Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to season 15 of Talking ELT. In this four part series we explore what effective English language learning looks like in the very early years and how to do it well.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: It's just right. One of them said, why doesn't it have to be hot or cold? Can't it just be right like Goldilocks says? Goldilocks says it's just right.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: I'm joined by Sarah Hilliard, teacher trainer, author and early years specialist and Phaedra Feitaki, Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford.
[00:00:35] Speaker C: Without that joy you don't learn, especially at this age.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: You start with the experience and then go into the language.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Together they draw on the Oxford University Press position paper Pre Primary how to do it well authored by Sarah to explore how language learning for very young learners differs fundamentally from teaching older learners including primary level.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: A three year old and a five year old can be worlds apart developmentally and not only it's years that will make that huge difference, even months that can mark huge differences in development.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: We discuss everything from taking a holistic, child centred approach and play based learning to how early language learning connects beyond the classroom.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: I think there is something there, the connections, maybe the way that you express yourself and try to engage your learners.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: It's a practical, thought provoking series full of insights, classroom examples and ideas you can take straight into your own teaching context.
Let's get started.
[00:01:49] Speaker D: So first of all I would like you to introduce yourselves if you're happy to do that. Tell me a little bit about, tell our listeners a little bit about you, what got you involved in this area, why you're interested, what's led you to be here today.
Sarah, do you want to start us off?
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Sure.
So I'm Sarah and I started off as a kindergarten teacher in Argentina.
I was first a teacher assistant so I had the possibility to observe what other teachers are doing and I did train to be a primary ELT teacher. Really?
And I started, I think I was interested in kindergarten because I used to be an actress and I have a background in acting and singing and dancing. So I think all that creative background is what got me interested in starting with very young children rather than going straight into primary school.
So after that I became a coordinator in a school and a consultant for schools and now I'm a teacher trainer and I write books, talks.
So I'm more into the educators role and the, the teacher training.
[00:03:07] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, okay, fantastic. Thank you Sarah.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: No problem Phaedra.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: Great.
So I am Fedra Faitaki. I started as a linguist and I completed My degree in linguistics, which was quite theoretical and so I wanted to get some teaching experience. I got a teaching qualification and started teaching English as a foreign langu language to international students, mostly primary, sometimes secondary school students and some pre primary as well. I was also thrown into pre primary as a result of understaffing occasionally and eventually I went back into research because this is something that I really enjoy. And I am now a lecturer at the University of Oxford where I research how children learn a second language at pre primary school and the linguistic, cognitive and educational factors that underpin their learning.
More recently I have also become interested in the potential that the arts might have for developing second language knowledge among young language learners. And this also stems from a personal interest in the arts and particularly theatre because like Sarah, I was also involved in acting and in fact I still am part of a theatre group here in England and occasionally act on stage. So I am trying to bring my two passions to the fore together.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: And I think we find lots of teachers that have a background in the arts in some form or another that go into pre primary teaching.
[00:04:58] Speaker C: I think there is something there, the connections maybe in the way that you express yourself and try to engage your learners, that theatre training both helps and also the same qualities that you know you have as a person on stage and off stage in the classroom are shared. Yeah.
[00:05:19] Speaker D: And it's such a creative a place where you need to be creative with pre primary.
So if you've got that creative gene in you is a great place.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: Absolutely, yes, yes.
[00:05:31] Speaker D: Now we're talking about very young children. Can we just first of all establish what we're talking about? What's the kind of age range? What are the characteristics of those kinds of children that we're talking about?
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Okay, so we're mostly talking about children from the age of three to five, but sometimes it goes down to two because it depends if they're put into the three year olds group, they might still be two year olds who have not turned into three year olds.
And also depending on the official age of entry to schools, so it could be 5 or 6.
So 2 to 6 or 3 to 5 is the age group that we're looking at and it's a very specific group of children because they've got very specific needs and features and characteristics.
So it's very much different to teaching other people age groups.
[00:06:29] Speaker D: I think they're quite diverse, aren't they? Because we're actually talking about children doubling in age across that period, you know, two, three to five, six.
[00:06:40] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: A three Year old and a five year old can be worlds apart developmentally. And not only it's years that will make that huge difference, it's even months that can mark huge differences in development.
