Young Learner Classroom Research Articles

Tag and Intersentential Code Switching Found in English Young Learners Classroom Interaction

Tag and Intersentential Code Switching Found in English Young Learners Classroom Interaction

Analyzing Patterns of Classroom Interaction In An Elementary English Online Teaching and Learning Processes

Interaction plays a pivotal role in English teaching and learning processes. The patterns of interactions in classroom activities highly influence the success of the teaching-learning process. This study aimed to describe the classroom interaction patterns in an online teaching and learning process through a qualitative approach using the Flanders' Interaction Analysis System (FIAS). This study is focused on the young learner classroom interaction at the elementary school level. An English online class was observed and recorded to collect the data. The data were confirmed by interviewing the English teacher. The findings revealed that the dominant patterns of interaction that emerged in the online teaching and learning processes were asking questions (Teacher's Talk) and giving responses (Students' Talk). The patterns of interaction were produced from teacher and student(s) and student(s) and student(s) interactions concerning the teacher talk and the students' talk categories used in the online teaching and learning activities. By understanding classroom interaction patterns, the results can be worth considering in selecting activities to support students in improving their full potential in teaching and learning processes. Besides, classroom interaction plays a crucial role in achieving the intended goals in the teaching and learning processes.

Data-driven learning and young learners: Perceptions and attitudes of Japanese elementary school students towards EFL corpus-based activities

There is an increasing amount of research into corpus-based study as a pedagogical approach in language learning (Boulton & Vyatkina, 2021). This is most commonly known as data-driven learning (DDL) and can refer to both direct corpus use and corpus-informed, paper-based activities. Despite this growing interest, the vast majority of published research into DDL investigates university students (Boulton & Cobb, 2017; Pérez-Paredes, 2022) and there is a serious lack of enquiry into children and adolescents (Crosthwaite, 2020). This paper seeks to add to the limited knowledge that currently exists on pre-adolescent learners. An exploratory, small-scale mixed-methods study was designed to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of Japanese sixth-grade elementary school students towards EFL corpus-based activities. Five participants took part in a month-long course of four one-hour online sessions with data collected via a pre-study survey, post-class questionnaires, and post-study interviews. Results show that students display a very favourable attitude towards DDL activities, with a clear preference for paper-based activities over computer-based activities. The findings also highlight the importance of ‘scaffolding’ in young learner education and the potential obstacles that must be overcome to ensure that DDL activities can be successfully implemented in the EFL young learner classroom.

Teacher Readiness in Implementing Children's Literature to Enhance English Language Learning in Young Learners Classroom

This study employs a qualitative approach as a research design. This qualitative study aims to investigates teacher readiness for incorporating children's literature into English language learning with young learners. The research employs in-depth interviews as the primary data collection method. This study involves two young learner English teacher as the participants who were selected purposively, one from an international kindergarten and one from a state primary school. The findings of this study reveal that teachers are generally aware of the benefits of using children's literature in the classroom and acknowledge the importance of preparation. Teachers emphasize the need to be well-prepared before entering young learners' classrooms, ensuring that everything is ready for effective implementation. They emphasize that children's literature not only benefits young learners but also aids teachers in delivering content more effectively. Teachers report that children's literature creates a fun and active learning environment that fosters enthusiasm among students.

Promoting speaking in the young learner classroom through task-based digital storytelling via online technology: a case study

Abstract In the young learner (YL) foreign language (FL) classroom, oracy is more important than literacy, but teaching speaking is still primarily repetitive in many contexts. Free speaking activities are difficult to create for teachers and accomplish for learners. This research investigated the ways in which imaginative digital storytelling (DST) tasks can improve oracy and the prior knowledge needed to negotiate meaning. The main data of this study, which were collected over one academic year, comprised a questionnaire of 19 Swiss Year 4 students, video and audio recordings of two dyads working on four collaborative oral DST tasks and a semi-structured interview with the four children and their class/English teacher. The results revealed that collaborative end-of-unit tasks enabled the children to creatively recycle the language learnt. Scaffolding and language support provided on the task sheet allowed a creative and personal approach to DST, which was a motivating experience. Clear guidance for classroom talk fostered collaboration and personal, social and problem-solving competences. These findings have implications for YL FL pedagogy and highlight the need for further theoretical insights into task-based DST.

