CHILDREN TEACHING

Discipline: Psihologia educaţiei; Pedagogie

TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT, Teddybar Kindergarten

by Mihaela Moldoveanu,
Director


INTRODUCTION

Teaching foreign languages to young learners is not as simple as it may appear at first sight; it implies an arrangement of priorities which is not easy for everyone to accept, particularly if it is perceived as a threat to the teaching of the mother tongue.
Research on children learning their native language increasingly stresses that there is much individual variation in the rate at which children progress and the strategies they use. Not all children start off at the same age or progress and in the same neat single-word-two-word-combinations-phrases sequence. If this is the case with the first language, it is equally applicable when learning a second or foreign language. Some children will just need to listen for some time before they venture to produce, while others will rush in and have a go from the beginning. Some will start by using whole phrases and gradually work out the units that go to make them, but others will use a limited number of words singly and gradually work out how they all fit together.
As they become more expert in vocabulary, structures and communication strategies they can gradually begin to hear more and understand more with the spare attention resources. Communicative strategies and procedures become more fluent, flexible and automatic, and as this repertoire becomes more extensive and varied, so they will be able to elicit more complex information and responses from those with whom they communicate. The more varied the range of communication contexts they are exposed to, the greater are the possibilities for this, remembering, however, that individuals will vary in their willingness and approaches.
When children are learning a second or foreign language it is clear that it will be some time before the second or foreign language will become adequate for expressing ideas commensurate with their intellectual and social development and before the second or foreign language can be effective in promoting conceptual development.
The importance of children continuing to have appropriate experiences of using the native language during this period should not be underestimated, both for cultural reasons and for promoting intellectual development and learning, which will ultimately contribute to their competence in using their second or foreign language. Studies of young children becoming bilingual suggest that the contexts in which each language is used should be clearly differentiate, either by association with particular adults or with particular situations, so that children build up expectations about when each language will be used.
Of the greatest importance to the child’s development is constant contact with meaningful experience, beginning with the world of the sense, and the exploration of this experience through talk. The teacher’s role is not to initiate but to respond to the child’s discovery of meaning through discussion. In particular, the teacher must never pre-empt this crucial process of discovery by replacing the genuine experience of the real world with the artificial experience of language: “Words! Words! Words!”.
The aim of my paper is to find the best way to develop a foreign language programme syllabus for very young learners.
In order to attain this aim, I have considered who the learners are, how they acquire their mother tongue, what they can do meaningfully, att his age, what activities can be organized with them, and finally to balance all these in a syllabus that will include both the content activities themselves and the techniques of carrying them out.
For sure, such a programme or syllabus is only a framework within which all the component parts should be flexible, adaptable interchangeable. And of course, it should be provided more than practically needed for the time allotted to the course. These are my conclusions after I have read the bibliography selected for this paper, and for what I have learnt, for more than four years, while I have worked as a teacher in a kindergarten.

EFECTS OF AGE ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

1.1 AGE

It is well known that there is a widely – held lay belief that younger learners of a second and/or foreign language (L2) generally do better than older learners. This is supported by the critical period hypothesis, according to which there is a fixed span of years during which it is not possible to be completely successful. For example, Penfield and Roberts (1959) argued that “the optimum period for language acquisition falls within the first ten years of life when the brain retains its plasticity”. Initially this period was equated with the period taken for lateralization of the language function to the left side of the brain to be completed. Research in case of children and adults who have experienced brain injuries or operations indicated that damage to the left hemisphere caused few speech disorders and was rapidly repaired in the case of children but not adults. Although, subsequent research has challenged the precise age when lateralization takes place, resulting in doubts about the neurological basis of the critical period hypothesis, the age question has continued to attract the attention of researchers, but it continues to be controversial. The controversy centers on both whether there are significant differences in L2 learning according to age and also on the theoretical explanations for those differences which researchers claim to have found.
As Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991) point out, however, the age issue remains an important one for theory building in foreign language acquisition and research, research for educational policy-making and for language pedagogy. If it can be shown that young learners do better than old learners, the case for an early start in foreign language education is strengthened. If it can be shown that children learn in different ways than adults, language teachers will need to identify different approaches and techniques to suit the two kinds of learners.

