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BETHANY SCHOOL TEACHER’S STRATEGY TO HELP THE FIRST GRADERS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING ABILITY
Aris Arniasti Putri
Abstract
The issue of what kind of strategy is effective to improve young learner‟s English speaking ability is still debatable, since each strategy has its own features. Inspired by the issue, the study was held to explore strategies used by the teacher of Bethany School to increase the first grade students‟ speaking ability. The school only has one teacher and two classes of the first grade who was the participant of this study. The English subject teaching and learning process in the class was observed and the teachers were interviewed. The finding showed that the using of gestures helps the first graders of Bethany School to improve their understanding in English learning. While, the using of games could stimulate students‟ interest in making sentences in order to increase their proficiency. Giving prompts by engaging the students in a meaningful interaction with peers and teachers did make use to develop students‟ communication skills.
Keywords: immersion school, speaking, English for young learner, strategy.
INTRODUCTION
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in their teaching-learning process. Those students often face difficulties in how to communicate using English during the lesson.
Years ago, immersion school in Indonesia was known as RSBI (Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional) which is become one of the government programs to develop the education in the country, but it is no longer exists. Act No. 20/2003 on National Education System was the legal basis for the implementation and reform of national education. Article 50 mentioned that the government and/or local government run at least one school at all levels to be developed into an international standard school. The popular subjects which used English teaching-learning process were Mathematics, Science, and English, while the rest were depending on the school policy. Commonly, immersion school in Indonesia did not use English in Civics and Indonesian subjects.
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Realizing that there are many schools in Indonesia which implementing and developing an international curriculum, I decided to conduct a study on how certain strategy work on students‟ English speaking. The aim of this study was to examine the strategies used by teacher to improve the students‟ speaking ability in
Bethany Elementary School which is one of immersion school. The study was guided by the research question “how does the teacher improve the first grade students‟ English speaking ability in Bethany Elementary School?”
LITERATURE REVIEW
Immersion School
Immersion is defined as a method of foreign language instruction in which the regular school curriculum is taught through the medium of the language (Lousiana.edu). Foreign language is the mean for content instruction; it is not the subject of instruction (http://isl-edu.org/academics/immersion-education). Even though Bethany School uses English as a media in their teaching activities, it still has the regular school curriculum beside Singapore curriculum.
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immersion program, English is not the subject of instruction, but it is the medium through which a majority of the school‟s academic content is taught.
Lately, there are many schools which implementing an international curriculum to be taught in the schools‟ subjects. This kind of school was known as
bilingual school which growing rapidly in Indonesia. The school subjects like Mathematics, Science and English were conducted by using English as a mean of instruction. It happened because the immersion programs use one language for “a separate of subjects” and “the other language for a separate set” (Baker, 2006,
p.305). That is why it is not being taught but also used by teachers and students in teaching-learning process in order to make the students accustomed to speak and listen to English language.
The rational of the content based instruction, as claimed by Krashen in Alwright (1991), is that second language acquisition occurs when the learner receives comprehensible input, not when the learner is memorizing vocabulary or completing grammar exercises. That is why English was added in some subjects, for instance in Mathematics, Science, and English. When the students were taught the school‟s subjects in English, they were provided with real situation how
English was used in communication.
“Students with positive attitudes towards the language will appreciate and
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their surrounding the output will be meaningful and beneficial. Later, the output would develop their English ability.
Teacher’s Role and Strategy Used in Immersion School of Bethany
Immersion school teachers have an important role in order to give a positive input to their students. What the teacher say, do, and share may influence the students output. This become a reason why teachers become a real learning model for the students in class, whereas, the teachers could measure how their value in delivering the knowledge to their students. They have to ensure that their students could accept the knowledge transferred from the teachers.
Garcia (2003, 2008) argued that teacher have to master the oral explanation and use their physical abilities to deliver the knowledge, it is their work to increase the students‟ background knowledge. The using of physical act
like adding some games or using gesture in the learning process may support the oral explanation to be understood by the students easier. Although some teachers of English see that language games as a time consumers for fun, games have a special role in any foreign language teaching program since it facilitate foreign language learning especially for young learner.
According to Topkaya and Kucuk (2010), primary school curriculum for young learners‟ English lesson should provide more games for children. Games
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manner. The using of games could also reduce the students‟ negative feelings and anxiety during the learning process. So, students could be motivated to participate more in the class activity.
