Papper Presentation Summary of Teaching English to Young Learners in Indonesia: Essential Requirements

Papper Presentation Summary of Teaching English to Young Learners in Indonesia: Essential Requirements

5^th Meeting (October 20^th, 2014)

BACHRUDIN MUSTHAFA, M.A., PH.D.

Based on the decentralization policy of education management in 2001, local government decided to teach English to the young learner as local lesson start from the elementary school even to the kindegarden. This local government policy were not accompanied with special preparation to the English teacher to teach in elementary school. This article discussed the English teacher profile that required main knowledge base and skill such as: who are children; how the children learn; how the children learn a language; how Indonesian children learn English;  and to know and facilitate children learning English as a foreign language.

Requirements for Effective Teaching of English to Young Learner

There are so many requirement effectively when teaching English to young learner. Such as;Who are the children? to understand each individual child and their perspectives, social environment, needs, ideas, learning styles, etc lead us to a conclusion that children are young learner not little adolescence or adult. The way they were thinking is also different with an adult or aolescence. Children feel more appreciated if freely with their own right of thinking.

If we want English teaching work as what we have expected, we must ensured that teachers can handle their students about who are their children, where are they come from, what kind of parents they live in and etc, because all principle decisions of the teachers would make a strong perspective about that young learners.

The works of Bruner (1996) and later works of Piaget (1975) have provided very useful insights into how children learn. More specifiacally, Bruner (1996) proposes a hierarchy of children’s learning modes: enactive (which means relying on physical activities), iconic (which represents residual mental images resulting from the contacts with material entities), and symbolic (which comes later by way of symbolic means such as language).

Parallel to these three modes of learning, Piaget (1975)—as cited in Chaile & Britain (1991)-- contributes another helpful concept. That is, three kinds of knowledge children create from their engagement with physical objects and social intercourse. More specifically, according to Piaget, there are three kinds of knowledge: physical knowledge (which children construct out of their “interaction” with physical objects), logico-matematical knowledge (i.e., basic concepts children acquire – as a mental residue-- from their actions on physical objects), and social knowledge (the kind of knowledge children “receive” from social interaction with other members of the culture).

From these learning modes and kinds of knowledge we know that young learner learn through three kind of activities. First, young learner learn through their physical activities. For example, young learner more intrested in making a cake than read a book notiwithstanding play they got dirty. Second, almost the same with the first activities they are interested with physical object. For example, play with a scamble, logical concept or something like that. And the third, young learner attracted with peering studies which means they learn together with their frind. For example, they want to find a picture that were not accomplished and so on.

Related to the aim discussed before consider to the ways of children’s learning, young learners obtain with a language from direct contact with language in use, including notice and participating in practices; watching how people do with an English, read or write for a real purposes; and events. In other word, children learn a language by doing an act and with the language. In casual conversations, they ask students what they are learning. In class they may talk about their own learning. They challenge student assumptions about learning and encourage them to accept responsibility for decisions they make about learning; like how they study for exams, when they do assigned reading, whether they revise their writing or check their answers. Learner-centered teachers include assignment components in which students reflect, analyze and critique what they are learning and how they are learning it. The goal is to make students aware of themselves as learners and to make learning skills something students want to develop.

Indonesian children learn English as a Foreign language. In elementary school, level of English is as “local lesson” that means an extra hard work for teachers to teach them anyway. There are three reason why it said like that. First, English in Indonesia is less use function because they think that there is no social function when it used in outside the class. So it make a students become less motivation to learn English. Second, as a “local lesson” in teaching English at elementary school, there is a very limited time of teaching. Why? Because,  English ony teach two hours in once time meeting a week. That is very low frequency when we teach a language especially a English as Foreign Language. Third, the decision to teach English to a young learner is not interrelated because in Indonesia there is no specification of teaching English. Especially there is no special teacher for teaching English for a young learner.

English used limited outside of the classroom, so, English teacher should use English as much as possibile during the session in the classroom especially for a young learner students. To support English use during the lesson, enrich as much as posible an environment that related to English around the classroom, wall or any places in there. Young learner learn efffectively when enggaed with physical movement, so English teacher should use an activity that interrelated such as TPR, games, or project. That is also to enrich their motivation to know any vocabulary and communicative need of young learner. To maintain young learner interest in learning English, teacher should use various techniques in short time periods. It aim to avoid students boredom in classroom activities. Some students may have very different cultural perceptions in the classroom as far as learning a second language is concerned. Cultural differences in communication styles and preferences are also significant. It sees classrooms (online or face-to-face) as communities of learners. Young learner focus to recognize, and research consistently confirms, that students can learn from and with each other. Certainly the teacher has the expertise and an obligation to share it, but teachers can learn from students as well. Young Learner work to develop structures that promote shared commitments to learning. They see learning individually and collectively as the most important goal of any educational experience.