1.1.1 THE EFFECTS OF AGE ON THE SUCCESS OF SECOND AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS

It is said that the majority of L2 learners fail to reach native-speaker levels of ability. It is important to ask whether age effects are evident in case of learners. Do learners who begin learning a foreign language as children, generally, reach higher levels of L2 ability than those who start as adolescents or adults? This question has been addressed in research that has compared the level of proficiency reached by L2 learners who began as children to that of learners who began as adults.
Learners who start as children achieve a more native like accent than those who start as adolescents or adults Oyama (1976) investigated 60 immigrants who had entered the United States at ages ranging from 6 to 20 years and had been residents there for between 5 and 18 years. She asked two adult native speakers to judge the nativeness of the learners accents in two 45 second entrants taken from performance on a reading aloud task and a free-speech task. Oyama reports a very strong effect for “age of arrival” but almost no effect for “number of years” in the United States. She found that the youngest arrivals performed within the same range as native speaker’s control. Other studies which have investigated the effects of age on pronunciation, for example, support the younger are in a better position. Similar results have been obtained for the acquisition of grammar.
In his studies, Singleton (1989) writes: “Concerning the hypothesis that those who begin learning second languages in childhood, in the long run, generally achieve higher levels of proficiency than those who begin in later life, one can say that there is some good supportive evidence and that there is no actual counter evidence”.
The research that has addressed the age issue is quite enormous. Not surprisingly, commentators have arrived at different conclusions, but despite this some common ground is emerging:
Adults’ learners have an initial advantage where rate of learning is concerned, particularly in grammar. They will be overtaken by child learners who receive enough exposure to the L2. This is less likely to happen in instructional than in naturalistic settings because the critical amount of exposure is usually not available in the former.
Only child learners are capable of acquiring a native accent in informal learning contexts. Adult’s learners may be able to acquire a native accent with the assistance of instruction, but further research is needed to sustain this claim.
Children may be more likely to acquire a native grammatical competence. The critical period for grammar may be later then for pronunciation (around 15 years). Some adult learners, however, may succeed in acquiring native levels of grammatical accuracy in speech and writing and even full “linguistic competence”.
Concerning the way how native-speaker proficiency is achieved, children are more likely to reach higher levels of attainment in both pronunciation and grammar than adults.
The process of acquiring L2 grammar is not substantially affected by age, but that of acquiring pronunciation may be.


1.1.2 EXPLAINING THE ROLE OF AGE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

One of the major points of controversy is whether the differences between child and adults learners are to be explained as primarily the results of environmental factors or of changes in the mental and neurological mechanisms responsible for language learning.
Quoted by Muhlhauser (1986), after an extensive study of the developmental stages of languages and their similarities to language acquisition, concludes that “adults and children appear to behave very much in the same manner which indicates that activation of certain linguistic developments is dependent on the presence of specific environmental factors rather than on different cognitive abilities of children and adults”.
Another question is why there is so little evidence of any differences in the process of foreign language acquisition by child and adult learners. If adults substitute inductive cognitive learning strategies for the language acquisition device used by children, differences in the process of acquisition might be expected to occur. In the case of phonology, some clear process differences have been reported, suggesting that children and adults rely on different mechanisms. However, in the case of grammar no clear differences have been observed, suggesting that learners of all ages rely on the same learning mechanisms.
It is not necessary to posit neurological explanations to account for why older learners learn more rapidly. Another obvious possibility is that adolescents and adults possess more fully developed cognitive skills, which enable them to apply themselves studiedly to the task of learning foreign language proficiency. Most likely the learning advantage enjoyed by adults is the result of a combination of factors.
One conclusion suggested by the research is that the acquisition of phonology (which appears to be particularly sensitive to age) proceeds somewhat differently from the acquisition of grammar which appears much less sensitive.
Concluding this section, individual differences concerning the role of age in foreign language acquisition are as follows:
· Sensory acuity:
The language learning capacity of adults is impaired by deterioration in their ability to perceive and segment sounds in second language.
· Neurological:
There are changes in the neurological structure of the brain at certain ages which affect learner’s abilities to acquire second language pronunciation and grammar. Various accounts of the nature of these changes have been proposed to account for the “loss of plasticity that occurs with age”.
· Affective-motivational factors:
Child learners are more strongly motivated to communicate with native speakers and to integrate culturally. Also child learners are less conscious and therefore suffer from anxiety about communicating in second language.
· Cognitive factors:
Adult learners rely on general, inductive learning abilities to learn a foreign language while children use their “language acquisition device”
· Input:
The language input received by children is superior to that received by adults. However, adults may experience more negotiation of meaning.
· Storage of foreign language information:
Children store first language and foreign language information separately. Adults store first language and foreign language knowledge together.

1.2 DEVELOPING CHILD

Children’s experiences during the period before they begin to acquire their native tongue have been shown to be crucial in preparing the essential basis for the development of language. The importance of parents talking to young children, even though what is said carries meaning for them only through tone of voice and accompanying gestures and facial expression, cannot be overemphasized. From such experiences young children develop skills and expectations which, when intellectual development makes it possible, lead to the development of language.
Clearly, the pre-linguistic period has already provided the preparation necessary for learning any language. By the age of four most children are already well developed and conceptual development is way ahead of that required for acquiring the first language. So, the long period of preparation before any words are produced is not essential for learning a second or a foreign language. Nor would the long period of producing single words before longer utterances are produced seem to be required since articulation is generally well under control. Nevertheless children will need time to adjust to and become familiar with the environment in which the second or foreign language is used and form friendly relations with others in the group. They will need to feel at home, welcome and secure, and have established trust in the adults who have taken over their care. The use of their native tongue with other children and adults can provide the support they need for quickly becoming confident and able to take part in activities. Research has shown that where such support is available during the early years in institutionalized education, learning generally goes ahead more quickly and progress in learning a second or a foreign language is sustained.
Even though young children have a remarkable potential for learning languages, this potential can only come into play if they are immersed in experiences of the language or the foreign language being used, with much of it being directly addressed to them, as it is for babies to experience the native tongue being used before they can acquire it themselves. Since children already use the native tongue, the conditions for acquiring the second or foreign language should resemble as far as possible those of living in a family where two languages are in daily use, and where the children themselves are frequently involved in using both.

1.2.1 THE KINDERGARTEN CHILD

It is well known the fact that the kindergarten period is extremely important in children’s intellectual, physical, emotional and social development. During these years they pass from one stage to another in their life. They acquire skills considered to be necessary by the community they live in.
Opal Dunn (1977) stated that “Young children if they are normal, want to learn”. Pluck rose quoted by Dunn also emphasizes that: “At no other time in life does the human being display such enthusiasm for learning, for living, for finding out. Life long attitudes appear to be formed early. If teacher can manage to capture children’s enthusiasm and keep it by presenting well-planned lessons right for their needs and development level the children they teach to make progress and find that they are good at English.”
From my own little experience I may underline the fact that young students learn English full of curiosity. They see the activity of learning English as a pleasant and humorous way of spending their time at kindergarten.
At the age of 3-4 years they do not realize that they have to memorize English words, sentences, etc. They just know that it is good for them to repeat it all and that it is very funny to learn different words not those from their mother tongue.
The way children learn a foreign language and therefore the way to teach it, obviously depends on their development way.
The term “development” refers to the process by which a child, an organism (human or animal), grows and changes through its life-span. In humans the most developmental changes occur in prenatal development, infancy and childhood, as the newborn develops into a young adult capable of becoming a parent himself or herself. From its origins, much of developmental psychology has thus been concerned with child psychology, and with the chain from conception and infancy through to adolescence.

