Chapter 5.

Teaching Young
Learners
Chapter Objectives
At the end of this unit you will be able to:

 analyse the differences between how adults and how children learn
 recognize the differences among the features of different stages of development of
young learners
 use the classroom management strategies and teaching techniques and activities to
make learning happen in your YL classroom
Who Are The Young Learners?
Who Are The Young Learners?
We describe as ‘young learners’ children from pre-primary and primary school age and
adolescents. Teaching English to young learners is a huge part of the TEFL profession
due to a variety of reasons:

1. English has developed into an international language and more and more parents all
over the world see in their children’s learning of English better life opportunities for
the future;
2. There are many multilingual countries and English is a medium of instruction, as
children are taught not only English but other subjects in English as preparation for
examinations (for secondary schools or universities); eg the International
Baccalaureate.
3. In many mono-lingual countries we can notice an ever increasing number of
bilingual schools where the instruction is carried out in both the students’ native
tongue and a foreign language, especially English.

The age the children start learning English varies a lot. The starting age varies
according to the countries’ educational systems and the ambitions of the children’s
parents. In many countries of the world the obligatory starting age for learning English
in state schools is seven or eight, but parents often request the private schools to
organize lessons for learners of even younger ages. Nowadays, it is very usual to three
or for year olds running in the hallways of private schools, singing and doing drama in
English.
The researchers have not agreed yet on the optimal age for learning a foreign
language: while some argue that the sooner the learner starts the better, others are of
the opinion that the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. Moreover, learners who start
later soon catch up. However, many institutions, both public and private, will continue to
provide English classes, often just for a few hours a week. Such classes demand a
methodology that meets the special characteristics and needs of young learners.
Self-check 1
What are the differences between children and adults in language
learning?
Do Self-check 5.1 below to know more.

Self-check 1
Read the statements in the box below and note down whether you agree or disagree
with them. Make a note of any comments or thoughts about these assumptions.

1. Younger children learn languages better than the

older ones; children learn better than adults.
2. Foreign language learning in school should be started
at as early an age as possible.
3. Children and adults learn languages basically in the
same way.
4. Adults have a longer concentration span than
children.
5. It is easier to interest and motivate children than
adults.

(Ur, 1996)

Now read the Self-check Key at the end of this unit and compare it with your own
answers.
Self-check 2
What do we need to know about our young learners to be able to
teach them efficiently?
Besides the few characteristics of the young learners discussed in the task above, we
need more information about the students we are going to teach. Our classroom
management strategies, content of our lessons, the activities we choose to present, the
new material to be learnt and practised depend on our thorough knowledge of our
learners. The success of our lessons can be measured by the amount of learning that
has taken place. Our students’ and our own enjoyment in the process are directly
connected with this knowledge.
Do Self-check 5.2 below to know more.

Self-check 2
What exactly do we need to know about the children and where can we get the
information from?
Compare your answer with the suggested answer at the end of this unit.
Self-check 3
Self-check 3
The grid below contains the developmental features of each age group of young
learners. Read the features for each age group and then think about what type of
teaching techniques and activities are suitable for each age group, what topics would be
appropriate and some classroom management tips.

Age group Emotional Cognitive Social

- move into a state - can depend on

- ego-centric / self- of industry; more other adults such
centred / wrapped interested in doing as teachers or
up in themselves things than in the youth group leaders
end product; in addition to
- need and seek beginning projects parents
approval from is more important
adults than finishing them - learning to be
friends with others;
- like to play - thinking is younger boys and
games, but can't concrete; learn girls enjoy playing
accept losing; through senses by together, but by the
Early Elementary emphasis needs to touching, seeing, end of the stage,
(Age 5 to 8) be placed on smelling, tasting, boys and girls will
success and and hearing rather separate; fighting
cooperative games than by thinking occurs but does not
where everyone alone; verbal have lasting effects
can win; failure instruction should
should be be accompanied by - peers become
minimized demonstration important; want to
impress peers more
- adult help is - learning to sort than parents; small
needed in learning things into groups are
to cope with failures categories; effective.
and problems collecting things is
important and fun

Middle School (9 - need to feel - still think - joining clubs

to 11) accepted and concretely, but becomes important;
worthwhile; begin to think more will form clubs with
successes should logically; new ideas a group of others
be emphasized and are best similar to
failures kept in understood when
 themselves
- begin to identify
with peers,
although they still
need and want
guidance from
adults
- have difficulty
understanding
perspective as another person's
learning thinking, but are
opportunities
related to previous beginning to
- performance experiences discover the benefit
should be of making others
- think of things as happy
compared with past
absolutes, black or
personal - satisfaction in
white, right or
performance rather completing projects
wrong
than with the comes more from
performance of pleasing the adults
other youth in their lives than
from the value of
the activity itself
- toward the end of
this period, are
ready to start taking
responsibility for
their actions
- divide themselves
into sex-segregated
groups

