Create Your Own Fate...: THE WAY TO TEACH CHILDREN

THE WAY TO TEACH CHILDREN

A. Introduction

Teaching English for young learners must be conducted in an appropriate way, since they have their own world and really different from the adult. Children are not miniature of adult (Musthafa: 2003); therefore it must have a special method and approach to teach them well especially in teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia. There are many factors that must be considered by teachers to make their teaching successful and conducive such as exposure, engagement, and support.

Teachers have to know who children are and how children learn, learn to serve them and facilitate their learning, position teachers as co-learners and reflective practitioners.

B. Who children are and how they learn a foreign language

To teach the children well, it is essential to know who they are, what they need, how they learn and in what situation they can learn best. By understanding their world and their existence, it will be easier for the teachers to teach them successfully.

Children are unique and they need to be loved and respected for their differences. It is teachers’ job to detect and encourage the positive attributes in each one. It is also teachers’ belief that children are explorers by nature and should be encouraged to explore and manipulate their environment. A childcare setting should be safe and filled with things to explore and many opportunities to explore.

For children, playing is learning. Therefore, the learning is fun and interesting. Principally, children learn through playing and game because there is no another way for them to obtain all things normally that must have been achieved.

To gain many things in early childhood, children have to learn sincerely and fun. It is so-called playing in learning. Playing is natural for them, and in every their stage of development, they will play by the most suitable to things that they must learn. (Einon: 2005).

The children natural talents develop through experience and they will seek for the experience if they think that the experiences are fun and interesting. We cannot learn for our children. The easiest way to ensure that they learn is by convincing their physic and thought are involved. Training, explanation, correction, or demonstration will not enrich them except if the experiences occur.

There are some principles about how the children learn (Musthafa: 2003)

1. Children learn naturally.

Children have temperament plans which determine what must they learn (Einon: 2005) they can never tolerate confusion rightly or wrongly with things that cause some confusion. In other words, they are always active, exploring their environments (physical, social, informational, ideological) and accumulating knowledge and experiences. From this exploration children construct their understanding of how things work, including the language they use both as a system as well as a tool for communication. It is no exaggeration if it is said that “children learn naturally”.

Children, who feel good about themselves, tend to learn more easily and make more effort to achieve; they also are more cooperative and get into less trouble. They get on well with others and make friends more easily feel happier and more secure. (http://www.cyf.govt.nz/484.htm)

2. Children know a lot about literacy before schooling.

Einon (2005) said that children (5-6 old years) mastered more than 2.000 words and will learn 1.000 words each year in the next year. They can make a longer sentence about 6-8 words and they also can arrange more complex sentences, such as: “Ali knows that I want to use that pen.”

3. All children can learn.

All children can learn anything in their own pace provided that they have exposure to, engagement in, and support for the things they learn from culture they are a part.

4. Children learn best when learning is kept whole, meaningful, interesting, and functional.

According to Einon (2005) that children can learn through playing when they are free to express themselves, they develop in open environment to new experience and opinion, they are supported to manipulate and assess ideas, and they are permitted to be what happened.

5. Children learn best when they make their own choices.

Children will make choices and relate these choices with their personal wants and needs. Teachers or parents cannot force them to do things that they do not want to.

6. Children learn best as a community of learners in a non-competitive environment.

Children tent to learn things holistically; it means that in their view, things are easy to learn when they are in their contextual totally. This tendency is reflected very well in children’s play such as playing “school teachers and students”. “A doctor and patients and so on.

7. Children learn best by talking and doing in a social context.

English as a foreign language should be treated as a tool for communication and the children should be encouraged to use the language for many different social purposes by talking and doing thing in a social context using English.

By understanding the principles above, it will be easy for teachers to facilitate children how to learn English as a foreign language successfully.

C. Essential principles of good learning materials for children

After understanding who the children are and how they learn, the teacher should know some principles of good learning materials for them. The teachers have to consider children’s characteristics and world in applying their teaching.

There are some activities that teacher should do in classroom to facilitate children learning foreign language as follows:

1. Use English to Provide Exposure to the language

As children are lack of enough exposure, the teacher should use English as much as possible. It is important to accustom and familiarize them in English as their target language. Teachers must speak clearly and demonstrate their capability in using the language to the children. Thus teachers become the model for the children. Children will regulate their conduct according to an exposure which they drive from their teachers.

2. Provide print—rich Environment in English

The teachers should enrich their class with the English prints environment. It is expected we should provide abundant material in our class to support their literacy development. When children ready access to writing tools with which to express themselves in symbolic ways, they are motivated to learn and use literacy. Book, paper, writing tool and functional signs should be visible everywhere in the classroom so that the children can see and use literacy for multiple purposes.

3. Use activity-based teaching –learning (e.g., TPR, games, projects)

In teaching learning process, teacher can be motivated or raise all children ‘s capability. The student should be actives beside listening, they are expected to be active in physical.

