The Characteristics of Elementary School Students as Language Learners

2006. As listening is an active skill with many factors contributing to its difficulty, Pinter 2006 suggests that it is important in the early stages to avoid the sources of difficulty and introduce them only gradually. Some sources are the type and length of the text the young learners listen to, as well as the familiarity of the person they are listening to. In this case, listening to teachers is easier than to recordings since teachers can adjust the speed of their speech and modify their language. Like Pinter, Brewster et al. 2002 also suggest that it is important to remember that listening is not a passive activity. Thus, they remind English teacher s of young learners to scaffold, e.g., not merely asking students to „listen and remember‟, but directing students‟ attention to specific points that should be listened for. Some activities can be used to support students‟ understanding more effectively, such as those using visual aids. Brewster et al. 2002 provide some while-listening activities that can be applied to an English as a foreign language for young learners class. Those activities include listen and repeat, listen and discriminate, listen and perform actions, listen and drawcolor, listen and predict, listen and guess, listen and label, listen and match, listen and sequence, listen and classify, and listen and transfer information. After young learners are exposed to English through listening activities, they soon want and are able to participate in interactions with teacher and each other Pinter, 2006. Those students will want to start copying simple phrases, singing songs, answering simple questions, and memorizing what they have heard. The first building blocks that allow children to move from listening to speaking and to begin to participate in interactions with others are called PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI „unanalyzed chunks‟ Pinter, 2006. Brewster et al. 2002 mention that much of the English that young learners learn to produce in the initial stages will be formulaic language which is language produced as whole chunks rather that word by word. Such language consists of simple greetings, social English, routines, classroom language, asking permission, and communication strategies. Meanwhile, many simple dialogues or drills can be used with adult learners. The following are some speaking activities that can be used for young learners: look, listen, and repeat; listen and participate; reading aloud; memory games; dramatization; rhymes, action rhymes, songs, chants, tongue twisters; retelling a story; guessing games; information gap; dialogues and role-play Brewster et al. 2002. According to the National Education Standards Agency 2006, one of the purposes of teaching English at elementary level is to make learners able to communicate orally in a limited way to accompany action language accompanying action in school context. It is in line with Brewster et al. 2002 who state that for young learners who are still learning in their L1, developing good levels of literacy in the L1 and good oral skills in the L2 are the most important objectives. Thus, whether reading and writing are introduced to young learners depend on many factors such as students‟ age, level of exposure to English, L1 background, and ability to read in L1 Pinter, 2006. All the while-listening activities previously mentioned can be adapted for reading activities. Here are some reading activities ranging from the simple to the more complex Brewster et al., 2002. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI a. Sequencing letters, parts of words, whole words or sentences and sequencing them to make words, phrases, or sentences. b. Matching or mapping pictures, and words or two halves of a sentence so that they make sense. c. Speaking using written prompt cards or language in a graphic organizer. d. Completing detailstaking notes in a graphic organizer. e. Reading and using a graphic organizer to make statements or ask questions. f. Classifying words to make lists or sets of various kinds. Classifying mixed up detail from 2 stories. g. Checking written statements. The students read sentences or short texts which have deliberate mistakes in them to do with language, the ideas, the layout, the organization, and so on. h. Understanding genre or text types. The students learn words for different kinds of text. In terms of writing, young second language learners in the early stages of learning may still be consolidating their concept of print. In this case, copying provides opportunities to practice handwriting, learn, and consolidate their understanding of new vocabulary, develop an awareness of and confidence in English spelling and practice a range of simple sentence patterns they have learned to use Brewster et al., 2002. An important principle noted by Brewster et al. is that children at all level should not be asked to write something that they cannot say in English. Older learners may move on to practice writing sentences and very simple short texts. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI