TEACHING ENGLISH

TO
YOUNG LEARNERS
Dr. Şeyma Yıldırım
2023
Week 1
WHO ARE YOUNG LEARNERS?
• The term ‘young learners’ refers children from
the first year of formal schooling (6 years old in
our country) to 12 years of age.
• In some cases, language teaching may take place
at a younger age, such as 3 to 6.

• ‘very young learners’.

• Although these age groups are seen as
representing one group, there are in fact
distinctive differences between children

• We need to consider four related but separate

developmental areas; physical, cognitive, socio-
emotional and communicative growth.
• Physical development refers to physical
growth and motor control.

• As a child matures, the higher portions of the

brain develop, and the child attains increased
control over finer and finer muscle movement.
• Cognitive development is intellectual growth.
As a child matures, the methods he uses to
organize, store and retrieve information for
problem solving and generalization also
improve.

• Each child perceives the world differently as

s/he interprets incoming stimuli in the light of
her/his past experiences.
• Socio-emotional development is also closely
related to the other areas of development.

• As a child matures, he becomes less egocentric

and more social. Each and every day he learns
more about the social behaviors, social rules and
customs of his society.
• Communicative development is also closely
related to other areas of development.
• In order to understand the abstract nature of
language, the child has to develop cognitively.
• In order to be able to produce speech, he has to
develop physically.
• In order to use language and communication
appropriately, he has to develop socio-
emotionally.
• See the chart for very young/ young/ late young
learners!!!
WHY SHOULD CHILDREN LEARN A
FOREIGN LANGUAGE?
• Foreign languages should be taught to children
as early as possible (Curtain & Pesola, 1994;
Gilzow & Branaman, 2000; Rhodes &
Branaman, 1999; Met & Rhodes, 1990).

• There are personal and social benefits???

 Personally
• develop a lifelong ability to communicate with
more people and a deeper understanding of their
own and other cultures.

• derive other benefits from early language

instruction, including improved overall school
performance and superior problem-solving
skills.
• Children who receive second language
instruction are more creative and better at
solving complex problems (Hakuta & Pease-
Alvarez, 1992; Rosenbusch, 1995; Boston, 1998).

• Furthermore, knowing a foreign language

ultimately provides a competitive advantage in
the workforce by opening up additional job
opportunities in our children’s future.
 Socially,
• fluency in other languages can enhance our
economic competitiveness abroad,

• improve global communication,

• maintain our political and security interests.

WHY IS IT BETTER FOR CHILDREN TO
LEARN A LANGUAGE IN PRIMARY
SCHOOL?
• Children who learn a language before the onset
of adolescence are much more likely to have
native-like pronunciation (Bhatnagar,
Mandynur, Buckhinghan & Andy, 2000, Fabbro,
1999).

• The younger the child is when learning a

language, the closer the process comes to
acquisition. The child has less biological,
neurological, social and emotional barriers that
a teacher should overcome. As a result, children
become better learners without much resistance
to a foreign language.
WHAT IS THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND
LANGUAGE LEARNING?
• Acquisition takes place through experience
• Learning takes place in a formal atmosphere

• Children are exposed to their native language 24

hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Exposure is limited to the classroom and only
for a limited time in foreign language learning
setting .
• For children, learning is a matter of experiencing
rather than storing information to memory.

• Formal grammar and correct usage are too

abstract for them.

• Children are more concerned with the use of

language to convey meaning than with correct
usage.

• They want to actually use the language, not to

learn about it.
• Teaching the rules of usage is not necessary for
children.

• Young children are willing to use language

without worrying about grammar correctness.

• They rarely have inhibitions that are typical of

teenagers and adults.

• They have a marvelous ability of imitation.

• When they are exposed to a good model, they

can learn a language without an accent.
• Children love to play and learn best when they
have fun.

• Thus, it is better to begin with a play-centered

approach, and gradually move to more conscious
and cognitive learning as they mature.
HOW MUCH ENGLISH AND THE MOTHER
TONGUE SHOULD BE USED IN THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE CLASSROOM?
• Firstly, you can conduct entire lessons in English
with children but your use of English must be
consistent form the very first lesson.

• Pace yourself carefully and try to use the same

language frequently.
• the children learn the classroom language very
quickly because they will hear you saying it
frequently.

• use a lot of body language and facial expressions.

• maintain discipline in English because you can

communicate your disapproval or anger with
your voice, your eyes and your posture.
• You don’t need to use mother tongue.

• Only if there is a very serious

discipline problem, you can
deal with it alone with the
child in the native language.
• should not switch to the
mother tongue finding excuses
such as the instruction is too long and difficult.
• simplify the language, or demonstrate or give
examples.
• accept the fact that children will use their
mother tongue when speaking to each other,
except during language practice activities.

