ENGLISH FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

“Techniques and Methods in English Teaching-Learning for Children”

Arranged by:

Group 4

Ahmad Saubari : 180101030763

Citra Ulsita Rahmah
Muhammad Zaki Mubaraq
Muslifatur Rahman
Primus Sari Javana C.
Yasmin Syifa Aminy S.
: 180101030626
: 180101030728
: 180101030222
: 180101030483
: 180101031138

Lecturer:

Dra. Andi Irlina, M.Hum

ANTASARI STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF BANJARMASIN

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BANJARMASIN
2020
 PREFACE

Assalamualaikum wr. wb.

Praise be to our gratitude to pray to the one and only God because it is with
his grace and grace that we were able to complete this paper on "Techniques and
Methods in English Teaching-Learning for Children". This paper is organized
based on information from books and other sources that support the completion of
this paper.

Do not forget to thank our lecturer, Mrs. Dra. Andi Irlina, M.Hum, who has
guided us so that we can complete this task as best we can. We do not forget to also
say our thousands of thanks to friends who have helped in the preparation of this
paper. Finally, if there are deficiencies in the presentation of this paper, constructive
criticism and suggestions from readers are very helpful in the future. Hopefully this
paper is useful for all readers, and for your attention, the authors say so and thank
you.

Banjarmasin, 6 October 2020

Group 4
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ......................................................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. ii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
A. Background of Study .................................................................. 1
B. The problem formulation ............................................................. 2

CHAPTER II DISCUSSION............................................................................ 3
A. The Meaning of Method and Technique ................................... 3
B. Characteristics of language acquisition in children .................. 4
C. Methods and Techniques of Learning English for Young Learner ... 5

CHAPTER III CLOSING ................................................................................ 11

A. Conclusion ................................................................................ 11

REFERENCES
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study
Early childhood education is very important. Because basically, early
childhood has a high sense of curiosity about something that they don't know
yet. Language education in early childhood plays an important role in their
development and growth. With language they can speak, tell stories, and even
sing. Because language education in early childhood is easier than providing
education related to logic. With this, English language education is also
included in language education that must be given to early childhood.
The introduction of English for children with its nature that is not
burdensome, does not make children bored, is packaged in the form of playing
while learning, or even the impression is not learning but playing which
provides English skills for them. However, teachers and teachers must be
careful and vigilant, because in fact handling the wrong from the beginning
will not help students enter a higher school stage, but can have the opposite
effect.

Soenjono (1998) points out that language teaching for children has failed.
This is due to philosophical errors in the understanding of language itself and
the way the teacher teaches it. The reality in the field shows that most of the
teachers who teach English do not have adequate linguistic and pedagogical
knowledge. Thus, teaching seems haphazard. Many people assume that a
teacher with an educational background is sure to be able to teach elementary
school children, even though the person concerned is not an English graduate.
In this paper, the authors attempt to describe several things about the techniques
and methods of teaching English to children.

1
 2

B. The problem formulation

1. What is the meaning of Method and Technique?

2. What are the characteristics of Language Acquisition in Young Learners?
3. What are the methods and techniques of learning English for Young
Learners?
 CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION

1. The Meaning of Method and Technique

a. Method

Methods are learning procedures that are focused on achieving

goals. Method is an attempt to implement plans that have been
compiled in real activities so that the objectives that have been
prepared are achieved optimally. The method is used to realize the
predetermined strategy. Strategy refers to a plan to achieve something,
while a method is a method that can be used to implement a strategy.
(Yaumi, 2013: 231)

According to the Ministry of Education and Culture in Jamil

(2016: 154), a method is a systemized way of working to facilitate the
implementation of an activity in order to achieve specified goals.
Based on the etymology, the method is basically a method used in the
educational process which aims to facilitate the achievement of the
desired educational goals. The method in learning does not only
function as a way to convey material, because learning resources in
learning activities have a wide-ranging task, namely in addition to
conveying information, they also have the task of managing learning
activities so that learning citizens can learn to achieve learning goals
appropriately. So, the learning method can be interpreted as a method
used to implement plans that have been prepared in the form of real
and practical activities to achieve learning objectives.

3
 4

b. Technique
In Indonesian dictionary, technique is a method of the system for
doing something. Learning techniques can be defined as the way a
person implements a specific method. For example, the use of the
lecture method in a class with a relatively large number of students
requires its own technique, which of course will technically be
different from using the lecture method in a class with a limited
number of students. Likewise, by using the discussion method, it is
necessary to use different techniques in classes where students are
classified as active with classes where students are classified as
passive. In this case, the teacher can switch techniques even though
they are within the corridor of the same method.

