English learning should start from young age<\/p>\n
By Setiono<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): English language learning at elementary level
\nhas been increasingly perceived as a burdensome subject. School
\nchildren lament the excessive tasks their teachers assign such as
\nmemorizing all the things stated in their textbooks.<\/p>\n
It is for this reason that the Minister of Education and
\nCulture Juwono Sudarsono issued an instruction to evaluate the
\npresent English curriculum (Tempo, March 1, 1999). And if it
\nturns out that the new curriculum really burdens learners,
\nEnglish will no longer be recommended as a subject for elementary
\nlevel. According to the minister, English is be best started from
\njunior high school.<\/p>\n
English language learning indeed must be started from a tender
\nage because language learning plays an important role in language
\nacquisition, at least in phonological acquisition. Children
\nlearning a foreign language are more likely to eventually sound
\nlike native speakers than adults are. Adults may seem to make
\ngreater progress initially, but children nearly always surpass
\nthem.<\/p>\n
The belief that children are better at language acquisition
\nthan adults is supported by empirical evidence. A case study
\ncarried out and reported by Asher and Garcia (1969) in their
\narticle, The Optimal Age to Learn a Foreign Language, revealed
\nthat children have the greatest probability of attaining near-
\nnative pronunciation when they are six years old or younger.<\/p>\n
By contrast, they observed that a child who went to the United
\nStates when he or she was 13 or older had a small chance of
\nacquiring a near-native pronunciation even if he lived there five
\nyears or more.<\/p>\n
Moreover, a study conducted by Yamada and Kurusu (1980) also
\nrevealed that younger children are far more successful at
\nmemorizing vocabulary and pronouncing new words in a foreign
\nlanguage.<\/p>\n
From the two aforementioned studies, it seems obvious that the
\ndegree of native-like proficiency depends considerably on the age
\nof the learner. The younger the learner, the more likely that
\nnative-like proficiency will be attained.<\/p>\n
These research findings are of particular importance when
\neducational policy decisions must be made concerning the age or
\ngrade level at which learners are offered foreign language
\ninstruction.<\/p>\n
The fact that children feel bored and discouraged in learning
\nEnglish may stem from three closely related factors. First, an
\nEnglish teacher may lack knowledge of subject matter pedagogy in
\nteaching children and thus be inadequately prepared to teach the
\nsubject matter. In teaching children, many teachers still explain
\nthe abstract rules of grammar. For example, they may say to their
\nlearners that in simple present tense, inflection s\/es should be
\nused if the subject belongs to third singular persons.<\/p>\n
Second, in conducting English classes, English teachers tend
\nto put emphases on memorization. It is a common knowledge that
\nour educational system from various disciplines is heavily
\nreliant on book learning and students are expected to memorize
\nthe materials provided in the book.<\/p>\n
Third, many English teachers still adopt authoritarian
\neducation. This type of education may hinder rather than enhance
\nstudents' language acquisition.<\/p>\n
In many English classes, instructions are still teacher
\ncentered and the students are rarely given opportunity to sustain
\ninteraction with their peers or teacher. Furthermore, under these
\ncircumstances, there are few opportunities for learning through
\ndiscussion since the teacher controls the topic and direction of
\ninstruction. Also, if a teacher asks a question, there is
\nexpected to be a single right answer. Students often become upset
\nand even frustrated when they are asked to hypothesize or
\nspeculate. They think that the teacher is withholding information
\nwhen he asks \"what do you think will happen?\"<\/p>\n
The above detrimental factors suggest that evaluating and
\nrevising the current English curriculum, as it is being carried
\nout by the Ministry of Education and Culture, is not necessarily
\nrelevant to solving the present problem. Having identified the
\nfactors, it would be appropriate to focus on how teachers can be
\nbest prepared to be professional English teachers.<\/p>\n
In other words, given the fact that a teacher can be
\nconsidered as the single most important variable in the classroom
\naffecting student achievement, English as a foreign language
\n(EFL) teachers are subject to being trained in implementing EFL
\nmethodology.<\/p>\n
Teaching techniques employed in children's classes are
\nessentially distinct as those used in adult classes. In
\nchildren's classes, the tasks of the teacher is not merely
\ntransferring knowledge to the learners, but the teacher must also
\nallow their learners to interact or engage socially with their
\npeers in order to figure out what is being said, to hear how
\nlanguage is being learned, as well as to see how others use
\nlanguage socially and communicatively.<\/p>\n
Through this social interaction, which occurs in the context
\nof cooperative learning lessons, less capable learners may learn
\nthe new language comfortably with their proficient peers. Another
\nbenefit of cooperative learning is that children are often
\ncomfortable trying out new expressions of a foreign language and
\nnegotiating meaning with their peers without having to worry
\nabout making mistakes.<\/p>\n
By doing so, it is expected that children will find their
\nEnglish class enjoyable, even challenging, never threatening, and
\nwould therefore facilitate the process of language acquisition.<\/p>\n
The writer is a member of the teaching staff in the English
\ndepartment of the School of Education at Atma Jaya University,
\nJakarta.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/english-learning-should-start-from-young-age-1447893297",
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