Rethinking our approach to teaching English to VYLs and YLs will require that teachers and parents alike become more aware of how this particular category of learners do learn languages. The second point will discuss how they learn languages through experimenting.
VYLs and to a lesser extent YLs learn by “trying things out”. And it’s no different in language learning. They enjoy playing with the sounds, the rhythms, the intonations, the structures… This is how they test out the concepts and work out the complex rules that govern the language to ultimately be able to creatively produce language on their own. A key premise of learning by experimenting is that mistakes are inevitable and even welcome in classrooms.
Hereafter are two examples from one of my students illustrating how he tests the concepts that he’s learning, fearlessly expressing them for confirmation. He had a hard time pronouncing the word “restaurant” for two consecutive classes. On the third class, he got it right. I gave him five and asked him how he suddenly did it. He then told me that he realized that it was pretty close to “res – 頭 – run”. And from then on, restaurant hasn’t been a problem at all. The same student wondered whether “open to” was the opposite of “close to” provided that “open” was that of “close”.
Three implications which come out of this are:
•We should provide VYLs and YLs with opportunities for playing, trying out and experimenting with the new language they’re learning. This can be done, for example, through rhymes, songs, chants, tongue-twisters, riddles…
•A focus on grammar competency at this stage is at best counter-productive and at worst destructive, killing almost all chances for creative language production and any effort towards communicative fluency.
•Mistakes shall be welcome because, on the one hand, they are signs of active learning. Even native speakers at this stage are still struggling with mistakes – not necessarily the same types of mistakes but still mistakes. And on the other hand, they create the “error-culture” that is conducive for learning.
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