The Theories of Childhood in Teaching English for young learners

Oleh Bagus Putra Asnda

State Islamic Institute of Metro

ABSTRACT

A. Introduction
Anything that involves teaching child takes some knowledge and specialized training.
Therefore, teaching children is not a child's game, despite what the general public believes. In
fact, a thorough understanding of child development is necessary to comprehend what is
happening throughout any child's play. That is, teachers and candidates for teaching positions
should be deeply knowledgeable about child development. The phrase "child development" in
this context refers to a kid's growth in terms of cognitive, intellectual, psychological, linguistic,
and physical abilities. We cannot disregard non-linguistic development-related variables in our
work as language teachers. We must adopt a comprehensive approach to child development. In
this regard, a teacher education program is mandated to have courses that will help student
teachers better understand how child learn and think. Understanding these ideas can allow you
to practice childcare in a way that is developmentally appropriate as you think about and reflect
on your own childcare practice1.
They will also aid in your comprehension of particular behaviors and child development.
Along with taking each theory into account, we'll also examine how each has affected or been
reflected in practice in early years settings. It's also critical to understand that no single theory
can encompass all facets of development; some theories emphasize cognitive growth, while
others place a stronger emphasis on social and emotional development. It's critical to increase
our knowledge of children's behavior, responses, and learning styles 2. The theories of each
theorist are distinct from one another and stand alone. however when taken as a whole, they
help us understand how children change as they become older.

Discussion
1. The Theories of Childhod
2. Compare Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner’s Theory of Language Learning
3. Identify The Character of Young Learner from the Theoies
B. Conclution
Bibliography

Piaget

In many ways, this period is a time of preparation for the next stage rather than a stage in own right,
and piaget him self typically describe preoprational childern in term of what they cannot do, rether than
what they can do. However, he also identified a number of psitive acquistion such as cognitive sturcter
of identified, function, correspondences, and regulation, all described leter. The main characteristic of
preoprational thought are egocentrism, rigidity of thought, semilogical reasoning, and li,it social
cognition.

Resource
1
S E E Profile, “Learning Theories,” no. January 2012 (2019).
2
Early Years, “Theories of Child Development Supporting Members to Provide the Highest Standards of Care and
Learning for Children,” 2016, 1–17.
I have been working on teaching young learners a lot in these past months, mostly due
to a new project we are implementing in our school, so I really thought about sharing
some of the views I have been studying which definitely impact the teaching of these
students.

Cognitive development

According to McKay (2006:6-14) children are in constant gradual development,

continuing to learn through concrete experience, what can be called ‘learn through
doing’ . Their thinking develops in knowledge and intellectual skills, but not yet able to
use meta-language, the ability to use language, to describe language.

She also describes them regarding their writing ability which at this age is hoped by the
use of drawings. Writing is gradually taught and improved together with their abilities to
remember the words and their spelling. When children are 7-8, she also mentions they
start to self-correct and to be able to convey meaning only though writing itself – when
at school, obviously.

As per Pinter (2011:9) explaining Piaget’s theory, at 6-7 years of age, children are at
their pre-operational stage of cognitive development, meaning that they are already able
to understand concepts like counting, classifying according to similarity. They have an
idea of past, present and future but focused on their present. Still not able to abstract
concepts. At the age of 7, though, they demonstrate an ‘intellectual revolution’ when
they start thinking in a more logical way.

Children at 7-8 are at what he called the concrete operational stage of cognitive
development, a critical turning point as it marks the beginning of logical or operational
thinking, when the child starts working things out ‘in the head’. They are able to start
seeing from different points of view not only their own lives. Some organised, logical
thoughts are now evident, although, they still need the concrete reality. ‘Concrete
operations, involves the systematic manipulation, physical or mental, of concrete
objects’, Voyat (1982:21).

Children from 6 to 8 are in what Pinter (2011:9) called ‘stage three’ in which they have
the ‘ability to think in a logical fashion – but difficulties and coping with formal logic in
decontextualised situations; Using analogy competently; Development of hierarchical
classification’. She also discussed Vygotsky’s child development theory which he does
not break into stages, but proposes a continuous development with social environment
playing crucial role and specially the role of experts providing quality assistance to their
learners.

Brewster, Ellis & Girard (2002:27-28) present a feature of these children cognitive stage
of development that has to do with taking sometime for the children to learn, but calling
the attention to how quickly they forget things. They also mention the short
concentration span, a characteristic also spoken of by McKay (2006), Cameron (2006),
Roth (1998) and Shin and Crandall (2014).

Pinter (2011:9) states that ‘attention increases overtime’  and that a ‘linear and steep
rise in memory store development alternate between the ages of 6 to 11’. ‘Children’s
memories strategies become more effective with age but they can rehearse only with
help’, complements Pinter (2011:27). She also states that ‘by the age of six and seven
children can recall the important features of the story, and they can combine information
into a coherent story and reorder the sequence of events to make it more logical
(Mandler 1984)’. Pinter (2011:32) also says that ‘knowledge about memory increases
between the age of 4 and 12’,  but ‘children younger than eight do not have a well-
developed sense of self and inability to self evaluate’ (Harter 1998).

