ENGLISH FOR PRE-PRIMARY SCHOOL AS A TOOL TO HELP STUDENTS MEET THEIR LEARNING NEEDS
A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Program in English Language Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Magister Humaniora (M.Hum) in English Language Studies
by
Wiskandini Dwiputri 046332011
DEDI CATI ON
Statement of Originality
This is to certify that all the ideas, phrases, and sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if he/she takes somebody else’s idea, phrase, or sentence without a proper reference.
Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to praise Allah swt, the most merciful and compassionate, who has blessed me to accomplish this thesis as the requirements for the degree of Magister Humaniora in English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta.
I would like to express my deepest and best gratitude to the following people who support and encourage me to finish this thesis:
1. F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D. for helpful guidance, suggestions, corrections and
understanding. His willingness to spend his precious time has given a lot of contribution to the writing of this thesis.
2. Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, M.A., the chairmain of ELS program, for encouraging me to
continue my study at this program.
3. All lectures, for transferring their knowledge during my study in ELS program. 4. My family, first of all my late mother for giving me a great chance to study at ELS
program. Mother, I finally finish my study. I am so sorry you can’t see me finishing this study. My sister and brother, my sister-in law, my cousins, for giving me their support to continue my study, particularly after mother passed away. And last but not least, my dear husband, Daru Perwita, for giving me encouragement, support, care and endless love to finish this thesis.
such nice friends during our study at KBI. I have learnt a lot from all of you about language teaching and learning.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover………..………i
Approval Page..…………..………....ii
Defense Approval Page……….iii
Dedication Page……….…iv
Statement of Originality...………...v
Acknowledgement………vi
Table of Contents………...viii
List of Tables.………..xii
List of Abbreviations...………xiii
List of Appendix...……….…xiv
Abstract………xv
Abstrak………xvi
Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background….…..………1
1.2 Problem Identification..……….4
1.3 Problem Limitation…..……….5
1.4 Problem Formulation………6
1.5 Research Objectives….……….…6
1.6 Research Benefits…….………...………..6
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Theoretical Review………..…9
2.1.1 Language Development in Children..………9
2.1.1.1 Cognitive Development………….………..10
2.1.1.2 Social-Emotional Development….………..12
2.1.2 Learning First Language……….……….13
2.1.2.1 Behaviorist View…….………14
2.1.2.2 Nativist View……….………..15
2.1.2.3 Interactionist View….……….17
2.1.3 Learning Foreign Language……….………18
2.1.3.1 Humanistic Approach and Affective Factors….……….20
2.1.3.2 Multiple Intellegences……….22
2.1.4 Designing Language Course………23
2.1.4.1 Components in Designing Language Program…..………..24
2.2 Theoretical Framework………..27
2.2.1 How Pre-Primary Students Learn………...27
2.2.2 Pre-Primary Children Language Teaching………..28
2.2.3 English Program for Pre-Primary School………30
Chapter 3 Methodology 3.1 Method….………..33
3.2 The Nature of Data….………35
3.3 Data Setting and Participants……….36
3.5 Data Collections………..44 3.6 Data Analysis………..45
Chapter 4 Analysis
4.1Language Program for Pre-Primary Students in Learning English………47 4.1.1 Accountability of the material of the Language Program for Pre-Primary Students in Learning English……….47 4.1.2 Evaluation of the Language Program for Pre-Primary Students in Learning English………..………..52 4.2Learning English Helps Pre-Primary Students Meet their Learning
Needs………..57 4.2.1 English Language Learning at Pre-Primary Class………58 4.2.2 The Description of English Language Learning at Pre-Primary Class……58
4.2.2.1 English Language Learning at Pre-Primary Class (I)………..59 4.2.2.2 English Language Learning at Pre-Primary Class (II)………61 4.2.3 Evaluation of the Language Program whether the Language Program Helps the Students Meet their Learning Needs………65
4.2.3.1 Evaluation of English Language Learning at Pre-Primary Class (I)………..64 4.2.3.2 Evaluation of English Language Learning at Pre-Primary Class (II)……….71
5.1.1 The Conclusion of Designing a Language Program for Pre-Primary Students
in Learning English……….80
5.1.2 The Conclusion of the Designed Program for Helping the Students Meet their Learning Needs………...82
5.2 Implication of the Study….………....83
5.3 Recommendation for Further Study……….……...85
Bibliography..………..86
Appendices 1. Interview 1……….………..91
2. Interview 2……….……….….93
3. Interview 3………..……….…96
4. Material Evaluation Sheet……….100
5. Classroom Observation Sheet (first try out – week 1)………..101
6. Classroom Observation Sheet (first try out – week 2)………..…102
7. Classroom Observation Sheet (first try out – week 3)………..103
8. Classroom Observation Sheet (second try out – week 1).……….104
9. Classroom Observation Sheet (second try out – week 2)………..106
10. Classroom Observation Sheet (second try out – week 3)………..108
11. Classroom Observation Sheet (second try out – week 4)………..110
12. Students’ Worksheet Evaluation………...113
List of Tables
Table 3.1 : Material Evaluation Sheet
List of Abbreviations
R : Researcher O : Observer
LP : Language Program ins : Instruction
lay : Layout
com : Comprehensible ach : Achievability mot : Motivating power SLN: Student Leaning Needs con : Condition of the class
TLP : Teaching and Learning Process att : Attitude (toward language learning) ski : Skill area
List of Appendices
Appendix 1 : Interview 1 Appendix 2 : Interview 2 Appendix 3 : Interview 3
Appendix 4 : Material Evaluation Sheet
Appendix 5 : Classroom Observation Sheet (first try out – week 1) Appendix 6 : Classroom Observation Sheet (first try out – week 2) Appendix 7 : Classroom Observation Sheet (first try out – week 3) Appendix 8 : Classroom Observation Sheet (second try out – week 1) Appendix 9 : Classroom Observation Sheet (second try out – week 2) Appendix 10: Classroom Observation Sheet (second try out – week 3) Appendix 11 : Classroom Observation Sheet (second try out – week 4) Appendix 12 : Students’ Evaluation Worksheet
ABSTRACT
Wiskandini Dwiputri. 2008. English for Pre-Primary School as a Tool to Help Students Meet their Learning Needs. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.
