i
CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS: A case study
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Erella Elen C.
112012113
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
ii
CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS: A case study
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Erella Elen C.
112012113
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
vi
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fullfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@2016. Erella Elen C, Anita Kurniawati, M. Hum
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners of the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...1
LITERATURE REVIEW General Characteristics of Young Learner...4
What is Classroom Instruction? ...5
Giving Instructions to Young Learner...6
THE STUDY...9
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS Teacher Used L1 Dominantly in Classroom Instructions...13
Teacher Used Short and Simple Instructions at the Certain Time...18
Teacher Used Appropriate Level of Language for Young Learner...21
Teacher Used Gesture in Giving Instructions...22
Teacher Used Student‟s Name in Giving Instructions...24
CONCLUSION...25
REFERENCES...27
1 research question underlie this study: How did a teacher in one Elementary School in Parakan give instructions to her young learner English students? The participant of this study was one teacher who is teaching English in Remaja Elementary School, Parakan. Observation was used to collect the data. It was done six times in the several classes in that particular school. Through the observations, the
researcher found that the teacher used students‟ first language (L1) dominantly in
classroom instructions. The teacher also gave instructions in simple and clear way at the certain time. The teacher used appropriate level of language when giving instructions to the students. Then, the teacher also used gestures and students‟ names in giving instructions to her young learners. Based on the findings, there are also some points the researcher suggests to young learner teachers.
Key-words: classroom instructions, young learners
INTRODUCTION
One of the challenging things in teaching English for young learners is
raising the class atmosphere through interesting instructions. The issue of
teacher‟s classroom instructions is getting popular since English starts to be taught
to young learners in Indonesia. How teachers give instructions to their students
seems simple, but it is considered as one of the most important aspects in learning
process and there must be some kind of the contact between the teacher and the
learners. However, many teachers feel confused and under pressure about how to
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those are demanding to teach and control their behavior at the same time
(Schneiderova, 2013).
In the learning process, teachers always give students instructions to ask
students to do some tasks. Teacher instructions have also been identified as a
critical and challenging part of teachers‟ work. Unclear or confusing instructions can prevent students to do their task correctly. The students, especially young
learners, have limited language ability, so in this case classroom instructions can
make them a little bit difficult or confused to understand if the instructions given
are unclear.
Teaching young learners have the distinct impression for the teachers, like
Schneiderová (2013) has stated that teaching young learners can be challenging,
rewarding and even surprising. In fact, teaching young learners is not as easy as
thought. Harmer (2007) claims young learners have different characteristics and
they learn differently from adolescents, adults, and even from older children. The
teachers also should consider that young learners have a low concentration span
and short memory (Yang, 2001). Due to the situation, teachers need to use
appropriate classroom instructions in teaching and learning process especially to
teach young learners. In a great sense, it can be said that good and interesting
teachers‟ classroom instructions for young learners‟ English class can make the
aim of the learning process accomplished.
This study is kind of a case study so the researcher will focus on one case
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teacher. In this present study, the researcher will describe about how a teacher in
one Elementary School context gave instructions to her young learner students in
the classroom activities. This particular school is selected because it has been
fifty years keep the quality in the education area. Currently, this school only has
one English teacher. It is interesting to know that the teacher is teaching English
for all 6 grades in that school. This study related with the previous studies
conducted by Debat and Liruso (2003) that the effective instruction will arise
when the teacher plan it before class. Debat and Liruso in their study examines
both teacher oral and written instructions to young learners while this present
study focuses only on the oral instructions given by the teacher for young learners
in an EFL class and is a case study.
Through this study, the researcher wants to contribute in this area of
research and explore more about how teacher‟s giving oral instruction to their students. Some students may experience some lacks and cannot maximize their
performance in classroom activities because they lack of teacher‟s classroom
instructions that given to them. It is expected that this study provides necessary
information for English teachers and points out certain appropriate way how to
give instructions when they are teaching very young learners, especially in EFL
contexts. From here, the research question in this study is: How did a teacher in
one Elementary School in Parakan give instructions to her young learner English
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LITERATURE REVIEW
General Characteristics of Young Learners
Teaching young learners is different from teaching adult learners.
Teachers of young learners need to be knowledgeable about the variation of the
developmental characteristics of young learners so that they can give the
appropriate instructions which are in accordance with the young learners‟
characters. Linse (2005 as cited in Asykari 2012) have indicated that young
language learners are children between the ages of 5 up to 12. Harmer (2007)
states young learner learns from everything around them and their understanding
comes through their senses. Young learner learns by examples and the most
important role for a teacher is to be their living example.
