UNIT 7

Creating Learning
Environment for Young
Language Learners
(Reading & Writing)

. . . . .
A. Description of Course

The first step in creating an appropriate environment for infants, toddlers, and preschool
children is to examine how young children learn and develop. Each stage of development
has unique characteristics that influence how a child will experience his or her environment.

The early environment where young children live will help determine the direction of their
brain development. Children who have severely limited opportunities for appropriate
experiences will be delayed; this may permanently affect their learning. But children who
can develop in an organized and appropriate environment are challenged to think and use
materials in new ways.

B. Relevance of Course

The relevance of the course is that students will engage their home and society environment
into the activities in the activities, if possible. In the exercises below, most of the activities
given are case studies. So, the students are allowed to think critically in group discussion.

C. Learning Outcomes

The students can understand and create a learning environment for young language
learners and optimize their reading and writing skills.

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D. Detail of Material

Reutzel and Clark (2011) explain that the physical arrangement and organization of a
classroom can be powerful and supportive of effective literacy instruction. Literate
environments should motivate students and emphasize the importance of speaking, reading,
and writing (The Access Center, 2007). Creating a literate classroom environment where
students feel well, productive, energized, and safe requires design knowledge (Roskos &
Neuman, 2011). Below you will find practical, helpful suggestions and a picture to aid you
in designing a literate environment to benefit literacy development for your students.
Suggestions are based on the work of Reutzel and Clark (2011), Roskos and Neuman (2011),
and The Access Center (2007).

1. Reading

The nature of Reading

‘An estimated 122 million youth globally are illiterate, of which young women represent
60.7% ... 67.4 million children are out of school … deficient or non-existent basic education
is the root cause of illiteracy’. (UNESCO)

Imagine what your life would be like if you did not know how to read. Only 80% of the
world’s population is reported to be able to read (Grabe & Stoller, 2002).

Reading is a fundamental skill for learners, not just for learning but for life (Traves 1994)
with reading being defined as ―…the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and
interpret this information appropriately (Grabe & Stoller, 2002, p. 9).

Why we need to develop reading skills.

L1 literacy leads to L2 literacy development awareness. Reading itself builds on oral

language levels and key factors that influence (L2). Reading skill development includes the
ability to comprehend and use both listening and speaking skills because you need to:

Hear a word before you can say it.

Say a word before you can read it.

Read a word before you can write it (Linse 2005)

What this tells us is that young learners need a firm foundation in auditory and oracy skills
before they can become proficient readers and writers of ANY language. Learning to read
and then to write means that young learners must link what they have heard or spoken to
what they can see (read) and produce (write).

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How to explore reading with young learners

Early literacy strategies

Phonemic awareness (grapho-phonics)

Young learners of English need explicit instruction on the link between the symbols (letters)
in English and the sounds they make. They need to be taught that there is a direct link
between the phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) to be able to start blending or
sounding out simple words, e.g., vowel consonant (VC), followed by consonant vowel
consonant (CVC). The UK National Literacy strategy ‘Letters and Sounds’ is a good place to
start for ideas on not only the order of letters and sounds to be taught but also the
methodology to be used. Once a young learner has mastered blending sounds together,
they can be taught how to ‘segment’ the sounds in words they can say. These skills of
putting together and separating sounds will help them with both ‘decoding’ and spelling.

The whole point of human beings inventing symbols is to pass on information to each other.
They have done this in many ways, consider the Ancient Egyptians with their hieroglyphics,
Chinese

pictographs, Arabic text, and Roman text to name a few. There are not just differences in
symbols but also in directionality. These all must be taught explicitly because they are
human-made and not intuitive.

Semantics

Being able to ‘decode’ or read aloud is not useful on its own. The symbols carry meaning
and so young learners need to be taught how to ‘encode’ the symbols and visuals to find
out the message being shared.

Syntactics

In the same way that every language has differences in symbols, so they have in the ‘nuts
and bolts’ or arrangement of their symbols. The grammar or syntax of language is best
‘acquired’ in the Krashen sense, rather than learnt explicitly. Acquisition will occur through
multiple exposures to language usage in different contexts. Dissecting language is not
especially useful to a young learner, however, some simple metalanguage from the age of
10 years old upwards can be helpful, e.g., identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
articles, pronouns, and word order. The reason being that there may be differences between
the L1 and English and to notice these differences can help. A useful publication to find out
differences between twenty-two languages and English is edited by Swan and Smith (2001).

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Developing literacy

You do not need access to a vast library or online literature to explore reading in your
classroom. The most common techniques used are shared below. It is important to
remember that activating background knowledge when needed may be key to a
comprehensible reading activity as: Our background knowledge is like a lens through which
we understand what we read and it ―allows teachers to unlock vocabulary before reading
(Anderson, 1999, p. 11). Cameron (2001) gives an especially useful list of ideas for creating
a literate environment in the classroom as this may be the only place where young learners
see the foreign language printed. This list includes:

Labels – labelling children’s trays, desks, coat hooks, as well as furniture and objects around
the classroom and school.

Posters – colorful posters are especially eye-catching which could include a rhyme that is
learnt, advertising something, e.g., reading, cleaning teeth.

Messages – for homework or ‘Don’t forget to bring …’ Reading aloud – by teacher or

older children.

Some other activities that will help to make reading pleasurable (Arnold 2009) which is
crucial for success in literacy, include:

• Focusing on reading fluency may include timed repeated reading (Nation, 2009). Running
dictation (in pairs, so all learners are involved in reading). Learners making their own story
books (or comics) to share with each other (Wright, 1997, p.114-130).