The history of language teaching has been characterized by a search for more effective ways of teaching second or foreign languages. The impact of English as the international language has led the number of parents and pre-primary schools to introduce English to the very young learners. However, the pre-primary students are at the stage of cognitive and affective development. The children are still developing their sensorimotor skills. If the children are really going to benefit from the increasing opportunities to learn English, the teacher needs to design a language program to suit the needs of the children. To help children meet their learning needs, this study is to design a language program for pre-primary students in learning English and hopefully, the designed program can help the students meet their needs.
The collected data were from evaluation of the material and observation in class during the process of learning. The study began with designing material. Designing material was based on need assessment and the aims of the program. The material provided the aims of the language program and the contents to be learned. Evaluation of the material was to answer the first research question about designing a language program for pre-primary students. Observation in the classroom during the process of learning was to answer the second research question about to the extent that the designed program helped the students meets their learning needs. The observer of the study was the pre-primary teacher. The researcher of this study was the English teacher in which the material was tried out. The participants of the study were thirty-five pre-primary students at Baitul Hikmah pre-primary school in Yogyakarta. All students had never learned English, thus English was a new subject for the children. The process of gathering data was conducted on June and September 2006. The material was tried out twice because the first try out failed to get satisfying results. The children were difficult to comprehend the materials because one theme was learned for one meeting. The next meeting they learned another theme. Thus the second try out was conducted with different method. One theme was learned four times meeting.
ABSTRAK
Wiskandini Dwiputri. 2008. English for Pre-Primary Schools as a Tool to Help Students Meet Their Learning Needs. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.
Dalam sejarah pengajaran bahasa telah ditandai oleh berbagai penelitian untuk menemukan cara-cara mengajar bahasa asing yang efektif. Pengaruh bahasa Inggris sebagai bahas internasional telah mendorong banyak orang tua dan sekolah untuk mengenalkan bahasa Inggris pada anak-anak taman kanak-kanak. Akan tetapi, siswa taman kanak-kanak masih dalam pertumbuhan kognitif dan affektif. Bahasa mereka masih dalam perkembang. Jika anak-anak taman-kanak-kanak bener-benar mendapat kesempatan untuk belajar bahas Inggris, maka guru harus mampu menciptakan program bahasa yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan anak-anak. Untuk membantu siswa taman kanak-kanak memenuhi kebutuhan belajar mereka
Data dikumpulkan dari evaluasi terhadap materi pengajaran yang akan digunakan dalam program bahasa dan observasi di kelas. Penelitian ini dimulai dari mendesain materi pengajaran. Desain materi pengajaran berdasarkan observasi kebutuhan belajar siswa dan tujuan dari program. Materi pengajaran berisi tujuan program dan tema yang akan dipelajari. Evaluasi terhadap materi pengajaran adalah untuk menjawab masalah pertama dalam penelitian ini tentang desain program bahasa untuk anak-anak taman kanak-kanak. Observasi di kelas dilakukan untuk menjawab masalah kedua dalam penelitian ini yaitu bagaimana program bahasa mampu membantu memenuhi kebutuhan belajar anak-anak taman-kanak-kanak. Yang mengobservasi di kelas adalah guru kelas. Peneliti dalam studi ini sebagai guru bahasa Inggris. Penelitian diadakan di sekolah taman kanak-kanak Baitul Hikmah di Yogyakarta. Terdapat tiga puluh lima siswa di kelas yang diobservasi. Semua siswa belum pernah belajar bahas Inggris. Proses pengumpulan data dilakukan bulan Juni dan September 2006. Dilakukan dua kali uji coba materi di kelas karena uji coba pertama kurang mendapat hasil yang memuaskan. Kurangnya hasil yang memuaskan karena siswa mempelajari satu tema dalam satu kali pertemuan. Kemudian pada pertemuan berikut siswa sudah belajar tema yang berbeda. Oleh karena itu dilakukan uji coba yang kedua. Satu tema dipelajari untuk empat kali pertemuan
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter contains seven sections, namely (1) background, (2) problem identification, (3) problem limitation, (4) problem formulation, (5) research objectives, (6) research benefits, and (7) definition of terms.
1.1Background
Reilly and Ward (2002) state that pre-primary learners refer to children who have not yet started compulsory schooling. Making successful learning at pre-primary level is to let the children feel fun when they are learning at school. Anything the children learn is to let them feel free from pressure, which means that learning can be enjoyable experience for children. The children need variety of learning such as play games, sing songs, say rhymes and chant together. The children are comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition since children forget things quickly. Roth (1998) says, very young children need to develop a sense of confidence and have classroom atmosphere that provides a sense of security.
The learning program at pre-primary school is to produce happy, encourage the learners’ creativity and stimulate cognitive, affective and social-emotional development. The development of the learning program is based on the nature of children learn. Pre-primary children love to play and use their imagination. Imagination stimulate the children creativity that they can use the language to share their idea (Halliwell, 2004). They are comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition (Slattery and Willis, 2001). Thus the learning program at pre-primary school is designed on the principles of playing by learning and learning by playing (The national curriculum for pre-primary school).
According to Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2003) the growing trend of using English as the world language for communication has led to the introduction of English language learning by children all over the world. The impact of global English on different part of the world promotes an increasing number of parents from non native English speaking countries, particularly Asian children, send their children to language courses after regular school hours (Paul,2003).
and syllabus for English, beliefs about teaching and learning, the materials, resources and time available and finally the type of assessment used (Brewster et al,2003).
Although there are positive developments in learning English to children, according to Cajkler and Addelman (2000) teachers should not take it for granted that children will arrive in the classroom with positive attitudes to Language learning. Children’s experiences with a foreign language ought to be enjoyable. Hawkins (1984) states the main aim of children Language learning is to stimulate children’s natural interest and curiosity about language. Natural interest and curiosity about language may rise motivation to learn the language which in turn to promote positive attitudes toward language learning. Motivation is one factor that influences the successfulness of learning language. When children’s motivation is high, these learners continue enjoying their English lesson.
