CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Theoretical Review 1. Teaching English to A Very Young Learners
a. The Characteristics of The Children
Mostly, children in kindergarten are in the early stages of schooling. For teaching them, it needs a strategy that creates a successful teaching and learning
process. Firstly, the things to know are about children characteristics. These little learners are full of energy and enthusiasm, which are all unique. Cameron 2001
shows about Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, children aged three to five would still be in the pre-operational cognitive stage. Their characteristics are
different from adults ’. That is why they have their own way in learning.
According to Brown 2001 children under five also have a very short attention span, which means that activities should be switched every 5 minutes or so. For
that thing, the teachers need to be creative to make the children learn effectively. In line with Brown 2001, Harmer 2001: 38 mentions several characteristics of
children’s learning. It can be seen as follows:
1. They respond to the meaning even if they do not understand individual
words.
2. They often learn indirectly rather than directly
– that is they take information from all sides, learning from everything around them rather than only
focusing on the precise topic they are being taught. 3.
Their understanding come just from explanation, but also from what they see and hear and, crucially, have a chance to touch and interact with.
4. They generally display enthusiasm for learning and curiosity about the
world around them. 5.
They have a need for individual attention and approval from the teacher. 6.
They are keen to talk about themselves, and respond well to learning that uses themselves and their own lives as main topics in the classroom.
7. They have a limited attention span. Unless activities are extremely
engaging they can easily get bored, losing interest after ten minutes or so.
Slattery Willis 2009:4 also list the characteristics of children. They state that there are ten characteristics of children as learners. They are:
a. They learn quickly in their original way. b. They have many variety ways of learning of children can be in the form of
watching, listening, imitating, and by doing things. c. They naturally have difficulty in learning grammar and explanation about
language. d. They try to make sense of situations by making use of non-verbal clues.
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