English in the Elementary School

In response to the needs of developing human resources, the teaching of English as foreign language has been extended to reach the elementary school level. This means that students learn English much earlier as they are young learner. The hope is that the students will get more exposure to English and as a consequence, the expectation to get a better learning is more open. It has been mentioned in the rule that has been mentioned by the Minister of Education No. 22, elementary school students must have ability in English. The government, especially the Minister of Education think that English which is given for elementary school students can be used to keep up with other nations, especially developed nations. Unfortunately, the government has not well prepared for English language teaching in elementary school yet. There are several things that must be prepared before teaching English as foreign language in elementary school can reach its expectation.

            First, we should prepare the teacher. Most teachers in elementary school were graduated from non-English language teaching program. It does not matter if they want to teach English. For example: teachers who teach English are given English course. The headmaster of elementary school held English course for the teacher and it must be no fee. So the teacher will be more motivated.

            Second, the materials of the lesson must be based on the level of the students. It means that the teachers must know whether the materials are suitable for the students or not. As example: teacher should not give grammar/tenses lesson to the students of elementary school. As the exchange, teachers give lesson about time, verb, adjective and example of conversation in daily life. The lesson should be given with fun and joy. By a good presentation, the students will be more motivated to study English because they think that English is fun.

            Third, keeping the trust of students’ parents and society also important, especially in the thing like school payment. Today, the government has given subsidy for education I our nation. And sometimes for state elementary school, it is free from monthly fee. The truth is, there are some elementary schools which get the subsidy still take payment from students’ parents. In an illustration, the staffs in school use the subsidy from the government for their daily life and their fun. So, they ask for payment to the parents to fulfill what they should do for the school activities. They use many kinds of way to get money from students’ parents include lies. For students and parents who are rich, sometimes they do not take it seriously. But for the students and parents in the middle and middle-lower economical level, it will be a serious problem because they have to work harder to pay for school.

            In summary, the ministry of education and also the headmaster of the elementary school must well prepare everything to support teaching English as foreign language program in elementary school, such as: the teachers, materials, and keep up the trust of society in education. There are other things that must be prepared before teaching English as foreign language can reach its expectation. At least several points that have been mentioned before were done to get teaching English as foreign language well prepared. So, English education in our country can be better.

Moehamat Hendrik S

English for Elementary Schools

In response to the needs of developing human resources, the teaching 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. But, it is not easy to realize that teaching program. English teaching for elementary schools has encountered numerous problems, three of which are important: the issue of exposure to English use in everyday life, the English writing system, and the misconception about how children learn language.

The first problem is the issue of exposure to English in everyday life, which has been a serious concern to many people in Indonesia. This is one of the challenges that children learning English at elementary schools may come across with. As we know in Indonesia, as an implication of positioning English as a foreign language, English is just learned in classrooms, not widely used as a means of communication by people across the regions. This lack of exposure makes children difficult to see English learning as being functional and useful for them. For example, children who learn English in their school but never use it in their everyday life will think that English is not useful and only a lesson in class. The problem above should prevent by giving information to the children that English is so useful in next day in their future to face up the globalization era.

The second problem is the English writing, as we know words in English are written differently as opposed to the way they are pronounced. Different to English, Bahasa Indonesia has the phonetic writing system wherein the writings clearly reflect consistently the sounds. Children learning English would find English writing system confusing considering the fact that there is no direct one-to-one correspondence between the pronunciation of a word and its spelling. For example, the word “apple” is pronounced 'æpl, it is different to Indonesian pronounce. Children may find this problem when they try to read or write a word by dictation in English. But this problem can be solved by the time they are learning.

The third problem, there has been a misleading misconception about how children learn language. Children have been wrongly assumed as being “a miniature of adults”, in which the way they learn a foreign language (including English) exactly the same as the way adults do. It resulted in a far-reaching problem. That is, teachers tend to approach the teaching-learning process in the same way as they would teach adults. This will impact what methods and techniques they use in the classroom. By using right method in teaching English in elementary school, teach them as young learner should be solved the problem.

