Language Teaching for Young Learners - Online First

This paper is a brief report on attending to a pedagogical moment of wonder as a researcher. It illuminates how a co-teaching pair in an Emirati kindergarten enacted a translanguaging pedagogy while facilitating emergent writing in both Arabic and English. This paper resulted from a 20-minute excerpt observed in one classroom, which showed the co-teachers skillfully co-teaching in an equitable manner which drew on the linguistic resources of children and teachers. It highlights the need for researchers to be prepared for moments that glow during data collection, in order to highlight unexpected effective practices. It offers recommendations to researchers and practitioners regarding implications for practice in relation to enacting a translanguaging pedagogy with young learners, as well being prepared to attend to creative and critical moments that stand out from the more common features of the data.

This study examined the effects of guided and unguided pre-task planning on the complexity, accuracy, lexis, and fluency (CALF) in L2 oral production, as well as the quality of task outcomes in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms. Additionally, the study compared the impact of first language (L1) and second language (L2) planning when it was unguided. Seventeen pairs of lower-secondary CLIL geography learners completed two oral decision-making tasks under three planning conditions: guided L2 planning, unguided L2 planning, and unguided L1 planning. In the guided planning condition, learners were provided with a structured worksheet that addressed both task content and language, while the unguided planning worksheet had no such structure. Learners’ task performances were measured regarding CALF and their task outcomes were also evaluated. Results indicated that learners achieved higher accuracy under the unguided planning condition, while greater complexity was found in the guided planning condition, with no significant effects detected for other dimensions. Nor were there any statistically significant differences in the language of planning. Furthermore, it was found that task topics with personal relevance positively influenced task outcomes. Implications for research and teaching on the role of different pre-task planning conditions in CLIL classrooms are discussed.

In this experimental study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of differing praise typologies on the language learning motivation levels among 57 pre-adolescent learners aged between 10 and 11 years. Employing a pre-intervention, intervention, post-intervention design over a three-week period, the study sought to identify changes in the participants’ affinity for the English language and the development of their growth mindsets, depending on whether they were praised in a growth mindset manner or in a fixed mindset manner. While statistical analyses did not indicate significant differences in the pre-test and post-test results for either English language affinity, F(3, 45) = 0.407, p = .749, or growth mindset levels, F(3, 45) = 1.448, p = .241, a noticeable decline was observed in the students who were initially identified as having growth mindsets upon being subjected to fixed mindset praise. The findings are discussed in light of their potential implications for classroom feedback practices, with particular attention to the timing of praise and the possible role of metacognitive strategies in shaping learner mindsets.