Early Adolescence - Begin to - Move from - Move away from

(Age 11 to 13) demonstrate concrete to abstract dependence on
Kohlberg's post- thinking, but still parents toward
conventional moral tend to think in all- eventual
thinking or-nothing terms. independence.
- During puberty, - Demonstrate - Dependence on
emotions begin the formal operational opinions of adults
roller coaster ride thinking. shifts to
which characterizes dependence on
adolescence. - Speak in longer
 - Changes in sentences, use
hormones and principles of
changes in thinking subordination,
contribute to mood understand multiple
swings. levels of meaning,
and increase
- Begin to test vocabulary.
values
- Will intensely opinions of peers.
- Have a weak explore subjects of - Enjoy participating
sense of individual interest. Often
in activities away
identity. Feel reject solutions from home.
challenges to offered by adults in
personal self- favour of finding
concepts. their own solutions.
- Feel the need to - Justice and
be part of equality become
something regarded important
important. issues.

Middle - Actively involved -Continue to gain - Generally self-

Adolescence (Age in search for meta-cognitive centred, but
14 to 16) independence and abilities and capable of
personal identity, improve study understanding what
although neither skills. Write longer, other people are
goal is completely more complex feelings.
achieved during sentences. Can
this age period. adapt language to - Relationship skills
different contexts. are well developed.
- Achieving Use teen slang. Friendships formed
satisfactory at this stage are
adjustment to - Mastering abstract often sincere and
sexuality and thinking. May long-lasting.
defining career imagine things that
goals are important. never were in a - Recreation moves
way that away from the large
- Seek emotional challenges, and group and more
autonomy from sometimes away from the
parents. . threatens, adults family. Dating
who work with increases and
- Learning to moves from group
cooperate with them.
dates to double
each other as - Egocentric. dates to couple-
adults do.
 Believe in
imaginary audience
and personal fable.
- Learning to - Have difficulty
interact with the only dating.
understanding
opposite sex may compromise; may - Acceptance by
preoccupy middle label adult efforts to members of the
adolescents. cope with opposite sex is now
- Unsettled inconsistencies as of high importance.
emotions may "hypocrisy".
- May begin sexual
cause teens to be - Explore and relationships.
stormy or prepare for future
withdrawn at times. careers and roles in - Want to belong to
life. groups, but he
- Take pride in recognized as
responsibility and - Set goals based unique individuals
respect from on feelings of within the groups.
others. personal needs and
priorities. Goals set
by others are likely
to be rejected.

Late Adolescence - Independence - Metacognitive - Become

(Age 17 to 19) and identity abilities and study preoccupied with
formation are skills continue to the need for
achieved. improve with intimacy. Some will
instruction and marry at this age.
- Feel they have practice.
reached the stage - Likely to be
of full maturity and - Plans for the sexually active.
expect to be treated future are very
as adults. important and - Employment and
influence in which education fill the
- Leave home for activities late need for social
education, adolescents choose relationships which
employment, and to participate. were earlier filled by
establishing own club and group
households, - Can determine activities.
separate from their own
parents. schedules. - Control their own
activities.
- Clubs, meetings, - Only general
rituals, uniforms, directions are
and traditions have
lost much of their needed when they
appeal for late are assigned
adolescents. familiar tasks.
Write your own answers in the following grid and then read on.

Middle Early Middle Late

Early
School Adolescence Adolescence Adolescence
Age group Elementary
(Age 9 to (Age 11 to (Age 14 to (Age 17 to
(Age 5 to 8)
11) 13) 16) 19)

Topics

Techniques
and types of
activities

Classroom
management
tips
Classroom Management
In this section the focus will be mainly on the young learners’ motivation and discipline,
because these are the main areas that differentiate adult classes from young learners’
ones.

Young Learners’ Motivation

Initially, the young learners come to the English class already motivated intrinsically.
The curiosity about the new subject and the new teacher, the simple fact that they are
dreaming of sounding like their favourite cartoon or film hero makes them eager to
learn. They also come to class with some English already acquired from informal
exposure to it, but they are proud to show the knowledge they have. This enthusiasm is
what we rely on when we start an English course with young learners and we would all
like to keep the smile on their faces and their eagerness to show what they have learnt
in our classes. Unfortunately, this high level of motivation tends to decrease as they
advance in their study of English if we, the teachers, try too hard “to teach” them, to
control their learning in an authoritarian manner.
Self-check 4
Self-check 5.4
Here are a few statements collected from some teachers who have some experience in
teaching young learners. Read them and see if you agree with them or not.

