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 will learn English much earlier as they are young learners. The hope is that students will get more exposure to English and as a consequence the expectation to get a better learning is more open. As we know that teaching English especially for young learners is not an easy thing. They do not have basic knowledge of English and it is something new for them. Thus, the way of teaching of a teacher really influence them to be interested in learning English. Actually, there are several examples of ways to teach English for young learners which are exciting and rewarding, three of which are the use of power point media, the use of fun English games, and the learning giving the children exercises which are interesting.

The first exciting way of teaching is the use of power point media. Futunge Kisito says, “Power Point is software bundled in MS office and used for creating presentations usually in the form of slideshows.” Nowadays, power point is not such an unusual thing. Therefore, many people master this software.  As we know, the young learners usually do not pay attention to the teacher when she or he explains about something which is not interesting for them. However, they are usually easy to learn something if they like about it. Thus, we can make slide shows of power point which are interesting to attract the students’ attention. For instance, we can put the video or the pictures and the name of the pictures in the slide shows. We can also add some animation to make it more attractive. When they see the slide shows, they will be more concentrate because the slide shows attract their attention. Futunge Kisito also says, “In a few weeks of using Power Point presentations, I was amazed by the results. All of a sudden my students could concentrate long enough for me to drive home new language points.”

The second rewarding way of teaching is the use of fun English games in the classroom. When we teach young learners, we cannot force them to always pay attention to our explanation about English which is something new for them. Sometime, they will consider that English is a boring thing. Thus, asking them to play English games is one of the solutions to make the children interested in learning English. They will enjoy playing and learning English without feeling any burdens. Moreover, when they do the game, they do not realize that they are in the process of learning. Shelley Vernon says, “English Games not only engage the children, but also teach through play and most of the time the children don’t even know they are learning until the time comes to show their knowledge.” Besides that, the games will make the students to be confidence and encourage them to do them well. Shelley Vernon also says, “English Games give opportunities for shy students to express themselves in a non-threatening environment.” One of the examples of the games is what is it in English? If we want to play this game, we can start to ask one of the students to point one thing in the classroom and ask their friend what is the name of that thing in English. Then, the one who answers it will do the same thing as the student before.

The third way of teaching is the use of interesting exercises. As the matter of fact, students do not like exercises. Thus, we need to make it interesting in order to they like it. There are several interesting exercises which can be implemented to the young learners, one of which is matching and filling exercise (www.english-4kids.com). If we want to give the students exercises, we can give the print out of the papers which have many kinds of pictures and the name of the pictures randomly. For instance, the pictures and the names of the things which are in classroom. Then, we asked them to match the name of the pictures with the right pictures. Indeed, we have to give them interesting methods of teaching in order to they can absorb the knowledge well and they can do the exercises well too.

Based on the explanation above, we can conclude that teaching English especially for young learners is not such a simple thing. However, there are some ways to make them interested in learning it. They are using power point presentations in teaching, using English games, and giving the children exercises which are interesting. Thus, the teachers who teach English of young learners can use the methods by applying them in the classroom when they teach their students.

 Written by

Mega Astya

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