C. Young Learner
Learner is divided into some groups, on the cases of certain criteria. One of them is age. Young learners are student in elementary school. Philips stated that
young learners mean “children from the first years of formal schooling 5 or 6 years old to eleven or twelve years of age” Philips, 1996:5.
There are several characteristics of young learner: 1.
Young learner is only beginner in hisher schooling. Teachers have a major opportunity to mould their expectation of life in schooling
2. As a group they are potentially more differentiated than secondary or
adult learner, for they are closer to their varied home cultures and new to the conformity increasingly imposed cross cultural grouping by the
school. 3.
They tend to be keen and enthusiastic learners without inhabitations which older children sometimes bring to their schooling.
4. Their learning can be closely linked with their development of ideas
and concept, because it is so close to their initial experience of formal schooling.
5. They need physical movement and activity as much as stimulation for
their thinking and the closer together these can be the better. Brumfit, Moon and Tongue, 1995: v
According to Wendy A Scott and Lisbeth H Ytreberg in their book Teaching English to Children, young learner is classified into two main groups:
1. The five to seven years old beginning stage
- They can talk about what they are doing
- They can tell about what they have done
- They can plan activities
- They can use logical reasoning
- They can understand direct human interaction
2. The eight to ten years old
- They can understand abstract
- They can understand symbol beginning with words
- They can generalize and systematize
Scott and Yterberg, 1998:2 They said “Young children love to play and learn best when they are
enjoying themselves, but they also take themselves seriously and like to think that what they are doing is real work” Scott and Yterberg, 1998:2.
It can be said that in this age, they are in a golden age, because in this period, their physical and mental developments grow fast. That is why it is
important to give a learning language to them from the earliest time.
D. Realia
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