The language teaching profession is involved in what many pedagogical experts would call a search. The search is for a single, ideal method that would successfully teach students a foreign language in classroom. In the world of language teaching and learning, it is characterized by frequent change and innovation and by the development of language teaching ideologies. Designing a language program the teacher needs to think carefully about the language relevant to the needs of the children (Brewster et al,2003). According to Paul (2003) teachers need to examine and question the language program is suitable to the classroom situations or it needs some modifications in order to suit the learners’ needs and the classroom conditions.
1.2Problem Identification
The field of teaching English as a second or foreign language has developed into a worldwide community that seeks to improve the quality of language teaching and learning. Some issues center according to Richards and Renandya (2002) such as understanding learners and the process they employ in second or foreign language learning, understanding the nature of language teaching and learning, teaching methods which appropriate the class condition and materials which play in facilitating successful learning.
If children have benefits from the increasing opportunities to learn English, the teacher need to create Language program based on how the children learn English most effectively. The first condition that should be properly planned in planning a Language program for children is the teacher and the curriculum designer must have a clear idea of intended goals and outcomes. Second, the school must ensure that adequate resources such as materials, classroom aids are provided to ensure optimal condition so that successful outcome can be turn into reality. Third, an evaluation of the learning outcomes after a set of period is essential in order to provide information on the validity of the program (Brewster et al, 2003).
A major consideration when planning a program is the needs of children and how they learn in order to provide optimal conditions for learning. Providing an optimal condition may motivate the children in learning. A well-planned language program provides clear aims of how the aims are going to be achieved, which visual aids will be used, and materials provide a guide to the territory to be cover in the class activities. Evaluations after a lesson help the teacher monitors her teaching and identify the strong and the weak points as well as evaluate the students’ learning and form the basis for future planning.
1.3Problem Limitation
a. The research is to design an English language program as a part of language curriculum development at pre-primary school.
b. To make the research more effective and focused, the research limits the problems to design a language program for pre-primary students in learning English and to the extent that the program can help the students meet their learning needs.
c. The designed program begins with developing material since the material
provides the objectives of the program and a visible outline of what to be learned in a classroom.
d. Trying out the material is to examine whether or not the material can meet the
1.4Problem Formulation
There are two research problems that are stated in this research :
1. How is a language program for pre-primary students in learning English designed? 2 How can the designed program help students meet their learning needs?
1.5Research Objectives
There are two main objectives in this research in relation to the two research problems stated previously. The objectives of the research can be formulated as follows:
1. This research is to design a language program for pre-primary students in learning
English. Designing a language program begins with developing material as the learning tool.
2. This research is to find out whether or not the designed program can be a tool to help pre-primary students meet their learning needs. Evaluation of the program is through trying out the material in the classroom.
1.6 Research Benefits
The result of the research will hopefully be beneficial for :
1. Developing curriculum of language learning at pre-primary school in order to help the children meet their learning needs.
2. Improving teachers’ techniques, strategies and creativity in designing a language program for pre-primary students.
3. Promoting teachers to build and develop language curriculum that fits to the particular needs of their own children to learn a foreign language most effectively.
1.7Clarification of Terms
1. Pre-Primary School
The primary objectives of pre-school is to produce happy, confident as well as to enhance cognitive, sensorimotor and social interaction to become social beings. According to Roth (1998) very young learners still operate in a very egocentric way. They still develop motor skills. They need to develop a sense of confidence. They also need activities to help them to develop memory and concentration skills. Pre-primary school provides the children to develop good concentration and memorization skills through introducing some songs, making arts (cutting and gluing). Hand-eye coordination such as coloring pictures, copying simple letters can develop children’s sensorimotor. School provides activities to reinforce concept to become social beings such as sharing and playing together with others can develop social emotional. Drawing, shape puzzles, number puzzles, word puzzles, role-play, and so on are the activities can develop cognitive ability.
2. Learning English for Pre-Primary School
interesting and fun ways. Learning English at pre-primary school is to have a better chance of being integrated into general learning, such as learning through touching objects, through singing, through coloring pictures, through mentioning objects, through working with others and so on. It can help the students reinforce learning their L1. Brewster et.al (2003) say learning English will be an effective preparation for teaching program they will encounter at the upper class.
3. Helping Pre-Primary Students Meet their Learning Needs
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical Review
To begin this study, it is useful to consult literatures related to the research questions. This chapter consists of two sections, namely (1) theoretical review and (2) theoretical framework. The first section discusses children language development, theoretical approaches to explaining first and foreign language learning and the process of designing language program. Reviewing related literatures helps in clarifying and defining the constructs involved in this study and in translating these constructs into operational definitions.
2.1.1 Language Development in Children
Language is a tool that humans use to communicate or share ideas, and express emotions. Communicating is one of the most pleasurable experiences for parents and child. Children as learners absorb information through daily interactions and experiences with other children and adults. The more interactive conversation a child is involved in, the more a child learns. According to Slattery and Willis (2001) babies are able to hear voices from the time they are born since human being are born to speak. Babies are able to respond to the voices of their mother or father and people around them by smiling, producing sounds.
2.1.1.1 Cognitive Development
First and second or foreign language acquisition is related to the cognitive domain of human behavior. According to Lennenberg (1967) the most intensive period of language development for humans is during the first three years of life. Between the ages of three the possibility for language acquisition considers to be good. In other word, the first three years of a child can acquire language more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to be acquired. During this period the developing brain is best able to absorb any language. If these critical periods are allowed to pass without early exposure to language, the ability to learn a language will be more difficult and perhaps less effective.
How might brain development affect in second or foreign language. Lateralization of the brain is as the key to answer it. As Genesee (1982) says, human brain matures certain functions are assigned or lateralized to the left hemisphere of the brain as intellectual, logical and analytic functions and the right hemisphere of the brain related to emotional and social needs. During this time the child is neurologically assigning functions little by little to one side of brain or the other, included in these functions is language.
Operational. The succession of stages involves the movement through four stages. Children must move through these stages during their childhood. In order to move from the first stage to the next, the child must master that specific set of criteria.
Children at the sensorimotor stage are from ages 0 to 2. During this period, babies are busy to discover the relationship between their bodies and the environment. They rely on seeing, touching, feeling, and using their senses to learn things.
The second stage is the preoperational stage which occurs from ages 2 to 6. During this stage, according to Piaget, a child views life from his own perspective. In this stage, the child is very me, myself and I oriented. The child operates in a very egocentric way. Egocentricm of very young children lead them to believe that everyone thinks as they do.