2. Characteristics of Language Acquisition in Children

Shipton (2006) states that children's learning is related to (i) when
children start learning languages, (ii) factors that make children learn, iii)
factors that make children stop learning. Educators will know at what age
the learner is ready to learn a foreign language. Another thing that needs to
be considered is the habits of children learning languages. Shipton states
that children have a habit of learning with;
a. Having more opportunities to be introduced with a second
language;
b. Embrace all feelings and be fully involved; by observation and
imitation, doing, seeing and hearing;
c. Exploring, experimenting, and making mistakes and checking
understanding;
d. Repetition and feel confident when they get used to the routine
e. Motivated, especially when his friends are also talking or learning
another language.

Besides having to know the habits of children learning language,

educators also need to know things that make children stop learning,
including:
 5

a. Feeling uncomfortable and under pressure;

b. Confused by abstract concepts related to grammar rules and their
applications, which they cannot easily understand;
c. Activities that require the ability to concentrate for a long time;
d. Boredom
e. Too often corrected

In addition, according to Ersoz (2007), mostly in teaching English on

young learners the language skills or the language focus is on listening and
speaking, and vocabulary, we can also infer that the teachers then have to
teach spoken communication and written communication to the young
learners. Moreover, Ersoz states that young learners mostly have low
concentration span and short memory, this is a challenge for teacher to
conduct an English language learning by conforming their philosophy
toward the children in the class.
Teachers teach the students listening and speaking English is a spoken
communication learning which involve the use of spoken word and
understand about the language context through listening. In spoken
communication, the teacher guides them to listen about what the teacher
said, then they process the information, and response by speaking. It is a
continuously happened during learning. The written communication itself,
is a type communication activity aimed at constructing a message in written
form in accordance with the communicative goal and linguistic standards.
One of it forms mostly applied on teaching English for young learner,
namely short story. From short story, teacher can give them a stimulus to
recognize vocabularies within the students understanding about the
vocabularies.
By knowing the learning characteristics of children mentioned above,
it is important for teachers not to force children to learn. What is needed is
for the teacher to provide a conducive atmosphere, useful learning
resources, and carefully structured practice and practice opportunities. The
important thing to remember is that teaching children needs its own way.
 6

The application of teaching methods such as those applied to adults will

make children quickly bored and discouraged. According to Piaget in Ellis
(2002), ages 7-10 years are at the concrete-operational stage while above
that age children are able to think 'formally-operational' so that they teach
abstract material, for example 'tenses',' articles', and ' supposition 'will make
the child even more confused and eventually stop learning. Still in Ellis,
Bruner states that children sometimes consider learning at school to be
difficult because the things they learn are separate from real life. He
considered that in children's learning through a stage of the process.

3. Methods and Techniques of Learning English for Young Learner

A teacher must have a method that is attractive to young learners by
paying attention to their characteristics. Other than that teacher also can
applied several techniques based on students’ language focus. Here are
some methods of learning English for young learners that can be applied:
a. Techniques on How to Teach Spoken Communication
1. Listening Skill
When the teachers use listening as a teaching strategy, they try to
understand what the young learners or the teachers are saying and try
to understand them better. Learner (1987) stated there are six
interrelated phases to listening: hearing, focusing on what is heard,
identifying what is heard, translating into meaning, interpreting it, and
remembering it.
When the student is learning his native language, family members
can adjust the linguistic input that the child receives. In order to be able
to listen in class, the young learners need to be able to hear –actual
perception and processing of sound. Young learners listen to a variety
of voices and sounds that are around them.
By listening, young learners are preparing to replicate the sounds
when they speak. The development of different listening skills helps
young learners get ready to read as the skill prepares children for
 7

reading in their native language as well as reading in a second or foreign

language.

How It Prepares for

Skill
Listens to and follows instructions
Follow an oral sequence of events
Listen attentively to stories
Can comprehend a story that has
been read or told
Can discriminate between sound
Can identify rhyming sounds
Can separate words into syllables
Reading
Prepares young learners for
a variety of academic tasks
Prepares young learners to
comprehend stories
Prepares young learners to
decode words /
Helps to prepare young
learners for phonics
instruction

