Language Learning and Graphology

Perspective The quotation inspires me to explore character education. Because of the special characteristic of language learning which includes psychological, interpersonal and cultural aspects all together, I try to integrate character education and language learning. Language is a mean of communication which is used by people to interact among them. Therefore, there is a space to combine character education in language learning because both deal with psychology, interpersonal and cultural aspect. To understand the characteristic of language, Weiten 1992:273-274 said that a language consists of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety. This definition includes four properties of language. First, language is symbolic; people use spoken sound and written words to represent objects, actions, events, and idea. Second, language is semantic or meaningful. The symbols used in a language are arbitrary in that no built-in relationship exists between the look or sound of words and the objects they stand for. Third, language is generative. A limited number of symbols can be combined in an infinite variety of ways to generate an endless array of novel messages, sentences which have never spoken before. Fourth, language is structured. Although, it is possible to generate an infinite variety of sentences, but they must be structured in a limited number of ways. Considering those properties of language, learning language, especially learning foreign language i.e. learning English in Indonesia, may lead students to perform all kinds of learning based on psychological functions proposed by De Block in Winkel, 1991. They learn dinamically, affectively, cognitively and senso-motorically. Dinamic learning is learning to develop desire proportionally. Affective learning is characterized by learning values of objects through feeling and learning to express emotion normally. Cognitive learning involves mental process to represent objects through ideas and opinions with words to be understood. Senso-motoric learning covers physical operation. Character education can be integrated with English learning by careful design of material and methode of teaching and learning to apply. Furthermore, language learning can be integrated with character education in an integrated skill instruction. To understand integrated-skill instruction, Oxford 2001 Perspective explained that there are two types of integrated-skill instruction: and task-based instruction and content-based instruction. Content –based instruction implies students to practice all the integrated language skills. At least there are three general models of content-based language instruction: theme-based, adjunct, and sheltered Scarcella Oxford, 1992. . In the theme-based model the language skills are integrated into the study of a theme. In the adjunct model, language and content courses are taught separately but are carefully coordinated. The sheltered model orders to simplify the s ubject matter to teach. It is tailored to students’ language proficiency level. In the task-based instruction, students participate in communicative tasks. Tasks are defined as activities that can stand alone as basic units. The attention is principally paid to meaning rather than form Nunan, 1989. Brown 2004 supports the necessity of content-based curriculum, especially in English as Second Language ESL. Although English in Indonesia is a foreign language, but for several reasons Brown’s opinions are still relevant. She mentioned some benefits of content- based ESL curriculum as follows:  The material is appropriate to students’ age and knowledge and reflects the learning content in the real condition.  Learning is more meaningful and situated through authentic texts.  Learning becomes more purposeful to reach the goal.  Students learn technical vocabulary and the use in context. This paper focuses on teaching reading and writing. The nature of them is explained by Jordan 1997 who said that reading, as a skill, is normally linked with writing. In practice material for reading is also added with related writing practice. Although the focus is still on increasing reading skill which deals with various reading strategies and comprehension practice, but the resultant exercise usually involve writing too. When students read, it is for a purpose. The purpose is very personal. It may be to obtain information like facts, data, etc or to understand ideas, concepts or theories or to discover author’s viewpoints or to seek evidence for their own point of view. In the process of reading, students will focus on the subject content of what they read and the language in which it is expressed. Both aspects involve comprehension. Students practice to utilize skills and sub-skills in reading such as Perspective prediction, skimming, scanning, distinguishing and selecting information. After reading, they can practice to draw inferences and to take conclusions. They may learn to understand graphic presentation as well as to understand text organization including the linguistic and semantic aspects like the cohesion or the relationship between and within sentences and recognizing discoursesemantic markers and their function. Jordan also said that the texts that are used for the practice are usually authentic, though possibly adapted or abridged, depending on the language level. The focus is on the reading skills, some exercises are usually included on the comprehension of certain aspects of the reading passage together with word study or vocabulary practice. In learning writing, generally there are two approaches which are widely used Jordan, 1997: the product and the process approaches. The product approach is concerned with the finished product-the text. The attention is given to the organization of writing, its structure, cohesion, various grammatical aspects and language functions. The process approach concerns with the process of writing that enables the product to be achieved. This approach emphasizes the composing processes which writers utilize, and thus puts meaning to the fore rather than forms. It allows students to express themselves more as individual. It accords with the principles of learner-centredness, encouraging individuals to take more responsibility for their own learning.. This approach views writing as a creative and the task of teachers as being engage students in the creative process. Still in learning writing activity, I like to put graphology aspect together with the writing practice. Although it is apart from language learning, but I think that language learning session is the right time to practice hand writing which is the object of graphology analysis. Graphology is the study of handwriting Quigley, 2010. By analyzing a person’s writing, a behavioral profile can be determined to gain insight into physical, mental and emotional states of the writer. Handwriting reveals the essentials of personality and character Ludvianto, 2011. Some people still consider it pseudoscientific. But there are many reports describe its role in job recruitement, traumatic healing, character building, etc. Graphology is used to develop character of the learner through grapho-therapy. Graphotherapy is the practice of using handwriting as a personal development tool to change any aspect of personality that can be changed by any other personal development tool Young, 2013. After an undesired habit is broken, a new habit is created. The time taken to this changing varies, Perspective depending on how stubbornly ingrained that habit was. And the new habit in this case is the new handwriting strokes. Grapho-therapy works because handwriting is body language and how a person acts or moves i.e. your body language affects his feelings just as how he feels effects how he acts or moves. This approach is proposed to develop designed students characters like honest, creative, obidient, etc.

