Teaching Vocabulary and Grammar to Young Learners

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English is one of the international languages used as a means of communication in the international relationship and widely used in all branches of knowledge. Brown (2001: 118), furthermore, states that English is not frequently learned as a tool for understanding and teaching US or British cultural values. English, however, has become a tool for international communication in transportation, commerce, banking, tourism, technology, diplomacy, and scientific research. Based on the fact, it is appropriate that English is included in the local content of school-based curriculum in elementary school. Therefore, it is necessary to think system of teaching and learning of English to young learners (elementary school students) to gain an optimal result.

To make situation of the teaching of English to children (young learners) communicative, the English teachers should comprehend the communicative principles which are proposed by John and Morrow (1983: 60-64) as follows. 

a. Know what you are doing. 

b. The whole is more than the sum of the parts. 

c. The processes are as important as the forms. 

d. To learn it, do it. 

e. Mistakes are not always a mistake.

VOCABULARY

Vocabulary is an important and essential element in language learning. Vocabulary as one of the main components should be taught since the beginning level (young learners) (Pinter, 2006). It is important because the mastery of vocabulary affects the mastery of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) (Pikulski & Temleton, 2004). By enriching vocabularies, students are able to gain comprehensive using of English.

Teaching vocabulary to children is different from teaching vocabulary to teenagers and adults. This is because different age has different needs, competencies, and cognitive skill (Harmer, 2001). Their different characteristics become the main consideration in treating them differently as the teaching subjects. Teacher has an important role to build children’s vocabularies. She should know the factors in teaching such as methods, strategies, techniques, and materials, so that the teacher can convey the material well in accordance with children’s characteristics. A good method will be useless in teacher’s hand who did not know how to use it and a good teacher could not be effective if teacher uses inappropriate method (Evan and Lang, 2006).

Vocabulary is one of the main components of a language. It has to be mastered by someone if he or she wants to be able to communicate. This is relevant with the statement of Richards and Renandya (2002) who state that vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read, and write. This idea is also emphasized by Mehta (2009) who says that vocabulary is the first and foremost important step in language acquisition. Furthermore, Wilkins in Thornbury (2002) states that without grammar very little can be talked and delivered but without vocabulary, nothing can be talked. It means that vocabulary is needed in communication. Without vocabulary, it is impossible for someone in mastering the language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

In teaching English vocabulary, the language material to be given is words. Words are symbols for ideas. These ideas formulate knowledge and knowledge is gained largely through the words. Teaching vocabulary for children is considered difficult. According to Cameron (2001), teaching vocabulary to young learners really needs an extra efforts and strategies. Although there are many kinds of technique that can be used to teach the children, but the teacher also should consider and be aware of various things and problems that may be faced in teaching vocabulary to the students. The teacher is better to use an appropriate technique in teaching vocabulary to the students, such as the use of teaching aid or media for teaching.

In teaching vocabulary to young learners, teacher must use interesting media that is appropriate with material and students’ need. Arsyad (2002: 15) adds that media have function as an aids in teaching learning process that can influence the atmosphere and situation in the class. Teacher needs to make the atmosphere the class more enjoyable and interesting. Hotma (2000:14) stated that “the reason why we need teaching aids in a teaching learning process is very obvious because there a lot of advantages can be gained from them. The advantages of teaching aids are engaging the students’ motivation and building a good interaction”

An interesting media can capture the students’ interest and attention. It also will activate the class. They will be more effective because they do not only listen to the teacher explanation but also they could watch observe and enjoy the teaching aids, which are being used. In this case the students understand the lesson clearly and easily, this further more will motivate them to study harder. What the students have learned earlier before are reviewed in the teaching aids through a more interesting way. This activity trains the memory of the students to retain the earlier learning. The students are encouraged in their learning process due to the teaching aids which will chase the boredom away. The old media of teaching that make the student feel bored replaced by the interesting teaching aids. So a relaxing atmosphere of classroom creates the situation to stimulate the students to improve their study. Proper media can save a lot of time in teaching learning process because the teacher does not have to set up a situation or condition related to the object or material any longer. It is already within the teaching aids. Teaching aids are helpful tools for teaching in a classroom or with individual learners. A teaching aids is a tool used by teacher, facilitator to help learners improve their skill, illustrate or reinforce a skill, fact or ides and, fears or boredom, since many teaching aids are like a games.

GRAMMAR

Numerous theories are invented to improve the innovation of how to teach grammar to young learners. The basic things that are mostly discussed are the types of grammar that should be taught to young learners, whether grammar should be taught explicitly or not, and the appropriate activities that can be applied by the teachers. There are two aspects of grammar that teachers should pay attention:1) the rules of forming words; 2) the way of forming the words into meaningful sentence. Those two aspects are necessary to be the purpose of teaching grammar, but again, teachers should consider how children learn since they are in their golden age that can receive anything new easily.

Grammar explanation is the thing which is “prohibited” in teaching English for young learners. This technique can lead the students to learn the abstract thing about language and the worst is they will get bored easily. Children improve their listening comprehension and pronunciation very well when they start to learn with some accuracy of grammar structures (Sekelj and Rigo, 2011: 190). Metalinguistic information like abstract concepts and theories are hard to understand by children. If teachers do that, it will be useless because children interpret meaning without knowing the structure of the language. It runs naturally as they learn their first language. It is commonly considered as an indirect learning, the better way of learning for children instead a direct learning. Teachers should make their young students to understand the materials unconsciously without explaining them directly.

