CHAPTER 1

HOW LANGUAGES ARE LEARNED:

First language acquisition

Language acquisition is one of the most impressive and fascinating aspects of human development.

For example:

- 3 months old baby: will answer the conversational "BA-BA-BA" / Babbling of older babies

- 1-year-old baby: uttered BYE-BYE

Learning languages attracted psychologists and linguists to know what enables a child not only to learn
words but to put them together in meaningful sentences.

The first 3 years milestones and developmental sequences

Researchers described DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCES for many aspects of first language acquisition.

The earliest vocalizations are simply the involuntary crying that babies do when they're hungry or
uncomfortable.

Soon we hear the cooing and gurgling sound of contented babies, lying in their beds looking at shapes and
movement around them.

In those early weeks of life infants are able to hear subtitle differences between the sounds of human
languages. They distinguish the voice of the mother. They recognize the language that was spoken around
their mother before they were born.

In designed experiments, researchers have demonstrated that tiny babies are capable of very fine
AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION. They can hear differences between "PA" and "BA" sounds. They have the
ability to distinguish between sounds they need to interact with the human speaker. Not by electronic
devices.
Infants stop making distinctions between sounds that are not phonemic in the language that is spoken
around them. It'll be many months before their own vocalizations begin to reflect the characteristics of the
language they hear and still before they connect language sound with a specific meaning.

By the end of the 1st year, babies understand repeated words in the language spoken around them (wave
when someone says "bye-bye").

At the 12th months, most babies will have begun to produce a word or two that everyone recognizes.

At the age of 2 children reliably produce at least 50 different words, they begin to combine words into
simple sentences such as "Mommy juice". They made TELEGRAPHIC SENTENCES. Even though function
words and grammar morphemes are missing - the word order reflects the word order of the language they
are hearing. MORE MILK, HELLO KITTY, COOKIE IS NOT. These “little sentences” may be in L1 because
babies begin to reflect the characteristics of the language or languages they hear from people who spoken
around them. These sentences are similar to adult’s language even though function words and grammar
morphemes are missing because it reflects the word of the language they are hearing.

In their first 3 years, there are predictable patterns in the emergence and development of many features
of the language they are learning. These patterns for some language features have been described in terms
of developmental sequences or stages related to children's cognitive development. For example, they do
not use temporal adverbs such as tomorrow or last week until they develop some understanding of time.

Children can distinguish between singular and plural long before they can add plural ending to the noun.
Correct use of irregular plurals such as "feet" take more time and may not be completely under control
until school years. What we know it looks like when children learn their primary language. Researchers
find significant similarities around the world when it comes to how children learn their first language.
However, there are some cultures that are different.

VIDEO

FROM BIRTH TO 3 YEARS OLD

● Many similar develop point for children around the world.

● Crying.

● Baby sound – cooing and other experimental sound.

● Not enough motor control for fine sound distinction.

 ● But, they can hear the difference in sound.

● 1 year olds understand several words frequently repeated to them.

● 2 years old can articulate around 50 words.

● From 2 – 3 years old they start combining words in various patters.

The first sounds out of baby are various types of crying. An experienced mother knows whether the baby is
crying because they are angry, hungry or tired. This begins the communication process.

Then babies start building their mouth muscles and experiment by making different sound while the
sounds do not form actual words, the baby will use these sounds for communication.

Also, they can hear even small differences, such as the difference between “BA” and “PA”. One-year-olds
know a handful of basic words that are repeated to them frequently like “bye-bye” and “no”. Two-year-
olds expand their vocabulary to where they pronounce 50 words or more.

Then, from the point they start combining words in various formats and patterns to communicate. The
patterns are not always correct, but they are almost never nonsensical. In other word, even 2 and 3 year
old children combine words in ways that have meaning to them, and they expect to have meaning to their
listeners.

From ages 2 to 4, children acquire certain aspects of grammar in predictable patterns.

Grammatical morphemes

In 1960 researchers focused on how children acquire grammatical morphemes in English.

One of the first studies was carried out by Roger Brown, with colleagues and students in a longitudinal
study of the language development of children. They found 14 grammatical morphemes were acquired in
similar sequence.

The list below shows some of the morphemes they studied adopted from Brown's (1973) book.

1. Present Progressive -ing

2. Plural -s
3. Irreg. Past. Forms.
4. Possessive -s
5. Copula
6. Adjectives
 7. Regular past -ed
8. Third-person singular present -s
9. Auxiliary be

Brown and his colleagues found that a child who had mastered the grammatical morphemes at the bottom
of the list had also mastered those at the top, but the reverse was not true. Thus, there was evidence for a
developmental sequence or “order of acquisition”. However, the children did not acquire the morphemes
at the same age or rate.

Eve had mastered nearly all the morphemes before she was two-and-a-half years old, while Sarah and
Adam were still working on them when they were three-and-a-half or four.

Brown’s longitudinal work was confirmed in a cross-sectional study of 21 children. This approach used the
morphemes that children from the other study did; they were also able to use the ones that children had
acquired earlier. The children mastered the morphemes at different ages. Just as children from the other
study, but the order is determined by an interaction among a number of different factors.

The benefits are that researchers have studied the frequency with which the morphemes occur in parent’s
speech, the cognitive complexity of the meanings represented by each morpheme, and the difficulty or
perceiving or pronouncing them. But, there has been no simple satisfactory explanation for the sequence
and most researchers agree that the challenge is that the order is determined by an interaction among a
number of different factors (and it depends on each child and their environment).

VIDEO

GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES

1. Present progressive
2. Plural –s
3. Irregular past – went
4. Linking verbs is
5. Articles – a , and, the
6. Regular past –ed
7. Third person singular –s
8. Aux. verb do.

FIRST: let’s consider grammatical morphemes. What is a morpheme? Well, it is the smallest part of a word
than has meaning. So, in the word “meaning” there are two morphemes – “mean” and “ing”.
When we consider various morphemes, kids will learn them in a specific order; although, they can relapse
and begin making mistakes with the words or morphemes that they learned several months ago.

Children begin with present progressive “I am running”

Then, they start realizing that there is a difference between “dog” and “dogs”.

Next comes irregular past, such as, “went” or “fought”.

This may seem odd since it a couple stages later that they figure out the pattern of regular past. The
difference is that at this stage they have learned the specific word for something in the past, probably from
their parents. Later, they are able to realize that there is a pattern. At that point, they may appear to
decline in their grammar ability because they are likely to say “good” and “fighted” when they already have
learned “went” and “fought”. Again, it is the difference between understanding the abstract application of
a pattern and knowing individual words connected to circumstances.

In between these past tense stages, they learn linking verbs, so they can say “clown is happy” or “dog is
bad”. They also start using articles, “the dog” or “a ice cream”. After regular past, they begin applying third
person singular, such as “mom plays” or “dog bites”. Lastly, they pick up auxiliary verbs, especially “do”.
Again, they may appear to relapse in their grammar and say something like “mom do plays” or “dog do
bite”. Another language aspect that is learned in predictable stage is negation.

“Wug” test

Jean Berko Gleason (1958) one of the first beast known test. In this test, children are shown drawing of
imaginary creatures with novel names or people performing mysterious actions. For example, they are told
"here is a wug. Now there are two of them. There are two___" or "here is a man who knows how to bod.
Yesterday he did the same thing. Yesterday, he___" by completing the sentences with wugs and bodded
children demonstrate that they know the patterns for a plural and simple past in English. By
GENERALIZING these patterns to words they have never heard before, they show that their language is
more than just a list of memorized word pairs such as "book/books". The acquisition of other language
features also shown how children's language develops systematically and how they go beyond what they
have heard to create new forms and structures.

Negation

Children learn functions of negation very early. To comment on: the disappearance of objects, to refuse a
suggestion or to reject an assertion (even at the single word stage). The following stages of negation have
been observed in the acquisition of English. Wode 1981.
STAGE 1: single word no in an utterance. "No, cookie".

STAGE 2: utterances grow longer and the sentence subject may be included. Negative word before the
verb. Sentences expressing rejection or prohibition often use "don't". "Don't touch that".

STAGE 3: Negative element inserted into a more complex sentence. Children may add formats of the
negative other than "no, can't, don't". These sentences appear to follow the correct English pattern of
attaching the negative to the (auxiliary/modal verb). Children do not get these forms for differing persons
or tenses. "I can't do it/ He don't want it"

STAGE 4: Children begin to attach the negative element to the correct form of auxiliary verbs such as
(do/be). "She doesn't want it".

Question

The challenge of learning a complex language system is also illustrated in the developmental stages
through which children learn to ask questions. There is a predictable order in which the wh-word emerged.
Bloom 1991. What is generally the first wh-question word to be used it's often learned as part of a
CHUNK (Whassat?) and it's some time before learns that there are variations of the forms such as "What's
that?". There is consistency in the acquisition of word order in question. This development is base on
learning different linguistic patterns to express meaning that is already understood.

STAGE 1: Children earliest questions are: singles words/simple two, three-word sentences with rising
intonation. "Cookie?, Mommy book?"

STAGE 2: they begin to ask more questions and use word order of the declarative sentence with a rising
intonation. "You like this?/I have some?"

STAGE 3: it's called fronting. Gradually children notice that the structure of the question is different and
begin to produce questions such as "Can I go?/ Are you happy?". We call fronting because the child notices
that questions are formed by putting a verb and a question word at the front of a sentence leaving the rest
of the sentence in its statement form. "Do I can have cookie?!

STAGE 4: some questions are formed by subject-auxiliary inversion but there more variety in the auxiliaries
that appear before the subject. "Are you going to play with me?". Even at this stage children seem able to
use either inversion or a wh-word but no both. "Is he crying but / no why he is crying". We find inversion in
yes/no questions but no in wh-questions. Unless they are formulaic units such as "what's that?".
STAGE 5: Both wh- and yes/no questions are formed correctly. "Are these your boots?. A negative question
may still be a bit too difficult. "Why the teddy bear can't go outside" or when a wh-word appears in a
subordinate clause or embedded questions.

STAGE 6: Children are able to correctly form all question type including negative and complex embedded
questions.

The pre school years

By the age of 4 children ask: questions, commands, report, real events, create stories about imaginary
ones. Using correct word order and grammatical markers most of the time. They continue to learn
vocabulary at the rate of several words a day.

Much of the children begin to acquire less frequent and more complex linguistic structures such as passive
and relative clauses late pre-school is spent in developing their ability to use language in widening social
environment.

They interact more often with unfamiliar adults.

Metalinguistic awarness

They develop the METALINGUISTIC AWARNESS. The ability to treat language as an object separate from
the meaning it conveys. They make sense of what they say. They can understand what things mean .

Language acquisition in pre-school years is impressive. Pre-school children acquire complex knowledge and
skills for language and language use. But the school requires new ways of using language and brings new
opportunities for language development.

The school years

● Children develop the ability to use language to understand the other to express their own meaning.

● They learn to read, seeing words representing by letters and that language has a form.

● Reading reinforces the understanding that a word is separate from the thing it represents.

● Vocabulary grows at a rate of between several and more than a thousand words a year, depending

on how much and who widely children read.

 ● Another important development in the school years is the acquisition of different language register.

Children learn how written language differs from spoken language. How the language to speak to
the playground differs from some reports, languages or narratives.

Examples of grammatical and lexical overgeneralization errors

found in early child language

Grammatical errors: I plays with the dolls

Lexical: Father: I’d like to propose a toast.

Son: I’d like to propose a piece of bread

The general learning principles states that children appear to pick up patterns and generalize them to
new contexts. They create new forms of new uses of word in other words, children apply previous
knowledge into new situations.

Explaining first language acquisition

THEORIST OF FIRST LANGAUGE ACQUISITION

BEHAVIORISTS:

believe language is learned through imitation and practice. So, when a three-year-old repeats a phrase
their parent just said they are imitating the correct grammar from the adults. When they repeat a
particular words or phrases over and over, they are practicing them in order to learn them. This seems
reasonable explanation for some language learning, but it does not explain how children can correctly
create sentences they have heard before. The hard-core behaviorist would try to argue that the child heard
it somewhere – on tv…at the supermarket – somewhere that the parent was not aware, but there is too
much evidence against the idea that children only produce language they have heard before. The other
aspect that behaviorist don’t address is the fact that children do not repeat everything indiscriminately;
they focus on new information. Once that has been learned then they will start practicing some other new
word or phrase.

Skinner (1957). Theory of learning influential in the 1940/50's, especially in the United States.

The behaviorist theory believes that infants learn oral language from other human role models through a
process involving imitation, rewards, and practice. Human role models in an infant’s environment
provide the stimuli and rewards. According to this theory the quality and the quantity of the language the
child hears, as well as, the cosistency of the reinforcement offerd by other int the environment, would
shape the children's language behaviour. It seems to offer a reasonable way of understanding how
children learn some of the regular routine aspects of language specially at the earliest stages.

Children imitate selectively, something new that they have just begun to understand and use not simply
on what is available in the environment.

Many of the things they say show that they are using language creatively, not just repeating what they
heard. For example:

● Pattern in lg: overgeneralize rules of word formation in other contexts. Mother: maybe we need to

take you to the doctor. Randall: Why? So he can doc my little bump? Randall from the verb doc
from the noun doctor.

● Focus on the meaning: Concentrate on the performance. Father: I’d like to propose a toast. David:

I’d like to propose a piece of bread. Toast was not the synonymous of “piece of bread”

● Question formation: Fronting. Are those are my boots? The trick of asking question was to put

“are” at the beginning of the sentence.

● Order of events: Put things into the order of their occurrence. I can’t fly dry my hands because you

took the towels away. He did not yet understand how a word like before or because changes the
order of cause and effect.

INNATISTS

It is a theory led by Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar (UG) He claimed that inside everyone is basic
grammar than then just needs to be applied to the particular part of the world and the language that the
child is picking up as the primary language. This theory focuses on the success of virtually every healthy
child, and many unhealthy ones, to learn their mother tongue. Children learn many complex grammar
patterns without explicit instruction, so Chomsky argues there something innate that allows the child to
learn. Creative mistakes and creative utterances from children are explained through this theory. Even
without every aspect of grammar being taught to children, they still can successfully employ every aspect
of grammar.

The innatist perspective emphasize on interaction: is how children achieve different levels of vocabulary,
creativity social grace and so on, but virtually achieve the ability to use the patterns of the language or
languages spoken. This is a support for hypothesis that language is some somehow separate from other
aspects of cognitive development an may depend on a specific module of the brain.
For example children with very limited cognitive ability develop quite complex language systems if they
are brought up in environment in which people interact with them.

Children who are profoundly deaf will learn sign language if they are exposed to it in infancy, and their
program in the acquisition of that language system is similar to hearing children’s acquisition of spoken
language.

The UG: would prevent the child from pursuing all sorts of wrong hypothesis about how language
systems might work if children are pre equipped with UG, then what they have to learn is the ways in
which the language they are acquiring makes use of these principles.

