Teaching

Young
Language
Learners
By Annamaria Pinter
- SUMMARY
Chapter 1
Learning and
Development
• Learning is an active process.
• Children who get absorbed in games and also through
exploration learn quite a lot.
• Piaget stated that children construct knowledge by actively
making sense of their environment. E.g. birds hatch form
eggs – constructivism.
• Assume that pigs are also hatched form eggs- assimilation
• Getting to know new information and adapting to that – pigs
are an exception and that some do not hatch from eggs-
accommodation
• Piaget also mentioned about stages of development of
children.
1. Sensori-motor stage
2. Pre-operational stage
3. Concrete operational stage
4. Formal operational stage

• Piaget also mentioned that children under 7 years of age

lacked logical thinking and are driven by ego centrism.
• E.g. 3 mountain experiment
• Anyway several logical counter argument has also been
levelled against Piaget’s ideas.
• Vygotsky’s theory: Social Constructivism
• He agreed with Piaget’s ideas that children construct
knowledge for themselves but also highlighted that social
environment also plays a vital role in the development of a
child.
• He referred to ZPD – Zonal Proximal Development – The
ability of an individual child to develop and gain more
knowledge with a knowledgeable partner.
• It is also important to be aware abut the social learning
contexts from micro to the chrono system. E.g. self, family,
school, town, country
• Gardener’s multiple intelligences is important to note in
dealing with children who are unique.
• E.g. Linguistics, logical – mathematical, musical, spatial,
bodily- kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic
• And also there are different learning styles which is
important to be noted in dealing with kids.
 Chapter 2
Learning the first
language at home
and school
• Comparing the first and second language acquisition of
children in the second or foreign language classrooms is
vital since they are still in the process of learning their first
language.

• These two processes are intertwined less or more

depending on the age children start learning their second
language since children do not have a conscious
understanding of their 1st language.

• Adult learners differ from young learners due to various

factors.
• Adult learners can compare their 1st language with the 2nd language
and analyze and identify patterns and linguistic forms. Furthermore,
they can use their world knowledge as a tool to learn the 2nd
language.

• Due to the fact that young learners not having a proper understanding
of how their first language works, they do not have the ability to
compare and reflect on it like adult learners.

• However, with the progress of their 1st language as well as the

improvement of world knowledge older children use those abilities to
improve their 2nd language.
• It has been identified through research that there are many
universal aspects in both 1st and 2nd language learning
process such as omitting the auxiliaries or morphemes
such as -ing ending, -s for third person singular.

• According to research, talking to a child with necessary

simplifications and modifications is useful.

• Noam Chomsky argued that children attempt to

hypothesize the structure of language and based on that
Chomsky proposed the Universal Grammar theory.
• Usage-based models which are known as emergentism suggest that language
knowledge and language usage go hand in hand since the more language
used the more knowledge can be gained.

• Babies first improve their receptive skills and gradually start producing the
language.

• It can be seen that the students are very creative with language at an early age
and they enjoy creating and playing with words in their own ways.

• Even though they become comfortable in a home environment at the age of 5

or 6, still they can find it hard to communicate in formal situations.
• A teacher should have a better understanding of what the children can
do in their 1st language in order to create a realistic learning
environment.

• Children having rich linguistic interactions in the home environment

can help them to learn better in school contexts.

• Children get exposed to a formal and complex language when they

start schooling and they develop their language throughout the school
years.

• At school learning mainly happens through talking. Therefore, the

quality of the language in the school environment and the proper
guidance is essential.
• During the school years, students develop their
metacognitive abilities which help them to plan, monitor
and evaluate their own progress.

• According to research, if a child has a good

understanding of a certain topic they memorize the
vocabulary related to that topic easily.
Chapter 3
Learning second
language at home
and at school
• The earliest stage where simultaneous acquisition can happen
is at birth.

• Research shows that young bilingual babies can discriminate

the sound of both languages even at a young age.

• According to research, bilingual children archive the same

milestones as monolingual children.