1.2.2 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

It is important to realize that a child’s ability to use his first language, in our case Romanian, is an important factor in the process of learning a foreign language. His ability to use his mother tongue will reflect on his ability of using a foreign language but the Romanian language is not sufficiently developed, the teacher should not expect, on his behalf, performances in learning English.
The relative speed with which children acquire the complex system of language is not yet fully understood. It may be the children are in some way programmed to learn languages but psychologists also emphasize the role of dialogue between child and significant others in the achievement of meaning.
Chomsky made the radical proposal that the principles underlying language are not learned but innate. He rejected as inadequate the learning theories advanced by the behaviorists because they could not account for the creativity of humans using language. Language can not be learned by simply reinforcement or imitation, Chomsky argued, because we can speak new sentences. They have never been spoken by the speaker before or heard by the listener. Yet, the speaker can utter the sentence and the listener understands it. How can this be explained? Chomsky’s answer to this question is that language learner depends on innate mental structures dedicated to learning language, these innate structures allow children to recognize and use the complex grammatical rules of language.
What is crucial, according to Chomsky, is that we are all born with what has been called a language acquisition device (LAD). All languages have rules which enable the language users to generate new utterances which they have never heard or spoken before. All languages share key rules, underlying structures that must be built into the human brain as the LAD. The LAD is programmed to recognize the universal rules that underlie the particular language that a child hears.
Chomsky also pointed out the language is universal. Children in all known cultures learn to speak, even a foreign language, unless they have some disability. It does not really matter whether the child is encouraged to talk or not. According to Chomsky children who are exposed to a language learn to speak that language.
The analysis of children’s utterances in terms of deep structure, surface and the transformational rules has greatly enriched our understanding of early language development. Children do seem to progress through similar stages in the acquisition of a foreign language. However, many contemporary psychologists question the notion of an inborn LAD, which operate efficiently during a critical period between birth and puberty.

1.2.3 EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

There is considerable evidence that children can understand other people’s emotions, desires and beliefs by 3 or 4 years of age and indeed the beginnings of this can be seen by 2 years of age. By 6 or 7 years children seem able to understand that someone else can feel a different emotion (meta-representation), they can begin to operate recursively on such understanding.
Young students between 3 and 6 years old are very unstable; they can have sudden whims. They do not know how to wait a fact that causes frustrations. Young children between 6 and 9 years old begin to cooperate with the others, they seem to have greater control of emotional ambivalence.
From the educational point of view, in the cases presented above, the teacher activities should be short with lots of variety. The teacher should be warm, well balanced and able to restore child’s equilibrium, he should offer constant encouragement.
It is not easy to examine all aspects of a child’s emotional development but it is important to be aware of the fact that young children differ in temperament. Some children are aggressive, others shy, some are very anxious to please and in some cases frightened of making a mistake, and others are moody, especially if they do not get what they want. It is, then, obvious that their ability to take part in language-learning activities is affected by their temperament. Therefore, to overcome these difficulties an important role is played by the teacher who needs to be aware of differences in temperament and be able to help children make the best of an activity. There are many ways in which teachers can gradually find out about their children’s temperaments but the common one consist in watching children in the classroom, in the playground or by talking to parents about their children. Once a teacher knows what sort of temperament a child has, he/she can allocate particular activities to that child, giving him/her an opportunity to develop his or her character. At the same time, the teacher will know better when to give praise and encouragement, so that such actions to be most effective.

1.2.4 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

The physical development plays an important role in determining what activities are right for the young nursery children. Tucker, as quoted by Dunn, underlined that “patterns of physical growth tend to be broadly similar for all children. As coarse muscle control becomes finer, a child can make more complex and differentiated movements.”
Muscular development affects a child’s ability to focus his eyes on a page, line or word – a prerequisite for reading. It also affects his ability to hold a pencil, a pair of scissors or paintbrush. Before a child has developed a certain degree of muscular control, some activities are too difficult for him.
On the physical side, children need to develop balance, spatial awareness and fine control of certain muscles in order to play sports and perform everyday actions such as dressing themselves, cleaning their teeth, coloring, drawing and writing.
Regarding the control of muscular movement, very young children, between 3 and 6 years old are still developing, so there is a great need for physical exercise.
Young children between 6 and 9 years old have their muscular tissues stronger and they are more resistant, so the control of their bodies is greater.
Here the activities should be varied and should help develop motor movements (running, jumping) and hand-eye coordination (cutting out, modeling, etc.)
The teacher should remember that physical changes can generate insecurity.