In conclusion, there are three problems that are necessary to solve or avoid for realizing English for elementary school program, they are: the issue of exposure to English use in everyday life, the English writing system, and the misconception about how children learn language. By using right method in teaching English in elementary school, it should be an effective way to get optimum consequence of the program.

 Biyantiko Galih

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

Interesting Ways to Teach 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. For instance, in my brother’s school, SDN Pagentan I Singosari, English has become a compulsory course since in the first grade. 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. However good the expectations are, that would be meaningless if the students feel that learning English is difficult to accomplish and they often do not enjoy learning English. Moreover, linguists and educators from Taiwan said that learning English in early age could hamper the children’s mother-tongue acquisition. Whereas, based on the research by professor of the university's Graduate Institute of Linguistics, children or students who have a good command of their mother tongue, they learn second language faster (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/ ; accessed: September 7, 2010). There are several ways to make students enjoy learning English without neglecting their mother tongue, three of which are important: creating a pleasant atmosphere in a class, learning language through music, and using stories in language teaching.

The first step that teachers should do is creating a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom. Classroom should be a place where students could learn language happily. Students should enjoy and satisfied when they learn and receive new information in the classroom. It is necessary to create a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom in order to make students enjoy their study. Then, if they felt enjoyed, the information would be easier to absorb. Now, the question is how to make the classroom as a good place to learn? First, teachers should respect and like their students without any exception. Teachers should make no difference in treating their students. For instance, if there is a student who makes mistakes and gets a punishment, other students who might make the same mistake should get the same punishment. Besides, the classroom has to be a familiar place for both, teacher and students. The classroom should be decorated not only by teacher’s tools but also by the students’ work and if it is necessary, teacher can put physical object that makes the learning process more interesting. For example, when the teacher gives an assignment to students, they can put their assignment on a display board on the wall or teacher can use pictures when teach about occupation or identify things around the environment. In addition, students should grant freedom from teacher in order to make them not afraid in making mistakes while they are learning, for making mistakes is the process of learning.

The following point is learning language through music. As we know that people learning language by listening to them, processing the structure, then starting to speak the language. It is almost true that most of language learners understand more than they can say, and when children learn language they respond to language before they can speak. From that point, I would say that to introduce second language to children we can use listening approach and probably it would be better if we use music. Teachers can make a rhyme or a song about the English skill they are working on. It is easier to remember since the brain of human could react to music. Moreover, teacher can use CDs about English to give the opportunity to students to hear the right pronunciation of words as well as the correct syntax and order of the words (http://eHow.com/; accessed: September 7, 2010).

The last point to make language learning interesting is by using stories in language teaching. As I know, most of the language teachers are focusing in teaching grammar, vocabulary, and even pronunciation that are covered in textbooks. Indeed, those aspects are important but there is more interesting and pleasant way to introduce all those common requirements. We know that a story is something that everybody is familiar with and people used to listen to stories and even liked them. This is the same as the children. Children like stories so much and actually, we can teach them everything through stories, but in this case, we use stories to teach them language to improve their language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, and vocabulary learning. Students do a large part of listening, listening to the teachers, to each other, and to pre-recorded material and we know that listening tasks are extremely important because most of people respond to language long before they learn to speak. They often listen to the language around them, internalize it, and formulate their own structure to produce their language (Young Learners, S. Philips, 1997, p.17). By listening to stories, students are able to understand simple sentences and new vocabulary used in language. Teachers can also use stories, especially children stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, and so forth, to improve students’ ability in speaking and vocabulary learning. For example, students can retell or read one of the stories that have been mentioned aloud to practice their speaking skill, pronunciation, and even their reading ability. Stories are more interesting to read. Besides, it is more effective to teach students about words in context rather than one by one because they can know the usage and the meaning of the words.

