PSYCHOLOGY OF

TEACHING ENGLISH TO
YOUNG LEARNERS
Table of contents
Introduction
 Definition of Young Learners
 Characteristics of Young Learners
 Theories of Teaching Young Learners
 Who is Jean Piaget?
 Principles of Teaching Young Learners

Conclusion
References
Introduction
• “Teaching enables you to be forever young. When you teach
children you share their interests and their problems. For
someone like me, who is child at heart, it is an absolute pleasure”
(May, 2005). I totally agree with May’s point of view that
teaching young learners is enjoyable and pleasurable, especially
for teachers who have good background knowledge about the
theories and principles of teaching young learners. However,
teaching young learners is different from teaching adults. Young
learners tend to change their mood every other minute, and they
find it extremely difficult to sit still. On the other hand, they show
a greater motivation than adults to do things which appeal to
them (Klein, 1993). But before going further into our discussion,
we should know who young learners are. And what are their
distinctive features?
Definition of Young Learners
• According to the education system in
Libya, ‘young learners’ are those who
are studying in basic education
between six and fifteen, while some
teachers think that young learners are
only those aged twelve and below.
From the literature review, there is
some controversy on specifying the
exact age of a ‘young learner’. For
example, Rixon (1999) and Phillips
(1993) defined young learners as those
aged between five and twelve years old.
Scott & Ytreberg (2001) have their own
classification in which they divided
young learners into two main groups,
five to seven olds, and eight to ten year
olds. They added that each group has
its own abilities in doing things and
recognizing the world around them.
Characteristics of Young Learners

• Unlike adults, young learners have their own features which need
to be understood by those who wish to be successful teachers of
young learners. For instance, Brumfit (1991) described young
learners as keen, enthusiastic and motivated learners, who can be
easily stimulated. Another striking feature of young learners is
that they have a greater facility than adult learners for
understanding and imitating what they hear (Brewster & Ellis,
2001:3-4). Other characteristics listed by Scott & Ytreberg
(2001:1) include that five to seven years olds understand
situations more quickly than they understand the language used,
have a very short attention and concentration span, and
sometimes they have difficulties in knowing what is fact and what
is fiction; whereas eight to ten years olds can tell the difference
between fact and fiction, ask questions all the time, rely on the
spoken word as well as the physical world to convey and
understand meaning, and have the ability to work with and learn
from others.
• Cameron (2001) claimed that “young children may learn a
foreign language especially effectively before puberty because
their brains are still able to use the mechanisms that assisted
first language acquisition” during what is known as ‘the
critical period hypothesis’.
• With regard to my own experience it could be argued that
some young learners have a great ability to imitate adults, and
learn things easily but usually without understanding. That is,
unlike adults they may reproduce what they have been
exposed to, but they may not be able to interpret why and
how. Again this could be due to the method of teaching with
which they have been taught. However, I believe that age is
considered to be one of the most important factors in the
process of learning a second language, yet there are other
essential factors such as motivation, desire and intelligence.
Theories of Teaching Young Learners

• In discussing the process of second language learning, it is significant to start with

the role played by behaviourists such as Skinner who believed that “language
development is a result of imitation, practice and positive reinforcement”. That is,
children acquire a language by listening, for instance to a word or a structure
produced by a speaker or a tape that acts as a model to be imitated. Children keep
imitating that model by repeating it again and again until they become able to
reproduce it correctly. For better learning, good attempts are usually praised and
rewarded. The influence of behaviourism can be clearly seen in the Audio-Lingual
Approach which is still used in different parts of the world, including in,
especially in teaching speaking skills at the university level.
• Nasef, 2004 investigated the
difficulties encountered by some
Libyan university students in
acquiring English speaking skills, and
found that students who were taught
by the Audio Lingual Approach very
often fail to use different patterns of
dialogues they have already
mastered in different situations.
• However, advocates of behaviourism such
as Watson (1982) argued that imitation and
practice are crucial in any language
learning, whereas others such as believe
that “repetitive oral practice, direct
teaching, or language imitation serve no
purpose except to frustrate the students and
teachers”.
 However, behaviourism has been criticized by
many researchers and theorists. The most
prominent of these was Chomsky (1959) who
published a strong attack on Skinners’ analysis
of verbal behaviour which became well-known.
In his review of Skinner’s book, he explained
his refusal of the behaviourist view of language
acquisition. He believed that language is not a
form of behaviour, it is a complex rule-based
system and a large part of language acquisition
is concerned with the learning of the system.
That is, there are a set of grammatical rules in
the system and with knowledge of these,
unlimited numbers of sentences can be created
and produced in the language.

