Unit 5 Teaching Young Learners

At the end of this unit you will be able to:-

a) analyse the differences between how adults and how children

learn

b) recognize the differences among the features of

different stages of development of young learners

b) use the classroom management strategies and teaching

techniques and activities to make learning happen in your YL
classroom
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:
a) 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;
b) 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.
c) 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.

What are the differences between children and adults in language

learning?

SELF-CHECK 5 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.

Unit 7 2
 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.

Now read the Self-check key at the end of this unit and compare it with your
own answers.

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.

SELF-CHECK 5 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 5 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.

Unit 7 3
 Age group Emotional Cognitive Social
Early - ego-centric / self- - move into a state of - can depend on other adults such as
Elementary centred / wrapped up in industry; more interested in teachers or youth group leaders in
(Age 5 to 8) themselves doing things than in the end addition to parents
- need and seek product; beginning projects - learning to be friends with others;
approval from adults is more important than younger boys and girls enjoy playing
- like to play games, but finishing them together, but by the end of the stage,
can't accept losing; - thinking is concrete; learn boys and girls will separate; fighting
emphasis needs to be through senses by touching, occurs but does not have lasting effects
placed on success and seeing, smelling, tasting, and - peers become important; want to
cooperative games hearing rather than by impress peers more than parents; small
where everyone can thinking alone; verbal groups are effective.
win; failure should be instruction should be
minimized accompanied by
- adult help is needed in demonstration
learning to cope with - learning to sort things into
failures and problems categories; collecting things
is important and fun
Middle - need to feel accepted - still think concretely, but - joining clubs becomes important; will
School (9 to and worthwhile; begin to think more logically; form clubs with a group of others similar
11) successes should be new ideas are best to themselves
emphasized and understood when related to - begin to identify with peers, although
failures kept in previous experiences they still need and want guidance from
perspective as learning - think of things as adults
opportunities absolutes, black or white, - have difficulty understanding another
- performance should right or wrong person's thinking, but are beginning to
be compared with past discover the benefit of making others
personal performance happy
rather than with the - satisfaction in completing projects
performance of other comes more from pleasing the adults in
youth 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 - Begin to demonstrate - Move from concrete to - Move away from dependence on
Adolescence Kohlberg's post- abstract thinking, but still parents toward eventual independence.
(Age 11 to conventional moral tend to think in all-or-nothing - Dependence on opinions of adults
13) thinking terms. shifts to dependence on opinions of
- During puberty, - Demonstrate formal peers.
emotions begin the operational thinking. - Enjoy participating in activities away
roller coaster ride which - Speak in longer sentences, from home.
characterizes use principles of
adolescence. subordination, understand
- Changes in hormones multiple levels of meaning,
and changes in thinking and increase vocabulary.
contribute to mood - Will intensely explore
swings. subjects of interest. Often
- Begin to test values reject solutions offered by
- Have a weak sense of adults in favour of finding
individual identity. Feel their own solutions.
challenges to personal - Justice and equality
self-concepts. become regarded important
- Feel the need to be issues.
part of something
important.

Unit 7 4
Middle - Actively involved in -Continue to gain meta- - Generally self-centred, but capable of
Adolescence search for cognitive abilities and understanding what other people are
(Age 14 to independence and improve study skills. Write feelings.
16) personal identity, longer, more complex - Relationship skills are well developed.
although neither goal is sentences. Can adapt Friendships formed at this stage are
completely achieved language to different often sincere and long-lasting.
during this age period. contexts. Use teen slang. - Recreation moves away from the large
- Achieving satisfactory - Mastering abstract thinking. group and more away from the family.
adjustment to sexuality May imagine things that Dating increases and moves from group
and defining career never were in a way that dates to double dates to couple-only
goals are important. challenges, and sometimes dating.
- Seek emotional threatens, adults who work - Acceptance by members of the
autonomy from parents. with them. opposite sex is now of high importance.
. - Egocentric. Believe in - May begin sexual relationships.
- Learning to cooperate imaginary audience and - Want to belong to groups, but he
with each other as personal fable. recognized as unique individuals within
adults do. - Have difficulty the groups.
- Learning to interact understanding compromise;
with the opposite sex may label adult efforts to
may preoccupy middle cope with inconsistencies as
adolescents. "hypocrisy".
- Unsettled emotions - Explore and prepare for
may cause teens to be future careers and roles in
stormy or withdrawn at life.
times. - Set goals based on feelings
- Take pride in of personal needs and
responsibility and priorities. Goals set by
respect from others. others are likely to be
rejected.

