Teaching Very Young Learners

Consultant Article by Lynn Durrant

Teaching Very Young Learners

As children begin learning a foreign language sooner, teachers may find themselves teaching children as
young as two or three years old. As I mentioned in the accompanying video, teaching this age group (two- to
six-year-olds) requires a knowledge and consideration of their key characteristics and needs to help you plan
and teach your lessons.

Planning: thinking about attention spans, behaviour and ways to

maintain interest
Many teachers comment on how they often find it is difficult to follow their lesson plans with very young
learners. There is no doubt it can be hard to maintain the stages of a lesson and achieve the aims you have
set for that class, so it is important to create a flexible plan and be realistic about what you might or might not
achieve.
Very young learners have short attention spans and quickly get bored, which can then create situations
where the children are naughty or lose concentration. Therefore, it is important at the planning stage to
include a number of various different activity types to maintain interest, an abundance of activities to help you
manage their enthusiasm, and step-by-step staging to set each activity up clearly, so the children know what
to do and how to do it.
The best types of activities are often short and visual in nature, due to the limited attention spans of this age
group. It is also important to sequence these different activities so your learners dont become too excited, or
alternatively too passive or even bored. For example, stirrers are activities that excite the children, such as
moving around the classroom, competing in some kind of competition, or doing a drama activity; settlers are
calming-down activities such as drawing or copying. If you plan several settling-type activities together, you
may find that the learners get demotivated; if you plan several stirring activities at the beginning of your
lessons, the learners will probably get too excited.
Integrating varied content and meaningful activities is a key element to maintaining interest, as is including
opportunities for different learning styles through combining audio, visual and kinaesthetic tasks types. For
example, tell a story (auditory), then order the pictures from the story with the class (visual), then ask the
children to cut out their favourite character from the story (kinaesthetic).
Dividing your lesson into mini-lessons of around ten minutes each is a useful strategy to help you both
include the points above and follow your lesson plan so you achieve your lesson aims. However, being
prepared to be flexible with your staging allows you to take learner needs into account, therefore creating a
secure, positive and valuable learning experience for the children.

Creating the right learning conditions

One of the key considerations discussed in the video was the need to help children feel at ease in the
classroom, through making the classroom a less threatening place for them and at the same time
establishing respect for their surroundings and their classmates. Once you have planned your lesson and
are ready to teach them, keep in mind how important it is to create a positive and safe atmosphere in the
classroom, so the children respond well to your teaching and their learning. There are different techniques
you can use to help you do this, such as being at the door to greet the children as they come in, or having a
puppet (or several of them) with you who says hello and the students name, to make the learners feel
welcome as they enter the classroom.
Puppets can be used to introduce new language too. Very young children find it easier to speak to or through
a puppet; this is because a puppet provides them with an identity to speak through and also captures their
attention better when you are working with new language.

Cambridge English Teacher Cambridge University Press and Cambridge English Language Assessment 2015

Teaching Very Young Learners

Helping children learn

Very young learners are enthusiastic about learning: they want to do and know everything straight away - but
then get frustrated when they cant, which can lead to disorder. They are also naturally disorganised at this
age: therefore we need to train them in learning how to learn. For example, establishing appropriate
behaviour (as we discussed in the video) such as knowing when to listen or when its time to concentrate,
can be a hard task to achieve but is a crucial factor in creating the best learning conditions for the children
and for your teaching. So try gradually incorporating classroom procedures they have to follow, such as
holding their hand up when they want to ask a question.
Very young learners learn things by watching other more experienced people such as their parents or their
teachers, which means you need to mirror the behaviour you want from the children. Try avoiding clutter, to
help you organise yourself and keep the classroom organised; for example, dont have too many objects on
the desk or around you and keep the classroom tidy. Establish specific, fixed places, such as having a story
corner or an area for colouring-in, so things like books and crayons are kept in the right places.
In the video we looked at the importance of very young learners taking responsibility for their own learning,
such as being able to make decisions about what to do, where things take place in the classroom and how
they want to do an activity. Very often this decision-making will require the children to work together as a
collective group. At such young ages they have not developed their social skills and therefore find it hard to
work in groups or share. Encourage them to be cooperative with their classmates through including very
short pair work and group work activities in the initial stages of their learning, then gradually increasing their
time working together, so they learn to value the importance of their classmates.

How to keep learners on task

Many children find it hard to concentrate for more than a few minutes or get bored quickly and can
sometimes simply wander off as you are providing input or telling a story. This can often also be due to the
fact that they are unaware or unsure of what is expected of them. When setting up a new activity, make sure
your instructions are simple, clear and reinforce meaning through use of gesture such as movements or
facial expressions which communicate an instruction; this increases learner involvement and helps the
children be clearer about what is expected of them. You can also try providing regular reminders of
expectations during an activity - a key element in maintaining interest with this age group.
Even with the suggestions above, there will be times when they lose interest or concentration; when this
happens, be patient and simply bring them back to the focus point as quickly and calmly as possible by
focusing on their interests and things they like. Try creating as little disruption as possible, otherwise you
may find telling off one of them upsets all of them.

Positive feedback: the importance of praise

One of the most important skills of a teacher is to show they value the childrens contributions, efforts and
responses to the learning situation. All children, no matter the age, respond well to praise. Make positive
comments about their efforts and let them see that you value their work. Work with the idea of catching them
being good by also congratulating them for actions such as smiling, contributing to class discussion, helping
another child, not laughing at another childs mistakes, or promptly following your instructions. A teacher who
highlights the positive elements will help such young children develop their enjoyment of learning.

Cambridge English Teacher Cambridge University Press and Cambridge English Language Assessment 2015

Teaching Very Young Learners

Questions to consider
What about you? How do you cope with very young learners? Here are some questions for you to think
about. Let me know what you think in the forum.

Do you think flexibility is an important aspect for teaching this age group successfully? Why /
Why not?
What do you do when things dont go to plan?
Have you got any tips you can share with other teachers which work well when teaching this age
group?

References:
Pinter A., 2011 Children Learning Second Languages. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Scott, W.A. & Ytreberg, L.H., 2004 Teaching English to Children. Harlow: Longman
Reilly, V. & Ward, S. M., 1997 Very Young Learners. Oxford. Oxford University Press.

Cambridge English Teacher Cambridge University Press and Cambridge English Language Assessment 2015

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Cambridge University Press and Cambridge English Language Assessment 201511/09/2015