1. I have a routine in the classroom and I do not change it because the students need
to know exactly what to expect.
2. I always give them small tasks that can be corrected immediately. In this way I have
full control on what they learn. They are too small to be given “larger tasks”.
3. The young students all need to be given the same task that at the end can be
corrected with the whole class. Only in this way can they and I know who has done
the work correctly and who has not.
4. Never give them options. This might disturb the class and it is almost impossible to
correct at the end.
5. Never involve the young learners in making decisions about what they will do in the
next lesson, or the time they need to do a task, or how to set the homework.
6. It is good to know what students think about the lessons and what they need to do
more work on, but it is very difficult to cater for all individual needs and interests; so,
it is better that I decide what needs to be done in terms of what needs to be done in
the classroom.
7. A system of rewards should be set. This encourages the students to learn better.
Competition is what most of them like.
8. Be optimistic. Even the weaker students can learn something.

Now go to the Self-check Key and read the comments.

Dealing with Discipline Problems
(Part 1)
Dealing with Discipline Problems
A teacher’s voice: Sometimes I envy some of my colleagues who have a charismatic
authority, if I can say so. They never seem to have problems with discipline. Whenever I
go to observe their classes, all the students are at their desks, doing what they are told
to do. There is no noise from the beginning to end. I my classes, I spend most of my
time to have their attention. When they do a group activity, they start well, and after a
while some of them become disruptive and ‘infect’ everybody else with their
misbehaviour. I often have to raise my voice to call for silence. It works for a short while,
but then they start again. I very rarely finish what I have planned to do with my students
in class because of lack of discipline.
Self-check 5
Self-check 5
Why do you think this teacher has discipline problems? Could you think of any reasons
and give him/her some pieces of advice?
There is NO key for this Self-check. You will find your answers in the text in the next
page.
 Dealing with Discipline Problems
(Part 2)
Now read on to know more and check the answer for Self-check 5.5

Most teachers of young learners complain about the lack of discipline in their
classrooms. We all know that effective learning can happen only in a disciplined
classroom. What does a disciplined classroom look like?
In a disciplined class:

 learning is taking place. All students, either working individually or in pairs, or in groups
or with the whole class, know what they have to do and they do the task(s) which are
relevant to them and whose point is clear.
 There is a time for activities done in silence and a time for more noisy activities.
Distinction has to be made between chaotic noise and constructive noise.
 The teacher is in control. This does not mean that the teacher has to be standing in
front of the class at all times giving orders. Even if you “hand over the control’ for a
while, delegating the responsibility for some group activities to some students, you can
take it back as soon as the activity does not go as desired; you took the decision to
hand the initiative over to them, you can take it back.
 There is cooperation between the teacher and the students. This cooperation is based
on mutual respect and on a code of behaviour that has to be mutually agreed on.
 The students are motivated. It is easier to manage the students who are motivated, so it
is the teacher’s responsibility to engage students in activities that are motivating.
 The lesson runs smoothly, but not necessarily according to the plan. It is very important
to have a plan and to know exactly what you are doing and when. It is important to have
all the materials ready at hand and also have some contingency plan. This shows the
learners that you are prepared and in control so they will trust you. It happens
sometimes that you can’t follow the lesson plan and you find yourself improvising. This
is not a problem. At least the students will see that you care for their needs and you are
not too rigid.
 It also helps that the students know the objectives of the lesson, or at least the aims of
the activities, mainly the ones that you think might not be extremely enjoyable. They
need to know why they are doing what you asked them to do, when this is not obvious.
You might find yourself in the position of having to make some compromises
sometimes, ie the students want to do something else (eg to talk about another topic). It
is ok as long as they promise you to do something that you know they need but they will
not find so enjoyable (eg a fill-in- the-gaps grammar exercise.)
 It is true that some teachers have charisma which gives an air of authority, and they find
it easier to control their classes. The majority of teachers do not possess this natural
authority, but they can have equally disciplined classrooms; they just have to work
harder.