• During the first two years bilingual children tend to mix the two
languages but around the 3rd year, they are able to separate
the two languages and continue to develop both.
• According to Victoria Murphy (2014), children become bilingual either by
birth or later in their life.

• Merrill Swain (2000) and her colleagues proved that bilingualism at a

young age is beneficial for children’s metacognitive awareness.

• Critical Learning Hypothesis (CLH) suggests that brain plasticity is

sensitive to language learning until puberty and due to that young
learners seems to have some advantages when learning a language.

• Robert Dekeyser (2012) suggests that young children can acquire

grammatical structures without deliberately learning them.
• In his research, after studying the performance of learners after 15,
Carmen Munoz (2014) stated that length of instructions and starting age
do not play a key role in learning a new language. However, correct
exposure matters for effective language learning.

• Pauline Gibbons (2002) highlights the importance of integrating

language with content to develop the language and subject knowledge
hand in hand.

• It was revealed that playing online games with English instructions can
help children improve their language knowledge from research which
was conducted by Yuko Butler and his colleagues.

• ICT helps to link formal and informal learning.

Chapter 4
Policy:
primary ELT
programs
• In every country, language setting gets influenced by politics and is
associated with how the education ministry sees language in general in that
country. However, many countries introduce English to children in pre-
primary settings.

• The awareness and facility distribution of learning English is not equal in

every part of the country and rural areas struggle to employ qualified
English language teachers.

• Motivation acts as an essential part of children’s English language journey

and it mainly depends on the teacher and enjoyable activities.

• It is important for ESL teachers to create a positive learning environment

and encourage them to try harder next time when they are disappointed.
• Primary English programs have objectives such as developing students’ basic
communication skills, developing children's cognitive skills and metalinguistic
awareness, develop values and understanding of diversity.

• Sue Garton (2011) and her colleagues convey in their survey that the most
used activities in primary ESL classrooms are repeating after the teacher,
listening to a recorder, reading aloud, playing games, and singing songs.

• Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is becoming widely used

around the world in primary classes since it helps children to improve their
both subject and language knowledge.

• The usage of both first and second language (i.e. code-switching) in the
primary classroom is a feature of effective CLIL teaching.
Chapter 5
Teaching
listening and
speaking
• Improving the listening skills of children is important for proper language
establishment. Therefore, many course books come with CDs or DVDs which
provide listening activities.

• The usage of different facial expressions and gestures, adjusting the speed of
the speech and repeating can help the teachers to avoid certain listening
difficulties in the primary ESL classroom.

• Teacher talk can be identified as a main source of input since children learn
intonation patterns and sounds of the language from teachers in a formal
context. Therefore, it is teachers’ responsibility to be accurate and use effective
materials.

• The sub-skills of listening are bottom-up processing skills and top-down

processing skills.
• Young learners often listen to the teacher and stay silent since they are unable to
produce language. Therefore, teachers may have to accept an answer in their
mother language.

• To begin with listening activities for young learners teachers can use rhymes,
action stories, and songs and let the students mime and get exposed to the
language rather than pushing them to produce language.

• The total Physical Response (TPR) approach makes sure that young learners hear
a great deal of natural English before they produce language. This approach
mimics the way a child acquires their 1st language.

• Children move from listening abilities to speaking skills and participate in

interactions using so-called unanalyzed chunks.
• With young learners, it is better to begin with practicing meaningful
and purposeful patterns drilling and personalized dialogue building
to help them to express their ideas.

• In order to improve speaking skills children can enjoy tongue

twisters, simple poems, and rhymes.

• Drama in the ESL classroom can help to develop linguistic skills,

visual and spatial abilities as well as emotional and affective skills.

• Information gap filling and storytelling also can be identified as

activities which can help children to improve their speaking.
However, teachers should be creative and careful when they create
these activities.
Chapter 6
Teaching
reading and
writing
• There is no formula to teach reading to both native and second-English
language learners.

• When and how reading and writing should be introduced to children depend on
factors such as their age, level of exposure to English, and their first language
background.

• First-language literacy can act as a scaffold to make sense between first and
second-language literacy practices.

