding a pen for prolonged periods requires strong hand, wrist and arm muscles. If you’ve ever had to sit long hand-written exams, you will be familiar with tired and aching hand muscles.

It is important that students develop their muscle strength so they have the stamina and control needed for writing. Kneading and rolling play dough is a fun way to build these muscles. Then, children can use their playdough creations to role-play scenarios such as having a picnic or visiting a farm. They could even model it into letter shapes.

When singing songs or telling stories to young learners, teachers often incorporate actions to reinforce meaning. This is another opportunity to build those muscles. Children could also create shadow puppets with their hands to act out stories.ÌýÌý

Craft activities that involve scissors and gluing also help improve stamina and hand-eye coordination.Ìý

Mark making

Mark making is an important step in a child’s development, encouraging creativity and coordination.Ìý

Try giving your students the opportunity to explore different mediums of mark making. For example, they could draw marks in trays of sand, jello, shaving foam, flour or rice. Talk to them about their sensory experience (Is it cold? Do you like it? What color is it?). They could start making marks with their whole hands and then, as their coordination improves, use an index finger. Then, they can start using a stick to make marks.ÌýÌý

As their fine motor skills develop, try using magic markers, chunky crayons and egg chalks to make large marks. Egg-shaped chalks are easier for young children to grip. Each straight line, wavy line and circle is another step on the road to learning how to write.Ìý

Pincer grip

As children move on from general mark making, it is important to establish a correct grip when using a writing tool. This is especially important if you expect your students to go on to use a cursive style of handwriting in the future.Ìý

The pincer grip is when we hold something with our index finger and thumb. Peeling off and placing stickers, sorting building blocks and threading beads use this grip and provide opportunities for practicing colors, numbers, vocabulary and prepositions of place. Doing up buttons or zips uses this grasp too.Ìý

While it may be second nature for adults, for children, this grip requires precise control of the small muscles in their hands, wrists and fingers. Challenge students to pick up items with large blunt tweezers or chopsticks and work on their English at the same time (What have you got? I have a car. It’s small.).Ìý

Tripod grip

The next stage of development for most children is the tripod grip. It uses three fingers: the thumb, index and middle fingers. It enables children to keep their wrist steady so they can make small, precise pencil movements.Ìý

Some children find using a rubber pencil grip, or simply wrapping an elastic band or lump of playdough around the base of the pencil helps them maintain this grip.Ìý

At this stage, students will be learning to hold and use writing tools such as pencils, crayons, markers, chalks and paintbrushes.Ìý

Prewriting activities

Prewriting activities offer more controlled fine motor skills practice. The usual progression is to start with straight lines, zig-zags, curved lines and diagonal lines. Then move on to tracing over circles and u-shapes. This is all essential preparation for writing letters and words.Ìý

English courses for young learners are full of mazes, dot-to-dot, tracing and matching activities, all of which combine prewriting with learning English.Ìý

When it comes to writing letters, it can be helpful if students begin by drawing the letter shape in the air or in sand. They then trace the letter shape with an index finger, before finally tracing over the letter with a pencil.

Other writing systems

When teaching students who use a different writing system in L1, establishing fine motor skills routines can make all the difference to students’ writing.Ìý

It can be helpful to work on left-to-right orientation. For example, before they sit down to write, give students scarves to move from left to right in the air. These students will benefit from pre-writing activities that work on left-to-right, top-to-bottom patterns.Ìý

Social development

Doing up buttons, zips, and laces, turning on taps, cutting up food and opening boxes – all of these things improve students’ fine motor skills. They also promote autonomy and social development by helping students learn essential everyday life skillsÌý

This has an added advantage for the teacher. The less time you have to spend helping students with these tasks, the more time you will have to work on other areas of their development. Not only that, it is also motivating for students to have that ‘I can do it all by myself!’ feeling.Ìý

Students will be far better prepared to pick up a pen or pencil if they have developed strength, dexterity and stamina in their hands, wrists and arms. This will leave them free to concentrate on the language element of their classroom task, rather than the physical challenge it presents.Ìý

AboutÌýEnglish Code

Support your young learners withÌýEnglish Code,Ìýa 7-level course for 7-12-year-olds, offering 5 hours or more of English study per week. Available in both American English and British English versions, it promotes hands-on creative learning, investigation, fun projects and experiments.Ìý

Focusing on project work and STEAM learning, children develop fine motor skills while learning how to collaborate and solve problems with their peers. Core functional language is at the forefront, giving students the vocabulary and tools they need to become confident speakers of English inside and outside the classroom.

Learn more about English Code

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    The ethical challenges of AI in education

    By Billie Jago
    Reading time: 5 minutes

    AI is revolutionising every industry, and language learning is no exception. AI tools can provide students with unprecedented access to things like real-time feedback, instant translation and AI-generated texts, to name but a few.