4. Use various techniques for short periods of time

Because the children generally have short span of attention, teachers should use a variety of technique in teaching learning process. It is expected that student don’t be boring in short time and to raise the student’s attention. Teacher should be able to create the class in happy situation. It is common sense that if an activity is enjoyable, it will be memorable, the language involved will stick and the children have a sense of achievement which will develop motivation for further learning ( Phillips, 2005)

5. Focus in functional English for vocabulary development and immediate fulfillment of communicative needs.

Teacher must be able to increase the student vocabulary. Vocabulary is best learned when the meaning of the words is illustrated, for example by a picture, an action, or real object. The children should meet and use the words in relevant context in order to fix them in their minds. This help establish their relationship to other words, so that a vocabulary network is built up.

6. Reiterate often to ensure the acquisition of English.

To make the language learned memorable, the teacher should always repeat the same sentence pattern and routines or often paraphrase what he has said. The more often students listen to the expression, the more memorable what the children listen.

7. Provide useful, acquisition-promoting routines.

The teacher should make the environment that support to use the language in daily life.

There are some principles of good materials for children

Using Stories

Stories must be relevant with culture experience, not too long, no grammatical mistake, to be functional, accessible or not too difficult and less distructure – not over whelming and not go around

It includes:

a. Story telling

Stories are not only some thing that entertains children, but also educate as well as give them their cultural ability.

In story telling, according Musthafa (2003:10), we must be based on these assumptions:

1. Children’s ability to grasp meaning

2. Children’s creative use of limited language resources

3. Children’s capacity for indirect learning

4. Children’s instinct for fun and play

5. The role of imagination

Stories are useful for children, since they are motivating and fun for children; they create a desire in children to continue learning. They exercise the imagination helping children develop their own creative powers. They help children to link fantasy with the real world.

Telling stories builds confidence and encourages social and emotional development.

1. Children enjoy repeated listening stories. This encourages language acquisition.

2. Stories provide a meaningful context for the introduction of new language.

3. Listening to stories develops listening, comprehension and concentration skills.

4. Stories create opportunities for continuity in children’s learning.

In storytelling, we also should pay attention to before, during, and after reading stories.

b. Working with stories

c. Using storybooks

d. How to use storybooks to enhance learning

Using Game

According to Lin Hong (http://iteslj.org/) Students may want to play games purely for fun. Teachers, however, need more convincing reasons. 'Teachers need to consider which games to use, when to use them, how to link them up with the syllabus, textbook or programme and how, more specifically, different games will benefit students in different ways. The key to a successful language game is that the rules are clear, the ultimate goal is well defined and the game must be fun.

Below are some questions which we might consider as we choose a game:

þ Which language does the game target?

þ Which skills does it practice? The language skill focus could be any one of the major skills of listening, speaking, reading or writing.

þ What type of game is it?

þ What's the purpose for using it?

þ Does it fit the students? How could I simplify or make it more complex if necessary? Many games require modification in use when the students' needs are taken into consideration.

þ How much interaction and participation is there? Maximum involvement is something we are pursuing.

þ Do I like the game myself?

TPR (Total Physical response)

The basis for Total Physical Response (TPR) is seen in every day activities, in every classroom, in every school and every where. It is based on the idea that the natural response to understanding a command is physical response.

Asher, who developed the method, focuses in particular on two characteristics of first language acquisition. The first of these is that the child gets a vast amount of comprehensible input before beginning to speak. Young children comprehend language which is far in excess of their ability to produce. Secondly, there is a lot of physical manipulation and action language accompanying early input “throw the ball to Daddy”. “Put your arm through here”, etc. this action language is couched in imperative. (Nunan: 1 991::244)

Employing the TPR, it includes:

a. Understand what others say, and get understood later

b. Learning to touch the language

c. Touching and reading

d. Miming words

e. The physical attitudes

Using songs, rhymes, finger plays

Joy L. M. Brown stated that many of the songs, stories and nursery rhymes that people learn as children are ingrained in culture. The use of songs, stories and nursery rhymes in the ESL classroom can create an excellent learning experience for the ESL students. (http://www.state.tn.us/education/websymbs.htm)

Repeated shared readings.

It is the time in the day when children and their instructor share reading and writing process and the entire class participate in a variety of language activities, enjoying, discussing, and dramatizing song, poem, chant, and big books.

Language Experience Activities.

It involves children in concrete experience surrounded by language. That is doing thing with English words.

Sociodramatic Play/Role Play.

This provides a natural context for meaningful communication for young learners

Small Group or Pair Work

In small group or pair work, students can work together to solve a problem or develop a response to a situation given.

D. Essential principles of how to facilitate children learning a foreign language

To help and facilitate children in learning English as a foreign language, there are some essential competencies that teachers can use it. Namely:

a. What children (can) do and say in their daily life in their first language are developmentally appropriate for EFL context.

