1. Chapter. 6 LEARNER VARIABLES Ⅰ
TEACHING ACROSS AGE LEVELS

2. TEACHING CHIDREN
Children’s success in acquiring SL belies a subconscious effort.
Adults are not necessarily less successful in their efforts.
The popular claim fails to differentiate very young children from pre-pubescent children.
Number of complex personal, social, and political factors

3. TEACHING CHIDREN Intellectual Development
“Ain’t nobody got no pencils?”
Centered on ‘here and now’, on the functional purpose of language
Little appreciation for our adult notions of “correctness”
Cannot grasp the meta-language we use to describe & explain linguistic concepts

4. TEACHING CHIDREN Rules of thumb Don’t explain grammar using terms.
Rules in abstract terms should be avoided.
Some grammatical concepts can be called to learners’ attention by showing them certain patterns and examples.
Children must understand the meaning & relevance of repetitions.

5. TEACHING CHIDREN 2. Attention Span
Make them interesting, lively, & fun
Activities should be designed to capture their immediate interest.
Variety of activities
Animated, lively, & enthusiastic about the subject matter
Sense of humor, put your self in their shoes
curiosity

6. TEACHING CHIDREN 3. Sensory Input Physical activity
Hands-on activities
Sensory aids
Your own nonverbal language

7. TEACHING CHIDREN 4. Affective Factors
Children are innovative in language forms Extremely sensitive, especially to peers.
Help your students to laugh at mistakes.
Be patient & supportive to build self-esteem.
Elicit as much oral participation as possible from students.

8. TEACHING CHIDREN 5. Authentic & Meaningful Language
Canned or stilted language will likely be rejected.
Language needs to be firmly context- embedded.
A whole language approach is essential.

9. TEACHING ADULTS More able to handle abstract rules and concepts
Too much abstract generation about usage & not enough real life language use can be deadly for adults
The rule of keeping your activities short & sweet also to adult-age teaching
Appeal to multiple senses

10. TEACHING ADULTS A modicum of general self-confidence
The fragility of egos may not be quite as critical as those of children.
Better able to understand a context-reduced segment of language
Temporary digressions to dissect & examine isolated linguistic properties
as long as students are returned to the original context

11. TEACHING ADULTS “Do’s” and “don’t”
Intelligent adults with mature cognition & adult emotions
Show respect for the deeper thoughts & feelings that may be “trapped” for the moment by a low proficiency level.
Don’t treat adults in your class like children.: calling them “kids”, using “caretaker” talk, talking down to them

12. TEACHING ADULTS
Do give your students too many choices in engaging in cooperative learning!
Don’t discipline adults in the same way as children!

13. TEACHING TEENS
The “terrible teens” are an age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness, growing, and changing bodies and minds.
The success of any intellectual endeavor will be a factor of attention a learner places on the task
Teens’ attention span shortened & intellectual task at hand may suffer due to many diversions present in life.

14. TEACHING TEENS Varieties of sensory input are important.
Ego, self-image, and self-esteem are at their pinnacle. Teens are ultra-sensitive.
Occasional diversions from the “here & now” nature of immediate communicative contexts to teach some grammar or voca.
Not to insult them with stilted language or to bore them with over-analysis.