Here are some tips to maintain discipline in the classroom:

1. Start by being firm with the students; you can relax later.
2. Involve students in making a code of behaviour in the
classroom and also let them decide on sanctions in case
this code in broken. Display it on the classroom wall. BE
CONSISTENT in applying them.
3. Get silence before you start speaking to the whole class.
4. Learn and use the students’ names.
5. Prepare the lessons thoroughly and have a logical and
firm structure.
6. Be prepared to deal with the unexpected.
7. Be mobile; walk around the class.
8. Change the students around.
9. Start the lesson with a ‘bang” and try to sustain their
interest and curiosity.
10. Speak clearly at all times; mainly when giving instructions.
11. Check instructions and/or demonstrate activities. Have all
your students’ attention.
12. Have extra materials prepared for the students who work
fast.
13. Vary the pace of the activities and teaching techniques.
14. Choose topics and tasks that will activate the students.
Cooperate with them in this respect.
15. Make the work appropriate to the students’ age, ability,
cultural background.
16. Anticipate discipline problems and act quickly.
17. Never reprimand a student in front of the class. Have a
private talk with him/her trying to get to the reason of
his/her disruptive behaviour.
18. Avoid confrontations. Never get angry in front of the
students and shout at them.
19. Avoid confrontations.
20. Show your students that you care by being supportive and
encouraging.
21. Use praise only when the students deserve it.
22. Don’t use threats. If you do, then be ready to put them into
practice immediately.
23. No matter the age of the students, DO NOT PATRONIZE
them. Treat them with respect.
24. Use humour constructively. Do not use irony and sarcasm.
 25. Be warm and friendly to your students.

In conclusion, to ensure discipline in your classroom, you will have to:

 Be INSISTENT
 Be CONSISTENT
 Be PERSISTENT
 But most of all be FAIR
What to Teach
On a general English course for adults we teach language and skills: Grammar
(structures and functions), vocabulary, pronunciation, and the language skills (listening,
speaking, reading and writing). We usually have a balance of skills and all language
components are considered as equally important by the students and teachers alike.
Naturally, the course components depend on the language needs of the group as a
whole.
Self-check 6
Self-check 6
Here is a chart that compares younger learners (pre-school and primary school
learners) and older learners (11 years olds +). Study it and then decide which of the
language skills and language components should be emphasized in teaching English to
these two categories of students.

Younger learners Older learners

These children are already used to
These children are learning how to school routines which they do not
behave in school, classroom routines question.
and learning in community They start to show a growing interest in
They can understand meaningful language as an abstract system; they
messages but cannot analyse language are moving from concrete to abstract
yet. thinking.
They are not aware about the learning They are more aware about themselves
processes; also, they are not fully aware and the way they learn. They are
about themselves. becoming more and more independent.
They have no or very limited reading They already have well developed skills
and writing skills in their first language as readers and writers in their own
(which in most cases do not use the language.
Latin alphabet) They show interest in the others’
They are more concerned about viewpoints and usually compare and
themselves than others. contrast them with theirs.
Their knowledge of the world is limited. They have a growing awareness about
They enjoy fantasy, imagination and and interest in the world around.
movement. Real life issues are more interesting to
them than fantasy.

Prepare answers and then compare with the suggested answers in the key.
 Techniques and Activities to Teach
Young Learners
How to Teach Young Learners. Some Techniques and
Activities.

Listening
5-8 year olds:

 Children’s songs with movements.

 TPR-type of activities (listen and do).
 Games such as ‘Simon says…’.
 Arranging pictures of a story while listening to it.

9-11 year olds:

 Quizzes - Listen to the question and choose the right answer.

 Matching picture with story from a choice of slightly similar pictures.
 Drawing dictation.

11-13 year olds:

 Most of the activities listed above can be used with this age group as well, but this time
you can add a bit of reading as well (eg Listen to the story and put the sentences in
chronological order.)

14-16 year olds:

 Listening to songs and filling in the gaps or arranging song lyrics in order

17-19 year olds:

 Any type of listening activities will work. What you need to take care of is to have
relevant topics for their age.

Speaking
5-8 year olds:
 Playing with sounds and words (Odd one out).
 Short rhymes.
 Talking about their families, their likes and dislikes, daily activities.
 Jazz chants with short dialogues (Carolyn Graham’s Jazz Chants for Children is a good
book to practise speaking and structures in meaningful chunks)
 songs, poems, rhymes and stories. (Mother Goose Jazz Chants, Singing, Chanting and
Telling TalesLinks to an external site. and Jazz Chants Fairy Tales by Carolyn Graham)
 Cutting and colouring animals, things, scenes from stories and speaking at the same
time.
 Info gap exercises such as: ‘What colour is the tail of your tiger?’ ‘Orange. What colour
is the tail of your tiger?’ ‘Pink.’
 Rhyming Drama (Carolyn Graham’s Jazz Chants Fairy Tales can be staged)

