Humanising Language Teaching
Year 2; Issue 6; November 2000

"The Wonderful WORLD of English"

By Mariela Belenda and José Luis Morales

Children embarking on learning English for the first time have many years of language study ahead. In order to ensure that learning a foreign language in the early years is a motivating and valuable part of children's education, it is essential to adopt an approach which takes into account children's special characteristics and needs. In this article, we outline a number of key principles that we believe can usefully underpin and enhance the teaching-learning process when working with children. The principles, which we have evolved as a result of our own teaching experience, reading and reflection, are as follows:

The child at the centre of the learning process
To be effective, learning needs to be based on topics and activities that are central to children's immediate interests and surroundings. A child-centred approach encourages active participation and involvement as well as allowing for a personalised, individual response.

Children learn best when learning is experiential and activity-based
Through engaging children in earning to use English to do things which are purposeful, relevant and pleasurable to them, such as listening to stories, singing songs, playing games, interacting with others and finding out about the world they live in, learning is made meaningful and memorable.

Children learn in a global way
Children make sense of the whole context in which learning takes place. Through building on previously acquired knowledge, concepts and skills from other areas of learning, children move from a general understanding towards the construction of personally significant meaning.

Learning a foreign language contributes to the development of the whole child
In addition to developing language skills, children develop social, thinking and learning skills and acquire attitudes, values and beliefs which contribute to their overall educational development.

Children vary in the rate and way in which they learn
Lessons need to include a variety of activity types and multi-sensory techniques in order to appeal to different learning styles in children e.g. visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. It is also important for the teacher to provide activities which can be done by children working at different language levels.

Motivation is vital
Through involving children in activities which are inherently enjoyable and worthwhile, children become intrinsically motivated to learn English. This motivation is vital, since if children are not motivated during the initial experience of learning a foreign language, they are unlikely to become so later.

Helping children 'learn how to learn' is an integral part of the process.
Children cannot automatically be expected to be effective learners and it is therefore important to help them become increasingly aware of ways in which they learn and strategies which they can use to help them learn better.

The development of positive attitudes
Through promoting positive attitudes towards the foreign language and culture, as well as fostering children's beliefs in their own ability to learn and encouraging them to develop attitudes of respect and cooperation in their relationships with others in class, the process of learning English helps to contribute to broader educational objectives.

Children need an appropriate level of challenge
Children need to be set tasks which are neither too easy nor too difficult. Activities which promote learning combine an appropriate level of cognitive and linguistic challenge within an accessible framework that both gives children space to try things out but is also non-threatening and enables them to succeed.

Children need an appropriate level of support
In the early stages, children need a great deal of support to help them understand, respond to and use English. This support can be given through the creation of clear learning contexts and through the use of visuals, mime and gesture as well as appropriate questioning techniques.

Children need lots of practice
Children often appear to earn easily but they forget easily too. In order to build up confidence and help memory processes, children need plenty of opportunities to practise, recycle and extend language they have learnt.

An acquisition-rich language environment helps children to acquire language
As with their mother tongue, children's receptive competence in English develops ahead of their productive competence. Through exposure to language input which is slightly above the level they can produce, children are given opportunities to acquire language in a natural way.

In conclusion, we believe it is essential to base the teaching of English to children on principles which take full account of their age, stage of development and the context in which they are learning. In our experience, the principles of the approach suggested above not only help to make learning a foreign language more meaningful and memorable for children but also gives it a sense of immediate purpose and relevance. In both the short and long term, this is more likely to ensure that learning a foreign language is a successful, worthwhile and enjoyable experience.