ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE CHILD: KEY CONCEPTS FOR

SUCCESS IN EARLY LANGUAGE LEARNING PROGRAMMES

Helena Curtain
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Language programs for young learners must take into account the distinctive
characteristics and needs found at each level of cognitive, social, psychomotor, and
educational development, as well as the insights of second language acquisition
research. Specific applications for the young learner are identified in the key concepts
outlined below.

New languages are best learned when...

1. Target language instruction is consistently conducted in the
target language with minimal use of the native language. The target
language and the native language are kept distinctly separate.
The target language is used as the primary means of interaction, so that learners
are immersed in an environment where the language is used naturally as a real means
of communication. The teacher helps the student understand the target language
through use of gestures, visuals, and concrete examples, and through the routines and
rituals of the lesson and the school day. Especially with beginning students, teachers
use their acting abilities, as well as concrete objects, to illustrate meaning.

In most

language classes, students are surrounded by language that is made meaningful

because of the context and because of the way the teachers speak to them. This
language of the classroom environment is assimilated by students and later drawn
upon when they are ready to express messages of their own in the target language.

Many teachers have found the simple device of using a sign to indicate the present
language of communication to be very successful in maintaining a clear separation of

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languages. The sign, for example, reads "English being spoken now" on one side, "On
parle franais maintenant," on the other.

Whenever the language of classroom

communication changes, the sign is flipped over. The sign encourages cooperation
from the students--and even reminders from them when the teacher or a fellow student
slips and may speak the native language instead of the immersion language. Teachers
who have tried this technique have found it to be very effective.

They

scaffold

instruction

so

that

learners

become

increasingly

independent in their use of the written and spoken target language.

In the past learners were considered to be a relatively passive subjects and the teacher
was seen to "pour" knowledge into these passive subjects. Currently learners are
considered as active participants in the learning situation, active participants whose
own internal motivation controls and shapes their own learning process.

We now know that learning is the process of extracting meaningful patterns from the
rich input of the environment and learning can actually be inhibited by efforts to simplify
input or to present information! on in a carefully sequenced, pre-patterned manner.
Learning is best served by providing students with meaningful purposes and rich and
varied contexts.

3.

Learning occurs in meaningful, communicative contexts that carry significance

for the student.

For the young learner these contexts include social and cultural

situations, subject content instruction, and experiences with activities such as art,
crafts, sports, and hobbies.

The context within which communication takes place is the basis for all language activities.
This context can vary greatly from activities based on the regular school curriculum such as
those founded in immersion programs and in content-based or content-related instruction to
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activities more typically found in early language learning programs such as play, drama, roleplay, games, songs, children's literature, folk and fairy tales, storytelling and re-telling and
puppetry.

4.

Instruction is affectively engaging, made meaningful and memorable through the

use of story form and activities such as storytelling, music, games, rituals, drama, and
celebrations.
Engaging the emotions in language learning through the activities mentioned above will make
the learning more memorable for the students.

5 . Learning is organized in terms of concrete experiences; ! visuals,

props, realia, and hands-on activities are integral components of
instruction.
Because many language programs, especially at the beginning levels, are dealing with
students at concrete stages of cognitive development, successful approaches to beginning
level foreign language classes emphasize concrete experiences and extensive use of visuals
and physical activity.

6.

Learners are surrounded with meaningful language, both oral and written, from

beginning through advanced stages of language acquisition.

Expectations for

language production, very limited for beginners, increase as learners move! from early
to intermediate and more advanced stages
Research in second language acquisition suggests the need for early language
experiences that provide many opportunities for listening comprehension especially at the
early stages. When listening comprehension rather than speaking is emphasized, students
associate the new language with meanings before they make a conscious attempt to produce
sounds and expressions. This is an important factor related to current early language learning

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programs since early language learning programs of the past placed a heavy emphasis on
imitation and speaking.

An initial listening period should be provided in which students are not expected to respond in
the target language. Immersion programs provide a good model for this initial listening period.
Immersion programs, students hear only the foreign language from the first day of school. All
classroom instructions and directions are in the foreign language so that students acquire the
foreign language in play and work situations that are related to meaningful communication.
Even though the teacher is constantly using the foreign language, at the beginning stages, the
students may use English among themselves and also in speaking to the teacher. This
reduces anxiety and frustration and allows the children a period of time in which they can build
up comprehension skills. Within one to two years in the program (or longer depending on the
program model) the children move rather automatically into speech production.

! x540Activities that encourage listening skills, especially in the early stages, include such
strategies as active physical involvement, during which the students must respond to verbal
commands by performing certain actions. Other activities that encourage listening skills are
teacher demonstrations (with the teacher making use of props, pictures, and pantomime to aid
comprehension), descriptions, and telling or reading a story. To use descriptions for listening
practice, the teacher describes an object or picture, constantly using gestures and specific
elements of the object or picture to make the meaning clear. The teacher can then check
listening comprehension through yes-no, short answer, either-or questions, or by pointing or
having students otherwise identify information from the picture.

7.

Reading and writing are used as communicative tools, as appropriate to the age

and interests of the learners, even in early stages of language development.

Written forms of familiar language can be used, even in early stages of
language acquisition, with children who are literate in their first language. As is the
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case in first-language instruction, children in early language learning programs learn to

read and write about things they can understand and respond to orally in the target
language.

Reading is a natural reinforcement of the spoken word and is presented

and nurtured as a form of communication. In the case of languages such as Japanese,

the children must be taught two different writing systems..

8. Assessment of learning is frequent, regular and ongoing in a manner that is

consistent with targeted standards program goals and teaching strategies.

