I'm new to TEFL, but it seems like an appropriate place to ask a
quick question about teaching methods for young learners!
Specifically, I'm interested to know whether teachers still use
the "word shapes" teaching method. These are the visual cues
where the teacher draws a solid border around the "shape" of the
word to help students identify the letters with ascenders and
descenders (the "sticks" of tall letters and "tails" of letters
that sink below the baseline). I've spoken to a few primary
school teachers who swear by the word shape / word wall method
and others who say that word shapes are based on VERY outdated
research. As with many pedagogical topics, there seems to be
heated debate on wordshapes' effectiveness. Any thoughts or
suggestions? Do primary school teachers still use wordshapes as
teaching aids? Thanks in advance, looking forward to your
feedback