Teach English in Chutouling Zhen - Tianjin

Child Development Between infancy and adolescence, a child?s brain is going through multiple changes and complex development. Children spend this early part of their life developing their cognitive, social and emotional skills through multiple stimulating experiences, and these experiences all contribute to the child?s intellectual capabilities. As the a child?s brain is developing at such a rapid rate, many teachers and parents find that these years are an opportune time for the child to be learning intricate and complicated new skills, including acquisition of a second language. Many child psychologists believe that there exists a critical period (or band of time) in which language must be acquired, in order for a child to fully grasp the language. This has been documented in reports on children isolated from social interaction for much of their early lives, and then having to be taught to communicate in their native tongue. In many of these cases, the success of the child?s learning has been relative to their age ? children who have been found and taught at a younger age have been much more successful in language acquisition than those who were closer to puberty. Such reports suggest that, while people of all ages are capable of learning a new language, fluent acquisition is much easier and faster when the child is still within that critical period. Studies of immigrants to the united states have shown a similar pattern in second language acquisition. Johnson & Newport (1989) conducted a study to test the difference in english language proficiency in chinese and Korean immigrants after they had been living in the united states for three or more years. A wide range of participants were tested on their grasp of the english language, and the results showed that those who had entered the country at a younger age were more proficient and fluent in the english language than those who had been older. This study indicated a distinct borderline at puberty, where those that had arrived before puberty had a significantly better grasp of the language, but that those subjects who arrived during or after puberty showed no difference ? indicating that once a learner has reached puberty, the age factor is no longer relevant. A child?s brain is going through many biological changes that influence their learning and memory retention abilities. A child?s brain develops at a rapid rate, and this development is beneficial to learning new skills such as a second language ? children basically have more space to make the connections that form learning. The analogy of a sponge is often used to describe the rapid rate that children often learn at ? children have more free dendrites within their brains to form synapses with, and these connections form memories and knowledge. (This is a very simplified version of how early learning occurs, but this is the basic concept). A final element of a child?s development, influencing acquisition of a second language, is the propensity for children, especially young children, to be easily bored, restless and distracted in class. As a child?s brain is not yet fully developed, children struggle with keeping focused and concentrating in a classroom situation. Children are tactile and crave multiple levels of mental stimulation ? using all the senses. With this in mind, teachers need to be aware of the concentration levels of their young students, and be constantly monitoring the class? attention, ready to step in and change an activity as soon as students show signs of boredom. Teachers must plan their classes using short and quick activities that are interesting and fun, and use a variety of activities and mediums that will retain the attention of their students, in order students to learn from them. In conclusion, young learners are very different to adolescent and adult learners ? their brains are going through intensive changes, and teachers must be aware of these changes in order to effectively and successfully teach children the english language. Though children are wired to learn faster and more proficiently than their older counterparts, they are also more likely to lose concentration and become bored, impeding their learning. Teachers must be aware of these challenges and be adequately prepared to deal with them.