or for learners who have low competence that they are unable to understand the language of the outside world. Student should never be required to produce speech
unless they ready to do so. Speaking fluency cannot be taught, but emerge naturally in time with enough comprehensible input. Error correction should be
minimized in the classroom because it raises the affective filter, even it should not be used in free conversation or when acquisition is likely to take place. The
requirement of optimal input should be comprehensible, interesting and relevant, not grammatically sequenced, provided in sufficient quality to supply i+1, and
delivered to the student who are willing to do.
39
Based on the explanation above, it seem that language acquisition is similar to the process by which children acquire their native language, and learning
language involves conscious knowledge of grammatical rules. Since second and foreign language acquisition is similar to children acquire their first language,
learning can be function only as an editor of what is produced, and learning can serve as a monitor of performance. Learner acquires new structure only when
comprehensible input i+1 is exposed. Error correction should be minimized in the classroom, where the main purpose of the instruction should be to provide
comprehensible input. For successful in language learning, the learner must be motivated, have a good self-image, and be free from anxiety.
c. Constructivism
According to Bartlett and Burton in their book Introduction to Education Studies,
“Constructivism is predicated on the idea that people make their own sense of things in a unique ways ...Constructivism emphasizes the need to give
learners responsibility for directing their own learning experience”.
40
In addition Pritchard and Woollard explain that “this theory is based on the central notion that
is learners we construct out own understanding of the world around us based on experience as we live and grow. We select and transform information from past
39
Hadley, op. cit., p. 61-62.
40
Bartlett, op. cit., p. 124.
and current knowledge and experience into new personal knowledge and understanding.”
41
A psychologist Jean Piaget said, children use schemas in actively constructing their world. A schema is a concept or framework that exists in an individual’s
mind to organize and interpret information. Schema can range from a simple to the complex. Piaget’s was interested in schema focused on how children organize
and represent their current experience. He said that two process assimilation and accommodation are responsible for how children use and adapt their schemas.
Assimilation occurs when a child incorporate new knowledge into existing knowledge. In assimilation children assimilate the environment into a schema.
Accommodation occurs when a child adjusts to new information. That is, children adjust their schemas to the environment. Piaget gave an example, the way young
children know the function of hammer and nail to hang a picture based on children experience seeing people did it, and this process called assimilation. The
way young children adjust to use hammer is called accommodation.
42
He also emphasized, to adjust with the world, children cognitively organize their experiences. Organization refers to grouping isolated behavior into a higher-
order or in other word it makes a cognitive system. Every level of thought is organized, and continues refine it. This organization is an inherent part of
development. After learned certain things, children continually integrate and coordinate other branches of knowledge that often develop independently.
43
“Piaget believes that language is a subordinate part of cognitive development. ...Infant must learn about the world around them, which they do through active
experimentation and construction. For example the infant crown around the floor, observes objects from all angles and slowly develops a sensorimotor
understanding of the space in which she lives.”
44
41
Alan Pritchard and John Woollard, Psychology for the Classroom: Constructivism and Social Learning, New York: Routledge, 2010, p. 8.
42
John W. Santrock, Educational Psychology, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004, p. 39.
43
Ibid.
44
Gleason, op. cit., pp. 383-384.
Piaget emphasized that children learn best when they are active and seek the solutions for themselves rather than imitating the teacher or doing thing by rote
Learning something in order to be able to repeat it from memory rather than to understand it. He suggested that effective teacher designs situations that allow
student learning by doing. These situations promote students’ thinking and discovery, and the teachers listen, watch and question student, to help them gain
better understanding. The teacher also needs to co nsider the child’s knowledge
and level of thinking. For Piaget, children’s learning should occur naturally; children should not be pushed and pressured into achieving too much too early in
their development, before they are ready. Teacher observes the stud ents’ interests
and natural participation in any activities to determine what the course of learning will be. Teacher encourages peer interaction during the lesson and games because
students’ different viewpoints can contribute to advance thinking.
45
Other psychologist who believed that children actively construct their knowledge is Lee Vygotsky 1896-1934. Santrock explained the heart of
Vygotsky’s view: 1
The child cognitive skills can be understood only when they are developmentally analyzed and interpreted. For Vygotsky, taking a
developmental approach means understanding the child’s cognitive functioning by examining its origins and transformations from earlier to
later forms. Thus, particular mental act such as using inner speech cannot be view accurately in isolation but should be evaluated as a step in a
gradual developmental process. 2
Cognitive skills are mediated by words, language, and forms of discourse, which serve as psychological tools for facilitating and transforming mental
activity. For Vygotsky, in early childhood, language is begin to be used as a tool that helps the child plan activities and solves problems.
3 Cognitive skills originate from social relations and culture. He described
child’s development as inseparable from social and cultural activities. In
45
Santrock, op. cit., p 50.
one culture child learn to account by help of computer, another perhaps learn to count by using fingers or using breads.
46
Santrock further explained that based on Vygotsky’s view, “knowledge is distributed among people and environment, which include objects, artifacts, tools,
books, and the communities in which people live. This suggests that knowing can best be advanced through interaction with others in cooperative activities.
47
According to Santrock, Both Piaget and Vygotsky emphasized on children actively construct knowledge and understanding rather than being passive
receptacle. But Vygotsky is social constructivist approach which emphasizes the social context of learning and that knowledge is mutually build and constructed.
48
It can be said that for Vygotsky knowledge is constructed through interaction with others.
He introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development ZPD. It is the set of tasks that children can master by other’s help.
The zone of proximal development ZPD is the term for the range of tasks that are too difficult for children to master alone but can be learned with
guidance and assistance from adults or more skilled children. Thus, the lower limit of ZPD is a level of a problem solving reached by the child working
independently. The upper limit is the level of additional responsibility the child can accept with the assistence of an able instructor.
49
Beside ZPD, Vygotsky also introduced scaffolding. It is a technique of changing the level of support. It means the technique of how teacher or instructor
adjusts to the learner needs and abilities. When the task is new, the instructor adjusts the amount of guidance to fit student’s current performance level, as the
students performance increase, the guidance is decrease. The important of scaffolding in ZPD is
based on Vygotsky’s view as children having rich but unsystematic, disorganized, and spontaneous concepts. Thus, children’s needs
other who skilled in order the children’s concepts become more systematic,
logical, and rational.
50
46
Ibid, p. 51.
47
Ibid.
48
Ibid., p. 54.
49
Ibid., p. 51.
50
Ibid., p. 52.