The concrete operational stage is the third stage which occur between the ages of 7 and 12. Piaget claims that in this stage, a child is characterized by a loss of egocentric thinking, ability to coordinate two dimensions of an object simultaneously, arrange structures in sequence, transpose differences between items in a series, ability to master most types of conversation.
2.1.1.2 Social-Emotional Development
Understanding how human beings feel, respond and value are important aspects in social-emotional development. Erikson (2006) says that social-emotional development in children results in the human organism’s moving from the state of total egocentricity to ideal adult state of independent creativity. He proposes eight stages of social-emotional development in children and teenagers.
1. Hope, this period is from first one and two years of life.
If children are well handled, loved, they will develop trust, security and a basic optimism.
2. Will occurs during early childhood between about 18 months or 2 years and 3 to 4
years. Well parented emerges child sure of himself, elated with his new found control and proud rather than ashamed.
3. Purpose occurs during the play age or the later preschool years.
During it, children learn to imagine, to broaden his skills through active play, to cooperate with others and to lead as well as to follow.
4. Competence, the child learns to master the more formal skills of life such as mastering social studies, reading, arithmetic.
5. Fidelity, the child, now an adolescent, learns how to answer satisfactory and happily the question of who am I?
6. Love, the successful young adult can experience true intimacy that makes
7. Care, in adulthood, the psychosocial crisis demands generativity, both in the sense of marriage and parenthood, and in the sense of working productively and creatively.
8. Wisdom, the mature adult develops integrity. He trusts. He works hard. He develops self-concept. He is proud of what he creates.
2.1.2 Learning First Language
Genishi (2006) says, human beings have an innate gift for figuring out the rules of the language used in their environment. According to Brown (1994) a baby’s cry can be compared to the bleat of a hunger lamb. His cry of hunger is as part of the newborn’s bodily struggle as it reacts to its discomfort.
The stage of crying is from approximately 0 to 4 months. They are not yet using sounds to manipulate, but simply expressing their feelings. The next stage is a period of babbling. At this stage, approximately from 4 to 6 months of ages, babies start to make many more sounds. They practise the sounds, intonation and rhythm of language. They learn to replicate sounds they hear. They learn to yell and whisper. They start to babble to express their needs and wants (Brewsters et al,2003).
From approximately 2 years of age, a child begins to combine 2-3 words to refer what he wants or needs or to express his feelings. It shows an understanding of language semantics, not only words, but also context and the difference between action words and objects. According to Brewster et al (2003) at the age of 3-4 years old children will have learned all the vowel and consonant sounds of their L1, although some of them may have a few problem with individual sounds such as r/l.
Children are born not just to speak, but also to interact socially. The environment around them is a significant factor which influence the language development of children. Genishi (2006) states that language occurs through an interaction among genes (which hold innate tendencies to communicate and be sociable), environment and the child’s own thinking abilities. Sustaining natural language development, adults should provide environments full of language development opportunities. She claims adults should treat children as if they are conversationalist, even if they are not yet talking because adults are the chief resources in children’s language development. Here children learn about how conversation work such as taking turn, using facial expression when making conversation. Peer learning is an important part of language development. Peer learning encourages interaction among children.
2.1.2.1 Behaviorist View
opportunity for children’s gift of creativity in language. Brewsters et al (2003) say that this view stresses the importance of positive reinforcement in L1 and L2 acquisition where correct learning behavior is rewarded by praise.
Behaviorist psychologists propose two important characteristics to habits. The first is, as Watson (cited in Ellis,1985) says, the basis for psychological enquiry exists only in objects that could be touched and actions that could be observed. He denies the existence of internal mental process. The second characteristic is that habits are automatic. The habits are performed spontaneously without awareness when a particular stimulus becomes regularly linked with a particular response. If the stimulus occurs sufficiently frequently, the response becomes practised and therefore automatic.
Although theories of habit formation are theories of learning in general, however, they could be applied to language learning. According to Ellis (1985) in L1 acquisition children master their mother tongue by imitating utterances produced by adults and having their effort at using language either rewarded or corrected. In this way children build up knowledge of the patterns or habits that constituted the language they are trying to learn. Imitation and reinforcement are the way by which the learner identifies the stimulus-response that constituted the habits of the L1.
2.1.2.2 Nativist View
fundamental assertion that language acquisition is innately determined. Human beings are born with a built-in device of some kind that prediposes them to language acquisition. Chomsky (cited in Ellis,1985) states that an internal or innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD) allows infants to process all the language they hear and to produce their own meaningful utterances. To specify the properties of the acquisition devise that responsible for the grammar of a particular language is the task of linguist or psychologist. He also stresses the active contribution of the child and minimized the importance of imitation and reinforcement.
Lennenberg (cited in Brown,1994) similarly claims that language is related to the biologically mechanism. Only homo sapiens are capable of learning language. This means only human beings are able to master and develop the creativity of language. The reason is that the concept of a built-in capacity for language as part of every human being’s biological endowment. Positing that all human beings are genetically equipped with language specific abilities that make them capable to master language, McNeil (cited in Ellis,1985) states the child build-up his knowledge of his mother tongue by means of hypothesis testing. Child’s linguistic development is not a process of developing from incorrect structures to correct ones. Rather, the child’s language is constantly forming hypotheses on the basis of the input received and then testing those hypotheses in speech. As the child’s language develops, those hypotheses get continually revised, reshaped or sometimes abandoned.
part of the learner’s cognitive apparatus, however, it is separate from the general cognitive mechanism responsible for intellectual development. The third is that the child’s acquisition device is genetically endowed and provides the child with a set of principles about grammar. Finally, the process of acquisition consists of hypothesis testing. It means the grammar of the learner’s mother tongue is related to the principles of the universal grammar.
2.1.2.3 Interactionist View
Interactionist view of language learning focuses on the role of the linguistic environment in interaction with the child’s innate capacities in determining language development (Lightbown and Spada, 1999). Learning results from the interaction between the learner’s mental abilities and the linguistic input. According to Ellis (1985) interactionist view emphasizes the joint contribution of the linguistic environment and the learner’s internal mechanisms in language development. This emphasizes the importance of human social interactions between the adult and child relationships in learning.
grammatical sentence. Topics of conversation may be limited to the child environment, concrete things or to experiences which adult knows the child has had.
