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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

B. Teaching

1. Definition of Teaching

The main duty of a teacher is teaching. The definition of teaching is very

complex. According to Brown, “Teaching is showing or helping someone to learn

how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something,

providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand” (Brown, 2000:7).

Teaching means giving instruction, trying to help students learn something and

make them understand the knowledge that they have learned.

Brown gives another definition about teaching since it deals with learning

itself and cannot be defined apart from learning. He says that “Teaching is

guiding, facilitating, learning, enabling the learners to learn, and setting the

condition for learning” (Brown, 2000:7). These definitions mean that in teaching

process the teacher does not only provide necessary information for facilitating

the learners, but also guiding, motivating, and counseling the learners to

understand the lesson.

In teaching and learning process, teacher is the important element because

weather or not the teaching-learning process is successful depends on the teacher

in carrying out the process. As a matter a fact a teacher is demanded to have good

quality in teaching. What can create someone becoming a good teacher? Harmer

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gives his opinion based on his survey among his respondents such as

teachers, trainers, methodologists, and students. Here the resume:

1. What makes a good teacher are not so much about teacher themselves, but

rather about the relationship between the teacher and the students.

2. Teacher must be approachable.

3. Successful teachers are those who can identify the aspiration and the

difficulties of their student while they are teaching them.

4. A good teacher should try and draw out the quiet ones and control the

more talkative ones.

5. Teacher should be able to correct people without offending them.

6. A good teacher care more about his/her student’s learning than they do

about his/her own teaching (Harmer, 1998:1-2).

In teaching and learning process, teacher is responsible for the success of

learning. The teacher should pay attention to everything that the learners need, so

teachers may play some roles in setting some roles, setting the conditions for

effective learning. According to Brown, teachers have some roles in the

classroom, those are:

1. Teacher as controller

Controllers determine what the students do. When they should speak, and

what the language forms they should use.

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2. Teacher as director

When students are engaged in either rehearsed or spontaneous language

performance, teacher as director should keep the process flow smoothly

and efficiently.

3. Teacher as manager

Manager is someone who does not only plan the lesson, modules, and

courses, and who structure the larger segments of classroom time, but also

allows each individual player to be creative within those parameters.

4. Teacher as facilitator

A teacher facilitates the process of learning, making the learners easier to

study, helping them clear away roadblocks to find shortcuts to negotiate

rough terrain.

5. Teacher as resource

The implication of the resource role is that the students take the

initialization to come to the teacher. The teacher is available for advice and

counseling when the student fakes it (Brown, 2001:167).

2. Effective teacher

According to Richard I Arends in his book Classroom Instruction and

Management effective teacher is:

a. Person who can establish rapport with students and create nurturing,

caring classroom, environments.

b. Person who has a love for learning and superior command of their

subject matter.
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c. Person who can motivate students to work toward a more just and

human society.

d. Person who care for young people.

e. Person who can foster her students' academic achievement and guide

them toward important social, moral, and ethical goals (Arends, 1997:

5)

3. Teaching English to Young Learners

Teaching young learners is different from teaching adults. Young children

tend to change their mood every time, and they find it extremely difficult to sit

still (Klein 1996: 14). From the statement above, it can be concluded that the

effective way in teaching young learners is to make them enjoy their study. We

can give games to make them more interested. If they enjoy their study, the

lessons being taught will be easier to understand.

According to Scott and Lisbeth children are divided into two groups, 5 to 7

years old and 8 to 10 years old. This report will discuss about children in the third

grade of elementary school. Their ages are around eight years old with the

following characteristics according to Scott and Lisbeth opinions. They are

general characteristics of eight to ten year old children:

1. Children of eight to ten are relatively mature children with an adult side

and a childish side.

2. Their basic concepts are formed. They have very decided views of the

world.
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3. They can tell the difference between fact and fiction.

4. They ask questions all the time.

5. They rely on the spoken word as well as the physical word to convey and

understand meaning.

6. They are able to make some decisions about their own learning.

7. They have definite views about what they like and don’t like doing.

8. They have a developed sense of fairness about what happens in the

classroom and begin to question the teacher’s decisions.

9. They are able to work with others and learn from others (Scott & Lisbeth,

1990: 3-4).

Young learners learn English more efficiently than adult. They are

learning all the time without having the worries and responsibility than adult.

They have a strong personal need and are highly motivated to learn. So it is clear

that the best time to learn English starts from primary level. According to

Singleton in Brumfit, Moon, Tongue (1998) there is a number of reasons for

teaching English at primary level:

1. The need to expose children from early age to understand foreign cultures

so that they grow up, they will tolerant and sympathetic to others.

2. The need to link communication to the understanding of new concept.

3. The need for maximum learning time for important languages – starting

from earlier will be more effectively.

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4. The advantages of starting with early second language instruction so that

later the language can be used as a medium of teaching. (Brumfit, Moon,

Tongue, 1998:15)

C. Learning

1. Definition of Learning

Learning is a factor that influences the result of what someone needs. It is

very important to define what learning is. Kimble and Garmezy said in Brown that

learning is a relatively permanent change in a behavioral tendency and is the result

of reinforced practice (Brown, 2000:7). Another definition was also given by

Avedon & Brian; they said that learning is the process of acquiring modifications

in existing knowledge, skills, habits, or tendencies through experience, practice, or

exercise (Avedon & Brian: 1971).

H. Douglas Brown in his book Principles of Language Learning and

Teaching said that the definitions of learning are:

§ Learning is acquisition or “getting”

§ Learning is retention of information or skill

§ Retention implies storage of information or skill. Retention involves

active, conscious focus on and acting upon events outside or inside the

organism.

§ Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.

§ Learning is relatively the same with practice, perhaps reinforced practice.

