a Feciicy bares oaen Tonelli ory oo Rey cece Ri eicviatcanan ee cccarc Fee cc sony BF ron, och cc Srinterinoy ante acing oun igii Be ieccyvines et Bena osc ey lc ic ariomsot tonto tampon an Engh etvston Fie andtanessan eae Br cunblefangc Pret! ihisarie| yes Beier ysenpayetis Be ein ter eh cee icra oleae tthe oc TH Be atioec rr Eteach venga [sr open, vi as deus Acquisition poor contexts English teaching is well established iJapan and s taught at primary, Secondary and tera level throughout the country, The teaching of English In primary schools, however, was only Nolume 24m issued introduced recently and is currently limited to fith- and sixth. grade leamners, Private language schools, known as eikaiwvas, can be found in towns and cities throughout the country. For young, leamers they proffer to address, among. ‘other things, the shortcomings of public ‘school English education, Public schools are often chastised for pedagogy which pays itle attention to the communicative aspects of the language (Ells, 191). However, such criticisms are largely undeserved, taking the realities ofthe Japanese context into account. [tis a country where the ‘majority ofthe population perform their daily personal and professional tasks without the need for English, ‘or any other foreign language. Most leamers, despite having been taught English for several years, graduate from high school with a knowledge of English grammatical conventions, but litle communicative competence. Compounding matters, the majority of Japanese teachers of English are unfamiliar with uptodate English teaching pedagogy and have limited proficiency in the language. They also need to-contend with large class sizes often in excess of 30 learners. Unsurprisingly, negative attitudes among teachers towards the teaching of English are pervasive. Japan could thus be regarded as an acquisition poor contest, where due to the realities ofthe linguistic environmet limited opportunities exis forthe learning of a foreign language exist in a number of other Asian, Middle Eastern and South American counties, inllarconcitions wwsmodernenglishteacher.com aE TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS Learning through reading Michael Tasseron suggests that a reading-centred approach is more likely to succeed, with young learners in certain regions. \where English is taught in schools, The challenges facing teachers and leamers insuch contests are significant. Ris also unrealistic to expect teachers to stat teaching English with inadequate taining However, even in such environments. itis possible for teachers to teach educational and enjoyable lessons, Teaching and leaming strategies The recommendations made in this article are particularly relevant to leamers ‘of English aged six to twelve who find themselves in acquisition poor contexts, ‘such as those described above, Strategies for failure Opinions are likely to be divided with regard to what the most effective methodology for young learners in a particular context may be, and rightly 0, However, there would be little disagreement, regardless of the leaning environment, thatthe following practices are likely to be detrimental to language acquisition: 1 meaningless drils of lexical items and structures, typical of the PPP approach f= the use of fonmfocused content which {s inelovant to the young learner © the absence of any underlying theme ‘r story learners can identify with, 'm an emphasis on productive skills at the expensive of receptive skills, attempts to incorporate communicative teaching into lessons, with lange class sizes with teachers unfamiliar with such approaches. 43Itis therefore a cause for concern that inthe private language schools and primary schools where Ihave worked in Japan, the methodology in use advocates some or ll ofthe above. Methodology ofthis nature is outdated and ilsuited {othe young learner foreigh-anguage classroom. With regard tothe first two points, young leamers are unlikely to benefit from teaching which relies on explanations of grammatical structures, followed by the practising ofthese in monotonous controlled or sem controlled dill A syllabus based on such methodology is fundamentally flawed, as it oversimplifies the cognitive processes at work inthe learners’ minds (Bourke, 2006). Cameron (2008) refers totwo crucial aspects ofthis process, namely the pursuit of meaning and intention, She contends that young, Jeamers attempt to communicate {hrough social interactions with the Janguage in a manner which they can make sense of. Thus it could be argued that only once the relevant linguistic knowledge has been intemalized through such interactions, can the leamer use itsuccessully. tention to discrete linguistic fons in the classroom in the ‘arly primary years is therefore unlikely to aid in this process, Equally problematic ste prioritization of oral communication at the expense of reading and listening, asis often the case with many language programs (Dlugoz, 2000, tis undersiandable that educational insttutions tend to emphasize teaching speaking, especially taking cognizance ofthe aforementioned concems ofthe lack of communicative competence of many leamers in acquisition poor contexts Focusing primarily on oral ski fs unfortunately rather shortsighted. There remains much tobe learnt