It means that all children’s competencies in L1 are transferable to teach English in EFL context. It includes:

þ Recognizing print in the environment

þ Distinguishing separate words

þ Recognizing rhyming words

þ Knowing some letter names and shape

þ Demonstrating reading behaviour

þ Understanding picture book and simple stories, and

þ Retelling, making predictions, and connecting stories to background experience in a teacher-guided group format.

b. What they already know and learn in their first language

All they have known in their first language are developmentally for EFL context. It includes:

þ Singing nursery rhyme and song.

þ Using language in play

þ Playing rhyming games

þ Playing with magnetic letter or letter blocks

þ Having guided discussion of read aloud and other shared experiences

þ Having mastered all the concepts about print.

þ Demonstrating phonemic awareness through activities.

þ Recognizing upper and lower case letter

þ Knowing how to read his/her own and other’s names

þ Reading some high-frequency words.

þ Reading the first few levels of decodable readers for lower-grade level.

þ Writing independently at the alphabetic stage of development

þ Retelling in simple terms stories.

þ Connect with the teacher’s help, what is read to him/her with real experiences.

c. Range of activities and verbal behaviours at children’s grade level.

This also can be developed in the EFL context. It includes:

þ Playing game

þ Using physical responses

þ Sorting letter

þ Having guided discussion of read aloud and other shared experiences

þ Singing and reciting verse

þ Staging class performance of stories and nursery rhymes.

þ Reading predictable books independently

þ Tracing letters in sand (or on the air)

þ Writing in journal and dictating stories

þ Discussing word meaning, ideas, books and experiences

þ Using language experience approach to reading activities

þ Separating words into separate sound

þ Providing multiple

E. Sample lesson unit and instructional procedures

What the teachers should do in the classroom is to:

þ Use English to provide exposure to the language

þ Provide print-rich environment in English

þ Use activity-based teaching-learning such as TPR, games, and projects.

þ Use various techniques for short periods of time

þ Focus on functional English for vocabulary development and immediate fulfillment of communicative needs.

þ Reiterate often to ensure the acquisition of English

þ Provide useful, acquisition-promoting routines

Text Box: THE TOUCH AND FELL BOOK: MAKE YOUR OWN
1. Topic : Tactile Feeling
2. Activity type : Describing
3. Language input : Descriptive adjectives
4. Background knowledge : The children should know the names of
the objects that are described in this activity
5. time : Two periods of 50/60 minutes
6. Classroom setting : Any
7. Material : Larger photocopies of drawings; 9 sheets of
white paper; large photocopies of expressions. Glue, a pair of scissors, a piece of fur, a piece of wood, a sponge, some sandpaper, a glass, a piece of plastic (small piece of OHP transparency is idea), a ball on the end of a rubber band, a feather.
8. Age : 6 and above
9. Level : Intermediate.

1. Objective of the unit : Children Learn how to describe objects

2. Standards addressed and expectations of students

Teacher photocopies the description of drawings and makes enlargements of each drawing to make sure that all children will be able to see them well. At home, teacher selects the objects listed above and brings them to school.

3. Anticipatory Set:

Teacher displays the objects on a table and reviews the name of each object by asking: Do you remember what this is?
Teacher introduces the concept of “Touch and Feel”. Touch the objects one by one and say slowly:

Soft (fur)

Hard (wood)

Spongy (sponge)

Scratchy (sandpaper)

Cool and smooth (glass)

Smooth (plastic)

Stretchy (rubber band)

Ticklish (feather)

Teacher invites the children to touch the objects to get the feelings. He/she encourages them to repeat the adjectives while they touch. He/she also provides the translation into L 1 for those adjectives that the children find difficult to understand.

4. Teaching/Instructional Process

a. Teacher gets the drawings and shows to the children and says: Now we make our book.

Teacher asks them to match the objects with the drawings. When the matching is completed, he/she asks them to “cut” the objects and “paste” them onto the pages (except for the glass, a piece of transparent plastic in the shape of a glass can replace it!) the objects will obviously be shaped to fit the drawings. While the children “cut and paste”, teacher encourages them to say expressions like:

The feather goes here.

…and the sponge goes there.

…too big! Cut it.

Get the glue.

Too much glue. Less next time!

Careful!

Here it goes. Good job!

5. Guided practice and monitoring

a. When the drawings are ready, teacher gets the nine sheets of white paper, and then reads the descriptions. While reading, he/she stresses the adjectives and asks the children to find the appropriate drawing for each description. Teacher sticks each “description” on a while sheet of paper and puts the drawing next to it. Teacher lets the children help him/her do it.

b. Teacher arranges all the papers in a book format, following this example:

Bind them, prepare a cover which says:

The touch and feel book

By……

6. Closure

a. Teacher asks the children to go through the book, colour the drawings – they may do it in turn – and highlight the adjectives that describe the objects.

Now the book is already to be read to and by the children.

7. Independent Practice

In this section teacher ask students to ponder on their own or in small group or pair by giving some questions.