The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)

The critical period hypothesis is a hypothesis that animals, including humans, are genetically
programmed to acquire certain kinds of knowledge and skill at specific times in life. Beyond those
“critical periods”, it is either difficult or impossible to acquire those abilities. With regard language, the
CPH suggest that children who are not given access to language in infancy and early childhood (because
of deafness or extreme isolation) will never acquire language if these deprivations go on for too long. It is
difficult to find evidence for against the CPH, since nearly all children are exposed to language at an early
age. However, history has documented a few “experiments” where children have been deprived of contact
with language. Two of the most famous cases are those of “Victor” and “Genie”.

The stories of Victor and Genie support this hypothesis by showing researchers that by being completely
isolated from language like Victor’s case it is extremely difficult for language to be developed since it is
past “its critical period”. On the other hand, Genie was partially isolated from language and not beyond its
critical period, so language weas developed in an easier manner than Victor. The evidence is not
convincing at all because research did not take all factors into account, meaning there could have been
other issues that would have affected or changed the final results.

Evidence collected by Newport and her colleagues are stronger support for the CPH since Newport had
different test subjects, meaning she had native, early, and late signers which clearly showed that there is a
critical period for first language acquisition that language is oral or gestural.

DEVELOPMENTALISTS

Developmentalists tie language learning to the physical growth of the body and the cognitive growth of
the brain. For example, according to Piaget, children can’t correctly use the terms SHORT or HEAVY until
they cognitively are aware that something is short or long or light or heavy. The truth to this theory is that
there is some language that learners are not ready to acquire at certain ages, or stage of growth. However,
is difficult to see how this theory can explain all of human language acquisition.

INTERACTIONISTS

Interactionist are related to developmentalists. However, instead of placing the importance on the
physical development, they place it on the social and emotional interaction that occurs while maturing.
Vygotsky is perhaps the most famous of these. Part of his theory involves the Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD), which is the time or stage when children learn because of the trust and relationship
they have with another person. ZPD allows kids to acquire more and/or faster knowledge that they could
independently. Essentially, interactionists propose that language is learned through listening and speaking,
especially between birth and turning into five-years-old. This is difficult to prove or disprove. Certainly,
there is significant evidence showing that quality interaction, not just one way communication, results in
richer vocabulary and more complex grammar used at younger ages.

Piaget and Vygostsky views are similar in the way that both are built on the interaction between the
child and the environment. However, Piaget saw language as a symbol system that could be used to
express knowledge acquired through interaction with the physical world, while for Vygotsky, through was
essentially internalized speech, and speech emerged in social interaction.

Jim’s exposure to language – support of interactionist perspective on language acquisition

Jim’s parents were deaf and they didn’t use the sign language with him. Also, his only approach to oral
language was through television. For that reason when he was three years nine months, Jim improved
thanks to conversational sessions with an adult and until the age of four years and two months he
achieve the optimal language level for his age. This case supports an interactionist perspective on
language acquisition because when Jim didn’t have oral interaction with other people, he could not use the
language appropriately. However; after the interaction with adults most of the unusual speech patterns
disappeared, It means that interaction is indispensable to learn a language.

Students of childhood development

Piaget and Vygostky

Piaget observed infants and children in their play and in their interaction with objects and infants and
children in their play and in their interaction with objects and people. He was able to trace the
development of their cognitive understanding of such things as object permanence (knowing that things
hidden from sight are still there), the stability of quantities regardless of changes in their appearance
(knowing that 10 pennies spread out to form a long line are not more numerous than 10 pennies in a
tightly squezzed line), and logical inferencing (figuring out which properties of set of rods (their size,
weight, material, etc.) cause some rods to sink and others to float on water).

For example: the use of certain terms such as bigger or more depend on the children’s understanding of
the concepts they represent. The developing cognitive understanding is built on the interaction between
the child and the things that can be observed or manipulated. For Piaget, language was ONE OF A NUMBER
OF SYMBOL SYSTEMS THAT ARE DEVELOPED IN CHILDHOOD. Language can be used to represent
knowledge that children have acquired through physical interaction with the environment.

Vygostky

He observed interactions among children and also between children and adults in schools in the Sovietic
Union in the 1920s and 1930s. He concluded that language develops primarily from social interaction . He
argued that in a supportive interactive environment, children are able to advance to higher levels of
knowledge and performance. Vygostky referred to a metaphorical place in which children could do more
than they would be capable of doing independently as the zone of proximal development (ZPD).
Vygotsky observed the importance of conversation that children have with adults and with other children
and saw in these conversations the origins of both language and thought. The conversation provide the
child with scaffolding, that is, a kind of supportive structure that helps them make the most of the
knowledge they have and also to acquire new knowledge.

Vygostky view differs from Piaget:

Piaget saw language as a symbol system that could be used to express knowledge acquired through
interaction with the physical world. For Vygostky, thought was essentially internalized speech, and speech
emerged in social interaction. Vygostky’s views have become increasingly central in research on second
language development.

CONNECTIONSITS

Connectionsts believe that language learning happens just like any other kind of learning, by making
meaningful connections. It can be connections between words, and actions or locations, but it also can be
connections between words themselves. This theory while very different from the innatists perspective,
also successfully explains the creation of sentences that the child has never heard before. For example, a
child may connect the word “daddy throw ball” the same child may then extended the connection to
“daddy throw toy” or “daddy watch ball” connectionists and innatist are able to describe this type of
language as creative and original .
They propose a language acquisition of usage-based learning. They believe that language acquisition is
possible because of children’s general cognitive capacities and the vast number of opportunities they have
to make connections between the language they hear and what they experience in their environment.

This view make emphasis on the child’s ability to create networks of associations.

That it also depend on the child’s general learning abilities and the contributions of the environment.

In a usage-based model, language aquistion involves not only associating words with elements of
external reality. It also a process of associating words with elements of external reality. It is also a
process of associating words and phrases with the other words and phrases that ocurr with them or word
with the grammatical morphemes that ocurr with them

This hypothesis has particular importance in the idea that children are exposed to many thousands of
opportunities to learn words and phrases. For usage-base theorists acquisition of language compares
cognitive and perceptual learning (including learning to see).That is, the visual abilities that we take for
granted, for example, focusing on and interpreting objects in our visual field are actually learned through
experience.

About the way that computers and human brains learning both can adapt the learning but it is much easier
and faster for the brain to learn new thing. Hyet, the computer can do many complex tasks at the same
time (“Multitasking”) that are difficult for the brain. For example: try counting backwards and multiplying
2 numbers at the same time. However, the brain also does some multitasking using the autonomic
nervous system. For example the brain controls breathing, hear, and rate. Blood pressure at the same
time it perfoms a mental task.

Behavioursts, Developmentalists and Interactionists would say that this langauge use had been heard
before or is just part of their experimentation where they use the interaction to find out It if they are
correct or not.

IN SUMMARY: Connectionst and innatists believe the brain is largely responsible for language learning.

The innastists say the grammar was in our brain at brith and we spend the rest of the time discovering it
or unlocking it.

The connectionsts say that we pick up the grammar through connections and events that happen after
birth.

The behaviorists think that language is learned through imitation and repetition.
The developmentalists feel langauge is learned as the brain becomes aware of the related concepts.

The interactionists place the emphases in language learning on the social interaction as children grow.

have documented substantial differences in the ways parents in different socioeconomic and ethnic
group interact with the children.

Cross-cultural research

Since 1970s Researchers have studied children's language learning environments in a great many
different cultural communities. They focused on development of language and ways in which
environment provides what children need for language acquisition. Working on language socialization
framework they found that in some societies adults do not engage in conversation verbal or play with
very young children.

