Young children
When it comes to the age of learners a lot has been researched with regards to the influence of age on the cognitive processes. Jeremy Harmer in Practice of Language Teaching gives the following age-specific characteristics of the foreign language learners:
Young children
- are gene
- rally enthusiastic and curious to learn
- respond to the meaning even if they do not understand individual words
- learn from different sources around them rather than only focusing on one precise topic
- understand the material not only from the explanation, but also from what they see and hear and have a chance to touch and interact with
- find abstract concepts such as grammar rules difficult to comprehend
- have a need for individual attention and approval from the teacher
- have limited attention span; unless activities are extremely engaging, they can easily get bored, losing interest after ten minutes.
Considering this, it is highly recommended for teachers of young learners to encourage their students to get the information from the variety of sources, to get the students work individually as well as in groups and to plan a variety of activities in a flexible way, being ready to move on to the next task when they see their students losing interest. It is also important to understand the students interests in order to create engaging study materials to motivate them. When planning a classroom setup, it is advisable to make it bright and colourful, and provide plenty of space for physical movements in order to combine the learning process with playing.