It is true that learning second language, especially English, in early age is quite important in the needs of improving and developing human resources. However, we should think of how to make learning more interesting for the students in order to make them enjoy and not to hamper them. Actually, there are many ways that teachers could think about and three of them, that have been mentioned, are important. Teachers should be able to create a good classroom atmosphere to make students comfortable and confident in studying. Teachers should also be able to be innovative in choosing teaching material, for example, they can teach language through music or even stories to improve the students’ proficiency.

Source: Žigárdyová, Lucie.Bachelor Thesis: Using Stories In Teaching English to Young Learners.2006.BRNO

written by Wahyu Kartika W

THINGS SHOULD BE FIXED IN SUCCEEDING 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. Yet, in fact, this prediction seems to be hard to be fulfilled due to several serious lacks in the process of learning. Here I will explain two serious problems, in terms of limited number of English teacher and method in use, which should be fixed in order to succeed young learners in learning English.

Firstly, a limited number of English teachers will impact to the teachers’ performance in the class. As we all know, a teacher has a crucial position in the learning process. The teacher is the one who lead and guide the student to gain knowledge and improve the skill. As Dra. Pratiwi Retnaningdyah, M.Hum., MA said an ideal class should contain of one teacher and about 20 students. With the number of the student, the possibility of succeeding the learning process will somehow increase because the teacher will be able to monitor the student one by one. But, in reality, English teachers of elementary schools are still very limited. For example, in one area of Sidoarjo regency, one English teacher must be responsible for conducting a learning process in at least 5 schools, 6 class each, with more than 30 students in every class . How will the teacher perform in her best if there are too many heads to be take care of? In this very case, the government should give more attention. Recruit more English teacher should be the best way soon to be done.

Secondly, the method being used in the English learning process now is conventional. Today, our English learning program is based on grammar which some education observer’s think is the major problem. This program focuses on grammar and makes it priority that most of the time, other English aspects, such as listening, speaking, and writing abilities, are being neglected. Grammar is important. But, again, do not make it become a wall that stops the student to have a thing in learning English. Students will feel afraid of English in advance when they are told to remember all tenses. They will no longer have passion to learn English. Thus, this kind of methods should be replaced. Make English learning process become interesting. For example, teachers should not correct every single grammatical error done by the students right after the students said it. It scares them out to make another mistakes that they will stop learning. Instead, ask the students to feel free to have experiments in learning English.

In summary, extending English learning to reach elementary school students must be followed by improving the lacks. As a recommendation, recruiting a number of qualified English teachers and applying suitable methods for elementary school student as young learners have to be done by the government, soon. Although the government has the biggest role in succeeding the program for they are the one who are in charge of education system, it also takes supports from all people. As a consequence, Indonesian qualified human resources who are able to compete in global world in the future are no more too good to be true.

References:

1. (http://www.klubguru.com/2-view.php?subaction=showfull&id=1203980547&archive=&start_from=&ucat=4&do=konsultasi; accessed on September 18^th, 2010)
2. (http://www.cybertokoh.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=643&Itemid=9; accessed on September 18^th, 2010)

written by Riska Ayu Wibisono

Teaching Problems to Reach Elementary School Students Level

To 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 the students will get more exposure to English and as a consequence, the expectation to get a better learning is more open. Nevertheless, that policy to introduce English to the elementary school students is not as simple as we think. How it could be successful is the big question in our mind remembering that there are many problems will come up together with the implementation. The problems are not come from the elementary students who are the main object, but they come from many thing, four of them are very crucial. Those four thing are the elementary students it self, the teachers, the parents, and the facilities of the school. Let us have a look at the problem on by one and try to overcome them as well as possible.

