Today there has been a fact in our environment that ambitiously parents send their children in the play groups, kindergarten or courses offering English designed especially for children. Bilingual school is the favorite school for parents to send their children to study. They believe that the best moment to teach English to their children is at the early age. They assume that the earlier children learn English, and the more exposure to the language, the better it will be. This fallacy is not wrong but does not mean right too, because the success of foreign language learning is not only determined by the age but also the nature of language instruction given, psychological and social factors, teaching materials, individual differences in cognitive and learning styles, and many other factors.
Teaching English to young learners should be handled in good way. It needs highly skilled and dedicated teaching. Teachers of English for young learners need to have a sound understanding of how students think and operate, that is how young learners learn a language. This will serve as the foundation for the implementation of teaching English to young learners.
Young learners will learn best if the people involved in the teaching learning process facilitate the learning and take into account the way they learn into the teaching practices. Piaget (1967 cited in McCloskeey, 2002), suggested that children developed through specific stages, they are: (1) Sensori-Motor Stage (from 0 – 2 years) in which children seemed to learn through physical interaction with the world around them. (2) Pre-operational Stage (from 2 - 7 years) when children need concrete situations to process ideas. (3) Concrete Operational Stage (from 7 - 11 years) in which children begin to conceptualize and do some abstract problem solving, though they still learn best by doing. (4) Formal Operational Stage (from 1-15) in which children are able to use abstract thinking.
Young learners can be included into aged 7-11 years or within concrete operational stage, where they learn best from concrete things around them. Piaget believed that children went through the stages above and that they could only move into the next stage when they had completed the stage before and were ready to do so.
Vygotsky (1978, cited in Hughes, 2009) believed that language was central to the cognitive development of children, that it was instruction provided by an adult that helped children learn and develop.
The distinction between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s views was that while Piaget suggested that children work through different stages of learning on their own, Vygotsky (1978) maintained that there is a difference between what children could achieve and how they could develop on their own and what children could achieve and how they could develop when an adult was able to lead and guide them which was described as the zone of proximal development.
The support given by adults was described as scaffolding by Bruner (1983 cited in Hughes, 2009 ) . With scaffolding children develop and grow because the adults give support to their thinking and learning process. The term scaffolding is widely used in English language teaching when teachers provide support in the learning process to facilitate the learning either by providing the vocabulary or asking some guiding questions.
Children all over the world acquire their native language without formal training and there are some theories regarding the language acquisition process. Chomsky (1959, cited in McCloskey, 2002) believed that learning was innate, in the sense that every child has an innate capability to learn a language.
Children also learn about their world in different ways, using their preferred learning styles. They may be characterized as visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners. A visual learner learns best if they see what is happening and links to their understanding. On the other hand, an auditory learner will need to hear the input, while a kinesthetic learner will learn best if the learning involves physical movement.
Relating the theories above, come implications on teaching English to Young Learners can be drawn on. Firstly, knowing that children learn from the world around them, it is necessary that teachers provide good and tranquilly, peace and pleasant environment for children to learn. Teachers should also make sure that the subject is taught in a very practical, hand-on way that they can interact with actual, physical and here and now or concrete aspects, which is appropriate with their concrete operational stage as suggested by Piaget.
Following Vygotsky’s and Bruner’s views, it is equally essential to support children learning by providing support or scaffolding. This can be done by simplifying the tasks, providing the vocabulary, giving guiding questions or phrases, etc.
The teaching and learning process for young learners should be connected with everyday life, what the children already know and importantly should be fun. Children have a short attention span so teachers should be ready with a rich variety of learning activities. Language teachers also have roles as mentors - who must support and scaffold the learning, and as modelers -who must provide good examples of the language in use. As a good model, teachers should make sure that they use the correct forms of language and pronunciation, because children imitate their teachers with deadly accuracy. Providing incorrect model will lead children to fossilize the error until they are adults.
Children’s learning styles must also be taken into account, so teachers should manage activities that accommodate the three main learning styles mentioned previously. For example, teachers can provide interesting pictures, photos, and other visual media to facilitate visual learners. The room can be colorfully decorated to attract their attention. Teachers can also give music, songs or audio stimuli for auditory learners and invite students to make physical movement (drawing, jumping, dancing) for kinesthetic learners. The latter one might require a room large enough to move around. Teachers should be prepared with various activities and be flexible to move from one another to prevent boredom, considering children’s short attention span.
References:
Siti Rodiyah, Rojab. Teaching English to Young Learners: How They Learn and the Pedagogical Implication. UPI Bandung
Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson Education Ltd.
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