Teaching
English as a Foreign Language for Elementary Students in Indonesian School
Fenty Yunia Vianarika
101214058
Sanata Dharma University
I hear and I forget
I see and I remember
I do and I
understand
-Chinese Proverb-
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays,
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has become more popular in some educations in
Indonesia and they start to teach EFL in Elementary School. As cited from http://www.det.nt.gov.au/ about NT Curriculum Framework, “English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) involves teaching adults and children whose first or main
language is not English while English as Second Language (ESL) involves
teaching adults and children whose second language is English.” It means that
EFL is not children daily speaking. However, they use English language in
certain places such as in school or in class when they are learning English
language. There are two problems in teaching EFL for Elementary students: (1) The
teaching methods of EFL are not interesting and (2) the teacher cannot explain
the material in a simple language. Because of those problems, Elementary
students cannot speak English fluently and correctly until they are adults. As
cited from http://journal.teflin.org/ by Patuan Raja, “One major problem in teaching
English is the English language department of Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu
Pendidikan (FKIP) especially in English education are designed to supply English
teacher to senior – not even junior – high schools.” Teacher from Elementary
education or Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Dasar (PGSD) will take this opportunity to
teach English language for Elementary students so that the students may have
some difficulties in learning English language because of the teacher does not
have a good educational background in English language and how to teach EFL for
Elementary students. Therefore, this essay will discuss about two methods to
teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for Elementary students in Indonesian
school, examples of teaching activities English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for
Elementary students, and the benefits of using Total Physical Response (TPR)
and combining hand-made materials as the teaching activities in class.
PART 1: TWO METHODS TO TEACH ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE (EFL)
Methods
to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for Elementary students are using
Total Physical Response (TPR) and combining hand-made materials. First method
to teach EFL for Elementary students is using Total Physical Response (TPR) was
developed by James Asher, “consists basically of obeying commands given by the
instructor that involve an overt physical response” (Krashen, 1982, pp.140-142).
Teacher can give commands to the students in a classroom such as the teacher
says “stand up” and the students must obey the command so, the students stand
up. Then, the teacher says “turn around” and the students turn around. And the
last, the teacher says “sit down” and the students sit down. In TPR, teacher’s
role only as a director of all students’ behavior and students learn how to
behave by listening and doing the commands. There are three principles of TPR
methods: “(1) Delay speech from students until they get their understanding in
spoken language, (2) achieve understanding of spoken language through
utterances by the instructor in the imperative, and (3) students will indicate
a ‘readiness’ to talk at some point in the understanding of spoken language”
(Asher, 1977, p.1041). The explanation of the three principles of TPR is (1)
teacher never explain the words semantically but, teacher only practices the
words in front of the class. Students must follow the teacher behavior until
they understand the meaning of the words. (2) Students will understand the
meaning of the words and they can memorize the words well, and (3) after the
students understand the meaning and memorize the words, they have a readiness
to give the commands. In sum teacher believes by using TPR, “The importance of
having their students enjoy is their experience in learning to communicate in a
foreign language” (Larsen-Freeman, 2000, p.113). Second method to teach EFL for
Elementary students is combining hand-made materials. As cited from http://vox-vocis.hubpages.com/, “combine hand-made materials make students like to
be engage in practical, fun activities and exercises, and participate in making
things such as Christmas postcards, paper airplanes, paper ships and so on.”
Hand-made materials also make students can get their understanding in learning
English language and increase their creativity because they make a hand-made
while the instruction of making hand-made is using English language. Thus,
students will get two skills in their learning English such as communication in
English language and creativity. Therefore, these two methods to teach EFL for
Elementary students can increase students’ opportunity to speak up and to be
more active besides their creativity.
PART 2: EXAMPLES OF TEACHING ACTIVITIES ENGLISH AS A
FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS
EFL
teaching activities for Elementary students must be designed in interesting
way, easy to understand, and using a simple language so that the students can get
their target in learning English language. One of EFL teaching activities is
using TPR, and as an example of TPR teaching activity is in table 1:
Table
1
|
OBSERVATIONS
|
PRINCIPLES
|
|
The
teacher gives a command in the target language and performs it with the
students.
|
Meaning
in the target language can often be conveyed through actions. Memory is
activated through the learner response. Beginning foreign language
instruction should address the right hemisphere of the brain, the part which
controls nonverbal behaviour. The target language should be presented in
chunks, not just word by word.
|
|
The
students say nothing.
|
The
students’ understanding of the target language should be developed before
speaking.
|
|
The
teacher gives the commands quite quickly.
|
Students
can initially learn one part of the language rapidly by moving their bodies.
|
|
The
teacher sits down and issues commands to the volunteers.
|
The
imperative is a powerful linguistic device through which the teacher can
direct student behaviour.
|
|
The
teacher directs students other than the volunteers.
|
Students
can learn through observing actions as well as by performing the actions
themselves.
|
|
The
teacher introduces new commands after she is satisfied that the first six
have been mastered.
|
It
is very important that students feel successful. Feelings of success and low
anxiety facilitate learning.
|
|
The
teacher changes the order of the commands.
|
Students
should not be made to memorize fixed routines.
|
|
When
the students make an error, the teacher repeats the command while acting it
out.
|
Correction
should be carried out in an unobtrusive manner.
|
|
The
teacher gives the students commands they have not heard before.
|
Students
must develop flexibility in understanding novel combinations of target
language chunks. They need to understand more than the exact sentences used
in training. Novelty is also motivating.