James J. Asher (1977) came up with a method known as Total

Physical Response (TPR) where young learners physically respond to
oral commands which are given. TPR makes use of the auditory, visual,
and tactile learning channels.
1. Songs
Teaching by using various strategies are very suggested for teachers
in the classroom. One of the strategies that can practically be
practiced in young learner classroom is teaching with music and
songs. This strategy can capture the young learners’ attention in
language learning so that young learner is not easily bored with the
learning activities in the classroom.
Music and song can help students in understanding English language
by listening and pronouncing the word of English. By using music
and song the children can be fun and familiar with the words and
sounds of English. Through fun and joyful activities children can
have high spirit to learn English. Therefore, it is a good chance for
English teachers to use this strategy in teaching English for children
to engage their motivation and spirit in learning English. Teacher can
supplement the material with songs such as days of the week, months
 8

the year, colors, numbers, etc. Many research proved that teaching
by using music and song can improve and increase the young
learners’ interest and motivation in English language learning.
2. TPR Story Telling
Teacher can use puppets or storytelling pieces –pictures or
characters and different items in story that young learners move
around as story is told. With pictures, teachers can introduce the
unfamiliar or difficult vocabulary items prior to telling the story.
3. Yes/no cards
With yes/no cards, teachers can measure young learners’ listening
capacity. Young learners are asked and hey have to respond using
the yes/no cards. When the teachers use listening as a teaching
strategy, they try to understand what the young learners or the
teachers are saying and try to understand them better. Sometimes
when teacher ask them questions the answer may be very noisy, it
can be hard to determine who was, and who was not responding
correctly, but with this method young learners can show their
answers silently.

4. Syllable clapping
Teachers break words into syllables and let the young learners to
chant the broken words when the teacher claps. For example, we
break down word crayon to cray- and –on, the teacher will clap once
for syllable cray chanted by the young learners and clap once again
for on. This method is useful for tactile learners and auditory
learners.

2. Speaking Skill
When young learners begin speaking, they experiment and play with
the utterances that are made to form words and phrases. Young learners’
experiment with their native language when they are with their parents,
siblings, and friends. Children will learn that certain vocabulary and
utterance can cause many emotions; joy, sadness, anger. Speaking is as
 9

important in young learners’ overall language development. In English

speaking countries, it is common for young learners to sing, chant, and
say rhymes with hand or finger motions.
Young English learners as foreign language do not develop English-
language skills more readily than older learners, but they have
advantage in pronunciation if they begin learning in early age. Young
learners usually overgeneralize grammar rules when they are learning
English as their native language. overgeneralization can occur when a
learner takes rules from her first language and applies them to a second
or foreign language.
Methods used in teaching speaking are Audiolingual Method (ALM)
and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). ALM is based on the
notion that one can learn language by developing habits based on the
patters of language (Celce-Murcia, 2001), means drills aimed at getting
learners to practice using the patterns that occur in language.
Meanwhile, CLT connects classroom-based language learning with the
language that learners need to communicate outside the classroom.
1. Dialogues and role-play
Dialogues provide young learners with grammatical controlled
scripts that from the real life. Dialogues can be scripted, adjusting to
what the learners need to learn today. Dialogues can turn into role-
plays, whether between the students or student-teacher.

2. Puppets
Teacher can use puppets too show students how to work with a
partner or in small groups. Teachers working with young learners are
often found that children feel more comfortable talking with a puppet
than with an adult (Slattery and Willis, 2003). Puppet is useful for
children who developmentally are shy to speak to an adult in front
of their friends,

3. Games
The game here is not a digital game, but rather physical activity
games in the classroom.
 10

4. Talking and writing box

Talking and Writing Box is made of pictures that children have self-
selected and are interested to them. The young learners can describe
the picture and what is in it, teachers can decide one topic and ask
the students to bring certain picture related to the topic. With this
method, young learners are able to personalize the information as
they share and they become animated when telling the describing.

b. Techniques on How to Teach Written Communication

1. Reading Skill
Reading is a set of skills that involves making sense and deriving
meaning from the written words. In order to read, we must decode
(sound out) the words and comprehend what we read. The aim of
reading is comprehension (Anderson, 2003). Just because one knows
how to pronounce written words correctly, does not mean that he can
read.
Reading comprehension refers to reading for meaning,
understanding, and entertainment. there are two main reasons of
reading; for pleasure and for information. Often, English-speaking
children are taught to read for both pleasure and information.
The method used is Literature-based approach. Literature-based
approach helps young learners develop literacy skills within the context
of literature.
1. Phonics
Before teaching reading, it is important for teachers to introduce the
sounds and letters that are associated with specific nouns. When
introducing phonics teacher can start by teaching the initial sounds,
how to make the sound, and what words start with the letter.
For example, when teaching the letter s, we teach them that s makes
/s/ sound, and ask the young learners to say words start with s. The
students may answer with star, soup, etc.
2. Predictable stories and pattern books
 11

