Essay about Characteristic of YL (Assignment of TEYL) By : Putri Amaliah

Here I will discuss about the characteristic of young learners. Perhaps we think this is easy, but we still have to know and understand what is the characteristic of young learners before us teaching English for young learners. But before that, I want to explain the meaning of young learners. 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. Young learners are superior in language learning than adults. The young learner is very unique, although they has short attention, like playing and has limited knowledge that they have, but they are risk taker which make them success in learning process

According to Slattery (2001: 4) children are learners who:

·         love to play and use imagination

·         are naturally curious

·         enjoy repetition and routines

·         are developing quickly as individuals

·         learn in a variety of ways, for example, by watching, by listening, by imitating, by doing things

·         are not able to understand grammatical rules and explanations about language

·         have quite a short attention span and so need variety of activities

·         talk in their mother tongue about what they understand and do – this helps them learn

·         can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately and copy the way adults speak

According to Phillips “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 (1993: 5).

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 (Ytreberg 1990: 1).

Ytreberg mentions 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. The teacher needs to use the instructions in an appropriate way and use the language and phrases so that the children can easily get the message.

In addition, for characteristic of young learns have three types; they are physical side, social side and physiological side.

a. Physical side

On the physical side, children learn by doing/hands-on experience (physical movement and activity necessary to stimulate thinking – understanding comes through hands, eyes, and ears). It means that children need to develop balance, spatial awareness and fine control of certain muscles in order to play sports and perform everyday actions such as dressing themselves, cleaning their teeth, colouring, drawing and writing.

b. Social side

            On the social side, children need to develop a series of characteristics to enable them to fit into the society they live in, to become aware of themselves in relation to others, to share and co-operate and to be assertive without being aggressive.  They need to be able to accept criticism and become self-critical, to be aware of how they learn and to experiment with different learning styles, to organise their work and to be open and interested in all that surrounds them.

c. physiological side

            On the physiological side, children sometimes get bored easily and they are forgetful because they haven’t concentrate. So, the teacher must repeat the material more time and make modification when they communicate with children.

            After we know and understand all of about that, of course, we can easily apply it to young learners.

References:

1. Kalendova, Eva. 2008. The Use of Game-Like Activities in Teaching English to Young Children. Diploma Thesis. Unpublished. Brno: Masaryk University.

2. Phillips, Sarah: Young learners. Oxford University Press 1993, Oxford, ISBN 0 19 437195 6

3. Slattery, Mary; Willis, Jane: English for Primary Teachers. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0 19 4375633

4. Ytreberg, Lisbeth; Scott Wendy: Teaching English to Children. Longman, New York 1990, ISBN 0582 74606 X

5. Teaching English to Young Learners by KHÍ Grunnskólaskor 2003 Samuel C Lefever (ppt)