Young learners of English deserve more

Ehsan Gorji
Ehsan Gorji
A young child smiling in a classroom with a crayon in his hand.
Reading time: 3 minutes

Imagine a class of English language students aged 8 – 9 taught by a dynamic teacher they love. The young learners sit together for two hours, three times a week to learn English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The vibe they bring with them to the class, plus the dynamic teacher and the creativity she develops in her lesson plans, is fantastic.

I have been observing trends in teaching EFL to young learners, and it is clear to me that school directors, syllabus generators, teachers, parents and learners are all satisfied with this image… “Hooray! Young learners sit together for two hours, three times a week to learn English as a Foreign Language. And the teacher is able to manage the class. Bravo!” But is it enough?

What causes the lack of focus?

It all begins with the coursebooks. If you take a coursebook for young learners and thumb through the ‘Scope and Sequence’ pages, you’ll see holistic definitions of language input in each unit. The school authorities then design a course based on the coursebook, and the snowball effect happens, whereby they design a course without specific details on what exactly to focus on.

It is the teacher’s turn now. The creative and dynamic teacher provides an excellent classroom experience through which young learners can learn English together. She also assigns a piece of homework: write an email to a friend and tell her about your last holiday.

When the teacher reviews the emails, she smiles as she finds many uses of the simple past tense—both in affirmative and negative forms. She then drafts an email thanking everyone and praising them generously. She includes a link to a PDF of other exercises to reinforce the grammar (the next day in class, they will review the completed handouts).

This hardworking teacher tries to blend her style with digital literacy and applies creativity along the way. Everything seems perfect in her class, and she regularly receives emails from parents thanking her. Nevertheless, some questions remain: What was the task? What was the learning outcome? Which learning objective should have been tracked?

Let’s reconsider the task – this time with our critic’s hat on – and analyze what has been taking place in this class. It is very nice that young learners sit together to learn English, and the teacher is able to manage the class successfully, but having fun and ease alone is not enough. We should aim for “fun, ease and outcomes”.*

*Assessing Young Learners of English: Global and Local Perspectives, Dr Marianne Nikolov, 2016.

Which important dynamics should be considered?

The assigned piece of homework said: write an email to a friend and tell her about your last holiday. However, what actually occurred was a shift from this task to the students’ best performance in producing simple past-tense sentences. There are other important dynamics that have migrated out of the teacher’s focus. Did the students begin their emails appropriately? Was the tone appropriate? Did they pay attention to organizing their thoughts into sentences and paragraphs? Was the punctuation correct? Did they end their emails in the right way?

If the coursebook had been equipped with clear and concrete learning objectives, the course directors would have employed them while designing study syllabuses, and the teacher would have used them when lesson planning. Consequently, the student’s formative and summative progress would have been evaluated against those detailed learning objectives rather than according to what some did better than the average.

How can learning objectives be applied to tasks?

With the Global Scale of English (GSE), publishers, course designers, teachers, and even parents can access a new world of English language teaching and testing. This global English language standard provides specific learning objectives for young learners that can be applied to tasks.

For example, for our task, the GSE suggests the following learning objectives:

  • Can write short, simple personal emails/letters about familiar topics, given prompts or a model. (GSE 40/A2+)
  • Can use appropriate standard greetings and closings in simple, informal personal messages (e.g., postcards or emails). (GSE: 37/A2+)

By applying language learning chunks – learning objectives, grammar and vocabulary – and identifying the can-do mission each one is supposed to accomplish, teaching and testing become more tangible, practical and measurable. Going back to my original scenario, it is excellent that young learners sit together for two hours, three times a week to learn English as a Foreign Language – provided that we know in detail which learning objectives to focus on, which skills to grow and what learning outcomes to expect.

Access our GSE teaching resources

About the author

Ehsan Gorji is an Iranian teacher, teacher trainer and teacher educator. He also designs strategic plans, devises study syllabuses, runs quality-check observations, and develops materials and tests for different language institutes and schools in the country. Ehsan has been a GSE Thought Leader and Expert Rater since 2016.

More blogs from Pearson

  • Students sat at a table with microphones talking
    Building fluent, confident speakers: better ways to assess speaking
    By Charlotte Guest
    Reading time: 6 minutes

    Why traditional speaking assessments can make students feel stressed

    Traditional speaking tests often feel high-stakes and performative. Students are asked to respond on demand, usually in front of a teacher or peers, with little room for hesitation or self-correction. This setup can make it harder for students to show what they can really do because:

    • Time pressure shifts focus from communicating meaning to avoiding mistakes
    • Teacher-centered evaluation can feel judgmental rather than supportive
    • One-off testing may not capture a learner's true abilitiy, especially if they're nervous. 

    When people feel anxious, it often affects their fluency. They find it harder to think so they pause more, forget words and feel less confident. As a result, assessments may reflect how comfortable someone feels under pressure, rather than how effectively they can communicate.

    Key components of speaking fluency to evaluate

    Fluency isn't just about talking fast. It involves several clear signs.