Like what Bethany School applies, the students study at the school around seven hours. It means they have more than enough time to learn and practice their second language with real people and condition. This is become an opportunity for the teachers to add and apply some strategies in order to overcome the problems occurs in teaching the first graders and improve the students‟ speaking ability.
THE STUDY
This study was qualitative descriptive research. Its purpose was to describe the phenomenon of teachers‟ strategy to improve the first graders‟ speaking
ability in an immersion school. The data was displayed descriptively. The data analysis was interpretative analysis by categorizing data according to the emerging themes.
Context of the Study
7 Participants
The participants of the study were the English teacher and two classes of the first grade. Since, the school only has two classes of the first grade, Sparkling and Glowing class, with one English teacher. Each class consists of 12 until 13 students. The students were observed at different times. The teacher was interviewed once at the school.
Instrument of Data Collection
The writer used observation and interview as the instrument of this study to get the data. First, the writer conducted eight observations to get the data but three of them are not used because at that time students did the exercises in book. The observation was the main instrument of this study. It conducted for eight times in order to get the valid data. Interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer to elicit facts or statements from the interviewee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interview). Second, the writer interviewed the teacher in order to support and complete the data from the observations. Interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer to elicit facts or statements from the interviewee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interview).
Procedure of Data Collection
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Sparkling class. The writer did each observation for 30-40 minutes in the classroom. At the end of the observation, the writer made an appointment to the English teacher to do the interview. The interview took 45 minutes in the first grade‟s classroom.
Procedure of Data Analysis
There were eight observations and one interview with the English teacher. The writer took note about all the activities of teaching learning process during the observations. The writer categorized the data from the observations based on what activity and topic the students learned that day. While, the interview which conducted by the writer to the English teacher was recorded. Later, the recorded interviewed was transcribed. The data were displayed descriptively as extracts of this study. The data analysis was interpretative analysis by categorizing data according to the emerging themes.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The writer divided three emerging themes in this study. Each theme showed the strategy used by the teacher in order to improve the first graders‟
speaking ability. The first subtopic was using gestures, the second subtopic was using games, and the last subtopic was giving prompts.
A. Using Gestures
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gestures seemed to be able to help the first graders of Bethany School to improve their understanding in English learning. Gestures made teachers‟ explanation easier to be understood by the students. The teacher did not switch the language into Indonesian, but they kept on using English for further explanation until the students got what actually their teacher wanted them to understand. The following is an extract from the observation which conducted during the class activity.
Extract 1 (Observation 5)
Teacher : “Okay, Joshua, how old are you?” Joshua : “Five.”
Teacher : “Five what? Five days old? Five months old? Five hours old? If you are five months old, five days old, or five hours old, so, you should to be this big (make a short range using hands). You should be a baby now (act like carrying a baby).”
Joshua : “Five years old.”
Teacher : “Yes, correct. Joshua is five years old.”
In the class activity, the teacher asked the students how old they are. Most of the students only mentioned the number of their age. The teacher kept asking in English and made some gestures in order to help the students answer the question correctly. The teacher made a short range using hands to show them that they were supposed to be as big as a baby if their age is five days or hours. By doing so, the students finally figured out that they have to add the word “years old” after
the number.
The finding revealed that using gestures, such as making a short range by using hands, was helpful because it could visually clarified the verbal explanation. It also helped the teachers to build and activate the students‟ vocab. This was what
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“Some students don‟t know the meaning, I let them to find out by themselves. I let them to make mistake and then correct them but not translate it, keep using English with gestures. They will be able to catch the meaning after some time.”
(Teacher) From the interview extract above, young learners of English would accept new information and gain a meaning of a word visually easier by gesture rather than verbally alone. The use of gesture also helped the teacher in avoiding the usage of idioms. In order to stimulate students‟ critical thinking, the teacher
provides students with ample time to respond a question instead of making it easily understand by using idioms.
The finding showed that the using of gestures also offered solution to the teachers in how to assist the young learners of English in gaining meaning. Since English is a foreign language that is not used in the students‟ daily
communication, there are many English words students do not know the meaning yet.
