The article is about Teaching English to young learners (TEYL). We define young learners
as children aged six to twelve. There is a big difference between what
children of five can do and what children of twelve can do. Some
children develop early, some later. Some children develop gradually,
other in leaps and bounds. There
are some important things have to be aware before teaching young
learners. First, the classification of the young learners into two main
group those are; five to seven year olds and the eight to twelve years
old. Second is the characteristic of young learners. The third, Some Factors that influence learning English class.
And the last is the thinks that should be known by the teacher to teach
children. All are combined to create an active, innovative, creative,
effective, and convenience teaching and learning process. So, what
becomes our expectation that is to grow a qualified young generation can
be obtained.
Introduction
In
globalization, learning English were very important. We all know that
English will become a universal language. Many countries used English as
their second languages, where some others use it as a foreign language.
In Indonesia, English has become a popular language and children will
be taught in English at their school. Teaching English to children is
not an easy job, but also not difficult, if we already know how to do
it.
Teaching
English to young learners (TEYL) has become one important educational
concentration in recent year. Teaching English to young learners is
significantly different with teaching English to secondary level. What
children can do and accept is significantly different with what adult
can. “Students at this age posses three very important conditions before
they even enter the class room. They are naturally cooperative, curious
and the least self-conscious of all levels. In addition they learn very
quickly (Kids-world, 2000)”. There are a lot of very good secondary
teachers are failed when teaching English to primary level or young
learners. It is because the way of teaching adult is also significantly
different with the way of teaching children or young learners.
Therefore, there are some important things have to be aware before
teaching young learner. First, the teacher has to know what the young
language learner is. The classification of the young learners and each
characteristic is really important to know. Second, Factors that influence learning English
class. And the last is the important thinks that the teacher known in
teaching English to young learners and can applied in the class. All are
combined to create an active, innovative, creative, effective, and
convenience teaching and learning process. So, what becomes our
expectation that is to grow a qualified young generation can be
obtained.
Considering
its importance, therefore, in this article the writer will discuss such
important things have to be aware before teaching young learner.
The Young Language Learners
The
British philosopher John Stuart Mill started to learn Greek at the age
of three. Clearly, John Stuart Mill was not an average child. What we
are talking about in this session is the average child. We define young learners as children aged five to twelve.
There
is a big difference between what children of five can do and what
children of twelve can do. Some children develop early, some later. Some
children develop gradually, other in leaps and bounds. It is not
possible to say that at the age of five all children can do x, at the age of seven they can all do y, or the age of ten they can all do z. But
it is possible to point out certain characteristics of young children
which you should be aware of and take into account in your teaching.
You, as the teacher, are the only one who can see how far up the ladder
your individual pupils are. We can only draw your attention to the
characteristics of the average child which are relevant for language
teaching.
We
have divided the children into two main groups throughout the article.
The five to seven year olds and the eight to twelve years old.
Five to seven year olds
What five to seven years olds can do at their own level
· They can talk about what they are doing.
· They can tell you about what they have done or heard.
· They can plan activities.
· They can argue for something and tell you why they think what they think.
· They can use logical reasoning.
· They can use their vivid imagination.
· They can use a wide range of intonation patterns in their mother tongue.
· They can understand direct human interaction.
Eight to twelve years old
Children
of five are little children. Children of twelve are relatively mature
children with an adult side and a childish child. Many of the
characteristics listed above will be thing of the past.
· Their basic concepts are formed. They have very decided views of the world.
· They can tell the difference between fact and fiction.
· They asked question all the time.
· They rarely on the spoken word as well as the physical world to convey and understand meaning.
· They are able to make some decision about their own learning.
· They have definite views about what they like and don’t like doing.
· They have a developed sense of fairness about what happen in the classroom and begin to question the teacher’ decision.
· They are able to work with others, and learn from others.
