Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

The young learner
The nature of the very young learner does not appear to vary
noticeably from nation to nation, and this suggests that the
same general psychological and methodological principles hold
good for teachers of the youngest children wherever they are.
For example the limited span of attention noted by
Ginsberg in her 5–6 year olds learning English in Leningrad

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is found in all young children. Consequently English ‘lessons’
must be short, though regular. Twenty to thirty minutes each
day is ideal for children between 5 and 7, and a longer daily
period, up to forty-five minutes for older primary school
children. Equally, if not more important, it is necessary to
switch frequently from one activity to another during the
course of lessons: ten minutes is the longest time for which
many primary children can sustain an interest in one activity,
and for infant and kindergarten learners, the period is even
shorter.
As Rivers points out, young children ‘Love to imitate and
mime; they are uninhibited in acting out roles, and they enjoy
repetition because it gives them a sense of assurance and
achievement.’ This being so, an essentially oral approach is
ideal, using patterned activities like games, songs and short
dialogues which lend themselves to repetition. Young
children are physically active. The injection into primary
English teaching of physical movement for the sole purpose
of letting off steam is an acknowledgment only of childish
restlessness. But purposeful activity: action songs,
dramatisation, the colouring and drawing of pictures,
manipulating real objects and puppets, action games like
‘Simon Says’, quieter games like ‘Picture Dominoes’, the kind
of role-playing found in children’s play: these are the very
stuff of the exploratory and expressive activity natural to the
young child.
There are certain language functions which appeal to
children of this age. And unless the language activities allow
the learners to talk about what concerns them, English will
soon be felt to be irrelevant and boring. Kindergarten
children are ‘set’ to name things, a fundamental kind of
control over and relationship with their environment.
Therefore the earliest activities should be unashamedly
lexical, with structural items playing a purely incidental and
formulaic role. Hence ‘Put your finger on your…’ should
follow from a song naming:
Two eyes and two ears and one mouth and one nose
Two arms and two legs, ten fingers and ten toes.
The ability to name things leads to claiming and collecting.
So talking about ‘My things’ and ‘I’ve got…’ is naturally

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attractive, just as games involving collecting—finding hidden
items, gathering things that go together, shopping, dressing
dolls—have a strong appeal.
If naming objects and possessing them is satisfying to the
infant ego, so is having private knowledge and wresting that
knowledge from others. Hence the popularity of guessing
games, which are rapidly modifiable for language teaching
purposes—and played with no less pleasure for being in a
foreign language. Indeed, the touchstone for successful
activities in English is the harnessing of activities which are
natural to the child’s maturational level, those which he
pursues normally in his own language. The result of this is
that English is being used instrumentally for an enjoyable
end and gives a constant surrender value and the developing
oral skill. No learner should be pressed to learn aspects of the
foreign language which are more advanced than his current
level of command of his own language, although junior
courses in English have been constructed on a structural
basis originally designed for adults.
The love of repetition, common to all young children, is a
feature of their natural games, stories and groups which is
usefully applied to learning English. Therefore games like
‘What time is it, Mr Wolf?’ and songs of the ‘Old
MacDonald’ variety are ideal. To teach traditional English
nursery rhymes, however, is of questionable value. The
acknowledged virtues of their attractive tunes and rhymes
cannot justify their unusual vocabulary and syntax, let alone
their frequent total lack of meaning. It is true that when
operating in a foreign language most learners will tolerate a
drop in sophistication and motivational levels. But whilst the
adult learner is often prepared to listen to or record an
anecdote in a foreign language which he would disdain in his
mother tongue, he is vaguely aware of the psychological gap
which exists. On the other hand, the 8 year old French boy
singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ has few clues to tell him
that the song is appropriate to English children half his age,
and it is arguably doing as much a disservice to teach him it
as it is to encourage items like puffer-train and doggy.
The readiness with which primary children form groups
and participate in team activities is a quality which lends
itself to the English lesson. Not only does group work give

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children more chance to talk to each other—no one can have
a conversation with a taperecorder and semi-natural practice
is difficult in a class-teaching situation—but it harnesses the
purposeful and instrumental use of English. Colouring and
drawing activities are best done in small groups where talk
about the work in hand can take place naturally. Games with
picture cards—picture dominoes, picture bingo, ‘Happy
Families’—call for small groups, which can also be the basis
for dialogues, dramatisation and role-playing activities.