• Moreover, children will use their mother tongue

to speak to the teacher until they are ready to use
English.

• never pretend that you can’t speak or

understand the mother tongue.

• When children speak to you in mother tongue,

respond in English.
• CHILD AS A LEARNER BY IMPORTANT
THEORISTS:

• Piaget
• Vygotsky
• Bruner
Jean Piaget: Constructivism
• He aims to find out how children function in the
world that surrounds them and how this influences
their development.
• The child continually interacts with the things in
his/her environment himself/herself and tries to
solve the problems around, through which learning
occurs: The more the problems, the more and better
the learning.
Assimilation: action takes place without any change to
the child (fork as spoon)
Accommodation: the child adjusts to the new
possibility (fork as fork)
• 4 developmental stages: sensory motor (0-2);
pre-operational (2-7); concrete operational (7-
11); formal operational (11-...)

• Problem of his theory: The child is in his own

world not in communication with the others.
• Piaget neglects the society.

• Foreign Language Learning: children can

construct their own knowledge working with
objects and ideas, and they can make sense of
others’ actions and language by bringing their
own experience and knowledge. The
developmental stages should be kept in mind.
Lev Vygotsky: Social Constructivism
• He gives importance to language and other
people in the child’s world/environment.

• Child’s development in the first language helps

his/her cognitive development, as language
works as a new tool for the child to construct
meaning, to organize information (talking to
themselves).

• Child is an active learner in a world full of other

people.
• • Zone of Proximal Development: ZPD shows
the difference between current knowledge and
adult guided potential knowledge. It is not what
a child can do alone but what she can do with
skilled help from an adult or older person.
• Learning to do things and learning to think are
both helped by interacting with an adult. The
child first does things in social context with
other people, and gradually shifts away from
reliance on others to independent action and
thinking.

• Foreign Language Learning: Teacher is there to

support and to model the language and then
language is transformed and internalized to
become part of the individual child’s language
skills and knowledge.
Jerome Bruner: Scaffolding &
Routines
• Language is an important tool for cognitive growth.

• Scaffolding: It is the talk that supports a child to

carry out an activity.
• Care-taker talk is simplified and fine-tuned to help
the child understand.
• The parents, through scaffolding, may grab the
attention of their child to the task, simplify the task,
keep them on track to complete the task, show other
ways of doing the task, and control the child’s
frustration.
• Similarly, the teacher talk should also be simplified
and fine-tuned according to the level and age of the
children.
• Both in in-class and out-of-class activities, the
teachers may simplify a language task and
support the child to keep him/her on that task,
to demonstrate/model useful strategies to
complete a task or to encourage young learners
use language to interact with others.
• Formats and Routines: Since the child is
familiar with the formats and routines, they feel
the security of familiarity and they make sense of
the language through familiar experiences.
Bedtime stories are the examples of how parents
follow routines.
• The classroom routines not only help language
development as the children predict meaning
and intention through familiarity of the event
but also contribute to the management of the
classroom.
CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG
LEARNERS???
1. Energetic and physically active
• Teachers should utilize children’s natural
tendency to be physically active and not get
frustrated with the fact that young children
cannot sit still for long periods of time.
• You might incorporate kinesthetic activities that
encourage young learners to get up and move
around.
• Total Physical Response (TPR) is a commonly
used method with children because it connects
language to movement (Asher, 1977).
2. Children are spontaneous and not
afraid to speak out or participate
• Young learners are not very inhibited. Older
learners can be more self-conscious and
concerned with how people judge them.
• YLs are much more willing to participate in
activities and speak out in English without
feeling embarrassed. They are good imitators of
language.
• Teachers can use simple songs, rhymes, chants
and dialogues with kids because they are ready
to follow along.
3. Children are curious and receptive
to new ideas.
• YLs have a natural curiosity. The world is a new
place for them, and they want to know more
about it.
• Teachers should prepare activities that arouse
students’ curiosity. For example, the Mystery
Bag game is a commonly used activity.
4. Children are imaginative and enjoy
make-believe
• YLs love activities that encourage them to use
their imagination.
• Using role plays and drama games allows them
to play “make-believe” and pretend they are
someone or something else.
• For example, children can learn new vocabulary
about animals and have fun pretending to be an
elephant, lion, making the movements with their
bodies and sounds with their voices.
5. Children are easily distracted and
have short attention spans
• YLs are known for being easily distracted.
• Although children have short attention spans,
they can concentrate on longer activities if they
are fun and interesting to them.
• Teachers should capture their attention with
brightly colored pictures, photos and posters.
6. Children are egocentric and relate
new ideas to themselves
• YLs are egocentric, centered on themselves and
their immediate surroundings.
• They have difficulty perceiving things form
another person’s perspective.
• As they get older, they improve in this area.
7. Children are social and are learning
to relate to others
• YLs are very social and like to talk to each other.
They love to play games with each other and can
cooperate to do activities.
• Teachers should have a balance of activities that
allow students to have various types of
interaction, such as S-S in pairs, Ss-Ss in groups,
T-S one-on-one and T-Ss as a whole class. This is
important because communicating in different
contexts is like real life.
8. Children learn by doing and
interacting with the environment
• Piaget (1970) emphasized that children are
active learners and thinkers.
• Children construct knowledge from interacting
with the physical environment in developmental
stages.
• According to Piaget (1970), children learn
through their own individual actions and
exploration.
• For example, a young child does not learn the
meaning of a door by listening to a definition of
a door and having someone explain the function
of a door.

