When demonstrating the ‘Silent Way’ to my Japanese TEYL trainees, I often use a glove puppet to make the session a little more interesting. I’m not that fond of this methodology and think it’s better off as part of a lesson rather than a base for a whole lesson. However, it does give me the opportunity to demonstrate the use of puppets with young learners (YL). It’s quite good to tell the YL that they can speak to the puppet, but it will only speak the target language. Eventually, the YL acknowledge the puppet more than the teacher. It’s quite fascinating to watch. Below is a photo of Harry the Hedgehog that I sometimes use in class.
