Friday, March 1, 2013

ELT for Young Learners; the Basic Principles to Language Skills and Learners' Characteristics

English Language teaching (ELT) to young learners has a different concepts and procedures from ELT to adults. These differences occur due to the kind of language skills we want them to deal with and to the nature of those learners. Teachers who deals with those children need to take into consideration number of things that are related to these aspects. Before talking about the principles of both language skills and learners' characteristics let us explore some definitions of the term young learners. According to Thornbury (2006) (as cited in Chi, 2010) this term "is used to describe children of pre-primary and  primary school age, although it is sometimes used to include adolescents as well." Phillips (1993) (as cited in Chi, 2010) defines them as "children of formal schooling (five or six years old) to eleven or twelve years of age." These definitions show that we are dealing with learners who have unique characteristics especially in terms of foreign language learning.



Should we really 'teach' children?

It is more effective, in my opinion, to spend time exposing learners to the language rather than teaching them the language. This exposure will deliver the same knowledge that the teaching will do but in more effective and motivating way. In our situation in Saudi Arabia, where teachers supposed to cover the subjects in the textbook, teachers can expose learners to the language of the subjects in different ways for example, presenting videos that cover the subjects in interesting and interactive way; and suitable pace, in terms of speaking and presenting items. After that, you can set scenes to let learners communicate with each other in the same language they are exposed to. Such communication provides young learners with the authentic language and way that are used in real discourse. the aforementioned information indicates that young learners need to integrate the main four skills with the language which help to create a real communication environment that is leading to produce authentic language.



What are the principles that we should take into account in teaching skills?

Here I will discuss some principles that should be taken into consideration while teaching skills. First, activate the roles of learners, in case of what is known as receptive skills. The roles of learners can be activated in reading and listening by integrated these skills with the active ones, speaking and writing. For example, in groups learners read to reproduce new sentences or to summarize. The learners listen to reply or to answer certain questions. Integrated helps in keeping all learners involve with active roles using skills. This leads us to the Second principle, which is, skills are not to be taught but they are to be used. Learners need skills to use the language to communicate. The best way of taking benefit of that is by letting them use the skills rather than teach them the concepts of these skills.  Third, language is a system. Any system consists of elements that interact together to make the system work appropriately. In relation to language skills, this shows that we should not teach skills individually. Lessons should be planned to make learners use the skills interactively this brings us back to the main goal which is making learners able to communicate in authentic situations.



The characteristics of young learners

As mentioned before young learners have unique characteristics that make them remarkable from adults. These characteristics need to be taken into account in teaching youngsters. Here I will present some of these characteristics with comments on each.

-         Youngsters interact better in familiar situations. Teachers should know what type of knowledge their learners have. The new knowledge should be considered as addition to the old one. The learners will find it easy to get the knowledge as they follow the logical order.

-         Youngsters are willing to interact. Young learners are more eager to interact using the new language either in class or in real life situations. Teachers need to keep the level of motivation by involving learners in authentic interactions in peers.

-         Youngsters have short attention span. This leads us again to involving young learners in practice the language in class. However, if the teacher needs to present some parts of the lesson by himself, he should vary his techniques to avoid boredom.

-         Youngsters are eager to present their knowledge in front of their peers. Giving opportunities to the learners to present their ideas and opinions help them to get more fluent in using English. In terms of personality, it helps learners to be more confident. It is also encourage them to learning and searching to find new information and knowledge to present. The teachers can get advantage of such eagerness by preparing small debate and discussion class, which will help in using some linguistic functions such as agreeing and disagreeing.

-         Youngsters are imaginative. This characteristic will help teachers in teaching some areas such as vocabulary by linking pictures with the concrete meaning. The teachers can develop creative thinking of their learners taking advantage of their wide imagination.

-         Youngsters are easy to be encouraged to learn. Presenting topic of interests encourage learners to interact with the content, teacher and their peers. Challenging learners motivates them to think and find solutions. However, challenges should not be represented in form of obstacles.

-         Youngsters are more willing to be native-like speakers. Young learners are good in copying the accent of native speakers. They are less shy in imitating natives in their speaking manners. The teachers should use audio materials that are presented by native speakers to fulfill learners need.



To sum up, ELT for young learners has special many principles that teachers should take into account. These principles either related to the skills of the language or to the learners' characteristics. The teachers should treat both types in a parallel way to ensure that the environment of the classroom represents a perfect environment of language learning.

References

CHI, N. (2010). TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING VOCABULARYTO YOUNG LEARNERS AT ILA SCHOOL. SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FORTHE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (TEFL)


WILLIAMS, M. (1998). TEN PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS. Cambridge press.