Predictable story contains repetitive phrases and predictable

language. predictable or pattern storybooks, contain illustrations that
help to clarify or support the word, sentence, or repeated pattern in
the book. The example of pattern book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear,
What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr, and Silly Sally by Audrey
Wood.
3. Sight words
Sight words are high-frequency words children can recognize on
sight without having to decode the letters. Young learners can go
through a piece of text and count how many times the word the, all,
an, I occur in the text. We can make a board game with different
sight words, the children throw a dice and move spaces, and
wherever they land on the sight word, they read it aloud.
4. Print-rich environment
Hudelson (1994) says that children who come from societies filled
with print are likely to learn at a very early age. Environmental print
is the print that is seen all around us; signs, labels, billboards, bulletin
boards, etc.
5. Graphic organizers
They are tools to help learners visually organize the information they
have read or will read. Three most popular graphic organizers are
KWL charts, semantic maps, and Venn diagrams. Example of KWL
charts:
What I Know What I Want to What I Learned
Know
The reason why Pinocchio grows
Pinocchio is a boy Pinocchio grows his his nose whenever
nose he is lying

2. Writing Skill

Writing is a combination of process and product (Sokolik, 2003).

The process means the act of gathering ideas and working on them until
they are presented in a manner that is polished and comprehensible to
readers. Children enjoy experimenting with writing and putting their
 12

ideas down on paper. English-speaking children are taught how to write

in printed letters first before the cursive letters, because they resemble
letters found in books and they are easier to form and read. Young
learners are taught to form letters by tracing lines, circles, and triangles
because this preparation helps them master the formation of shapes in
the letters.
1. Writing models
Teachers provide reading material that will model the type of
writing young learners will produce. For example, as student-made
reports in the textbook, the model can serve as a prewrite for
children to write about their favorite animal and shows how to
publish writing with a combination of text and illustrations. Stories
can also be a model, after the students are done reading, they are
given task to write their reflection about the story.

2. Group writing
Young learners can work in small groups to create different pieces
if written text, or with game that lets different members of the class
contributed to a group story by writing one word after their friends
and form a comprehensive passage.

3. Pen pal
One type of writing that is common in EFL classrooms is pen-pal.
Pen-pal allows children to develop writing skills within the context
of authentic and purposeful writing activity (Berril and Call, 2000).

c. TPR Method (Total Physical Response Method)

This method was developed by James Asher, a professor of
psychology at the State University of San Jose California. This
method is an appropriate method for teaching English to early
childhood where the learning prioritizes direct activities related to
physical activity and movement. In this method, Asher said that
the more often or the more intensive a person's memory is
stimulated, the stronger the associated memory associations and
the easier it is to remember (recall). This activity of remembering
is carried out verbally with movement activities (motor activiy).
Examples of learning from this method are as follows: when
introducing the word stand up, all the children stand up while
 13

listening to the word stand up and say the word stand up. Here we
as educators do not need to emphasize the introduction of written
language (written language) even though we can occasionally
write the word but it is not mandatory. Then we can strengthen the
word recognition while singing and moving according to the song
commands:
Every body sit down, sit down, sit down
Every body sit down just like me
Every body stand up, stand up, stand up
Every body stand up just like me
Teacher also can use puppets or storytelling pieces –pictures
or characters and different items in story that young learners move
around as story is told. With pictures, teachers can introduce the
unfamiliar or difficult vocabulary items prior to telling the story.
It is hoped that the introduction of English with this method
can take place continuously and gradually, especially with
learning in an interesting way so that children can be happy and
cheerful and will maximize their second language learning ability
so that Indonesian children who are fluent in English will appear.
Considering that English is a foreign language in Indonesia,
of course the learning process requires an appropriate and effective
approach. The success of learning English in early childhood is
strongly influenced by the ability of a teacher to present an
interesting and fun teaching-learning process for children. Not
only singing, but singing accompanied by music will help the
learning process in children. Because music can enrich the
spiritual life and provide a balance of life in children. Through
music, humans can express their thoughts and feelings and can
control their emotional aspects. Through songs will motivate
children to be happier learning English. Children become happy
and it is easier for them to understand the teaching material
presented. The teacher's ability to choose songs and create
 14