Proposed good classroom practices

I do believe that teachers are doing too many learning tasks for students. We ask the questions, we call on students, we add detail to their answers. We offer the examples. We organize the content. We do the preview and the review. On any given day, in most classes teachers are working much harder than students. I’m not suggesting we never do these tasks, but I don’t think students develop sophisticated learning skills without the chance to practice and in most classrooms the teacher gets far more practice than the students.

In order to exposure students in to English language in use, English teacher should used English as mush as posible in the classroom as long as the lesson. English teacher should act (speaking, reading, writing and also listening) by themselves so the young learner try to do it too. This activities must be carried out consistently to provide young learners can see and learn for themselves how English used for communicative by their teacher. So, English is an imitation learning, you teach good or bad it effect will be feel next in future by the young learner.

Classroom will be more intresting if created like what a young learner like. It means, whennever its a big or small classroom, make it as comfortable as possible to the young learner. So when they were in the class they feel like a home not like a school jail. Fill up the class with a lot of staff of learning activities as much as possible to create a good atmosphere when we do teach them in that class.

Young learner learn efffectively when enggaed with physical movement, so English teacher should use an activity that interrelated such as TPR, games, or project. That is also to enrich their motivation to know any vocabulary and communicative need of young learner. To maintain young learner interest in learning English, teacher should use various techniques in short time periods. It aim to avoid students boredom in classroom activities.

Teaching English to young learner is not as easy as we think. Because, when we start to teach them they have to know about the vocabulary so try to teach them with as easy word and they can use it all the time. Repetition of English is useful to enrich their vocabulary items and expressions. The more frequently we repeat that words and expressions in the communication, the easier they would find them to acquire. Do this activity consistently and we will learn how fast our students take the language and use it in daily life and writing. Every activities in teaching English to the young learner should be enrich. For example, before we start to teach them, in the beginning of the class try ask them to pray together in English. Some simple sentence of English to pray together. Some joke or funny thing before start the lesson. Act like this all the time before start the lesson but do not use the same joke or the same funny thing improve every meeting. That why teaching is not easy. We have to prepare it as well as possible to make the students not bored.

Conclusion

Teacher should change the concept of education as we know it. Redefine education to mean: an effective public, private or public-private partnership entity that provides an educational delivery system that is tailored to meet the needs of all children. Change the general people's expectations of educational systems so that they focus on high standards for everyone—teachers, principals and students. Make all schools safe and free of violence so children LEARN. Develop a school system that is fair and provides an equal opportunity for all children. Make our children "ready" to learn when they begin to attend school. Preschool educational opportunities must be included in the development of a new school system. Get the society recognize and accept the importance of getting preschool children ready to learn. Develop an incentive-and-reward system to attract and retain high-caliber teachers. Develop a school system that incorporates and demands accountability and flexibility from teachers, principals, students, parents, school administrators. The school should have: Child Centered Environment - our focus is on children learning within small groups or individually. Responsive Prepared Environment - our environment meets the needs of the children. Tables, chairs, book- shelves, cupboards are all placed at the childrens’ level so they can explore and master their environment. We choose materials based on the abilities of the children in our group and change them frequently to stimulate their minds. Focus On Individual Progress and Development - each child is viewed as unique and proceeds at his/her own pace. Hands On Learning - our learning materials are real things the children can touch and learn from. We utilize concrete models that allow for children to better understand abstract concepts and the environment. Spontaneous Activity - the children are encouraged to move about freely and explore their surroundings within clearly defined limits. Active Learning - the curriculum selects subjects which interest the child, are of academic importance and aimed at long-term progress. Students may choose to work with material that may take weeks or months to master and then are encouraged to share their knowledge with the other students. Self-Directed Activity - the children are encouraged to master things on their own. They are encouraged to put on and take off their own coat, put their own papers away, set up and clean up their own snack and to make choices on their own. By fostering their independence they become more self-directed. Freedom Within Limits - the children enjoy freedom of choice within the clearly defined guidelines set by our teachers within the classroom. Intrinsic Motivation To Learn - By setting up a visually stimulating environment and providing interesting activities to explore and by using the unique nature preserve we help foster the child’s intrinsic motivation to learn and appreciate nature.