17.2.6. The instinct for interaction and talk

Of all the instincts and attributes that children bring to the classroom this is probably the most important for the language teacher. It is also the most obvious, so there is no need to labour the point. Let us just say that this particular capacity can surface unbidden and sometimes unwanted in all classrooms. Its persistence and strength is very much to our advantage in the primary language classroom. It is one of the most powerful motivators for using the language. We are fortunate as language teachers that we can build on it. Even so, you will sometimes hear teacher object – ‘But I can’t do pair-work with this class. They will keep talking to each other!’ Far from being a good reason for not doing pair-work with them, this is a very good reason why we should. Children need to talk. Without talking they cannot become good at talking. They can learn about the language, but the only way to learn to use it is to use it. So our job is to make sure that the desire to talk is working for learning not against learning.

17.3. Attitude goals and content goals

Most children who start foreign language instruction do not have autonomous motivation to learn a foreign language. Motivation is often encouraged by the families who create an interest towards the new language. The teachers who regularly create curiosity about the different styles of life and different habits of the people who speak the target language reinforce this motivation at school. The aim of this is to make the children aware of the existence of different cultures and make them accept the diversities in social behaviours that may be considered inappropriate at times by learners.

However, teachers may also encourage motivation by planning content-area language activities that will build up knowledge of topics covered in other school subjects through the use of L2. This will promote the introduction of language activities that are planned across subjects and may help those who have to plan syllabus across the school curriculum. Language instruction is thus not seen as an end in itself but as a means of exploitation of themes linked with other subject areas.

A school environment, favourable to second language learning, should provide help in building up the skills that children need to acquire through exposure to the L2 in naturalistic and relaxed contexts. Therefore, we should create a classroom environment that promotes motivation; we should adopt a task-based and learner-centred approach that encourages major focus on the learners’ personalities, individual abilities and interests; and we should introduce topics, language, situations and tasks relevant to the age of the children. The child should make the language his own tool for what he wants to say. One of the great moments in the foreign classroom is when a child makes a joke. The child who insisted with a grin that he had ‘one and half’ brothers and when questioned about the half by the puzzled teacher, said, ‘very small’ (showing baby size with his hands), had broken through a crucial barrier. He was using half-known bits of language to give shape to the thoughts going through his mind. This small and apparently trivial incident encapsulates what we are trying to achieve. We want our learners to want to and dare to use the language for their own purposes. We want them to use it accurately if possible, inaccurately if necessary, but above all we want them to make it theirs.

These assumptions having been made, we can now proceed to considering prior goals of teaching children. We’ll look in detail at attitude goals (developing a positive response to languages and to language learning) as well as to at content goals (real language use). The intention is to allow the teacher to identify and clarify his own priorities. These will help provide him with some basis to be clear about the practical implications so that the teacher can avoid the situation where he actually teaches in a way that undermines what it is he is trying to do.