Student Team Achievement Division

12 the teacher has to understand them by trying to know them and find out what the students really need. Setiyadi 2006 states that “since they are in the age of transition from childhood to adult, some assumptions about teaching English to children apply to teaching them and to some extent assumptions about teaching adults may also work for this group ”. This emphasizes the teacher‟s duty to decide what kind of teaching model which might be applicable for the adolescent students. Many adolescent students are immature because they are still in the early adulthood. They are in need of support from their environment, especially from their family and school to face the conflicts and confusions that arise in their adolescence. According to Clark and Starr 1991, “the adolescents need a transitional program like that of the middle school rather than the complexities of the high school departmentalized program ” p. 24. The teaching program applied should not be complicated even though in this age of transition, the students are starting to understand the concepts of formal abstract knowledge. As explained by Setiyadi 2006, “teenagers have more increasing capacities for abstraction as a result of intellectual maturation. They are more ready to learn the target language without the absence of physical object because they are already good at handling abstract rules and concepts ” p. 182. This characteristic will help the teacher to determine a suitable language teaching method of technique for the adolescents. The teaching given should not also stop their creativity. The adolescents tend to regard school as their enemy because of school‟s rules that tend to limit their creativity. Clark and Starr 1991 state that “for the students schools are 13 likely to be sources of frustration, failure, humiliation, and punishment as well as presenting opportunities for social growth, pleasure, learning skills and knowledge, and gaining experience in the art of becoming adult ” p. 23. Socially, adolescents, 11 to 18 years old students, are more vulnerable than any other age group. Since they are entering a new world, the adolescents are still unsure about their position and they need to adapt. The adolescents call for much support from the family and school, as well as the support from their friends. In this moment, the teacher has the full responsibility to guide and support them because their friends are still adolescents who need guidance too. According to Clark and Starr 1991, “sympathetic guidance at this point is most critical because it is at this time that one begins to form one‟s value, life view and mode of living ” p. 24. They need support from their friends because self-recognition between their friends is also important. For the adolescent students, social relationship is more likely to be the part of recognizing themselves. Many learning activities are better done in pair or even in group. It is because through the pair and group work, adolescent students can learn both directly and indirectly with the help of their friends as the model. As stated by Hamachek 1985, “the participants‟ primary motivation is not necessarily to know others, but to know themselves through feedback from others ”. As the growth of the adolescent students, a peer group involvement takes big contribution in the development of the social and cognitive skill of young adult students. According to Hamachek 1985, “at least six important functions