Children: 10-12 year-olds

In this section, find out how 10-12 year-old children learn and develop.

Characteristics	Implications	Need
Longer attention span	Greater range of activities possible in class	Opportunities to engage in tasks that require focus and commitment
Knowledge of the world growing	More topics can be addressed	Stimulation e.g. information from Internet or cross-curricular
Taking learning more seriously	Can be given responsibility	Chances to be independent
Still children	Have need for security and pleasure	Teacher sensitive to their needs and moods
More cooperative with peers	Can do more group work	Variety of grouping in class: work on own, in pairs, in group, as class.
Intellectual, motor and social skills developing	Can be challenged more	Activities that challenge them
Developing own learning strategies	Children won’t all react in the same way to the same task/topic	Chance to personalize their learning experience

Projects

By now it is clear that students have very different approaches to learning and have distinct preferences and interests. A project on animals can ensure all are satisfied.

Students can choose to work independently or with a partner(s)

· Get students to choose an animal, or the creative ones can create a new one!

· Students choose whether to create a wall display, a book or a presentation on their animal

Their work can include illustrations, their own or ones they find. Their project can be a factual description about the animal including information found in books, the internet etc or it can be a story about the animal. It could also be a poster calling for conservation of a particular species. Give a time limit – say 2 or 3 lessons for them to prepare their work and then it can either be displayed, shared or presented

Questions for discussion and practical tasks

1. What are the key objectives of teaching a foreign language to young learners?
2. Look at tables 1, 2, 3 and say how the children of different age groups learn and develop. Speak on characteristics, implications and needs.
3. Specify the following words and word combinations: chunks of language; chants; motor skills; wall display; mini-project.
4. To the children of what age group would you like to give classes in a foreign language and why?

Lecture 2

Ways children learn

Children are different from adults in many aspects.

-Children from 5 to 12 are more acquirers t han learners. What is acquisition? Language acquisition is universal, natural, doesn’t require instruction. Language acquisition occurs in response to a child’s environment and as a result of a biological predisposition. Acquisition takes place subconsciously. Learning takes place consciously. It is helped greatly by error correction and presentation of explicit rules.

-When a young child learns another language, he approaches it in the same way as when he learns the first language. Children who can already read in L1, learn reading English quite quickly.

-Children are able to understand the meaning without understanding particular words. If teachers speak only English in the lessons, pupils usually have no problems with understanding the meaning of the passage in general. Therefore it is extremely important for teachers to use gestures, intonation, facial expressions, etc. Children appreciate everything what is concrete, what they really can see and touch. If teachers speak about something it is advantageous to use visual aids.

-Children are creative. Although their vocabulary is quite limited, it is enough for them to be able to communicate. Pupils do not have problems to ask and answer set phrases but it is much more difficult for them to construct sentences in unpredictable situations. Therefore games are so important and useful. If a teacher prepares games (activities) where children are made to communicate, he/she creates such unpredictable moments when children have to use their vocabulary and grammar as much as it is possible. It does not matter at all that children make mistakes. What is important is the fact that they have to be creative in the foreign language they learn, which naturally leads to the development of their communicative skills.

-The imitative ability of young children is great. They experience fewer difficulties in the assimilation of English pronunciation than adults

-The length of time a child can concentrate on one activity varies from child to child. Some young children can concentrate for about 5 minutes, others for very much longer periods of up to 15 minutes. It is better to change an activity before children lose interest.

-Children find it easier to learn one concept at a time. When a page in a book presents children with a confusing amount of material, it is better to take one item from the page and deal with it.

-Children learn more easily when they know what to expect in a lesson and what the teacher expects of them. For this reason it is helpful to use the same lesson framework for each lesson. The end of the lesson the teacher uses to say some words of praise and comment on their participation.

-It is impossible for children to learn everything perfectly in each lesson. For this reason part of every lesson should consist of going over previous work to help children consolidate the language.

-Physical development affects a child’s ability to focus his eye on a page, hold a pencil or a brush. Around 7 or 8 tears children lose their top and bottom front teeth which is embarrassing for many and makes pronunciation difficult.

-The children are fond of talking. Nevertheless, some children do not want to talk in a foreign language because they find it too difficult. This is up to the teacher to choose such activities which are not too difficult, which are enjoyable and make children speak. Teachers have to center their attention on speaking as it is not sufficient if children know grammar and vocabulary but they are not able to speak and construct their own sentences. This idea brings to the main purpose of learning English as a foreign language and it is to reach the level of being able to communicate.

-If teachers want their students to communicate they should carefully prepare their syllabuses. There are three basic types of content goals and the syllabus should consist of the combination of the all three types.

The first type is focused on structures teachers want to teach. The structures include grammatical tenses and some concrete structures themselves (such as modal verbs, verbs plus-ing, etc.) the second type deals with topics and situations of a daily life. The topics are often used for the development of conversational skills but they can also be used for learning grammar. The third type tackles with functions. The term “functions” concerns expressing one’s preferences, asking and giving directions, etc.

.-No two learners will be alike in any class. Research has shown that not only do we all learn in different ways, we also have multiple intelligences (Gardiner). Studies that some of us are auditory learners who need to hear the language and listen, others are visual learners who have to see and visualize before understanding and feeling confident enough to try it out, while still others can only learn through doing, the kinesthetic learner.

Auditory learners like if new pieces of information and instructions are presented in a spoken way. For them it is much more important what their teachers say and what their teachers write on the board. If they want to understand a problem, they usually have to say the problem aloud. Although auditory types of people like listening to what other people say and speak, they need certain calm conditions to be able to communicate, otherwise they become nervous and sometimes aggressive. Approximately a quarter of population prefers auditory simulation.

Fifty percent of the population prefers the visual way of acquiring new information. Such students remember best everything what they can see. Teachers have to use enough texts, pictures, videos, etc. Visual types of people have to imagine the texts and pictures in their minds and therefore they need enough time and space for communicating their thoughts. They often move when they speak and they do not usually look directly at the person they are speaking to. It is caused by the fact that they need to avoid all the distracting elements in their surroundings. On the other hand, visual types of people are every good in creative thinking and they have many interesting ideas and opinions.

The last remarkable group of people are people preferring a kinesthetic type of simulation. For these people it is crucial to experience the feeling of motion. Not only motion is important for them, but also emotions in general. These people are very sensitive, although they can look like being completely insensitive as far as other people are concerned because they are focused on their own feelings and emotions. Teachers should offer these people enough opportunities to move as motion is what makes them relaxed and calm.

The Chinese expression “I hear- I know; I see- I understand; I do- I remember” shows that to meet the needs of all three is to make it a memorable experience for all. But it doesn’t end there.

Our intelligences profiles add another dimension. These consist of combinations of eight different primary intelligence types:

linguistic;

logical-mathematical;

spatial;

bodily kinesthetic;

musical;

interpersonal — the way we relate to each other;,

intrapersonal — our ability to self-evaluate, and the naturalist (Berman, 1995).

This should not be seen as a problem, but rather as a distinct advantage when thinking of activities to introduce to practice language and the four skills. For example; logical — mathematical intelligences like number and sequence, puzzles, problems to solve.