After we know the definition of young learners, we need to know about
their characteristics and how they learn something before we teach them. Harmer
(2007) claims that young learners have different characteristics and they learn
differently from adolescents, adults and even from older children. In general,
Asykari (2012) states that young learners have very limited attention and
concentration spans, and therefore, they can easily get bored and lose their interest.
She also adds that these young language learners are sensitive and dislike
criticism. They look for guidance and support, and for this reason, they require
individual attention and approval from their teachers. Scott &Ytreberg (1990), as
cited in Shin and Crandall (2014), states that Young Learners tend to respond well
to praising, and it is very important to praise them for what they do. It is common
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statements above, we know that teachers should be prepared with appropriate
instructions to give young language learners guidance and support.
What is Classroom Instruction?
English teachers need an appropriate classroom instruction for teaching
young learners in classroom. Ur (1991, as cited in Debat and Liruso 2003) defines
instructions as "the directions that are given to introduce a learning task which
entails some measure of independent student activity" (p. l6). From Debat and
Liruso statement, instructions are the way that teacher delivers the steps and the
rules of some tasks in students activities.
The design of instruction has critical implications for the why, what, and
how of formal schooling. Given the importance of student learning and
achievement, instructional design requires serious analysis, consideration, and
reflection. Mortensen (2008) states that instructions may be used to describe what
teachers “do” during the lesson, for example to explain how a task should be accomplished. Giving instruction is related to pedagogy and teaching, and the
ways in which teachers make students “do” something in a specific way. In
addition, instruction is related with teacher pedagogical or their educational
perspective on how a person can make someone to „do‟ something. Within these present studies, this “action” of making someone do something is central and
6 Giving Instructions to Young Learner
Making instructions clear for young language learners can be a challenge.
Teacher should make their instructions crystal clear so the students can follow the
steps of the task involved. Ur (1991 as cited in Debat and Liruso 2003) advises
teachers to think ahead what words and illustrations to use for young learners. She
also recommends making sure to have all the students' attention before giving
them instructions and before dividing students into groups or handing out
materials. Cameron (2001) states children should learn language through
meaningful exposure and practice rather than through explicit instruction that only
focus on isolated parts of language. Teachers can use gesture and mimic when
giving instructions so that the students can see what teachers want them to do.
From Cameron statement, we know that children need meaningful instructions
like using some gestures when asking them to do some task rather than just giving
them explicit instructions. Meaningful instructions can help them to get the
concept easier and makes them concentrate on the material. Using gestures
provides an extra tool to help young learner students understand in what way the
teachers want them to do something. Teachers can develop their own gestures, but
they should be consistent with it. If teachers give different gestures using same
words or phrases that they already used before, students will get confused and
cannot interpret the message.
Not only to explain the task that young learner students should do, but
instructions that teachers give also can be a tool to manage the situation in the
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about how to get students‟ attention in the classroom through their instructions. Brewster and Eilis (2002) suggest some points that teachers of young learners
should realize when they give instructions to young learner students. Below are
the points:
1. Teachers should wait for the perfect timing and find the acceptable
noise to give instructions to students. If students are too noisy it can
prevent the instructions to be heard and students will not pay attention
to teachers‟ instructions. Therefore, it is important for teachers to use short sentences, pause between sentences to allow students enough
time to process what they are saying and explaining each step of the
instructions separately and wait for students to complete it before
moving on.
2. Teachers should keep their instructions simple and short. Teachers can
use some short verbal instructions such as “Silent please!”,“Let’s start!”and etc. to manage the classroom. Some short instructions can
makes young learner students easier to get what their teachers ask them
to do and pay their attention to it.
3. Teachers can encourage and gain the good atmosphere in classroom by
knowing and using students‟ names in their instructions. It will create the positive atmosphere that can make young learner students feel
confident and happy to do the task. This thing also can make the
instructions that teachers give more effectively if teachers can directly
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From the points above, Brewster and Eilis emphasize that it is important
for young learner teachers to be aware about the importance of gaining the good
atmosphere in the classroom through instructions and makes the young learner
studentsfocused and do what their teacher asks to them. Other researcher suggests
that teachers can use English in their instructions. Moon (2005) states the use of
English in young learner students‟ class can expose students knowledge in the target language which is English. The use of English also can encourage students
to think in English and make them confident to use it. When teachers give
instructions in English, students respond by doing what teacher asks them to do. It
also exposes students to the target language (L2), in this case English, and helps
establish a situation where L2 is used between the students and teacher.
