There are many more children than adults learning English as a foreign language in classrooms around the world. And yet English language teaching to adults is often perceived as the default and, until quite recently, has led the way in areas such as teacher education, classroom methodology and research.

I hope that the tips in this book will help to unpack the range of knowledge, skills, attitudes and professional qualities that are needed to teach children and contribute to creating a new, age-appropriate default. In writing the tips, I have drawn, above all, on my experience as a classroom practitioner in different contexts, mainly in Europe and Latin America, over many years. I have also drawn on reading and research which has contributed to knowledge and understanding of primary English language teaching globally. My experience as a parent, and as a teacher educator, working with primary teachers and trainers in many countries all over the world, has also influenced my perspective.

At the heart of the tips is a belief that, in order to be effective, you need to master basic skills and techniques that enable you to positively embrace the challenges of working with lively, diverse classes of children. At the same time, and above all, you need to see your role as an educator of children. This means adopting an approach in which you continually take into account all aspects of children's social, emotional, psychological, physical and cognitive development as an integral part of your teaching, rather than narrowly focusing on language learning outcomes alone.

The tips in this book are designed to cover the years that children are in primary education, approximately aged six to twelve, and reference is made to lower and upper primary when relevant. However, as the educational approach, language background, literacy development, age and maturity of children vary in different cultural contexts, you are the best judge to decide which tips are appropriate to implement with which age groups in your situation.

The most helpful and rewarding way to use this book may be to start with a topic or tip that particularly interests you and move around from there. Referencing between tips is included to guide you in making connections to related themes. References to specific ideas or books mentioned in the tips are provided at the bottom of each page.