Education

1. KERRY LEE | GLORIA LI | SANDRA VEGA CARRERO
Language
Learning with
Young Children
Integration of Educational Technology

2. Chapter 1
Approaches for
teaching a second
language for kids
“True teachers are those who use themselves
as bridges over which they invite their
students to cross; then, having facilitated their
crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them
to create their
own.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

3. • What are the different
approaches to teach young
children second language?
The Audio-lingual approach:
✴Main claim: By imitation of good examples and the
fast correction of errors everyone can learn a second
language. There is no need for abstract rule
knowledge.
✴Objectives: a) Accurate pronunciation and
grammar. b) Ability to respond quickly and accurately
in speech situations. c) Knowledge of sufficient
vocabulary to use with grammar patterns.
2
Section 1
Approaches for teaching a second language for kids

4. ✴Procedure:
• Students hear a model dialogue
• Students repeat each line of the dialogue
• Certain key words or phrases may be
• Changed in the dialogue
• The students practice substitutions in the
pattern drills
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5. Communicative approach:
✴ Main Claim:
The communicative approach is based on the idea
that learning language successfully comes through
having to communicate real meaning. When learners
are involved in real communication their natural
strategies for language acquisition will be used, and
this will allow them to learn to use the language.
✴ Principles:
• Authentic and meaningful communication should be
the goal of classroom activities.
• Fluency is an important dimension of
communication.
• Learning is a process of creative construction and
involves trial and error.
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6. The Natural Approach:
* Purpose:
To promote the communicative competence, not
grammatical perfection. It is primarily intended to be
used with beginning learners. It is presented as a set
of principles that can apply to a wide range of learners
and teaching situations, and concrete objectives
depend on the specific context in which it is used. * Principles:
a) The teacher should try not to use the students'
mother tongue at all.
b) The production of speech, as a response to
listening, is developing over several stages a:
• Nonverbal answer
• One-word answer
• Two or three-word answer
• Short-sentence answer
• Compound-structured answer
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7. 6
Section 2
Learning English Process
• How do young children
learn a second language?
1. Young children learn a second
language by hearing.
When young children learn a second language, they have to be in
an environment where other people speak that language.

8. 7
2. Young children learn a second
language by mimicking.
After young children heard a second language being spoken, they
have the tendency to try to copy or repeat that language. In this
process, young children learn a second

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3. Young children learn a second
language by applying.
After young children heard a second language spoken for a period of
time, they acquire some vocabularies in their brain. Only when they
start to speak and practice that language in real life, they learn that
language.

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Section 3
Environment influence
• How does the environment
influence young children learn
a second language? The first examinations of language and the
environment were done by Edward Sapir, his
theories are now known as the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis. His theory states that the
language a person speaks influences their
thoughts and actions, as well as the way they
interpret the world around them.
In addition, there are cases that show that the environment can affect
how a person learns a language and if they learn a language. These
cases show us the effects of isolation and neglect on language
learning.

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Victor of Aveyron is a feral child who was not
socialized in his early years, and spent the majority of his
childhood alone in the woods. He was found in France, the
year was 1800 and he was around 12 years of age. Shortly
after he started working with a young Physician, Jean Marc
Itard, who gave him his name and worked with him for 5
years. He wanted to determine if Victor could learn and
came up with certain strategies to see if Victor could indeed
learn. From his work with Victor, he discovered new
strategies in educating the developmentally delayed. Victor
made some progress, but never spoke. He did understand
the meaning of actions. More recently, experts hypothesize
that Victor may have had mild autism.

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Another case is that of Genie, who was
severely abused and neglected up until
she was discovered by the Los Angeles
child welfare services in 1970. Her father
kept her isolated in a room from 2 years of
age up until 13. She was never exposed to
any significant amount of speech, and as a result never acquired
language. A number of linguists worked with her in order to
measure her acquisition of language, especially vocabulary and
various aspects of grammar including syntax, phonology, and
morphology. She learned an impressive amount of nouns, color
words, and words for emotion. However, she had quite a bit of

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Critical Period Hypothesis
These cases support what linguists call Critical Period Hypothesis.
Critical Period Hypothesis states that there is a critical period of time for language
acquisition to take place, limiting the ultimate level of competence of older learners.
In Victor and Genie's cases we saw how late exposure to language affects the
cognitive ability to learn all aspects of a language. Most linguists say that the critical
period terminates at age 9-12 in order to completely learn a language.