Teaching
English at the elementary school has been a fashion nowadays, but it has lead to
the wrong practice that in the general it has been taught structurally. This
statement means that English is taught to children not in an appropriate way.
The children are taught English just in the same way as English is taught to
adults. English is taught structurally means the children is taught about
English, not how to use English in their life and world. It is in contrast to
the belief that states that children learn a language naturally. Many English
teachers and books, which are structurally oriented. It means that they tend to
focus on teaching English rules rather than how to use it. For example, in the
elementary school students’ English handbooks, it is found a kind of question
like this:
It is … ant.
(a) the (c) a
(b) an (d) some
In the level of elementary students’ age,
this kind of question should not appear because it is not appropriate.
The main goal of teaching English at the
elementary school is building students’ interest in English, and “Learning by
Doing” or “Task Based” is believed to be a suitable approach for the goal. The reason is related to
the theory or theories underlying the approach.
There are two theories that we should
consider in exploring whether
an approach is suitable to be applied or not. They are theories on language and
language learning. Those theories should have a relation with the goals of
teaching English at the elementary students.
The goals are:
1.
building students’ interest in English.
2.
students are able to communicate in English in their
world.
·
Theories on language
Here, language is seen as a means of
communication and a means of expressing meanings. It has a relation with the
second goal, that is the students are able to communicate in English in their
world. To communicate means able to deliver and to express meaning well.
·
Theories on language learning
Here, we deal with how language is
acquired. It believes that children learn their mother tongue naturally by
doing things. Learning a language is a part of children life. The correction
happens naturally by giving the correct examples in conversation. In children
world, learning language takes place through actions so that this theory
believes that children learn language better and more effective when they are
doing something. This belief has a relation with the first goal, that is
building students’ interest in English. Learning through actions will create
fun to children. If the children get fun and motivated in learning English,
their interest in learning English will increase as well.
From the explanation above, it is clear
that the theories meet the goals of teaching English to young learners. In
conclusion, the approach is suitable to be applied.
Vocabulary to teach can be selected using the
principle “here and there”. It means, children will more easily master vocabularies which are close to them. For examples:
Nouns: body ears head hair
eyes nose lips chest
hands fingers knee feet
hat clothes shirts pants
bag socks shoes book
Verbs: see breath eat chew
smell laugh smile listen
jump run write read
hold throw play walk
move kick punch shake
Adjectives: black brown white big
small tall short fat
thin fast slow beautiful
strong weak hot cool
long thick wide narrow
Integrating English to other subjects such as
Biology, Art, and Mathematics is advantageous for successful English teaching
to young learners at the elementary school. Teaching English to young learners at the
elementary school can be related to the other subject matters. Based on
“Learning by Doing” approach, putting the children’s need first is considered
as the best approach in motivating the students (David Vale and Anne Feunteun,
1995:32). Still, based on this approach, integrating English to other subjects
may enrich the activities, vocabularies, language functions that might be
found. Different subject matters will produce different activities and
different language functions as well. By having different and various
activities, the students will get fun and motivated in learning English. It
means that integrating English to other subjects will get the students more
involved in the activities. The use of different language functions will also
enrich students’ skill in using them in real conversations. Besides, the
students may learn more than one subject matter at the same time.
When teaching English to young learners,
grammar should be taught naturally not scientifically.
Children learn language differently from
adults. The children learn their first language naturally (informally) from
parents and people around them. The language element, grammar in this case, is
taught informally through real examples without giving any explanation. The
correction also happens naturally by giving the correct example in
conversation. In children, this situation does not only occur in their first
language learning, but also in learning other language including English. That
is why teachers should be able to imitate the situation when children learn
their first language and bring the real experiences when teaching English. For
example, in Javanese, when a child says, “Bapak
nembe mangan” the correction which can be done by parents or people around
them will supply the correct utterance only, “Bapak nembe dhahar”, without
giving any explanation to him why “mangan”
is incorrect and should be changed into “dhahar”.
The children language acquisition will be better by giving and drilling them
many examples of the correct grammar so that they will get used to and be able
to use them in daily conversation.
Your teaching at the elementary school can be
theme-based. Suppose we are teaching about a cat and relate it to Biology,
Mathematics, Craft, Music, and Drama. Now we can list the vocabulary, the structures,
and the ”doing” activities that can be possibly created.
Answer:
Topic: A Cat
Vocabularies might be found:
·
Related to Biology:
mammal head body
tail legs eyes
nose ears fur
beautiful eat walk
run breath
·
Related to Math:
number numbers long
short count
·
Related to Craft:
shapes color size
big small draw
·
Related to Music:
sound voice loud
weak song sing
listen
·
Related to Drama:
character story act
Structures might
be found: 1. Simple Present Tense
2. Present
Continuous Tense
Activities might
be found:
·
Related to Math: counting
·
Related to Craft:
making a cat
drawing
coloring
·
Related to Music: singing
·
Related to Drama:
acting
story
telling