So developmental stages is a, a really important component of what's going to happen in a pre primary session.
[00:07:01] Speaker D: What kind of variation can we see across that age range?
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Tremendous variation across domains. So of course there is cognitive skills, developing working memory, attention, and also the ability to process the information that comes to you from all the different sources in your environment. But of course what we're interested in here is the linguistic variation as well. And so some children start school with very well developed language skills, others not so much. But that does not mean that they won't develop these skills later on. And part of our goal as pre primary teachers is to help them, you know, get there.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:52] Speaker C: And of course there's social development as well, emotional development. So it is actually so vast and that makes it challenging but also extremely rewarding because you see progress across the board.
[00:08:07] Speaker D: Yeah, that's true. Because as you say, they can change over months, which is, which is incredible.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:08:14] Speaker D: And also there's quite a wide range of teaching and learning contexts as well, isn't there? It's not like all pre primary learning contexts are the same. Can you give us an idea of the range of context there might be?
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah, there are loads of different settings where this can take place. It could be a big bilingual school, state preschools, language providers, institutes, language institutes.
So, and each one of them are going to have their own frameworks and their own policies for teaching this age group, whether we're talking about mainstream teaching in their mother tongue or even, or in English, sometimes these policies are not in place.
And it's interesting to see in my job as a consultant for bilingual schools in Argentina, I was surprised to see that many of them did not have policies about how the language was going to be taught. And even some of the mother tongue aims were not really there or the teachers were not really aware of any document or any direction.
So it was very surprising to see that this was happening.
And what you need to know first is where you're going, what the direction is, what do we want to do as a team, what do we want to achieve, what are our goals?
And some contexts don't have that very well specified. So there's a lot of variety in that sense.
And there is also the contact time with the, the language, which is very different in context. So you might have 30 minute sessions once a week and that's all the contact time the children will have. Or there are contexts where you have bilingual schools with four hours a week or immersion programs where everything is happening in English.
So the contact time with the language is a big variable as well.
[00:10:06] Speaker C: And I think because all of these programs coexist, you have programs with well defined goals and others with not as well defined goals. You have Some programs with 30 hours of instruction per week and others that involve immersion, all in one national context. It's really hard to have one national policy that unites everything under a single umbrella. So very often schools do the best they can and sometimes that's good enough. And others teachers sometimes struggle or parents are not satisfied and that can create tension. But yeah, it also shows that language learning can take so many forms at this age group. And yeah, probably there's no right or wrong way to do it necessarily.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. It makes it really difficult to decide what would be right, what would be wrong because every context is so different. It will be different by each context.
[00:11:08] Speaker D: Which is why I noticed in your position paper you don't really say here is the approach you must take, here are the tactics or the techniques that you might use, but you tend to say, well, this is what you need to consider and here are some ways that people have done it. So kind of ideas which you have to work out what's right for your context.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah. There's not a recipe that will work for everybody and not that magic way of doing has to work for each other.
There's also variation in teacher profiles and that also makes big difference in how English is going to be, how teachers can commit to the introduction of a language. In pre primary settings.
You have primary ELT teachers who are assigned a pre primary class and they might not have a background in early childhood education and you might have the opposite. You might have teachers who are pre primary educators without a background in teaching languages.
So that there's a lot of variables there as well. And, and also the command of the teacher's language is different as well. Some have very limited command of the English language, some are fully proficient.
And so it's the way that these sessions are going to be carried out are going to be very different.
[00:12:34] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, okay, so we've got an idea of the landscape and the complexity of it. I mean another factor in this is the, the increase in introducing language learning at that pre primary. So this seems to be a direction of travel. There are more and more English language teaching going on pre primary and part of the question is why is this? Why do people think that it's good to introduce English language learning at that age?
Is that supported by research?
I'm realize I'm walking in a minefield here.
What's your experience? First of all, why do people want to do this? And then we can come to the second question of is it a good idea.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: So I can start?
So I think a lot of this push to introduce languages earlier comes from actually what is a bit of a misconception, this idea that the earlier you start, the better you will become.