However, teachers should be careful about the portion of using English
and L1 in the young learner classroom. Brewster and Eilis (2002) suggest that
young learner teachers should be careful and pay attention in how much and how
complex their language if they speak English in the classroom. Teachers should
grade the language used in their instructions, for example using the appropriate
grammar and vocabulary for young learners' level and use language that the
students are familiar with. Teachers should not give instructions too much using
English. Young learner students will be confused and lose their anxiety in the
classroom if their teachers speak too much in the strange foreign language. Moon
(2005) states, teachers also should consider about the use of L1 for some
situations in the English class. The use of L1 in English classroom can be useful
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enough English to share their ideas. L1 can also be used when teachers are
checking students‟ understanding. However, Moon (2005) states that it is important for teachers to maintain the balance between the use of L1 and the
target language. If L1 is used and dominated almost in every section of classroom
activities, students will get limited exposure to English.
THE STUDY
This study belongs to qualitative descriptive case study according to Yin‟s (2003) theory that case study is used to describe the phenomenon and the real-life
context which is occurred. The researcher also cannot manipulate the behavior
and phenomenon that involved in the study. The use of qualitative descriptive case
study method would help the researcher to find out how the teacher gives
instructions to young learners. Yin (2003) states the case study is when the study
is focus on answering how that something is working or how something is going
on and the relation between context and reality is not clear. This study is more
suitable as a case study because the researcher examines how one teacher in one
rural-urban area school gives instructions to young learner students in EFL class.
Context of The study
This research was conducted in a private elementary school in a
rural-urban area. Remaja Elementary School is located in the Jl. Letnan Suwaji,
Parakan. This accredited school was established since January 10th 1958, so it has
been fifty years of experience in providing primary education for children. This
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generations. This school is classified into the middle to upper socio-economic
because most of students‟ parents in this school are self- employed or trader. In this school, English is taught as a foreign language, so it is not used as a medium
for communication. Students in the first to sixth grade learn English as a local
content subject, not as a main subject. Nevertheless, the students in this particular
school have the intention to develop their English skills that assisted by their
English teacher. The students also have enthusiasm in learning English; it is
proved that they can compete with other schools in English competition. So, it is
worth to investigate about how English teacher in this school give instructions to
young learner students.
Participant
In this research, the researcher chose purposive sampling because the
researcher needs the participant that has one requirement which is the participant
should teach in the Elementary school. The participant‟s name is Ms. Y. Ms. Y is the only teacher who teaches English in that particular school, so she teaches
English from 1st -6th graders. She is around twenty six years old and she graduated
from the Faculty of Language and Literature of SWCU (Satya Wacana Christian
University) on March 2013. Ms. Y has been teaching in this particular school for
around 3 years.
Instrument of data collection
In conducting this research, researcher used Observation Protocol
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classroom. The use of Observation Protocol leads the researcher to explore how
the teacher give their instructions to young learner students and what or how
students responses that might emerge during the learning process. Table 1 is an
example of Observation Protocol that the researcher used in order to fulfill the
data.
Table 1. A time-sampling protocol for teacher instruction in young learner
classroom
Observation Protocol Name of course: Name of teacher:
Class time: Total number of students: Class length:
Teacher instructions Students responses Time Occurrence Notes
Data Collection Procedures
The researcher started the observation with the assistance of a video
recording device to record the verbal data spoken both by the teacher and students
who give responses. Furthermore, the video recording also helped the researcher
to get all of the instructions that uttered by the teacher to their students and
students‟ responses during the whole teaching learning process without any data
missing. Besides, the researcher placed herself as a non-participant observer
during the teaching learning process which means that the researcher did not take
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The observations were conducted six times for the teacher, so the researcher could
get richer data from the participant. For the piloting section, researcher also used
time sampling observation protocol and it was done once.
