psychological foundation of foreign language teaching
Introduction - “Teaching enables you to be forever young. When you teach children you share their interests and their problems. For someone like me, who is child at heart, it is an absolute pleasure” (May, 2005). I totally agree with May’s point of view that teaching young learners is enjoyable and pleasurable, especially for teachers who have good background knowledge about the theories and principles of teaching young learners. However, teaching young learners is different from teaching adults. Young learners tend to change their mood every other minute, and they find it extremely difficult to sit still. On the other hand, they show a greater motivation than adults to do things which appeal to them (Klein, 1993). But before going further into our discussion, we should know who young learners are. And what are their distinctive features?
Definition of Young Learners - According to the education system in Libya, ‘young learners’ are those who are studying in basic education between six and fifteen, while some teachers think that young learners are only those aged twelve and below. From the literature review, there is some controversy on specifying the exact age of a ‘young learner’. For example, Rixon (1999) and Phillips (1993) defined young learners as those aged between five and twelve years old. Scott & Ytreberg (2001) have their own classification in which they divided young learners into two main groups, five to seven olds, and eight to ten year olds. They added that each group has its own abilities in doing things and recognizing the world around them.
Characteristics of Young Learners - Unlike adults, young learners have their own features which need to be understood by those who wish to be successful teachers of young learners. For instance, Brumfit (1991) described young learners as keen, enthusiastic and motivated learners, who can be easily stimulated. Another striking feature of young learners is that they have a greater facility than adult learners for understanding and imitating what they hear (Brewster & Ellis, 2001:3-4). Other characteristics listed by Scott & Ytreberg (2001:1) include that five to seven years olds understand situations more quickly than they understand the language used, have a very short attention and concentration span, and sometimes they have difficulties in knowing what is fact and what is fiction; whereas eight to ten years olds can tell the difference between fact and fiction, ask questions all the time, rely on the spoken word as well as the physical world to convey and understand meaning, and have the ability to work with and learn from others.
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