This is, as they said, partly a misconception because obviously there is an element of truth to it. In fact, a child that starts learning English at the age of three will in all likelihood develop better knowledge of phonology, of vocabulary, of grammar than a child who starts learning English at the age of 12, for example. But whether this is because of the age itself, like whether three is a magic number of sorts, or the fact that the three year old starter will have more exposure to English by the time they finish school, for example, is a different question.
So I think that the role of exposure is a lot more important than this kind of idea of the earlier the better seems to suggest.
Now, since we have programs, or this push to introduce programs earlier or at an earlier point, it is important to see whether they work and in fact they do seem to work in creating better language learners and giving rise to better linguistic outcomes most of the time.
And I think the point is to make them even better and to work for all learners in better ways.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's got a lot to do with it being a really lovely time to learn anything.
And what have you learned? You're going to learn joyfully and with creativity and playfully.
And so when something is introduced to you in that way, you're probably going to be more interested in it, you're going to have this enthusiasm towards it.
So if English is introduced in playful and creative and joyful ways, then that means children will be able to connect with it very positively and that's going to be the beginning of their language learning journey.
So that's going to impact their relationship with the language very much and it's going to lay the foundations for future language learning.
If you want to discover more about how to help your very young language learners thrive with holistic and child centred learning, you can download Oxford University Press's latest position paper that I help to copy called Pre Primary how to do it well, via the link in the description in the paper we explore the rationale behind Introducing English in pre primary education and how it can be done effectively. We highlight the importance of teaching young learners in developmentally appropriate ways that are aligned with how they learn. Enjoy the read.
[00:16:32] Speaker D: This point about Children learn, you know, their first language easily and that's because at that age, at that age they're more receptive to learning. Perhaps you mentioned something about pronunciation and the belief that pronunciation is more difficult to change at a later age. So is there some research evidence that supports that or.
[00:17:04] Speaker C: Yes, but also there is evidence that points to the fact that it's not the age itself, but rather the ways in which you learn or the amount of input that you have in the target language that you're learning. English, in our case with pronunciation in particular, there seems to be something there, and in fact, there is some research that tells us that, you know, infants at the start of their lives, they're able to understand or perceive rather sounds from any language. But as they get older, and by older I mean about six months old, this perception ability reduces slowly, which means that by age 3, even they might not be able to perceive these sounds. So actually goes back to this idea that 3 is not a magic number.
And probably, you know, that's already too late for these perception thresholds. But what we can do is give children more input, more exposure to the language, introduce the language in creative, playful ways, as Sarah said, and ensure that, you know, they, they do become more interested in developing their knowledge.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: And do you think this ability to be more attuned to the sounds of the language and everything, perhaps it gradually fades? Because I was just thinking while you were talking about this that I remember teaching a four year old class and we were doing a craft and one of the little girls needed a paintbrush. So she came to me and said, can I have a pencil please?
Bin sel in Spanish this paintbrush.
So she changed it into, she transformed it into pencil because it sounded English.
So she was of course making all these theories about the sounds of the language. And I was thinking, yes, I mean, it sounded completely English. If I hadn't, if I didn't speak English and someone came to me and showed me a paintbrush and said, this is a pencil. I would believe that because it just sounded English. Can I have a pencil, please?
[00:19:14] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Excuse me, what was that? Can I have a pencil? She said,
[00:19:19] Speaker D: there's so many things going on, isn't there? Because there's parts of.
There's partly the babbling stage, as you say, where they don't know which sounds are important as they progress in their first language, they're learning which sounds are significant and which ones are not. So that's kind of filtering out the non significant sounds and that that's kind of behind that bit. But there's also this pre literary thing. I think that when you don't see words written down, you're just listening to them, you actually get the pronunciation much better.
I always remember at school, secondary school, our first French lesson, we had no writing and so we learned a lot of phrases, you know, which when you see it in writing completely confuses you. But as a sound it was really easy. So I think there's something about that pre literary stage which helps very young learners.
[00:20:17] Speaker C: I agree. And also the ways in which we teach repetition, exemplification, maybe the more tactile kind of aspects of learning that help make these connections. And obviously children are not afraid to be creative and when they don't know a word they will problem solve extremely effectively as the example that you mentioned highlights. And yes, I think all these elements are very important. Absolutely.