Assessment is an integral part of planning and instruction just as are the choice
of theme and language, content and culture objectives. Well-written outcomes
and well-planned lessons contain or imply an assessment strategy, and the first
step in structuring any lesson is to ask the questions, "What do I expect
students to be able to do as a result of this instruction?" and "How will I know if
they have met this goal?"
9. Culture is learned through experiences with cultural materials and practices.
Elements from the target language culture are essential components of all planning and
teaching.
Children learn about a new culture through meaningful experiences with cultural
practices and cultural events that are appropriate to their age level, their interests, and
the classroom setting. Providing experiences with the new culture rather than simply
talking about it are just as important in culture instruction as is providing meaningful,
communicative experiences in language instruction rather than just talking about it.

10. Planning is organized around a thematic center and aligned with content and
performance standards. There is a balance among the basic goals of culture, subject
content, and language in use.

Holistic integrated, thematic instruction is an important emphasis in today's elementary

schools and this emphasis is an important part of early language learning programs.
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Thematic teaching provides a focus for language learning experiences. In thematic

teaching the curriculum is organized around a thematic center which can originate in
the classroom, the school, or the environment . Activities are planned so that they
relate to each other and fit within the framework of a lesson or a thematic unit. Such
integrated holistic approaches are based on the premise that when students are
engaged in meaningful activities they acquire language, including writing, as naturally
a! s they learn to walk and talk.

This thematic center around which planning is focused enables the creation of a
"web" of activities around a central idea which may be a curriculum concept, a word, a
theme, a book or a story. Since the web shows graphically how the pieces of the
theme fit together, students are able to see the relationship of the theme or unit to
many areas of the curriculum and are able to make the connections. Within the web,
second language learning is combined with subject content leaning and cultural
learning in an integrated language process, and not pursued as a separate skill. Webs
can be organized in different ways: in a free form manner or according to various
content disciplines. Below are examples of both types.
11.

Curriculum

and

instruction

are

organized

according

to

communicative syllabus rather than a grammatical syllabus. Grammar is

presented through and for usage rather than analysis; grammar for its
own sake is not the object of instruction.

Today's emphasis on communication has greatly affected early language learning

programs. This emphasis has shifted the focus of instruction from language analysis
with a focus on form, to language use with a focus on function. Students are engaged
in! meaningful natural communication in situations which relate to their everyday
communication needs.

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12.

Activities are geared to the learner's interests, cognitive level, motor

skills level, and experiential background. They are designed to appeal to

a variety of learning styles and to incorporate frequent opportunities for
movement and physical activity.

The most important factor in teaching and learning in any setting is the learner.
Learners of any age differ from one another in significant ways: individuals may learn
best through listening or reading; they may learn more easily alone or within a small
group; they may require heavy visual reinforcement or learn better through verbal
explanations; they may respond better to a sequential or to a random organization of
materials or experiences. Each learner's experience differs from those of class peers
in a variety of ways. Children and adolescents, however, differ from older learners in
certain patterned and predictable ways as they progress through stages of
development.

An understanding of these general developmental characteristics is

especially important for the elementary school foreign language teacher. (Curtain and
Pesola, 1994)

13. The foreign language program draws from and reinforces the goals
of the general school curriculum, including across-the-curriculum goals
such as cognitive skill development and global education.

Content-based instruction has arisen from the need in foreign language

immersion programs to teach the standard curriculum while focusing on
instruction in a second language. In content-based instruction, the goals of the
language curriculum are broadened to include reinforcement of goals of the
regular school curriculum.

In a content-based foreign language lesson, the

foreign language teacher carefully selects concepts from the regular curriculum
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that are clearly defined and do not require an excessive vocabulary load. The
teacher takes into consideration the language skills, content skills, and cognitive
skills required by the students in order to achieve success with the lesson.
Content-based instruction is gaining more and more attention, because it allows
schools to combine t! he goals of the second-language curriculum with some of
the goals of the regular curriculum.

Content-based instruction enables the

second language teacher to focus on academic needs and critical thinking

skills while, at the same time, focusing on second language needs. It provides
many more contexts for communication than would be possible if the language
were taught in isolation from the rest of the school program.

Integration of language and content goals also correlates closely with the
move toward communicative language teaching and the move toward more
holistic instruction. In order for communication to take place, there must be
some knowledge or information to be shared.

In content-based teaching

situations, this information is the school curriculum, and students develop

communicative ability as they exchange information about measurement,
animal properties, distances, and so forth. The language class becomes an
enhancement and an integral part of the entire school program. The success of
immersion programs has brought about interest in bringing the benefits of
content learning to other types of elementary school foreign language
programs which have
vocabulary topics.

traditionally been organized thematically around

Content-based instruction expands these topics to give

more opportunity to use language meaningfully and to provide reinforcement of

academic skills that will help the students in other areas outside of the foreign
language program. In content-based instruction, students become proficient in
the language because the focus is on the exchange of meaningful messages
and the language use i! s purposeful. Teachers do not have to look for an
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artificial context for activities that will help to bring across certain language
structures. The language arises out of natural situations in a science lesson on
magnets, or animal habitats, a social studies lesson on using world maps or a
mathematics lesson on estimation and measurement.

. If such instruction is incorporated into an early language learning program,

language practice has a purpose other than just isolated manipulation of
language features such as plurals or negatives or object pronouns, and is
broadened to encompass the rich texture of the curriculum in which various
meaningful activities can take place and in which critical thinking skills can be
called into play/
Note: This article draws! heavily from Curtain and Pesola, 1994 and from Curtain and
Dahlberg (In Press)

REFERENCES
Curtain, Helena and Carol Ann Pesola.(1994) Languages and Children: Making the
Match, Second Edition, White Plains, New York: Longman. (Available from Prentice
Hall, USA)
Curtain, Helena and Carol Ann Dahlberg (In Press) Languages and Children: Making
the Match, Third Edition, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Allyn and Bacon.

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