Practical Activities in Teaching English for Young Learners

In response to the needs of developing human resources, the teaching of English as a foreign language has been extended to reach the elementary school level. This means that students learn English much earlier as they are young learners. The hope is that students will get exposure to English and a consequence, the expectation to get a better learning is more open. One of the elective courses in English education which is entitled “Teaching English for Young Learners” has been offered since 1995 (Kasbolah, 1999). The main aim of this course is simply known to prepare the teachers who are capable in mastering the material for young learners. Besides preparing the main material or routine lesson planning, the teachers need some activities which are required to make the lesson run smooth and interesting. In this case teachers are supposed to prepare ideas for keeping the young learners busy by providing practical activities. Several practical activities can be accomplished, three of which are essential: singing songs, telling stories and playing games.

The first activity which is really enjoyable for youth is singing songs. Children may motivate working with well-known songs. When the teacher uses this activity, at least for students who have less interest to the material taught, they can be motivated with the songs they may like. There are several songs from traditional ones to the special material songs for youth. In addition, teacher can use songs to teach children the English songs or alphabets. It is aimed to reinforce the children’s vocabulary as well. For instance, there are two songs which are obviously used to gain it. They are “ABC” and “That Is” songs. When the teachers use “ABC” songs to teach alphabets material, the student can memorize the alphabets easily by singing that song rather than memorizing manually. Another example is “Keep save, stay alive” song that I have found in British Council learning English for kids website. This song can be applied to teach a lesson in their life. Indeed the teacher can use this song whenever he/she conducts the teaching process.

Not only that, the activity which helps the teacher to control the cheerful classroom is telling stories. As we may know, a teacher simply reads the story and let her/his students listen to it. However, some listening activities will make young learners move about or do something wildly even worse by sitting quietly without any ideas. Therefore, teachers need other creative activities which encourage the children ability to have fantasy of the stories read by telling it in action. For example, in telling stories the teacher can change the story by looking upon the language to the level of the children’s average age. Several Indonesian’s traditional stories such as “Si Kancil” or “Timun Emas” can also be translated into English. In details, the teachers can be use visual properties either pictures or puppets to attract and to make them simply understand the stories. Afterward, the student can retell the stories read by the teacher and also using that particular property. Thus, we can imagine they do like to practice it.

Thirdly, practical activities in class actually offer more than these mentioned above. Games may facilitate young learners to see learning English as enjoyment. Several activities that involve play and enjoyment are called games. For example, drawing, guessing, clapping hands and playing are some activities to get the children attention. Moreover, games may also develop student’s ability to work in group, to co-operate and to compare. Teaching in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere may encourage the students to enroll in the classroom activities. Games can be accomplished either inside or outside the class.

In a brief, the practical activities needed to guide the young learners’ interest are apparently provided. Indeed, the teacher can apply singing songs activities, telling stories even games. They simply decide which are more suitable in some particular material. Therefore, as the teachers who handle the class activities we are recommended to be creative in choosing activities which evoke our students’ interest and the result they think learning English is enjoyment. 

Sources: 

Kasbolah, Kasiani E. S.1999. Teaching English for Young Learners. Malang: IKIP Malang.

______________. 2010. Teaching Young Learners- Introduction. London (http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/3-5.htm)

______________. 2010. Learning English Kids. London (http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch)

Written by

Orista Vella O

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