The developmental stages and the effective ways for English teaching

O41025 Midori Katayama

Introduction

Question

All kids are at the different developmental stages. It means that the suitable teaching ways will be different for each kids. What is the effective ways to teach such kids?

  1. Stages of Development

・Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a famous developmental psychologist, who was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland on August 6, 1896 and died on September 16, 1980. In his youth, he was interested in mollusks (軟体動物)and he became a well-known malacologist（軟体動物学） when he finished the school. After high school graduation, he studied natural sciences (自然科学)at the University of Neuchâtel. He developed an interest for psychoanalysis (精神分析)at the University of Zürich, after that he moved to France. He worked at an elementary school for one year there. He standardized Burt’s test of intelligence and did his first experimental studies on the growing mind. In 1923, he got married and had three children. Their intellectual development from infancy to language was studied by Piaget.

◎Piaget’s theory

This table shows that the developing stages which areclassified by age. We can see what kind of things kids can do or cannot do at the certain ages here.

The sensorimoter stage
(0-2) / ・Intelligence takes the form of motor action
・the child differentiates self from objects
・The mental structures are mainly concerned with the mastery of concrete objects.
※teachers should try to provide a rich and stimulating environment with ample objects for children to play with.
The preoperational stage
(2/3-7) / ・Intuitive（直感） in nature
・Get the ability of supposition (推測) (only for something specific)
・Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words
・still think egocentrically (自己中心的に)
・The mastery of symbols takes place
The concrete operational stage(7/8-11) / ・Logical but depends on concrete referent(具体的概念)
・Gets the ability of supposition for something notional(概念的な).
・Learning activities should involve problems of classification, ordering, location, conservation(保存)using concrete objects.
The formal operational (11/12-15) / ・The mastery of thoughts
・can think logically about abstract proposition(抽象的命題)and concerned with hypothetical(仮定)and so on

The most important developed stage is ‘The Concrete Operational stage’, because at that stage, kids begin to use logic.

During the Preoperational Stage, almost all kids become to be able to read the alphabet, words and sentences. Here is a simple list which shows the progress of theirreading level.

2. How to teach kids at the each stages

The difference what kids can do or cannot dodepends on what stages the kids areat. That means the materials and way of teaching must be different for each child. The list below shows the advise what teachers pay attention to teach kids.

◎Teaching the Preoperational Child (Early Childhood)

・Help children understand what is being presented using the visual and specific materials or ways.

・Instructions should be made short, and teachers need to use actions as well as words to not confuse the students.

・Because the children who are at this stage are still egocentric (自己中心)so teachers need to use familiar worlds rather than the other’s perspective and try to share the students’ own experiences.

・Make children a lot of physical practice with the facts and skills. Try not to use workbooks and other paper-and –pencil tasks so much.

・Engage the students in conversations about the changes which the students are experiencing when manipulating objects.

・Give many chances to experience the world to build the basis for concept learning and language.

◎ Teaching the Concrete Operational Child (Middle Childhood)

・Continue to use specific props ways and visual aids especially when using sophisticated material (精巧な題材/資料).

・Continue to give students a chance to manipulate (操作する)objects and test out their ideas.

・Make sure that lessons and readings are brief and well organized. Use materials that present a progression of ideas step by step. It’s good to read short stories or books with short logical chapters, moving to longer reading assignments only when the students are ready.

・Ask students to deal with no more that three or hour variables at a time.

・Use familiar examples to help explain more complex ideas so students will have a beginning point for assimilating new information. Compare students’ own lives with those of the characters in a story.

・Give chances to classify and group objects and ideas and increasingly complex levels. Give students separate sentences on slips of paper to be grouped in to paragraphs.

・Present problems which require logical, analytical thinking to solve.

◎ Teaching Students Beginning to use Formal Operations (Adolescence)

・Continue to use many of the teaching strategies and materials appropriate for students at the concrete operational stage. Use well-organized materials that offer step by step explanations.

・Give students an opportunity to explore many hypothetical questions. Provide consideration of hypothetical “other world.”

・Encourage students to explain how they solve problems.

・Whenever possible, teach broad concepts, not just facts, using materials and ideasrelevant to the students. Use lyrics from popular music to teach poetic devices(想像力をかき立てる工夫), to reflect on social problems, and so on.

3. The materials of teaching

In 2. we saw something what teachers should think about when they teach kids at each stage. Next,here are some materials or ways to teach students, please suit the best way to the best stages.

Picture books / ・Teacher reads the book and kids repeat the line. (recitation)
・Use the audio materials.
Can you run? / ・Quick response game.
・Use only verbs and act the words saying it.
Card game / ・Use the word cards and compete who remember the most words.
Role playing / e.g. shopkeeper and customers.
Ask something to do / e.g. open the window please. Place your shoes neatly please.
Card writing / ・Write cards to friends (who belongs to another class) and exchange.
Drill
Textbooks(books/newspaper) / ・using word books
・filling in practice
・remember idioms
・read the text silently/ aloud.
・role-play
Listen to music/conversation / ・fill in the gaps on paper or lyric card
・repeat them
Discussion, role-playing / ・get the theme and discuss about it or make a short skit with friends.
Diary/letter / ・write a diary, letters or short report.

4.Conclusion

The effective ways of teaching English will be depend on which developmental stages the students are at but the importance of motivating the students is common at every stage. The important thing is to grasp what the students can or cannot do and what they want to do. It will be also important to decide that the rough ideas for the goal of learning English because the purpose of learning English is different for each student.

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