1.2.5 PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Developmental psychology can be divided into two broad approaches to the study of behavioral development. The first is the study of normal changes shown by most children as parts of the regular pattern of psychological development within a particular society or culture. The second is the study of variation or individual differences around this pattern and of the influences that help to create these individual differences. The study of temperament is a part of this second realm of developmental psychology.
Variation in the behavioral changes during development can take a number of different forms, which are based on the broad notion of norms of development (the four D’s). These can be summarized in terms of:
§ Delay: variation in the age at which particular skills and abilities become evident.
§ Disability: variation in the level of competence shown at a particular age
§ Deviance: variation in the sequence in which abilities and skills emerge during development.
§ Difference: Variation in the profile of the relative abilities and skills.
Another important factor in psychological development is the temperament, which produces differences in behavioral style.
Temperamental differences are not seen to be delays or disabilities in acquiring competence in language learning but rather as producing differences in the child’s habitual style of responding to people and events, their individuality. Temperamental differences do not preclude anyone from showing any particular behavior, in this case the behavior towards learning a foreign language. Instead they are general features of behavioral style which can be seen as influencing the child’s behavior in a wide variety of settings and which are stable months and possibly years.
The way young students behave is very important. Very young children between 3 and 6 years old are extremely keen to communicate, in order to differentiate themselves from others. They are passionate and non systematic in ways they do things. They are seen to be physically aggressive, without a motive. They are tempted to take other children’s toys as a way of affirming themselves. They had the habit of interrupting activities to gain attention. Children between 6 and 9 years old are very active children who start to become colder. They are usually keen to read and to write. They often admire their teachers and think they know everything.
Concerning the educational implications, the teacher should encourage communication and persuade the child to do the required activity. He should monitories aggressive behavior without over-reacting. The teacher should try to be a good role model for older children.

1.3 CHILDREN’S EXPECTATIONS

In her book “Children learning English”, Jayne Moon presents some of the children’s opinions of what it means to be a teacher and the teaching methods.
It is well known that children respond well to surroundings, which are pleasant and familiar. They expect to find an attractive classroom with pictures, drawings and writings. Children learn best when they feel secure, when they have a good motivation and when there is a strong relationship between teacher and children. Young students between 3 and 6 years old are egocentric, subjective and dependents. They are friendly and aggressive to the same person. Slowly, they will start to be aware of their potential both abilities and limitations.
Young children between 6 and 9 years old can work very well in a team. They start not to be very selfish. They alternate periods of silence and continuous talking; need the group for security and self – esteem and they start to learn moral values from adults.
Children have very definite ideas about what they like in a teacher. If a teacher has a sense of humor, is open-minded, adaptable, patient, respects his/her pupils and is realistic about what they can manage at an individual level then they are ready to make the effort to meet the requirements their teacher sets for them.
The teacher should favor group work to encourage sociability, sharing and concentration. With 6 to 9 years old, the teacher should be concerned with scale of values.