From 6 to 8, children try to ‘construct meaning’ and ‘foreign language learning depends
on what they experience’, says Cameron (2006:6). They have an ability to ‘learn
through instruction in mediation’, explaining Vygotsky’s theory of learning that children
move forward into a step further in learning with the help of adults or experienced peers
be seen as internalising knowledge from social interaction. This means that they are
able to learn through concrete experience together with their peers and teachers in a
social environment.

Although children at this age range are still attached to fantasy, they are gradually
becoming more realistic and rational, Roth(1998:8). They start distinguishing between
fantasy and reality, as explained by Shin and Crandall (2014:32), reaching the concrete
operational stage. Learning is ‘heavily contextualised in concrete situations’ confirm
Brewster, Ellis & Girard (2002:27-28). Roth (1998:9) describes them as able to discover
‘coincidences’ and ‘more open to the outside world’, but not to abstractions.
Lightbown and Spada (2010:31) describe these learners as ‘willing to use the language
even with quite limited proficiency’. Roth (1998:8) says that they may use the tenses –
past – present – future – correctly if well practiced, but will only understand the concept
after 8 or 9 years of age. Brewster, Ellis & Girard (2002:28) claim they are still
developing literacy in their mother language which may corroborate with their ability to
make most with little language proficiency, but as McKay(2006:13) states, their ability to
engage in extended talk is increasing, which ‘requires greater cognitive and linguistic
abilities and then conversational interaction, specially when a supportive interlocutor is
usually present’.

Social development

Children are still egocentric but learning to socialise, share and cooperate, taking turns
with others, McKay (2006:8-9).  Roth (1998:8) says they ‘have a good relationship with
peers’ at this age so they can work in teams, but they ‘alternate a lot of talking with
silence’.

Cameron (2001:218) shows the ‘Vygotskyan perspective on learning’ that emphasises

that ‘learning occurs in social contexts and through interaction with helpful adults or
other children’. So, as Pinter (2011:9) affirms ‘social environment plays crucial role’ in
the learning process. Children benefit more when in contact with other children to
experiment and learn.

Emotional development

Some authors are united in preaching that children at this age need to ‘experience
overall success’ and sense of progression, as McKay (2006:14) and Shin and Crandall
(2014:255). Brewster, Ellis & Girard (2002:27-28) state they ‘have different emotional
needs’, but yet, they need to feel secure, which success gives.

Cameron(2001:4) children also ‘seek out intentions and purposes in what

they see other people doing bringing their knowledge and experience to their attempts
to make sense of other people’s actions and language’. They benefit from having
models and seek  for appreciation in what they do. They need support and scaffolding –
the term is used to describe ‘interactional support that is given to learners while their
language system is under construction. It enables them to perform a task at a level
beyond their present competence’, Thornbury(2006:201)

They get bored easily, and tasks must be varied and short to keep interest in them,
Brewster, Ellis & Girard (2002), Cameron (2006), Shin and Crandall (2014), McKay
(2006). One of scaffolding features that helps coping with this characteristic is to keep
children aware of the purpose and goals of the tasks.

Physical growth

Children have a lot of physical energy with a need to be physically engaged in tasks, as
Brewster, Ellis & Girard (2002:27-28) and Shin and Crandall(2014:25) describe.

This development is characterised by ‘children’s gross and fine motor-skills

development as explained by McKay(2006:11). They are getting more body control with
time as claims Roth(1998:8).

Behaviour

Children are participative, spontaneous and curious. They prefer to play in ‘same-sex
groups’ and admire their teachers. Points raised by McKay (2006), Cameron (2006),
Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2002), Roth (1998) and Sin and Crandall(2014).

General overview of the implications in teaching

Regarding cognitive stage of development, lessons should cater for ‘learn though

doing’, providing lots of exposure and practice with tasks centred in concreteness to
help learners’ understanding, but a mix of fantasy and reality is to be used.

Tasks should be short and varied to keep their interest and to make most of their
concentration, as they cannot concentrate for long periods. Rehearsing language,
chunks can be done with the help of the teachers.

Scaffolding should always be present, providing tasks that increase in levels of demand
as they grow older and more at ease with the language. This is also applicable to
writing, a relatively new linguistic skill for them, as they are also learning that in their
mother language.
 Working with tasks that allow classifying, finding the odd one, ranking vocabulary items
are well seen by these age learners.

As for their social developmental stage, teachers should keep in mind having the
learners working in groups and interacting with peers. This would overlap with their
emotional stage, providing a sense of security.

Focusing on their physical development, tasks should make use of their bodies,
providing movement as to allow them to burn their energy positively and learning.

Conclusion

I hope that this piece of information may help you in your lessons as providing
knowledge when choosing the approach and activities to use. Of course, not all children
are the same, and teachers should teach their learners and not exactly only go through
the book they have adopted.

This is just food for thought… There is so much more to study and learn and this has no
intention to be a final word… Just a quick overview.