Materials especially grammar are taught in simple ways and structure based on the students’ level which is usually represented by their groups of age. Complex grammar is less taught to the younger students, especially form-focused instruction. The only one thing that is necessary to focus on is the students can understand the meaning of what the teacher says. It gives the students an automatic way of forming their habits of using correct grammar without telling them the word class.

Classroom activities should be full of praises and compliment because young learners really need them to keep them motivated. It is a kind of something to prevent them from giving up when they are in the process of learning. Children also have an awesome ability of using particular language correctly without knowing the exact meaning. They are like parrots, they copy and retell the thing told to them. After they can speak with appropriate form of sentence, the teacher can lead them to the meaning of the sentence that they copy. It will be more effective than telling them word by word because language is a set of contexts. They are integrated and words cannot be separated to form the whole meaning.

There are three focuses of understanding a grammar of a language especially English: on meaning, on use, or on form (Dendrinos, 2015: 10). They still become a problem to most of teachers who teach young learners. Those three focuses are the leading points to consider the appropriate teaching technique of grammar indirect learning for young learners. Many techniques are invented and become inspirations for teachers in teaching English for young learners. Plural characteristics and levels of motivation are the essential things to be considered. A teacher cannot exactly copy the other teacher’s teaching technique because there are many factors that can be the considerations of creating the sets of activities. Assumptions might be needed to guide the teacher learn the students’ characteristics. Plural characteristics of children can lead their varying learning styles. The communication arranged should be meaningful and less abstract instruction. Grammar cannot be separately integrated with this meaningful communication. The important grammar purpose is to make a meaningful communication. When the students communicate meaningfully, it means that they already use correct and appropriate grammar. The performance of forming children’s good communication can include the combinations of their social skill, skill of thinking critically, physical activities, and creativity. This valuable combination can make a complete set of learning activities in which the purpose is to make the students “busy” of doing their “games” however they are learning something out of their consciousness.

There are some patterns of sequencing grammar learning activities that can be used by teachers to teach young learners: 1) noticing, 2) structuring, 3) proceduralizing. Noticing is the process in which the learners can be aware of new patterns and how the form and meaning are connected. In this stage, teachers should not ask the students to produce the sentence by themselves. In other words, this stage is aimed to give appropriate examples for the students and it demands a very good quality of the input language from the teacher. There are some indicators that show the activities of noticing can be successful. First, the teacher can show visual media to support the meaning from the sentence produced. Second, the pattern is shown in a kind of social context, not word by word. Third, to show the difference of the use in every pattern, always compare the previous pattern with the new one, so the student will be curious of learning the difference. Fourth, active participation is essentially needed in the every single activity set by the teacher. Fifth, the activities must be considered with the appropriateness of the age level of the learners. Last, the learning process can lead the activities into something that can manipulate language as well. There are many examples of applying the sequence of noticing activities, they are as follows: Modeling; drawing; using visual and texts; having dialogue with puppets; giving instructions, questions, and requests; exploring everyday situations; writing and circling, etc.

The next stage is structuring activities. It is intended to lead the learners to find their internal grammar recognition, not by universal pattern, but their own pattern so that they will recognize the use of different pattern. This stage requires more practice to control form and meaning. Therefore, the students need to get involved to recognize the change of the meaning when the pattern changes too. It will make them produce the language with correct and appropriate form and meaning. Another effective way is the students are given some options that require grammar adjustment to express meaning. The examples of structuring activities are as follows: interaction activities like questionnaires and surveys about food, hobbies, routines, etc; language games; drills; finding correct word order; songs with appropriate lyrics; action guessing activity.

The stage of proceduralization is the chance for the teacher to lead the students to the activities of using new patterns. Language production is necessary here. Intensive attention to grammar is very essential since the students have to make some effective communication, not only mentioning some words or sentence separately from integrated context. The examples of proceduralizing activities are as follows: writing captions in comic strips; telling a story based on visual media; role playing; asking the students to correct the error that is intentionally made by the teacher; finding and considering the ending of a story, etc.

References:

Sukarno. 2008. TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS AND FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN DESIGNING THE MATERIALS. Jurnal Ekonomi & Pendidikan, 5(1), 58&60. https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/17229-EN-teaching-english-to-young-learners-and-factors-to-consider-in-designingthe-mater.pdf

Rahmadhani, A, P. 2015. Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners at LIA English Course. US Journal. 1(2), 1-3. 

Astuti, S, R ,. Wijaya, B,. Bunau, E. 2013.  TEACHING VOCABULARY TO YOUNG LEARNER THROUGH COPS AND SOLDIERS GAME. https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/215819-teaching-vocabulary-to-young-learner-thr.pdf

Utari, A, R, P.  2017. FRIENDLY ENGLISH GRAMMAR TEACHING FOR YOUNG LEARNERS. The 2nd TEYLIN International Conference Proceedings. http://eprints.umk.ac.id/7007/6/The-2nd-TEYLIN-ilovepdf-compressed-44-49.pdf