Fun plays key role in teaching English to kids

By Bambang Sugeng

YOGYAKARTA (JP): English has been taught at certain elementary schools for over five years, but observations and studies of its effectiveness have hinted that the present teaching system deviates alarmingly from the original aims posted by the authorities.

The curriculum for English for elementary schools (EFES) issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture is well constructed, based on sound theories on children's language education. Two well formulated objectives of EFES are for students to become acquainted with the language to prepare them for more formal English instruction in secondary school.

Some elementary schools are understandably cautious when making changes to their instructional processes. However, many schools rely on trial and error when teaching English to their pupils.

Mostly due to a lack of professionalism, these schools teach English in a similar way as foreign languages are taught in secondary schools, whose teaching aims are quite different. While elementary school teachers fulfill the curriculum by employing teaching methods that are fun for students as well as being educational, secondary school classrooms tend to have a more formal setting, which can be more stressful. One tendency is for these teachers to fall into the formal teaching of grammar and vocabulary, as well as doing a lot of translation between English and Bahasa Indonesia.

Most language education specialists agree that the teaching of English to children is different from the teaching of English to adults. From around the age of two, children have an advantage over adults in acquiring languages. This advantage should thus be met by teaching methods which enhance the child's acquisition in as natural a way as possible.

In this mode of education, children are treated as individuals who think, feel and act. For most children, these three aspects of human life can be summarized in one word -- play.

It should follow, and this has been emphasized in EFES curriculum, that the learning process in the classroom should involve as much play as possible. The joy of learning is the first priority of EFES, while the learning of language skills should be regarded as a by-product.

At the elementary school stage, an appreciation of the joys of learning will bring much stronger benefits to students, in terms of their future studies, than a partial mastery of grammar and vocabulary.

It is common knowledge that much of the failure of English education in schools is attributable to the resistance of students toward the subject itself.

So, the goal is that elementary school English classes are no longer filled with the routine rote learning of grammar and vocabulary. On the contrary, classes should offer fun activities to enable students to pass their time happily and then be looking forward to their next class. In these classes the children will say: "It's fun learning English".

Fun English comes out of two basic assumptions in modern language education -- communicative teaching and active learning.

In communicative classes, the students are aware of what they are actually doing by using the foreign language. When saying "How are you?", for example, the students must know exactly what they are saying, to whom, and why they are doing so.

Theoretically, the learners say the sentences not simply out of rote learning, but because a situation makes it necessary to do so.

The goal of this method is for students to be treated as more than just "parrots", who utter words for the sounds they make.

This is true especially with children learning a language. They should be allowed to make many trials, and many errors, in the learning process, instead of expecting them to say prescribed sentences. A student saying "I not know" while shaking his head, showing it has meaning for him, is at first more important for him than being told that the correct sentence is "I do not know."

In communicative classes, where students are not overly criticized for their ungrammatical sentences, the children learn the language more easily and pleasantly.

Active learning is actually an essential requirement for classrooms to be communicative.

The two concepts, communicative teaching and active learning, are like two sides of the same coin. In active learning, the students themselves assume a more central role in classroom activities.

Theoretically, they are involved in all aspects of the instruction process, from formulating objectives to evaluating outcomes.

In modern education systems, in which active learning is a characteristic, the student is responsible for learning, not the teacher.

Whatever is done by the teacher, the class cannot be called successful if students have not learnt anything. In classes where active learning is a major factor, the teaching process becomes democratic, enabling students to be active and creative, giving them more motivation to learn.

It is in this respect that active learning is relevant to elementary school English. If the school is successful in motivating students, it has achieved the aim of EFES. High motivation to learn English will pay its dividends when the children reach a higher level of education.

One other factor needs mentioning. Fun English emphasizes the importance of students' learning strategies. Learning strategies are sometimes divided into these categories: memory, cognitive, compensation, affective and social.

Research shows that Indonesian learners tend to make a high use of memory and cognitive strategies.

On the other hand, research also suggests that good language learners make high use of all these strategies. Compensation, for example, is something that teachers need to encourage their students to use. A student who proposes "I would like to tell you about a ..." and is stuck trying to remember the word "temple", may use a longer definition, hand gestures, or even the Bahasa Indonesia candi so as to keep his communicative activity going and not fall into silence.

The affective strategies help students overcome feelings of shyness and anxiety, which impede language learning.

Finally, social strategies train learners to interact with their peers, teachers and others, even native speakers of the language. Use of these three strategies, in combination with the well practiced memory and cognitive strategies, will enhance enjoyment of classes.

Good teachers know of numerous ways to make their English classes fun. Games, songs, dances, physical movements, drawing, playing, gardening, cooking, excursions and a host of other activities will achieve this.

The idea should be impressed upon the children that they are not learning a subject but are having fun with a foreign language. In this way, the realization of language skills should be a by-product of these fun activities.

Of course, this is not always easy. For example, many parents express disapproval at these methods and complain that their children are not learning but only playing. This and other such discouraging factors should be regarded as challenges to effective teaching.

There has been a misunderstanding that such approaches to elementary school teaching impart a very thin understanding of the subject to students.

However, English classes can be successful only through a lot of preparation, creativity, and hard work on the part of the teacher.

Imagine teaching a class of 40 to 50 children whose behavior, most probably, is difficult to manage. The classroom setting often adds to the difficulties.

To handle such a class calls for a teacher who possesses the above characteristics. It is no wonder that school management cannot take these talents for granted when employing teachers. Such teachers often must face greater pressures than teachers of English to older students.

Another misconception is that proponents of these teaching techniques want language drills and mechanical practice to be abandoned altogether. In fact, the essence of foreign language learning is a lot of practice.

It is only that in elementary schools, this practice should be implemented through activities which are fun.

For example, instead of asking students to memorize a long list of vocabulary words, the teacher may ask them to write down these words on separate cards to be put on the wall for them to look at every time they turn around. Songs, pair work, word puzzles and games, and other creative activities can be used to enliven, or even disguise, these drills.

This way, the idea referred to above is retained -- students learn a language without a formal awareness that they are. The children move a lot, create things, improvise and interact with each other in a friendly environment. And, again, students come out of the class saying, "It's so much fun".

All that has been discussed above comes back to the theme of the story that learning in elementary schools should be fun. Students at this age do not need formal instruction loaded with structural tasks and assignments which torture the children.

There is no logical foundation at all to demand elementary school children to learn English the way adults do. They need to play and enjoy themselves, and learn English in the process.

Otherwise, elementary English classes will only repeat the mistakes of English instruction in the higher school levels.

The writer is a lecturer at the English Education Department of the Yogyakarta Teacher Training Institute in Yogyakarta.

Window: ... English classes can be successful only through a lot of preparation, creativity, and hard work on the part of the teacher.