characteristics of young learners
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Characteristics of Young Learners. 1. Involuntary attention. not pay attention to language system but to task, topic & situation form is acquired indirectly through peripheral learning language is a means for expressing meaning. 2. Limited attention. short attention & concentration span - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Characteristicsof Young Learners
1. Involuntary attention
• not pay attention to language system but to task, topic & situation
• form is acquired indirectly through peripheral learning
• language is a means for expressing meaning
2. Limited attention
• short attention & concentration span
• tend to focus on the end of words & add suffixes & postpositions before noticing the existence of & begin using prefixes & prepositions (e.g. goed, eated, whom with)
3. Holistic skills
• approach language holistically not analyzing it or breaking phrases into chunks but treating & learning it formulaically & integrated with other skills
• language production does not depend on explicit knowledge, but must be developed implicitly
4. Inability to observe regularities & causal relations
• are neither cognitively nor psychologically mature to make comparisons between the L1 & the TL
• require constant repetition to infer & generate grammar rules & to identify causal relations between various occurrences
5. Undeveloped problem-solving skills
• can’t yet diagnose problems & generate solutions based on the information available
6. Weak memory
• cannot control what they are taught
• the younger the learner, the patchier the storage & recall
• need recycling activities
7. Limited experience
• have limited life & learning experience
• do not bring in background knowledge
• they are in the process of learning their L1
8. Here & now reasoning
• concrete reasoning concerned with physical here & now realia & observable situations in the immediate environment
• abstract reasoning is tied to biological growth & does not develop until between 11 - 14 years old abstract grammatical patterns are beyond children grasp
9. Undeveloped LL aptitude
• influence the rate of development where formal classroom learning is concerned
• 4 major components of LL aptitude:(1) phonetic coding ability: an ability to identify distinct sounds, and to form associations between them and representative symbols(2) grammatical sensitivity: the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words (or other linguistic entities) in sentence structures(3) rote learning ability: a memorization technique based on repetition(4) inductive (language learning) ability: the ability to infer or induce the rules governing a set of language materials
10. Mechanical memory
• 2 kinds of memories:– mechanical memory (short-term memory)
predominant in children – logical memory (long-term memory)
develops very slowly between 11 - 14 years of age, is related to abstract thinking
• children under 12-13 can repeat & memorize long words & expressions, but are not able to analyze them because logical memory is not well developed yet
11. Lower-order functioning2 broad types of functioning:– lower-order functioning
• responsible for the understanding & production of speech
• involves basic syntactic processing & the motor operations employed in speaking & writing
• a function of early maturing– higher-order functioning
• involves semantic processing & verbal recognition
• dependent upon late developing neural circuitry
• available for use only in older learners
12. Undeveloped interactional skills
• young learners are prone to be less involved in sustaining a conversation
• progress less rapidly than older learners
13. Motivation
• rarely have clear motivation• be less able to:– assume responsibility for their
learning– use the metacognitive strategies
of focusing, arranging, planning, monitoring & evaluation
– rule out any serious attempt at large-scale comparative assessment of their progress
14. Literacy (& numeracy)
• children are far behind taking their first steps with the alphabet & numbers
• a whole new code must be taught alongside the introduction of literacy & numeracy
15. Ongoing categorization
• children still acquire L1
• establish the range of reference of the lexical items
• find out the boundaries of the relevant classes