    AI can be highly beneficial to language education by enhancing our students’ process of learning, rather than simply being used by students to ‘demonstrate’ a product of learning. However, this is easier said than done, and given that AI is an innovative tool in the classroom, it is crucial that educators help students to maintain authenticity in their work and prevent AI-assisted ‘cheating’. With this in mind, striking a balance between AI integration and academic integrity is critical.

    How AI impacts language learning

    Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini have made it easier than ever for students to refine and develop their writing. However, these tools also raise concerns about whether submitted texts are student-produced, and if so, to what extent. If students rely on text generation tools instead of their own skills, our understanding of our students’ abilities may not reflect their true proficiency.

    Another issue is that if students continue to use AI for a skill they are capable of doing on their own, they’re likely to eventually lose that skill or become significantly worse at it.

    These points create a significant ethical dilemma:

    • How does AI support learning, or does it (have the potential to) replace the learning process?
    • How can educators differentiate between genuine student ability and AI-assisted responses?

    AI-integration strategies

    There are many ways in which educators can integrate AI responsibly, while encouraging our learners to do so too.

    1.ÌýRedesign tasks to make them more ‘AI-resistant’

    No task can be completely ‘AI-resistant’, but there are ways in which teachers can adapt coursebook tasks or take inspiration from activities in order to make them less susceptible to being completed using AI.

    For example:

    • Adapt writing tasks to be hyperlocal or context-specific. Generative AI is less likely to be able to generate texts that are context-bound. Focus on local issues and developments, as well as school or classroom-related topics. A great example is having students write a report on current facilities in their classroom and suggestions for improving the learning environment.
    • Focus on the process of writing rather than the final product. Have students use mind maps to make plans for their writing, have them highlight notes from this that they use in their text and then reflect on the steps they took once they’ve written their piece.
    • Use multimodal learning. Begin a writing task with a class survey, debate or discussion, then have students write up their findings into a report, essay, article or other task type.
    • Design tasks with skill-building at the core. Have students use their critical thinking skills to analyse what AI produces, creatively adapt its output and problem solve by fact-checking AI-generated text.

    2.ÌýUse AI so that students understand you know how to use it

    Depending on the policies in your institution, if you can use AI in the classroom with your students, they will see that you know about different AI tools and their output. A useful idea is to generate a text as a class, and have students critically analyse the AI-generated text. What do they think was done well? What could be improved? What would they have done differently?

    You can also discuss the ethical implications of AI in education (and other industries) with your students, to understand their view on it and better see in what situations they might see AI as a help or a hindrance.

    3.ÌýUse the GSE Learning Objectives to build confidence in language abilities

    Sometimes, students might turn to AI if they don’t know where to start with a task or lack confidence in their language abilities. With this in mind, it’s important to help your students understand where their language abilities are and what they’re working towards, with tangible evidence of learning. This is where the GSE Learning Objectives can help.

    The Global Scale of English (GSE) provides detailed, skill-specific objectives at every proficiency level, from 10 to 90. These can be used to break down complex skills into achievable steps, allowing students to see exactly what they need to do to improve their language abilities at a granular level.

    • Start by sharing the GSE Learning Objectives with students at the start of class to ensure they know what the expectations and language goals are for the lesson. At the end of the lesson, you can then have students reflect on their learning and find evidence of their achievement through their in-class work and what they’ve produced or demonstrated.
    • Set short-term GSE Learning Objectives for the four key skills – speaking, listening, reading and writing. That way, students will know what they’re working towards and have a clear idea of their language progression.
  • Students sat ina library studying with laptops in front of them chatting to eachother

    Teaching engaging exam classes for teenagers

    By Billie Jago
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Teachers all over the world know just how challenging it can be to catch their students’ interest and keep them engaged - and it’s true whether you’re teaching online or in a real-world classroom.

    Students have different learning motivations; some may be working towards their exam because they want to, and some because they have to, and the repetitiveness of going over exam tasks can often lead to boredom and a lack of interest in the lesson.Ìý

    So, what can we do to increase students’ motivation and add variation to our classes to maintain interest?Ìý

    Engage students by adding differentiation to task types

    We first need to consider the four main skills and consider how to differentiate how we deliver exam tasks and how we have students complete them.Ìý

    Speaking - A communicative, freer practice activity to encourage peer feedback.

    Put students into pairs and assign them as A and B. Set up the classroom so pairs of chairs are facing each other - if you’re teaching online, put students in individual breakaway rooms.Ìý

    Hand out (or digitally distribute) the first part of a speaking exam, which is often about ‘getting to know you’. Have student A’s act as the examiner and B’s as the candidate.Ìý

    Set a visible timer according to the exam timings and have students work their way through the questions, simulating a real-life exam. Have ‘the examiners’ think of something their partner does well and something they think they could improve. You can even distribute the marking scheme and allow them to use this as a basis for their peer feedback. Once time is up, ask student B’s to move to the next ‘examiner’ for the next part of the speaking test. Continue this way, then ask students to switch roles.Ìý

    Note: If you teach online and your teaching platforms allow it, you can record the conversations and have students review their own performances. However, for privacy reasons, do not save these videos.

