Developing Learning Materials for Young Learner

c. Developing Learning Materials for Young Learner

Choosing appropriate materials is one of the important aspects in English teaching for children. Materials are needed to support the language-teaching activity. Materials refer to anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of learning language Tominson, 1998: 2. The materials for teaching English for children should be different from those for teaching English to adults. The materials for children must be appropriate to children’s characteristics as young learner. In designing materials for children, the teachers are expected to design materials with fun activities which can facilitate children’s active movement and cheerfulness. Scott and Ytreberg 1990 say that young children are seem to be enthusiastic in doing their activity and are full of energy so the language teaching – learning activity for them should be full of variations and changes. Young Learners work hard to make sense of what the teachers ask them to do, and come to tasks with their own understanding of the purposes and expectations of adults Cameron, 2001: 21. Cameron 2001: 31 also gives some identification of the key features of task for children learning foreign languages. They are: - have coherence and utility for learners - have meaning and purposes for learners - have clear language learning goals - have beginning and end - involve learners actively. Brewster et al. 2002: 49 proposes that a task for young learners involves meaningful purpose and context to stimulate learners to do something through language. It is important for children to know why they are leaning certain language and what they are going to do with it. Good tasks encourage pupils to personalize language, pursue their interests and use language in independent and creative way. Further, Brewster et al. summarize the characteristics of tasks for young learner as follow: Figure 4: Characteristics of tasks for young learners, Brewster et al. 2002: 52 cognitively demanding are contextualized have a clear goal provide pupil independence and choice TASKS have a clear outcome encourage production and creative use of L2 Provide opportunity to develop interaction and fluency can be personalized

d. Learning Materials Evaluation