§ Learning is a change in behavior. (Brown, 2000:7)

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The concept of learning above is extremely complex. That concept deals with

psychology. While, Klein stated “Learning can be defined as an experiential

process resulting in a relatively permanent change in behavior that cannot be

explained by temporary states, maturation, or innate response tendencies” (Klein,

1996:2)

Based on the explanation from the experts, learning is a complex process

of understanding and acquiring something to get knowledge, science, information

and skill by studying or experiencing, or through instructions whether in formal or

informal conditions.

2. Effective Learning

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary effective means

producing a successful result. Hock and hill state that the kind of learning in

public school is what we call “effective learning” or learning that results in

changing behavior on the part of learner. Both teachers and learners are aware that

behavior changes may be in an undesirable direction as well as in a desirable one.

It also means to be a good teacher, she / he needs to know in what direction a

students learning are taking him (Hock and Hill, 1960: 23).

According to Richard Dunne and Ted Wragg there are two characteristics

of effective learning: First, effective learning make students study useful lesson

easier, like: fact, skill, value, concept, and how to life with others harmonious, or

outcome of the study that wished. Second, effective learning is skill that admitted

by people who competent to evaluate like teachers, teacher’s trainer, supervisor,

tutor, and guide of subject or students them self (Dunne and Wragg, 1996:12-13).
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D. English Vocabulary

1. The importance of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is very important in learning English. It can be more important

than learning grammar. David Wilkins said, “Without grammar very little can be

conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Thornbury, 2002:13).

And Thornbury said “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your

English will not improve very much. You will see most improvement if you learn

more word expressions. You can say very little with grammar, but you can say

almost anything with words!” (Thornbury, 2002:13)

According to Tiedt, “Words, the basic symbols which make up any

language, are the tools of the writer and speaker (Tiedt, Iris, and Sidney, 1967:42).

It shows how important of teaching the word to the learners is. Vocabulary is very

important in both English teaching and learning, so if the learners want to learn

foreign language, they have to learn the vocabulary of the language. If the learners

do not know the meaning, they will have difficulty in understanding English.

Tiedt said, “Words are so integral part of our way of living that the early

development in children of a positive attitude toward words and word study is

important this pleasurable feeling for words that the young students will learn to

use them with effect (Tiedt, Iris, and Sidney, 1967:42).

All of the explanation above means that vocabulary is very important.

Learners will be able to know and understand the meaning of the sentences if they

master vocabulary rather than the master grammar. In other words, the learners do

not know anything if they do not know the words.

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2. Teaching Vocabulary

According to Thornbury, before teaching vocabulary the teachers must be

concerned with many factors:

1. The level of the learners (whether beginners, intermediate, or advanced)

2. The learners’ likely familiarity with the words (learners may have met the

words before even though they are not part of their active vocabulary)

3. The difficulty of the items. Whether, for example they express abstract

rather than concrete meaning, or whether they are difficult to pronounce.

4. Their ‘teachability’ – whether, for example, they can be easily explained

or demonstrated.

5. Whether items are being learned for production (in speaking and writing)

or for recognition only (as in listening and reading). Since more time will

be needed for the former, the number of items is likely to be fewer than if

the aim is only recognition. (Thornbury, 2002:75)

Explaining the meanings of words will work best if the teacher uses the

following methods:

1. Use simple language in the explanations.

2. Use a combination of ways of conveying the meaning such as definitions,

example in sentences, drawings.

3. Keep the definitions short.

4. Give plenty of examples.

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5. Check to be sure that the message has gotten through by asking learners

for the first-language translation or by using some other way of checking

like pointing to a picture (Nation, 2008:21).

A similar method was also given by David Cross of how presenting new

vocabulary. They are:

1. Sound and meaning

Say the word two or three times, pronouncing it clearly.

2. Repetition

Get the class to repeat the word a few times.

3. Written Form

Write the new word on the blackboard and have the class read it aloud,

without distorting the pronunciation.

4. Illustrative sentences

Put short illustrative sentences on the board so that the meaning will be

clear to anyone reading the notes afterwards (Cross, 1995: 11-12).

E. Games

In teaching English to young learners the teacher must adopt the teaching

process according to the characteristic of the student. There must be some

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techniques to ease the teaching-learning process. One way is using game as a

means to make students enjoy learning English. Hadfield said, “A game is an

activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun.

Games are divided into two categories:

1. Linguistic games: the goal of linguistic games is linguistic accuracy such

as producing a correct structured or vocabulary games and remembering

the correct word.

2. Communicative games: the goal of communicative games is carrying out

of a task such as drawing in a route on a map, filling in a chart, or finding

two matching pictures, rather than the correct production of a structure”

(Hadfield, 1998: 4)

Game has some components; they are goals, rules, challenge, and

interactivity. Game also has the variety of techniques. The variety of techniques is

really important in language teaching. There are kinds of games according to

Hadfield: Guessing games, Searching games, Matching-up games, Exchanging

and collecting games, Combining activities, Arranging games, Board games and

card games, Puzzle-solving activities (Hadfield, 1998: 4-5).

Games can motivate students to learn English and they can accept the

material easily. Besides, they can also improve their skill. According to Wright,

Betteridge, and Buckby “Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their

interest and work. Games also help teacher to create contexts in which the

language is useful and meaningful” (Wright, Betteridge, and Buckby, 1983: 1).
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They also said that “Games can be found to give practice in all the skills (reading,

writing, listening, and speaking), in all the stages of teaching/learning sequence

(presentation, repetition, recombination and free use of language) and for many

types of communication (encouraging, criticizing, agreeing, explaining) (Wright,

Betteridge, and Buckby, 1983: 1).

Based on the statement above, a teacher can use games as the technique of

teaching English to make students learn English easily. Besides, game can

improve the language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) of the

students.