    Listening – A student-centered, online activity to practice listening for detail or summarising.

    Ask pairs of students to set up individual online conference call accounts on a platform like Teams or Zoom.Ìý

    Have pairs call each other without the video on and tell each other a story or a description of something that has happened for their partner to listen to. This could be a show they’ve watched, an album they’ve listened to, or a holiday they’ve been on, for example. Ask students to write a summary of what their partner has said, or get them to write specific information (numbers, or correctly spelt words) such as character or song names or stats, for example. Begin the next class by sharing what students heard. Students can also record the conversations without video for further review and reflection afterwards.

    Writing –ÌýA story-writing group activity to encourage peer learning.

    Give each student a piece of paper and have them draw a face at the top of the page. Ask them to give a name to the face, then write five adjectives about their appearance and five about their personality. You could also have them write five adjectives to describe where the story is set (place).Ìý

    Give the story’s opening sentence to the class, e.g. It was a cold, dark night and… then ask students to write their character’s name + was, and then have them finish the sentence. Pass the stories around the class so that each student can add a sentence each time, using the vocabulary at the top of the page to help them.Ìý

    Reading –ÌýA timed, keyword-based activity to help students with gist.

    Distribute a copy of a text to students. Ask them to scan the text to find specific words that you give them, related to the topic. For example, if the text is about the world of work, ask students to find as many jobs or workplace words as they can in the set amount of time. Have students raise their hands or stand up when they have their answers, award points, and have a whole class discussion on where the words are and how they relate to the comprehension questions or the understanding of the text as a whole.Ìý

    All 4 skills –ÌýA dynamic activity to get students moving.

    Set up a circuit-style activity with different ‘stations’ around the classroom, for example:Ìý

    • ListeningÌý
    • ReadingÌý
    • Writing (1 paragraph)Ìý
    • Use of English (or grammar/vocabulary).Ìý

    Set a timer for students to attempt one part from this exam paper, then have them move round to the next station. This activity can be used to introduce students to certain exam tasks, or a way to challenge students once they’ve built their confidence in certain areas.Ìý

  • A teachet stood in front of a class in front of a board, smiling at his students.

    How to assess your learners using the GSE Assessment Frameworks

    By Billie Jago
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    With language learning, assessing both the quality and the quantity of language use is crucial for accurate proficiency evaluation. While evaluating quantity (for example the number of words written or the duration of spoken production) can provide insights into a learner's fluency and engagement in a task, it doesn’t show a full picture of a learner’s language competence. For this, they would also need to be evaluated on the quality of what they produce (such as the appropriateness, accuracy and complexity of language use). The quality also considers factors such as grammatical accuracy, lexical choice, coherence and the ability to convey meaning effectively.

    In order to measure the quality of different language skills, you can use the Global Scale of English (GSE) assessment frameworks.

    Developed in collaboration with assessment experts, the GSE Assessment Frameworks are intended to be used alongside the GSE Learning Objectives to help you assess the proficiency of your learners.

    There are two GSE Assessment Frameworks: one for adults and one for young learners.

    What are the GSE Assessment Frameworks?

    • The GSE Assessment Frameworks are intended to be used alongside the GSE Learning Objectives to help teachers assess their learners’ proficiency of all four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing).
    • The GSE Learning Objectives focus on the things a learner can do, while the GSE Assessment Frameworks focus on how well a learner can do these things.
    • It can help provide you with examples of what proficiencies your learners should be demonstrating.ÌýÌý
    • It can help teachers pinpoint students' specific areas of strength and weakness more accurately, facilitating targeted instruction and personalized learning plans.
    • It can also help to motivate your learners, as their progress is evidenced and they can see a clear path for improvement.

    An example of the GSE Assessment Frameworks

    This example is from the Adult Assessment Framework for speaking.

    As you can see, there are sub-skills within speaking (andÌýfor the other three main overarching skills – writing, listening and reading). Within speaking, these areÌýproductionÌýandÌýfluency, spoken interaction, language range andÌýaccuracy.

    The GSE range (and corresponding CEFR level) is shown at the top of each column, and there are descriptors that students should ideally demonstrate at that level.

    However, it is important to note that students may sit across different ranges, depending on the sub-skill. For example, your student may show evidence of GSE 43-50 production and fluency and spoken interaction, but they may need to improve their language range and accuracy, and therefore sit in a range of GSE 36-42 for these sub-skills.