methodology, and to make sure whether the students were able to use some combination of the words contextually and structurally on their own.
b Checking on the Realization of Purposes for Reading The teachers must make sure that the students can accomplish the reading
tasks well and achieve the purpose s in the reading activities, if not the teachers must create new reading texts or even activities that can support the attainment of
the purpose s.
3. The Nature of the Fifth Grade Students of the Elementary Schools
To create materials which are appropriate to the subjects, clear concepts about the subjects are needed. The presentation of clear concepts about the
subjects can give a clear description of the research subjects and avoid misinterpretation in this research. Therefore, it is very important to have
appropriate knowledge on the fifth grade students of elementary schools to be used in this research.
a. Children’s Cognitive Development
To have better understanding on children’s cognitive development, Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory might be considered. According to Piaget
there are four stages of children’s cognitive development.
1 Sensorimotor : From zero to two years children
2 Preoperational : From two to seven years children
3 Concrete Operation : From seven to eleven years children
4 Formal Operation : From eleven to sixteen years children
in Smith Lostherman, 1979: 94 Based on Piaget’s theory, the fifth grade students of elementary schools
are at the end of concrete operational 7 – 11 years stage and at the beginning of formal operational 11 – 16 years stage. In concrete operational stage, children
begin to use language as means to express their thoughts or ideas. However, the presence of concrete things will give the children best result. While in formal
operational stage, children begin to work with abstract things. It means that children are able to create hypothesis to find the solution of the problems.
The ability of children to work in abstract things enables them to find their own way of learning. Children make their own path into the unknown path that we
would never think of making for them, when they learn what they are curious about, children go faster, cover more territory than we would ever think of trying
to mark out for them or making them covert Holt, 1980: 152. It is wiser to let the children to experience learning activities based on their way. Although,
sometimes, their activities are not understood by adults, their own way can perform the better one.
Since children are not adults, they have different ways of thinking. Sometimes adults’ learning method is useless when applied to children. Piaget
believes that children have their own methods in learning in which, sometimes, perform a better result. The theory points out that children learn better by moving
and manipulating than by sitting and listening, they understand by experimenting and exploring, not by memorizing rules in Burns, Joe Ross, 1984: 65.
Therefore, it is not wise to expect children to learn as well as adults do since they do not think like adults.
The knowledge of students’ stages may help teachers in setting the teaching materials and activities properly. The teachers can set activities and
materials that can facilitate students to express their ideas or thoughts through a language. Since children have been ready to deal with abstract things, the teachers
can present activities and materials that involve abstract things.
b. Foreign Language Learning for Children