[00:20:48] Speaker D: And I really liked your point about input or both of you. They were talking about input because I remember reading something about how you get this common scenario of a family migrating into an English speaking environment, context, country, and the parents struggle to learn the language, the children learn it much more quickly and people think that that's related to age. But in fact those children are going to school and getting that second language all the time, whereas the parents are more likely to be isolated and to be more engaged with their own community and getting a lot less input. So, you know, the importance of input is often overlooked, I think, and also
[00:21:33] Speaker C: the need to communicate.
So a child who is thrown in a pre primary classroom in a different country will need to learn, let's say English or whatever the target language is in order to make connections, to make friends, to understand what's happening. Not that the parents won't necessarily have the same need because they will presumably have to use the language in their jobs or the social lives as well. But it's not as important as the need is for the children.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: Yes, and we always insist that input is really important and a lot of exposure is important in pre primary sessions.
The more the children hear, the more they will be able to produce later on. If they haven't heard it, they won't produce it. So let's start with having them hearing a lot of language first.
And of course this brings us to the question of literacy and pre primary, where we usually tend focus on listening and speaking skills first because we want them to hear a lot. We want rhymes and rhyming words and the sounds of the language. All of that needs to come first. And some teachers that come from primary asked me, so we're not going to be reading and writing with them. They're not going to do spelling? I can't do spelling activities with them? No. Probably you're going to be singing and dancing and playing games and it's a different way of working.
[00:23:02] Speaker D: No worksheets?
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah, no worksheets.
[00:23:06] Speaker D: It's a big leap, isn't it?
[00:23:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:08] Speaker D: I mean, in a way that takes us to the next question I wanted to ask you, which was, I don't want to use the word curriculum, but what are the goals of an English language program at pre primary level? You know, is it numbers of words or, you know, how would you want to phrase the goals?
[00:23:30] Speaker B: I'd say ultimately the goal would be to support the whole development of the child.
So really, language development is one part of holistic development. It's one area of development. And what's happening at this age group, as we said before, they're developing in many different ways and one of the ways in which they will develop is language, but it's not the soul way that they're going to be developing. So we've got all the other development happening at the same time and language will grow alongside the rest of the development.
So really we're supporting the development of the whole child. That's the biggest goal. I think, while we're creating this joyful and playful and creative context for learning a language so that they appreciate languages more, they're more interested, and we lay the good foundations for later language learning.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: And I think it's a point that you made very well in the position paper as well, because that's what should come through. I think it's a really difficult question to answer otherwise. Exactly. Because of the variation that we've noted in the programs and the contexts that English is taught at pre primary. So having that as your goal, developing the whole child, makes things a lot clearer in a way, even though it's not a specific directive. But I think in terms of actual goals that schools set, there are as many different goals as there are schools, basically.
[00:25:06] Speaker D: But can I still put you on the spot a little bit and try and get some examples? So if you think of a particular context that you might be familiar with, and if you were talking to the teachers or to the principal there and saying they want some guidance, what could they set as a goal for the English language Lessons, what might be a kind of goal that would make sense.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: But I think the language is going to come out from what the experiences that you do in the classroom. So as an English educator, you're going to be following the pre primary curriculum. So first of all you need to connect with the mainstream pre primary teacher, know what they're doing, what are their goals, and that's where you're going to stem off into your goals which are going to be the same really.
So what are we trying to develop in children?
Is it social development? Is it emotional development? Is it cognitive development? What are all those developmental aims? And that's where you're going to say, okay, so to do that I'm going to read a story.
And in that story you're going to be probably taking some words or phrases out of the story because those are lovely words or phrases to learn in English. But at the same time you're developing social development. Because we're all doing this in a group, we're all joining in together with this story that it's a very social practice, isn't it, to sit there and be told the story and to join in with it and there's emotional connections with the story.
[00:26:41] Speaker D: So can I just draw out from that? So when you're doing listening to us, so you listen the student, the students, children are sitting around listening to a story and one of the things they're learning there is to sit and listen while someone else is speaking. So that's kind of your goal, your social development goal. But they're doing that in a context of learning English.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:27:07] Speaker D: So you, you wouldn't want to say the goal is a language specific in English language. You wouldn't want to say it's listen to this particular story in English. It's more they're learning to listen while someone else speaks.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: I think that for each session in pre prime, you will have lots of different goals. You won't have linguistic goal is this and that's it.