Translanguaging Realities: The Use of First Language in Microteaching Practices vs. Young Learner Classrooms

This study focuses on language teacher education and adopts the microanalytic lens of conversation analysis to analyze the use of L1 (students’ first language) in microteaching and real classroom teaching practices of pre-service English teachers (PSETs), specifically in young learner classrooms. The use of L1 is approached from a translanguaging perspective. Translanguaging refers to the use of the entire linguistic repertoire without separating languages, promoting multilingualism and leveraging students’ linguistic resources for deeper comprehension and enhancing meaning-making (Canagarajah, 2011, Garcia & Wei, 2014, 2015). The research design involves three groups of participants: pre-service English teachers, in-service preschool teachers, and young learners aged from 4 to 6. Data consists of the video recordings of micro-teaching sessions at a state university in Turkey and video recordings of actual classroom teaching sessions by the same PSETs in a young learner classroom. The video-recorded data is transcribed using the Jefferson system of transcription. The analysis shows that in microteaching, where students have advanced English proficiency, L1 is rarely used and activities progress smoothly in the target language. However, in real young learner classrooms, students tend to use L1 more often which leads to disruption of the progressivity of the activities. The findings suggest the need for teachers to make principled decisions regarding their use of L1 and their acceptance of students’ L1 use. Teacher education programs should address the differences between microteaching and real classroom contexts to prepare teachers for managing translanguaging practices effectively.

Use of ICT by EFL Teachers in Young Learner Classroom during Covid-19 Pandemic at A State School in Garut

Use of ICT by EFL Teachers in Young Learner Classroom during Covid-19 Pandemic at A State School in Garut

DESIGNED-IN SCAFFOLDING: SUPPORTING EFL YOUNG LEARNERS IN CREATING MULTIMODAL TEXTS

The research explored the designed-in scaffolding features implemented by the teacher in the English as a foreign language (EFL) young learner classroom to support young learners in creating multimodal texts. The research used scaffolding theory proposed by Hammond and Gibbons (2005) which categorized scaffolding into two fragments: designed-in and interactional scaffolding. The research was conducted in one of the elementary schools in Bandung. It involved one teacher who taught 18 students in 4th grade. The data were gained from classroom observation and teacher’s lesson plans. The findings revealed that the features of designed-in scaffolding were employed by the teacher in planning and implementing the lesson in the classroom. This research also found that following the designed-in scaffolding features could lead the teacher to structure and provide activities, tasks, and multimodal exposures for the students to be familiar with the multimodal texts. Hence, this research resulted in the pedagogical implication to encourage the teacher to be aware of scaffolding. If the teacher could provide an appropriate scaffolding, the students could gain the assistances, supports, and multimodal exposure for young learners to learn and create multimodal texts.

A Lesson Plan for a Specific Teaching Language to Young Learners Classroom

A Lesson Plan for a Specific Teaching Language to Young Learners Classroom

Tell me a story about… Oral digital storytelling in the young learner classroom

Tell me a story about… Oral digital storytelling in the young learner classroom

An examination of teachers’ language policing in EFL young learner classrooms in Turkey

This study explores the instances when teachers employ language policing (Amir, 2013) in the Turkish EFL young learners’ context. Language policing studies are scarce in EFL young learners’ classrooms. Hence, this study is an attempt to address the gap in the literature concerning EFL young learners’ contexts from the expanding circle and contribute to the code switching literature. Data consists of 270-minute video recordings from three different classes in two private schools in Turkey and it was analysed using Conversation Analysis. Results show the presence of Turkish, English, as well as a bilingual medium before and after the policing was initiated through formulaic expressions. Unlike some secondary school contexts where the English-only policy is enforced with a strict rewards and punishment policy (Amir & Musk, 2013), speaking Turkish and the bilingual medium for the most part of the lessons was not corrected by the teachers in the current study. These findings have implications for teaching EFL to young learners, language policing and code switching in secondary contexts.

