Working with Young Learners

For this week, we learned about some unique characteristics of children which everyone of us should know in order to be good teachers. Pn Foziah had given us her lecture notes and we were asked to present in front of the class after discussing about them in groups.

Working with Young Learners
1. Children's ability to grasp meaning
2. Children's creative use of limited language resources
3. Childrens' capacity for indirect learning
4. Children's instinct for play and fun
5. The role of imagination
6. The instinct for interaction and talk

Children have their own special abilities when dealing with language.

First, they are able to process what is said to them although they don't understand individual words. They interpret other's gestures, intonation and expression when interacting with others.

Second, their mother tongue help them a lot in interpreting messages. So teachers have to give some space for the use of mother tongue in their learning process.

Third, teachers have to know that children's learning process is divided by two which are conscious and unconscious. Conscious learning is about accuracy and unconscious learning is about fluency and spontaneity. When teachers know about this, teachers might be able to determine what kind of strategies to be used to achieve the intended goals as well as develop both accuracy and fluency in children.

Fourth, fun and play elements are important in children life. Teachers have to provide space for them to play while learning since it brings powerful contribution to their learning. When they are playing, unconsciously they use the language and this will improve their language proficiency.

Fifth, teachers may exploit their imagination to the maximum when they could be asked to make up their own stories about something they dream of, create their own pets, or any other things which require them to imagine. Using imagination, they could play with words creatively.

Sixth, we should know that children like are very talkative. So teachers should let them talk and interact with each other to maximize language use among them. They will acquire the language out of their conscious.

In conclusion, teachers have to be aware of these special characteristics of the children thus take this opportunity to develop their language as well as increase the effectiveness of strategies used in the teaching and learning process.