TEYL

Specificities of Learning in TEYL Classrooms
1) Characteristics of young learners
This article deals with the most important characteristics of young learners. First, we will consider
how age determines the methods we use to teach languages. Then, we will see the characteristics that
distinguish young learners from older ones and the implications that these characteristics entail for
English language teaching.
Before presenting the characteristics of young learners, it is worthwhile mentioning that by young
learners, we mean students that are under twelve years old. Those that are over twelve are considered
as teenagers. Adulthood is commonly thought of as beginning at age twenty.
Age as a determining factor in language learning
Age is a very significant factor in language learning. The first fact that teachers should take into
consideration is that young learners differ from older ones in the way they learn new languages. First,
young learners learn better through play while adults are comfortable with abstract learning and are
more analytical. Second, young learners get bored more easily. Generally, they lose interest after ten
minutes or so. Young learners are also more egocentric and need individual attention. However,
contrary to the common belief, young learners are not better than older ones in language learning.
They may be better in imitating the exact pronunciation of their teachers, but they are generally less
successful in learning abstract concepts. According to Lightbown and Spada (2006), older learners are
not less effective in language learning. They may have difficulty approximating native speakers’
pronunciation, but they are better at reaching high levels of proficiency in second or foreign language
learning (Lightbown and Spada, 2006 p 73, cited in Harmer, ).
What are the main characteristics of young learners?
As mentioned above young learners differ from older ones in language learning. what follows is a list
of seven of the most important characteristics of young learners.
Before listing these characteristics, it is important to note that these learners are still developing. Many
aspects of their cognitive capacities get better while they are growing up.
1. Young learners get bored quickly.
If the activities are not interesting and engaging enough, young learners get bored easily. This is
because they have a limited attention span. Generally, after ten minutes, they can get disinterested in
the activity at hand, especially if it is taught directly and is devoid of the elements of play.
2. Young learners are meaning-oriented
They may understand what is being said without necessarily understanding every individual word.
They may not only guess and interpret what is being uttered but they also respond to it with whatever
language resources they have at their disposal.
3. Young learners like to discover things

They are characterized by curiosity and enthusiasm. They like to make sense of the world around them
through engaging and motivating activities where they have to discover by themselves rather than
being told. They also often learn indirectly from everything around them – not necessarily focusing on
the topic being taught.
4. They prefer concrete activities
According to Piaget’s cognitive development theory, young learners are still developing. That is, they
are still making their way from concrete to abstract thinking. Unlike adults who are more analytical,
they are not yet well equipped to learn abstract concepts such as grammar rules. In addition to that,
they are more inclined to understand based not only on explanation but more importantly on what they
hear, see and touch (Harmer, 2001 p. 82).
5. They are more egocentric
They prefer to talk about themselves. Activities that focus on their lives are their cup of tea. In
addition to that, children under the age of 12 need individual attention and approval from the teacher.
6. They are imaginative
Young learners are imaginative. Activities that are full of imagination is a source of enjoyment for
them. It is sometimes difficult for them to distinguish reality from imagination.
7. They imitate
They learn by imitating adults. It is amazing how humans imitate and discover things from a very
young age. Children acquire communication skills through social interactions. Consequently, because
imitation functions as a learning tool, it is rewarding to use it to teach children new skills and
knowledge.
Implications for the teacher
The above characteristics of young learners provide useful insights for teachers. The main implications
for language teaching are as follows:
 Activities shouldn’t normally take more than ten minutes to complete. Asking children to make an
effort to concentrate more than that is counterproductive. They will get bored and disinterested
easily.
 The content should be interesting and motivating. The topics of activities should preferably focus
on the students’ lives.
 Praising the children’s performances is of paramount importance.
 Since children try to imitate the teacher, the latter should be a good model of language use and
social behaviors. The teacher’s pronunciation, for instance, matters enormously. Children imitate
it perfectly well.
 Children respond to meaning and are better at picking up the language through listening and
speaking.
 Since children like playing, discovering and using their imagination, the activities that focus on
making things, drawing, problem-solving (e.g. riddles), singing, playing games can be very
helpful.
 The classroom should be ideally colorful and spacious enough to be able to move around without
any problem.
 Children should work in groups and the activities should be taking place in stress and anxiety-free
atmosphere.
Conclusion
One of the reasons why teaching young learners requires highly skilled teachers is that these learners
have difficulty understanding abstract concepts. Moreover, while teaching them, an appropriate
learning atmosphere should be provided, where the children may move and interact in a stress-free

environment. Young learners are, however, more imaginative. They also like discovering things, and
easily respond to meaning-based activities. Finally, children are also good at imitating the teachers’
language use (e.g.pronunciation) and social behaviors.
2) Language Development of the Child and its Implications on the Teaching Process
Stages of language development First attempts at language for all children go through the same
phases of development. This includes listening stage, speaking stage, reading stage and writing stage.
1) The listening stage: This is the first and an important stage in language development because the
child is born incapable of intelligible speech in any language; what the child does at this stage is active
listening. The child listens to the sound he/she hears around him/her and the instructions and messages
passed around him/her as his/her needs are being attended to.
2) The speaking stage: When the child has adequately consolidated on the listening stage or skill,
he/she now starts making use of those sounds he/she has been taken in around him. The speaking stage
goes through series of levels.
3) The reading stage: Reading is an extension of communication built naturally on the listening and
speaking skills already acquired. Most often, few children learn to read before going to school. The
teachers use various methods to teach the children how to read. In other words, reading is a language
acquisition stage most often acquired within formal school setting.
4) The writing stage: This is the last stage of language development. This is the stage when children
learn to put down their feelings and thoughts through the use of the relevant symbols that are used in
the language they are learning. Just like reading, it is a language development/acquisition stage which
takes place in formal school setting. It is not innately natural in the child (Ugwu, 2010).
Effective monitoring units should be put in place by government to ensure that children are started
with mother tongue/ native language first, and then followed immediately with other languages as
early as possible. Government should ensure adequate supply of professional language teachers in
native and other languages. Government should ensure that relevant facilities are made available
especially instructional materials for children’s language development. Teachers, on their own part,
should be a model for the child’s speech, speaking clearly and correctly, using words, gestures and
examples to help the children understand the processes of communication better. Early childhood
stage is a critical and sensitive period when children undergo rapid mental growth and development
and learn faster. Events that take place this time exert tremendous influence on subsequent
development. Therefore, language specialist teachers should teach the children to lay a life-long
foundation for them. Parents and guardians should support teachers in this noble task for children’s
proper language acquisition and development
Young learners have a great curiosity to try new things and to explore concrete to abstract things. For
this reason, teachers of young learners should be able to give materials that accommodate young
learners’ curiosity with suitable activities such as playing with sand or water, going to the zoo,
building with toy bricks and in abstract term teachers should give them the opportunities to talk things

