Teaching English in Elementary School Using Pictures

Nowadays, English language as an International language is not only subject for high schools students, but also for elementary schools students. It is not impossible that the students of Kindergarten have been studied English language although just for the introduction. Thus, in elementary school, teachers should teach as well as they can because elementary schools are the basic and first stage of schooling. It means that elementary schools are the foundation for students to continue their study to the next level. Moreover, people usually judge teachers’ success on the way how they thought. If the teachers want to be successful in their teaching, they should know the characters of their students. The students of elementary schools usually prefer to think about enjoyment rather than serious thing on their study. So, the teachers should have techniques to attract them. There are some techniques that can be applied by the teachers to teach them. One of them is that the teachers can use pictures in teaching students in elementary schools. There are three steps for teachers in elementary school to teach using picture; teacher’s preparation, process of teaching, and student’s evaluation.

The first thing that teachers should do is preparing all of the material to teach the students. It is important for teachers to prepare all of the material because the process of teaching will be influenced by this step. If the teachers’ preparation is good, it will cause the good process of teaching. But, if it is poor or not maximal, the process of teaching will be bad. To prepare the good material, teachers should find pictures that explain their material. They can browse the material in the Internet or draw the pictures by themselves. For example, the teachers can prepare the pictures about scenery or tourism objects. Then, the teachers should prepare what they will explain to their students using this pictures and ask some questions related to the pictures to their students.

After the preparation, the teachers go to process of teaching. This step explains about the process of teaching in the class, how the teachers explain the material and attract the students. For example, the teachers show to the students, picture about tourism objects. The pictures contain people who enjoy their vacation in the beach, then they see to the beach. It can explain about tenses, such as simple present tense. Using this picture, students will easily understand what simple present tense is and the example of it. After explaining the material, the teachers should make sure that the students understand all of the material and all of the teachers’ explanations. If the teachers are sure that their students had understood about the material, ask them to make note about what they learned using their own words. From their note, the teachers can know how far their students understand about their explanations. Understanding the students is important part for the next step.

The last step that teachers should do is evaluating the process of study. This process is important for teachers, because from this activity the teachers can know the ability of their students. It can know whether the students have already understood about the teachers’ explanations or not. Evaluation could be done not only at the end of each chapter but they can do it anytime without acknowledgment. Examination without announcement will be more challenging. This kind of examination is more natural to know how far the students understand the lesson and it will make students study every time, not only when they will have examinations. If the students get good marks, it means that the students understand the teachers’ explanations. But, if the students get bad marks, possibly the students does not understand the teachers’ explanations. It can be as a reflection for the teachers.

As we know, teaching English in elementary schools using pictures will have several effects for the students. There are; improving vocabulary, studying structures easily and improving spoken language of students. The first effect is the students can improve their vocabulary. When they see the pictures, automatically they will curious to know all about the pictures. They will ask everything relates to the pictures to their teachers. If the teachers can explain can explain clearly, it will help the students to increase their vocabulary. The teachers should change the pictures every meeting, in order to increase their students’ vocabulary. Then, every picture has different theme. It means that they will find new vocabularies everyday.

The other effect is the students can learn structures easily using this method. As we know that structures are difficult to understand. But, by using picture students can understand easily. For example, teachers show to the students, picture about people walking in the street. It gives example about present continuous tense. It explains that something happens and still in progress during a particular time. The students will easily get the point of the teachers’ explanation. If the students are interested to the pictures, the teachers can deliver their material more easily than the teachers only explain the material without any media.

The last effect is the student can improve their spoken language. Spoken language is important for students in their future. With this method, it will help the students to train their spoken language. After the teachers explain all of the material using the pictures, the teachers ask the students to describe the pictures or what they want to know about the pictures. Automatically, it will train the students to speak. Therefore, the teachers encourage the students to deliver their opinion. Usually the students are braver to deliver their opinion after they saw the pictures rather than they only listen to the teachers’ explanations. It will help them to improve their spoken language.

Based on the explanation above, the conclusion is teaching English in elementary schools using pictures has three steps; preparing all of the material, the process of teaching in class and evaluating the process of study. If all of the processes are as good as the teachers can do, it will give several effects for the students. The effect is the students can improve their vocabulary. Then, they can study structures easily and the last is they can improve their spoken language. For the teachers, it will make them more creative and always have new ideas for their students. Thus, teaching students in elementary schools by using pictures is more easily and better than without any media.

Sifa Fauziah Permatasari