He added that children are born with an intrinsic, biological talent to learn
language, which known as the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). The LAD
functions as a facilitator that helps children “to process all the language they
hear and to produce their own meaningful utterances” . The LAD, however, was
underestimated later on by Bruner (1983) when he noted that the LAD “was not
able to function without the help given by an adult”.
Who is Jean Piaget?
Jean Piaget (9 August 1896 – 16 September
1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for
his work on child development. Piaget's
theory of cognitive development and
epistemological view are together called
"genetic epistemology".

Piaget placed great importance on the

education of children. As the Director of
the International Bureau of Education, he
declared in 1934 that "only education is
capable of saving our societies from
possible collapse, whether violent, or
gradual." His theory of child development
is studied in pre-service education
programs. Educators continue to
incorporate constructivist-based strategies.
The child develops cognitively through active involvement with
the environment, and each new step in development builds on
and becomes integrated with previous steps. Because two of the
four shifts in developmental stage normally occur during the
elementary school years, it is important for language teachers
working with children to keep the characteristics of each
cognitive stage in mind (Piaget, 1963). They are as follows:
1) The stage of sensory-motor intelligence (age 0 to 2 years). During this stage,
behavior is primarily motor. The child does not yet internally represent
events and “think” conceptually, although “cognitive” development is seen as
schemata are constructed.
2) The stage of preoperational thought (age 2 to 7 years). This stage is
characterized by the development of language and other forms of
representation and rapid conceptual development. Reasoning during this
stage is pre-logical or semi-logical, and children tend to be very egocentric.
Children often focus on a single feature of a situation at a time—for example,
they may be able to sort by size or by color but not by both characteristics at
once.
3) The stage of concrete operations (age 7 to 11 years). During these years, the
child develops the ability to apply logical thought to concrete problems.
Hands-on, concrete experiences help children understand new concepts and
ideas. Using language to exchange information becomes much more
important than in earlier stages, as children become more social and less
egocentric.
4) The stage of formal operations (age 11 to 15 years or older). During this
stage, the child’s cognitive structures reach their highest level of
development. The child becomes able to apply logical reasoning to all classes
of problems, including abstract problems either not coming from the child’s
direct experience or having no concrete referents.
• Piaget discusses several processes relevant to the way
children know and understand the world: through schemas,
assimilation and accommodation, organization and
equilibration. Schemas refer to what develops in the brain of
a child while trying to construct and understand the world -
in other words, mental representations organizing the
knowledge. Piaget argues that a very young child would be
characterized by behavioral schemas (simple physical
activities like grasping something or watching someone)
whereas later on, mental schemas develop (meaning cognitive
activities such as strategies for problem solving or the
classification of objects). Adults of course have much more
complex schemas of functioning in the world than children
do.
Piaget used the terms ‘assimilation’ and ‘accommodation’ to
refer to the process through which children construct their
new knowledge. Assimilation usually takes place when the
children’s new experiences are incorporated into or fit in with
the image of the world they hold in their minds. On the other
hand, accommodation is the process of reconstructing the
inner image to fit the new experience (Wadsworth, 1996)
For instance, if a child has an experience of playing with a small toy that
has a keyboard and screen, and after some time (no matter how long),
the same child comes across a computer, in this case the child will use
his/her previous knowledge about that object which is stored in his/her
mind to explore the new object which is the computer. The integration
of the two experiences broadens the child’s knowledge and facilitates
the process of learning. Thus, it can be said that “assimilation and
accommodation processes work in a complementary way with each
other to give organization to our ever-growing knowledge and
understanding”.
Unlike Piaget who argued that “language
plays a role in the development of
children’s thinking and understanding but
it is not the driving force”, Bruner viewed
language as the most important tool for
cognitive growth, and investigated how
adults use language to mediate the world
for children and help them to solve
problems. Supporting a child in carrying
out an activity has been labelled
‘scaffolding’ in which the teacher’s task is
to push the learner one step at a time
beyond where he is now. That is, to
provide the child with the necessary
support until he/she can stand on his/her
