TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS AND TEENS (ISABEL)

TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS AND TEENS

 One of the most common beliefs is that teaching teenagers is a difficult task. Many English teachers would probably agree that it is hard to establish a good learning atmosphere in a teenager classroom. It is also widely decided that teenagers are less motivated than other groups of learners. It is the age of students that represents a major factor in teachers’ decisions about what and how to teach.  

            The transition from the lower-primary to the upper-primary school grades generally represents a breaking point. At this stage, children start entering the period of adolescence and their attitudes to school change. While young children, especially those up to the age of ten, show enthusiasm for learning, young teenagers usually lose interest in learning.

This phenomenon is recognized as a very important factor affecting both teaching and learning at primary schools. Since primary school teachers are permanently in front of problems related to this issue.

There is methodology information on how to teach both young and teenage learners with regard to changes that they are undergoing. It intends to define possible reasons why young teenagers lose interest in language learning and how teachers can deal with this problem. 

   

 Teenage Learners

          According to the nature of teenagers. It includes the definition of this age group and provides the description of their character. It discusses developmental stages in adolescence and some ways to understand the difficulties of teenagers. Both physical and psychological changes in teenagers are described.

 Definition of teenage learners

Most authors agree that a teenager is defined to be a young person between the ages of approximately twelve and nineteen. According to G. Lewis most experts further divide this age range into three distinct subgroups:

·       young teenagers, aged 12-14

·       middle teenagers, aged 14-17

·       late teenagers, aged 17-19

 Young teenagers are suffering physical and social changes, which are more prominent and evident than in middle and late teenagers.

 Young teenagers and features of adolescence

Teenage learners are often considered as difficult, undisciplined, impatient and problem students. Despite their bad reputation.

G. Lewis emphasises that young teenagers are undergoing dramatic changes in every aspect of their live (6).  J. Lewis’ opinion corresponds and he points out the need to understand the reasons behind teenagers’ quick changes in attitudes towards learning and changes in behaviour in general.

I think that to understand how to approach teenagers, it is very important to know what is characteristic for this age group. Which are particularly physical, psychological and social changes. Furthermore, teenage relations to family, peers and school are discussed.

 Social changes

            J. Lewis mentions that young teenagers become more adventuresome and experiment with different ideas. He points out that, “This plays an important role in finding one’s relations to oneself, groups and opposite sex.”

 Young teenagers want to belong to a group. Groups are very important means of establishing identity and building up confidence. J. Lewis speaks about the clash between teenager’s own set of values and the set which is promoted by parents and other adult figures.

Friendships and peer groups start to strongly influence teenagers, who assert their independence by getting away from parents and finding new role models. Young teenagers find comfort and identity in youth culture (G. Lewis 7).  This is reflected for example in exclusive friend groups, fad fashion and music, or socially cooperative. These can often feel isolated and lonely. In some cases they can even become victims of bullying and abuse.

Teaching Teenagers

          I think that an important source of guidance about how to teach teenagers successfully is works on developmental psychology. Therefore, based on the understanding of psychology of teen age, which was discussed so far, It focuses on how teachers can ensure successful learning despite the fact that teenagers are generally considered difficult to please.

 Teenagers and music

 It seems that all teenagers are interested in music and like listening to pop songs. It may be a broad generalization, but on the whole teachers have found it to be true. Due to the fact that majority of popular song lyrics is in English, it can be a source for highly motivating activities.

There are many possibilities how to exploit language in songs. It is easy to find lyrics on the Internet and teenagers themselves can be involved in creating listening activities with their favourite songs.

 However, especially when dealing with popular music, opinions of different peer groups can sometimes come into conflict. Therefore, teachers should be aware of this danger and be prepared to cope with the tough situations that may arise.

 Teenagers and technology

            These days, “technology has an enormous impact on all aspects of teenage life which simply cannot be ignored” (G. Lewis 10). The access to information puts teenagers more in control of their lives. While many young learners are exposed to computers and have mastered the technology. It is in early teenage years that they begin to interact freely with the medium and understand its true power. The implications for teaching are extensive (G. Lewis 10).

 Conclusion

In the most of the time the teenagers prefer leisure activities to studying. Further, they feel that the upper-primary curricula are more demanding and that they have too many homework tasks to do, which they sometimes do not manage because they either do not have enough time or they admit that they just do not want to. Teenagers are often not interested in homework, because they feel it has no sense and they do not realise that they would benefit from doing it. In my opinion, to help this situation, the teachers should assign homework reasonably and carefully explain how the tasks would contribute to the learners’ language development and knowledge.

           

Bibliography

Hargreaves, D. H. Interpersonal Relations and Education. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972. Print.

Harmer, Jeremy. How to Teach English. 2^nd ed. London: Pearson Education Limited, 2007. Print.

---. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 4^th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2007. Print.

Hendry, Leo B. School, Sport and Leisure; Three Dimensions of Adolescence. London: Lepus Books, 1978. Print.

Lewis, Gordon. Teenagers. Oxford: OUP, 2007. Print.