Teaching English to Children

Posted by Mamad Kuncoro at 11:45 AM Read our previous post

   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