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

cant 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