• It is controversial to teach reading and writing in a second language when the

children are not yet literate in their mother language.

• When the game is the focus of an activity children feel less stressed about it
and effective learning happens through this.
• Oral language proficiency directly affects students’ ability of reading since
they can make intellectual guesses.

• Songs and rhymes are ideal to teach letter-sound correspondence

patterns to children.

• Non-native speakers have some advantages in the process of reading

and writing thanks to their literacy in their first language. Non-native
speakers tend to use reading strategies they used in their first language.

• Young learners start mastering writing sub-skills such as decoding familiar

written language, matching spoken and written forms and completing
short texts.
• Practicing letters will not help children to read. However, it will help them to spell
the words and it is a good idea to display the alphabet in the classroom.

• Labeling different items in the classroom can motivate the students to read.

• Introducing reading at the word level should happen first and reading beyond that
should happen gradually.

• Letting children write their own stories and letting other children read them can
motivate them to read and write more.

• Familiarizing children with books which are translated into their 1st language can
encourage them to read the original English book and make progress in reading.

• Native English speakers start with emergent writing and it begins with drawing.
• Depending on their first language writing system, children need less or more
practice with the mechanical basics of writing.

• Finger writing, copying and tracing are some of the activities which help learners to
start writing in primary school.

• Older children can improve their writing with activities such as free writing, writing
instructions, simple diaries or blogs as well as email writing within a group.

• When it comes to older children it is important to encourage them to write to real

people.

• According to research, children perform better in pairs on tasks such as a story or

letter writing.
Chapter 7
Teaching
vocabulary
and grammar
• It is important to understand the complex interactions between grammatical
structures because taking each part separately will not help learners to produce
any language.

• Younger children do not separately identify grammatical structures and

vocabulary. However, as they grow older they separate and have an awareness
about these interactions.

• It is better to teach grammar in a meaningful context with vocabulary rather than

teaching them separately.

• Encouraging students to practice memorization strategies is an ideal way of

learning vocabulary.

• Recycling and revising vocabulary and grammar structures are important in TEYL
classrooms.
• Stories are an excellent resource to teach grammar and vocabulary to children in a holistic
way.

• Children can understand the concept of vocabulary before they understand the concepts
behind grammar.

• When introducing vocabulary to children, using realia and picture cards helps them to
understand the meanings more quickly and effectively.

• Incorporating songs to teach vocabulary is another fun activity in the TEYL classroom.

• In the research which was conducted by Shelagh Rixon (1999), he studied 7 major
international course books and stated that there is no specific standard amount of
vocabulary items among those books. Further he stated that there was little attention given
to relationships such as synonyms and subordinates.
• Board games, card games, memory games and digital games help children to
revise and revisit grammatical structures.

• Not like younger children, older children can be encouraged to use dictionaries
and think analytically about first and second-language equivalents, synonyms
and definitions.

• Older children have the ability to improve their vocabulary through electronic
readers such as Kindles or tablets.

• Encouraging older children to collaborative writing in pairs can help with

vocabulary, grammar and understanding the interaction between those two.
Chapter 8
Learning
to learn
• A child may not have the basic idea of how to learn and therefore, it is teachers’
and schools’ responsibility to teach them how to learn.

• When teaching to learn teachers can start with social affective strategies and
then move to metacognitive strategies and finally start with cognitive strategies.

• Social and affective strategies – Raising awareness of learner’s own emotions

and others.

• Metacognitive strategies – The ability to reflect the progress through planning,

monitoring and evaluating language learning.

• Cognitive strategies – Improving the ability to deal with linguistic information in an

effective way.
• Herbert Puchta and Marion Williams (2011) suggest that learning a second
language can’t be isolated from other general thinking skills.

• When teaching thinking skills, many scholars recommend starting with basic
concepts and later moving to higher-thinking skills such as solving complex issues.

• Giving space to children’s choices and decisions in the classroom can help the
students to put their developing strategies to work. However, it is necessary to
start with limited choices at the beginning with younger groups.
Chapter 9
Materials evolution
and materials
design
• Typically children’s course materials are filled with colorful and attractive authentic
material, games and stories.

