scholarly journals The Critical Period Hypothesis Revisited: The Implications for Current Foreign Language Teaching to Young Learners

Author(s):  
Esim Gürsoy
2017 ◽  
pp. 57-72
Author(s):  
Joaquín Gris Roca

One of the fundamental goals of Foreign Language Teaching might be the attainment of implicit knowledge, which underlies oral and written fluency. Textbook activities reflect different explicit and implicit teaching loads following the type of knowledge they are targeted at (explicit, implicit or both). EFL teachers’ implementation of activities can thus help or become a hindrance for the development of implicit knowledge. This study aimed to explore the explicit and implicit teaching nature of 100 activities taken from 10 EFL textbooks used in Spanish primary school teaching. The ultimate goal was to examine whether activities are designed taking into account young learners’ idiosyncratic way of learning. Findings revealed that most primary school EFL textbook activities tend to contain a lower number of activities mostly focused on explicit teaching.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Maskhurin Fajarina

Teaching language to old learners is different from teaching language to young learners. Young learners have certain characteristics which are different from old learners so those influence their acquiring a foreign language. Teaching foreign language is easy if we understand the rules well. The rules are understanding characteristics of our students, mastering some suitable methods, and choosing suitable material. Young learners have certain characteristic distinguishing to the older learners. Related to the certain characteristics, the teacher must understand to differentiate the method they use in teaching English as a foreign language to the young learners. To empower the teaching, the teacher must master the material well


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-61
Author(s):  
Polona Lilić ◽  
Silva Bratoz

The main aim of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of using games in teaching English grammar to young learners. Today there is an overall agreement among researchers in foreign language teaching and language acquisition that grammar should be taught at all levels of instruction, including to young learners, bearing in mind that it should be considered in the context of meaningful communication. The paper first presents a review of the literature in the area of grammar teaching and using games for language teaching purposes. The second part presents the results of an experimental study aimed at testing the hypothesis that activities based on grammar games are a more efficient strategy for teaching grammar than more traditional ELT activities. The results of the experiment prove the efficacy of using grammar games in teaching grammar to young learners.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 63-73
Author(s):  
Krystian Kamiński

Inviting very young learners to a gallery of modern art does not seem as an obvious didactic solution. Some may argue that children are not able to interpret modern art, and, therefore, it is not possible to use such a medium as a teaching tool. However, it all depends on the pedagogical approach and the way art is implemented during classes. This article starts with an overview of definitions of very young learners, defining this group not only in terms of their age, but also characteristic traits. It is also to justify the use of modern art-cued visual materials as a component of language teaching and to ponder upon using elements of artistic creation to foreign language classrooms. The practical implementation of a presented solution is also discussed in the article. The ideas were used as workshops aimed at introducing very young learners to modern art as well as at acquiring new English vocabulary. Classes were carried out in one of the modern art galleries in Lublin. An example of chosen artwork and pieces created by a very young learner are shown in this article. Finally, the opportunities arising from implementing the new methodology are analysed. They are connected with linguistic development, improvement of young learners’ skills, as well as developing intercultural competence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-161
Author(s):  
Xiaohui Sun, D.Ph., Branko Medic, D.Sc.

Following the recent dominance of videos as the most preferred content type among young learners, this research paper sets out the aim to investigate how audiovisual content can be used in foreign language teaching. The focus is on subtitling and captioning as two strategies often criticised by practitioners, yet widely adopted in the foreign language classroom. Empirical data is deployed to discuss both advantages and disadvantages of videos in the educational context. Findings are relevant for foreign language professionals who are willing to gain critical awareness on the latest Web 2.0 developments and to mindfully implement videos in class.


2021 ◽  
pp. 118-123
Author(s):  
Denysenko I.I. ◽  
Tarasiuk A.M.

The article is devoted to one of the advanced formats of foreign language teaching at high school, which effectively complements extramural and full-time forms of education – distance learning. The author emphasizes that the quality and effectiveness of foreign languages distance learning athigher educational establishments depends on effectively organized course; the pedagogical skills of teachers, participating in the educational process; the quality of applied methodical content.The main principles of foreign languages distance learning in higher education has been covered, the means of improving the quality and effectiveness of this educational format has been proposed, the key conceptual regulations of foreign languages distance learning has been determined. The article proposes a model for organizing foreign languages distance learning course for future specialists, describes a system to control and monitor the knowledge of all types of speech activities. It is also noted that independent work in the foreign languages distance course at high school should not be passive, but on the contrary, the student should be involved in active cognitive activities, not limited to acquiring foreign language skills, but necessarily includes their practical application; to solve certain communicative tasks in the future professional activity.The article concludes that in the process of organizing the foreign language distance learning course at high school, it is necessary to take into account not only the didactic characteristics and functions of multimedia and telecommunications as a technological basis, but also the conceptual trends of didactic distance learning as a component of modern education. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the specific nature of foreign language teaching in general.Key words: higher educational establishment, distance learning, multimedia means, independent work, information and communicative technologies, Internet, interactive engagement.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Manuela Svoboda

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyse any potential similarities between the Croatian and German language and present them adopting a contrastive approach with the intent of simplifying the learning process in regards to the German syntactic structure for Croatian German as foreign language students. While consulting articles and books on the theories and methods of foreign language teaching, attention is usually drawn to differences between the mother tongue and the foreign language, especially concerning false friends etc. The same applies to textbooks, workbooks and how teachers behave in class. Thus, it is common practice to deal with the differences between the foreign language and the mother tongue but less with similarities. This is unfortunate considering that this would likely aid in acquiring certain grammatical and syntactic structures of the foreign language. In the author's opinion, similarities are as, if not more, important than differences. Therefore, in this article the existence of similarities between the Croatian and German language will be examined closer with a main focus on the segment of sentence types. Special attention is drawn to subordinate clauses as they play an important role when speaking and/or translating sentences from Croatian to German and vice versa. In order to present and further clarify this matter, subordinate clauses in both the German and Croatian language are defined, clarified and listed to gain an oversight and to present possible similarities between the two. In addition, the method to identify subordinate clauses in a sentence is explained as well as what they express, which conjunctions are being used for each type of subordinate clause in both languages and where the similarities and/or differences between the two languages lie.


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