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Characteristics of Young Learners 1. Involuntary attention • not pay attention to language system but to task, topic & situation • form is acquired indirectly through peripheral learning • language is a means for expressing meaning 2. Limited attention • short attention & concentration span • tend to focus on the end of words & add suffixes & postpositions before noticing the existence of & begin using prefixes & prepositions (e.g. goed, eated, whom with) 3. Holistic skills • approach language holistically not analyzing it or breaking phrases into chunks but treating & learning it formulaically & integrated with other skills • language production does not depend on explicit knowledge, but must be developed implicitly 4. Inability to observe regularities & causal relations • are neither cognitively nor psychologically mature to make comparisons between the L1 & the TL • require constant repetition to infer & generate grammar rules & to identify causal relations between various occurrences 5. Undeveloped problem-solving skills • can’t yet diagnose problems & generate solutions based on the information available 6. Weak memory • cannot control what they are taught • the younger the learner, the patchier the storage & recall • need recycling activities 7. Limited experience • have limited life & learning experience • do not bring in background knowledge • they are in the process of learning their L1 8. Here & now reasoning • concrete reasoning concerned with physical here & now realia & observable situations in the immediate environment • abstract reasoning is tied to biological growth & does not develop until between 11 - 14 years old abstract grammatical patterns are beyond children grasp 9. Undeveloped LL aptitude • influence the rate of development where formal classroom learning is concerned • 4 major components of LL aptitude: (1) phonetic coding ability: an ability to identify distinct sounds, and to form associations between them and representative symbols (2) grammatical sensitivity: the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words (or other linguistic entities) in sentence structures (3) rote learning ability: a memorization technique based on repetition (4) inductive (language learning) ability: the ability to infer or induce the rules governing a set of language materials 10. Mechanical memory • 2 kinds of memories: – mechanical memory (short-term memory) predominant in children – logical memory (long-term memory) develops very slowly between 11 - 14 years of age, is related to abstract thinking • children under 12-13 can repeat & memorize long words & expressions, but are not able to analyze them because logical memory is not well developed yet 11. Lower-order functioning 2 broad types of functioning: – lower-order functioning • responsible for the understanding & production of speech • involves basic syntactic processing & the motor operations employed in speaking & writing • a function of early maturing – higher-order functioning • involves semantic processing & verbal recognition • dependent upon late developing neural circuitry • available for use only in older learners 12. Undeveloped interactional skills • young learners are prone to be less involved in sustaining a conversation • progress less rapidly than older learners 13. Motivation • rarely have clear motivation • be less able to: – assume responsibility for their learning – use the metacognitive strategies of focusing, arranging, planning, monitoring & evaluation – rule out any serious attempt at largescale comparative assessment of their progress 14. Literacy (& numeracy) • children are far behind taking their first steps with the alphabet & numbers • a whole new code must be taught alongside the introduction of literacy & numeracy 15. Ongoing categorization • children still acquire L1 • establish the range of reference of the lexical items • find out the boundaries of the relevant classes