Interactionists conclude that language develops entirely from social interaction. The importance of social interaction and learning is from working with other. The child can do much more with the help of someone more knowledgeable or skilled than he can do alone. Bruner (1983) says an innate device is not able to function without the help given by adult. He refers to as scaffolding in which the adult with whom the child interacts provides a structure or framework.
2.1.3 Learning Foreign Language
There is a strong belief that younger learners do learn an L2 or FL better than older learners. Nunan (1999) says that this belief has not been conclusively shown to be true. This belief is originally supported by the view of Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) that language is best learned during the early years of childhood and after the first dozen years of life, every one faces constrains in the ability to pick up the new language.
the curriculum and syllabus. The third question is under what conditions that language is learned is related to the condition and context under which the target language is learned. According to Ellis (1985) the conditions refer to who is talking to whom, the environment of the interaction, the type of classroom and the kinds of topics which are discussed. While the contexts refer to the goals of language learning, the syllabus in use, the teacher’s beliefs about learning and language learning, the teacher’s language level and teaching style, the size of classes and the type of resources available.
2.1.3.1 Humanistic Approach and Affective Factors
Humanism is originally a psychological term. It emphasizes the importance of the inner world of the human being and places the individual’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions at the forefront of all human developments and aim to help the learners reach their full potential as whole people as they learn.. Hamachek (1977) states the significance of humanistic approach in language teaching because humanistic education starts with the idea that students are different and it helps students become more like themselves and less like each other.
Humanistic approach is a language teaching method which emphasizes humanism as the significant element in language teaching process. Rodgers (1969) says that human being have natural potential for learning, but this will take place only when subject matter is perceived to be of personal relevance to the learners and when it involves active participation of the learners. Paul (2003,6) states some elemets contain in humanistic approach:
1. The children are encouraged to develop people to people skills such as
cooperation, fairness.
2. The lesson focuses on learning as a process rather than the results.
3. For older children, the lessons allow each child to make her own choices and proceed at a pace that suits her best.
4. The children are emotionally immersed in the lesson.
8. The teacher is a facilitator who encourages children to learn naturally.
As humanistic approach develops, affect in education gains more and more attention. The development of the whole-person must be based on the connection of cognition and affect (Underhill, 1999). Affective factors in language learning are emphaty, self-esteem, inhibition, anxiety and attitudes (Brown, 1994).
2.1.3.2 Multiple Intelligences
Traditional teaching places emphasis on a view of intelligence and those with other kinds of intelligences are not encouraged and may see themselves as failures. Gadner (1993) proposes Multiple Intelligences model in language teaching. Multiple Intelligences refers to a learner-based philosophy that characteizes human intelligences as having multiple dimensions that must be developed in education.The basic idea of the theory of multiple intelligences is that a child may be more intelligent in one way and another may be more intelligent in another. Gadner identifies eight types of intelligence:
1. Linguistic intelligence
The ability to use language to express oneself, understand what others are trying to tell us through words, react to stories with feeling, learn vocabulary. Activities to develop linguistic intelligence such as word games, show and tell, role-play, using puppets.
2. Logical-mathematical intelligence
The ability to understand numbers. Activities can be used to develop logical-mathematical intelligence are word or number puzzles classifying, ordering. 3. Spatial Intelligence
4. Body-Kinesthetic intelligence
The ability to use parts of our body to make things or do activities such as TPR, craftwork, dancing, physical activities, action rhymes, songs and games.
5. Musical Intelligence
The ability to produce and recognize songs and play around with the melodies such as action rhymes, chants.
6. Interpersonal intelligence
The ability to understand others, and cooperate with them such as pair work, group work, dialogues.
7. Intrapersonal intelligence
The ability to understand ourselves, know how we are similar or different from others and deal with emotions such as doing project work.
8. Naturalist intelligence
The ability to recognize the characteristics of different animals and relate to the natural world. Activities to develop this intelligence are patterns, classifying, sorting, and nature project.
2.1.4 Designing Language Course
course design is a system in the sense that planning for one component will contribute to others, changes to one component will influence all the other (Graves,2000).
Graves (2000) says, the framework of course development processes is no longer a linear list but a flow chart. There is no hierarchy in the processes and no sequence in their accomplishment. The course can begin anywhere, as long as it makes sense. What make sense depends on the teacher’s belief on the concept of language teaching and learning and the reality of the context. Articulating belief and defining context are on the bottom of the chart to serve as the foundation for the other processes.
2.1.4.1 Components in Designing Language Program
According to Graves (2002) designing a language course is a work in progress in its whole, in its plan, and in its implementation. Several components in designing a course are assessing needs, formulating goals and objectives, developing materials, designing an assessment plan.
speak), the students’ level of language proficiency (related to level of proficiency of the four skills), the students’ interest (related to the topics the students are interested in), the students’ learning preferences (related to kinds of activities) and the students’ attitudes (related to the students attitudes toward the target language whether the students feel confident about using the target language and feel positive about being in the classroom).
Formulating goals and objectives help the designer bring into focus the vision and priorities for the course. In developing goals, according to Richards (2002), the designer draws on his understanding both of present and long term needs of learners as well as the designer’s beliefs about school, learner, teacher and language teaching and learning. A goal refers to a statement of a general purpose that a program seeks to bring about in learners. The goal statement reflects the ideology of the curriculum and shows how the curriculum will seek to realize it. While the goal provides a clear description of the focus of a program, an objective is more specific purpose. The objective refers to a statement of specific purpose that a program seeks to achieve in term of smaller unit of learning. The objective provides a basis for the organization of teaching activities.
Instructional material helps learners organize their ideas and gives them a sense of direction. When they look at the material they know what they have achieved and they can see where they are going.