Data Analysis Procedures
After the researcher got the primary data on the transcription of the teacher
instructions and students‟ responses, the researcher categorized them into table of teacher instructions and students‟ responses. The researcher also categorized the
kinds of instructions that the teacher given to the students. From this
categorization, the researcher found five kinds of instructions which commonly
used by the teacher and after that analyzed them one by one. Last, after analyzing
the kind of instructions, conclusion was drawn.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This section discusses the findings from the observation section about how
the teacher gave instructions to young learners in English classroom. The theories
about how to give instructions to young learners are stated on Brewster and Eilis
(2002), Moon (2005), and also Cameron (2001). These theories are proven by the
researcher‟s observation. The observation results show that there are five techniques used frequently by the teacher when giving instruction to the students.
First, the use of L1 is still dominating. Here, the teacher always used L1 not only
for giving and repeating instruction but also checking students‟ understanding.
Second, the teacher used short and simple instructions to manage the class and ask
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language level in giving instructions. Fourth, the teacher used gestures in giving
instructions to the students. And last is the teacher used student‟s name in giving instructions.
Teacher Used L1 Dominantly in Classroom Instructions
Students‟ L1 becomes the dominant language when teachers give and repeat her instructions. So, it can be said that the use of L1 is teachers‟ choice when teaching English since students have been acquired their first language and
always use it in their daily conversation. Like when doing the observation before,
the researcher found that the English teacher used L1 dominantly in classroom
instructions.
Extract 1
Teacher : “Anak-anak disuruh menebak, apa yang akan Miss sebutkan cirinya. Boleh diskusi sama kelompoknya.” (I will mention the characteristic of the thing and you are asked to guess what the thing is about. You can discuss it with your group members)
Students :( Students are discussing with their group members)
(Observation 1 – Jan 12th 2016)
Extract 2
Teacher : “Coba Nisa buat satu kalimat perintah pakai bahasa Indonesia saja. Pakai bahasa Indonesia” (Nisa, please make one imperative sentence in Indonesian. Please using Indonesian language)
Student1 : (Students make one imperative sentence in Indonesian)
Teacher : “Dion, buat satu, apa coba.” (Dion, can you make another one?)
Student2 : (Student makes one imperative sentence)
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From Extract 1, the students learnt English with the topic “Food and
Drink”. At that time, the teacher used L1 thoroughly in giving instructions to the
students when the game section began. Firstly, the teacher divided the students
into four groups then asked them to guess what the things in group based on the
characteristic given by the teacher. She also said that the students could discuss
the answer with their group members. The students‟ response for this instruction
was good because it was proved that all the students did about the teachers asked
to do. The students did the discussion with their group members like what the
teacher instructed before.
In the Extract 2, the teacher introduced the material about “Order and Request” to the students. At that time, the teacher instructed two students using L1 to make an imperative sentence, they knew about the teacher wanted to do so
they did the instruction well. From both of the data displayed above, all of the
students understood when they were given an instruction by their teacher directly.
They could do the instruction well because of the teacher instructed them using
their first language. For example, when the teacher gave instruction to the
students to discuss with their group members in the game section about guessing
15 Extract 3
Teacher : “You have to write down food and drink as many as you can. Disuruh menulis makanan dan minuman sebanyak
mungkin”
Students :( Students pay attention to the teacher)
Teacher : “Nanti yang paling banyak, pemenangnya. But, tapi the spelling have to correct, pengejaannya harus benar.”
Students : (Students listen to the teacher)
Teacher : “Yang pertama itu, yang kedua there is no missing letter, ga ada huruf yang hilang. Jelas? In 3 minutes, dalam 3 menit. Hitungan ketiga dimulai, satu…dua… tiga…”
Students : (Students write down the name of food and drink)
(Observation 1 – Jan 12th 2016)
Extract 3 was taken from the first observation when the last section of
game about “Food and Drink” started. At that time, the teacher gave instruction in
English but after that she repeated the instruction again using L1. First time, the
teacher had divided the students into 4 groups, she asked each groups to prepare
one paper to make a table about food and drink. The students were asked to write
down food and drink as many as they can with the correct spelling and there is no
missing letter in 3 minutes, anyone who wrote the most food and drink would be
the winner. After the teacher gave the instruction, the students did they had to do
directly. Every students in that class competed with the other students to be a
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good, in that they knew what they had to do. Repeating instruction using L1 can
also help the students to understand the meaning indirectly, for example: “Open
your book, buka bukunya” the students can know the meaning of open your book
in Indonesia is “buka bukunya”. It can help the students to understand the meaning of teachers‟ instruction because the teacher used the students‟ first
language which has been acquired by them.
