1. TYL Week 2: Theories and L1 Development

2. Agenda
I can
Explain how the ideas of the following people relate to teaching young learners:
Vygotsky, Bruner, Piaget, and Gardner
Describe the similarities and differences between L1 and L2 acquisition.

3. Word of the Day: Constructivism
Learning is a process of creating one’s own meaning from different experiences
Students learn best, sometimes, by trying to make sense of something on their own
You will help each other to construct meaning

4. What do you think the percentages are?

6. Confucius said . . . “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.”

7. Chapter 1: Learning and Development

8. Activity 1: Graffiti Brainstorming
Purpose:
Review Chapter 1 in a collaborative way
Co-construct meaning with classmates

9. Groups Vygotsky (pp. 10-11) Bruner (pp. 11-12) Piaget: Constructivism
Piaget: Stages
(pp. 6-8)
Jessie
Julie
Brandon
Eva
Kanami
Candy
Yoshie
Silvia
Nanami
Hiromi

10. Graffiti Brainstorming: Review
Get into your groups.
Decide who will be the first writer.
Spend 2 minutes on each poster.
= Change poster
change writer

11. Review Task
With your group, circle the 2 ideas that are MOST IMPORTANT for ESL/EFL teachers to know
Why do we need to know these ideas?
How will this knowledge affect the way we teach children?
Share with us: “We circled ___ because ____.”

12. Piaget: Constructivism
Constructivism: Children can’t always use new information that they’re told; they have to participate in constructing, or making, it themselves through action
This can happen with actions and with thoughts

13. Schema Our “mental file cabinet” It’s all the ideas, experience, and
information that we have stored in our brain
Also called “prior knowledge”
This collection of ideas is constantly changing and growing; this is what LEARNING is!

14. Example: Learning Actions
How does a baby learn to get food from a bowl to his/her mouth?
Parents can’t just tell them how
They have to experiment by themselves with muscle control and direction finding
This is learning—it’s not innate

15. How do children construct thought?
Assimilation: Taking new information and making it fit into existing ways of thinking (schema)
Example: Spoon child is given a fork for the first time
She uses the fork the same way she would use a spoon

16. How do children construct thought?
Accommodation: Changing one’s thinking about a new idea that conflicts with our old way of thinking
Example: Spoon/fork child
Realizes that the fork can be used for stabbing food—not just scooping it
This occurs through action
and experimentation

17. Another Example: Learning Thoughts

18. Piaget’s Stages
Sensory Motor (birth to 2)—Learn through the senses and movement
Pre-Operational (2-7)—logic starts on a very basic level; start to use symbolic language
Concrete Operational (7-11)—Logic develops, but is still tied to concrete (not abstract) experiences
Formal Operational (12 and above)—Logic and abstract thinking develop more

19. Piaget—People agree that . . .
Children go from egocentric to less egocentric
Children pass from less logical to logical
Children go from concrete to abstract

20. Piaget—People disagree with . . .
The degree to which children under 7 are egocentric (3 mountains)
Conservation—the age at which children can understand this
The idea that children go through these stages one-by-one; often, they show signs of two stages at once
The idea that children “master” logical thinking in the formal operational stage (Many adults don’t fully understand logic!); logic depends on schooling

21. Vygotsky: Social Constructivism
Agreed with Piaget but added a social dimension to constructivism

22. Vygotsky: Implications
Challenge students, but give them lots of help
Adults are not the only people who can help a student move forward in their ZPD
classmates can, too!

23. Bruner: Scaffolding
Scaffold: A temporary support structure to help students to advance in the ZPD
You take a scaffold away
when students can do the
work independently

24. 6 Highly Useful Scaffolds
Visual scaffolding (pictures, motions)
Pre-teaching vocabulary
Give sentence frames
Think-Pair-Share
Pair high with low students
I do, we do, you do

25. Questions? Share with your partner:
Is there anything that you still don’t understand?

26. L1 and l2 acquisition

27. Question: What can L2 teachers learn from the L1 process?
P PINK
“Universal Processes in Language Learning”
P BLUE
“The Role of Input and Interaction”
P ORANGE
“The Achievements of the First 5 Yrs”—Paragraphs 1 and 2
P PURPLE
“The Achievements of the First 5 Yrs”—Paragraphs 3 and 4

28. Order of Acquisition

29. Input and Interaction: Caregiver Speech / Comprehensible Input
Parentese video How to Speak Parentese

30. Babies: At first, they don’t speak
L2: Stephen Krashen: “Silent Period”
Like infancy in L1: Listening and absorbing
L2: Building up confidence and resources

31. 5-year old native English speakers
Still make grammar mistakes!
He goed to the store.*
Two apples and banana please.*
I seen a little dog.*

32. Homework Chapter 5 and answers Handout pages: Read
Video: Watch and post 1 paragraph to blog
Quiz: Study what we talked about today!
Short quiz next week!