The Characteristics of Adolescent Learners

18 3 Information processing It is related to how to response others’ feelings. A good communicator has to give response as quick as possible when processing information from other speaker.

3. Teaching Speaking to Adolescent

a. The Characteristics of Adolescent Learners

Brown 2001: 91 states that the adolescents or teenagers are the people who have range of ages between twelve to eighteen. In other words, the people who have life phase between childhood and adulthood is called adolescent. For that reason, the way to teach English to adolescent is different from adults or children. Some experts have different ideas about the characteristic of adolescents. Here is the list of their characteristics proposed by Brown 2001: 92. 1 Adolescents are able to solve some complex problems with logical thinking as a result of the linguistic development. They can think with abstract concept to achieve the comprehension. 2 The period of time to concentrate can be lenghthened as a result of intellectual maturation. 3 Adolescents still need to see, listen, speak, feel, touch something to improve their understanding about the lesson. 4 The special characteristics that distinguish between adolescents and children are related to ego, self-image, and self-esteem. The change of physical and emotional in this age makes adolescents are hypersensitive. 19 In this condition, the teacher has to keep self-esteem high by avoiding embarassment of students, supporting each person’s talents and strengths, allowing mistakes and other errors to be accepted, de-emphasizing competition between classmates, and encouraging small-group work where risks can be covered. 5 Adolescents can deal with grammar or vocabulary items in immediate communicative contexts. From the characteristics above, it can be concluded that adolescents are the group of people who have a great ability to develop their knowledge about language. The teacher may try to manage the class well, push the students with motivation, gives the students opportunity to express their ability without too much pressure, knows the adolescents characteristic, learns to cover their mistakes, and so on. So, the teaching learning process is expected to run well in line with adolescents need. In addition, Herbert and Michael in Harmer 2001: 38 said that adolescents seemed to be less energetic and humorous than adults. Harmer 1998: 2 states different things about adolescents. Adolescent students may be disruptive in class because of some factors such as the need for self-esteem, the peer approval, and the boredom they feel. In addition, adolescents also can cause discipline problems. But, if adolescents are engaged, they have a great capacity to learn, a great potential for creativity, and a passionate commitment to things which interest them. So, teachers must stimulate student engagement with 20 material which is relevant and involving. They also need to boost students’ esteem and be conscious of their need for identity. Basically, adolescents have a unique characteristic as it has been explained above. Therefore, teachers should prepare relevant strategies to teach speaking to them. The appropriate method, technique, and materials are necessary to help them understand how to improve their speaking skills.

b. Principles for Teaching Speaking