Name

: Winda Elva Yuanita

NIM

: 1305366

Class

: K3 2013

Course

: Academic Writing

Techniques of Attracting Students Attention in Teaching English at Elementary School

Attention plays an important role in students success in the classroom. Attention allows
students to gain their concentration and focus while teachers are giving information related to the
lesson. Furthermore, the students are able to select which information given is important, discard
other destructions from their friends or even form the environment, and their own thought. The
students, actually, will be more difficult to pay attention toward the new lesson, because they
have not known yet the importance of that lesson. English, for instance, is a new lesson
introduced for elementary students. Moreover, they are included as young learners who still
focus on playing not learning. So, they tend not to pay attention to what their teachers teach them
about English. Fun activities in learning English can motivate them to learn English. So, the
teachers must be able to apply the proper techniques to attract the elementary students attention
in learning English.
English teachers who teach the young learners have to understand the characteristic of
each age-grade in order to success the teaching program. Elementary students, categorized as
young learners, are from six years old to twelve years old. These grades of ages have different
characteristic in learning. The teachers must provide learning activities which are exiting and
stimulating their curiosity toward the lesson, so that they are attracted to join the class. Also, the
students may decline when the teachers teach the same thing, at the same time and in the same
way. To avoid these, the teachers must be creative by giving different materials in different ways.
Fun learning English activities can be formed by using songs and rhymes. The teachers
can play an easy English song which is related to the material at the beginning of the lesson. the
students will pay listen carefully to what they listen and their curiosity is coming up. The
questions like what kind of song is that?, why do the teacher play it for us? show that they
are curious to the lesson. After that, the teachers can play listen and repeat activities. The
teachers will pronounce the song lyrics slowly and correctly, so the students can imitate

correctly. This technique can help the teachers get the students attention, and they will be usual
listening to English songs and rhymes.
Children have high imagination and they are able to visualize anything they see. This
characteristic can be applied in an English teaching technique. The teachers can use colorful
pictures represented some English words. Because of their imagination, the children will
memorize the words easily. The students will get involved in the class when they are given many
colorful cards.
The students, from six to twelve years old, like to observe anything they see around them.
The observing ability can help them to learn English through seeing the real objects brought by
the teachers. Introducing new words by showing the real objects can help the children memorize
the words by visualization. They can touch the object, feel the texture, and smell the fragrance,
so they will remember the word for a long time.
The children like to play games for fun, yet the teacher can exploit it by considering
which game to play and how to link them to the related materials of the lesson. Beside the
students are able to comprehend the lesson, they can interact with other friends which can
improve their socialization. The teachers can apply scramble game, for example, to explain about
animals and their habitats, so the students will compete to play the game.
The young learners must be given English materials through fun activities that can be
applied by some teaching techniques. The students, not only, understand and memorize what
they have learned, they also not easily getting bored because the lesson is attractive. If the
students get involved in the class, they will be succeed in their study.