UNIT 1 CONTENTS How children learn L1/L2 Babies/Young Children How to start a lesson in English Classroom language How to end a lesson in English

Knowing how children learn their first language can help us teach them a second language Socio-cultural theories of first language development lay emphasis on language being learned through interaction with others, with knowledge becoming internalized during this social activity.

Child language acquisition • We know a lot about how children learn their first language (L1; mother tongue) – At 6 weeks, babies “coo” and “babble” – At 12 months, infants can produce single words – At 18 months, infants can produce two-word sequences – By 5 years of age, children can produce complex constructions.

Piaget Jean Piaget 1896 – 1980 • The Swiss psychologist and educator Jean Piaget is famous for his learning theories based on different stages in the development of children's intelligence. • How do children learn? • Language development is an aspect of cognitive development in general • Children learn... – by interacting with the world around them – when they take action to solve problems

Piaget and young language learners • For Piaget, there are four stages of mental growth: 1) birth to age two: sensory-motor stage • Infants concentrate on concrete (or real) objects – Teach using only real objects, real people and the “here and now” 2) age two to seven: pre-operational stage • Children learn symbols in language, fantasy, play, and dreams; – Teach using toys and pictures, imaginary creatures and situations 3) age seven to eleven: concrete operational stage • Children master classification, relationships, numbers, and ways of reasoning – You can now start teaching basic grammar, semantic categories, etc 4) age eleven onwards: formal operational stage • Children begin to master independent thought and other people's thinking. – World knowledge is sufficient for most language teaching purposes

REMEMBER First language: general meaning before individual words Flow of sounds: connected sounds before they separate them into individual words Only written language is divided into words and sentences Stress on intonation patterns and sounds of words

CHILDREN AS LEARNERS They learn in many ways: by listening, by imitating, by doing things They are not able to understand grammar rules and explanations about language (VYLs) They talk in their mother tongue about what they understand and do They are curious and use their imagination They love to play but have a short attention span They like routines and repetition

CHILDREN UNDER SEVEN (VYLs) They acquire L2 in much the same way as they acquire their first language They do not realize that they are learning a foreign language (grammar) They learn through hearing, doing things, imitating, playing

CHILDREN UNDER SEVEN (VYLs) They acquire L2 in much the same way as they acquire their first language They do not realize that they are learning a foreign language (grammar) They learn through hearing, doing things, imitating, playing

CHILDREN BETWEEN SEVEN AND TWELVE (YLs) They can understand simple explanations about language They can read and write in English

YOUR HELP Make learning English enjoyable and fun Do not worry about mistakes Use gestures Talk a lot (in English) Play games, sing songs, say rhymes Tell simple stories Do not worry when they use their mother tongue Answer in English Recast in English what they say in their mother tongue