through with others (Pinter, 2006). For instance, start with familiar topics such as colors, numbers,
greetings, animals, fruit, food and drink, families, body parts, shapes, clothing, the weather, days of
the week and everyday sentences and phrases. Young learners actively construct meaning from their
experiences. They learn through hands-on experiences and through manipulation of objects in the
environment. Therefore, good teachers need to provide materials that enable them to have learning
experiences which encourage young learners to get information from a variety of sources. Young
learners have to engaged in activities of language is a part; they need to be working on meaningful
task and use language to carry out these task. Young learners focus on the immediate here and now
context situation.
Teachers should not give the materials that beyond the situation of here and now context. In other
words, teacher can use materials available in the class that young learners can directly see and can
make sense of new experiences by relating them to what they already know. For example, when
teacher wants to teach about color, teacher can use the color of objects in class such as wall, table,
chair, and the like. Young learners have a quite short attention span and are easy to get bored. Thus
teachers should be flexible enough to move on to the next exercise when they see their students getting
bored and give them various teaching techniques and materials such as by playing games, watching,
imitating, listening, doing physical movement, singing and so forth.
Chose the activities that can accommodate the children’s short pan of attention. Young learners learn
through their own individual actions and exploration. The lesson materials should be explorative and
contain many aspects to be exposed. The materials are designed with involving their sensory aids. It
can help them to internalize the concepts. The smell of flowers, the touch of plants and fruits, the taste
of food, and so forth. The use of audiovisual aids like video, pictures, tape, music and the like are
important elements in their language teaching (Brown, 2001). Young learners are keen to talk about
themselves, and respond well to learning that uses themselves and their own lives as main topics in the
classroom. It is worth considering giving them material that are within their prior knowledge so that
by sufficient demonstration they will learn language. The suitable materials that can be used for
example, a topic about family, friends, objects in the house, objects in the playground, food, fruit, etc.
Young learners often learn indirectly rather than directly. Teachers should provide materials
promoting the activities that can accelerate their learning English from the surrounding, for instance by
asking them to write about objects they find on the way home in English, listen to song, watch films,
etc. Young learners learn best when learning is kept whole, meaningful, interesting and functional.
The suitable materials for this principle are the materials that will make young learners find it easy
and meaningful, such as story lines, or real life conversation. In order to have meaningfulness,
children should be given opportunities to make their own choices. They will relate these choices with
their personal wants and needs then it becomes meaningful for them. Young learners learn by thinking
in term of theme. Teachers should not use all the subjects’ material at once as it is possible to be done
in adult classes. Limit the material based on their timely need. For instance, in introducing ‘pronoun’,
teach them I and You first then next session followed by He and She. Young learners learn best as a
community of learners in non-competitive environment. Teachers should give children the materials
that encourage them to use the language for different social purposes, for instance by talking and
doing things in social context. By using the language for social communication in the group, children
will acquire the language.
3) Acquisition Versus Learning

The distinction between acquisition and learning is one of the most influential theories among
linguists, researchers and practitioners. Krashen believes that there are two independent systems of
second language performance:
o Acquisition- a subconscious process that is very similar to the process children undergo when
they acquire their first language. It mostly involves natural communication with more focus on
the meaning rather than the form.
o Learning- a conscious process that involves formal instruction that results in conscious
knowledge about the language.
Acquisition
Learning
A product of subconscious process
A product of formal learning
Similar to the process children learn their first
language
Conscious knowledge “about” the language
Informal situations
Formal situations
Uses grammatical “feel”
Uses grammatical “rules”
Natural communication in the target language
It is clear that as teachers we want to maximise our student's opportunities to acquire
language. Consequently, we need to spend more time using authentic language with our students as
opposed to teaching them explicit grammar rules.
4) The Input Hypothesis
The Input Hypothesis is an attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second language – how
second language acquisition takes place. It is only concerned with 'acquisition', not 'learning'. It claims
that humans acquire language in only one way--by understanding messages, that is, by receiving
"comprehensible input." If acquisition is the core of this theory, the crucial question then becomes:
How do we acquire? According to the hypothesis, we move from one stage of understanding to
another. More specifically, we acquire a new rule by understanding messages that contain this new
rule. We move from stage "i", the present level of the understood message or "current competence"
(Krashen, 21), to the next level, giving us the formula "i+1."
This hypothesis highlights the importance of using the Target Language in the classroom. The goal of
any language program is for learners to be able to communicate effectively. By providing as much
comprehensible input as possible, especially in situations when learners are not exposed to the TL
outside of the classroom, the teacher is able to create a more effective opportunity for language
acquisition.