own feet. The process of scaffolding
focuses on enabling students to develop
and move to the next step. “Some
teachers, like parents, provide scaffolding
intuitively; learning from experience what
each learner is capable of and how to give
the last little push each needs”.
Bruner added that learning can be achieved by ‘routines’. Cameron (2001)
referred to the research conducted by Bruner with middle-class American
families where parents read bedtime stories to their children. Scaffolding
occurs here since the stories are read at the same time each day and because
of the fact that the language used by parents includes a lot of repetition. “The
repeated language allows the child to predict what is coming and thus to join
in, verbally or non-verbally”. Students in the classroom will be familiar, from
routines, with activities and instructions which allow them to predict the
meaning and intention of new language. Although routines take time to
establish, they “make the children feel secure and save a lot of time and
explanation in the long run”
However, Piaget’s theory had been criticized because it ignores
social and cultural factors in intellectual development, and
therefore many have turned back to the social constructivist
theory developed by Vygotsky. Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky gave a
much greater priority to social interaction. For him, “social
factors play a vital role in intellectual growth. He assumed that all
individual construction was mediated by social factors. For
example, the teacher had to model or clarify information to be
taught. “The child, then, constructs his or her own internal
knowledge from what is modelled. The child does not invent, but
very much ‘copies’ what is socially available. This is seen a process
of transmission from culture (teacher) to the child”. This sort of
interaction is considered by Piaget as “intervention by the teacher
and could lead to superficial rote learning and not genuine
understanding and progress”.
Vygotsky emphasized the role of
the child’s interaction with the
people around them, such as
parents and peers, and therefore he
stated that “with the help of adults,
children can do and understand
much more than they can on their
own” (Cameron, 2001: 6). What
the child can do with help of the
adult is known as the child’s ‘zone
of proximal development’ (ZPD)
which was defined by Vygotsky
(1978) as;
 “ the distance between the actual development level as determined by
independent problem solving and the level of potential development
as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers”
Principles of Teaching Young Learners
1 - Create a pleasant relaxed atmosphere in the classroom
The more relaxed and pleasant the atmosphere is, the more
motivated the learners become. This is related to the problem
of anxiety, which had been well discussed by Hymes (1971). He
argued that a tense classroom creates anxious students, and
thus their motivation will be very low, which will affect their
learning process. Some Libyan young learners used not to be as
active as they should all course long to avoid the teacher’s
negative comments, where he did not believe in learner’s
mistakes, and used to consider these mistakes as sins. This
attitude made them feel tense and not motivated at all in his
class. Therefore, it is mainly up to the teacher to create a
positive atmosphere.
2- Present the task properly
Application of better teaching methods increases
the motivational levels of the learners. In other
words, presenting the tasks in an interesting
manner creates a positive attitude towards
learning. Teachers should try to change the way
they present tasks by attracting the learner’s
attention through the use of games, videotapes and
flash cards according to the level of their language
and age as well as by using cognitive based
activities, in order to break the everyday routine
that the learners expect from their teacher, and to
raise the level of attention of students.
3- Develop a good relationship with the learners
Al-Moghani ( 2003) pointed out that the value of
developing good relationships between teachers
and students is well known among teachers in
general, and among teachers of a second
language in particular. However, “personal
relationship between students and teachers is not
common in Libyan schools. It is believed that
certain distance should remain between students
and teachers in order to maintain the relation of
respect expressed towards teachers.
4-Children are full of energy therefore,
according to Asher, a professor of
psychology, suggested that primary teachers
may find it helpful to associate language
learning with physical responses which is
more effective with children compared with
adults as they are very active and as a result
will appreciate the enthusiasm gained from
TPR classes.
5- Activities should be fun and
enjoyable, Moon (2000) emphasizes the
idea that activities should be fun for
children to keep them motivated and
interested. In addition, according to
Piaget’s theory, learning occurs when
children take action, so children can
learn English better by doing.
6- Support and guide your students
• Children need to be supported and guided,
making them interested in the activity, and
showing them how to do it while controlling
their frustration during the process of learning .

