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 more exposure to English and as a consequence, the expectation to get a better learning is more open. As Fachrurrazy writes “The elementary school in Indonesia included the teaching of English as a local-content subject, which may be taught from the 4^th-6^th group” (Fachrurrazy: 2010). Even now, young learner teaching begins when they are still in pre-school. In http://www.thejakartapost.com, Sugiharto states “…English education seems to be dominated by early childhood education”. Take my brother, as an example. He begins to learn English since he was in pre-school. Surely, it is not an easy challenge for the teacher who has the duty to teach English for the young learners. We can find some problems that must be encountered by the teacher in teaching English for young learners, three of which are the experience, the teaching technique, and also the media.

Dealing with the first problem, the experience of the teacher, let us have a look at what Echevaria states

“The teachers of young learners need to be able to understand their linguistic and other needs, provide appropriate instruction, and be able to assess how well students comprehend what has been taught. Beside that, those teachers should have adequate experience in facing the students from various language and cultural backgrounds” (http://blog.beswandjarum.com/arnissilvia).

In a contrast, there are still lots of teachers in Indonesia who do not have enough experiences in teaching young learners who have different language and cultural background. It makes the teachers unable to create contextual learning of English. It can happen if the teacher teaches about abstracts and give several examples from the English speaking country culture. For example, it is difficult for the students to accept if the teacher talks about the name of a person, the name of a street, the name of a place, and so on. It occurs since the young learners think that those kinds of concepts are not used in their daily life. Moreover, they have already had their own mother tongue and its structure on their mind.

            Next, let us have a look at the second problem that should be considered is that the teachers have to be able to choose the appropriate one for their students. Jane M. Cheung, a linguist for TESOL course, divides the young learners into three groups; the very young learners, who are aged 7 years old and less, the average learners, whose range between 8 and 12 years old, and the early teen learners, who are aged 13 years old and up. Each of the group needs different kinds of teaching techniques. Take the average learners, as the example. In their ages, they like to use their imagination and creativity. Hence, the appropriate methods are drawing activities, games, songs, etc that are different from the very young learners who have limited vocabulary and the early teen learners who need a challenge to learn. Due to those differences, a teacher should have understanding about their ages and appropriate methods given in the classroom. Consequently, the results that are expected to obtain the effective learning can be realized.

            The last problem that should be dealt with is the lack of instructional media, especially the books. Though the teachers have had an understanding of the methods that should be given, it is still difficult for the teachers if the appropriate books cannot be provided. As stated in http://blog.beswandjarum.com, “There is no professional attempt yet to produce books specially suited for meeting the needs of young learners learning the language employing all the sound theories regarding how young children learn”. Therefore, the teacher is urged to have creativity to make or find the supporting media. The teachers can use materials which are provided surround them, for instance, used papers, magazines, newspapers, and so on. Yet, it will be much better if the appropriate books can be provided.

            Actually, of those three problems that should be encountered by the teachers, they all need to be solved by the creative and competent teachers. To get the creative and competent teachers, it will be better if the schools employ the teachers who graduate from the University of Education. There lots of reputable colleges in Indonesia, one of which is State University of Malang that has been demanded as a supplier of the competent outcomes. However, as in http://blog.beswandjarum.com, it is stated that the goal to get better learning needs a good collaboration not only from the teacher, but also the government, students, as well as the parents to actualize the ideas.

Asizah