about how a second or foreign language is acquired, but what ‘can be concluded with certainty is that meaningful linguistic output does not precede input. Thus, a degree of oral competency can only be expected once meaningful linguistic knowledge has been transferred to the longterm memory and ean be accessed at will. This isa sadlual process and is whats proposed by McLaughlin’ (1987; 1990) Information Processing Model, Focusing primarily on ral activities, without sufficient attention tothe receptive skills such as reading and listening, istherefore unlikely 0 facilitate learning. affective factors such ‘as shyness and a lack of confidence in ‘oral ability are also taken into account, language acquisition may be further impeded by an emphasis on this il, With regard tothe final point, the perceived benefits of communicative teaching have been extensively documented, However, cities argue that such an approach is impractical and incompatible with publie schools in many EFL. contexts, especialy those with large class sizes typical in Asia, Litlewood (2007) list numberof reasons for this, ‘The most pertinent to this discussion are related to classroom management and methodology which is often significantly different from, and which may be at ‘odds with, the traditional approaches ‘employed by teachers. Strategies for success Bourke (2006) provides a comprehensive framework forthe design and implementation of a young leamer syllabus, underpinned by theoretical and practical considerations. He proposes that such asyllabus should be topicbased and should allow for the integration of ‘skills Essential elements should include children’s literature, stories, songs, a variety of activities and materials which are relevant to the world of the young learner. For acquisition poor contexts it isunikely that all ofthe above elements ‘can be incorporated into a young leamer syllabus. However, its possible to design such a syllabus with children’s literature ‘as the central component series of books which is particularly sulted to this is Sight Word Tales (Charlesworth, 2008). The sot comprises ‘wenty-five different ilustrated stories, all of which are humorous and easy for learners ofall proficiencies to follow. Each book is approximately ten pages in length and typically contains only one ot {wo sentences on each page. The series introduces one-hundred high frequency ‘sight words, usually four per book, and these four appear on each page of the story. The methodology proposes that www.modernenglishteacher.com MEE TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS [isis oe ee repeated exposure to these words wll 2 in their retention in the longterm memory the premise being tat learners willbe able to instantly recognize these ‘words when they read subsequent texts, therefore improving the speed at which ‘hey read, An adkltional advantages that once these words are committed tothe longterm memory leamer will only need tospend time decoding new wordsthey ‘encounter while acing. Althe end of ‘each book there ae short exercises which canbe completed using the Featured sight words. This series was written for 2 Englsh ist language eames, but ‘Sako suitable forall the FL learners in the age range mentioned above Te accompanying eaching guide is comprehensive, but aso provides easy to follow nstuetions and ideas for using the books, including assessment guidelines. Awelcome feature inthe guide the provision of smaller version of each book which can be photocopied and given to learners, or keptin the school, Allowing cach leamer to ave hs or her own book is cosetfectve and circumvents posible bureaucratic delay elated to acquiring new materials The physical proces of Duling the books together by cuting the pages out ane stapling them together, is also something eamers enjoy. My observations ‘The previous approach ‘Atypical lesson in the private language schools and public elementary schools where [have taught involves the teaching ‘of some vocabulary from a coursebook, followed by the drilling ofa grammatical phrase in a question and answer eycle, This is followed by a freer practice stage where leamers ask each other questions in pairs or groups using the target phrase. This may take the form of games or other less formal activities, The emphasisin the lessons is developing oral competency, bbut some attention is also paid to ‘developing the other skills. A phonics approach is used to teach reading, but atypical leamer possesses very limited reading shils. Reading a question and. answer sequence such as What do you want to eat?