Second Language Teaching For Children Through Form Focused Instruction - Essay Example

Second Language Teaching (Foreign Language Teaching) For Children through form Focused Instruction INTRODUCTION Foreign or second language teachinginstruction has long been attained a wider attention from the last few decades. The academic research and real survey analyses prepared since the last two decades reveal that the foreign language teaching instructions have undergone across a systematic arrangements that successfully enable individuals to improve their second language proficiency irrespective of their age groups (Hernandez and Gonzalez, “Impact of Instruction on the Use of L2 Discourse Markers”). In addition, the instruction strategy for acquisition of foreign language is also observed as highly variable in the form of developmental routes from mother tongue to any other foreign language. Moreover, variability in rates and outcomes in learning second language has been also evaluated by the studies to determine the actual interest of the individuals. According to an in-depth understanding of the current instructional guidelines, the identification of the key characteristics having an influence on the learning process of second language for students are also identified to play a pivotal role for the educators in order to streamline their second language skills (Myles, “Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Research: Its Significance for Learning and Teaching Issues”). THESIS STATEMENT Emphasizing the current foreign language teaching mechanisms, the primary aim of the essay is to develop second or foreign language teaching for children through forming focused instruction. In order to obtain the key objective, the discussion of the essay includes determining key characteristics of an effective second language learning instruction that have major influence on the students to acquire lessons of a particular instruction process. With regard to the roles and significance of the key characteristics, the essay would focus on developing a set of best practices by incorporating adequate understanding about different aspects such as required appropriate age of the children along with their required best contexts to make them proficient over a specific second language. In order to determine the best practices required to obtain the primary aim of the essay, the discussion also critically analyzes an observation on children whose first language is English and second language is French. IDENTIFYING KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION The development of an effective second language instruction involves major characteristics that are essential to make learners to gain an appropriate understanding and proficiency on a particular foreign language. In order to build a dynamic instructional strategy, it is highly essential for the educators to obtain adequate understanding about the underlying characteristics that can increase efficiency of the second language learning process (Long Beach United School District, “Best Practices in Foreign Language Instruction”). Setting Higher Expectation level of the Educators. Setting relatively a higher level of expectation of the educators is one of the key characteristics behind an effective second language learning process. In this context, the educators are highly required to understand the linguistic differences of the learners and build expectation levels of each learner towards learning second language (Long Beach United School District, “Best Practices in Foreign Language Instruction”). Designing Assessments. In order to build an effective instructional strategy, designing appropriate set of assessment schedule is one of the essential parts for the educators to understand the level of improvement gained by the learners. In this context, the educators are highly required to assess learners formally and informally in order to understand their ability to meet the goals associated with the lessons. In addition, ensuring adequate encouragements regarding self-assessment for each learner and educator is also an essential part for an effective second language learning instruction (Theisen, “Differentiated Instruction in the Foreign Language Classroom: Meeting the Diverse Needs of All Learners”). Organizing Instructions to Engage and Motivate Learners. Engaging learners and motivating them towards the learning processes is one of the integrated characteristics of an effective second language teaching instruction. The language specific learning strategy should be focused on engaging learners and understanding their communication and cultural differences that can assists in providing appropriate support for developing skills on any specific second language. The process of engaging highly enables educators to keep the learners motivated and encouraged on learning a specific second language (Archibald, Bashutski, Guo, Jaques, Johnson, McPherson, Roessingh and Shea, “A Review of the Literature on English as a Second Language (ESL) Issues”). Encouraging Continuous Interaction of the Learners and Educators. An effective second language instruction strategy includes a higher level of learner-based activities than the educators do. In this regard, the students are highly required to make effective interactions with others in order to develop their practice of improving skills on a particular foreign language. The process of emphasizing learner-to-learner interaction would enable students to identify their level of skills and determine required improvement on any specific learning lessons (Murray, Gao and Lamb, “Identity, Motivation, and Autonomy in Language Learning”). Developing Cultural and Behavioral Skills. In order to formulate an effective instructional strategy for learners, an in-depth understanding of the cultural differences and behavioral skills of the students is an essential practice for the educators. In the context of developing learning instruction of second language, the understanding of cultural and behavioral differences of the students would enable to develop best practices that can substantially improve the capability of the students to learn second