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Unit 2. Basic Principles of Teaching To Young Learners

Young learners have natural abilities for language learning and enjoy participating in classroom activities. They are energetic, spontaneous, curious, imaginative, easily distracted, egocentric, and social. Teachers must understand these characteristics and create an environment with interesting visual displays, music, and respect for individual students. The classroom should provide opportunities for movement, role plays, music, and displaying student work to engage young learners.

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2K views1 page

Unit 2. Basic Principles of Teaching To Young Learners

Young learners have natural abilities for language learning and enjoy participating in classroom activities. They are energetic, spontaneous, curious, imaginative, easily distracted, egocentric, and social. Teachers must understand these characteristics and create an environment with interesting visual displays, music, and respect for individual students. The classroom should provide opportunities for movement, role plays, music, and displaying student work to engage young learners.

Uploaded by

Vesna Stevanovic
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 2: Basic Principles of Teaching to Young Learners

Children have a reputation for having natural language learning ability. They can learn
fast and easy. Young learners have emotional, cognitive and linguistic characteristics that most
primary level learners share and teachers need to ensure their fully involving in learning process.
The most young learners are:
1. Energetic and physically active
(cant sit still for a long period, want to get up and move, have dynamic energy);
2.Spontaneous and not afraid to speak out or participate (willing to participate in activities and
speak out in English without feeling embarrassed, good imitators of language, not afraid to
repeat after teacher, sing songs- even if they dont know English very well or even if they dont
know meaning of some word);
3. Curious and receptive to new ideas
(natural curiosity, want to learn more, new and interesting topics);
4. Imaginative and enjoy make-believe
(like to use imagination, like the role plays and drama games, like to pretend that they are
somebody/ something else, like to make and dress costumes and masks);
5. Easily distracted and have short attentions spans
(easily distracted, short attentions spans, not concentrate on long activities except if activities
are fun and interesting to them);
6. Egocentric and relate new ideas to themselves
(egocentric, centered on themselves and their surroundings, they have difficulties to see things
from another persons perspective);
7. Social and learning to relate to others
(very social, like to talk to each other, like to play games with each other).
Teachers have to identify learners characteristics and choose appropriate classroom environment
and activities.
The young child's environment that includes interesting visual aspects draws them to examine a
painting on the wall or recognize a drawing that they have completed. Displays and panels
provide visually interesting content to examine as children move about in the classroom space.
Music and sound patterns stimulate several portions of the young child's brain. A variety of
music and instruments can expand the sound world of young children, while developing musical
enjoyment. Singing in circle time and during transitions encourages the children to discriminate
sounds and identify familiar patterns. Making music with simple rhythm instruments provides
opportunities for children to connect the object with the sound that it produces and to control the
production. Recordings of vocals, instrumentals, and folk instruments provide another listening
experience that expands the auditory environment for young children.
The appropriate emotional environment also respects young children, while understanding
individual differences. This means that each child has a place to collect "valuable" thingstheir
pictures and work are displayed in the classroom.
References:
Shin, J. K. & Crandall, J. (2014). Teaching Young Learners English: From Theory to Practice. Boston:
Heinle ETL, Cengage Learning

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