|
|
The
teacher says, “Jump to the desk.” Everyone laughs.
|
Language
learning is more effective when it is fun.
|
|
The
teacher writes the new commands on the blackboard.
|
Spoken
language should be emphasized over written language.
|
|
A
few weeks later, a student who has not spoken before the commands.
|
Students
will begin to speak when they are ready.
|
|
A
student says, “Shake hand with your neighbour.”
|
Students
are expected to make errors when they first begin speaking. Teachers should
be tolerant of them. Work on the fine details of the language should be
postponed until students have become somewhat proficient.
|
(Larsen-Freeman,
2000, pp. 111-113)
Another
EFL teaching activity is using hand-made materials to develop students’
activity and creativity in class. Students can get their target language in
learning English language. The teaching activities in EFL classroom by using
hand-made materials are in Table 2:
Table
2
|
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
|
PRINCIPLES
|
|
1.
Teacher
gives flash cards which have pictures and names of family members, such as
F-A-T-H-E-R, M-O-T-H-E-R, B-R-O-T-H-E-R, S-I-S-T-E-R.
2.
Teacher
asks the students to memorize the words.
3.
Teacher
asks the students to submit the flash cards.
4.
Teacher
gives another card. However, these cards have not any words only pictures.
Then, teacher is not distributing the flash cards to the students. Teacher
keeps the flash card and she/he will show it in front of the class and say,
“Who is she/he?”
5.
When
students make a mistake, teacher must say, “No, she is not a mother.” So, the
teacher is not allowed to give the correct answer.
6.
Another
activity, teacher asks the students to make flash card of 10 animals.
|
Students look the pictures and the words. By looking
the pictures, students can differentiate which one are father and mother.
Students can memorize the words by looking the
pictures and imagine.
Students learn to obey and give their respect to the
teacher.
Students are trying to memorize the words and the
meaning by looking the pictures. Then, students try to answer the pictures
and they will say, “She is a mother or He is a father.”
Students expected that they will learn from their
mistake.
Students will make flash cards of 10 animals and
each student will perform in front of the class to show his/her creativity.
From this activity, students can improve their creativity and communication
in target language.
|
Table
2 is explaining one method of combining hand-made materials for Elementary
students by using flash cards of family members. Teacher can use another media
such as Christmas postcard, paper airplanes and ships.
PART 3:THE BENEFITS OF USING TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE
(TPR) AND COMBINING HAND-MADE MATERIALS AS THE TEACHING ACTIVITIES IN EFL
CLASS.
The benefits of Total Physical Response
(TPR) insure the students’ participation and understanding, and provide the
understanding by hear the word. As cited from http://sastra.um.ac.id/
by Handoyo Puji Widodo, “The method is a lot of fun because students enjoy it,
it is memorable because it does assist students to recognize phrases or words,
good kinaesthetic to be active, can be used in large or small classes, works
well with mixed ability classes because the physical actions get the meaning
effectively so that the learners can get their target language, ...” It is true
that students are enjoying learning English language because the learning
process is not boring. Students can get their interest to study more in English
language. The learning process is memorable because students are practicing the
words and it makes students to be more active in class participation and also
good for their kinaesthetic development. Then, the benefits of combining
hand-made materials make students to be more creative, innovative and love the
environment. As cited from http://www.ehow.com/
by Matt Scheer, combining hand-made materials as the methods to teach EFL “can
save the money, recycle and get students’ focused.” He said that teacher can
create the same materials from his/her past activity for less the money and
share the ideas with other teachers to help them save their materials too,
teacher can use materials around them or used items. Recycle can challenge
students’ creativity and teach them to reduce waste. Then, the materials can be
designed for children’s specific needs which can ensure their interests in
language learning. Moreover, students are helped by certain activities in their
learning language and necessary skills. Students can learn from pictures and
they will imagine the words by looking the pictures. They will learn to
memorize the words and the meaning only looking the pictures. From these
activities, students expected that they can get their target language in
learning English and have an opportunity express their capability and
creativity in learning English.
CONCLUSION
In sum, between TPR and combine
hand-made materials are good methods to teach EFL for Elementary students.
Teacher can use those methods in his/her class when they should teach in EFL
classroom. Then, teacher can consider from the benefits by using TPR and
combining hand-made materials, and then the teaching activities are interesting
to do in EFL class. The goal is the students can get their target language in
learning English practically rather than theoretically.
References:
Krashen, Stephen D. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language
Acquisition. Pergamon Institute of English. New York. pp. 140-142.
Asher, J. (1977). The Total Physical
Response approach to second language learning. Modern Language Journal. p. 1041.
Larsen-Freeman, Diane. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language
Teaching. Second Edition. Oxford University Press. pp. 111-113.
Widodo, Handoyo Puji. Retrieved on September
26, 2012, 16:59 from http://sastra.um.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Teaching-Children-Using-a-Total-Physical-Response-TPR-Method-Rethinking-Handoyo-Puji-Widodo.pdf
Raja, Patuan. Retrieved on September 16,
2012, 12:53 from http://journal.teflin.org/index.php/teflin/article/viewFile/40/135
Retrieved
on September 2, 2012, 14:17 from http://vox-vocis.hubpages.com/hub/Teaching-pre-school-English
Retrieved on September 16, 2012, 12:38
from http://www.det.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/2391/ESL_introduction.pdf
Scheer, Matt.
Retrieved on October 9, 2012, 20:28 from http://www.ehow.com/list_6645072_benefits-teacher-created-materials_.html
