by John Brown
The global dominance of English means more and more parents want their children to start learning the language earlier. But teaching young learners is very different from teaching adults. For one thing, children learn much faster, but have far shorter attention spans. This means that teachers need to approach lessons in a completely different way, if they are to tune into the children in front of them.
One of the most important things to remember is that most young learners (from five to nine) will be in class at their parents’ request, not because they want to. Even older children (from nine to twelve), and those in national curriculums, will be there for reasons other than personal choice.
It’s vital therefore to make classroom sessions dynamic and stimulating for both learners and teacher. Lessons should be fun and based on the children’s interests and individual personalities.
Let me begin by explaining (briefly!) how children’s minds work. Children are totally receptive to the environment around them and they learn incredibly quickly. As they get older, the speed with which they acquire knowledge slows, but they learn faster than adults well into their late teens.
The reason is because they use all their senses. They are not just working in the cognitive sphere, which is what poor adults often end up doing. Unlike grown-ups, they have not yet selected their preferred mode of receptivity. All their senses of perception are open, and take in vast quantities of information.
Moreover children under seven have no preferences as to which side of their brain they use. Like the body, the brain has two sides. The left part of the body is described as feminine, the right masculine. In the brain, the left side is analytical, the right is creative. After children reach seven, the rigours and discipline of academic learning slowly erode the use of the right brain for acquiring knowledge.
Consequently, most information is taken in by the analytical half of the brain. But this need not to be a restriction. When children are playing or relaxing, it’s often the right side of the brain that is at work. Teachers can take advantage of this play-mode to impart new vocabulary or spellings. Physical actions involve all the senses and as such should be a part of many activities within a learning programme.
It follows that, to maximise knowledge acquisition, the classroom environment should be tailored to the needs and wants of young learners. Encourage them to bring in representations of their daily lives and collect pictures/posters of well-known local and international characters and musicians, places, family, sports, leisure and hobbies so the children feel totally at home in the classroom.
Colour is very important; pastel shades, such as gentle pinks, are very calming – excellent for unruly classes – as are plants at least once the “What’s that doing in here?” and “What’s it for?” have all died down.
Once you are confident you have created an atmosphere conducive to learning, you can concentrate on your teaching approach. Here, it’s very important to engender an idea of togetherness and similarity of environment that learners can relate to. Avoid focusing on differences, particularly cultural ones. Remember, children have only their small world as a point of reference – often they do not notice distinction between colour, race or custom, but merely accept them. Moreover distinctions are the creation of adults, so we should be careful not to inflict our preconceptions and prejudices on children.
Like everything else in the young learners’ class, the teacher’s approach to projects or “tasks” must be tailored accordingly. The task at hand, rather than the language, is always the focus for the child. Activities which are multi-sensory will help children use both hemispheres of their brain when completing tasks. Language is absorbed while involved in doing.
Tasks should not be long and laborious. Make sure there is a definite outcome, and that learners have the opportunity to be proud of their work and interested in its presentation and display.
Tasks should encourage laughter – after all, we readily remember things we associate with happiness – so use materials that are funny: pictures that cause laughter, poems and stories which are fun, and situations and themes which cause amusement.
There is no need with young learners to limit your space to a desk or table. Each element in the classroom can be used to enhance the learning experience of the children. So use the floor, share the board, and ensure that you keep your sitting-down time to a minimum. Remember that young children have an extremely short attention span, and a change of pace or environment, however small, is often all you need to re-focus the child’s attention. And attentiveness is vital if both parties are to gain the maximum benefit from the session in class.
Let the children take decisions as to what they want to do within your framework. This means being prepared for the session ahead, but also working as a team, not as a teacher. Remember that the child may choose not to respond to begin with. Don’t worry. Be patient and results, when they appear, will be good.
Finally, as a teacher of young learners, you will be faced with one last, and often major difficulty – the expectations of parents. Parents are often unaware of learning patterns of children, and will expect to see tangible progress in left brain work; grammar and writing. Your job will be to convince them that progress should be measured in terms of work done rather than results of tests. Be sure that the parents see their children’s work – present it visually and label it in English, as they are hungry to see that their child is making progress.
John Brown is a freelance trainer/teacher & EFL market consultant. This article first appeared in the printed version of the ELT News.
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