LEARNING AND TEACHING IN ENGLISH

MAYA AIRANI BINTI ASPAR A3 PLPPIP2011/102/KIC

There are many general principles of second language teaching which should be kept in
mind while teaching English as a second language to young learners. Therefore, as a future
teacher, we need to know all the principles which can be applied while teaching the
students. The principles are developing intrinsic motivation, creating conducive
environment and encouraging interaction in the classroom.
Developing intrinsic motivation is the enthusiasm to learn English for its own sake
(Chitravelu et al, 2005: 10). Students will perform well in all tasks if they have higher
intrinsic motivation. This principle can be related with Krashens Affective filter hypothesis.
According to Krashen (1994) learners with high motivation are more likely to success in
learning a second language. Therefore, teacher must conduct suitable activity in the
classroom to encourage intrinsic motivation such as reading activity. Teachers need to
provide several reading material such as fairy tales or folk tales and ask the students to
choose students open ended question to encourage them to express their personal
thought. On that time, teacher can give them the positive feedback or comment with
appropriate way to build up intrinsic the one that suit them. While the students reading,
teacher can monitor and help them correcting the pronunciation and clarify the terms that
they do not understand. After the activity, teachers can ask motivation. This activity
encourage reading habit at the same time enhancing students vocabulary acquisition.
Next principle is conducive environment which is related with Krashens Affective filter
hypothesis. Conducive environment is promoting positive atmosphere to create an effective
teaching and learning process. Krashen claims that teacher should make the classroom
anxiety free so that the learners feel comfortable in classroom. In order to create conducive
environment teacher can conduct games such as charade in between a lesson. Charade can
be played in classroom between students and teacher or students and students. Teacher
can ask students to play in a group and one of them need to do an action in front of their
friends and the others will guess the answers. While the game is on, both teacher and
students can release their stress by add up some humour in the game. Charade is one of the
games that can improve students vocabulary, creativity and imagination.
LEARNING AND TEACHING IN ENGLISH
MAYA AIRANI BINTI ASPAR A3 PLPPIP2011/102/KIC
Encouraging interaction in classroom is one of the important principle in teaching
second language. Interaction is the mutual exchange of thoughts, feelings or information
between two or more people because through we receive comprehensible input. According
to Michael Long (1982) input can be made comprehensible by modifying the structure of
sentences. Teacher can conduct classroom speaking activities such as information-gap
games to get students talking as quickly and fluently as possible (Harmer 2007). During this
game, student has to talk to a partner in order to solve a puzzle and describe the picture.
Students need to complete the work within the time specified by the teacher. While
describing the picture, teacher can ask them open ended question for encourage them to
interact and respond. This activity getting them to practice speaking and opportunities to
correct language development.
In conclusion, all the principles are important because it is related to each other. As the
teachers, they must know how to create conducive environment, develop intrinsic
motivation and encourage interaction in classroom in every activity that they will do in
classroom. The teachers must implement all the principles in order to improve all four skills
in English subject. The combination of these three principles can create an effective
teaching and learning process and produce successful students.







LEARNING AND TEACHING IN ENGLISH
MAYA AIRANI BINTI ASPAR A3 PLPPIP2011/102/KIC
REFERENCES
Chitravelu, N., Sithamparam, S., Choon, T. (2005) ELT Methodology: Principles
and Practice. Oxford Fajar.
Harmer, J. (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching. 4
th
edition. Pearson
Longman.
Krashen, S.D (1994). Bilingual Education and Second Language Acquisition
Theory.