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

Write your own answers in the following grid and then read on.

Unit 7 5
Age group Early Middle Early Middle Late Adolescence
Elementary School (Age Adolescence Adolescence (Age 17 to 19)
(Age 5 to 8) 9 to 11) (Age 11 to 13) (Age 14 to 16)

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.

A) 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.

Unit 7 6
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.

B) 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.

Unit 7 7
SELF-CHECK 5 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
below.)
Now read on.

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

Unit 7 8
 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.
Adapted from Ur (1996:263)

Unit 7 9
 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.
Adapted from Ur (1996:263)

Unit 7 10
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 5 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 learning how to
behave in school, classroom routines
and learning in community
 They can understand meaningful
messages but cannot analyse
language yet.
 They are not aware about the learning
processes; also, they are not fully
aware about themselves.
 They have no or very limited reading
and writing skills in their first language
(which in most cases do not use the
Latin alphabet)
 They are more concerned about
themselves than others.
 These children are already used to school
routines which they do not question.
 They start to show a growing interest in
language as an abstract system; they are
moving from concrete to abstract thinking.
 They are more aware about themselves
and the way they learn. They are becoming
more and more independent.
 They already have well developed skills as
readers and writers in their own language.
 They show interest in the others’
viewpoints and usually compare and
contrast them with theirs.
 They have a growing awareness about and
interest in the world around.

Unit 7 11
  Their knowledge of the world is limited.  Real life issues are more interesting to
 They enjoy fantasy, imagination and them than fantasy.
movement.

Prepare answers and then compare with the suggested answers in the key.

How to teach young learners. Some techniques and activities.

A) 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.

B) 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 Tales and Jazz Chants Fairy Tales by
Carolyn Graham)
 Cutting and colouring animals, things, scenes from stories and speaking
at the same time.

Unit 7 12
  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.

C) 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.

Unit 7 13
  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.

D) 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

Unit 7 14
  Creative writing
 Functional writing (letters formal/informal; reports; reviews)
 Articles
 Speeches (text)
 Projects

E) 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

Unit 7 15
 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.

F) 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

Unit 7 16
 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 on page 5 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.

Unit 7 17
SELF-CHECK ANSWER KEY

SELF-CHECK 5 1, p.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

Unit 7 18
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, p.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.

Unit 7 19
SELF-CHECK 5 3, pp.2&3. Just a few examples.

Age group Early Middle School Early Middle Late Adolescence

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

Topics Family Friends and Heroes Relationships Anything that has

Animals family Relationships The world to do with life,
Daily activities The Earth Celebrations Cinema/films relationships,
Holidays School Fashion Music work, careers will
(Christmas, Jobs Manners Music and film do
Thanksgiving, Nature Nature and stars “Taboo” topics
etc) environment Young people of
other cultures
Fashion
Travelling
Knowing
yourself
(strengths and
weaknesses)
Environment
Techniques Games involving Chants Projects and Drama Projects
and types of physical World project Creative writing Creative writing
activities movement knowledge (eg presentations Intensive and Functional writing
Arts and crafts quizzes) Letter extensive Intensive and
Pictures Mini-projects writing/emails reading extensive reading
Stories Poster Projects Drama
Nursery rhymes creation Reflective essays
Chants Games

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

Unit 7 20
 Establish
classroom
behaviour rules

SELF-CHECK 5 3, pp.5&6 - Comments

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.

Unit 7 21
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, p.8 - 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.

Unit 7 22
 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

Unit 7 23
Ur, Penny (1996) A Course in language Teaching, CUP

Copyright INTESOL Worldwide 2015

Unit 7 24