Editorial: Introduction to the special issue on teaching English reading and writing to young learners

We aimed for this special issue to offer up empirically supported advice to teachers for tackling some of the challenges in teaching reading and writing to young English as a second (L2) or foreign language (FL) learners. These challenges teachers face when providing instruction to young learners include cognitive development, motivation, attention, strategy use, and assessment (Nunan, 2011). It is now well understood that the teaching of reading and writing to young learners can no longer be equated with the teaching of adult learners (Cameron, 2001). In terms of cognitive development, language learners need to go through significant developmental changes in their learning journey from infancy to adulthood (Richardson, 2019). These differences in language learners’ cognitive development call for a need to design language learning tasks and materials that can fit the developmental stages of learners (Teng, 2020a). Language learner motivation can decline over time due to a lack of clarity in the goals of language learning and potential feelings that effort invested in learning the language has not paid off (Linse & Nunan, 2006). Furthermore, as young learners tend to have short attention spans, activities that can maintain their motivation and involvement are essential (Fenyvesi, 2020). Language learning strategy researchers have focused their attention on adult learners; however, we believe they should begin considering young learners’ language use and learning preferences, as this knowledge could help inform teachers’ instruction (Plonsky, 2019). To provide proper instruction, an educator of young learners must understand these needs. This requires the construction of appropriate language assessment tools, which will allow teachers to gauge learners’ strengths and weaknesses; doing so can further facilitate teacher scaffolding and other forms of feedback (Ma & Bui, this issue). Despite the acknowledged impact that these issues have on the teaching of reading and writing to young learners, we are still lacking in empirical evidence to support many creative and pedagogical decisions made in the young learner classroom (Cameron & McKay, 2010). Our intention in this special issue was to further focus language researchers’ attention on the young learner classroom and to encourage a rethinking of classroom practices for teaching reading and writing.

Activities in teaching english and how to use them in the young learners classroom

Today, teaching preschool children foreign languages in kindergarten has not become the first link in the chain of lifelong learning, but the issue of early education remains relevant in modern society, a huge number of educational materials and scientific papers indicate an unflagging interest in teaching foreign languages to preschool children. It is important that all language learning in the more formal environment of the early childhood classroom should be guided towards the real needs that children will have as they progress in education.

Technology-mediated tasks in the young learners’ EFL classroom

For the last few decades, technology has been commonly integrated into various foreign/second language teaching contexts. A significant amount of research has been conducted to investigate the effects of technology integration on student learning and demonstrated its effectiveness in improving language areas such as grammar and vocabulary and four language skills as well as in raising cultural awareness, increasing student motivation and autonomy and creating a student-centred learning environment. Despite research interest into the use of technology in education, studies depicting technology-integration practices in young learner classrooms are not many in number. The present quasi-experimental study conducted in the Turkish context aimed to investigate whether the completion of technology-mediated tasks would improve young EFL learners’ achievement in listening and reading and writing tests. The analysis of data indicated a higher improvement in the experimental group, compared to the control group who completed traditional homework assignments, but not at a significant level. The study also explored the experimental group learners’ opinions about technology-mediated tasks they completed and revealed their self-perceived higher ability in English, enhanced self-efficacy beliefs in technology use and positive attitudes towards technology-mediated tasks.

