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There are many differences between the ways that adults and young learners learn English in a foreign country. Adults are usually highly motivated to learn English whereas young learners have not chosen to learn but their school has made the decision. This affects how they learn. Also, young learners have shorter attention spans but usually do not become embarrassed by their mistakes, whereas, older students are more usually more reserved and afraid of making mistakes but have much longer attention spans. This means that the two groups will benefit from different teaching techniques and materials. Very young learners; aged 4-9 years; tend to have shorter attention spans and so learning must be made fun and activities need to be constantly changing to ensure their attention. Activities; such as games, singing, chanting, creating arts and crafts, listening to and creating stories, as well as drama and movement; can be used to teach young learners English in a fun way that they are more likely to remember. These activities also help maintain discipline in the classroom as young learners tend to become agitated when they are bored because of their limited attention span which can cause disruptions to the class and alter the teaching environment. Furthermore, young learners may not be suited to playing memory games because of their limited attention and can struggle with reading and writing because of their limited experience with these skills. Conversely, adult learners will usually have longer attention spans but will not respond as well to activities; such as singing in front of a group; because of embarrassment. They will still enjoy songs as part of the learning process but will usually prefer activities, such as analyzing the lyrics of a song, rather than performing in front of their peers. Their longer attention spans will be better suited to memory games and reading and writing in English than younger learners. Adults will also benefit from role-playing scenarios that help them put the use of English into everyday situations. This is because they have life experience where they have been in similar scenarios in their lives and therefore can understand how these situations work and how understanding English will help them in these situations. Additionally, adults and young adults will have different motivation for wanting to learn the language. Adults will usually have made the decision to learn English themselves and so will be highly motivated. This decision can be to improve their career prospects or to help them with travelling in English-speaking countries. This means that adult learners usually have a goal and a time frame in which they want to learn the English language which will motivate them to memorize language points and vocabulary. This means that adult learners will actively commit the language to memory and try to incorporate English into their lives. However, young learners usually have been forced into the lessons by their school and it is up to the teacher to interest and motivate the students. This can be especially difficult with very young learners who may not have the same necessity to learn English as they do for their native language. This is because they usually must be able to communicate in their native language to be understood by their parents and friends and even to people working in shops and their neighbors. They may, in fact, not know any other native speaker of English besides their teacher and so will unlikely use English outside of the classroom. Therefore the need to learn the language is lost and more difficult to retain. These factors mean that teaching English to young learners will be different to teaching the language to adults. Because of their differing motivations and desire to use English, adults and young learners will have different levels of retention and interest in lesson content. Lesson plans will also altered by the different attention spans and skills which will change how lessons are structured and what content adults and young learners are best suited to learning.
