Fun plays key role in teaching English to kids

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.