That's, I think, the point. You will have linguistic goals. You'll say, okay, we're doing the story of Goldilocks and the three bears and you're going to be learning hot and cold and just right. But then what is important is to take that language out of the story and use it in your daily lives. So I once did this with 5 year olds and we were doing the weather routine another day and so is it, what's the weather like? Is it hot, is it cold? And it's just right. One of them said, why doesn't it have to be hot or cold? Can't it just be right like Goldilocks says? Goldilocks says it's just right.
So they took that language from the story and used it very authentically, very spontaneously to mean, you know, it shouldn't be hot or cold, it's just right.
And that was lovely to see how they brought that language out of the story. But they are only really able to do this often because there was some kind of connection with the story. And that is only going to happen if you're looking at their development.
So if you are considering story time as a holistic activity, then probably they will engage with that activity much more than if you think of it as a language activity.
[00:28:37] Speaker D: Right, right.
[00:28:39] Speaker C: So the alternative of that, which sometimes we see happen is, you know, the flashcards or equip, where you present words in isolation, sometimes with context, but usually if there is context, it's very limited.
And I don't think such a situation of the children being able to take a word or expression out of the flashcard and apply it to their life or whatever it is that they're discussing is as possible because they just don't have that context. So I think that's the idea of looking at the development of language as one part of the children's development. And language is a big part of that because we don't see language in isolation. We don't see words in flashcards.
We hear and we see words in context always. And that can be visual context, but also the context of the sentence in which the words are produced.
[00:29:39] Speaker D: That makes so much sense. And the Goldilocks example is a really nice one where it matters. It was hot or cold or just right. You know, there was importance to the story about that, and that's probably why
[00:29:52] Speaker C: they remembered it, because it was an important contextual word. It's also repeated throughout the story.
So actually it's something that children can learn. And clearly there was an application.
[00:30:06] Speaker D: But I still feel I need more examples of.
Of kind of goals that you might have that you can relate. Because I'm thinking people want to know whether the. Whether the.
The lessons are working, you know, so what were you setting out to do?
So how. If you say holistic, I think that's absolutely. Makes sense. But it also might feel like it's difficult to know what. Whether you have.
Whether it's worked well or not.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: Yeah. If you look at pre primary English section, list of goals or aims or different sessions, you've got your own aims for the session. And if you look at that, you will see that there are things like responding well to a story or being able to greet the teacher at the door. We're not really thinking, how are they going to greet the teacher? Are they going to say, hello, hi, how are you? What's up? We're not thinking about exactly the language, although that is going to be embedded in that situation. But they're all situations, they're all contexts and experiences that embed the language.
So of course you will have formal moments of teaching. It doesn't mean this is all just fluff, because it could sound like that.
But so if you. If, let's say the mainstream teacher is working on nature, the English teacher will say, oh, okay, so let's work on nature in English. So I'll introduce the English words or phrases that connect with nature. So you might plan going outside one day, and you have a spotting sheet with different bugs or plants or flowers or trees or grass or whatever things you can spot outside.
And children would be outside searching for these to try to take them off their spotting sheet. And if the teacher says things like, oh, I found one.
Look, look, I found one. It's an ant. And then the children will come and have a look, and then they start using that language. So when they find a blade of grass, they'll say, I found one, I found one.
So that makes sense to a child. Does it really make sense? Like you were saying before showing a flower garden saying, this is grass. Yes, you need to go out, see the grass, touch the grass, and say, I found.
[00:32:41] Speaker D: Very contextual. And I can also see that in that example that there's a bit of the cognitive development going on there. So, you know, matching is this a piece of grass or not? What is meant by that kind of abstracting which they're learning?
Nothing to do with language, but it's communicated.
Because how do you demonstrate these things except through language? Yeah, so I can see that.