Teachers also use L1 to check students understanding by giving them
instruction about what they should do. In the observation, Ms. Y also checked
students‟ understanding in L1 such as the extract below.
Extract 4
Teacher : “Kalau yang Miss bacakan itu food, nanti ditulis difood. Tapi kalau yang Miss bacakan itu drink, tulis didrink.
Jelas?” (If Miss read food, you can read it in food table. But if the word that miss read is a drink, write it in drink table, do you understand?)
Students : “Jelas.” (Yes Miss)
(Observation 1 – Jan 12th 2016)
This example is the dialogue when the teacher gave an instruction to the
students in the game section. The teacher asked the students to classify the food
and drink into the appropriate table. Before that, the teacher had asked them to
make a table which has 2 columns for food and drink. The game was started with
the teacher said one word whether it is a food or drink. After giving instruction,
17 Extract 5
Teacher : “(...) Miss sebutkan nama kalian and you answer. Baru
dijawab. Clear enough? Jelas?” (Miss will mention your name and then you can answer it. Clear enough? Do you understand?)
Students : „Jelas Miss” (Clear Miss)
(Observation 3- Jan 27th 2016)
In the Extract 5, the teacher gave instruction about rule for game, and the
topic is “Job”. The teacher divided the students into 4 groups and then she gave
the characteristic about a specific job, the students were asked to answer what the
job by raising their hand. At the end of giving instruction, the teacher checked
students‟ understanding again. From two dialogues above, after gave instructions, Ms. Y checked students understanding in L1 by asking them a question”Jelas?”
The students‟ response by saying “Jelas Miss” showed that all of them knew
about what they had to do.
Brewster and Eilis (2002) state that teacher should not use too much
English in the classroom in order to keep students‟ anxiety. The findings above
support that theory because the teacher tried to reduce the students‟ anxiety by using L1 in her instructions. The findings above also are also in line with Moon
(2005) saying that using L1 can be a tool and a medium that can help students to
communicate their ideas and useful to check students‟ understanding. It can be said that the teacher wanted the students to understand about what the teacher said
and what they were going to do later, so the teacher used L1 dominantly when
giving them instructions to make the students get the meaning of the instructions.
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The findings above show that almost in every section, the L1 is more dominating
than the English language in teacher instructions. It is contradictory with Moon
(2005) statements that teacher should maintain the balance between the use of L1
and English in order to keep the exposure of students to the target language.
English in this particular school is taught as a foreign language, it is
not used as a colloquial language. Both all teachers and the students always speak
in Indonesian to make interaction with each other. From this case, it can be said
that the students are very familiar with Indonesian which is their first language
(L1). Therefore, the teacher uses the language that the students are more familiar
with to help them understand the class instructions and learn English. When doing
observation, the research brought to notice that the students are still “learning” English, they often ask their teacher about the meaning, if the teacher spoke to
them in full English.
Teacher Used Short and Simple Instructions at the Certain Time
Teachers should keep their instructions simple and short so students can
clearly follow the steps in doing some tasks. This technique is often used by
teachers because it is considered as a practical way to give instructions to the
young learners. By using this technique, teachers can produce a simple phrase or
maybe just one word to instruct the students, for example: “Silent, please!”,
“Open the book!” and “Sit down, please!”This case also happens when the
researcher did the observations. The researcher noticed that the teacher often gave
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teacher managed the class and asked the students to do the activity step by step.
The extracts below show some instructions used by the teachers in learning
process.
Extract 6
Teacher : “Silent please! Stop. Silent please!”
Students : (Students are silent)
Teacher : “Please listen to me!”
Students : (Students listen the teacher)
(Observation 1 – Jan 12th 2016)
At that time, the teacher gave a question for them and asked them to raise
their hand if they knew about the answer so it is like a game. After the teacher had
done read the question, the students snatched away with the others group to
answer the question directly. It made the classroom became noisy because of the
students made a noise when answering the question from their teacher. Therefore,
the teacher asked them to stop making a noise and listened to the teacher, finally
the students were silent. Ms. Y instructed the student to do something by
producing a very short instruction. It can make the students easier to understand
what the teacher wants them to do. Ms. Y also gave instructions to the students
with the simple phrases and the students‟ response the instruction correctly.
Those instructions above, “Silent, please!” and “Listen to me!” are the most commonly used by the teacher to manage the class. We can find another
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simple and short instruction because it could help her to manage the class when
the students made a noise when the learning process happens.