For pre-school students, material should be colorful and attractive in order to motivate children to learn (Slattery and Willis, 2004). Developing material for pre-primary children is challenging for the teachers since children are at the stage of cognitive, affective and sensorimotor development. Therefore, material needs to engage learners both affectively and cognitively. For EFL learners in which there is little exposure to English in children’s daily lives, according to Paul (2003) teachers should make learning English enjoyable and fun (plan lessons with varied activities) which in turn promote children to have positive attitude toward language learning
Assessment at pre-primary level is an attempt to analyze the learning that a child has achieved over a period of time as a result of the classroom teaching-learning situation (Brewster et al,2003). Assessment in course design consists of three aspects, namely needs assessment, students’ learning assessment and course evaluation (Graves,2000).
the students can see the progress they are making it can help to raise their self-esteem and confidence. The teacher’s comments focus on the child’s concentration span when doing listening activities or handwriting, motivation for different activities, willingness to use English when singing songs, saying rhymes or playing games, or ability to work individually, in pairs or in groups. Course evaluation provides information about how well the students or doing, what they have achieved, and how well the course is meeting their needs. The information can help the teacher to evaluate the students’ overall achievement as well as the overall effectiveness of the course (Graves,2000).
2.2 Theoretical Framework
2.2.1 How Pre-Primary Students Learn
Very young learners are able to understand what is being said to them even before they understand the individual words. Intonations, gestures, facial expressions all help to tell them what the unknown words mean. By understanding the message in this way they start to understand the language. When children encounter a new word at school, they can call on the same skill to help them interpret the new word.
In social development, children move from egocentrism to ability to empathize with others. Very young children tend to be self-oriented and preoccupied with their own world. They operate in a very egocentric way and tend not to cooperate with others as effectively as older children.
not be forced to move to higher level of thinking. In the concrete level, children love to play and use their imagination. Very young children can get bored easily, can become easily frustrated if their needs are not met, and have quite a short attention span, thus they need various activities, for example, by watching, by listening, by imitating, by doing things. Play is seen as providing an important acknowledgement of the important of imagination and the emotions in promoting cognitive development. Play demonstrates the ways in which the children are able to become fully engaged in their activity and sustain their interest for some time. Play lets off physical energy or actively exploring a concept. Play can be an important aspect of social development.
Children learn through first-hand (concrete) experiences. Very young children are still developing motor skills, such as holding pencil, hopping, skipping, balancing and the hand-eye coordination required to color in drawings, copy simple letter, and so on. They are developing a sense of confidence and self-esteem. They are comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition. They need to have activities which help them to focus and pay attention in order to develop memory and concentration skill. They also need activities which reinforce concepts they may be developing and develop oral skill.
2.2.2 Pre-Primary Children Language Teaching
another child may be more intelligent in another. One form of intellegence should not be considered superior to another kind of intellegence. Some children may learn a lot through drawing and touching the real objects, others through listening to stories and singing songs. For this reason, learning language for pre-primary children should contain a wide variety of activities. Some activities can be implemented in a class are as follows :
• listen and repeat are to improve memory and concentration
• perform actions/follow instructions are to make children relieve boredom
• draw or color picture are to consolidate understanding of concepts of colors and
shapes
• listen to stories is to create imagination in order to stimulate children’s creativity
that they can use the language to share idea
• rhymes, songs and chants can develop memory skill
• dialogues, play games and role play can develop social skills of interaction and
turn taking
• copy/write words is to promote linguistic intellegence
• write the alphabets by tracing over dot letters
• play puzzles and construct model can develop the ability to form mental images
of layout
Effective language teaching learning is when the children are fully involved in the process of learning as whole people, learning in meaningful contexts and in an anxiety free environment. The children may feel value as an individual and the children are helped to develop the inner strenght to face the realities of life with confidence and a deep desire to learn.
Based on the view of humanistic approach, the focus of pre-primary children language teaching is on the process. It is much more important for the children to feel positive about language learning in order to develop the children as whole people. It is important to reduce the anxiety the children feel in the lesson. An anxiety- free lesson is enough to ensure that children reach their full potential as learners. The humanistic approach idea is to let the children naturally.
2.2.3 English Program for Pre-Primary School
Program design is based on four important elements, namely the students’ needs in learning English, the goals and the objectives of the program, the material development which carry out the goals and the objectives of the program, and the course evaluation .
The process of gathering information about the students’ needs involves deciding what information and why. The information includes who the students are (the pre-primary students ranged of age are from five to six), the students’ level of language proficiency ( the pre-primary students are developing numeracy and literacy in their first language), the students’ interests ( the pre-primary students learn through concrete experiences, particularly through playing), and the students attitudes ( the pre-primary students are moving from egocentrism to ability to empathize with others). The second step is deciding the best way to gather the information: how and from whom. The belief that learning is not simply a matter of learners absorbing knowledge from teacher, so that the information can gather from interviewing the parents and the teacher.
The process of interpreting the information is about making decisions of what will be taught and how it will be taught. This process is related to formulating the goals of the program. Since the pre-primary students are at preoperational stage, the goals of the program are to help the student develop their cognitive, affective and sensorimotor skills. The goals of the English program are :
1. to develop positive attitudes to language learning 2. to develop the students language skill
3. to motivate the students to learn English in interesting ways 4. to let the students realize that learning English is easy and fun
students reach the goals of the program. The major consideration when developing material for pre-primary school is to provide various activities so the students are motivated and interested in learning. Cognitive and affective development of language activities is aspect to be considered. The designer needs to ensure that the activities carry out in the language classroom can be completed successfully. Activities should be neither be so simple that they provide no challenge nor so difficult that they frustate.
Designing a language program is not the program, but a part of program development. Program design is part of the complete cycle of program development which includes planning the program, teaching it, evaluating it, and replanning it based on the evaluation, and then teaching it again in the replanned version, and so on.
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the research methodology and procedure employed in this study. This chapter is organized in six sections, namely (1) method, (2) the nature of data, (3) data setting and sources, (4) data gathering instruments, (5) data collections, and (6) data analysis
3.1 Method
The primary purpose of this study was to design a language program for pre-primary school in learning English. Designing the program began with developing material since the material was like making a map in a language program. The materials included the goals and the objectives of the program, the content, the method and learning activities. The material provided a plan for learning, a visible outline of what is to be learned in the classroom, as well as a bank of resource material. When the teacher looked at the materials she knew what her students were going to learn. The material provided the basis for the content of lessons, the balance of skills taught, the kinds of language practice the students take part in the classroom and serve primarily to supplement the teacher’s instructions. Evaluation was to find out whether the content of the material, and the methodology in the material were entirely appropriate for pre-primary the students in learning English.
needs, the material was tried out in the class. The aim was to observe the students’ responses to the material and the students’ skill progresses by following the lesson. The students’ needs were developing the students’ cognitive, affective and sensorimotors skills. Meeting students’ learning needs, the English program attempted to provide optimal condition for learning and to provide various activities that cope different learning style so the children were motivated and interested in learning.
