TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

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TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

• Richard JohnstoneHefei, October 2008

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PERSPECTIVE STRUCTURE OF TODAYS TALK

• Perspective
• Mainly from published international research
• Policy contacts at national and international
  levels
• Also from visits to many countries
• Structure
• The context of ML at school
• Processes of ML Teaching Learning
• Conclusion What is successful ML teaching
  learning?

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A POLICY EXAMPLE EC ACTION PLAN

• Action Plan for the promotion of language
  learning and linguistic diversity (2003)
• strongly recommends the teaching of modern
  languages to young children from an early age,
  with a second AL introduced by the end of PS
  education.
• The Action Plan aims
• to develop their proficiency in languages
• to help them acquire a wider sense of belonging,
  citizenship and community, and
• to develop a clearer understanding of their
  opportunities, rights and responsibilities as
  mobile citizens of a multilingual Europe.

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FACTORS OUTCOMES
Personal
Societal
Desirable Outcomes
Provision
Learner
Process
Group
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Early Language Learning DESIRABLE OUTCOMES?

• For society

• For the child

• Openness
• Competitiveness
• Mobility
• Revitalising a threatened language
• .. Other?

• Multilingual proficiency
• Development of the self
• Social / Personal / Cognitive / Linguistic ..
• Career /Higher Education
• Global citizenship mobility
• Other? ..

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THREE MODELS

• Bilingual Education
• Early total or partial immersion
• High in time intensity
• Teachers have to be highly proficient in AL
• MLPS / FLES Dominant model across the world
• Drip-feed, i.e. much smaller time allocation
• May be separate subject or embedded
• A number of possible starting-ages
• Language Awareness
• Introduce children to a variety of languages
  cultures

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MLPS / FLES RESEARCH EVIDENCE ON OUTCOMES

• Evidence comes in part from two European
  Commission reviews, covering 200 research
  reports
• Can promote very favourable attitudes
• Can promote some degree of language awareness
• Only limited evidence of development of
  spontaneous creative proficiency in the
  Additional Language
• Much evidence of prefabricated chunks, whether
  phrases or learnt-by-heart stories
• If continuity into secondary not established,
  benefits may seem to disappear
• Importance of sustainability over time, beyond
  favourable initial pilot stage

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What JHS teacher may find in pupils coming from PS

• Substantial differences in
• ML capabilities as developed at primary school
• motivation for ML learning
• self-perception and self-confidence
• degree of literacy in Chinese

• general cognitive abilities
• parental support
• their socio-economic background
• the quality of what has been provided at PS
• their first-language background
• perceived value of learning a ML in the part of
  China where they live

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PUPIL TRANSITION PRIMARY TO SECONDARY

• It works well when between teachers across the
  two sectors (PS-SS) there is
• exchange of information and support
• reciprocal visits
• collaborative planning
• mutual esteem
• Large-scale project in NSW Australia Chesterton
  et al (2004)
• Joint planning by teachers covering 3 years at PS
  and 2 years at SS

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CONDITIONS FOR MOVING ML AT SCHOOL FORWARD (LARGE
SCALE)

• Societal factors

• Provision factors

• Political will for legitimisation, funding
  sustainability
• Parental involvement
• Local community involvement
• Exploiting the new technologies
• Attitudes to AL learning
• Attitudes to particular languages cultural
  groups

• Supply of teachers
• CPD support for practising teachers
• Technology materials
• Funding for research
• Strong links between PS and SS
• Time and Intensity
• Supportive school ethos
• Links with schools (abroad)

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CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS - EXAMPLE

• Djigunovich and Vilke (2000) identify key
  conditions for success in their project
• Children beginning early (aged 6)
• 45 minutes per day for five days per week
• class size of 15 for languages
• early incorporation of grammatical concepts after
  these are firmly established in first language
  (Croatian)
• emotional warmth, intellectual challenge
• all four skills introduced early
• teachers who possessed a fluent command of the
  language and a good pronunciation and intonation.
  

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2/B CROATIA OUTCOMES

• In Years 1 2
• much active learning through the target language
• children systematically introduced to concepts
  about language through their first language
  (Croatian)
• From Year 3 onwards
• these concepts systematically transferred into
  their learning of F, G, I or E, this achieved
  through the target language
• By the end of Year 4
• the children could talk about language in the
  Target Language and were accurate and creative in
  their writing.

