AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES IN ENCOURAGING YOUNG LEARNERS’ PARTICIPATION IN THE CLASSROOM

Dinda Galih Fatwati (09220191)

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English Education Study Program of STKIP Siliwangi Bandung

ABSTRACT

The objective of this research entitled “An Analysis of English Teachers’ Strategies in Encouraging Young Learners’ Participation in the Classroom” is to find out the types of strategies used by the English teachers in encouraging young learners participation in the classroom. The research method of this paper is qualitative method. The subject of this research is English teachers in SD Kreatif Harapan Bangsa and the instruments of this research are classroom observation and teacher interview. The data were collected by preparing and organizing data, exploring and coding the database, describing findings and forming themes, representing and reporting findings, interpreting the meaning of findings, validating the accuracy of findings, data reduction, data display and drawing conclution. The result of the research are ten strategies used by the English teacher in encouraging young learners participation. The strategies are asking question, calling students’ name, giving command, giving praise, reading aloud, giving role play, reviewing the materials, using interesting picture, using realia, and using interesting teaching aid.

Key Word: English teacher, teaching strategies, young learners, learners participation.

  1. BACKGROUND

Teachers’ strategies help all of the students get involved in education. Teacher needs to learn many strategies especially in teaching English to young learners.According to Slattery and Willis (2009:4) “Children learn in various way, for examples, by watching, by listening, by imitating, by doing things”. To increase the potential of learning and teaching process in the classroom, teacher and students build a good communication and it encourage students’ participation.Gaining young learners’ participation is not an easy part. “Children are not able to organize their learning, they simply see it as having fun, they have quite a short attention spand and so need variety” as proposed by slattery and willis (2009:4). Herrell and Jordan (2004:39) Integrating movements into language acquisition..., Demonstrating how reading works..., Adjusting Questioning strategies to the language levels of students..., Using objects to connect concepts, practicing verbal interaction, Creating opportunities for verbal interaction, Supporting bilateracy awareriess, Group interactions to accomplish goal, learning through hands on practice, Creating visual picture to support understanding, Using authentic project to bring knowledge together.... Based on the point of view and the background above, the writter present a research entitled “An Analysis of English Teachers’ Strategies in Encouraging Young Learners’ Participation in the Classroom”

  1. LITERATURE REVIEW

1.Teaching Strategy

Herrell and Jordan (2003:5) state strategy as approaches that can be used across curricular areas to support the learning of students, the goal of the strategy are to enhance learning.Brown (2001:44) definesstrategies means specific method of approaching a problem or tasks, modes of operation for achieving particular end, planed designs for controlling and manipulating certain information. In short, teachers’ strategy is a strategy which is applied by a teacher to achieve the optimal objectives, in this research is encouraging young learners’ participation.

2.Young Learner

Pinter (2006;5) defines young learner that covers from the age of five to fourteen years old. In line with pinter (2006:11), Brown (2001) reveals that young learners are children at range of age four to thirteen. In other hand, Cameron (2001:15) defines young learners as children between five and twelve years of age. In short, it can be defined that young learners are students between five to fourteen years.Learners’ Participation.

  1. Learners Participation

Arifin (2012:7) insist classroom interaction facilitates language learning, engages students in participating language learning activities and make more outputs of the language.Paul (2003:11) state all children are active learners, but they choose which direction to move in.Piaget (cited in Mooney : 2000) believes that childern’s intellectual growth is based partly on physical development which is affected by students interaction with environment.

4.Being an Effective Teacher

Paul (2003:137) states effective teacher have much in common with effercive learners, teacher also built theories, make guesses based on the theories, reflect on the result and so learn.Richmond, Wrench, and Gorham (2009:1) state effective teachers are effective communicators.Paul (2003:139) suggest effective teacher should being well prepared, designing activities, selecting appropiate targets, drawing children in, giving a feeling of accoplishment. Effective teacher called success, when the way children see teacher as people affects how seriously they take lessons, and how much effort they feel like putting into learning English claimed by Paul (2003:146).