They discover that in middle-class North America Homes, researchers’ observed that adults often modify
the way they speak when talking to little children. This child-direct speech may be characterized by a
slower rare of delivery, higher pitch, more varied intonation, shorter simpler sentence patterns, and
stress on key words, frequent repetition and paraphrase. Furthermore, topic of conversations emphasize
the child’s immediate environment, picture books, or experience that the adults knows the child has
had. Adults often repeat the content of a child´s utterance but they expand or recast it into a
grammatically correct sentence. For example, when Peter says, “Dump truck!, Dump truck!, Fall!, Fall!, lois
responds, “Yes, the dump truck fell down”.

The importance of Interaction

Between a language learning child and the interlocutor, one-to-one interaction gives children access to
language that is adjusted to their level of comprehension when a child does not provide such interaction.

The used based-learning

In this view language acquisition is possible because of children's general cognitive capacities and the vast
number of opportunities they have to make connections between the language they hear and what the
experience in the environment is. This perspective differs from the behaviorist view that emphasis more on
the child's ability to create network of associations rather than on processes of imitation and habit
formation.

Language disorders and delays

There are some children that have difficulty in the stages of language development because of disabilities
like; AUTISIM, DYSLEXIA, DEAFNESS and ARTICULATORY PROBLEMS and it is essential that parents and
teachers be encouraged to seek professional advice, if they feel that a child is not developing language
normally.

While most children produce recognizable first words by 12 moths some may not speak before the age
of 3 years. One way to determine whether delayed language reflects a problem or simply an individual
difference within the normal range is to determine if the child responds to language and appears to
understand even if he or she is not speaking. For older children, delays in learning to read that seem out of
speaking with a child's overall cognitive functioning may suggest that there is a specific problem in that
domain. Others begin to reading almost magic, for most children instructions that include some systematic
attention to sound-letter correspondences allow them to unlock the treasure chest of reading. Both groups
fall with a normal range. But for some children reading presents such great challenges that they need
expert help be young what is available in a classroom.

Childhood bilingualism

Bilingualism is the language development of children who learn multiple languages during childhood is of
enormous importance throughout the world. The acquisition and maintenance of more than one
language can open door to many personal, social and economic, opportunities. Some people believe that
children will be confused or will not learn either language well. Indeed many children attain high level of
proficiency in both languages. Achieving bilingual proficiency can have positive effects on abilities that
are related to academic success, such as metalinguistic awareness. Children need time to develop their
second language skills. It is important for children to begin learning and using the school language as early
as possible, but considerable research suggest that continued development of the child’s home language
contribute in the long term to more successful acquisition of the school language.

Researchers observed that when children are SUBMERGED in a different language for long periods in pre-
school or day care, their development of the family language may be slowed down or stalled before they
have developed an age-appropriate proficiency in the new language. They stop speaking the family
language altogether and this loss of a common language can lead to significant social and psychological
problems.

Immigrants and minority: The children who do not speak the school language at home and children who
speak a different variety of the school language. This children language is interpreted as a lack of normal
language development and a lack of background for subjects made important progress in providing
guidelines that can help educators distinguish between disability and diversity. They may be place in
remedial or special education classes.
-Some children learn multiple languages from earliest childhood.

-Other acquires additional language when they go to school.

Children who learn more than one language from earliest childhood are referred to:

-Simultaneous Bilinguals: are children who learn more than one language from earliest childhood.

Sequential Bilinguals: are those who learn another language later.

Types of bilingualism:

Subtractive Bilingualism: is when it can have negative consequences for children’s self-esteem, and their
relationships with family members are also likely to be affected by such early loss of the family language.
Children seem to continue to be caught between two languages: they have yet mastered the school
language and they have not continued to develop the family language.

The solution educators propose: to parents is that they should stop speaking the family language at
home and concentrate instead of speaking the school language with their children.

Additive Bilingualism: is the maintenance of the home language, while the second language. It is being
learned. If parents continue to use the language, that they know best, with their children, they are able
to express their knowledge and ideas in ways that are richer and more elaborate than they can manage
in a language. They do not know as well. Maintaining the family language, also allows children to retain
family connections with grandparents or relatives who do not speak the new language. They do not know
as well. They benefit from the opportunity to continue both cognitive and affective development using a
language they understand easily while they are still learning the second language.

Varieties of the language that a second language learner need to master in order to be successful at school.

BICS

There is the BICS (basic personal communication skills). It is used by students in informal settings with
familiar adults, friends and classmates at school, and there is also me CALP (cognitive academic language
proficiency). It is used in the academic environment of the classroom.

BICS is actually acquired by second language learners with little effort and in short time. It can be
assimilated just by watching and imitating interactions among peers and between teacher and students.
This is why when the teacher sees this particular student speaking fluently in the playground, he/she
might missed into thinking that the student dominate the language and what might be wrong with the
study of the subjects could be lack of motivation or some learning disabilities.
The teacher needs to understand that mastering CALP skills takes time because this variety of language
needed for academic discourse is more difficult to acquire than the day-to-day interaction language.

CHAPTER 2
Second language learning
The two principles of learning the spoken language are:

MEANING MUST COME FIRST -If children do not understand the spoken language, they cannot learn it.

DISCOURSE SKILLS – they are necessary to build up knowledge and skills for participants.

Discourse is contrasted as text or sentence.

The text can refer to a piece of Lang and discourse.

A sentence can refer to a grammatical unit or discourse.

Ex for text: a shop list. As text it’s just a list of items, as discourse, it’s considered its use, users, and
context.

Discourse: content, use, user.

Sentence: A basic unit for grammatical analysis. (Clauses, phrases and words).

Discourse: - (piece of lge larger than a sentence).

Why teacher need to check that meaning is accessible

As adults: we usually ask a question if we cannot make sense of what we were told or asked to do.

Children: it takes years for them to become equal participants in interaction, and to see that each
participant has responsibility for making them understood to the other.

✔ -Generally respecting and wanting to please their teachers.

 ✔ -Children may continue with activities even if they do not understand.

They will continue to speak in the foreign language and continue to perform classroom activities, without
understanding.

They cannot be learning.

Teachers have the responsibility to check how children are working and doing he activities.

They should check if the child can find o construct meaning in the language and the activity.

Meaning in speaking and listening

Speaking and listening are both active uses of language: but differ in the mental activity involve and
demands that they make on learners of language in terms finding and sharing meaning.

● Listening: can be seen as primarily the activate use of language to access people’s meanings.

● Speaking: is the active use of language to express meanings so that other people can make sense of

them.

● The table “receptive” and “productive” uses of language can be applied to listening and speaking

respectively.

In active listening the goal of the mental work is to make sense. (a story of instructions), and is thus
naturally meaning –focused rather than language-focused.

For ex: children listening to a story told in the foreign language from a book with pictures will understand
and construct the gist, or outline meaning, of the story in their minds. If we were to check what the
children understood, we might find they could tell us the story in their first language, example they could
recall the meaning, and they might recall some words or phrases in the foreign language. It is very
unlikely that they would be able to re-tell the story in the foreign language, because their attention has not
been focused on the words and syntax of the story but its underlying meaning, and they might recall
some words or phrases in the foreign language.
To speak in the foreign language in order to share understanding with other people requires attention to
precise details of the language.

A speaker: need to find the most appropriate words and the correct grammar to convey meaning
accurately and precisely, and need to organize the discourse so that a listener will understand speaking
is much more demanding than listening on language learners’ language resources and skill.

So Speaking activities are more demanding, because require careful and plentiful support of various types,
not just support for understanding, but also support for production.

The terms:

● Input

● Output

These terms are often used to refer to listening and speaking (and reading and writing) respectively.

This terminology reflects a computer model of the human brain that sees language used by other people as
“information” (which is received as input), is mentally processed, and the results produced as output.

The computer metaphor has been helpful, but is not adequate to describe listening and speaking in a
foreign language because the key processes between input and output, that we have described as finding
and sharing understanding, are (down-graded importance).

