Talking about Implications for Teaching English to Young Learners Lesson 2

OVERVIEW Consider the implications of what we know about how children learn in the young learner language classroom Look at the young learners' different outlooks at different ages and what topics of interest they prefer at different stages of their development List criteria we need to keep in mind when teaching language to young learners and link this to a checklist that we can use when setting up our language classroom Look at what is involved in teaching three different age groups of language learners: the 3-6 year olds, the 6-9 year olds and the 9-12 year olds.

Considering the Needs of Young Learners need to be involved in language learning activities that are stimulating, relevant to them and varied enough to cater to their learning types need to be offered a supportive learning environment in which the teacher scaffolds their learning and emerging thinking in the target language Teachers: need to create a rich language teaching environment where children interact with each other and use the target language as much as possible need to know that learning and acquiring language is not linear, especially for young language learners. It involves the input of meaningful language recycled in a variety of activities

Understanding our Students' Levels Learners need to be provided with: opportunities to progress in their social and academic use of English target language suitable for their age group and language level academic language that allows them to learn about and discuss topics they might be studying in other subject areas at school Teachers need to: recognize that young learners are still developing cognitively keep this in mind when determining what learners can be taught and what and how they are able to learn

Children’s interests and views of the world, according to their age groups

Reflecting on our Students' interests Similar themes are touched upon again and again, but the planned outcomes differ based on the ages and language levels of the students E.g. 3-5 year olds 5-7 year olds 7-9 year olds 9-11 year olds 11-16 year olds PETS Creepy crawlies Animals Zoos and animals Ecology and the environment FOOD Food and shopping Being sick and going to the hospital A balanced diet Keeping fit .

4. Activities should be meaningful and purposeful. 1. We should make language activities for our young learners concrete. 2. Social interaction should be at the core of language learning and teaching. Setting Up Criteria for Language Teaching (when looking at how and what we teach our young learners based on our understanding of how children learn) 3. Language teaching should be appropriate to the cognitive, linguistic and interest levels of YL. 4. Activities should be meaningful and purposeful.

Setting Up Criteria for Language Teaching (cont.) 5. We should be teaching learners both verbal and non-verbal language. 6. We must support all target language teaching and learning activities with pictures, resources and realia. Setting Up Criteria for Language Teaching (cont.) 7. Young learners must be given thinking time, choice and an opportunity to use the target language. 8. We should try to create a stress-free environment in the language classroom.

Creating the Right Environment in the Classroom 1.Try to create everyday, real-life situations for language use within the classroom so that the language itself is one of the only new aspects of the interaction. 2. Have a continued exchange of meaning in the classroom through communicative activities that encourage young learners to get involved and interact with each other. 3. Create activities through topics that are relevant to our learners' everyday situations and routines and reflect their interests and views of the world.

4. Support and extend children's language learning as 'caretakers' or 'carers‘ (use praise to encourage children). 5. Create a stress-free, interesting and supportive environment for our learners in which they will feel encouraged to try out new things. 6. Recycle input in a variety of different contexts that will create a highly meaningful, purposeful and motivating learning environment.

CARETAKER TALK (Mother- child) This kind of talk is called caretaker talk, parents as carers talk to help the development of their child’s language by: repeating phrases said earlier reacting positively to what the child says even if words are not complete or perfectly pronounced adding to or improving what children say Now, I’m going to put you sunblock. Sunblock? Yes, sunblock lotion to protect you from the sun. I like block.

CARETAKER TALK (Teacher – child) Teachers in school do the same with the learners. The same principles as scaffolding - children could develop and grow because the adult would give support to their thinking and encourage them to think in ways that would develop their own ability to think through situations. What is the story about? A bear Black. no.. brown Yes, the story is about a bear. And what color is the bear? Yes, the bear is brown.

reflect their interests and environment build on their established When looking at a young learner classroom, we should take note of the role played by: Syllabus Materials & Resources It should: provide new and suitable challenges for the learners, so that more than language is developed and acquired develop the learners' further knowledge in other areas of the curriculum, too, by way of a cross-curricular approach to the activities encourage real language use, as opposed to providing empty language activities They should: match the cognitive stages of the learners reflect their interests and environment build on their established knowledge

Planning the Syllabus topic- centered & activity-based create a more natural language environment that the learners can relate to encourage learners to develop natural language skills, alongside learning in general cater for different ability levels Planning the Syllabus topic- centered & activity-based provide a wide variety of activities that can recycle the focus language make the language learning process more meaningful & purposeful for learners provide activities that use different intelligences to cater for different types of learners create an opportunity for lots of practice and repetition without boredom promote group, pair & individual work

Meaningful and Purposeful Activities In planning activities and deciding if they are meaningful, purposeful and suitable for the learners, the teacher should be able to answer Yes to the following questions: Is the activity relevant and interesting for the age of the learners ? Is the activity suitably challenging - neither too hard nor too easy? Is the activity purposeful? Can the learners understand why they are doing it? Are they motivated? Is there real language in the activity? Would these learners use this type of language naturally in their first language outside of the classroom? Is there a real product at the end of the activity? Is a song sung, a survey finished, a quiz completed, etc?

Aspects of Learning for 3-6 year olds learn a lot – a new language is just another thing to take on with little effort, as long as it is relevant to their age and interest level are still acquiring the final aspects of their native language, but understand how people interact and do so more and more may not work in social groups - will require careful management by the teacher.

a lot of concept development is still going on ,e. g a lot of concept development is still going on ,e.g., the concept of time, so we need to know what concepts they are able to deal with before we use them in the language class not able to read and write in their native language or target language - beginning to 'read' labels and things around them, like street names and shop signs support them in their development labeling things in the classroom in the target language focus mainly on their own world and family - attending school is the beginning of their arrival into the wider local world window book

Aspects of Learning for 6-9 year olds developing reading and writing skills in native language - can be used to aid with their learning of the target language starting to understand a lot about the concrete world - should be able to work together in social groups beginning to take responsibility as learners - should learn and reflect on their learning, assuming different responsibilities in group activities: note taker, timekeeper, activity manager, and so on. starting to understand and learn more about the world around them, beyond their family and school

Aspects of Learning for 9-12 year olds starting to develop a mature approach to learning and thinking - starting to think in abstract terms becoming more connected with the world through links with such things as music, films, hobbies and travel reading and writing is very well developed for most children these skills can aid and focus their learning in the language class topics introduced in class can reflect expanding interests & the activities can encourage exchange of ideas Get more aware of the benefits of learning the target language