interests and desires, but highly dependent upon others for putting their desires into effect. Children usually have desires particularly on everything that interests
them. They really want their desires to be fulfilled even without being able to satisfy those. Hence, children are almost always dependent upon others in order to
do so. Nonetheless, the contact toward socialization that children have is little, so they do not know how to get along with others. Thus, it is to say that they are
intense individuals.
b. Principles of Teaching Young Learners in the Elementary School
Cole 1956: 317-321 pinpoints three important principles in teaching young learners in the elementary school to study. The principles consist of study
environment, directions for studying, and memorizing new words or ne w number facts. The principles will be clarified in the following paragraph.
Study environment is considered important in building favorable environment to the learners’ mental effort to study Cole, 1956: 317. Two
primary things included in study environment are that there should not be any competing activity going on in the classroom and the elimination of any
whispering while the other learners are learning. When learning activities are carried out, it is better for a teacher to manage the class that can support the
learners to learn, for example, eliminating any competing noise which can distract other learners’ concentration while they are attempting to read or think.
Directions for studying can help learners much to cover what they are supposed to do. Young learners need clear directions when they are learning. It is
meant to give them obvious picture about what they are about to learn. It is PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
expected from a teacher to provide the learners with clear direction towards learning. By doing so, the learners are able to understand about what to do and
what is expected from them to accomplish. Thus, it leads the learning process more meaningful for them.
Teaching in the primary grades often copes with memorizing. According to Cole 1956: 318, there are at least three advantages of using this technique.
The first one is that teacher can arrange the materials in such a way that learners can memorize them appropriately. It is aimed to make learners able to learn the
materials better. The second one is to encourage learners to drill themselves. By exposing themselves to drills, they are accustomed to learning by their own. The
last one is that a variety of repetitions will be given to each item depending on the difficulty of each item.
c. Theory on Critical Period