  1. English Teachers Strategy in Encouraging Young Learners Participation

Killen (1998) suggest teaching strategy, they are direct instruction, disscussion, group work, co-operative learning, problem solving, student research, performance activities. The previous study by Steinert and Snell (1999) They are breaking the class into smaller group, Questioning the audience, Using audience response, The use of clinical classes, The use of written marerial, organizing debates, reaction panels, and guests, using simulations and role plays, using film and videotape, audiovisual aids, Using effective presentation skills.Richmond, Wrench, and Gorham (2009:37) instead Films, videotapes, audiotapes, instructional television, books, magazines, newspapers, demonstrations, guest speakers, simulations and so forth can be used to complement other instructional strategies or as the cornerstone of instruction.Herrell and Jordan (2004:19) suggest providing language support through visual image to encourage classroom interaction by communicative competence. Herrel and Jordan (2004:27) also suggest interactive read aloud using expression, different voice for different character, gesture and active participation of the listener through predicting, disussion and checking understanding.Brown(2001:129) he stresses on the teacher questioning strategies. ...Appropiate questioning in an interactive classroom can fulfill a number of different functions. First, teacher question give students the opportunity to produce language comfortably without haaving to risk initiating language themselves. Second, they also can serve to initiate a chain reaction of students’ interaction among themselves. Third, they also can give the instructor immediate feedback about the student comperhension. Last, teacher questions provide students with opportunities to find out what they think by hearing what they say. In details, Brown (2001) also mentions some characteristics of strategies which are regarded as good ways to encourage young learners’ participation. First, strategies deal with feelings covers non threatening way, accepting discussing, referring to, or communicating understanding of past, present, or future feelings of students. Dealing with encourages or praises, they cover praising, complimenting, and telling students why what they said or done is valued. Encouraging students to continue, trying to give them confidence, confirming that answer are correct. Dealing with uses ideas of students, they cover clarifying, using, interpreting, summarizing the ideas of students. The ideas must be rephrased by teacher but still be recognize as being student contributios. Dealing with persentation, they cover asking question, givng information, giving direction, criticizing students’ behaviour or responses.There are some principles as suggested by Cameron (2001) Those principles involves pitting children actively to construct meaning, providing space for children language growth, carrying cues or media to show meaning, maximizing social interactions, having students to learn what they experience.Herrel and Jordan (2004) also mention strategies for encouraging learners participation, they are using objects to connect concept, practicing verbal interaction, communication games (creating opportunities for verbal interaction), group interaction, imaging (visual picture to support understanding, reciprocal teaching (group work with an interactive structure, scripting (practicing verbal interaction), peer tutoring (students supporting student learning).Salaterry and Willis (2005:73) suggest encouraging learner participation by focuses the children’s attention on the syllabic beat of the words, elicit the number of syllables in the words they are learning, lets individual children beat out the syllables of the remaining words and asks other children to guess the word.To sum up the principles of teacher strategies in encouraging learners participation proposed by Brown (2001), Cameron (2001), Herrell and Jordan (2004), Stainert and snell (1999), and Salaterry and Willis (2005), effective teacher strategies in encouraging young learners participation are strategies which are successful to gain learners’ participation in terms of their interactions. Additionally, there are four common characteristics of strategies in encouraging young learners’ participation are summarized as follows:

  1. Strategies by motivating
  2. Strategies carry media to show meaning
  3. Strategies to learn what they experience
  4. Strategies create interactive learning
  1. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
  1. Research Method

The research employed qualitative method. The specific of method was descriptive qualitative method. According to Crowl (1996:10) “Qualitative research are used to examine questions that can be best answered by verbally describing how participants in a study perceive and interpret various aspects of their environtment”. According to Alwasilah (2008;68) stated there are several characteristics of a qualitative research, the focus of research is quality, the aim is description, findings and understanding, the setting are natural, the sample is small and purposive and the data collection consists of researcher as the main instrumen, interviews and observations.

  1. Research Subject

The subject of this research was an English Teacher of Fourth grade in SD Kreatif Harapan Bangsa in academic year 2012-2013.

  1. Data Collection Method

1)Observation

The research was begun with the observation to the process of teaching and learning English. In observing the respondent, field notes in observing the respondens were used in gathering data.During the observation, the researcher became a complete observer stated Alwasilah(2002;391). Sugiyono (2007:49) observation devided into three steps, first Descriptive observation (Searching for participant), second Focused observation (Conducting a systematic observation), third Selective observation (Mini tour observation).

2)Interview

Interview means involves an orally asking questions for individuals to answer orally (Thomas, 2003;12).

Table 3.3 Guideline of the teacher interview

No / Details
1 / Identify teachers’ inner throughs toward the strategies used by English Teacher in encouraging young learners participation.
2 / Identify what problem do the English Teacher encountered
3 / Identify the follow up strategies the English Teacher used to deal with its problem.
  1. Data Analysis Method

Analyzing qualitative data required understanding how to make sense of text and image in order to form answers to the research questions. Creswell (2008) suggess steps data analysing as follows:first, preparing and organizing data, second exploring and coding the database, third describing findings and forming themes, fourth representing and reporting findings, fifth interpreting the meaning of the findings, sixth validiting the accuracy of the findings, seventh data reduction, eighth data display, nineth conclution; verification

  1. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
  1. Strategies Used By Teachers in Encouraging Young Learners Participation

This study tried to find out strategies used by the teachers to encourage young learners’ participation. This investigation was based on Herrell and Jordan (2003:5) strategy as approaches that could be used across curricular areas to support the learning of the student. Brown (2001:44) suggest that teacher strategies would give a great impact to the success of the learning process.The table below revealed the frequences of strategy in encouraging young learners participation used by the teachers during the observation.