7- Recycling For better language learning,

language items should be recycled wherever
possible using different activities in which each is
based on the information presented in the
previous activity. e.g: listening to something then
talking about it and after that reading the same
thing.
8- Create and encourage cooperative work One of the
main principles of teaching young learners is that they
should have the opportunity to interact and socialize with
others around them, as recommended by Vygotsky who
postulated that “all cognitive development, including
language development, arises as a result of social
interactions between individuals” . Thus, for the benefit
of the learners, teachers should think about creating a
situation in which the maximum interaction can be
established. In the case of Libyan learners where the
English language is not used outside the classroom,
‘language games’ which were described by Roth as a mini
social world could be the most appropriate technique
through which learners can socialize and interact.
 Conclusion
Researchers interested in teaching young learners have
proposed various ideas and principles that can guide language
teachers in how to teach young learners, what skills they should
introduce first, how to choose and establish effective activities,
and what kind of support young learners need at each stage.
Teachers of young learners should have clear idea about the
process of acquiring the first language as well as the
psychological development of the child. In addition, they
should know how and when learners need to be supported in
the classroom. For instance, teachers should explain to the
children the task, encourage them to carry out it by themselves,
encourage learners to ask and answer questions, encourage pair
and group work, praise success, and intervene if the group is
clearly stuck.
 However, principles of learning could vary according to the
theory or method of teaching being used. For instance, audio-
lingual methods view language learning as a habit formation,
whereas the communicative approach views language learning
as an interactive and cognitive process. Therefore teachers of
young learners should be aware of the different theories and
methods of teaching as well as the principles of learning. They
also need to match their educational practices to the ways
children think and learn, by understanding the whole child and
the nature of the language learning process
References
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guides.
 Brumfit, C., & at el., 1991. Teaching English to children: from practice to principle
London: Collins ELT.
 Cameron, L., 2001. Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge University Press.
 Beilin, Harry, Piaget’s enduring contribution to developmental psychology,
Developmental Psychology, 1992, no. 28, pp. 191–204
 Papert, Seymour, http://www.papert.org/ Accessed January 2018
 Harmer, J., 2001. The practice of English language teaching. Longman
 Hymes. D., 1971. On Communicative Competence. Philadelphia, PA: University of
Pennsylvania press.
 Klein, K., 1993. Teaching young learners. Forum , 31 (2), 14
 Lightbown, P. & Spada, N., 1999. How languages are learned. Oxford University Press.
 Rixon, S., 1999. Young learners of English: some research perspectives. London:
Longman.
 Scott, W. and Ytreberg, 2001. Teaching English to children. Longman
 Al-Moghani, M., 2003. Students’ Perceptions of Motivation in English Language
Learning in Libya Thesis (PhD). Durham University.
 Bruner, J., 1983. Child’s talk: learning to use language. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.