3. Implementation Plan

Based on principle of integrated learning instruction proposed by Oxford 2001, the language learning can conduct by selecting the content such as social studies. Considering three models of content-based integrated instruction, the theme-based and sheltered models are choosen. The theme can involve character education topics such as work ethics, motivation, professionalism, etc. The theme must allow a wide variety of language skill too, so students can practice to discuss it. The theme should be interesting to students to increase learning participation. As it is proposed to integrate character education in English language learning, the learning can be planned by designing learning strategy which allows students to practice controlling their ego and their emotion to reach the goal. Learning language with games makes it possible to do. The teacher can choose one of many kinds of game which is suitable to the student’s level of learning. The difficulty of language content can be suited to student’s ability. After that, the teacher can select or design what moral value to share through the game. The advantage of this method is that students can learn language and moral value with fun. The positive emotional condition of the learners may give a better result of learning. Considering the mental process during reading, it is obvious that the learning reading can be integrated with character education because the objective of the learning is to comprehend the text. Teachers can choose reading texts which convey moral values or cultural aspect to share to students. They learn to comprehend the content of the text which directly or indirectly they also learn to comprehend the message in the text. Between those two approaches of writing, the process approach is more suitable to employ in integrated character education. It is due to the characteristics of the approach which gives wider opportunity to students to explore their understanding and creativity. Since Perspective the topic of writing is about developing character, students should be encouraged to think critically and to take responsibility for their own writing. The writing process is not limited to the product –text. In writing learning activity, students are also encaurages to improve their handwriting during their practice expressing ideas and opinions related to the material. The improvement will be guided by the teachers. It needs more teacher’s attention to do, because it happens individually to each student. Teachers need some graphology knowledge to guide students to write correctly. Correct hand writing is basically clear readable and punctual. The produced text is written in the proper area of the paper. It is not too far or too close to the edge. The space is not too close or too far between words or lines. The size of character should be easy enough to read. The characters should be written closely to perfectness based on the rule. The target of the parctice is to develop desired character of the students. For example at glance, the readible handwriting may influence the writer to be confident to him. The text they produced actually is to read by other people. If a student can write clear enough in his essay, so the reader can get the point of the text clearly too. It can be concluded that the writer is confident to what he wrote. He also trust himself to express his opinion. Other consideration is the space of each word andor each line of the text. This can indicate independency and maturaty of the writer. Appropriate word and line spaces may support to development of the writer’s character to be independent but not selfish and to be sociable enough with others. It can be concluded that character education can be integrated with language learning, especially learning reading and writing. The teachers play a very important role to select material and to adjust teaching and learning method which are integrated with character education. The developing intended character of students is strengthened with graphotherapy which needs more teacher’s attention. References Amend Ruiz.2010. Hand Writing Analysis; the Complete Basic Book. Jakarta: PT. Bhuana Ilmu Populer. Banks, Scott. 2011. Character Education: Testing the Value of Values. www.characterandcitizenship.org Brown, Clara Lee. 2004. Content Based ESL Curriculum and Academic Language Proficiency. http:web.utk.edu~tptescf_esl_f_cb.html