Firstly, the most challenging problem comes from the elementary school students. They tend to waste the time on frivolities, because they are still regarded as children. Since students are given more rights in the classroom, they tend to forget about their responcibilities. Some come with nothing at all and sit at the back disturbing their classmates.Actually, the children learn in different ways. The children are individual and different from all others. Their ability in learning depend on many factors such as age, learning style, and personality.This means that with younger children we need to personalise and give examples which relate to themselves, whereas older children need help to make sense of the world around them. This also means that children must be at the right stage ready to learn. For example younger children are ready to acquire the concepts of number, colour and shape but are not ready for abstract grammatical rules. Besides, children can usually only concentrate for short periods of time. When they are given an activity, using flashcards for example, or doing a worksheet, make sure that activity will be stopped or changed when they are bored or restless.

The second problems are faced by the teachers. It is difficult for the teachers to get to the point if the students’ behaviors are bad, disturbing, chitchatting, rebelling, disobedience, lack of concentration etc. As a teacher they must keep self-control, be cool down unless there will be no teaching process occurs. Besides, the teachers should get some guidance, for example, publishing a good newsletter with interesting and exciting stories or lesson plans, even organizing seminars, and others things that every association should keep up with. The other problem that always be mentioned by the teachers all over the countries is the salary. Adilyoussef from Europe for example said that in his country, the salary is very low. He has to work extra hours to meet the ends. The salary he receives as a teacher does not make a living. Most teachers there work about 24 hours a week for about 350 Euros a month. Inaddition to that, he has to commute for about 156km five days a week. That needs 10 Euros a day. So just in commuting it takes me 200 Euros a month. He has to live with 150 Euros. That is the major reason for him to vote for low rate of pay.

Thirdly, the parents also face the problems when their elementary school children get English. Parents want their children exposed to a second language from birth, but they want it in instant ways. They do not realize that they also have a big deal. They just send their children to the elementary school without giving any support and additional lessons in the home. Actually, giving motivation is the most important thing that must be given. The parents should encourage their children to follow their own interests and personal likes. For example if the child likes football he or she will probably like to read a story about football even if the level is a little difficult. Interest and motivation often allows children to cope with more difficult language. The next way is correcting the child's mistakes. Let the child know when they have done something well. Do not criticise them too much when they make a mistake. It is natural to make mistakes when learning a language. In addition, the British Council said that establishing a regular routine for homework is also important. The parents can check what they have to do for homework and set up a regular time for doing it.

The last crucial problem is the facilities of the school. Lack of technical infrastructure and communication facilities can serve as an example. In learning English, the students need a language laboratory to listening, reading, or watching movies. Those kinds of thing are more structural problems both in the preparation and in implementation. This might be a problem insofar it affects the results. The big number of the class member might also be the problems. Actually, the average number of students in most school goes arond 40 to 50 students per class, which makes implementing communicative activities like one of Tom Cruse movies "Mission Impossible." But this could be managalbe. There are ways to do that and we manage to succeed. Moreover, the volunteer project could also increase and develop the quality of the students learning. For example a volunteer project in Purworejo that will renovate some facilities in the local school including painting the walls, making bookshelves, etc.

Every single policy carried out by the government has many impacts and the implementation always out of the agenda. That is why; many aspects that included have to have a big deal and awareness. A policy could be done well with a good preparation. English as foreign language will be reach elementary school level with a good preparation too. The government, the students, the teachers, the parents, and the facilities of the school have to able to support it. The have to do their duty as well as possible by taking big responsibilities on their own subject matter.

References :

(http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/polls/teacher-problems#comment-7229, accessed on Sunday, September 19^th, 2010)

(http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-help-how-children-learn.htm, accessed on Sunday, September 19^th, 2010)

(http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/apr/24/easy-as-uno-dos-tres/, accessed on Sunday, September 19^th, 2010)

(http://www.cadip.org/volunteer-in-indonesia.htm, accessed on Sunday, September 19^th, 2010)

written by Rahayu Sekarini

Interesting Ways to Teach 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. For instance, in my brother’s school, SDN Pagentan I Singosari, English has become a compulsory course since in the first grade. 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. However good the expectations are, that would be meaningless if the students feel that learning English is difficult to accomplish and they often do not enjoy learning English. Moreover, linguists and educators from Taiwan said that learning English in early age could hamper the children’s mother-tongue acquisition. Whereas, based on the research by professor of the university's Graduate Institute of Linguistics, children or students who have a good command of their mother tongue, they learn second language faster (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/ ; accessed: September 7, 2010). There are several ways to make students enjoy learning English without neglecting their mother tongue, three of which are important: creating a pleasant atmosphere in a class, learning language through music, and using stories in language teaching.