The method of this study was a qualitative one since the aim of this study was to attempt to arrive at a rich description of very young learners when they were learning English. The qualitative inquiry studied a real world behavior as it occurred naturally in a classroom in order to meet the complexity of the children’s needs in learning English. Therefore, the data of this study were in the form of words, rather than numbers and statistics.
The collected data were obtained from the pre-primary teacher as the observer. The collective self-reflective inquiry undertaken by observer before, during, and after the process of learning in classroom in order to improve the educational practices as well as understanding the situations in which these practices were carried out.
3.2 The Nature of Data
Since this study was a qualitative research, the data were in the form of words. The data were obtained through the observer’s descriptions and reflections before, during and after the learning process.
The descriptive data for answering the designed program were gathered through filling in the material evaluation sheet. The observer gave opinions on the material whether or not the instructions of the material were clear enough for the students, the layouts of the material were suitable for the students, the themes were relevant to the students’ life, the exercises were suitable for pre-primary students and the material motivated the students to learn.
The descriptive data for answering the second research question (how the designed program can help students meet their needs) were gathered through observation in the class. The purposes of classroom observation were to find out what the students can and can’t achieved in the process of learning with respect to the goals of the program. The observer also gave her opinions on students’ worksheets after the process of learning in order to analyze whether or not the exercises can be done successfully.
3.3 Data Setting and Participants
The setting of the study was Baitul Hikmah Pre-Primary School in Yogyakarta. The participants of this study were the students at Baitul Hikmah Pre-Primary School. The age of the children were ranged from 5 to 6 years old. The school had 70 students. Each class consisted of 35 students. All the students had never studied English before because there was no English class. Learning English was a new experience for the students.
There were 2 teachers in that school. Both of them had earned a diploma of teaching to young learners. One of the class teachers was the observer of this study. Only one class was observed. The reason was both of the classes had similar characteristics in term of the number of the students, the range of age, language skills. Although the class teacher as the observer was not good at English, she had been a pre-primary teacher for almost 20 years and she had ever learned English by joining English course. She sometimes taught her students counting numbers in English and singing English songs. She confessed her English pronunciation was not good so she had to study how to pronounce the correct words before teaching English to her students. That was the reason that the school had no English class.
opinions about the process of learning. This method was used in order to get the valid data of this study.
3.4 Data Gathering Instruments
The instruments used in this research were
1. Material Evaluation Sheet. This sheet was for answering the first research question (how is a language program for pre-primary students in learning English designed?). The aim was to evaluate whether the designed material, as the actualization of the goals of the language program, was suitable to be used for pre-primary students in learning English. The sheet was filled in before the process of learning. Filling the sheet before the process of learning were to give the observer description about what the students were going to study in English class and to get the observer’s opinions whether the themes, the exercises, the layouts, the instructions in the material were suitable for the pre-primary students. Knowing the material made the observer have description about what the goals of the program were and what activities the students were going to do were. Knowing the material of the program made the observer observe the class easily.
Table 3.1 : Material Evaluation Sheet
Clarity of instructions
• Are the instructions clear to be understood?
• Does each instruction refer to one action only?
• Do the instructions give examples to do the exercises?
• Are the similar instructions expressed in similar ways?
Clarity of layout
• How is the positioning of pictures and the texts?
• How is the size of the texts and pictures?
• How is the use of space? Comprehensible of subtopic
• Is the subtopic likely to be comprehensible to learners?
• Does the subtopic engage learners affectively and cognitively?
• Does the subtopic provide comprehensible input which contribute to the personal development of the learners? (developing language skills and promoting positive attitude toward learning language)
Achievability of tasks
• Do you think most of the learners can do the exercises successfully?
• Do the subtopics connect to the learners life? Motivating power of the materials
• Will the learners enjoy using the materials?
• Will the subtopic likely to be attractive to learners?
• Are the subtopics suitable for kindergarten learners?
Before the process of learning, the observer filled in the material evaluation sheet. The aim was to get her opinions whether the written instructions, the layout were clear to the readers, the themes were comprehensible to pre-primary students, the tasks were suitable and the materials gave students’ motivations.
2. Classroom observation sheet and students’ evaluation worksheet. Those sheets
was observing the class. This method was to describe whether the material, the class condition, the activities in class could help the students develop their cognitive, affective, and sensorimotor skills. The sheets of observation involved the description of the setting, the learners’ reactions and responses toward the materials given that day, interpersonal relationships between teacher -students and students-students, the class activities which promote students’ language skills. Since the first try out had not shown satisfactory results then a second try out was conducted. Table 3.2 was used for the first try out and table 3.3 was used for the second try out. Some revisions in the table 3.3 were made in order to obtain more complete data. The tables were as follows :
Table 3.2 : Classroom Observation Sheet
Theme : All about me
Subtheme : Getting to know each other Date/Day : _________________________
Observation Tasks Observer’ comments
Listening
• Students can understand how to introduce herself/himself
• Students can understand how to conduct a short conversation about introducing herself/himself
• Students can understand how to count number 1-6 in English
Speaking
• Students can introduce himself/herself in English
• Students can carry out short conversation by asking friend’s name and age
• Students can count number 1-6 in English Reading
• Students can classify pictures which begin with letter Aa and Bb
Writing
• Students can copy letter Aa and Bb
• Students can write his/her name and age Attitudes toward learning
• Students show interest in the subtopic
• Students have confident to speak English
• Students try hard to understand how to learn English through following and listening teacher’s instructions
• Students actively participate in classroom activities
• Students cooperate well with classmate
• Students show positive attitudes to sharing and working together in class
Evaluation on students’ worksheets
Overall comments/suggestions
Table 3.3 : Classroom Observation Sheet
No Observation Tasks Observer’s Comments
1 Classroom Condition:
Classroom:
Seating arrangement, space, air, light, equipment
2 What Helps People Learn
Activities :
Kind of activities used, balance of students doing things and teacher doing things, what kind of visual aids that can help learners to follow the lesson
Teacher :
Teacher’s personalities (patient, kind, care)
Learner :
How motivate are the learners to learn English, To what extent are the learners taking an active part in the process of learning
3 Classroom management
How teacher deals with unexpected problem during the learning process, how teacher gives instructions, techniques to draw students’ attentions, the stages of the lesson
4 Classroom interaction
and between learners and learners
5 Objectives
Ability to achieve the aims that stated 6 Attitude toward learning
Learners show interest in the lesson given, have confidence to speak English, try hard to understand how to learn English through listening and following the teacher’s instructions, have positive attitude to work together with friends, 7 Skill area
Speaking :
Ability to repeat vocabularies, ability to mention family members, actively participate in singing
Listening :
Ability to recognize family members Reading :
Ability to match pictures to the words Writing :
Ability to draw his/herself
8 Class Material
Are the materials attractive to the learners?, Are the materials relevant to the learner’s life?, Do the materials motivate learners to learn language?, Do the materials stimulate learners cognitively and affectively?, Are the learners able to do the tasks given?