language. Emphasizing positive attitude towards cultural diversity and cognitive skills of the educators would substantially facilitate to implement appropriate practices for increasing second language proficiency of the learners (Robinson, “Second Language Task Complexity: Researching the Cognition Hypothesis of Language Learning and Performance”). Emphasizing continuous Development of Cognitive Skills. The instructional process of learning second language should also need to develop the cognitive skills of the learners. In this context, guiding ensuring appropriate supports to develop thinking skills can increase the efficiency of the foreign language learning instruction. The development of the skills such as how the learners recall, recognize, apply or predict things can improve the learning capability of the students towards a specific foreign language (Swain, Kinnear and Steinman, “Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives”). BEST AGE GROUP TO TEACH CHILDREN SECOND LANGUAGE In relation to the modern phenomenon, the trend towards introducing an effective language learning instruction at relatively younger ages has been imperatively made the instructional processes in making children more proficient in learning foreign language (Genesee, “Is There an Optimal Age for Starting Second Language Instruction?”). According to the study conducted by LeAnn Eyerman, the average grade for introduction second language teaching of the children has been identified as the students in the Grade 4 level. However, in the year 2007, the average grade of the children has further identified as the learners of Grade 3 level. In this regard, the key significant reason that assumed to make children more proficient in learning second language is their sensitive stage, when they can achieve optimal learning particularly while pronouncing foreign language. Furthermore, the students from Grade 3 or Grade 4 are reasonably less conscious about the required learning mechanism of foreign language than other age groups, which substantially enable this particular group of children to be quickly proficient on a specific foreign language (Human Resource Development Working Group, “Language Learning and Age.”). Therefore, the children from Grade 3 level have been determined as one of the best age group for learning second or foreign language. In this regard, there are number of factors that enable this group of learners to achieve more proficiency than the other groups of learners. Few of the key factors that influence Grade 3 level of students to achieve second language proficiency have been briefly discussed in the following sections. Sensitive Cognitive Skills. The students learning in Grade 3 considerably have higher level of cognitive skills to understand and analyze things that have been interpreted. This group of students is likely to be more sensitive in acquiring knowledge of a particular linguistic instruction. In this regard, it has also been identified that the younger children are considerably acquiescent to understand linguistic and cultural skills than other groups of individuals. The skills in this regard substantially increase their cognitive sensitivity and empower them to understand words and pronouncing procedure of foreign language in an effective manner (Munoz, “On how Age affects Foreign Language Learning”). Behavioral Skills. In addition, the students from Grade 3 are also more proficient in terms of considering the learning lessons comfortably than other groups of learners. In this context, the less amount of consciousness to learn new language along with obligations associated with the foreign language learning instructions substantially facilitate the Grade 3 learners to achieve proficiency than other groups of children or adolescents. In this regard, the students from the Grade 3 level are likely to easily understand the lessons associated with a particular second language learning instruction (Birdsong, “Age and Second Language Acquisition and Processing: A Selective Overview”). Adequate Flexibility to Adopt Instructional Obligation. In relation to studies associated with different language learning studies, researchers have critically evaluated that the implementation of an early language education influences higher level of positive outcomes than the other educational stages of the students. In this regard, adequate flexibility in terms of apprehending knowledge and higher level of imitating others’ behavioral skills substantially enables children to achieve more proficiency than other groups of individuals. Therefore, it is determined that the presence of adequate flexibility in adopting behavioral skills is one of the major elements that keep children to gain more proficiency in learning second language than other groups of individuals (Johnson and Newport, “Critical Period Effects in Second Language Learning: The influence of Maturation State on the Acquisition of English as a Second Language”). In accordance with the recent studies relating to the instruction of learning second language, it has been also recognized from the research findings that skepticism is one of the greatest challenges for the adult learners to learn second language. In this regard, it has been perceived that both the educators and learners are likely to be influenced by the concept that the children of Grade 3 level have more proficiency than other groups of students. However, in this regard, the lower amount of technical skills often increases major complexities for this particular learners group to augment their skill of learning new language. In this context, the implementation of vocabularies and structuring linguistic phrases are few of the major complexities that can lower the proficiency level of the children than the learning capability of the adults regarding any second language (Vos, “Can Preschool Children Be Taught a Second Language?”). IDENTIFYING BEST CONTEXT TO TEACH CHILDREN SECOND LANGUAGE Educating children at their early stage has been witnessed as one of the major challenging practices for the institutions due to their varied types of cognitive and behavioral skills. However, children are often considered one of the most