Young learners

II. MAINBODY

1. 
   ELUCIDATION TO THE TERM "YOUNG LEARNERS".
   

To define what young learner is, it is related to the word childhood. The world childhood varies to country to country. In many parts of the word kids take on adult responsibilities at ages when in other countries they are still protected within their school. Therefore, the age plays important role to define the young learner starting from becoming young learner to the end phase of young learner. A theory of language acquisition about learning language stated that learning language will become natural and easy if the age of children is young, early is better. As the result that summarize about early start with the following: the sooner the better, meaning children should start at a young age learning a second language in order to benefit from the procedure and acquire as much as possible from the foreign language. Notes that the term young learner is vague and can lead to confusion. Legally, a young learner may be anyone under the age of; in reality, however, using one term to cover such a diverse age range is unhelpful. Instead, scientists proposes that at the very least, a distinction between pre and post 11 or 12 year olds should be made. This is because of the huge differences in physical, psychological, social, emotional, conceptual and cognitive development among children in these age groups, leading to very different approaches to teaching. The pre and post 11 or 12 label is also useful as the younger the better controversy concerns this younger age group. We suggests her own list of terms for describing YLs and, in this main points, we have taken the decision to focus on the first two levels she proposes, early years pre primary and primary. As well as the younger the better debate there are a number of reasons for this.¹ First, as we points out, most research to date has focused on the older age group of secondary-school learners. Moreover, the rapid and comprehensive lowering of the age at which English is introduced to children in many countries, together with the spread of preschool English, means it is timely to focus on these younger age groups. Finally, given the differences in approach needed to teach pre primary and secondary-school learners, focusing on one of these groups allows for a more in depth look at a number of issues, such as appropriate pedagogies and contexts of learning. Therefore, for the purposes of this special issue, YLs are those at preprimary and primary level, roughly from the age of 3 up to 11 or 12 years old.
Young learners are a catch all term for students who are not yet adults. The term swept into fashion at the beginning of the nineties reflecting the trend to lower the starting age and broaden the access to English language learning to younger people in many countries all over the world. As a quick google search will show, the term young learners is frequently interpreted in different ways. For some institutions and language providers, the term refers to any student who has not yet reached their majority most usually at 18 and towards whom, as educators, we have a duty of care. This interpretation reflects the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in which a child is defined as a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. In this interpretation, the term young learners includes the whole range of ages and developmental stages of children from infants, young children and older children, through to adolescents, teenagers and young people. In other interpretations, young learners is a term that is used to refer to children from their first year of formal schooling usually somewhere between 5 7 years old to when they are 11 12 years old, or to when they move on from primary to secondary school. This is an interpretation that is often adopted, either implicitly or explicitly, by publishers and exam boards. In this interpretation, a young learner grows into being labelled as something else, usually a teenager, at adolescence. In this interpretation there is also often an additional term very young learners which is used to refer to pre primary children aged from approximately 3 6. In various promotional material for language courses, teaching resources and holiday camps, you can also find the term young learners used to encompass a range of different age bands such as 8 16, 4 14, 9 15, 5 16, and so on. As the above shows, the term young learners is wide ranging but, at the same time, it is also ambiguous and potentially confusing. The term also obscures the enormous physical, emotional, psychological, social and cognitive differences there are in children and young people of different ages, and correspondingly and importantly, the wide range of different skills and methodological approaches that their teachers need to teach them. As those of us who work with young learners know only too well, there is a world of difference in teaching pre-literate and pre teenage children. And even with the increased maturity of teenagers, where our approach may more closely resemble that of ELT for adults, there are often crucial aspects, particularly in the areas of motivation, self esteem and discipline, that need finely attuned sensitivities and highly specialised skills.² Rather than using ‘young learners’ as a blanket, catch-all term, it might be more helpful to specify the age ranges we are talking about in relation to the educational systems to which children belong. We could then refer to, for example, infants, pre-primary, kindergarten or early years, followed by primary, middle school or lower secondary, secondary and upper secondary. This would allow for reference to specific educational contexts. For example, in some contexts children finish primary school and start secondary school at the age of 11, while in other contexts this changeover may be as late as 14. It would also more accurately reflect the extensive knowledge of mainstream pedagogy and applied linguistics, as well as the highly specialized repertoire of skills and attitudes that so called Young learner teachers need to teach all the different age groups effectively. I think you have raised an important issue with this post. I would consider young learners to mean up to the age of 16, though I believe, as you have pointed out, that it is necessary to sub catagorise which age group exactly is being referred to. In fact, many books on the subject, for example teaching languages to young learners, and teaching English to children tend to focus on the younger age groups pre primary and primary. Teacher training for young learners could also be more specific as to which age groups they are aimed at, especially regarding whether the focus is on pre-primary, primary or teenagers. Young learners are supposed to be children from the first year of formal schooling five or six years old to eleven or twelve years of age. However, the age of children is not crucial for how mature they are. According to there are many factors that influence children’s maturity for example, their culture, their environment city or rural, their sex, the expectations of their peers and parents. The author reports that a good teacher should be aware of these differences and that is why the types of activities he decides to use with a class must be influenced by his knowledge of their circumstances, attitudes, and interests rather than simply by the children’s physical age. Young learners are supposed to be children from the first year of formal schooling five or six years old to eleven or twelve years of age. However, the age of children is not crucial for how mature they are. There are many factors that influence children’s maturity for example, their culture, their environment city or rural, their sex, the expectations of their peers and parents. The reports that a good teacher should be aware of these differences and that is why the types of activities he decides to use with a class must be influenced by his knowledge of their circumstances, attitudes, and interests rather than simply by the children’s physical age. It is individual how quickly the children develop. There is a difference between how skilled the children are not depending on their different ages. Some children develop later than others. In general, it is assumed that five to seven year old children are all at the same beginner level. The eight to ten year olds may also be beginners, or they
may have been learning the foreign language for some time, so there are both level one and level two pupils in the eight to ten age groups. We mention some basic characteristics of the young language learners:

• 
  Children sometimes have problems to distinguish the real world from the imaginary world. It can be difficult for teachers to cope with it and to understand their perception of reality.
  
• 
  When working or playing they like to be accompanied with others. Most of them do not like to work alone.
  
• 
  They use language skills long before they are aware of them.
  
• 
  They love to play and the learning itself can be effective only in case they are enjoying themselves.
  
• 
  They learn by mimics, using gestures and body movements. The physical world is very important and dominant at all times.
  
• 
  They have a very short attention and concentration span.
  
• 
  They do not always understand the world of adults.
  

Young children are motivated when they are praised. It is very important to support their enthusiasm from the beginning of learning . As children grow and mature they bring more intellectual, motor, and social skills to the classroom, as well as a wider knowledge of the world. The focus should continue to be on language as a vehicle of communication and not on the grammar, though the ability of older children to make logical links and deductions can be exploited. The teacher can provide such tasks for them in which they can discover simple grammatical rules; their attention can be focused on the structure of the language in order to help them formulate an internal grammar of their own. The kinds of activities that work well are games and songs with actions, total physical response activities, tasks that involve colouring, cutting and sticking, simple, repetitive stories, and simple, repetitive speaking activities that have an obvious communicative value. The term young learner YL can denote the foreign language learner in preschool through secondary school, although current research on YLs focuses on early language study in pre -primary and primary grades, typically from 4 to 11 or 12 years of age. Given the increasing number of YLs who study English researchers have begun to look more closely at issues involved in teaching language to very young pre -primary and young primary learners. Topics under investigation include the teachers' training and background, the shortage of well trained teachers, the advantages and disadvantages of early foreign language learning, individual student differences, out of school factors, target language goals and assessment in early grades, research challenges with young children, and the lack of good empirical evidence on best approaches. For teachers of young children it is sometimes very difficult to keep their concentration. It can be disrupted by many factors. In general one can see that the child cannot concentrate on one particular thing, topic or activity more than few minutes. The teacher is supposed to interchange the activities to keep children’s interest. It is good to divide the lesson into shorter activities, because young children like the moment of surprise and they do not know what comes next. Teachers should keep the number of new language items introduced to a reasonable level and should present and practise new language themes in a number of different ways. Therefore, as teachers we will need to be aware of what will work with these learners and what won’t. We will need to lead the learning in a more holistic way, so songs, the opportunity to play, explore, touch and move will all be essential if we are successfully to lead our students forward into the language. The teacher will need to use a lot of L1 as students will have very limited English capability, so the teacher may well need a good command of the learner’s language to be able to issue instructions and maintain discipline.