9-11 year olds

 Quizzes (making their own); finding differences between two pictures (info gap);
 speaking board games - eg in each square you write something they have to talk about
for 30 seconds or a minute (my room, my pet; my favourite food; my friend)
 drama, role-plays

11-13 year olds

 problem solving activities and games;

 board games with situations (“What would you do if you could understand the language
of animals?”), when each of the players lands on a square with a situation they need to
talk about it; the others will have to decide if they accept the answer or not. They can
write the situations on the squares themselves.
 Project presentations
 Role-plays and drama; simulations

14-16 year olds

 drama, role-plays and simulations

 problem-solving activities
 information gap activities on different topics
 presentations of personal or group projects

17-19 year olds

 role-plays, simulations
 speeches and presentations
 problem-solving; negotiation games.

Reading
 5-8 year olds

 words, short sentences; matching word with pictures.

9-11 year olds

 fables, very short stories, cartoons, poems, simplified texts from classical literary works
or written for classroom use (Penguin Graded Readers at
http://www.penguinreaders.com/)

11-13 year olds

 Same graded readers as above on topics of interest to them.

 Manuals to follow instructions on how to make things.
 Short stories; anecdotes with a moral at the end.
 Myths and legends; science fiction.

14-16 year olds

 Youth magazines, true stories in the news, short stories, interviews with film or music
stars; guide books. It is important to know what their interests are so that you can
choose really interesting texts. Students can bring their own texts into the classroom,
but they will have to show them to you a day in advance so that you can prepare a
lesson around it.
 Prediction tasks, jigsaw reading,

17-19 year olds

 Newspaper articles, classifieds, literature … everything that is of interest to them.

 Any activity that will allow them to get the most out of the texts and react to them in a
personal way will work. So do not stop at factual questions, true/false statements,
multiple choice exercises, scanning; start from here and move on to more personalized
activities in the post-reading stage.

Writing
5-8 year olds (if you introduce writing at this age):

 probably simple games such as ‘hangman’ or exercises that require to fill in one letter of
a word.
 Playing with letters: eg which words begin with a ‘b’? or Point at the letter ‘a’ or hold up
the card with ‘c’
 copying words from lists to match pictures;
 (You need to do lots of exercises of handwriting with the children whose mother
tongue is written in a different alphabet.)
9-11 year olds

 Same as above if you introduce writing in English at this age.

 Short messages, postcards, cards for different occasions. (They will enjoy making the
cards as well.)
 Short descriptions of favourite heroes
 Speech bubbles in cartoons

11-13 year olds

 Letters; e-mail messages;

 Projects

14-16 year olds

 Projects
 Letters formal/informal; book/film/TV programme reviews
 Group writing as technique

17-19 year olds

 Reflective essays
 Creative writing
 Functional writing (letters formal/informal; reports; reviews)
 Articles
 Speeches (text)
 Projects

Vocabulary
5-8 year olds:

 Use realia and pictures. Visuals are extremely important for this age for both
presentation and practice. Teach the vocabulary connected with what is familiar to the
students in their environment (family, animals, food, things in the house and in the
classroom, daily activities, etc). They learn fast by using all their senses. TPR is again
the best approach for practising vocabulary through movement.

9-11 year olds:

 Flash cards, word cards, pictures, matching exercises.

 Games, such as Word Snap and Pelmanism, and other memory games; scrabble in a
simplified form; word searches; simple crosswords with pictures instead of definitions.
 Categorizing vocabulary items (eg furniture in the bedroom, living room, etc); labelling
pictures.
 They can start a vocabulary notebook where they can use drawings or stickers instead
of definitions.

11-13 year olds:

 Same as above but the topics change.

 Word definitions can be used with learners of this age group.
 Word battleships, crosswords, mind maps to organize vocabulary connected with
different topics.
 They can be encouraged to have a vocabulary book where they will write the words
they want to remember with their definitions and drawings; also mind maps can be
drawn in this notebook.

14-16 year olds

 Besides games such as crosswords, word searches, battleships, scrabble, word

dominos for phrasal verbs or compound nouns, etc, etc, inferring meaning from texts is
a useful activity. (eg intensive reading tasks such as ‘Read the text again and find the
word that means the same as ‘fantastic’.)
 Encourage the use of a monolingual dictionary and do activities based on the use of
these dictionaries.

17-19 year olds

 At this age students already have their own system of learning vocabulary. They have
become more or less independent. They will always tell you what they need in terms of
vocabulary or check the use of newly acquired words with you. They will challenge you
in this respect.
 Thesaurus dictionaries; synonyms and antonyms, idioms; register and style.
 Word games such as more complicated crosswords are enjoyable and fun.

