CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG
LEARNERS
Young learners are children
from the first year formal schooling (5 or 6 years old) to eleven or twelve years old. Young learners
have own special characteristic that different with adult learners. The
differences should be known and understood by the teacher to improve their
quality of teaching and learning process. The teacher needs to know how to give
explanation to them because they don’t like long explanation. Young learners
have their own world, so the parents and the teacher should be understood what they
wants. Basically young learners and adult learners have different characteristics
from physical, social and psychological side.
Based on the physical side,
young learners more active than adult. They do physical activity in many ways
like writing, drawing, coloring, dancing and many more. Because they are very
active, the
teacher should be try to ask
them to play games or role play dialogues with others. Young learners understanding
the teacher’s
explanation from hands, eyes, and ears. They will understand if the teacher
using gesture to explain. Young learners at the developing stage, so they
should be get knowledge about everything as much as possible. Not only the
teacher that have to teach them, but also their parents. Beside that they are capable
of attaining native of foreign language.
Young learners are
happy playing and working with their friends. They are
aware of themselve in relation to others. It means that they like
playing in the company. The parents and the
teachers should be using activities that require group play, such as
games and dramatizations, but respect the child’s desire to work alone
occasionally. Praise him or her for positive behavior such as taking turns and
sharing. The teacher will be better
to give the children
responsibilities and tasks that they
can carry out, and then praise efforts and accomplishments.
There are many
characteristics of young learners based on the psychological side. The first is
young learners have short concentration span, so teachers
should be give varied activities as handwriting , songs
, games etc. They also get
bored easily. To make them enjoy the
lesson of course is not easy, teachers can use interesting ways. By using
interesting technique children are expected not under pressure. Besides that, they are imaginative. It’s important to Use video or pictures to teach new vocabulary related to concrete
meanings. They are less
shy than older learners. And then they enjoy
imitating and skilfull in listening accurately and mimicking what they have
heard. They respond well to rewards from
the teacher. Children get bored easily. Children
have no choice to attend school.
The lack of the choice means that class activities need to be fun interesting and exciting as possible by setting up the interesting
activities.
In conclussion, young learners are children
who still in the first schooling, so teaching
English to young learners at elementary school is different from that to adults. The English teachers to
young learners in elementary school should be know the characteristics of young learners. The characteristics consist of physical side, social
side and psychological side. The English
teachers at elementary schools should have
other skill. The teachers of English
to young learners should be able to sing songs, tell stories, and organize worksheet so
that the classroom atmosphere seems
interesting. According to John and Morrow (1983:
60-64) to
make situation of the teaching of English to
young
learners communicative, the English teachers
should comprehend the communicative
principl 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.
References:
Morrow, K. 1983.
“Principles of Communication Methodology”. In Johnson, K. And Morrow, K. Communication in the
Classroom: Application and Methods for A Communicative Approach. Longman House, Burnt Mill, Harlow,
Essex CM20 2JE, England:
Longman Group Limited.
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