The Qualitative and Quantitative Rise of Literature on Teaching English to Young Learners

When I started teaching English in the mid-1990s ‘young learner’ classes were an appendix to the adult business of out-of-school ELT. English as a subject or foreign language in primary mainstream education was tentatively being experimented with and introduced unsystematically and in different ways in various contexts. For example, in France, English was introduced into the last year of primary school in 1989 (M.E.N. 2001) and only reached 1st grade (Cours Préparatoire) in 2016, whereas Norway had introduced English in the upper levels of primary school in 1939 and officially into grade 1 in 1997 (Krulatz, Dahl, and Flognfeldt 2018). In addition, there was a dearth of literature focusing on teaching English to children and teenagers, as the ELT profession was largely based on adult perspectives on teaching and learning. My own MA in TEFL, in the early 2000s, only included one optional module on Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL), although I chose to focus my research and assignments for all of my six optional modules on young learners. The bibliography included the seminal works of Brumfit, Moon, and Tongue (1991), Brewster, Ellis, and Girard (2002), Moon (2000), Cameron (2001), and others. These works had a significant impact on many teachers trained in the CELTA and DELTA tradition, who then grudgingly ended up in the growing numbers of classes of ever-younger learners. These books also brought attention to, and paved the way for, more intensive research into how young children learn foreign languages. Twenty years later, as we witness the rise of early language learning, the young learner classroom has become a mainstream research interest, generating much-needed theoretical insights and practice-based pedagogy; and I educate future primary teachers of English with a whole bookshelf dedicated to TEYL. The ‘Cinderella area’ of scholarship (Copland and Garton 2014: 223), where research and informed discussion were scarce, has now come of age (Rixon 2016, Copland and Garton 2014).

FOREIGN EXPERIENCE IN APPLYING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AT PRIMARY SCHOOL ENGLISH LESSONS

The article deals with the benefits of using digital technology during English lessons in primary school. The research is devoted to the problem of the use of digital technologies, describes some interactive methods, educational software, and Internet resources in the process of learning English within the primary sector. The growth of globalization of trade and the predominance of English in the media, particularly on the Internet, have been responsible for driving change in language education policy and there is a global trend towards introducing English language teaching into the primary sector. Over the last years, there has been a tremendous shift in the way that users integrate technology into their personal lives. These changes have taken time to filter down into primary education, but slowly teachers have realized the need to adapt their practice in order to reflect the changing nature of technological use in the wider world. The author explores the potential of audio recorders, video conferences, virtual worlds, interactive whiteboards, karaoke, mobile applications, and computer programs, in order to form language skills in students through authentic communication. The introduction of Web 2.0 network services in language education is one of the promising areas of informatization of the educational process, which helps foster a stable communication competence in students under the guidance of an experienced teacher. Innovative technologies can help teachers in a variety of ways, inside the young learner classroom, but also in the home environment and while learners are on the move. The use of educational technologies is very dependent on the instructional context and setting, and meets the individual needs of young learners. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine the modern foreign language teaching and learning without the integrated use of digital technologies in primary school. Creative primary teachers will always be able to see the potential for an idea and are particularly adapted to customising approaches to meet the individual needs of their learners. Digital technologies can be used to develop oral, reading and writing skills when learning a foreign language.

TEACHER TALK IN YOUNG LEARNERS� CLASSROOM INTERACTION

In English Foreign Language (EFL) class, learners are not familiar with English in daily conversation, except several learners who have background in using English in their home or environment. Therefore, teacher plays a significant role as facilitator to introduce them into the language. This study aims to describe teacher talk and students talk as well as the way teacher talk is realized in young learners� classroom interaction by applying a descriptive method. The fifth grade classroom interaction at a primary school in Majalengka was recorded as the sample of the analysis. The data gained through observation was in the form of transcribed interaction. Besides, interview was also used to collect the data. To analyze the data, this study employed Flanders Interaction Analyzed Categories. Upon analyzing the data, the following findings are identified; 1) Accepting feeings (2 occuraces); 2) Encouragement (17 occuraces); 3) Accepting or using ideas of learners (54 occuraces); 4) Asking questions (142 occuraces); 5) lecturing (49 occuraces); 6) Giving directions (53 occuraces); 7) Criticizing learners behaviour (9 occuraces); 8) Learners-response (151 occuraces); 9) Learners-initiation (7 occuraces); and 10) Period of silence or confusion (8 occuraces). Finally, the use of similar activity for too long will make young learners feel bored, therefore, teacher needs to provide variety and more meaningful activities. In this case, teacher can use various techniques to stimulate learners� response. Besides, creating group discussion will give more opportunity to the learners to talk and learn from their peers.Keywords: teaching speaking; teacher talk; students talk; young learners.