Grammar
5-8 year olds

 Young children pick up language in chunks and are unable to analyze language from a
grammatical perspective. For example children will be able to understand the idea of the
past tense once they have had stories told/read to them that use narrative past tenses.
Grammar will be picked up rather than learnt. Focus should be on ensuring that
meaning is always paramount. Also, grammatical structures have to be presented in a
context (story, poem, song, using the situation in the classroom or students’ experience)
 and practised through speaking by trial and error. Error correction should be very subtle,
continuous and consistent. (eg “Miss T, yesterday I speaked English at home.” “Oh,
you spoke English at home. That’s so nice. Who did you speak English to?” “I speaked
with my mum.” “Great, you spoke with your mum. What about your brother?” “Yes, I
spoke to him, too.”
 Grammar chants will help internalisation of structures and their pronunciation (eg
Carolyn Graham’s Jazz chants for Children and Grammar Chants)

9-11 year olds

 Basically the routines are the same as above, but this time you can switch gradually to
some language observation during the presentation stage. eg if you write on the board
sentences with verbs in the past tense taken from a story you have just told them, you
can encourage them to notice the pattern. (“What do some of the words naming actions
have in common?”)

11-13 year olds

 At this age they start to enjoy noticing language. Also some grammatical metalanguage
can be used with them, such as ‘nouns’, ‘verbs’, ‘adjectives’, etc, but only if you think
this will help or if it is imposed by the decision-making bodies in education. This issue is
very culturally sensitive.

14-16 year olds

 Most of these young learners start learning for examinations (national and international
examinations, such as Cambridge ESOL exams). Grammar being one of the papers for
examinations, you will need to teach the students more formal grammar. The basic
structures have already been learned, most grammatical metalanguage is familiar, so
the more complicated grammatical issues can be taught inductively or deductively.
 Grammar games can be played.
 Role-plays and other production activities are used to practice the structures in
meaningful contexts.

17-19 year olds

 This is definitely the age to teach for examinations. They can learn independently, they
have the grammatical metalanguage that will help them use grammar reference books
on their own. It should not be a problem for the students to pass these examinations if
they test their communicative competence, such as Cambridge ESOL examinations. All
they need to be taught is how to deal with time constraints and to be familiar with the
test items. Practice using examination-type tasks helps a lot.
Now go back to the grid in Self-check 5.3 and compare what you have already written
with what you have learned so far. Complete the grid if you need to. There are some
suggested answers in the Self-check Key at the end of this unit.
Self-check Answer Key
Self-check 5.1 - Comments
1. Younger children learn languages better than older ones; children learn better
than adults.
This has become a myth based on the empirical observations of different people
watching young children picking up the foreign language very quickly either through
immersion into the foreign language, or by having been transplanted into a foreign
language environment or by watching hours of English cartoon programmes on TV
when parents are too busy to organize their children’s time. They definitely learn
pronunciation better, but not necessarily the other components of the language. At the
same time, their critical self is not so developed; ie they do not feel so embarrassed
when making mistakes as adults usually do. There are studies that reached the
conclusion that the older the child, the more effectively she/he learns a foreign
language. In this respect, maybe teenagers make the best learners.
Young children definitely do not learn better in formal classroom settings. Their
cognitive skills and self-discipline are not developed enough to make the most of the
teacher-filtered input; they rely more on acquisition than on conscious learning.
2. Foreign language learning in school should be started at as early an age as
possible.
This statement is directly connected with the previous one. As younger children do not
necessarily learn better in a formal classroom environment for the reasons already
mentioned above, it seems that language learning in school does not need to be started
too early. Some say that the age of twelve would be ideal, others ten. It is also true that
an early start to language learning, reinforced as the child grows older will lead to better
long-term results. So, if there is time and if there are enough teachers in a school, you
can start teaching young children at as early an age as possible.
3. Children and adults learn languages basically in the same way.
This might be true only in an immersion situation when people of all ages can acquire
the foreign/second language for survival. The differences become obvious in formal
courses. Adults have a number of learning skills and strategies already developed and
their capacity of understanding concepts and logical thinking is greater. Moreover,
adults tend to be more disciplined and are more cooperative in the classroom. Adults
are more patient, not so competitive, they are aware of their learning needs and no
matter what type of motivation they have, they can set their own learning objectives and
pursue them. They know why they are in a classroom, while most children have no
choice in whether they want to be taught, where or how they are taught.
4. Adults have a longer concentration span than children.
 The difference here between children and adults is that children will always spend hours
in activities that really interest them, but they will never have the adults’ patience to
carry on activities for which they have no immediate intrinsic motivation. One major
implication for teaching is that the teacher needs to choose (only) activities that the
young learners will enjoy.
5. It is easier to interest and motivate children than adults.
This is partly true. The children’s motivation fluctuates rapidly. If the activities are
apparently pointless to them or monotonous or boring, they lose their motivation quickly
and become disruptive. By selecting interesting activities you can raise the children’s
motivation more easily than that of the older learners. The older learners are more
tolerant with apparently pointless activities; they can wait to see where the activity is
leading them to. Children’s motivation varies more easily depending on the influences of
the immediate surroundings (the teacher, the peers, the materials, other distractions);
that of the older children tends to be more stable.