The result of the study was similar to Garcia in Bauer and Manyak (2008) who stated that teachers have to accompany oral explanations and teacher read-aloud with visuals, realia, gestures, and dramatization to describe key concepts and vocabulary. Using gestures accompanied with oral explanation in the target language could be an effective way to explain the words without need to translate it into students‟ mother tongue. By doing so, students would not be addicted to the
teachers‟ translation. Later, they would not easily forget the English words since
11 B. Using Games
The study revealed that using games seemed to be able to stimulate students‟ interest in making sentences in order to increase their proficiency. Four out of the five observations provided students‟ learning with games. Using games
could motivate the students and as a result, students were willing to learn. The following extract provides the proof how games assist the first graders of Bethany School to create sentences when they learned about color.
Extract 2 (Observation 3)
Teacher : “I want you to write a poem. Only three sentences based on the color paper your group get. If you get red so you have to write red is apple, for example, red is my pen, red is getting shy. If I mention or show you something that has the same color like your paper, your group should read your poem. For example, if I say banana, the yellow group read, if I say apple, the red group read, if I show you this pencil (hold a blue pencil) the blue paper group read and so on….listen and pay attention carefully, I will start, okay?”
Students : “Yes!” Teacher : “Leaf.”
Green group : “Green is melon. Green is snake. Green is chili.”
In here, teacher divided the students to work in groups. Each group had to write a short poem based on the color of paper delivered by the teacher. After they finished writing, the teacher would mention or show a thing which has the same color with each group‟s paper. Later, the group whose paper was in the same color
with the thing mentioned or showed by teacher should stand up and read aloud their poem.
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fun atmosphere which teacher could used to avoid students‟ boredom during the
learning process. The fun atmosphere and positive feelings the games brought makes students excited to learn English further. This was what the teacher said in the interview.
“Using games creates a fun learning. Children usually get bored easily. They are excited to participate in the game. I usually divide them to work in group so they can help each others.”
(Teacher) The finding showed that associated with game could decrease students‟ anxiety towards language learning as games are employed. Celce-Murcia in Yolageldili and Arikan (2011, p. 54), declared that “in games, language use take
precedence over language practice, and in this sense games help bring the classroom to the real world, no matter how contrived they may be.” The first graders as the beginner learners of English might become too anxious when they were demanded to create sentences, since they were worried about being criticized when they make a mistake.
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since it encourage, entertain, and promote fluency. With the help of grammar games, students can develop their ability in using language as they are given a chance to use language in situation which have a purpose. In short, games provide learners with an opportunity to drill and practise grammatical rules and forms by presenting them in a communicative way.
C. Giving Prompts
The writer found that in all of the 5 observations, teachers gave prompts in the class activities. Prompts are often defined as “auxiliary”, “extra”, or
“artificial” stimuli that will eventually cue the learner to display the behavior of
interest at the appropriate time or the relevant circumstances (e.g., Foxx, 1982). McClannahan and Krantz (1999) defined prompts as “instructions, gestures,
demonstrations, touches, or other things that we arrange or do to increase the likelihood that children will make correct responses” (p.37). Engaging a
meaningful interaction with peers and teachers did make use to develop students communication skills. The interactions stimulate students to use the target language actively. The following is an extract of the observation conducted during the class practice.
Extract 3 (Observation 5)
Teacher : “I want Nawang to come forward (Nawang come forward). Now, Nawang, please say „I am‟…”
Nawang : “I am..”
Teacher : “Six years old.” Nawang : “Six years old.”
14 Nawang : “Hello miss, I‟m fine.” Teacher : “How old are you?” Nawang : “I am six years old.”
Teacher : “Good. Now, Nawang, you ask Ritcher like I ask you before. Ritcher you have to answer Nawang like she answered my question before, okay?” (Both of the students start practice).
In the class activity of the fifth observation, the teacher encouraged the students to have speaking practice with their peers. The teacher would give an example first before the students began the practice one by one with their peers. The teacher would call one of student to come forward the class and guide the students to have a conversation with the teacher. The other students have to pay attention on it. Later, the teacher would call the other students to come forward and have speaking practice in turn with their peers based on what the teacher had shown before.
Teacher should provide activity which allowed the students have a lot of practice to speak their target language actively. An interactive interaction between teacher and students or students with their peers would encourage those who are passive learners to be active learners of English. The following was what the teacher said in the interview.
“Students often feel afraid to speak English, so, this is my job to encourage them to be active in speaking English and make them familiar with it. Asking them to come forward and have some practice in peers will help them to improve their speaking skill.”