The characteristics of young learners
Basically,
to keep in mind as one of the important goals in learning English is to
grow a child's interest in learning English. In order to achieve these
objectives we need to understand the characteristics of children so they
can choose the method and appropriate learning for students. Thus,
before a teacher come into English classes, the teacher should have
sufficient knowledge about the students who will be facing. The
characteristics of a Young Learners are as follows:
1. Children have the egocentric nature, rather the tendency to connect what they learn or do with itself. They liked the subject matter related to daily life and surroundings. Topics or phrases such as "my body .. my family .. my house .. my house that they can easily digest.
2. Young Learners difficult to distinguish between things or objects that concrete and abstract. So that teaching materials should be initiated from the things that are concrete and then toward to things that are abstract. Concrete objects around them that can be seen and touched by their senses such as chairs, doors, windows, etc.. So that teaching methods can be combined with the songs with pointed object: "This is a window, that is the door".
3. Children tend to be imaginative and active. Likes learning through games, stories and songs. Learn to speak while playing a fun activity for children. Teachers need to know there are three the sources of a child’s attention in the classroom are pictures, games and stories. In the game there is a need to communicate that encourages children to talk either with their self or with their friends.
4. Feeling easily bored, is one of the characteristics of children. They have a level of concentration and short attention. To overcome their boredom, learning activities should be varied and need to be replace every 10-15 minutes. Variations can be achieved in learning activities on student grouping, time range of activities, teaching materials and variations in the teacher's voice.
5. Child's life is full of colors and cheerful. Activities and tasks are accompanied by colorful images that will make children happy. Media in the form of Flash cards and Colorful puppets, singing with movement make learning English enjoyable.
6. Children love stories. Through stories, children can be trained to better focus your concentration and attention, and with game the students more motivated to active.
7. Learning by doing. Verbal teaching with words is not enough. Increase activity using the example, movement, expression and utilization of images that can facilitate children learn language. Such activities can help children to words or phrases just given and their new hearing.
All the characters above especially for teachers for Young Learners can enhance creativity in teaching, so that goals can be achieved in learning. But besides the above characteristics, the teachers need to know there are several factors can influence learning English.
Some Factors that influence learning English:
a. Mother tongue
It is difficult for Indonesian children pronounce a long vowel sound, as in the word food; room; because the diphthong / ei /, / au /, / ou / as in the words away, now, road.
b. Teaching Material
Selection of material with the learning techniques appropriate to the age and interests of the child will be pleasing students. Children have great attention to things relating to interest for example about hobbies, family, favorite animal, etc.
c. Social Interaction Teacher-Student
Communication between teachers and students can be tied primarily to either through games, songs and learning activities in pairs or groups. First students must imitate, then answer and ask questions.
d. Learning Media
Children like things that are visual, can be seen. Shape of real objects, pictures, puppets can make the presentation more interesting and fun material. Teachers can prepare the tools taken from his/him own collection in the form of photographs, drawings, real objects, such as pen, watch, and bag or images in the form of flash cards.
e. Background Family / Parents
Factor family or social background can also support or hinder the success of children in learning English. Availability of the picture dictionaries, books and other facilities at home and support of parents is also a factor that can influence the process of learning a foreign language. Child's home environment objects can add vocabulary, such as TV, sofa, cupboard, student books, dictionaries and books that bought by parents can help their students learn on their own.
The important thinks should be known to teach the children.
Words are not enough
Don’t
rely on the spoken word only. Most activities or the younger learners
should include movement and inform the sense. You will need to have
plenty of objects and pictures to work with, and to make full use of
school and surroundings. Demonstrate what you want them to do. The
balance will change has the children get older, but appealing to the
senses will always have the pupils to learn.
Play with the language
Let
the pupils talk to them self make up rhymes, sing songs, tells stories.
Play with the language. Let them talk nonsense, experiment with words
an sounds: “let’s go/pets go”. “ blue eyes/blue peas”. Playing with the
language in this way is very comment in first language development and
is a very natural stage in the first stage of foreign language learning
too.