[00:33:06] Speaker C: And it's possible in that situation that children might know the word in their first language, and then it would be really interesting for them to actually make that connection themselves or realize the gap in their knowledge. Like, I know what grass is in Greek, but I don't know it in English. So can you tell me? And then the teacher would say that. And I bet that this would be much more memorable than any flashcard or any picture of grass would be, because the children made that connection themselves between the two languages.
[00:33:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think what you're asking, Ben, is about, yes, the teacher has planned to go Outside do this nature activity and has thought about what items the children are going to be trying to find. So that is the language they're going to be looking for, they're going to be learning. So when you come back to the classroom you'll say, okay, so what did we find?
We found an ant grass. So you would, you will use specific language that you want to teach them, but it will come from the experience that you actually do it. That's, I think, the difference. You don't really start with the language, you start with what should we do connected with nature, because this is what they're learning in their own language. Ah, we can do this or that. And what language will come from that? This is the language. So sometimes you start with the experience and then go into the language.
[00:34:25] Speaker C: And I think this is why most
[00:34:26] Speaker D: such a great quote. We start with experience and then go to the language.
[00:34:30] Speaker C: Yes, sorry, sorry.
[00:34:31] Speaker D: Just would have been better.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:34:32] Speaker C: Yeah. And that's why most pre primary school programs, I think, or curricula rather, they have scenarios or they call them different in different ways rather than a specific kind of syllabus. Like these are the tier 2 words that children must learn at the end of primary school, for example, as far as I know, at least maybe that differs again by country or continent context. But I think it makes a lot more sense to think in these terms rather than specific word lists or grammatical constructions that you need to have acquired by the end of pre primary. This doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. I bet there are many schools that have these policies and these are not necessarily wrong, but limiting the goals to just linguistic, then that kind of takes away a lot of the other aspects of development that go with language and support language. Because you can't have language development without cognitive development, social development and experiential knowledge of the kind that Sarah described.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: And I think there's a lot of the hidden curriculum or things that come out spontaneously in pre primary because if teachers are giving a lot of input and exposure, they're using English the whole time and thinking their thoughts out loud and, and sharing things and, and talking through things. And whose is this? Someone's lost their coat and so whose is this? You know, things like that happen in pre primary or they've lost a shoe sometimes who's taking their shoes off?
But sometimes. Yeah.
[00:36:08] Speaker D: So if we were thinking, so we're not talking about how they learn, we're just talking about what they're trying to learn, what we're hoping that they will learn or or get from their English classes sessions.
So you've talked about input and a lot of exposure. That's one of the kind of goals. It should be very related to experience, context.
That's an important part.
And also the. I think you mentioned about a positive, joyful experience of learning a language. That's kind of a goal as well, I think.
[00:36:49] Speaker C: Absolutely. Because without that joy, you don't learn. Especially at this age, if something doesn't give you joy and sparks an interest, then you'll avoid it.
[00:36:59] Speaker D: You'll avoid it. Yeah. Right.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: And that's why it's really important to. To be clear about how children learn. So a background in childhood development is really important.
Early childhood development.
[00:37:13] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: How children learn and their development is really important.
[00:37:19] Speaker D: It's one of the things I took the position paper was that a lot of the things that we rely on in primary school, in terms of their ability to abstract and to remember things, those skills have not yet developed.
And so you have to have a different approach to the way that you approach language learning in primary.
[00:37:40] Speaker C: A teenager might be able to apply themselves, even if they're not that interested, because they have other ways of motivating themselves or sustaining their attention. But really, for a very young language learner, if they are not motivated or are given the activities that are appropriate for their attention spans and their cognitive abilities, then they won't be able to take part. And usually that means withdrawing or doing something else that is probably disruptive and you don't want that because it neither leads to learning. Goldsnort makes your life easy as a teacher.
Yeah.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: Yes. And children are very honest. You'll know if that's the way to go.
[00:38:23] Speaker D: Yes, that's true.
[00:38:24] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:38:24] Speaker D: You get immediate feedback.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.
[00:38:28] Speaker D: So this has been fantastic. Thank you so much. I feel I now understand this age group a bit better and what you're trying to. What you should be aiming to achieve with English language, perhaps of the.
So, thanks very much and we'll tackle the other aspects of very young language learners in the next session. Thank you.
