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interaction during the le arning process. It will also sustain children’s
interest and motivation. Moreover, children will enjoy working together in pairs or small group Pinter, 2006: 15.
5. Delight in Talking
Children tend to be self-oriented and keen to talk about themselves since they respond well to learning that uses themselves and their own lives as
the main topics Harmer, 2001: 38. The topics of the learning influence the student’s interest to learn. It will be better if the topics and activities
are closely related to the c hildren’s life. Besides that, children will
indirectly learn and take information from everything around them and their understanding comes from what they see, hear, touch and interact
with. By this children’s characteristic, teacher should give opportunities for children to express their desire orally.
c. Principles of Teaching English for Children
Teaching English for children should be different from teaching English for adults because they learn language with different ways and
objectives. Brewster, Ellis, and Girard stated that the comparison of processes and condition between L1 and L2 learning shows there are certain
principles which teachers need to be aware and make use of wherever possible. Some principles are explained below.
1. Children are excellent observers. They have natural ability to
comprehend meaning in their L1 from variety of sources such as body
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language, intonation, gesture, facial expression, social context and the language itself. In this skill, teachers can help the learners draw by
ensuring that in L2 language use is contextualized and has visual support whenever possible.
2. Children learning their L1 often repeat words and phrases in order to
become completely comfortable with their sounds and meaning. Repetition or drilling for children is useful for children especially for
their good pronunciation. 3.
Children are skilled at guessing and predicting. In these skills, teacher can usefully draw and other thought processes.
4. Children like to talk, even in limited vocabularies, often with only two or
three words and key intonation patterns. This is an opportunity for teachers to help learners develop their L2. Learners should be
encouraged to speak up and share their ideas by giving opportunities for meaningful communication activities. In this case, teachers should
understand that fluency is more demanded rather than accuracy in both lexical and grammatical since the most important is sharing the idea.
5. In the classrooms, teachers need to create a balance between providing
support ad providing a challenge. If the language work is over-guided then it becomes too easy, safe or repetitive so that learners feel bored.
Similarly, if the language work is too challenging, difficult or threatening, learners become motivated Brewster, Ellis, and Girard,
2002: 40.