Language as language
Becoming aware of language as something separate from the events taking place takes time.
Most eight to twelve years old already have this awareness in their own
language. The spoken word is often accompanied by other clues to
meaning, facial expression, movement, etc. We should make full use of
this clue. When pupils start to read, the language become something
permanent and there are viewer other clues to meaning. Pupils can take a
book home, they can read it again and again, they can stop, think about
the language and work it out. The same is true of writing. So reading
and writing are extremely important for the child’s drawing awareness of
language and for their own grow in the language, although both are very
demanding and take time and patients to learn.
Variety in the classroom
Since
concentration and attention spans are short, variety is a must-variety
of activity, variety of pace, variety of organization, variety of voice.
Older pupil can concentrate for longer periods and you should allow
them to do so, but you still need lots of variety.
Routines
Children
benefit from knowing the rules and being familiar with the situation.
Have systems, have routines, and organize and plan your lesson. Use
familiar situation, familiar activities. Repeat stories rhymes, etc.
Cooperation not competition
Avoid
rewards and prizes. Other forms of encouragement are much more
effective. Make room for shared experiences-they are an invaluable
source of language work and create atmosphere of involvement
togetherness. Most of us enjoy the feeling of belonging and this is
particularly true of young children.
Grammar
Children
have an amazing ability to absorb language trough play and other
activities which they fine enjoyable. How good they are in a foreign
language is not dependent on whether they have learnt the grammar rules
or not. Very view of your pupils will be able to cope with grammar as
such, even at the age of eleven of twelve. They may be aware and clear
about the foreign language, but they are not usually mature enough to
talk about it.
As
a teacher, you should note the structures, function and grammar items
which you want your pupils to learn as well as those they already know,
but your actual teaching should only include the barest minimum of
grammar taught as grammar, and then for the children only. This does not
mean teaching grammar rules to the whole class. The best time to
introduce some sort of simple grammar is either when a pupil asks for an
explanation, or when you think a pupil will benefit from learning some
grammar. This may be when you are correcting written work, or it may be
in connection with an oral exercise with practices, for example, “Did
see…?” and “Does she…?” older pupils especially those at level two, may
ask exactly what the deference is between did and does, since both
are used for questions, and you can then use the opportunity to explain
the deference in simple terms. You might want to use the terms “a
yesterday questions” and “a today questions”. It might or might not be
appropriate to compare what happens in the mother tongue in the same
situation. What is important is that the explanation should be given on
an individual or group basis when the pupils themselves are asking the
questions, that the explanations are kept as simple as possible, and
that the pupils are able to grasp the point and so benefit from the
explanation.
Assessment
Even
though formal assessment may not be a compulsory part of your work, it
is always useful for the teacher to make regular notes about each
child’s progress. You may fluent to tell parents how their children are
doing, and you should be talking to the children regularly about their
work and encouraging self assessment. From the beginning this can be
done in very simple terms, stressing the positive sight of things and
playing down what the pupil has not will able to master. Nothing
succeeds likes success.
Conclusion
In TEYL, we define young learners
as children aged six to twelve. There is a big difference between what
children of five can do and what children of twelve can do. Some
children develop early, some later.
There are some important things have to be aware before teaching young
learners. First, the teacher has to know what the young language learner
is. The classification of the young learners and each characteristic is
really important to know. We have divided the children into two main
groups throughout the article, the five to seven year olds and the eight
to twelve years old. Second, the important things that should be known
by the teacher to teach children and Factors that influence learning English
class. All are combined to create an active, innovative, creative,
effective, and convenience teaching and learning process. So, what
becomes our expectation that is to grow a qualified young generation can
be obtained
References
(n.d.).
Retrieved October Monday, 2011, from
http://www.eltnews.com/features/kids_world/2000/09/12_tips_for_teachers_of_childr.html.
Wendy A. Scott and Lisbeth H. Ytreberg. (1987). Teaching English to Children. London: Longman.
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