proficient groups in terms of foreign language learner. With reference to various studies, it can be identified that there are number of best practices that can substantially increase the language proficiency of children on second language (Madrid, “Content-Based Second Language teaching”). In order to obtain the postulated goals and objectives of second language teaching, the following best practice can substantially improve the proficiency level of children on any specific second language. Form Focused Instruction. The concept of second language learning can be referred as a field of research along with theory within the applied linguistics that generally focus on providing adequate assistance in learning foreign language. Research conducted in this particular field reveals numbers of effective approaches towards learning of second language by the children, indeed the implementation of the strategies associated with developing cognitive behavior of this particular group of learners have gained a wider attention. In this context, most numbers of the approaches in both learning and teaching mechanisms have encouraged a communicative orientation of the learning processes that significantly increase proficiency of the learners on second language (Kumagai, “Focus on Form: An Investigation of the Effect of Teaching “English I” based on the Focus on Form Approach at a Japanese High School”). In this regard, the strategy of form-focused instruction can be considered as one of the most effective mechanisms to increase second language proficiency of the learners (children). The concept of focus on form explicitly provides an understanding about the attention of the learners to different linguistic fundamentals. The linguistic fundamentals are ascended parenthetically and they have emphasized dominating the meaning or the form of communication of the individuals (Cummings, “Learning to write in a Second Language”). According to the various research findings, the focus on form instruction for learning foreign language involves an infrequent shift towards drawing attention of the key linguistic codes along with features leading to perceived problems faced by the teachers or the learners. In the context of learning children within the age group of 8 to 9 years, the process of form on focus would provide an effective insight to make them proficient in second language. The application of focus on form would enable educators to overemphasize the grammatical and vocabulary attributes, which can affluent the learning capability of the children towards a specific second language. In relation to the above discussion, it has been mentioned that the presence of adequate sensitivity on the cognitive skills substantially improve the understanding of the children towards adopting different behavioral and cultural aspects. In this regard, the practice of focus on form would enable to gain critical understanding about the grammar along with vocabulary elements while learning second language. The process of implementing form on focus will substantially increase the level of accuracy of the children not only to improve their learning skills, but also while interacting with other learners of second language (Clouston, “Focusing on Form: A Teacher’s Research Update on Form-Focused Instruction”). The integrated practice of focus on form will help educators in ensuring adequate opportunity to the children to gain effective knowledge about forms that are often absent in textbooks. In this context, an integrated practice would facilitate the educators to make students aware with different forms about the second language associated with the use of appropriate words that may be rare to find in the class materials. The process of identifying and effectively using different clauses and idioms of the second language would significantly increase their proficiency level on a particular second language. Moreover, the children within the age group of 8 to 9 years are often required a higher level of exposure for practicing appropriate use of words or idioms to be used in structuring sentences during their learning course on a second language. In this regard, an implementation of focus on form would provide a major support to identify different types of communicative errors amid learners of second language (Doughty and Williams 15-20). In addition, the effective practice of focus on form may also lead learners to identify a number of errors that are more likely to breakdown communication process. In the context of learning children, the implementation of focus on form will significantly enable them to understand different types of communicative inaccuracies and improve their skills while interacting with others (Doughty and Williams 15-20). From the perspective of educators, the practice of an integrated focus on form will help to design effective instruction of the lessons that can improve the second language learning process of the learners. According to the interactive structure of the approach, focus on form will enable the educators to understand the awareness level of the students towards the importance of focus on form instructions while learning second language. The process will therefore, increase the proficiency level of the children to ratify communicative errors. Moreover, the procedure would further help the educators to list possible errors that are overlooked by the learners. Therefore, the integration of focus on form would help the educators to make effective scheduling of the lessons that can increase the communication skills of the learners (Clouston, “Focusing on Form: A Teacher’s Research Update on Form-Focused Instruction”). As similar to the role of increasing significance of scheduling lessons, the application of focus on form would further help the educators to organize different assessment activities. The execution of the approach will help educators to align the learning capabilities of the students and conduct aptitude assessments regarding the errors that often create communication breakdown. The process of conducting assessment regarding various possible errors will further improve the learning skills of the students and enable them