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CROATIA MOTIVATION

• A longitudinal study of the same childrens
  motivation
• showed it was equally high in Years 1 and 3
• but its nature had changed considerably
• from motivation by fun
• to motivation because Im a successful language
  learner

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BECOMING CREATIVE AND ACCURATE

• How to help learners become both creative and
  accurate in their spontaneous spoken output?
• Lyster (2004) studied form-focused instruction
  (FFI) and corrective feedback (CF) with Grade 5
  children.
• FFI and CF were found to be more successful than
  an approach based on no-FFI and no-CF.
• He also found it useful to encourage pupils in
  noticing particular formal features of the
  target language
• This helped them develop an awareness of language
  and to refine their internalised language systems
  as they progressed

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EARLY READING

• Mertens (2003) found that children in Grade 1
  learning French
• benefited from being introduced to written French
  immediately
• showed results superior to those in purely oral
  approaches
• Vickov (2007) claims that children at Grade 1 in
  Croatia were
• not disadvantaged in their writing in Croatian by
  being introduced to writing in English.

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EARLY READING

• Dlugosz (2000) found that the introduction of
  reading in the foreign language at kindergarten
• even when reading in the first language was also
  only just starting
• helped speed the process of understanding and
  speaking the foreign language.

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KEEPING A PORTFOLIO

• Short statements of what learners think they can
  do
• I can explain a game, a recipe, how to make
  something
• I can narrate/tell an experience, a story, a
  film
• I can say what I like/dislike, and explain why
• I can speak/talk about my friends, family
• I can read an illustrated childrens book
• I can find in a text what I am looking for
• Personal diary of occasions outside school when
  the learner used the target language
• Brief discussion of language-learning problems
  encountered, and of solutions which the learner
  has found
• .. Other?

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PROCESSES PEER-TUTORING

• Xu, Gelper Perkins (2005) studied class-wide
  peer-tutoring (CWPT)
• Children at elementary school Grade 2 in the
  United States
• Regular instances of
• cooperative play
• reciprocal initiation response.
• The researchers concluded that
• CWPT had significantly helped the children in
  their social behaviour.

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BRIEF DISCUSSION TASK

• With 1-3 colleagues who are sitting beside you,
  please discuss
• In what ways do young learners have an advantage
  over older learners in learning a modern
  language?
• In what ways do older learners have an advantage
  over younger learners?

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YOUNGER OLDER LEARNERS COMPARED

• Younger learners

• Older learners

• Sound system
• Less language anxious
• More time available overall
• Productive links between first and additional
  languages
• Range of acquisition and learning processes over
  time, can complement each other
• Positive influence on childrens general
  development cognitive, linguistic and literacy,
  emotional, cultural.

• Make use of existing conceptual map of the world
• Experienced in discourse, e.g. manage
  conversations and obtain feedback
• Wider range of strategies, e.g. note-taking
  summarising reference materials
• Sense of WHY, WHAT and HOW, to guide their
  learning

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CHILDRENS MOTIVATION ACTIVITIES

• Wu (2003) studied children aged 5 learning
  English
• primary school in Hong Kong, monolingual
  Cantonese
• classroom activities which fostered intrinsic
  motivation
• These included
• a predictable learning environment,
• moderately challenging tasks,
• necessary instructional support,
• evaluation that emphasises self-Improvement
• attribution of success or failure to variables
  that the learner can do something about.

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CHILDRENS INTRINSIC MOTIVATION DEVELOPMENT

• Nikolov (1999) followed three cohorts of children
• for eight years, taught by the same teacher.
• It was found that
• learners motivation could be maintained by
  intrinsically interesting and cognitively
  challenging tasks
• Intrinsic motivation
• Initially associated with fun activity
• Then becomes linked to curiosity and
  challenge
• Then becomes associated with perception of self
  as successful language learner

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PROGRESSION UPS DOWNS

• Mitchell (2003) claims that second language
  learning is
• not like climbing a ladder but is
• a complex and recursive process with multiple
  interconnections and backslidings, and
• complex trade-offs between advances in fluency,
  accuracy and complexity.
• Pelzer-Karpf Zangl (1997) found that childrens
  utterances seemed impressive in Years 12
• but then in Year 3 went through a phase of
  Systemturbulenz in which their grammar control
  seemed to fall apart
• but eventually by Year 4 it sorted itself out.

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PROCESSES COMPUTER-MEDIATED

• Nutta et al (2002) compared
• a conventional text-based approach with a
  computer-enhanced multimedia approach, pupils
  Grades 2-5 in a USA elementary school.
• The computer-enhanced group
• more interactive
• greater access to immediate feedback
• more precise in pronunciation
• smoother flow of reading
• produced larger chunks of language.
• Concluded that
• ICT can help younger learners in integrating
  their languages skills and in developing
  important strategies of monitoring.