• Mainly a course book content includes activities and lessons to improve all four
language skills along with improving grammar and vocabulary.

• Teacher can evaluate course books informally by deciding what activities work
best and what activities should be changed. Furthermore, teachers can evaluate
course books more formally with the help of school administration as well.

• Well-designed course books can help even inexperienced teachers because they
guide the teachers with classroom tips, extra materials, notes, explanations and
answer keys and act as training materials for inexperienced teachers.

• Teachers need to understand the gaps in course books and supplement them in
order to make them more suitable for their classrooms.
• Teachers can adapt authentic materials such as picture books, stories and fables with
necessary and carefully decided adaptions.

• Over time, teachers develop the ability to decide what to change and how to adapt
authentic materials and the suitability of difficulty levels for each proficiency level.

• Topic-based learning is popular among primary classes as well as teachers who have
the freedom to create their own materials.

• After brainstorming the lesson topic, teachers should carefully think about the
objectives of the lesson and create the lesson plan.

• Teachers need to be creative and thoughtful in creating materials for TEYL

classrooms.
Chapter 10

Assessment
• Assessments help teachers and authorities to have a data analysis of students learning
progress.

• Basically, the main two assessment types are summative and formative. Summative
assessments are used to check the progress after completing a unit / course / term etc.
Formative assessments are used to check students’ learning processes.

• The main two approaches to assessments are norm referencing and criterion referencing.

• Due to the popularity of young learners learning English many governments and
authorities have introduced tests and offer certificates locally as well as internationally.

• A few of the most popular English tests for young learners are Trinity, the TOEFL junior
test but the most popular among all can be identified as Cambridge English: Young
learners test.
• Peter Edelenbos and Angelika Kubanek (2004) introduced the phrase diagnostic
assessment which is defined as teachers’ ability to interpret the foreign language
growth of learners through one-to-one attention.

• One of the negative sides of assessments can be identified as the washback

effect where students make their goal to study for the sake of achieving good
marks rather than having a proper understanding of the subject.

• Observation, self and peer assessments, portfolio assessments and project work
are some of the child-friendly assessment types which are used worldwide.
Chapter 11
Intellectual
awareness
• In primary classes, students get exposed to cultural diversity and therefore,
teaching the students to accept the differences is important.

• Cultural adaption can be a stressful process for students when the decision of
tolerating other cultures is taken by the family.

• When children get exposed to different cultures from the primary classroom,
they accept the difference much more smoothly than adults since they are not
enculturated to their own culture yet.

• The students who get relocated temporarily may have greater difficulty settling
into the new culture and classroom.

• When creating materials teachers should be careful especially when the

diversity is high in the ESL classroom.
• Cultural content such as different customs and holidays are given through
course books for young learners with the aim of creating better exposure to
cultural diversity.

• Authentic encounters with native speakers are widely available thanks to the
internet which can support children’s language as well as cultural knowledge.

• Developing awareness about different cultures and developing tolerance towards

different cultures go hand in hand.

• According to David Valente’s diversity-focused acronym (PARSNIP) for primary

language teachers 7 attributes are discussed.
Chapter 12
Research in the
primary English
classroom
• The most typical types of research which are initiated by teachers in the ESL
classroom are classroom research and action research. They provide results
which are relevant to those specific teachers.

• Teachers can explore their classrooms in various ways depending on their

interests and needs. Some of those methods are recording the classroom,
observing the students and asking students’ opinions and views of the class
through questionnaires and interviews.

• According to Mark Kellett (2005), the best way of helping children improve their
research skills is by proving proper training.

• Teaching different research skills such as making sense of data, methodologies

and deciding what to explore should be taught gradually.
• According to the research by Vicki Coppock (2011), by acting as peer
researchers, children can increase their competence as researchers.

• It is possible to let children explore each other’s second language skills such
as reading or vocabulary.

• It is important to consider research ethics and let the students have a proper
understanding of research ethics prior to any research.