Recently, I have been teaching a lot of children. It’s a bit of a change of pace for me, as I’ve been teaching mostly adults for the last ten years. There are advantages to both.
Adults do not get up out of their chairs and run around the room for no particular reason, like mentally disturbed cats. Adults do not jump on your back and expect you to give them a piggy back ride. Adults do not interrupt the teacher nearly as much.
On the other hand, kids are usually very eager to give you an answer. It’s frequently not the answer you were looking for, ( Q. How are you? A. Seven Q. No, no, no. How are you? A. My name is Jana), but it’s an answer.
Adults very often just look at you blankly when they don’t understand. Actually, some of the kids do that, too, but they are immediately surrounded by their classmates, suggesting all sorts of possible answers. It keeps things moving.
Kids learn much quicker than adults. This may be because there is so much more that they don’t know, but in a language class I don’t think that’s the case. I suspect a lot of these kids already know more English than their parents. I don’t know whether there is some kind of language learning center in the brain that shuts off at a certain age, or whether it’s because they are still learning new things every day even in their own language so throwing a few English words into the mix is no big deal, but it’s true. I’ve heard it with my own ears many times.
Anyway, I’m very impressed with the level of English spoken by most second, third and fourth graders in Czech schools. When these kids are 18, they will have no trouble entering the international jobs market.
Little Monsters
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I seem to recall the same differences between kids and adults, a professor of psych I knew referred to the problem as the ‘social cost’ of being mistaken. for kids, you can substitute the stigma of being thought a ‘dummy’, with some other cost, such as giving out flash cards and having the students return one to you for every right answer they give, and having to answer the remaining ones at the end of the game or for homework–that way, instead of focusing on who gave the wrong answers, they’ll focus on who ‘wins’ the game, which apparently, is one step removed from being a social outcast. I don’t know though, I’ve never really kept track–though it did make classes run faster, which may be another good side effect. pls let me know if you try this.
Oh, I use flashcards. The kids love them. The first and second graders rip them right out of my hands. Seriously, I’ve got some cards I’ve had to tape back together.