(Teacher) The finding showed that engaging the students with meaningful interaction, like practice it orally, seemed to be beneficial to develop students‟
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children using their first language as an instrument to communicate with real people in a real situation when they learn their first language. The same applies for those who learn second language.
According to McCarty, Wallace, Lynch, and Benally in Bauer and Manyak (2008), when the learners engage in a valuable interaction with the teacher where “students ideas are sought, valued, and incorporated into the
curricular content” of the class, the learners become verbal and respond to
questions (p.53). It showed that classrooms that support students‟ interaction with peers and the teacher do make use of the collective knowledge of the class. Of course, it would increase students‟ language skills.
Providing students with guidance by showing them how to speak correctly in a conversational context could encourage them to use the target language to communicate with their peers actively, later. The finding was similar to Goldenberg and Patthey-Chaves in Bauer and Manyak (2008) who found that English-Language Learners who get involved in an instructional conversations talked more in class and were able to express more. It indicated that letting the students participate in a valuable active interaction would activate and improve their communication skills.
CONCLUSION
The aim of the study was to explore how the English teacher of Bethany School increasing the first grade students‟ speaking ability. In order to examine
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study revealed that different strategies brought students different assistance in the English learning process. Each strategy also has different function in improving students‟ speaking skills.
First, the improvement of students‟ understanding was achieved by using
gestures. The teachers did not switch the language into students‟ mother tongue. They made it easier to be understood with gestures since young learners of English were easily accept new information and gain a meaning of a word visually rather than verbally. Using gestures seemed to be able to activate students‟ vocabulary and avoid students‟ addiction of teacher‟s translation.
Second, using games seemed to be able to assist teachers in increasing students‟
proficiency. It showed in the finding that games, like writing-poem game, improved students‟ proficiency in making sentences and applying the correct grammar in the target language. The using of game also promoted the cooperation among the group members since the game was done in groups (Bekiri, 2003). The fun atmospheres created by the using of games build students‟ positive feelings and self-confidence. It could reduce students‟ anxiety and could motivate the students to learn English further. Last, giving prompt by engaging the students into a meaningful interaction could develop students‟ communication skills. The
interaction could stimulate the students to use the target language actively in a real communication with a real people, such as their peers.
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Immersion School to use strategy based on the students‟ need. This finding was
similar to the previous study by Soderman (2010), teacher training in dual immersion programs must be proficient in scaffolding instruction, able to design activities that can be simplified, take their cues from the learners in their classroom and know when to give children cognitive relief by providing low-language load or no-low-language load activities. The proper utilization of varied English teaching strategies will contribute to the productive use of the strategy in the teaching process and facilitate students‟ English improvement.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to Jesus Christ, who gave many graces to me to finish this thesis. I submit my highest appreciation to my thesis advisor, Anne Indayanti Timotious, M.Ed., whose support, understanding, patience, giving time and her assistance helped me much in writing this thesis. Without her guidance, I would never have been able to finish my thesis. I also express my gratitude to my second reader Rindang Widiningrum, S.S, M.Hum who helped me in completing this thesis. Also, I would like to thank Bethany School Salatiga, Miss Hesty and the first graders who give the opportunities to collect data and helped me to answer every question that I have.
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21 APPENDIX A
Observation Transcript
Observation 5 ( 2 x 40 minutes)
Teacher : “Good morning students”
Students : “Good morning Miss Hesti‟
Teacher : “O. K, hmmmmm....Justin how old are you?” Justin : “What?”
Teacher : “How old are you?”
Justin : “Six”
Teacher : “Six what? Six days? Six hours?” “Teacher : “Okay, Joshua, how old are you?” Joshua : “Five.”
Teacher : “Five what? Five days old? Five months old? Five hours old? If you are five months old, five days old, or five hours old, so, you should to be this big (make a short range using hands). You should be a baby now (act like carrying a baby).”
Joshua : “Five years old.”
Teacher : “Yes, correct. Joshua is five years old. Alexa, how old are you?” Alexa : “Six years old”
Teacher : “Yes, six years old because six months you should like this” (make a short shape by using her hands). Now...Valenth, how old are you?