to increase their proficiency in second or foreign language. In addition, the implementation of the approach will also help the educators to generate awareness on the learners about the metalinguistic knowledge, which can also help the children to evaluate second language by comparing with their primary language. In this context, the process will help the educators to identify the proficiency level of the learners in response to their actual understanding regarding a particular second language learning process. In this regard, it can be determined that the implementation of an integrated focus on form can substantially help the educators to make children proficient in second language (Doughty and Williams 15-20). ANALYZING AN OBSERVATION ON CHILDREN HAVING FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH AND SECOND LANGUAGE IS FRENCH! The learning instruction for French as the second language can be observed to be highly implemented by numbers of educational institutions across different states of the US. In order to obtain a critical understanding of the learning instruction, the observation of the children from kindergarten to Grade 12 has been considered as a major group for discussion (Doughty and Williams 15-20). In this regard, the following discussion critically analyzes the second language instruction framework of Ontario Schools by exploring their types of strategies and practices that provide major support to large group of children whose first language is English and second language is French. Brief Description of the Framework Observed. The second language learning framework practiced in the Ontario Schools is developed for the students from kindergarten to Grade 12 learners and it is designed for assisting students to achieve strong skills on French language. The framework has been developed in order to help schools along with school boards in Ontario for maximizing opportunity for the learners to achieve full potential on learning French as their second language (Queens Printer for Ontario, “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12”). According to the observation, the framework used in the Ontario Schools primarily supports three key priorities to maximize the proficiency level of the learners on French language. In this regard, ensuring a higher level of achievement of the students is the first priority of the framework, which is assumed by the institutions to maximize the potential opportunity for the learners. In the similar context, reducing potential gap or mitigating constraints underlying the achievement goals has been also observed as the second priority of the framework. The priority of reducing gap has been developed to effectively deal with different complexities associated with the learning mechanism that can negatively affect learners to achieve their goal. The third priority of the framework is to increase the confidence level of the public within the publicly funded educational practices (Queens Printer for Ontario, “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12”). Core Contents of the Framework. The framework of learning French as the second language in Ontario Schools for the students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 includes few major core elements. The core elements of the framework are developed by the institution to encourage professional development and training along with specific requirements of the educators to teach French as the second language of the students in Ontario Schools (Queens Printer for Ontario, “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12”). The core elements associated with the teaching framework observed in Ontario schools have been briefly discussed as follows: Planning and Assessment Planning and assessment is one of the core elements of teaching French as the second language for the children in Ontario Schools. The planning and assessment part of the framework includes the required knowledge of the educators in terms of developing both short and long-term planning in accordance with the needs of the learners while teaching French. Moreover, the planning and assessment is also required by the educators to perceive prior knowledge regarding French while providing education to the children (Queens Printer for Ontario, “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12”). Instructional Strategies According to the observation of the framework of teaching French as the second language for children, it has been identified that the instructional strategies of the educators also play a critical role in Ontario Schools. In this regard, adequate skill associated with selecting and using of different instructional strategies with the aim of addressing learning needs of the students is one of the major elements in Ontario Schools. The instructional strategies of the schools also include major interest on using core French, which further enable the educators to build a strong vision of the learners on achieving proficiency in French (Queens Printer for Ontario, “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12”). Classroom Management Classroom management is also an integrated part in the Ontario Schools, which substantially increases learning efficiency of the students. In relation to the observation of the framework, the educators are highly required to manage classroom while teaching French as the second language to the children. In this context, the educators are essentially required to have appropriate knowledge of managing classrooms in order to deal with different distinctive conditions while teaching French. In addition, the groups of educators are also required to conserve effective classroom environment that can enable them to attract students and encouraging their intention to learn French as their second language (Queens Printer for Ontario, “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12”). Student Engagement Engaging students by establishing an optimistic learning environment is also a major element of teaching second language framework in Ontario Schools. In this context, the framework also requires educators to have substantial level of knowledge and skills to engage learners