Extract 7
Teacher : “Open your book, open Focus page 21 task 1”
Students : (Students open their Focus and do the task directly)
Teacher : “Continue to task 2!”
Students : (Students continue in doing their task)
(Observation 4-Feb 2nd 2016)
In extract 7, the teacher taught the students about “Things in the Living Room”. After they did the several activities, such as looking at the pictures of
such as “Come forward!”, “Write down your answer on the white board!”, “Read
the second paragraph!” etc. This instruction is different from the previous one because it is used by the teacher when asking the students to do something step by
step, so it is continuously done by the teacher. Giving instructions in a simple and
short way is very useful in English learning process. Because it is appropriate with
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finding about using simple and short instructions supports Scrivener‟s (2005)
study. He suggests that teachers can use short instructions to manage and monitor
the class especially in young learner classes. Scrivener also states that using too
many words would be ineffective and cause interruptions. The findings above also
support one point that Brewster and Eilis (2002) suggested in the literature review
part. Using short and simple instructions such as “Silent Please!”, “Listen!” can help the students to get the message from the teacher quickly so it is effective to
use by the teacher in managing the classroom.
Teacher Used Appropriate Level of Language for Young Learner
Teachers who teach English for Young Learners should pay attention to
the level of language chosen. Like the researcher found in the observation that the
teacher sometimes used some long instructions to her students but it is still clear
and precise.
Extract 8
Teacher : “Please show to your friend, what is the center of the
solar system in the picture. Come forward”
Students 1 : (Students show the picture to her friends)
Teacher : “Please write down on your book, the center of solar
system is sun.”
Students : (Students write down on their book)
(Observation 5th- Feb 23rd 2016)
When the researcher did the observation 5, the teacher was teaching about
“Solar System”. The example above is a conversation which was taken place
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As a warm up activity, the teacher showed a video about “Solar System”, she
taught about several vocabularies related to the topic such as: Solar System in
Indonesian, Sun, Star, Planets and all the names of planets in English. The
example above tells that the teacher asked one student to come forward to show
the center of the Solar System in the picture on the slide. The students did the
instruction from the teacher by showing the picture that had been instructed.
This finding confirms Brewster and Eilis (2002) study, teachers should not
give their instructions with complex patterns and they should be aware about the
language level that they use in their instructions. For example, teachers should use
grammar and vocabulary that are appropriate for young students' level. It means
that the teacher who teaches young learners should choose the simple and
common vocabularies and use grammar patterns which are easier and not complex.
This is important because if teachers do not pay attention to the level of language
for their students, their students cannot interpret the meaning of what they have
already instructed and would fail to complete the task.
Teacher Used Gestures in Giving Instructions
The uses of gestures when giving instructions help teachers to
communicate familiar signals. Like in the observation which the researcher did,
the researcher found that the teacher often used gestures when she instructed the
students for the game section but it was only a few time. She used gestures to
23 Extract 9
Teacher : “Pasang telinganya baik-baikya” (Please listen carefully) *Teacher touch her ears*
Students : (Students imitating teacher gesture)
Teacher : “Prepare your hand. Siapkan tangannya buat angkat
tangan.” (Teacher raises her hand)
Students : (Students imitating teacher’s gesture)
(Observation 1 – Jan 12th 2016)
At that time, the teacher had a game for the students. The teacher gave a
characteristic of food and drink and asked them to raise their hands then wrote the
answer on the blackboard. Before the game started, the teacher gave instructions
as shown in the extract above. The teacher switched the language when instructed
the students, but the teacher used gestures when said the certain words, such as
“pasang telinga (listen carefully)” and “angkat tangan (raise hand)”.
Unconsciously, the students imitated the teacher‟s gestures, so it showed that they
got meaning from the teacher‟s gesture.
In that example, Ms. Y instructed students to follow the rules in some
games. By making some gestures in her instructions such as when she said “Raise your hand”, students are able to interpret the meaning of her instructions and exposure them to the target language by knowing the meaning of its. This finding
supports the study that conducted by Cameron (2001). She shared the points that
teachers should provide their instructions with facial expressions and gestures to
help the young learners interpreting the message of teacher‟s instructions. Besides
facial expressions, gestures can be in the form of motions of hands or the body.
