Elementary Language Learning

Critical Age?• Generally, younger = better in terms of language

learning.• Uh, oh, you’re 15, you’re too old.• Critical or sensitive period• Widely debated, puberty, 6 or 7????• Different aspects of language affected differently.

Grammar later than pronunciation

Critical period: Evidence for and against

• It’s just a function of time on task (Evidence against)• It’s really social interaction (Evidence Against)• Deaf Children, Feral Children (Evidence for)• Ultimate attainment of kiddos… Kids end up better

than adults (Evidence For)

Critical Period

• Regardless, starting earlier is better• More time on task• Social benefits:• People encourage kids• Mistakes are cute• Correction is empathetic• Contact is generally more immersive• Compare immigrant adults v. their kids

Program types

• What’s the difference?• Carla goes to a school

where Chinese is taught as a subject like math or reading for 40 minutes 4 days a week.

• Juanito, a third grader, goes to a school where half the day content is taught through the medium of Spanish and the other through English.

Language focus

Content focus

FLESTotal/Dual Immersion

Content-enriched

FLES

• Does it do any good?• What is the role of time

on task?• How long does it take?• So does FLES do any

good?• Articulation• Sequence of study

Program Types – Advantages/Disadvantages

• Planning a program• Where do we start?• At the end!• Backwards planning

• What do we want to accomplish?

• What resources do we have?

• What kind of support at the community and administration level?

Strengths and Weaknesses• What is good and bad about these

programs?

• In languagelandia,students take a foreign language exploration class in 8th grade for one semester focusing on conversation and cultural understanding.

• In 9th - 12th they may take a traditional sequence of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year language classes.

• Teachers use a four skills approach and

employ the target language 30-50% of the time.

• In the state of Woohah, students often enroll in dual immersion elementary programs where content is taught 50% of the time in the target language through 6th grade.

• In upper grades students take one or two content classes in the target language per year.

• In Linguolio, students take a foreign language in elementary school 4 days per week as a separate subject from grade 1 to 6. The class incorporates knowledge from the other subjects students are learning.

• In junior high and high school these students participate in the regular language programs offered to all students.

Methods for Elementary School

• CBI• What is content based

instruction?• What is thematic

planning?

• FLES example