to interact with educators and other individuals towards improving their learning skills of French in the classroom. The skills of the educators should also focus on encouraging learners to address any type of learning errors that can increase their proficiency level in French. In this regard, the teachers must have the skill of encouraging and emphasizing students to be involved in French (Queens Printer for Ontario, “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12”). Culture and Climate In accordance with the observation of the framework practiced in the Ontario schools, the educators are also required to have adequate knowledge in promoting second language along with its cultural aspects within the school environment. In this context, they are also required to encourage learners in terms of maintaining effective classroom environment and promote French while interacting with others. Knowledge of culture in the teaching practices significantly helps educators to build an optimistic environment for the learners and enable them to obtain effective skills about the French language (Queens Printer for Ontario, “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12”). CONCLUSION In relation to the recent pace of globalization, the process of emphasizing intercultural understanding has attained a greater attention of the nations to develop learning skills of the students. In this regard, second language learning mechanism of the educational institutions plays a pivotal role in terms of developing the skills of the learners to encourage intercultural understanding. In order to emphasize the teaching skills of the educators, numerous strategies and frameworks that substantially improves understanding of the learners especially the children to increase their proficiency in second or foreign language. In this context, focus on form can be duly accepted as one of the major strategies of the educators or the educational institutions to increase proficiency level of the children on a specific second language. The strategy of focusing on form provides a number of best practices to the educators to understand the linguistic capability of the learners and make them proficient on a specific second language. An effective practice of focus on form empowers children to acquire adequate proficiency on second language. Moreover, the higher level of cognitive skills along with less consciousness on linguistic errors often enable the focus on form strategic practices to increase the second language skill of the children. With due regard to the observation of the framework used in Ontario schools, the core elements of teaching French as the second language of the students can also be accepted as an asset of best practices that fundamentally improve the teaching skills of the educators. Works Cited Archibald, John, Kara Bashutski, Yan Guo, Carly Jaques, Carla Johnson, Michelle McPherson, Hetty Roessingh and Christine Shea. A Review of the Literature on English as a Second Language (ESL) Issues. 2008. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. Birdsong, David. Age and Second Language Acquisition and Processing: A Selective Overview.” University of Texas at Austin (n.d.): 9-49. Print. Clouston, Michael Lessard. Focusing on Form: A Teacher’s Research Update on Form-Focused Instruction. (n.d.). Web. 11 Oct. 2014. Cummings, Alister. “Learning to Write in a Second Language.” International Journal of English Studies 1.2 (2001): 1-23. Print. Doughty, Catherine and ‎Jessica Williams. Focus on Form in Classroom Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print. Genesee, Fredd. “Is There an Optimal Age for Starting Second Language Instruction?” McGill Journal of Education 49.1 (2014): 145-154. Print. Hernandez, Todd and Eva Rodríguez-Gonzalez. “Impact of Instruction on the Use of L2 Discourse Markers.” Journal of Second Language Teaching & Research 2.1 (2010): 3-31. Print. Johnson, Jacqueline S. and Elissa L. Newport. “Critical Period Effects in Second Language Learning: The influence of Maturation State on the Acquisition of English as a Second Language.” Cognitive Psychology 21 (1989): 60-99. Kumagai, Naho. Focus on Form: An Investigation of the Effect of Teaching “English I” based on the Focus on Form Approach at a Japanese High School. 2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. “Language Learning and Age.” Human Resource Development Working Group. 2013. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. “Best Practices in Foreign Language Instruction.” Long Beach United School District. n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. Madrid, Daniel. “Content-Based Second Language Teaching.” Present and Future Trends in TEFL (2001): 101-134. Print. Munoz, Carmen. “On how Age affects Foreign Language Learning.” Advances in Research on Language Acquisition and Teaching (2010): 39-49. Print. Murray. Garold, Xuesong Gao and Terry Lamb. “Identity, Motivation, and Autonomy in Langauge Learning.” Journal of Second Language Teaching & Research 2.1 (2010): 149-152. Print. Myles, Florence. Second language acquisition (SLA) research: Its significance for learning and teaching issues. 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. “A Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools Kindergarten to Grade 12.” Queens Printer for Ontario. 2013. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. Robinson, Peter. “Second Language Task Complexity: Researching the Cognition Hypothesis of Language Learning and Performance.” Journal of Second Language Teaching & Research 2.1 (2010): 157-159. Print. Singleton, David. Age and the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language. 2003. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. Swain, Merrill., Penny Kinnear, Linda Steinman. “Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives.” Journal of Second Language Teaching & Research 2.1 (2010): 153-156. Print. Theisen, “Differentiated Instruction in the Foreign Language Classroom: Meeting the Diverse Needs of All Learners.” Communique 6 (2002): 1-8. Vos, Jeanette. Can Preschool Children Be Taught a Second Language? 2008. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. Read More