Self-check 5.2 - Suggested answers

 The characteristics of each age from reference books on child psychology;
 Knowledge about how children of different ages learn from books on pedagogy on young
learners;
 Periodic contacts and discussions with the children’s parents to find out as much as you can
about the children’s personalities and interests;
 The other teachers of the class can provide a lot of information that you need about each child
in the class and the class as a whole.

Self-check 5.3 - Just a few examples

Middle Early Middle Late

Early
School Adolescence Adolescence Adolescence
Age group Elementary
(Age 9 to (Age 11 to (Age 14 to (Age 17 to
(Age 5 to 8)
11) 13) 16) 19)

Topics Family Friends Heroes Relationships Anything that

and family has to do with
Animals Relationships The world life,
The Earth
Daily Celebrations Cinema/films relationships,
activities School work, careers
Fashion Music will do
Holidays Jobs
(Christmas, Manners Music and “Taboo”
topics
 film stars
Young people
of other
cultures
Thanksgiving, Fashion
etc)
Nature and Travelling
Nature
environment
Knowing
yourself
(strengths
and
weaknesses)
Environment

Games
involving Projects
physical Chants
Creative
movement World Drama writing
Arts and knowledge
(eg Projects and Creative Functional
crafts
Techniques quizzes) project writing writing
and types of Pictures presentations
Mini- Intensive and Intensive and
activities Letter extensive extensive
Stories projects
writing/emails reading reading
Nursery Poster
rhymes creation Projects Drama

Chants Games Reflective

essays

Classroom Always Close Individual, Use At this age

management demonstrate monitoring pair and descriptors of they know the
tips activities most of group work performance routines.
the time. and
Vary the pace Establish encourage They
frequently Establish roles in the self- appreciate
classroom groups assessment the teacher’s
Activities behaviour input for a
have to be rules and Vary the pace short time,
short (max 10 be firm of activities but they need
minutes to work
each) Vary pace Very
 Alternate
quiet
activities with
activities that sensitive with
require the feedback
movement. and types Start using independently
of descriptors of as well.
Close
activities. performance
monitoring TTT should
and
be very low
Establish encourage
classroom self-
behaviour assessment
rules

