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teachers with English teaching background but had no experienced in teaching young learners such as Elementary School students, or 2 experienced teachers of Elementary
Schools but without English teaching background. Because of this condition, English learning in Elementary School was not meaningful, in artificial context, and far from the
purpose of teaching English naturally, as a mean of communication Kismadi, 2004 to emphasize listening and speaking skills Sutarsyah, 2004.
However, the KTSP 2006 had revised English learning in elementary school level. Then English learning in elementary school was carefully anticipated by Educational
Institutions. One of the institutions was Indonesia University of Education. English for Young Learner EYL, Teaching English to Young LearnersTEYL and some other
courses focusing on English learningin elementary School inhad been included to the the curriculum of English department. Meanwhile at PGSD UPI Cibiru campus, an
English concentration has been established since 2008 as one of the concentrations. This concentration is provided for the 5th semester of PGSD students as one of the choices
among the five concentrations. In this concentration, five courses 15 credits focusing on the teaching English to elementary school students are included in the curriculum.
The courses are: 1
English for Elementary School,
2
Listening for Elementary School,
3
Speaking for Elementary School,
4
Writing for Elementary School
dan 5
English Teaching Method.
In this concentration, the students of PGSD were trained to teach English to the elementary school students in a fun and meaningful way.
The teaching of English for elementary students should include the aspects relevant with the characteristics of 6-12 year-old children. In this level, it is
recommended that English lesson facilitate the need of playing for the students. Therefore, the teaching of English could be conducted in through fun and meaningful
activities, such as playing games, singing, and storytelling.
Storytelling is an activity that is suitable to be implemented in the context of language learning, especially for children Brewster, Ellis Girard, 2002; Phillips,
1993; Pinter, 2006. Furthermore, Brewster
et al.
2002 argue that storytelling activity could enhance children‟s linguistic ability. Besides, storytelling could also develop
children‟s imagination which influence their mental health Davies, 2007; Gadzikowski, 2007; Kuyvenhoven 2009.
In this study, the storytelling activities were delivered in English language as the medium of instruction since they were implemented in the context of teaching English
to the elementary school students. It was conducted by four PGSD students who were doing their teaching practice. This study tried to identify and unleash the storytelling
skill of PGSD students‟ before and after the implementation of self-training model.
Through the implementation of the self-training model, it is hoped that PGSD students could develop their teaching skill, especially in the context of teaching English as a
foreign language at the elementary school level.
Based on the background of the study, this study attempts to identify the PGSD students‟ storytelling skill through the implementation of the self-training model.
Specifically, this paper identifies whether or not the self-training model could develop the storytelling skill of the PGSD students in teaching English to elementary school
students.
A. Self-Training Model of Teaching
The self-training teaching model that applied in the study was adapted from the simulation model: training and self-trainingas proposed by Joyce, Weil and Calhoun
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2009. Basically, the simulation model is not teaching model coming from the pedagogical field. This model of teaching was originally coming from the application of
cybernetics principles which was a branch of psychology field. Through cybernetics, the psychologists attempt to make an analogy between human beings and machines. The
experts in the field of psychology tried to make concepts of response system and feedback for learners who are trained to operate particular machines. This field also tries
to interpret human beings as the one who hold the control and decision to do series of action and reaction based on the feedback given by the surroundings and environments.
Therefore, Joyce
et al.,
2009 give lot of examples on how this model of teaching works in the context of machine operation training, such as, training on how to fly a
helicopter for a pilot, car driving simulation, spaceship and rocket simulation. Altough this model of teaching was originally coming from the psychology
field; this model could be adapted and applied to the education and pedagogic field. It is possible to be applied since education field is familiar with the simulation term as one
of the methods in training and preparing the educators‟ careers for example the pre-
service teachers. The „simulation‟ term in the context of education and pedagogic is not
only related with the operation of machines, but most of all related to the interaction between the pre-service teachers with their students in the teaching and learning
situation. However, the use of machines is still possible in the context of information technology, as a teaching and learning media. In the context of pre-service teacher
training, simulation means as a set situation with a particular scenario, where a student- teacher conducts a teaching practice with hisher peers as the students. Therefore, in a
teaching simulation, the real students are not included. This kind of simulation is also called as
peer teaching
. In this research, the student-
teachers of PGSD taught the „real‟ elementary school students in doing the simulation the training. Hence, the researchers adapted the
syntax of teaching and learning process of the simulation model and then the term „self-
training‟ was given to show that the „real‟ elementary school students were included in the process of the PGSD student-teachers training.
