"The most appropriate approach for teaching young learners"

              The most appropriate approach for  teaching  young learners.

There is no right answer to this question, as it will depend on many factors: the age of the children, class size, the competency of the teacher, availability of resources, the school context and the framework constructed by bodies that create the educational landscape for the locality.

Should oral development precede reading and writing? There is a school of thought that suggests children learn best by hearing language being effectively modeled by skilled teachers, and having natural opportunities to use language in productive activities, before embarking on robust learning of literacy. However, the relative success of this type of approach may lie in the oral competency of the teacher and easy access to appropriate resources. In some contexts it may make more sense to expose children early to reading, learning phonics and the explicit teaching of grammar. Clearly, it makes little sense to be teaching reading and writing in a second language beyond what has been achieved in a first language, although it may be possible for the two languages to develop at similar rates. However, older learners may have knowledge of literacy to transfer over from a stronger first language. In many contexts, schools are measured

by how many children pass academic exams, which may necessitate and encourage a ‘teaching to the test’ mentality amongst teachers. However, this could mean that the more important aspects of learning are neglected. The significance of oral competency when learners of English are immersed in the target language, for example children studying in English medium schools or where the dominant language of the locality is English, as in the UK, the development of oral competency naturally tends to precede a more specific focus on reading and writing. However, when we are talking about foreign language learning the decision is more complex.

A useful framework for viewing learning a foreign language can be seen in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: Dividing up language for child foreign language learning

Learning a foreign language

    Learning the written language

    Learning oral skills

    Discourse

    Vocabulary

    Grammar

    Conversation Extended talk

Cameron separates learning the written language, not necessarily because she sees this as coming later in a child’s development, but because the written language needs to be explicitly taught by the teacher; the process needs planning and the teacher needs to understand what is involved in doing this. However, this does not mean that written language is divorced from spoken language, but for the young language learner, language is presented, practiced and learned through speaking and listening. As the result of activities that take place in the class, children learn the meaning of words and grammar ‘emerge[s] from the space between words and  discourse  and supports  the  development of  meaning .

  English teacher :  Axmedova Gavxar ;    School#30  ,  House # 53, Street Ezgulik   ,   Parkent town, Tashkent  Region, Uzbekistan

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