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Language and Education

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A Review of “Teaching Young

Language Learners”
a a
Jaemyung Goo & Alison Mackey
a
Department of Linguistics , Georgetown University
Published online: 19 Dec 2008.

To cite this article: Jaemyung Goo & Alison Mackey (2008) A Review of “Teaching Young
Language Learners”, Language and Education, 22:4, 350-351, DOI: 10.1080/09500780802152614

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500780802152614

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 350 Language and Education

References
Herdina, P. and Jessner, U. (2002) A Dynamic Model of Multilingualism: Changing the
Psycholinguistic Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Kachru, B.B. (1983) Models for non-native Englishes. In B.B. Kachru (ed.) The Other
Tongue: English Across Cultures (pp. 31–57). Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Masny, D. (1997) Linguistic awareness and writing: Exploring the relationship with
language awareness. Language Awareness 6(2/3), 105–118.

Teaching Young Language Learners

A. Pinter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 180. ISBN-13 978 0 19
442207 9 (pbk): £15.50.
This volume deals with a wide range of issues related to teaching children
between 5 and 14 years old. It focuses in particular on English as a foreign lan-
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guage. The author notes: ‘this book is for experienced teachers with an interest
in teaching English to children. It is for those teachers especially who wish to
reflect on and explore their teaching in view of the discussion of the links be-
tween practice and theory’ (p. 1). She discusses differences between younger
and older children in their developmental learning capacities, and recommends
different classroom activities in relation to the topic of each chapter. At the end of
each chapter, additional readings are recommended on topics of both theoretical
background and practical instruction. Resources for professional development
are also provided in the appendix. Since the book is written in a straightforward,
matter-of-fact style, and does not require much background knowledge in re-
spect of second language learning research, most teachers will find it a helpful
read.
The first three chapters discuss theoretical issues related to development and
learning in terms of Piaget’s stages of development and from the different per-
spectives of Vygotsky and Gardner (Chapter 1). How children develop their
first languages (Chapter 2) and learn second/third languages are discussed
next (Chapter 3). After briefly mentioning some policy-related issues in En-
glish language teaching (Chapter 4), the author discusses practical issues such
as teaching listening/speaking, reading/writing and vocabulary/grammar (in
Chapters 5, 6 and 7, respectively). In these chapters, the author makes several
useful recommendations with regard to what teachers should consider when
they teach younger or older language learners and provides examples of activ-
ities that can be used in classrooms. These examples can help teachers apply
the author’s recommendations to their own teaching contexts. Another useful
chapter (Chapter 8) deals with how to raise children’s awareness of a vari-
ety of factors that may influence their learning processes: social and affective
strategies, strategies related to raising awareness about what language learn-
ing is, metacognitive strategies and direct or cognitive strategies. Included in
this chapter are possible activities that teachers can use in developing strategies
that appear to benefit both language teachers and learners in teaching/learning
processes.
The remaining three chapters discuss issues related to materials design and
evaluation (Chapter 9), assessment (Chapter 10) and research in the primary En-
glish classroom (Chapter 11), all of which may help language teachers improve
 Book Reviews 351

the quality of classroom teaching and learning practices. In particular, the au-
thor emphasises the importance of learner-centered materials design and eval-
uation by adapting authentic texts, creating materials when necessary and us-
ing learner-friendly assessment techniques (e.g., observation, self-assessment,
portfolio and project work). Various methods of action research are described,
including observations, interviews, questionnaires and recording classroom
lessons. As in the other chapters that discuss practical teaching issues, examples
are provided.
Overall, this volume provides general, but useful information on various
related areas for teachers to take into account when teaching English to children.
Perhaps because the author discusses such a wide range of issues in a relatively
short volume, the link between practice and theory which this book purports
to provide is not always clearly manifested or elaborated; citations for research
in connection with the relevant areas are limited. For example, the chapters on
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first and second language acquisition are quite brief and some readers with
background in these areas might find them superficial. On the one hand, this
makes the book an easier read which appeals to a wider audience; on the other
hand, providing more relevant research-based information would add to the
credibility of what is being said in the book. In addition, it might have been
helpful to have a chapter that focused on the advantages and disadvantages
of different types of tasks that can be used with children. Although the author
mentions various activities from commercial textbooks, understanding why and
how certain activities work is as important, if not more so, than knowing what
type of activities or tasks may best benefit the learners. A chapter of that kind
would have provided teachers with an opportunity to review tasks, which are
increasingly being used in children’s EFL classrooms, more thoroughly.
Notwithstanding these minor criticisms, we believe that this volume deserves
classroom teachers’ serious attention, especially those looking for a primer on
the many issues involved in teaching English as a foreign (and second) language
to younger learners.

doi:10.2167/le134b.0 Jaemyung Goo and Alison Mackey

Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University

Problems in SLA
M. H. Long Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2007. Pp. x + 201. ISBN 0-8058-
3830-6 (pbk): £48.95; $27.50.
As anyone involved in SLA research knows, the field is full of problems. Some
are interesting ones for research, others are pointless, pernicious or otherwise
uninteresting muddles and debates that need to be killed off. Michael Long’s
Problems in SLA covers some of his favourites, arguing for pursuit of some and
death for others. The book makes stimulating reading for anyone who wonders
what SLA is trying to achieve, but it also adds more unnecessary problems to
the SLA literature.
The book is divided into three parts, two chapters per part. Part 1 is concerned
with problems in SLA theory development, particularly what Long sees as a very
unhealthy proliferation of theories (Chapter 1). He then goes on (Chapter 2)