Table 4.2 Types of Strategies and Frequences of Used by Teachers during observation

No. / Types of Strategies / Frequences Observation
1 / Asking Question to Student / 10
2 / Teacher Calling Student’s Name / 7
3 / Giving Command / 6
4 / Giving Praise / 4
5 / Reading Aloud / 4
6 / Giving Role play / 4
7 / Reviewing the Materials / 3
8 / Using Interesting Picture / 3
9 / Realia / 3
10 / Using Interesting Teaching Aid / 3
  1. Discussion of Strategy Use Based on Types and Its Frequency.
  1. Asking Question

As revealed from the data, the teachers mostly used asking question as one of the strategies in encouraging young learners’ participation. There were ten times of twelve observation teachers used asking question as an effective strategy to gain young learners participation.Herrell and Jordan (2004:74) the teacher asked the question in a way that encourage the student to answer. It also gave some benefits in learning process as stated Herrel and Jordan (2004:74) teacher’s role in using the strategy involved knowing the students level of English acquisition and providing enough context in the question so that student could respond, either verbally or nonverbally, with understanding and confidance.

  1. Teacher Calling Student’s Name

Calling students’ name was also discovered as strategy that the teacher used to encourage young learners participation. There were seven times of twelve times observation teachers used calling students’ name as an effective strategy to gain young learners participation.Brown and Cameroon (2001) that this strategy was dealing with feeling and maximized social interactions. This strategy is in line with Brown’s (2001) suggestion to criticize student behaviour or response an attempt in creating interactive learning.

  1. Giving Command

Giving commands was also discovered as strategy that the teacher used to encourage young learners participation. There were six times of twelve times observation teachers used giving commands as an effective strategy to gain young learners participation.Brown (2001) that give direction in order to gain students participation. This strategy were supportive dealing with presentation. Put children actively to construck meaning provide space for children language growth, maximized social interactions, and helpful to craete interactive learning.

  1. Giving Praise

Giving praise was also discovered as strategy that the teacher used to encourage young learners participation. There were four times of twelve times observation teachers used giving praise as an effective strategy to gain young learners participation.Brown (2001) that praise and encourages can be good ways to promote students’ participation. This strategy were motivating and encouraging dealing with feeling. Burnett and Mandler (2010:148) states the younger student also liked the tangible praise, such as receiving a sticker or stamps or the teacher saying ‘good work’, ‘well done’, or ‘excellent’. Student indicated that they felt good when they were praised. Many commented that they pelt proud of themselves, it was motivating and they generally felt good inside.

  1. Reading Aloud

Reading aloud was also discovered as strategy that the teacher used to encourage young learners participation. There were four times of twelve times observation teachers used giving praise as an effective strategy to gain young learners participation.Teacher have made their reading more comprehensible to the student and vocabulary development by hearing fluent, expresive reading of English test, inflaction, and body language. Students were supported in refining their reading and speaking skills.Reading aloud also met some characteristics of effective strategy in encouraging learners participation suggested by Herrell and Jordan (2004:27) that reading of books out loud with the use of expression, different voices for different characters, gestures, and the active participation of the listener through predicting, discussion, and checking for understanding. Herrell and jordan(2004:199) stated the read aloud and extention activities allow the student to become familiar with strategies they can use independently whenever they must read difficult test, thereby providing them with reading comperhension instruction and practice in the procqess of interacting with required content area or literature text.

  1. Giving Role Play

Giving role play was also discovered as strategy that the teacher used to encourage young learners participation. There were four times of twelve times observation teachers used giving role play as an effective strategy to gain young learners participation.The teacher made preparation and gave explanation about the activity. Then, the student prepared the activity by making dialogue and some students took action in front of the classroom.Joyce and Well (2000) in book Role Play as a Teaching Strategy written by Jarvis, Odell and Troiano (2002:1) role play is a teaching strategy that fits within the social family of models.Jarvis, Odell and Troiano (2002:1) suggested several advantages for both teacher and student. First, student interest in the topic is raised. Second, increased involvement in a part of student in role playing lesson. Third, it teaches empathy and understandinf of different perspectives (pooman, 2002).

  1. Reviewing the Materials

Reviewing the materials was also discovered as strategy that the teacher used to encourage young learners participation. There are three times of twelve times observation teachers used reviewing the materials as an effective strategy to gain young learners participation.Herrell and Jordan (2004; 39) states that review the key vocabulary and concepts as materials can encourage the student to demonstrate understanding by referring to the support materials. Herrell and Jordan (2004; 40) also states that Review the materials is an especially strategy because it helps motivate students to learn. The review section of the lesson gives the teacher an opportunity to make connections, correct misconceptions, and engage student in a celebration of their accomplishment.

  1. Using interesting picture

Using interesting picture was also discovered as strategy that the teacher used to encourage young learners participation. There are three times of twelve times observation teachers used interesting picture as an effective strategy to gain young learners participation.Teacher asked students to close the eyes and picture the scene in their mind. Before having the students begin to create images, students close their eyes and picture what they want to create, teacher question them about the features of line, proportion, colour and movement that they see.Herrell and Jordan (2004;19) states that the language used in instruction is made more understandable by the display of drawings or photograph that allow students to hear english words and connect them to the visual images being displayed. Chamot and O’malley (cited in Herrell and Jordan, 2004;119) claims that imaging is a strategy that encourages students to create an image in their minds to support understanding of concepts or problem to be solved. Herrell and Jordan (2004;119) stated it is especially important to teach with the strategy and discuss the images, or mind pictures,with English language learners because they may form faulty images due to misconceptions related to language misunderstanding.