1.4 LEARNER’s STRATEGIES IN LEARNING LANGUAGES

When speaking to children in a second or a foreing language it is important, as it is when they are learning their native tongue, to support communication through the use of gesture, facial expression and action because this gives children clues to the meaning of what they hear and so draws their attention to and helps them to become familiar with the sounds, rhythms and stress of the second or foreign language which are different from those of their native tongue.
So it will be essential for teachers of young children to use the second or the foreign language, addressing children directly as individuals when they are engaging in activities in small groups, in the way that parents would with children in a family. We need to adjust their own talk intuitively to come within the capabilities of the particular child we are addressing, encourage children to respond by whatever means they can, and respond to them with talk and accompanying gestures and non-verbal signals that support communication and give essential information, not only to the child who is being directly addressed but also to others who are present and are hearing what is said.
Strategies that parents use intuitively to draw children into use of the native tongue must be used deliberately by teachers to draw children into using the foreign or the second language. Research, referred to above, indicates that parents generally speak a little more slowly, articulate more carefully, and use gesture, facial expression and tone of voice when talking to young children to aid their understanding and encourage them respond. Only with frequent experiences of this kind, which must be pleasurable so that children do not try to avoid such encounters, can children become familiar with the sounds, rhythms and stress of the second or foreign language and be motivated to try to use some elements of it to communicate.
Again, research indicates that parents intuitively recognize when children are ready to take new steps. It is through frequent interaction with individual children, even when they cannot respond in the second or foreign language, that teachers will be able to judge when each child is ready to take another step will be. This includes recognizing when a child is attempting to use some element of the second or foreign language for the first time and offering responses that will help and encourage further attempts. Such attempts will be an indication that the child is becoming adjusted to the new environment and attuned to the second or foreign language and is ready to take further steps in using it. It is a process that requires great sensitivity on the part of the teacher and it is important that children’s attempts to communicate are rewarded with obvious pleasure on the part of the adult, adding to the pleasure in the activity itself.
The period of such adjustment and attunement will vary as it would for all children may require only a week or two before they are attempting to communicate in the second or foreign language and for others the period might extend to two or three months and, in a few cases, longer.

1.5 THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNERS

Teaching a child could be defined as instructing him in a certain area. Educating a child, however, is enabling him to develop mentally, morally, physically and socially, and as such it encompasses teaching. You can teach a child to brush his teeth just like you can train an animal to perform a trick, but to educate him you need to explain the reasons for doing so. You cannot teach something to a very young child without educating him first.
Activities which impose what the teacher would wish to take place, but which are beyond the child’s level of development are difficult and even impossible for the child to understand. They often result in a restless classroom, or discipline problems in large classes.
Without a knowledge of a child’s various stages of cognitive, emotional, physical, social and language development, and an ability to recognize these changes, it is difficult for a teacher to plan an effective program.
Piaget’s view that all children pass through the same stages of cognitive development but at different rates, still provides a comprehensive outline for study of intellectual development.
Experienced teachers of young beginners are conscious of these different stages and know how to recognize developmental changes as they take place. Changes can take place within a week or even within a lesson, which means that teachers need to be flexible, adjusting lesson plans where necessary to cope with new developments. In some cases there seem to be periods of concentrated and sometimes rapid development may not necessarily indicated a young child’s ability. An intelligent child may be a slow developer or even a late developer. Children who make little progress may have some physical difficulty which may not have been recognized.
The length of time a child can concentrate on doing one activity also varies from child to child. Some young children can only manage to concentrate for about five minutes, others for very much longer periods of up to fourteen or fifteen minutes. Once children have lost interest in an activity and their attention has wandered, little or no more learning takes place. It is best to change an activity before children lose interest so they are left wanting more and looking forwards to the next opportunity to do the same activity. Over exposure to an activity leads to boredom. As children develop, so their span of concentration lengthens. It is important not to confuse a child’s span of concentration with his need to move physically.