• Children learn what a door is by opening and

closing the door repeatedly.
• Creating opportunities for children to learn by
doing and learn by interacting with their
environment is extremely important in the
young learner classroom.

• Teachers can bring in realia for students to

interact with.
9. Children need support and
scaffolding by the teacher
• Equally important is an understanding of how
children learn through social interaction.
• Vygotsky (1962) found that children construct
knowledge through other people, more
specifically through interaction with adults or
more competent peers. the teacher’s role is in
scaffolding the learning process.
• Adults work actively with children in the Zone of
Proximal Development (ZPD), which by
definition is the difference between the child’s
capacity to solve problems on his/her own and
his/her capacity to solve them with assistance or
“scaffolding”.
• The adult’s role is very important in a child’s
learning process (Bruner, 1983; Vygotsky, 1962).
In the classroom, the younger the learner, the
more important
Bruner’s effective scaffolding
techniques;
• -make the child interested in the task,
• -simplify the task, often breaking it down into
smaller steps,
• -keep the child on track toward completing the
task by reminding the child what the goal is,
• -point out what is important to do or show the
child other ways of doing parts of the task,
• -demonstrate an idealized version of the task,
• -control the child’s frustration during the task.
10. Children need a learning
environment similar to first language
acquisition
• In the acquisition of L1, the language used is
always authentic and contextualized. Children
are highly motivated to learn and use the
language because it enables them to meet
immediate needs and respond to their
surroundings.
• Traditional L2 classes tend to focus more on
form and isolated structures rather that a
meaningful context in which the message is
more important than form.

• If the language used is not in context and not

meaningful to young learners, then it will be
difficult to motivate them to participate and
learn.
11. Children learn language through
lots of meaningful exposure and
practice
• L1 is being spoken and used in various contexts
all around the child. This constant source of
meaningful exposure to language in authentic
contexts helps children acquire language
naturally and quickly.
• However, when learning English as a foreign
language, usually the only place and time
learners can hear or use English is the
classroom.
• To create an optimal environment for learning
English, the input in the classroom should be
comprehensible (i+1) and just above the
students’ current level of English (Krashen,
1981).
• Teachers can support comprehension of input by
using lots of visuals, realia, and gestures.

• In addition to giving lots of meaningful,

comprehensible input, it is important to give
students plenty of chances to practice using
English in class.

• Without enough opportunities to produce

output, students will not be able to test their
hypotheses about how English works.
GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE

• There are eight widely accepted intelligences

that were defined by Howard Gardner (1999).
• Spatial-visual (picture smart): Children
may think in picture and images and show
special abilities in drawing. They may learn
through visuals and organize ideas spatially
through graphic organizers.
• Bodily-kinesthetic (body smart): Children
may learn through gestures and manipulatives
and enjoy activities that involve movement,
dancing, running, jumping and touching.
• Musical (music smart): Children may learn
through auditory rhythms and melodies and
enjoy singing, chanting, tapping rhythms, and
listening activities.
• Linguistic (word smart): Children tend to
think in words and enjoy reading, writing,
discussions and dialogues. They also have the
ability to figure out grammatical patterns.
• Logical-mathematical (number smart):
Children do not just show a propensity toward
math but also to be more analytical. They learn
through reasoning and enjoy puzzles and
experiments.
• Interpersonal (people smart): Children like
interacting with people and show ability to relate
to others. They enjoy discussing and socializing
with their peers and cooperative activities.
• Intrapersonal (self smart): Children have a
tendency to be self-reflective and like to work
alone. They may be more in touch with their
emotions, feelings, and abilities.
• Naturalistic (nature smart): Children have
an affinity toward nature, including the
environment, plants and animals. They may
enjoy activities that take place outdoors in
nature.