> Iwant to eat a sandwich ‘would present a challenge for most leamers, even thase who hal studied at the language schoo! for several years Volume 24° missue 1ee ~TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS Learnersat public schools will often be unable to read such phrases. ‘The new approach My observations were made overa threemonth period while using the Sight Word Tales books, and involved leamers aged six to twelve, who attended English Tessons at the school for fity minutes every week, The clas sizes ranged from fourtosix eames, For the new approach, { closely followed the recommendations made by the teaching guide. Itold the learners at the start ofthe firs lesson that we were going to read a story, and handed outa photacopied mintbook to each of them, explained that they were going to see the fournew sight words on every page. | then read the story aloud a few times and asked the leamers to read along silently inthe minibooks. also incorporated some of the prescribed activities and ‘games. Itneeds to be emphasized that ‘asking the learners to read aloud, while advantageous in some ways (Gibson, 2008), should not be the oveniding objective, especially at the inital stages of ‘such a programme. Atempting to do so without leamers being capable of reading ‘confidently and conetly runsthe risk Cf this approach appearing as simply the same English lessons repackaged in another way. [noted thatthe majority ofthe leamers responded! positively to the new approach, particularly once a routine of using the books had been established. ‘The more reticent and disinterested learners participated more actively than they usually did. The levels of confidence improved among many leamers and they were also willing to read aloud individually when asked to doso later on, which was a departure from what [had observed using the previous materials, The positive responses were atibuted to the following factors 1 the variation thatthe new materials ‘and approach brought tothe lessons 1m a story based lesson which learners could identify with and enjoy m asense of achievement when a learner felt they could read the book successfully sw Volume 24 mtissue 1 1 lower level learners felt less pressure inthe knowledge that there was no expectation of oral production Implications for teachers and learners in acquisition poor contexts ‘The observations were made in a small lass setting in a language school in Japan. However, such an approach is compatible with larger classes typical of public schools, and is advantageous fora number cof reasons, ‘The awareness that this approach does not require extensive English pedagogical knowledge or a high proficiency in the language, means there's likely to be less anxiety among teachers, and therefore possibly les resistance to using it, compared with being expected to teach all four skills with litle oversight cr guidance. Dlugoz (op.cit) discusses the benefits of implementing a reading- focused approach for both leamers ancl teachers in acquisition poor contexts. ‘She bases her recommendations on the findings ofa study conducted in an Eastern European setting inthe late 1990s, which shares a numberof similarities with other acquisition poor contexts “These include teachers with inadequate training and limited English language skills being expected to teach their lamers English, She contends that adopting a reading-centered approach, as opposed. toa communicative approach, is better sulted to aid such teachers in developing the receptive skills of their earners. This argument s particularly relevant when new English programmes are implemented, On a practical level, itis possible to implement such an approach at schools with limited resources, ina short time frame and without the need for a multitude of time: ‘consuming training sessions. ‘The affective factors at play in the classroom can also be significant in facilitating or impeding learning, and Dlugoz (op.cit.) contends that the accomplishment of reading a book felt by a learner isa motivating factor and aids the language learning process Motivation is also impacted by whether ‘or not young learners enjoy their lessons, ‘This approach provides learners with ‘materials they can relate to, and with www.moderenglishteacher.com tasks they can complete successtully while enjoying themselves, Conclusion Underqualifed teachers may feel ‘overwhelmed when they are expected toteach English, and may thusbe averse to.committing suficient time and effort todoingso. A strateay which could be ‘adopted as a stating point in such settings isa readingentered approach. Such an approach offers both leamers and teachers a realistic starting point, from ‘which the groundwork may be Tai for future programmes which offer enjoyable, cciucational and rewarding lessons. References Bourke,JM.(2006) Designing a topicbased sylabus for Young leamers. ELT Journal, 60 (279-286. Carnoron (2008) Challenges for ELT fom the expansion in teaching chile. ELT Joumal 87 (2), 105-112 Charlesworth, L.Ed). 2008) Sight Wor Tales New York,NY Seholast Diusgoe, DW. (2000) Rethinking the role of reading in eeching a foreign language to young learmers ELT Journal, 54 (3), 281-290, Elis, R (1981) Communicative competence and the lapanese learner.J407 Journal. 13 (2), 108-129, Gibson 5 (2008) Reading aloud:a uso learning tool? ELT Journal, 62 (1), 2935. Litlewwood,W (2007) Communicative and taskased language teaching in East Asian classrooms, Language Teaching 40,243-248 MeLaughlin,B.(1987) Theories of Second Language Learning. London: Edward Amol. MeLaughin,B. (1860) Resiucturing Applied Linguisties,A1(2), 113-128. ‘Michael Tassoron is fom South Aca He started teaching in China in 2004, ‘after which he moved to Japan, where he spent six years. He worked in Oman ‘om mid-2041 to mié2012 and then: returned to Japan. He holes CELTA and 2 Master of arts in Applied Linguistics ‘and TESOL. His current reeeareh interests fare pedagogical materials, intercultural ‘communication and collaborative leaning. 45