1.6 HOW DO CHILDREN THINK AND LEARN?

We find important to know and understand the theories of children development and learning, the ways in which they learn a foreign language and studies of the kinds of classroom conditions which promote foreign language learning will all contribute to our understanding of good educational practice in the teaching of English to young children.
Primary education has generally been influenced by attempts to discover the ways in which people think and learn, most notably by Piaget (1967), Vigotsky (1962) and Bruner (1966).
Beginning his career as a biologist, Piaget moved on to study the question of how knowledge emerged and developed in the human race, especially the logical, scientific knowledge that we now possess. This was no straightforward task, but he reasoned that studying how thinking develops in children might give some insights about its emergence in the human race. He obtained his information about children by observing them very closely and by means of the “clinical interview”. In this procedure, the child, individually, is presented with a problem to solve or a situation to explain. He/she is observed doing this and then asked questions about it.
Based on this kind of evidence, Piaget developed his theory from which, I will take what concerns the subject of these pages.
A central idea is that of adaptation. We are all constantly adapting to the world – this is how he defines intelligence. From birth the world outside begins to impinge on us and as a result of our earliest dealings with this environment we begin to develop sets of ideas or concepts which allow us to begin to relate to, classify and to predict what is happening around us.
According to Piaget, two kinds of process are at work to bring this adaptation about. When we come upon a new object or experience, our existing ideas and concepts will give us some clue about how to recognize and interpret it. The most well-known aspect of Piaget’s theory holds that all children pass through a series of stages before they construct the ability to perceive, reason and understand in matural, rational terms. Teaching, whether through demonstration, asking questions or explanation, can only influence the course of intellectual development if the child is able to assimilate what is said and done. This view has led to the concept of “learning readiness” which has influenced, for example, the teaching of reading.
A central tenet of his theory is the zone of proximal development which was introduced to account for the discrepancy between product and process in IQ tests. This theoretical construct emphasizes the social nature of knowledge acquisition, since through collaboration the child is able to solve more complex tasks. In this way, the child internalizes the processes required for working out a particular task.
Bruner, strongly influenced by Vigotsky, is one of the most notable contemporary exponents of the view that children’s language and learning development takes place through the processes of social interaction. Bruner introduced the concept of Language Acquisition Support System and proposed that for language development there needs to be a child component incorporating an innate propensity for active social interaction and language learning, together with an adult support and help component. The interact ional partner provides a structure or framework which Bruner referred to as ‘scaffolding’.

1.7 ADULT INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE LEARNING

‘Personal relations appear to form the matrix within which a child’s learning takes place‘ (Donaldson 1978:88). A young beginner is entirely dependent on his teacher for all learning in the initial stages. The responsibility for his success is, to a large extent, in the hands of his teacher and how well she manages to build up a personal relationship with the child and his family. Through this personal relationship, attitudes to learning English culture appear to be transmitted from teacher to child. Thus, a teacher’s enthusiasm and interest is often contagious. Young children are eager to build up a relationship with their teacher. They are not inhibited or shy if they feel at ease with her and secure in the atmosphere of the classroom. To build up a personal relationship, children have to feel the teacher respects them and understands their needs; they, on the other hand, have to feel a respect for their teacher. To understand the children she teaches, a teacher not only has to understand their developmental needs, but also has to be on their level to see things through their eyes.
Young children are dependent on the teacher for input of language and for organizing language-acquisition activities. In the classroom where only English is used, children depend on the teacher in the initial stages for all interpersonal communication and develop and extend it. Through careful planning she can ensure the children’s success and give the encouragement and praise necessary to motivate them.
Research shows that parents and the home are the strongest influence on a child’s life. If parents are interested in their children’s achievements in English and show appreciation of their successes, the children will be motivated. What parents think and say about what a child is doing and achieving is important to the child. A child wants to please his parents and is happy when they become involved in what he is doing.
Many parents are eager to know what is going on in the English lesson and some want to help in the teaching by listening to cassettes with their children at home. It is important to sustain this interest and enthusiasm as, apart from motivating, it helps to consolidate.
It also gives an added opportunity for interpersonal communication in both native language and foreign or second language. Children without parental support are undoubtedly at a disadvantage.
Many children who enter nursery school or kindergarten at the ages of three and four are not yet able to speak their own language properly or clearly. However this does not mean that they cannot learn another language. Learning that second or foreign language is easier for the child if he has a way of keeping the different languages separate. His point of reference could be, for example:
Native language is used with one teacher and English is used with another or
Native language is used in the morning and English in the afternoon, or
Native language is used in the classroom and English in the gym.

REFERENCES:
- Cameron, L. 2001 – Teaching Languages to Young Learners, Cambridge University Press
- Chomsky, N. 1986 – Knowledge of Language, Praeger.
- Moon, J. 2000 – Children Learning English, Heinemann.
- Phillips, Sarah 1996 –Young Learners (resource books for teachers), Oxford English.
- Roth, G. 1998 –Teaching Very Young Learners (pre-school and early primary), Richmond.