Power Point Presentation on how children learn languages. Practice II, didactics of ELT and practicum at primary school level, third year subject of the English Language Teaching Course at UNLPam.

1. HOW CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGES
Practice II, ELT Didactics
Future teachers:
Ana Belen de la Crúz
Clara Olié
Juan Pedro Schiel Yicarean

2. STAGES OF L1 ACQUISITION
1-BABBLING (0 -8 MONTHS)
-they produce noises and sounds
2-THE FIRST WORD (11 MONTHS-1 YEAR OLD)
- they start communicating
-word-oject associations
3-TWO WORDS (2 YEARS OLD)
-syntax
-meaning

3. 4- PHONOLOGICAL, SEMANTIC, AND LEXICAL
NORMS (3-4 YEARS OLD)
-vowels and consonants
-adult-like language organization
5- SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL COMPLEXITY AND
RICHNESS (BETWEEN 6 AND 12)
-expansion of vocabulary and language understanding
-linguistic stimulation
-abstract definitions
6- CONVERSATIONAL SKILLS
-comprehensive improvement
-recognition of problems and possible solutions
-understanding of other people’s perspectives

4. LANGUAGE USE
-to get attention
-to get what they want
-to make requests and
simple statements
-through intonation.

5. -to name and classify
things
-to ask questions (where,
what?)
-To differentiate things
using contrastive
adjectives (big, small-
short, tall- hot, cold)
- they are able to use
possessives (Daddy’s car)

6. -to ask questions by turning
statements into questions
through the use of intonation
(cat asleep, mummy?)
-to express what they want
using the structure I want
-to refer to events in the past
and in the present (Mummy
cooking)

7. -to make requests
-to explain things and ask for
explanations using why?
-to ask questions using the
auxiliary verbs do, can and
will

8. -to give and ask for information
-to make direct and indirect
requests
-to make suggestions and offers
-to express feeling and attitudes
-to express cause and effect
relations through conditional
structures
-habitualization

9. Different views of
L1 and L2
acquisition

10. The Behaviourist Approach
The Nativist/Innatist Approach
The Cognitive-developmental Approach
The social-interactionist Approach

11. The Behaviourist Approach
-repetition in the form of drills
-correctness and the avoidance of errors
-imitation and practice or habit formation are key
processes in language development
-does not take into account is children’s creativity
in language use

12. The Nativist/Innatist Approach
-children are born with an innate language
acquisition device
-did not consider children’s creativity as an
important part of L1 and L2 learning.
-did not consider real communication, i.e. the
personal and social aspects of language use.

13. The Cognitive-developmental Approach
-certain thinking skills must mature to build a
framework/foundation for further language
development
-the Critical Period Hypothesis: there is a specific
and limited time for language acquisition
-however, apart from age, many factors have an
impact on how people learn (motivation and
learning conditions)

14. The Social-interactionist Approach
-focus on human social interactions and the role of adult
and children relationships in learning
-an innate Language Acquisition Devise cannot function
without the help provided by an adult
-Language Acquisition Support System: scaffolding
-Zone of Proximal Development
- importance of social interaction and learning from
working with others and the consequential learning
independence

15. Are the L1 and L2 acquired in the same way?
How different are the two processes?

16. similarities
Most learners go through four stages:
-First, they become aware of the rules that build up the language
-Second, they generalize and recognize patterns of repeated rules
-Third, they overgeneralize the rules and use them wrongly (go-
goed; put-putted)
-Four, and finally, they are able to use the patters correctly

17. differences
-L1 acquisition is characterized for being contextualized
-L2 acquisition is decontextualized
-this conditions the amount of exposure to the language, i.e. the
input, and the motivation for learning

18. Does younger mean better?

19. A number of theories claim that there is an age limit to
develop certain skills
-Young learners are said to be capable of acquiring a native-like
pronunciation
-Older learners -12 years old- are said to be better at learning
grammatical structures or meaning relationships

20. The truth is that there is no such age limitation. Several
factors influence the learning process
Learner/individual
factors:
-motivation
-confidence
-language aptitude
-personality.
Contextual factors:
-teaching quality
-time
-the quality of materials
-how well teachers are
trained.

21. Bilingualism and multilingualism
Both are really advantageous for further learning.
In many countries around the world, children are exposed to
several languages (home-school-society).
However, bilingualism and multilingualism cannot be the main
objectives for schools since there are a number of limitations such
as:
-Rural and urban areas
-Teachers’ unwillingness to work in rural areas
-The limited access the learners have to English-speaking media
This last constraint might the most negative, since exposure
influences how motivated learners are.

22. Who learns how much of what
language under what conditions?

23. Who learns?
It depends on individual learner differences like
-age
-aptitude
-motivation
-willingness to make mistakes
-willingness to guess or make predictions
-confidence

24. How of what language?
It depends on institutional factors like:
-goals of language learning
-the curriculum and syllabus
-the effects of tests
The goals may be oriented towards:
-communicative competence and the development of positive attitudes to
language learning and cultures
-or towards grammatical competence
-there will be agreement between the goals and the kind of tests learners will
have to go through

25. Under what conditions?
the situation and context under which the L2 is learned.
language development is divided into 3 parts
-sequence of development:
-simple vocabulary
-basic syntax
-simple sentences
-complex sentences
-order
-speed of development
Both the sequence and speed of development concern mainly the learners and
how trained or developed are their multiple intelligences

26. Other important situational factors and conditions from
the context are:
-the environment
-the type of classroom
-the topics that are dealt with
-the input learners receive