• Creating backstories for character in a puppet family and creating a class binder to refer to
when reading peers stories about the family. This can be developed over a semester with
learners taking turns in small groups to create dramas to share with the class in written
form, so peers read, and can be followed through with role plays.

• Motivation – ask your learners to bring in materials they enjoy reading – whether it is football
results, recipes, or song lyrics, use these as a springboard for discussion and reading.

• Make it purposeful – if learning food lexis, bring in packets / tins of food, read where various
kinds of food originate from, and classify them by country or by noun basis (countable/
uncountable). (Ellis & Brewster, 1991, p.57).

• Extensive reading is where learners read a lot of easy material in the new language. They
choose their own material and read it independently from the teacher. (Krashen, 1988).
This develops confidence in their abilities and promotes an enjoyment of reading for
pleasure.

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2. Writing and Young Learners

Writing can be an engaging, interesting, and inspiring activity for young learners. Children
are active learners and thinkers (Piaget 1965) who learn through social interaction (Vygotsky
1978) and learn effectively through scaffolding by more able others (Maybin et al 1992),
who can be adults or peers. Collaborative and well-planned writing tasks encourage the
context for all these characteristics to be fully exploited in the young learner classroom.

The nature of writing

Writing is a complex skill to develop and master, focusing on both the product and the steps
to arrive there. Writing skills only develop when young learners are taught how to write and
are given opportunities to practice these skills and strategies.

Why we need to develop writing skills with young learners.

Writing tends to be neglected in the classroom, but it is an essential part of language

development. Proficient writing skills are based on proficient reading skills, you need to
recognize words to write and use them comprehensibly (Linse 2005).

1. Many young learners will not have fully developed their own L1 writing skills, and these
strategies may not necessarily transfer to writing in English.
2. Writing allows young learners to practice new vocabulary and structures.
3. It allows for a high degree of personalization and creativity.
4. It provides young learners to take risks and try out new language, with more ―thinking
time.
5. Writing skills equip young learners with a solid base for future development and learning.
6. A focus on writing tasks in the classroom creates variety and caters for different learning
styles.
7. Teachers can diagnose learners’ strengths and areas to develop in terms of vocabulary,
structure, spelling etc.
8. Focusing on this area can instill the joy of writing from an early age.

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Theories to consider.

Much of the theory behind L2 writing is based on research into the development of
L1 writing skills. Two main approaches have emerged out of this research: writing as a
process and as a product.

Writing as a process involves:

1. Thought-showering or brainstorming notes, ideas, words, and phrases about a topic.

2. Categorizing and ordering the ideas according to the task requirements.
3. Writing a first draft.
4. Revising the first draft by improving content and accuracy.
5. Implementing the improvements in the re-written text.

Writing as a product

The end goal is an authentic task e.g., writing to inform, to thank etc. Success is
gauged by the accuracy of the content and accuracy of the text. Accuracy focuses on:

1. Grammar and vocabulary

2. Spelling and punctuation
3. Legibility and appropriate genre conventions
4. Content focuses on: Conveying information successfully to the reader. Providing
enough detailed information. Logically ordering ideas. Using appropriate register.
Originality of ideas.

Considerations for classroom writing

Here you have some top tips for encouraging more engaging writing tasks for young
learners. Think about how you can employ these with your own young learner groups and
try them out.

1) Encourage collaboration between young learners and provide opportunities during

thought-showering, making notes, planning, revising etc.
2) Provide visuals or ask the learners to draw their own pictures to provide the content for
the tasks.
3) Topics should be engaging for your young learners e.g., relatable, and intrinsically
motivating. Write about what they know e.g., games, friends, favourite activities etc.
4) Look at writing tasks from a unique perspective e.g., rather than writing about their daily
routine, they could write about their pet’s daily routine, their pet’s favourite activities, food
etc.
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5) Let young learners choose their own characters to write about.
6) Set challenging but achievable tasks.
7) Have extension activities available for fast finishers.
8) Encourage pride in the presentation of their writing e.g., young learners can draw,
annotate etc.
9) Respond to written ideas, not just language.
10)Mark positively and give feedback on areas of content as well as language. Encourage
learners to value writing.
11)Give clear and simple criteria and encourage self/peer correction of written tasks. Using a
range of smileys can encourage young learners to record how they feel about different
writing tasks.
12)After pair/group work, be available to share writing as a class e.g., read out good examples
of writing (but don ‘t name names!).
13)Include presentation of learners ‘work. This depends on the task type, but work could be
compiled into a short book, displayed in the classroom, school messages board, etc. Young
learners get a motivational ‘boost’ by seeing their written work on view.

It is the teacher ‘s responsibility to develop writing tasks for young learners that are
enjoyable, full of practice, meaningful, purposeful, social, and supported (Reid 1998).
Challenging your learners and exploiting collaborative opportunities all combine to provide
a learning environment where writing is both valued and enjoyed.

E. Worksheets

Flashcards are every language learner’s indispensable vocabulary assistants. Most

of the young learners in your groups cannot read or write yet. Use picture dictionaries or
use illustrations, but most importantly, use flashcards.

1. How do you design your reading classroom for young language learners?
2. How do you design your writing classroom for young language learners?

F. References

Cameron, L .2001. Teaching Languages to Young Learners. UK: Cambridge

University Press Linse, C.T. 2005. Young Learners. USA: McGraw Hill.

Moon, J. 2000. Children Learn English. UK: MacMillan Publisher Limited. Scott, A.
W., and Ytreberg H. Lisbeth. Teaching English to Children. NewYork: Longman.
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