COMPRENHENSIBLE INPUT

For some time in 1980, it was suggested that “comprehensible input” example:

listening to or reading English and making sense of it, was not just necessary for learning a language but
would be enough on its own to drive language development (Krashen 1982).

Cognitive differences between listening and speaking:

help us understand why the metaphor of input and output is inadequate for language learning. For
computer, input leads to output through invisible processes. The metaphor directs attention away from
the crucial learning processes which happen between input and output, both in the classroom and in
learners minds, and from

how these learning processes may be supported by teaching task.

✔ -Discourse as meaningful use of language.

 ✔ -Children as participants in the discourse.

✔ -Searching out meaning and coherence in what they hear around them.

✔ -In the contributions they make to the discourse.

✔ -Discourse in the foreign language makes different demands on children from in the first language,

and if they are to use their meaning-making capacities to help in language learning, the teacher
must support them by making meaning accessible.

✔ -Theoretical differences between understanding and participating in foreign language talk described

in the last subsection will be seen more clearly when we move to look at real discourse in the next
section.

Analysis of task-in-action

We will look at young language learning participating in discourse – and analyse how they use their foreign
language to understand and to share meaning with their foreign language to understand and to share
meaning with their teacher. We will see how some succeed better than others in producing talk and
participating in discourse. The classroom talk will later provide examples of several aspects of discourse
skills.

The setting and the task

● The classroom discourse event was recorded in a small school in Northern Norway.

● The head teacher of the school taught English and in this grade 4 he had just have seven pupils (11

years old)

● They have been learning English for a year

● The school was a tiny isolated village

● Many pupils used English, with Norwegia subtitles

● They were in these ways linked into a global English-speaking community. Their lessons usually

followed the course book quite closely, and that the class had just completed the reading of a
dialogue about animals that live in the artic areas of the far north and had discussed it a little. In
the first extract from the talk, we see the teacher (T) setting out the task-as-plan that he intedes
the pupils.
● In line 3, the teacher addresses the whole class and asks them to think of any animals you know.

● He then chooses two pupils to go to the front of the classes and write the name of an animal on the

board.

● The boys do not know at this point what they are going to be asked to do with the names; this

comes later in line 5: could you please tell us a little about artic fox. Here then is the oral task as set
by the teacher to pupil A – standing by the board with pupil B next to him.

Task-as-plan

● Tell the class about the animal you have chosen.

● This task sets the initial conditions for the use of English by pupils (and teacher). As it unfolds, it

creates the environment of language and learning.

● The demands and support of initial task-as-plan can be analyzed as follows

● Cognitive demands access previous knowledge about the animals supported by previous knowledge

and by allowing pupils to choose and animal they know about.

● Language demands to find words and phrases to describe the animal, speak them supported by

open choice as to what to describe; by the earlier reading of the text.

● Discourse demands: extended talk is required supported by previous work on the topic.

● Interactional demands: to tell your classmates and the visiting researcher with tape recorder

supported by familiar supported people to talk to (except the researcher).

● Involvement demands: to be motivated to create an interesting description supported by the arctic

context which links to pupils lives; being able to choose the animal to talk about.

The task in action

In the next extract, we see what happens as pupil A talks about the artic fox. You will notice that the
planned extended description is not produced, but instead the teacher helps out the pupil by asking
questions. As you read the extract, notice how this change of plan occurs, the different types of
questions that the teacher uses, and the pupil’s responses to them. Notice the different aspect of the
animal that the teacher encourages the pupil to talk about.
The task as a plan is altered very quickly. The teacher’s opening question (line 10) is very broad in terms
of possible answers.

Pupil's response in the next line seems to surprise the teacher, probably because saying it’s a fox does
not answer the question at all.

In line 13, the teacher asks again, tell us to describe it.

This broad invitation to speak is narrowed down almost immediately in line 14.

By asking more closed questions is it big? Is it small? Rather than leaving the pupil to decide which
aspect of the fox to talk about, the teacher’s questions decide for him that size/appearance will be
topics.

This yes/no type of question offers a lot of support to the pupil because it contains within it the
vocabulary that the pupil needs.

The last question in line 14, bow does bow does it look like? Open out the talk again by offering the
pupil more choice of answer topic. Pupil A responds in line 15 with his own vocabulary choice. Sticking
with the teacher topic of size, he chooses little to describe the fox, and then adds the color word white.
Notice that the teacher´s planned task of describing the animal is being carried out, but only in a single
word.

The teacher's response to pupil A in line 18 takes up the topic of size and contains a more complicated
piece of language comparing the fox and a polar bear. Having taken over the lead role in the talk, the
teacher then tries to hand it back to pupil A, by asking if he has seen a fox. Again, A seems to
understand but replies very hesitatingly, in single words and with the short phrase; on TV.

In line 22, the teacher tries again to get the pupil to speak, this time with another closed question that
only needs yes or no as a response. The pupil does a bit better than this, producing the phrase I don’t
think so. Finally , the teacher elaborates this answer by saying that they are further north.

What happened to the task-as-a plan? – the pupil has not managed to tell the class about the fox or
describe the fox in a piece of extended talk. The teacher has had to take over control of the task and
uses questions to construct some interactive talk about the animal. Pupil A, we might surmise, found
the task in some way too demanding. In the next extract from the discourse, we will see what happens
when pupil B is asked to talk about the reindeer. Again notice what happens to the planned task, and
how this comes about through language use, particularly through questioning.
After establishing that the pupil has in fact seen a reindeer, the teacher again uses an open question to
prompt pupil tak:

How does it look like?

With the help of the ski-jump3 question in line 31, Pupil B describes the colours, and in line 34 offers a
sentence about their size. In this interaction, was with A, the pupil does not seem to be able to produce
an extended description using several sentence together, but instead the teacher construct a
description, using phrases or word elicited through questions, In line 37-41, the elicitation process
becomes very marked, with very closed questions and single words lines 37-41, the elicitation process
becomes vert marked, with very closed questions and single word replies. As B’s turn comes to an end,
the teacher offers a short piece of information about seeing reindeers in their locality. B’s task changes
from speaking to listening. After A and B, two more pupils were asked to talk, and the discourse
proceeded in similar way, with an early move from open to closed teacher questions. Again, the
teacher closed the talk with a little story or narrative.

It seems that a pattern of talk, or a format, occurs in these extracts form the task-in-action, in which
the original task of producing an oral description has changed under the pressures of production and
become a tsk of answering the teacher’s questions, with a concluding piece of information or an
anecdote from the teacher.

The final extract from this classroom activity is very different. It shows pupil E not just responding to
questions but taking the lead in the talk. This pupil selected a budgie as his animal; this is a small,
brightly coloured bird that comes from the tropics and is only found elsewhere as a pet. In choosing a
budgie as an artic animal, E Is subverting the task (Cameron 1999) and makes the task work for him in
ways that the other pupils did not. As you read this extract, look for differences between Es talk and
that of the other pupils; also, notice how the teacher’s talk is different. What is driving these
differences?

These extract feel different from the others. Let’s first see how it is different from the others. Let’s first
see how it is different, and then ask what has made the difference. The open teacher question in line
87 receives a full sentence reply from E: she can have many colors. In line 92 E offers a further pice of
info, she can talk, with only yes? As elicitation from the teacher. Again, in line 109, pupil E takes the
initiative and answers a teacher question with an extra piece of info; the sentences does not flow out
fluently but is full of hesitations and pauses. What strikes me about this exchange is how pupil E appear
to be working at the edge of his oral skills, pushing, himself to produce sentences where other pupils
used just single words.
In line 114, the teacher produce an answer to the question he had asked earlier (107). This is a further
indication that the teacher’s involvement in this task was greater too. He earlier (102) contributed a
story about his own bugie that everyone found quite amusing.