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express a thought or feeling. Cameron (2001) emphasizes teachers should be
consistent with the gesture that they use. If they do not consistent, it will make the
students have different interpretation about the instruction if the teacher already
used the particular gesture before.
Teacher Used Student’s Name in Giving Instructions
In giving instructions, teachers of young learner students can use some
particular technique in it. Through the observations, the researcher found that Ms
Y. usually used and called the students‟ names when she instructed her students to do some tasks. The extract 10from observation 3 below is the example when the
teacher used the student‟s name in her instruction.
Extract 10
Teacher : “Next, Andika chooses one of your friends”
Student 1 : (The student chose one of his friends)
(Observation 3- Jan 27th 2016)
In the extract 10 above, the students learnt about “Job”. The teacher asked the students one by one to practice their speaking skill about asking parents‟ job.
At first, Ms. Y chose one student and asked about his parents‟ job after that this
student chose his another friends to be asked the same question and it was be done
continuously until all the students in that class had a chance to ask. Here, Ms Y.
chose her students one by one by calling the student‟s name. In the extract 10, the teacher could directly instructed the choosen student to do some tasks by calling
25 Extract 11
Teacher: “Come forward, Josey you as Sun, Roman comes forward, you as Earth. Aldo comes forward you as Moon.”
Students: (Come forward and do the tasks that instructed by the teachers)
(Observation 6th- Feb 25th2016)
In the extract 11, Ms. Y taught about “Solar System”. After, they learnt about some vocabularies which are related to the topic, the teacher had an
interesting activity. The teacher asked 3 students to come forward and ask them to
be as Sun, Earth, and Moon. She asked 3 students to model how Sun, Earth, and
Moon are rotated. The response of the students was good and quick. They came
forward confidently and modeled how the solar system is working. The finding
above support Brewster and Eilies (2002) saying that teachers can encourage and
give instructions more effectively if they know the students‟ names.Using
student‟s name in the instruction also effective for the time management. Students who get choosen and his or her name are called by teachers immediately will pay
their attention to what teachers ask them to do.
CONCLUSION
The aim of this study was to analyze about how a teacher in Elementary
School in Parakan gave instructions to young learner students in English class.
Through observations, the researcher found that L1 was still dominating used by
the teacher in giving instructions for young learners. The teacher used L1 in
giving and repeating instruction to the students, and also checking the students‟
understanding. In certain situations, such as managing class and asking the
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instructions to young learner students. The teacher also used the language
appropriate with the young learners‟ level in giving instructions by not using complex grammar and vocabulary. The teacher used gestures in giving her
instructions for young learners to communicate familiar signals. Last, the teacher
used student‟s name in the instructions to make it more effectively.
Based on the finding, there are some points the researcher suggests from
the data that found in this research. The teacher should emphasize more in the use
of target language rather than using L1 in order to maximize the students‟
exposure to the target language.When the teacher used English, students will be
more familiar with the target language and indirectly they will learn about how to
pronunce and arrange the sentences in English. The teacher also should check the
students understanding by asking the students about what they need to do in the
task not only asking them some short questions, such as: “Do you understand?”,
“Is it clear enough?”, or “So far so good”. The students can repeat teachers‟ instructions in English to makes them familiar with the target language and make
sure that they really understand to do the task.
However, this study still have some limitations.The first limitation is the
number of the school observed. A bigger number of the data collected will be
more beneficial for the reliability of the further studies. The second limitation is
on the time allocation and the number of observation. There is a limit of time for
the researcher on doing thisresearch. Therefore, having a longer time allocation
27
For further studies,researchers can conduct studies on the same topic
about how teachers give instructions to young learners in learning English.
Observation and interview are recommended to get more data. Observations can
be used to analyze about how teachers give instructions, and through interview, lecturers conference in English Language Department of IbnKhaldun University, Bogor, Indonesia.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am so grateful that I have finally finished my thesis. First of all, I would
like to present my big gratitude to Jesus Christ who always blessed me all of time
and support me in my life. This thesis would not have been possible the support of
other people. I wish to express sincere appreciation to, Anita Kurniawati M.
Hum., for her invaluable supervision, guidance, and advice in helping me
finishing this thesis. I also want to give my deepest gratitude to my examiner,
Yustina Priska Kisnanto M. Hum., without her knowledge, assistance and
advice this thesis would not have been completed. This thesis also would not have
been completed without the encouragement, support, and endless devotion of my
lovely family. Thank you for their endless love and pray through the duration of