Below is the syntax of the self-training model according to Joyce,
et al.,
2009:
Table1. Syntax of Simulation Model Joyce,
et al.
, 2009: 385
Phase One: Orientation
Phase Two: Participant Trainig
Present the broad topic of the simulation and the concepts to be incorporated into
the simulation activity at hand. Explain simulation and gaming.
Give overview of the simulation. Set up the scenario rules, roles, procedures,
scoring, typer of decisions to be made, goals. Assign roles.
Hold abbreviated practice session.
Phase Three: Simulation Operations
Phase Four: Participant Debriefing Any or All of the
Following Activities
Conduct game activity and game administration.
Obtain feedback and evaluation of performance and effects of decisions.
Clarify misconceptions. Continue simulation.
Summarize events and perceptions. Summarize difficulties and insights.
Analyze process. Compare simulation activity to the real world.
Relate simulation activity to course content. Appraise and redesign the simulation.
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1. Orientation Stage
Joyce
et al.
2009 states that the implementation of the self-training model in this stage is when a teacher, along with the students, present and discuss the general topic of the
simulation to be conducted, and important concepts that should be included during the process of the discussion. In this stage, the students are shown the overviewer of the
simulation that would be played. Joyce et al.‟s 2009 explaination about this stage is of
course closely related with machines as the simulator. Since this study did not include the using of any machines, thus, the implementation of the stage in this study was the
lecturers as the researchers‟ team together with the student-teachers discussed the taching and learning themes and topics that would be presented to the students of
elementary school. This stage was including the choosing the theme, the stories and the media for the English lesson in the context of teaching English as a foreign language at
the elementary school level.
2. The Participant Training Stage
In this stage, students are given training on how to operate the simulator machine, including the setting of the simulation scenario, such as, rules and regulations, the
students‟ role in the process of the simulation, scoring system, series of decision making, and the aims that should be achieved Joyce,
et al.,
2009: 385. In this study, the lecturers together with the student-teachers discussed the lesson planning that had
been designed by the student-teachers. The student-teachers explained the story that would be presented during the teaching of English to the elementary school students.
The lecturers gave feedback whether or not the chosen stories were suitable with the
elementary school students‟ charactristics and the aimed standard that had been decided by the school. Besides, the suitability of the chosen stories curriculum was one of the
considerations that should be taken into account in this stage. Also in this stage, the student-teachers were asked to do the simulation the teaching of English through the
storytelling that had been designed in the lesson plan RPP in the form of peerteaching. In this context, the student-teachers participated in this study took turn; took the role as
English teachers, teaching English through storytelling, while the remaining PGSD student-teachers took the role as elementary school students.
3. The Self-Training Operation Stage
It could be said that this stage is the core of the self-training model implementation. It was because it is the stage where the students should do the simulation face-to-face with
the simulator machine. The role of the teacher is only as the observer who observes the students in operating the simulator machine and taking decision that should be made
during the simulation process Joyce
et al.,
2009. There was no simulator machines used in this study. Therefore, in this study, PGSD student-teachers conducted the
simulation that was called as self-training, the situation where they-themselves-were facing the
„real‟ elementary school students, teaching English through storytelling. 4.
Participant Debriefing Stage This stage was conducted after the simulation stage. In this stage, the student-teachers
and the lecturers involved in this study conducted a reflection activity. Through the reflection the actions during the teaching and learning process were captured,
summarized, analysed, according to the PGSD student-teachers perspective as the
teacher who conducted the learning process, and also from the lecturers‟ perspective, in
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this context, the researchers who took the role as the observers. This stage was also the stage where the student-teachers were given feedback from the experts of Teaching
English to Young Learners TEYL and the elementary school English teacher. In the process of the feedback, the difficulties and obstacles faced by the student-teachers were
discussed. The analysis of the teaching and learning process were also unleashed by the TEYL expert, English teacher, and researchers.
B. Storytelling in the Teaching of English at Elementary School