It may be that pupil E has learnt more English than the other pupils, and that he thus find the task
easier, but, even so, his hesitant talk shows that he does not find the task easy. The other difference
may be the choice of an animal that E is familiar with the attached to. By choosing his pet a budgie, E
increases his involvement in the task, and has more things to talk about that he possibly knows better:
and cares about. The budgie information carries personal meaning for him that was missing with the
reindeer of the fox. The meaning that the teacher wants to share is also personal. The involvement
with the topic has perhaps created an incentive for talking in order to share understanding, which was
much less strong in the previous extracts.

The task created opportunities for pupils and teacher to share meaning through the use of the foreign
language. However, only pupil E seemed to respond to the opportunity in a way that might also help in
language learning, introducing personal meaning into the task. In the first extracts, pupils seemed to
have problems in finding anything to say: perhaps they could not find English, or perhaps they could
not find the English, or perhaps they could not find information about the animals to share through
talk. Either way – it’s clear that these pupils needed more support to be able to do the oral description.

Language used in the task

We now look a little more closely at the language that the children produced.

The pupils talk clearly demonstrates that speaking is much more demanding than: listening – although
they had read (and understood) a text about arctic animals and although they could understand when
they listened to the teacher talk about the animals, when they were asked to produce a description –
they mostly used single words and phrases lists the language produced by the pupils.

Use of formulaic language

Formulaic sequences: are learned by the child. These pre-fabricated phrases that are produced as
whole chunks, rather than being put together word by word. Sometimes these pre-fabricated phrases
have a structure that does not quite fit into the talk or they are longer than the rest of child’s
utterance. In all types of language-using situations, child and adult speakers seem to rely on such
“chunck” of language that come ready made and can be brought into use with less effort than
constructing a fresh phrase or sentence.
 There is some evidence that phrases learnt formulically are later broken down into individual words
that can be combined with other words, giving new ways of speaking. There are some suggestions
that direct teaching of formulaic phrases will help discourse skills development.

Selecting and adapting language online

Learning and use are tightly interconnected (when a child uses English, adapting his or her oral skill to
the task in hand, a micro-level instance occurs of learning in action. These accumulating experiences of
using language will produce changes in language resources that constitute learning.

Over time and many varied, uses of language, the child will move from partial to more complete
understanding of aspects of language and develop a greater range of language resources and skills;
when the child is then put into a new language-using situation, there are more language resources and
skills to select from and the language can be adapted more precisely to fit.

The repeated use of the same words in different physical and language contexts helps to construct in
the child’s mind the sound, shape, and use of the word.

Language learning is the continual changing of these resource of words and phrases and of grammar,
contextualized initially, and de-contextualizing as it develops

Conversational interaction vs extended talk

Types of discourse that can be developed in both first and foreign language:

The two types develop different discourse skills and developmental patterns for young children in their first
language.

This work has shown that, not only do these two types of discourse develop at different rates for different
children, but that the rate and quality of development is connected with how much children are exposed
to and participate in each type.

The key differences between conversation and extended talk are length of turns and degree of interaction.
In conversation - the social interaction is more obvious, as each part contributes to the development of the
talk.

Extended talk – if done well also needs to take account of the listeners and how they will understand the
longer talk turn.

Development of conversational skills in childhood

● Young children are not very good at talking other discourse participants into account and shaping

what they say to fit the needs of others.

● Young speakers as listeners: understand other people’s talk relative to their current level of social

and cognitive resources.

● Children up to age seven seem to blame themselves if they do not understand sth said to them,

rather than judging that what was said to them might have been inadequate

● Even 10 11 year old who have problems in understanding something may not ask for more

information.

● When children are asked to take part in conversations that are beyond their development (they

cannot participate – and they may be forced to repeat without understanding)

● Discourse in young learner classrooms should follow patterns children find familiar from their

home or family or from their school experience

● We should not demand more of children than they can do, in terms of imagining someone else’s

state of mind or expressing causes and beliefs.

● Familiarity content and context in foreign language use will help children as speakers and as

listeners,

● Teachers should act and behalf of the child in this respect, carefully monitoring how they talk to

their pupils can find meaning in that talk.

Developing children’s discourse repertories

● Learners of a foreign lg will increase their range of repertoire of discourse skills and types.

They will learn to interact conversationally with an increasing range of people, in different
situations, with different goals and on different topics, moving from the familiar settings of
home, family and classroom to situations in the wider world.

● Children develop skills to produce different types of talk including narrative, descriptions,

instructions, arguments, opinions.

● Narrative and descriptions these are the most accessible to young learners.

● Other discourse types: instructions, arguments, opinions – can be analyzed in similar ways for

their content and organization.

 ● They require sth moreover develop skills in communicating with other people understanding

points of view, gathering and ordering information and shaping discourse to persuade or to
illustrate ideas.

The primacy of narrative

● Not only discourse is mode of mental organization that is found in memory construction and that

the features in the early social experiences of children.

● Key features of narrative are the organization of events in time, the intentional actions of

participants, cause and effect, and the resolution of problems.

● Narratives have thematic structures as well as temporal structure: sequence of actions have some

underlying meaning, or driving force.

● Young learners encounter narrative in many types of talk and visually too: in story books, ion songs,

in cartoons, on tv and video, in computer games, and as part of everyday talk in the home and in
school.

● Children are included in narrative production when their parents encourage collaboration.

● The adult may initiate a narrative or the child to participate in; let’s daddy where we went today:

and will provide questions and suggestions to help the child keep the sequence of actions going:
what did we see next? And what was the lion doing? Children re this exposed to narrative from very
early ages,

● They participate in narratives and they develop their skills in producing narratives. Such skills and

knowledge are brought to foreign lg learning – what is lacking is the language to express them.

The language of narrative

● In their first lg children develop the lg for doing narrative quite early

● With sentence grammar and discourse grammar appearing to develop interpedently.

● Constructing cohesive narrative requires the use of relative clauses-connective-prenominal

references-and of adverbs-verb tense and aspect to covey temporal relationships

● Contextual information: has helped the child get a rough idea of a phrase’s meaning, and a model

of its use, but it will take many more exposures and uses in a range of context before the full and
specific meaning is available to the child.

Non-narrative discourse: description

● Narrative contrasted with paradigmatic mental organization, which is concerned with

categorizing the world, and naming objects and characteristics.

● Paradigmatic discourse that is also found in early childhood social interaction, when parents

teach children their colors or name animals, they see together.

● A description clearly derives from paradigmatic organization: objects, animals or people and

their parts features and habits are labelled and described.

● If pupils produce successful descriptions, they will need to access their prior knowledge of such

descriptive features and the language to express them.

● By building up the language components of a description, the teacher can carry out more

effective preparation for extended talk.

Effective support for children’s foreign language discourse skills

● The teacher can give support through motivating topics.

● If children are to talk meaningfully in foreign classroom language classrooms, they must

have sth they want to say.

● The teacher must take on the responsibility for adjusting tasks and topics so that they relate

to pupils interest.

● A sure way to do this is by building in to a task an element of choice for pupils.

● Encourage them to choose (an animal they want to talk about and if they lack info they may

at least be motivated to discover it).

● Find this in which they are experts, whether that is the life of budgies, how to program a

computer, or football teams, or game and use these interest in tasks.

 ● Teacher can also support through task structure.

● Children usually benefit from knowing what is going to happen at the different stages of a

task.

● It helps too if a task has a clear goal or purpose. To construct a human purpose for a task,

we try to imagine a realistic reason for why one person might want to say these things to
another person.

● This simple purpose might be enough to motivate and support talking telling people what

they don’t know, but are interested to find out about.

