Teaching English to Young Learners
Module 1: Task 1 – Video Lecture
Video 3 – How Children Learn a Foreign Language
Hello, English Teachers! I know that teaching children English as a foreign or additional language can be
challenging. You may live in a country or context where English is not spoken outside of the classroom.
How can your young students learn English if it is not used in their daily lives? Let’s look at how children
can effectively learn a foreign language.
First, let me ask you a question: How important is teaching grammar to young learners of English? Is it
Very important, Somewhat important, Not very important, or Not important at all. I’ll give you five
seconds to think about it. (5-4-3-2-1). What do you think?
Of course grammar is important! Grammatical structures are the building blocks of language, but the
approach to teaching grammar should match the way students learn. Your approach to teaching
grammar should be “learning-centered,” which Lynne Cameron (2003) describes as “… meaningful
and interesting, require active participation from learners, and will work with how children learn and
what they are capable of learning” (p. 110).
Children do not learn language as effectively through grammatical explanations. Young learners gain an
understanding of the grammar through repetition and recycling language in different contexts. You need
to provide a meaningful context to teach language. Children will be able to see how grammar works
within a story, song or cartoon. In short, your approach to teaching grammar should be learning-
centered and meaning-focused, and it should avoid grammatical explanations.
For example, children won’t learn language when you explain what the imperative mode is. They learn
what it is when you give commands. You say, “Sit down” and students sit down. You say, “Write your
name” and they write their name on the paper. Through the context and through meaningful
repetition, they learn the grammar.
You can help them by creating an English-speaking environment in your classroom. You have to present
English in authentic and meaningful ways. Real communication puts language in action and promotes
interaction.
If you present language through communication and meaningful context, your students will need
some scaffolding. You should use different techniques to make the language comprehensible.
Children need concrete ways to understand language. You can use visuals like pictures and flashcards
to help make new words comprehensible. Gestures, body movement, and realia can help teach
language effectively to our young kinesthetic learners and keep them engaged in class. You can also
help young learners organize ideas by using graphic organizers like Venn diagrams or tables. These
techniques engage young learners while helping them understand new language effectively.
© 2022 by George Mason University. Module 1 – Video 3 Script for the Online Professional English
Network (OPEN), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S.
government and administered by FHI 360. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
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Attribution 4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Your young learners may not have many chances to hear English or use English in their daily lives. They
begin learning the language by listening to you. It is important to scaffold their language learning
through your own language.
You may need to make some adjustments. Be sure you pronounce words clearly and speak slowly. But
be careful and don’t speak unnaturally. Keep a natural flow to your speaking. If students do not
understand what you are saying, then you can repeat and even rephrase. Try to use shorter and simpler
sentences and phrases. Don’t forget to be a model for your young learners. Before they speak, show
them what you want them to say. And sometimes, you may need to translate difficult words into
students’ native language. However, you want to provide plenty of opportunities for your young
learners to hear and practice English, so translating should happen only when necessary. You can use
other techniques like visuals, gestures or realia instead!
Now, let’s review what we learned. What kind of approach should we take to teach young
learners English as a foreign language? Which lesson would be more effective?
The storytelling lesson will be more effective with young learners because it takes a learning-centered,
meaning- focused approach to grammar. You can make it more effective by using visuals, gestures, and
adjusting your speaking to make the language in the story comprehensible. This will help you build an
English-speaking environment in your classroom. Try it, and you’ll see!