movements according to the child's developmental age will also

have an impact on the success of the English learning process in
early childhood. Through singing and various learning activities,
educators can foster children's interest to be happier and more
active in learning, and can even make it easier for children to
understand the material presented. Children are made happy, not
bored, and interested in the learning process. By singing, a child
will quickly practice the material presented by the educator. In
addition, children's ability to listen, sing, and creativity can be
trained in this way.
TPR has some advantages and disadvantages. Its advantages
include:
1)It is a lot of fun. Learners enjoy it, and this method can be a
real stirrer in the class. It lifts the pace and the mood;
2)It is very memorable. It does assist students to recognize
phrases or words;
3)It is good for kinesthetic learners who are required to be
active in the class;
4)It can be used both in large or small classes. In this case, it
is no matter to have how many students you have as long as you
are prepared to take the lead, the learners will follow;
5)It works well with mixed-ability classes. The physical
actions get across the meaning effectively so that all the learners
are able to comprehend and apply the target language;
6)It is no need to have a lot of preparation or materials using
the TPR. In this regard, as long as you are competent of what you
want to practice (a rehearsal beforehand can help), it will not take
a lot of time to get ready;
7)It is very effective with teenagers and young learners; and
8)It involves both left and right-brained learning;

d. Audiolingual Method (ALM)

 15

The Audiolingual method is a method which involves doing

a lot of practice and exercises in language both in the form of
dialogue, sermons and so on in which it is hoped that students can
speak like the owner of the language itself. ALM or Audiolingual
Method is based on the notion that one can learn language by
developing habits based on the patters of language (Celce-Murcia,
2001). means drills aimed at getting learners to practice using the
patterns that occur in language. for example, the teacher can use
Talking and Writing Box, it is made of pictures that children have
self-selected and are interested to them. The young learners can
describe the picture and what is in it, teachers can decide one topic
and ask the students to bring certain picture related to the topic.
With this method, young learners are able to personalize the
information as they share and they become animated when telling
the describing. The teacher can also use Games. The game here is
not a digital game, but rather physical activity games in the
classroom. Game media consists of visual elements (can be seen),
audio (can be heard) and motion (can interact). So, this media can
arouse children's curiosity, stimulate educators' explanations,
allow children to touch the object of lesson study, help them to
concretize something abstract and so on. The advantage of this
method is that it does not require too much of the teacher. Children
will listen carefully and memorize pieces of language and this
activity is an integral part of language acquisition in children.
e. Literature-based approach
Literature-based approach is means of using literature as the
basis for classroom instruction; it takes into account that literature
is not just "reading", but is a wealth of experiences to be shared
and appreciated by those involved, especially the developing
young reader. By using original narrative and expository writings
as the core for experiences to support children in developing
literacy in conjunction with authentic activities such as "talking"
 16

(sharing) about the book after reading, and making connections to

real life experiences, children and adults are better able and willing
to develop literacy skills of reading, writing and thinking (Wells,
1990) (Tunell & Jacobs, 1989). in teaching reading, it is important
for the teacher to introduce the sounds and letters associated with
certain nouns. When introducing phonics, the teacher can start by
teaching the initial sounds, how to make the sounds, and what
words start with these letters. For example, when teaching the
letter s, we teach those who make / s / sounds, and ask young
students to say words that start with s. Students can answer with
stars, soup, etc. Here the teacher can use graphic organizers to help
students visually organize the information they have read or will
read. The three most popular graph managers are KWL charts,
semantic maps, and Venn diagrams. Example of a KWL chart:

What I Know What I Want to Know What I Learned

The reason why Pinocchio grows his
Pinocchio is a boy Pinocchio grows his nose whenever he is
nose lying

f. Crafting
Crafting trains students to develop their brains as well as
their motor muscles. According to Ellis and Brewster et al. (2002),
the communicative approach refers to activity-based and
frequently uses the following 3 types of activities: first is problem-
solving activities such as identifying, matching, sequencing,
prioritizing a classifying; the second is interactive activities, such
as making surveys, or carrying out interviews and the third is
creative activities, such as making masks, birthday cards, and so
on. The teacher can also divide young Learners to work in small
groups to create different sections if the text is written, or with
games that allow different class members to contribute to the
group story by writing one word after their peers and forming
comprehensive sections.
17
 CHAPTER III
CLOSING

A. Conclusion
Methods are learning procedures that are focused on achieving goals.
Meanwhile, learning techniques can be interpreted as a way that a person does
in implementing a specific method. Methods and techniques are obtained from
looking at the characteristics of students in absorbing learning. Therefore, in
teaching and determining methods for young learners we need to look and
observe the characteristics of these young learners, such as, using all feelings
and being fully involved, exploration, experimentation, repetition and feeling
confident. Therefore, he found several methods that he thought were effective
for teaching young learners, that focus on learners’ language skill and other
methods that can be applied namely: TPR (Total Physical Response Method),
Teaching English By Using Song, Audiolingual Method (ALM), Literature-
based approach, and Crafting.

11
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