Integration of Task-based Language Assessment into Young Learner Classrooms

Task-based language assessment (TBLA) is a way of providing information about language learning in authentic settings. Not only does it present language learners with a meaningful and embedded context of assessment but also promotes communication in the target language. Within the framework of TBLA, this study aims to integrate the 4 th grade language testing into language learning process through ILTPY (Integrated Language Testing Program for Young Learners). ILTPY includes ten-unit assessment tasks which have been developed in accordance with the young learners’ characteristics and the 4 th grade curricular objectives at state primary schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in Turkey. In order to test the effectiveness of ILTPY, two-unit assessment tasks were employed in the 4 th grade classrooms. At the end of the two-unit implementation, follow-up interviews were conducted with the students and teachers in order to understand the influence of ILTPY on language learning process. The study findings show that the assessment tasks in ILTPY significantly increased the level of language attainment in the 4 th grade . The two-unit implementation motivated a majority of language learners by offering them to reinforce what they had learnt. The students’ increasing enthusiasm and participation, and the opportunity for professional development motivated most of the language teachers to teach English and assess the students as emphasized in ILTPY. However, task development and implementation were regarded as the demotivating factors in view of practicality. The assessment tasks mostly met the young learners’ needs of assessment, but they should be supported with more visuals and technology. Finally, it is considered that ILTPY generally affected language learning positively.

Investigating Distribution of Practice Effects for the Learning of Foreign Language Verb Morphology in the Young Learner Classroom

AbstractWithin limited‐input language classrooms, understanding the effect of distribution of practice (spacing between practice) on learning is critical, yet evidence is conflicting and of limited relevance for young learners. For second language (L2) grammar learning, some studies reveal advantages for spacing of 7 days or more, but others for shorter spacing. Further, little is known about the role of cognitive individual differences (e.g., language analytic ability; LAA) in mediating practice distribution effects for L2 grammatical knowledge development and retention. To address this gap, this classroom‐based study investigated whether distribution of practice and LAA moderated the effectiveness of explicit, input‐based grammar instruction for young first language (L1) English learners of French (aged 8 to 11). The study revealed minimal differences between longer (7‐day) versus shorter (3.5‐day) spacing of practice for learning a French verb inflection subsystem, at either posttest or delayed posttest. Minimal group‐level gains and substantial within‐group variation in performance at posttests were observed. Accuracy of practice during training and LAA were significantly associated with posttest performance under both practice schedules. These findings indicated that within an ecologically valid classroom context, differences in distribution of practice had limited impact on learner performance on our tests; rather, individual learner differences were more critical in moderating learning. This highlights the importance of considering individual learner differences in the development of resources and the potential of digital tools for dynamically adapting instruction to suit individuals.

An early start to foreign language literacy in English primary school classrooms

ABSTRACT This study investigated the systematic and principled teaching of foreign language (FL) literacy in two young learner classrooms in England. Over the course of 23 weeks, two classes of 9–11 year olds (N = 45) learned spoken and written language through an integrated pedagogy. The underpinning rationale was to explore principled ways of teaching FL literacy to young beginner learners. The study also set out to document the nature of linguistic progression and potential attrition in primary school foreign language classrooms through measuring a range of FL outcomes: receptive vocabulary and elicited imitation (general proficiency); reading aloud and reading comprehension (literacy). It was found that 45 the participants made slow but statistically significant and long-term progress, the latter evidenced by limited attrition, across both FL general proficiency and FL literacy constructs. Qualitative data showed that children enjoyed aspects of literacy instruction and opportunities to experiment with FL use. Findings have the potential to inform young FL learning empirical and pedagogic evidence, particularly relating to the teaching and learning of FL literacy in primary school settings.