Self-check 5.4 - Suggested answers

Some practical ideas for sustaining motivation:
1 Experiment, take risks. Do not be afraid of breaking the routine of the
classroom. You need to find a balance between established routine of the
classroom and introducing variety. Vary the kinds of things you do in the
classroom to see what different students respond to best. For example, try short
stories, films, classroom drama, songs, projects, grammar exercises, dictations,
etc.
2 Choose ‘larger’ tasks. If you read the features for each age group, you will
see that, in one way or another, each age group likes projects, larger tasks for
different reasons. Chose tasks that give students more ‘psychological space’ to
plan their own work, set their own pace, make their own decisions about how and
what they do. For example, process writing and simulations. Just do not forget to
set rules that are accepted by everyone and monitor closely.
3 Choose open-ended tasks. The production tasks should leave room for
individuals to express themselves or to contribute to a group task. As these tasks
are part of a process, each child will have the chance to participate and contribute
along the process in a personal way. The production task, such as making
posters, writing poems, creating designs and describing them, etc where there is
“no right answer” will give the children the feeling that they are valued as
individuals, and the quality of their performance is judged in relation to their
previous performance and not by comparison to their peers’ performance.
4 Provide choice. Children learn effectively, on the principle “I like it, and I’ll do it.
I don’t like it, but I’ll do it reluctantly or not at all.” If children are involved in
deciding what to do, they are usually more committed to it and there is no excuse
for them not to do it. As a teacher, you are in control. If you give them options,
such as ‘You can choose exercise 3, 5 or 9. Or if you’d like to do something else,
ask me first’ - you are still in control but the student will feel that his/her
preferences are important to you, so you will gain more respect.
5 Involve students in classroom decision-making. Children have always
enjoyed ‘playing the adults - the ones that make decisions’. You still make the
decision about what your students will learn but other decisions, such as when
homework is set, how long they will spend on a particular task, what they will do
next lesson, and so on can be shared with them without any risk to the course as
a whole.
6 Find out what students think. Of course the final decision is yours, but you
need to know what they think they need as well. In this way, you can make better
informed choices about future lessons in terms of content and activities. Find out
if students think they need more practice, if they have suggestions of their own, if
they find things easy or difficult, boring or interesting. You could place a
‘suggestion box’ in your class, or write an open-ended letter that students could
complete with their ideas, or devise short questionnaires.
7 Think about how you give feedback and what you give feedback
on. Feedback needs to be done at the end of each activity, and it has to be
constructive. If you see any signs of failure in some students, try to identify
aspects that you can praise and encourage and for the areas they did not meet
the criteria of performance, explain to them, in concrete terms, what they could do
to improve it next time.
Another aspect here is the reward system that some teachers use. The students
need to be trained to accept success and just enjoy it for its own sake. They need
to be able to see when they were successful or not. That is what the feedback is
for. The extrinsic reward as marks or smiley faces will only turn the intrinsic
motivation into an extrinsic one: the race to get the rewards. The ones who take
them more often will continue taking them, because they feel extremely confident.
Success breeds success. The ones who did not get two or three in a row, will
soon become demotivated, their self-confidence will diminish gradually, and after
a while it is very hard for those students to keep up. They will also be the ones
who will give up, will not participate in the lesson or become disruptive.
Gradually, teach students to self-assess. Establish together criteria of
performance and write descriptors for each criterion. They can then do self-
assessment of their performance (speaking and writing) by measuring their
performance against these criteria. They need patient training in using these
descriptors of performance but it is worth it in the long run.
8 Communicate a sense of optimism in learning. As a teacher, you have
to show the students a belief that everyone can learn. Encourage students to try,
to take risks without fear of losing marks or feeling stupid. Show them how much
they have learned (“You see; now you can spell these words correctly. Last week
you couldn’t.”) Tell them that it is ok to ask for help, so offer help when they ask
for it.
As Andrew Littlejohn put it “ Success comes in ‘cans’ not in ‘can’ts’.”

Adapted after Andrew Littlejohn, 2001

Self-check 5.5 - Suggested answers

The children will not learn the language for its own sake; they will always want to learn
English to be able to communicate, to get something or just for fun. With the exception
of teenagers who will analyze the language to discover its subtleties and use it for self-
expression, all the other young learners will not go into such depth.
Vocabulary: The primary school children will need to develop their vocabulary and
some functional language.
Grammar cannot be taught formally and grammatical metalanguage is not an option.
As they can’t analyse language yet, grammar is taught along with vocabulary, in chunks
of language in meaningful contexts.
Pronunciation can be left to acquisition most of the time. If the children can’t
pronounce some sounds even after lots of exposure to the language, then some
pronunciation exercises can help.
Listening: The younger learners need a lot of listening before they are ready to speak.
We can learn a lot about the acquisition of the second/foreign language from the way
children learn their mother tongue/first language. TPR works best with these very young
students. Listening to songs, short dialogues, watching short videos with the sound on
are among the techniques that work with them.
Speaking: Young learners want to speak as soon as possible. They are like sponges
absorbing everything the teacher says and how he/she says it. The rule here is slowly
and steadily through constant revision and recycling. Choral repetition, songs, chants,
nursery rhymes, short everyday dialogues, games, everything in a meaningful context
for children will make them learn fast
Reading and writing are usually introduced later and gradually when the children
already have an amount of vocabulary and functional language acquired or learned
through listening and speaking. If the children start learning English at an older age, for
example after 10 or 11 years of age, then all four skills can be developed more or less
at the same time. Still, the principle remains: lots of listening and speaking practice, and
only after that reading and writing which has been practised aurally and orally. This is
due to the fact that English spelling and pronunciation are different, so children might
get confused between the spoken and written word.
Last but not least, young learners need to be taught how to learn gradually.
Teaching learning strategies has to be introduced in a subtle manner through
guidance and relevant tasks (eg organize vocabulary in their wordbooks under topics,
using stickers or drawing, to which the written words can be added at a later stage.)

Bibliography
Littlejohn, Andrew (2001), Motivation; Where Does It Come from? Where Does It
Go? In English Teaching Professional, Issue 19, March 2001
Ur, Penny (1996) A Course in language Teaching, CUP