            The first step that teachers should do is creating a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom. Classroom should be a place where students could learn language happily. Students should enjoy and satisfied when they learn and receive new information in the classroom. It is necessary to create a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom in order to make students enjoy their study. Then, if they felt enjoyed, the information would be easier to absorb. Now, the question is how to make the classroom as a good place to learn? First, teachers should respect and like their students without any exception. Teachers should make no difference in treating their students. For instance, if there is a student who makes mistakes and gets a punishment, other students who might make the same mistake should get the same punishment. Besides, the classroom has to be a familiar place for both, teacher and students. The classroom should be decorated not only by teacher’s tools but also by the students’ work and if it is necessary, teacher can put physical object that makes the learning process more interesting. For example, when the teacher gives an assignment to students, they can put their assignment on a display board on the wall or teacher can use pictures when teach about occupation or identify things around the environment. In addition, students should grant freedom from teacher in order to make them not afraid in making mistakes while they are learning, for making mistakes is the process of learning.

            The following point is learning language through music. As we know that people learning language by listening to them, processing the structure, then starting to speak the language. It is almost true that most of language learners understand more than they can say, and when children learn language they respond to language before they can speak. From that point, I would say that to introduce second language to children we can use listening approach and probably it would be better if we use music. Teachers can make a rhyme or a song about the English skill they are working on. It is easier to remember since the brain of human could react to music. Moreover, teacher can use CDs about English to give the opportunity to students to hear the right pronunciation of words as well as the correct syntax and order of the words (http://eHow.com/; accessed: September 7, 2010).

            The last point to make language learning interesting is by using stories in language teaching. As I know, most of the language teachers are focusing in teaching grammar, vocabulary, and even pronunciation that are covered in textbooks. Indeed, those aspects are important but there is a more interesting and pleasant way to introduce all those common requirements. We know that a story is something that everybody is familiar with and people used to listen to stories and even liked them. This is the same as the children. Children like stories so much and actually, we can teach them everything through stories, but in this case, we use stories to teach them language to improve their language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, and vocabulary learning. Students do a large part of listening, listening to the teachers, to each other, and to pre-recorded material and we know that listening tasks are extremely important because most of people respond to language long before they learn to speak. They often listen to the language around them, internalize it, and formulate their own structure to produce their language (Young Learners, S. Philips, 1997, p.17). By listening to stories, students are able to understand simple sentences and new vocabulary used in language. Teachers can also use stories, especially children stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, and so forth, to improve students’ ability in speaking and vocabulary learning. For example, students can retell or read one of the stories that have been mentioned aloud to practice their speaking skill, pronunciation, and even their reading ability. Stories are more interesting to read. Besides, it is more effective to teach students about words in context rather than one by one because they can know the usage and the meaning of the words.

            It is true that learning a second language, especially English, in early age is quite important in the needs of improving and developing human resources. However, we should think of how to make learning more interesting for the students in order to make them enjoy and not to hamper them. Actually, there are many ways that teachers could think about and three of them, that have been mentioned, are important. Teachers should be able to create a good classroom atmosphere to make students comfortable and confident in studying. Teachers should also be able to be innovative in choosing teaching material, for example, they can teach language through music or even stories to improve the students’ proficiency.

Source: Žigárdyová, Lucie.Bachelor Thesis: Using Stories In Teaching English to Young Learners.2006.BRNO

by

Wahyu Kartika Wienanda

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