The Young Language: Zearner
The Young Language: Zearner
The Young Language: Zearner
Zearner
Language development
Eight to ten year olds have a language with all the basic elements
in place. They are competent users of their mother tongue and in
this connection they are aware of the main rules of syntax in
their own language. By the age of ten childrencan:
9 understandabstracts
• understand symbols (beginning withwords)
o generalise and systematise.
This refers to children’s general language development. When it
comes to learning a foreign language, there is still a lot we do not
know. There are many similarities between learning one’s mother
tongue and learning a foreign language in spite of the differences in
age and the time available. So far nobody has found a universal
pattern of language learning which everyone agrees with. Much
seems to depend on which mother tongue the pupils speak and on
social and emotional factors in the child’s background. Whatis clear
here is that most eight to ten year olds will have some sort of
language awareness and readiness which they bring with them into
the foreign languageclassroom.
The period from five to ten sees dramatic changes in children,
but we cannot say exactly when this happens because it is
different for all individuals. The magic age seems to be around
seven or eight. At around seven or eight, things seem to fall
into place for most children and they begin to make sense of the
adult world as we see it.
you get a Think about young children telling jokes. Five year olds laugh
d place in the because everybody else does, but they don’t always understand
ms, Julie? the joke. If they are asked to re-tell the joke it will be nonsense.
., Dad, next
he radiator. Seven year olds think jokes are funny and they learn them off
by heart. This means that they often get the punch line wrong
or have to be prompted. Ten and eleven year olds remember jokes
and can work out the punch line from the situation. The system of
language and the understanding of it seems to fall into place for
many children in the sameway.