The characteristics of children in pre-school ages

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1. Objects

Brown, Lewis, and Harcleroad 1977: 270 stated that objects should be determined by the purposes for which they are to be used. In this study, objects show the things in its real size or shapes, such as whiteboards, cassettes, and tape.

2. Events Real Places

Events provide stimuli to the students by means of field trips. Therefore, event is also called real places because the students conduct direct observation Gerlach Ely, 1980: 375. It refers to buildings which has the real width and length, where people use it as a place to meet and to gather one another. The examples of real places are market, train station, and hotel.

5. Teaching Children in The Pre-School Ages

The discussion on pre-school students covers two major points. Those are the characteristics of children in pre-school ages and principles of teaching pre- school students.

a. The characteristics of children in pre-school ages

The discussion of young learners in English course is taken up since the subjects of this study are children in the pre-school stage of “Speak First”. According to Ritter 1950, “Young learners learn by seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting”. Their growths in this grade are indicated by special characteristics that differentiate them from others. “Those characteristics include physical characteristics, intellectual characteristics, emotional characteristics, and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 29 soc ial characteristics” Cole, 1956: 125. Further, the special characteristics of children as young learners will be explained. Within physical characteristics, children grow through special characteristics. During the years of schooling, children grow physically as their bones, muscles, as well as nerve system develop. “The physical development of the body requires children to do any physical activities at one moment that make them easily exhausted” Cole, 1956: 126. Therefore, it is better if children are not burdened with too many complicated activities that demand great effort and concentration, since their nerve and muscular control will rapidly become worse if too much complex work is required over them. “Within the intellectual development, children possess immature mind that leads them to poor memories since their development has not been accomplished yet in this stage” Cole, 1956: 127. It is quite hard for them to memorize all the things they find in their environment in detailed way. Children usually have a good memory only at a thing that interests them most particularly on concrete thing. Added to intellectual development of children, their fantasy is strong since their reality of knowledge is weak. Any fantasy that they find and they create in their little environment leads them to experience a new thing involving their imaginations that are somewhat overrated. Generally, children need to have the feeling of being secure and safe when they do such activities. The feeling of security is found when they do the same things repeatedly. The same activities or things make them feel safe for they do not have to be exposed to a new experience PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 30 that is somehow unfamiliar and terrible for them. As they make repetition at the known and familiar things, hence, they are devoted to routine. “Emotional development is indicated firstly by lack of self-control and inhibition and secondly by assortment of exaggerated fears over children” Cole, 1956: 128. This means that they want to do something processed in their mind immediately. In other words, children intend to do a large variety of things at one moment. Secondly, the emotional development that is indicated by assortment of exaggerated fears is caused by little knowledge that children have on any point. For instance, they are afraid of thunder, wind, or darkness for they lack of information about them. In this phase, children experience intense feeling of insecurity. They always need some help from an adult to do or even to accomplish their work for they are not yet old enough to understand what is happening in their environment. In an ordinary school environment, children usually have a load of anxiety towards anything that they cannot concentrate upon pre-schoolwork. The anxiety often makes them ask several things to an adult until they feel that their curiosity has been satisfactorily fulfilled. According to Cole 1956: 130, “the social characteristics of children are indicated by two significant characteristics”. They are highly individualistic in their interests and desires, but highly depend upon others for putting their desires into effect. Children usually have desires particularly on everything that interests them. They really want their desires to be fulfilled even without being able to satisfy those. Hence, children are almost always dependent upon others in order to do so. Nonetheless, the contact towards socialization that children have is little, so PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 31 they do not know how to get along with others. Thus, it is to say that they are intense individuals.

b. Principle of teaching pre-school students