Valenth : “Six years old”
Teacher : “Good” (thumbs up). Ritcher, how old are you?” Ritcher : “Six years old”
22 Nawang : “yes”
Students : “Hahahaha..” (students are laughing) Teacher : “ Nawang say „I‟ “
Nawang : “I” Teacher :”Am”
Nawang : “Am”
Teacher : “Six” (make six by using finger) Nawang : “Six”
Teacher : “Years old” Nawang : “Years old”
Teacher : “I am six years old” Nawang : “I am”
Teacher : “Six years old” Nawang : “Six years old”
Ritcher : “How old are you, miss?”
Teacher : “Wow...good question. How old do you think I am?” Students : “I don‟t know miss”
Teacher : “Do you believe if I am seventeen years old” (laughing) Students : “Yes!”
Teacher : “No, honey. I am twenty eight years old” (make two and eight by using finger)
Ritcher : “What? O my God” Vivi : “Really miss?”
Teacher : “Yes, of course. Why? I still look young?” Students : “Yes!”
Teacher : “Oooo...thank you. Now, I want you to come forward to write this about age (pointing the white board using a marker). You, Ritcher, please come to write first.”
23 APPENDIX B
Interview Excerpt
I : What is your name?
T : “My name is miss Hesty.”
I : What is your background study?
T : “My background study is English, I was an English student in Satya Wacana Christian University.”
I : What subject do you teach in the first grade class?
T : “I teach English and Christian Education, I like teaching first grader because I like children and while teaching young children I can use picture, color or fun games.”
I : How long do you teach the first grade students?
T : “I have been teaching for about five years, since i graduated from English department. Honestly I love teaching, especially young learner, but unfortunately I must resign next semester because of my baby.”
I : What do you feel in teaching young learners?
T : “Awesome. I love them like my own children, it is also fun because I always find new experience from each student because they are different. Since the first time this school always set me to teach young learner.”
I : What do you think about the first graders’ English?
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their own English. They always try because it is a must, in my class, to use English. I always say to them don not be afraid to make mistake in practice speaking.”
I : What problems do you often find when you teach?
T : “Passive learner, of course. I want they speak or at least answer my question because even they answer my question their voice are too low. I do not know, maybe they are afraid.”
I : What is the common problem the first graders’ have related with their English speaking ability?
T : “The problem is when they want to speak but they do not know the English, some students still use Indonesian in class and some mix their language between Indonesian and English.”
I : What kind of mistake students make in the communication using
English?
T : “Like I said before they still do not know the English language of their
words, but sometimes they use wrong grammar because in first grade we just learn about present simple tense so when they tell me about their experience yesterday they will use present tense, it is fun because I must correct their sentence after they tell it. I think it is important to correct them so they can know, like learning by doing.”
I : What do you think is the cause of their mistake?
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Bethany Kindergarten School that use English along the teaching learning process, they are the children who use English bravely and who use English at home. The rest are children who come from outside Bethany Kindergarten School, but not all of them can not speak English like Owen, he come from other kindergarten, he can speak English but Kefas, who come from the other kindergarten can not speak English. It is a problem for him to follow the lesson. He can understand what I say but he still can not speak, he just keep silent and look at me.”
I : What kind of strategy do you use to make students understand your
explanation?
T : “I use picture,video, song, games and sometimes I ask them to work in group or peer so they are not just speak to me but they can practice it to their friends. For example, some students do not know the meaning, I let them to find out by themselves. I let them to make mistake and then correct them but not translate it, keep using English with gestures. They will be able to catch the meaning after some time.”
I : How do you deal with the passive learners in class?
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familiar with it. Asking them to come forward and have some practice in peers will help them to improve their speaking skill.”
I : How do you encourage the students to participate actively in using
English?
T : “I asked them one by one about the lesson or I asked them to tell about their experience. In some games I add the rule which every member should speak or answer the questions, so they get the same portion in games.”
I : How do you avoid the boredom during the class activity?
T : “I use games and tools around us, for example when I explained about school stuff I used their own pencil, ruler, water bottle, book and so on. And when I wanted to try their understanding I used a big bag and put all of the stuff in it, I asked them to guess what thing they touched. Using games creates a fun learning. Children usually get bored easily. They are excited to participate in the game. I usually divide them to work in group so they can help each others.”
I : What do you do to make the students familiar with English?
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when they work together with their classmates. By pushing them to speak English I believe they can increase their speaking ability.”
