Teaching Very Young Learners

eaching very young learners, those considered to be between three and five years old, may be a challenge because of many reasons. To start with, it is usually very hard to keep these learners 100% concentrated. They may easily feel bored and you will have to find a way to keep them focused.  In addition, an EFL or ESL teacher will find it daunting teaching a language to very young learners in the same way older learners are taught.

Characteristics of very young learners

• They need to feel safe.
• They have short concentration span.
• They need concrete experiences in order to understand.
• Their first language is still developing.
• Their writing and reading skills are still rudimentary.
• They are readily engaged in play.

Tips to teach very young learners

• Young learners need a lot of recycling and repetition.
• They cannot comprehend abstract ideas, so go for concrete examples, practical instances of language in use to be able to understand them and reproduce them.
• Younger learners need to be taught meaningful English.
• It is useless to teach them grammar since they still struggle with grammar in their mother tongue.
• It is preferable to help very young learners to memorize whole chunks rather than go into detailed descriptions of structures.
• Teaching chunks of language in context may be a great idea.
• Using songs, games, fairy tales, stories, short conversations, dance, play… provide good exposure to language.
• Using a lot of visual aids, colors and music can be fun and enhance retention.
• Focus must be on fluency rather on accuracy.
• Very young learners need to learn by doing.  Use of their motor skills to cut out shapes and glue them might be fun and helpful to L2 acquisition.