Teaching Acroos de Age

TOPIC:

TEACHING ACROOS DE AGE

1. TEACHING CHILDREN

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

We need to remember their limitations, rules, explanations, and other even slightly abstract talk about language must be approached with extreme caution. Children are centered on the here and now on the functional purposes of language. They have little appreciation for our adult notions of "correctness," and they certainly cannot grasp the metalanguage we use to describe and explain linguistic concepts.

Rules for classes:

• Don't explain grammar using terms like "present progressive" or "relative clause."

• Rules stated in abstract terms

• Some grammatical concepts, especially at the upper levels of childhood

• Certain more difficult concepts or patterns require more repetition than adults need.

ATTENTION SPAM

Have a good technique for children to have good attention span. Language classes can sometimes be difficult for children; the teacher's job is to make her interesting, lively and fun classes.

• Activities should be designed to capture their immediate interest.

• A lesson needs a variety of activities to keep interest and attention alive

• A teacher needs to be animated, lively, and enthusiastic about the subject matter

• A sense of humor will go a long way in keeping children laughing and learning since children's humor is quite different from adults', remember to put you in their shoes.

• Children have a lot of natural curiosity.

SENSORY INPUT

It has stimulated the senses. The activities should strive visual and auditory modes.

• Lessons with physical activity (role-play), play games, or do total physical Response activities.

• Projects and other bands-on activities go a long way toward helping children to internalize language.

• Sensory aids help children to internalize concepts.

• Remember that your own nonverbal language is important because children will indeed attend very sensitively to your facial features, gestures, and body language.

AFFECTIVE FACTORS

Teachers need to help them to overcome such potential barriers to learning because the Children are in many ways much more fragile than adults. Their egos are still being shaped, and therefore the slightest nuances of communication can be negatively interpreted.

• Help your students to laugh with each other at various mistakes that they all make

• Be patient and supportive to build self-esteem, yet at the same time be firm in your expectations of students. .

• Elicit as much oral participation as possible from students, especially the quieter ones, to give them plenty of opportunities for trying things out.

AUTHENTIC MEANING LANGUAGE

The classes can ill afford to have an overload of language that is neither authentic nor meaningful. Classes have to be very dynamic for students do not get bored and put more interest to learn a second language.

• Children are good at sensing language that is not authentic; therefore, "canned" or stilted language will likely be rejected.

• Language needs to be firmly context embedded. Story lines, familiar situations and characters, real-life conversations, meaningful purposes in using language in a context- reduced.

• A whole language approach is essential. If language is broken into too many bits and pieces, students won't see the relationship to the whole. And stress the interrelationships among the various skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), or they won't see important connections.

2. TEACHING ADULTS

Adults have superior cognitive abilities that can render them more successful in certain classroom endeavors. Their need for sensory input can rely a little more on their imaginations (they can be told to "imagine" smelling a rose versus actually smelling one). Their level of shyness can be equal to or greater than that of children, but adults usually have acquired a self-confidence not found in children. And, because of adults' cognitive abilities, they can at least occasionally deal with language that isn't embedded in a "here and now".

• Adults are more able to handle abstract rules and concepts

• Adults have longer attention spans for material that may not be intrinsically interesting to them.

• Sensory input need not always be as varied with adults, but one of the secrets of lively adult classes is their appeal to multiple senses.

• Adults often bring a modicum of general self-confidence (global self-esteem)

• Adults, with their more developed abstract thinking ability, are better able to understand a context-reduced segment of language.

There are many differences between children and adults. some suggestions "Do's" and don'ts'

1. Do remember that even though adults cannot express complex thinking in the new language, they are nevertheless intelligent grown-ups with mature cognition and fully developed emotions. Show respect for the deeper thoughts and feelings that may be, trapped, for the moment by a low proficiency level.

2. Don't treat adults in your class like children by:

a. calling them "kids,"

b. using "caretaker" talk (the way parents talk to children), or

c. talking down to them.

3. Do give your students as many opportunities as possible to make choices (cooperative learning) about what they will do in and out of the classroom. That way, they can more effectively make an investment in their own learning process.

4. Don't discipline adults

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