Teaching a second language in an elementary school setting has always been something I

avoid to do because of the complexity of childrens psychological and cognitive development

and the serious responsibilities that it might bring to an instructor. The teaching experiences I
have had so far are all in college level or adult level settings and I believe it must be very
different and more difficult to teach elementary school learners. I agree that this is a critical and
sensitive period for them to acquire a new language, especially to develop a standard accent
since humans lose their biological predisposition for language acquisition due to the completion
of hemispheric brain lateralization that occurs around the time of puberty (Teachers Handbook,
pp. 108). Luckily, before the guest speaker, Toni, started her lecture last Wednesday, I had a
chance to communicate with her about the implementation of elementary second language
teaching in Colorado. She acknowledge that the dual language programs in kindergarten
employed partial immersion, which is the 50/50 model that Spanish and English are used equally
throughout the programs, and she confirmed that this is a method thats significantly efficient and
will be promoted more often in the future.
I also liked that the textbook mentioned using media-based programs to facilitate
elementary school learners second language acquisition (Teachers Handbook, pp. 119).
Traditional teacher-centered lectures require higher discipline and attention, using this type of
method to teach children is no doubt a waste of teachers time and energy and it usually ends up
with wearing away childrens interest in language acquisition or even in learning in general.
Instead, involving Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL) tools such as videos,
audiotapes, language learning software, websites to grab students attention as well as to
stimulate their interest in second language acquisition. This is similar to what Randy Pausch
refers to as the head fake, in which a parent or educator shifts the focus of an activity while
simultaneously teaching the targeted content. The result for the students is learning without
initially realizing that they were learning (Terantino, 2011). Another method mentioned in the
textbook that aligns with this teaching style is TPR. Recruiting TPR fits the childrens playful
nature because it enlivens the atmosphere and provides opportunities for interactive actions. It
also creates a direct binding between the new vocabulary and the meaning with solid objects
referred to the input. By doing so, it nurtures their way of thinking directly in the target language
and it limits the use and influence of childrens native language.

References:
Terantino, J. (2011). Youtube for foreign languages: You have to see this video. Language
Learning & Technology, 15(1), 10-16.