The role of using first language and translation in young learners classes - Essay Example

The paper tells that the most appropriate way to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is a source of primary scholarly debate. Recently, more attention has been given to the use of translation and the native language (L1) in communicative English Language Teaching (ELT). Most of the theories inform us that young children's language development is influenced by many factors, including using their first language to explain concepts and express abstract reasoning.

This is due to the presence of what some researchers call the cognitive window of development. This is often used in cognitive learning in association with the development of self-motivational strategies in children who are learning to use cognitive learning skills that focus on self-efficacy. Planning and goal-setting are involved with what is perceived by many to be an increasing amount of self-regulation in children who succeed in forming self-regulating meta-cognitive processes as they grow older through early to middle childhood (ages 7-12).

This theory can exist comfortably alongside theories of the cognitive window, as these self-regulation methods also help children to assimilate knowledge, not intuitively through a window of cognitive functioning, but structurally in terms of cognitive awareness of the expectations of others in the learning process. This theory pertains directly to middle childhood, which is an age range that is currently and actively taking ESL in Oman.