● Support through language practice. Interest in a topic and purpose for a task, though

important, are not enough

● Unlike first language learners, foreign language learners are not immersed in a continual

stream of spoken discourse, from which they can pick out words and phrases while also
being helped by adults to participate in the discourse.

● Foreign language teaching need to compensate for this lack of exposure to the language by

providing other language opportunities.

General language learning principles and research show that language learners need the
following

-models of lg use to listen to, notice and appropriate;

-pleantiful opportunities for repeated listening;

-plentiful opportunities to say the words and phrases;

-feedback on production to improve fluency and accurancy;

-producing extended talk in addition requires

-preparation time;

-support for remembering the information to be included, while talking.

-Rehearsal of large chunks of talk, as well as words and phrases.

Short activities for learning the spoken language

 ● Listen and doing: main learning focus for children in these activities is to listen, so that the English

words and phrases become familiar and the children begin to notice features of English. After
playing the games a few times, the children will begin to speak as well as listen and can gradually
take over the teacher’s role and play in pairs or groups. Most of the game produces an outcome.
Eg: one picture left or a scenario completed that can be talked as immediate revision of the
language.

● Listen and identify: the teacher says the name of an animal ant the child point to the picture or

puts a counter on it. The teacher can see at a glance whether the pupils understand the spoken
word. The game can be developed by the teacher describing a picture more in detail:
This….has…..and…

● Bingo: Each pupil chosses six animals, and puts the other pictures back in the envelope. The teacher

says the names of the animals at random. When a pupil hears on of his or her animal names, she or
he turns that picture over. The firs all with all the pictures is the winner.

● Listen and take away:pupils start with the full set of pictures. The teacher instructs them to take

away certain animals: take away all the animals with…wings or who live in hot countries. This
continues until only one animal is left. Anyone who hast that animal is a winner. The moving of the
pictures gives the teacher the information about who understands and who is not.

● Find the odd one out: The teacher says the names of four or five animals – the pupils pick them out

and have to decide whice one is the odd one out….

Focus on sounds in discourse

These activities focus at two levels discourse and phonological. The sounds opf the language interact with
the meaning of the words and the form of the whole. They allow attention to the pronunciation words and
of the rhythms of spoken language. In language play , intonation and stress can be exaggerated
dramatically, allowing children to notice and practice aspects of the foreign language that may be different
from the firs lg.

● Poems and chants

● Acrostic

● Toungue twisters
 Using dialogues

It’s very common to find dialogues in children’s foreign language course books. At first sight, it may
seem that dialogues are exactly what we need to give children practice in discourse-level talk. However
a closer look suggests that the course book dialogue is rather strange invention. Course book dialogues
are unliketly to be very close to natural spoken discourse, because they have to be written down, which
inevitably produces tidied up version of talk, they composed for a lg teaching and, compared to natural
talk, seem very artificial.

Dialogues may be included to show learners how spoken English sounds, but may also be there to
provide sample of new vocabulary to be learnt, or to give grammar practice. The dialogue also provides
a model of question types.

Dialogues may offer

● Genuine samples of spoken language

● Contextualised sentences patters, that are not very like the spoken language;

● Written sentences that resemble what people might say

● Practice of sentences patterns – a grammatical drill in disguise;

● Scripts, rather like short theatrical plays.

Other sources of spoken discourse

● Stories offer readymade dialogues that can be extracted and practiced, songs, chants are in the

form of dialogues.

● New situations form the text book an pictures and text

● Class and teacher can then work together to construct the dialogue as a piece of drama with

actions and props to support understanding an memory.

● Teacher will provide phrases and sentences that the children want to include, and will model

how to say them gradually handing over the speaking to the children.
 MEANINGFUL CONTEXT
Students need to learning through a meaningful context. This means that when students are
memorizing a list of words and not reading them in context, they are not able to relate them to
anything. We as teacher have to change this way of teaching and show students how to learn
and help children make the connections. Children need to think beyond the words definition,
but rather use the word in their live. By putting it into their vocabulary, the student is creating a
deep connection with the word and not only knows the definition, but now they can fully
understand how to use it.
Kaufmann explains the importance of learning vocabulary and language in context; he
specifically talks about learning a second lg, but it’s valuable to all the subjects. We need to
create a meaningful context in material that we find an attachment to and being able to interact
with the word and make it real for our students.
According to reading rockets there are six different types of context clues the students can use
to help find connection with the word. They are:

● Root word and affix

● Contrast

● Logic

● Definition

● Example or illustration

Learning lg through task and activities

Think of task as an environment for learning

● Task should be used as a tool for children in learning language (for checking how much learners

understand).

● Tasks and activities are seen as environment or ecosystem of learning.

● Task should be a tool for evaluation of the learners.

 ● Children are active learners that urge to find meaning and purpose for activities that are presented

to them and try to complete the tasks.

● Young learners will work hard to make sense of what teacher ask them to do and come with their

own understanding of purpose and expectation of adults which is a way tasks can be quickly useful
at classroom.

● Sometimes teachers may not notice that learners get confusion because they are anxious to please

the teacher. They may act as if they understand and complete the task, but may not understand or
learn from it.

● It’s important for learning perspective that will go beyond a superficial evaluation of classroom

activity, ad give the teacher tools for really checking on how much learners are understanding and
learning.
Task demands and task support

1. Task demands: demands on learners

2. Task support: support for learners

Task demands: mean how hard and how people will need to work to complete it, activities should carefully
think out and planned for a target audience and should also have both structure and demand.

Types of demands:

● Cognitive –Deals with the contextualization of lg, difficulty of concepts that are needed to do the

task (use of graphics, colors, telling the time, etc.)

● Language – Determining the lg whether spoken or written, understanding the production, extended

talk or conversation, genre, needed grammar and vocabulary

● Involvement-degree of ease or difficulty with the task, links to the child’s interest and concerns,

novelty, humor and suspense.

● Interactional – type of interaction required (pair work in participant in talk adult/perrs). Nature of

interaction

● Physical – how long can the child sit still, needed action and motor skills.

● Metalinguistic - the use of technical terms about language in production of comprehension.

Types of supports:

● Cognitive: from familiar format and graphic/topic and content.

● Language: re use – of lg, moving easier to difficult, using vocabulary and grammar, Use L1 to

support L2 development.

● Involvement: from easy content and activities that are easy, mixing movements and calm, seated

activities.

● Interactional: type of interaction, helpful co-participants, use of familiar routines.

● Physical: variation in sitting and moving, use familiar actions, match to fine motor skills

development.

● Metalingusitic: from familiar technical terms to talk about new lg. Clear explanation.

Balancing task demands and task supports

Goldilocks principle a task that is good to help the learner learn more lg is one that is
demanding but not too demanding, that provides support but not too much. Too high demand
is too difficult, too much support to easy. Lg learning is repeated process of stretching resources
slightly beyond the current limit/ability, learning new skills and moving on to the next challenge.
If one starts off using too much weight (demands are too high) , then injury may follow.
If weight are too light (too much support), then the weight lifter isn’t gaining anything (not
learning). So the trick is to start off with sth just slightly above your current level (above you
zpd) and then “raise the bar” every time the new weight has become the norm.

Language learning goals

● Language learning goals is a step to ensure that the balance of demands and support produce

language learning.

● Set clear and appropriate lg learning goal.

● When students are clear about their learning goal, a goal that describes the intended learning,

they perform better than those who are given goals that focus on task completion.

● Provide scaffolding for the tasks-breaking down into manageable steps with subgoals.
 ● Too many demans will make children anxious.

● Too few demands will make language learning boring.

● Teacher must be careful while designing sub goals in order to help to ensure the success and

achievement at each step of the task and of the task as a whole.