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CREATING A REAL VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

• Partners in Excellence project
• Scotland 29 secondary schools
• Government scheme special funding to develop
  excellence
• Ran for six years
• Funding also for independent evaluation
• Report will be published by the end of 2008
  (Scottish CILT web-site)

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PARTNERS IN EXCELLENCE KEY DATA

• Main activities included
• Residential weekends where pupils made up their
  own dramas and also learned how to make digitised
  films of the dramas they had written and acted
  out (full costume)
• Project web-site which included special evening
  surgery sessions at which student from and of the
  29 schools could ask questions which would be
  answered by an on duty teacher from one of the
  29 schools.
• Real visits and regular electronic links to
  schools in France, German and Spain
• Annual special dinner attended by 200 students,
  parents, local and national politicians,
  education officials and the press, at which the
  students video-dramas were shown on-screen and
  Oscar awards were presented.

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PARTNERS IN EXCELLENCE OUTCOMES

• Higher level of performance in national
  examinations
• Higher uptake of foreign language learning in
  final years of secondary education
• Stronger motivation for maintaining study and use
  of their foreign language
• New sense of identity as a member of three
  interlocking communities

Students in 29 PiE schools
The students school
Partner schools abroad
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DISCUSSION TASK

• Working with 1-3 colleagues sitting beside you,
  please briefly discuss what seem to be key
  qualities of
• A successful modern language teacher
• A successful modern language learner.

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SUCCESSFUL ML TEACHING

• Seeking to develop not only ML proficiency but
  also broader aims, e.g. citizenship,
  intercultural learning, social skills
• Planning long-term for sustainability, as well as
  short-term for immediate success
• Consulting colleagues, parents and pupils
• Helping pupils understand the rich diversity of
  human language and the immense potential that
  each of us possesses
• Providing a clear example to pupils of oneself as
  an enthusiastic, though by no means perfect, ML
  learner and user
• Encouraging learners to be strategic and
  reflective, to engage in self-assessment and
  self-monitoring

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SUCCESSFUL ML TEACHING

• Providing encouragement, sustained and varied
  input, interaction, feedback, a supportive
  learning environment and guidance
• ?Understanding that true progression in a
  language is not based on the ladder model but
  is a more complex and recursive process.
• Building on childrens first language, whatever
  that may, be and promoting one plurilingual
  competence
• ?Providing open-ended questions and stimuli,
  encouraging children to be free and creative.
• Encouraging learners to derive motivation from
  feelings of pleasure and success in what they are
  attempting to do

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CONCLUSION SUCCESSFUL TEACHER

• ?Helping learners understand the structure of
  different kinds of discourse, e.g. conversations,
  stories, reports, essays, letters
• Helping learners develop skills of predicting,
  guessing and making inferences
• ?Providing a challenge which stimulates pupils
  interest and curiosity
• ?Ensuring corrective as well as positive
  feedback, while ensuring that this does not
  undermine confidence or self-esteem
• Collaborating and joint planning with other
  colleagues in the school and with teachers from
  the other sector
• Adopting an inclusive approach, bringing
  encouragement, emotional warmth appropriate
  support to all pupils
• .. Other?

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CONCLUSION SUCCESSFUL LEARNER

• Plans, practices, revises
• Reviews, Self-assesses
• Processes input, e.g. notices, guesses, infers,
  predicts
• Seeks opportunities to use the TL for real
• Seeks feedback - as well as
• Relates learning use of ML to learning of other
  things
• Uses reference material appropriately
• Engages in positive attributions
• Interacts and negotiates meaning, e.g. probes,
  seeks clarification
• Offers help, seeks help
• Takes personal responsibility

• Is aware of and manages different types of
  discourse
• Produces spontaneous as well as non-spontaneous
  output
• Focuses on form as well as on meaning, at
  different times
• Controls anxiety and uses this productively
• Feels confident, self-efficacious
• Seeks underlying pattern
• Pays attention, focuses attention, sustains
  attention
• Develops strategies, uses these and reflects on /
  revises them
• Self-motivates, self-rewards, is curious and
  seeks challenges
• Other?

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REFERENCES

• All references in this PP are to be found in
• Chesterton, P., Steigler-Peters, S., Moran, W.
  Piccioli, M. T. (2004). Developing sustainable
  language learning pathways an Australian
  initiative. Language, Culture Curriculum, 17,
  1, 48-57
• Edelenbos, P., Johnstone R. M. Kubanek, A.
  (2006). The main pedagogical principles
  underlying the teaching of languages to very
  young learners. Languages for the children of
  Europe Published Research, Good Practice Main
  Principles. Brussels, European Commission.
  http//ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/doc/yo
  ung_en.pdf
• Johnstone, R. M. (2001) Addressing 'the age
  factor' some implications for languages policy.
  Guide for the development of Language Education
  Policies in Europe - From Linguistic Diversity
  to Plurilingual Education. Strasbourg, Council of
  Europe Reference Study
• http//www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Johnsto
  neEN.pdf
• And finally
• ??!