Connecting Language Learning to the Elementary School Curriculum

Connecting Language Learning to the Elementary School Curriculum
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Connecting Language Learning to the Elementary School Curriculum
Role of age and social/psychological factors in language
* Language learning or development is an age-dependent concept where learners can only learn a language more easily up to a certain age after which the ability to grasp it reduces.
Benefits of early language learning
* Second language learning helps learners to develop better cognitive skills that lead to better social and academic achievements. Therefore, children should be encouraged to learn a second language for better personal development
Characteristics of elementary school Learns
Preschool (age 2-4) students learn best
Primary (5-7) students learn best
* Learning is a gradual process, in which the learners advance in their skills gradually as they mature. Consequently, at preschool, the learners will master sounds and at primary, they learn how to put their skills into action.
Mythic stage of development
* This development stage marks a state where children develop more psychologically. They learn how to sense the outside world using their emotions and develop instincts regarding certain environmental experiences.
Program models: early language learning, immersion, sheltered instruction, dual language.
Early Language Learning
* This learning stage entails learners obtaining meaning from language, rather than simply using it.
Immersion Programs
* The bilingual learning process should be accompanied by programs meant to teach the learners how to use the language to communicate, rather than just learn. The process can include teaching the second language to a single native group of one language, called, one-way immersion program, or it can also include combining two native groups of different languages, also called the two-way immersion program. In some cases, a group can be subjected to the second language for only a certain period of the day, which is called partial immersion.
Sheltered Instruction
* Sheltered instruction entails he...