Defining task for young learners classrooms

● Have coherent and unity for learners (topic, activity and outcome).

● Have meaning an purpose for learners.

● Have clear language learning goals.

● Have beginning and an end.

● Involve the learners actively.

● Aim for dynamic congruence – age, socio cultural appropriate.

Stages in classroom task

1. PREPARATION: prepare learners to be able to complete core activities.

2. CORE ACTIVITY: set up through language learning goals.
3. FOLLOW UP: builds on successful completion of the core activities.

Stages in classroom task hanni’s weekend.

Preparation: activate the vocabulary that will be needed (actions, names of object in picture). Help
learners to understand the grammar (teacher speak about past tense) Let learners do exercise in pair.

Core activity: Learners saying sentences about each picture in the gird.

Follow up:the learners write sentences they have constructed before.

Task as a plan vs task as an action

● Task is in plan.

● Teacher may not know what will happen when the activity is used.

● Cannot be fully evaluated.

● Task as an action:

● When the task is used in a class based on what actually happen-

● Task for particular class.

CONTEXTULIZATION
In EFL primary school

✔ Real life communication is not always conveyed at the sentences level and we have to go beyond

the sentence.

✔ It would be not be very meaningful to teach language through isolated, grammatically well-formed

sentences without nay contextual information.

✔ Encouraging teachers teach the language for real purposes design appropriate activities has

become an essential necessity for EFL teacher education.

Concept of contextualization

✔ Language use in real-life situations requires learners to learn through contextualized materias.

✔ The role of context and its significance in the lg learning processs in teacher education should be

considered.

✔ From this perspective contextualization is defined as the meaningful use of lg for real

communicative purposes.
✔ In foreign lg classrooms, lg teaching is not done in a way to help students to realize how mening is

constructed in a context. (most of the class time is occupied with activities which present
descontextualised lg.

✔ English test measure knowledge of grammar and vocabulary rather than the ability to use the lg for

communication.

✔ Nunan (2000) states that decontextualized grammar instruction potentially helps learners work on

forms and even pass tests but it does fail to enable them to use these forms in a meaningful way.

✔ It is possible to find isolated lg practice activities in which meaningless and mechanical structure

analysis (which emphasis drilling) is highlighted. Such activities don’t enable students to use lg for
communicative purpose in real-life situations.

✔ When the content of lg class does not look meaningful to learners they cannot relate to their lives

an to their own experience.

✔ Learning lg becomes an irrelevant and meaningless activity.

✔ To put it context teachers should bring community issues into the classroom (it provides an

opportunity to make learning more relevant) because students have the opportunity to understand
new material in the terms of their own lives an realities.

✔ Contextualized activities, lg teachers are expected to engage learners in meaningful and

comprehensible activities, relate to knowledge that the learner already possesses. The lg input in
these activities is expected to be comprehensible.

✔ Krashen (1986) states that comprehensible input is a bit above the learners lg level but it is

accessible for them. It is the teacher’s responsibility to make the input comprehensible by
presenting it within a context and providing support for learners. This support can be provided
within the young learners zone of proximal development according to Vygostky (are of support
provided by an adult – teacher in our case) so that the child can complete the task which s/he
cannot do no his/her own. This type of support can be given through interaction within the learners
ZPD.

✔ In bruner’s (1978) terms the teacher scaffolds learning by asking questions using audio visual

materials and stories. This become even more important when teaching English as an foreign lg in a
country where the learners are not exposed to the target lg in their own lives. Because of this, it is
important to provide students with meaningful input in the classroom.
 Meaningful Learning

✔ Contextualization techniques will help teacher provide a comprehensible input for their learners in

order to make lg learning more meaningful

✔ The knowledge is reffered to as SCHEMA which is defined as the previously acquired knowledge

structrues accessed in the comprehension process.

✔ Students in an EFL context are also expected to be able to construct meaning from their own

cognitive structure.

✔ It’s teachers’ responsibility to relate the target language with the students experiences.

✔ Teacher has to use various contextualization techniques such as activities, exercise, audio-visual

material and stories, by means of which s/he could activate learners ‘previously acquire knowledge.

✔ PERSONALISATION, it consists of making the content of a material or part of a lesson relevant to

learners interests an educational or professional needs. Visual materials, which will prepare the
learner to understand the context of the activity, are expected to activate learners’ preexisting
knowledge. This is helpful with learners who have a lower level of proficiency. The use of visual
material becomes even more significant in a context which one deals with young learners. Example:
stories are used as means to create a situation so that a specific language item can be accessible to
the learners. It allows both teachers and learners to share their own stories related to the language
item depending on their person experience. Teacher is expected to elicit learner’s story by asking
questions. The type of contextualization techniques and the way teachers use them will show
variations depending on the age and proficiency level of learners.

✔ With young learners 5 – 12 they need to use a good variety of visual materials whereas adults can

handle more cognitively demanding materials and tasks such as texts without much visual support.

✔ INDIVIDUALISATION, it means to prioritizing individual differences. Some materials contain features

of foreign culture and lifestyle can be made accessible by

✔ LOCALISATION TECHNIQUE, interpret localization as relocating the topic of the lesson and course

material within the learners geographic area and culture.

✔ MODERNISATION, it means that how information become out date very quickly , this may hinder

comprehension as learners do not have preexisting knowledge about a particular piece of

 information. Therefore teachers should look for outdated information in course materials and
update and modify them.

✔ SOURCE OF USE OF FORMULATED INFORMATION includes materials such as charts, timetables,

statistical information, a restaurant menu or manuals for electric devices etc. Teacher should be
careful when choosing them because the language of authentic materials can be very challenging
and thus demotivating for EFL learners.

✔ USING THE INMEDIATE CONTEXT, the physical surrounding as the places where they spend time

such as the classroom and school. The use of immediate context can be really practical for teachers
since it refers to the learners’ current schemata which can be activated easily.

✔ The use of all these techniques will help the EFL teachers to present meaningful contextualized and

comprehensible language in their lessons.

The significance of context for young learners

✔ Children can make sense of the lg they are exposed to and can use the lg rather creatively. They
have the ability to go for meaning even though they do not really know about the lg forms. This
ability helps them to work out what is happening in a situation and attach meaning to the lg used.
✔ Teacher should use different types of input such as visual, auditory and tactile input in order to deal
with individual learning differences.
✔ It is essential for teacher to find out differences among their learners which can be searched under
the categories of intelligence, aptitude, learning style – and personality. (So that, they can develop
possible strategies to cope with these differences among their learners.
✔ The main challenge for teacher is to match the method and materials to the preferred learning
styles and experiences. It will be possible to deal with individual differences through a meaningful
context in which a framework of new knowledge is related to the learners’ knowledge and
experience.

The place of contextualization in Teacher Education Programmes

✔ Teacher still tend to teach language through grammar and devoid of stimulating content. The
teachers who are not trained to teach English to young learners attempt to use the bottom-up
approach only in a more traditional way, by which learners learn grammar rules and vocabulary
through mechanical drills and focus on correct form rather than on meaning.
✔ This type of teaching would not be suitable for children to learn a foreign language.

✔ Instead a top-down approach will let them learn language through a meaningful context with the
help of thematic units and communicative activities related to the children’s own experience. In
fact even children learning their mother tongue can have difficulties when they are expected to
learn word form abstract definitions and sentences taken out of the context of normal use.
✔ When it is about learning a foreign lg through isolated, decontextualized materials, learning
becomes even more difficult.
✔ We have to create a situation, using pictures, in order to provide a context for a lg item and give the
learners an illustration of a way that it would be typically be used.
✔ Real teaching environments present challenges to teachers.

✔ Textbooks which are selected by educational authorities may or may not be very suitable for
adaptation.