  • People studying in a classroom with one holding her hand up
    How to teach business English to beginner learners
    By Margaret O'Keeffe
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Teaching business English to beginners can feel challenging, especially when learners have limited vocabulary and confidence. However, with the right structure and focus, you can help students build practical workplace communication skills step by step.

    Focus on high-frequency workplace vocabulary

    For beginners learners, communication matters more than complexity. Teaching commonly-used workplace vocabulary allows students to express basic ideas quickly and clearly.

    Focus on:

    • Everyday work routines (emails, meetings, schedules)
    • Common verb–noun combinations (for example, “make a call,” “solve a problem”)
    • Simple functional phrases for greetings and offers

    This focus on high-frequency language helps learners retain and reuse it more easily.

    Introduce vocabulary in manageable, meaningful ways

    Vocabulary learning becomes more effective when it is limited and contextualized. Instead of overwhelming students, introduce a small number of new words per lesson and place them in realistic scenarios.

    For example:

    • Phone conversations
    • Short emails or messages
    • Daily task lists

    Memory improves when learners interact with words actively. Matching exercises, sentence-building and personalization tasks all strengthen recall because they require learners to process meaning rather than just memorize.

  • Two young girls fistbumping eachother in celebration
    Debunking myths about neurodivergence and language learning
    By Charlotte Guest
    Reading time: 5 minutes

    Can neurodivergent learners really learn a new language?

    Neurodivergent people can learn new languages successfully. Often, what seems like an inability is actually due to a mismatch between traditional teaching methods and how different brains process information.

    Research across ADHD, autism and dyslexia consistently shows that language learning is not only possible but can offer cognitive, social and even emotional benefits. The key variable isn’t capacity, it’s approach.

    Common myths about ADHD, autism and dyslexia in language learning

    Myth 1: “People with ADHD can’t focus enough to learn a language”

    Fact: ADHD brains often thrive with novelty, variety and stimulation,  all of which language learning naturally provides.

    While research on ADHD and language learning is still emerging, scholars highlight that the field is under-researched, not evidence of inability. This gap reinforces that perceived difficulties are often due to teaching methods rather than learner capacity. Traditional methods (long grammar drills, passive memorization) can fail ADHD learners. But when learning includes:

    • Short, varied activities
    • Speaking and interaction
    • Gamified tools
    • Real-world usage

    Attention often improves, not worsens.

    Reframe: It’s not a focus deficit, it’s a method mismatch.

    Myth 2: “Dyslexia makes learning another language too difficult”

    Fact: Dyslexia affects reading and decoding,  not intelligence or the ability to acquire language.

    In fact, many dyslexic learners:

    • Excel in spoken language skills
    • Develop strong pattern recognition
    • Benefit from multisensory input (audio + visual + movement)

    Difficulties usually arise when teaching is overly text-heavy.

    Reframe: Dyslexia changes how language is learned, not whether it can be learned.

    Myth 3: “Autistic learners shouldn’t be pushed into bilingualism”

    Fact: There is no evidence that learning multiple languages harms autistic individuals. Reviews have shown that bilingualism does not have negative effects on autistic children, despite long-standing misconceptions among professionals. In many cases, it can:

    • Support communication flexibility
    • Enhance social connection (especially in multilingual families)
    • Strengthen cognitive processing

    The outdated belief that bilingualism causes confusion has been widely debunked. More recent reviews also highlight cognitive, social and identity-related benefits of bilingualism in autism, challenging deficit-based assumptions. 

    Reframe: Language learning can expand communication,  not limit it.

    Myth 4: “Neurodivergent learners just need more discipline”

    Fact: What looks like “lack of effort” is often cognitive overload.

    Neurodivergent learners may struggle when:

    • Instructions are unclear
    • Tasks rely on one learning modality
    • Pacing is rigid
    • Working memory is overloaded

    Educational research shows that students are very different from each other, and teaching should change to fit those differences.

    Reframe: The issue isn’t motivation,  it’s accessibility.

    Why traditional teaching methods don’t work for every brain

    Most language classrooms still rely on:

    • Heavy text-based instruction
    • One-size-fits-all pacing
    • Passive memorization
    • Limited sensory engagement

    These approaches conflict with what we know about different ways of learning (learner modalities),  the idea that people process information differently (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.).

    The modality principle of multimedia learning shows that people learn better when information is presented through multiple channels (e.g., visuals + audio instead of text alone). This is especially important for neurodivergent learners.

    Bottom line: When teaching adapts to the learner, outcomes improve dramatically.

    How educators and parents can support diverse learners

    Start with this principle: the learner is not the problem; the system might be.

    For educators:

    • Offer multiple ways to engage with content
    • Design activities that include speaking, listening, and movement
    • Avoid equating speed with ability
    • Normalize different learning paths

    For parents:

    • Focus on encouragement, not pressure
    • Choose programs that emphasize communication, not rote memorization
    • Advocate for inclusive teaching approaches in schools