were different objectives in each meeting. First meeting focused on listening and speaking. Second meeting emphasized on reading. The third focused on writing and the fourth meeting focused on all the language skills and letter practice. The observation tasks included the classroom condition, management and interaction, the achievability of the objective of learning, students attitudes toward language learning, skills area and evaluation of the material.
In the second try out, the students’ activities in each meeting were different. The observer gave evaluation on the students’ evaluation worksheet in each meeting. The evaluation was to analyze whether the exercises were appropriate and could be successfully done by the students. The sheet was as follows
Table 3.4 : Students’ Evaluation Worksheet
Meeting Students’ activities Observer’s comments
1 Drawing him/herself
2 Matching pictures to words
3 Tracing words
4 Copying letter Nn and
Evaluation of the students’ worksheet was conducted after the process of learning (the second try out). Each meeting had students do different activity. In the table showed that in meeting 1 students had to draw them-selves. The second meeting students had to match pictures to words by drawing lines. The third students had to trace the words of family member and the last meeting the students had to copy letter Nn and circling the words which began with letter Nn.
3. This research also used interview method to obtain the more reliable data. Reflective dataincluded the observer’s personal opinions about the materials and the learning process.
3.5Data Collections
The techniques of collecting the data employed in this study were
1. The observer filled in the table of material evaluation sheet. By giving opinion about the materials, the observer could see the goals of the program and what the designer wanted the students to learn in the language program. In this way, the observer could evaluate whether or not the program is appropriate for pre-primary school. To gather the more reliable data, the researcher interviewed the observer to obtain her personal opinions about the materials.
material allowed building the improvement of the teaching learning method as well as the material. This step involved getting feedback from the observer. The materials were tried out twice because the first try out did not obtain satisfying results because the students learned one theme for one meeting. The next meeting they had to learn another theme. The students needed more time to comprehend one theme, before they changed to other themes. They needed more time to memorize the vocabularies and to understand what they had learned. The data from the first try out were also used as the data in comparing to the data from the second try out.
3.6 Data Analysis
The obtained data were translated into English. The first step in analyzing data was organizing the data. The process of organizing the data was to categorize the data. To make easier in organizing the data, the obtained data were given code based on the category, the sub-category, the source in which the obtained data, whether the data were from the table or interview, and the date. The code of the data was (category / sub-category/ source of the obtained data/ date)
Since the study had two research questions, there were two categories namely (1) the data for evaluating the material of the language program (LP), and (2) the data for evaluating whether the program helped the students meet their learning needs (SLN).
comprehensible of sub-theme (com), (4) achievability of tasks (ach), and (5) motivating power of the materials (mot).
The data for evaluating whether the program helped the students meet their learning needs (SLP) had four sub-categories, namely (1) classroom condition (con), (2) teaching and learning process (TLP), which consisted of what help people learn, classroom management, classroom interaction, and the achievability of the objective of the lesson, (3) students’ attitude toward learning (att), and (4) skills area (ski).
The next step was to summarize the data. Summarizing the data began with examining all the same categories to find relationship among categories. The last step was interpreting the data which involved reflecting the data.
CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS
This chapter consists of two sections. The first section discusses a designed program for pre-primary students in learning English and the second section is about the capability of the designed program helping the students meet their learning needs.
4.1Language Program for Pre-Primary Students in Learning English
To answer the first research question (What is a language program for pre-primary students in learning English designed?), this research began with designing the materials because material actualized the goals of the program, the content, the method and learning activities. Evaluation of the material was to find out whether the themes, the exercises, and the methodology in the material were entirely appropriate for pre-primary students in learning English.
4.1.1 Accountability of the Material of the Language Program for Pre-Primary Students in Learning English
Based on the process of program design, some elements involved in designing language program, namely needs assessment, formulating the goals and the objectives of the program, materials as the actualization of goals of the program, and the evaluation of the program design.
learning method and the students’ needs in learning. The obtained information was used to formulate the goals of the program. Then the goals of the program were actualized in the materials.
Based on the national curriculum, Pre-Primary school provided to develop the students’ potentials either cognition or affect which include moral and religious values, social-emotional, language and art in order to be ready in entering to the upper level.
Based on the obtained information from the observed school, the ranged of the students’ age were from five to six, some students were able to read and write in their native language. Related to the physical setting, the school had two classes. Each class consisted of thirty- five (35) students. Both classes had similar characteristics in term of the number of the students, the ranged of the students’ age. Related to the activity in class, the students’ activities in class were drawing, counting number, writing, reading, singing, playing games, working in pair or group, dancing, making project such as making things from papers, constructing model using building blocks, and so on.
students learned one theme. For example in January the students learned about animals, the next month they learned about part of body, and so on.
The belief on how the pre-primary learn and based on the behaviorist, nativist and interactionist view that pre-primary students were at the stage of cognitive and affective development. The students’ learning needs, therefore, emphasized on developing self-esteem and confidence in learning, involving the students in learning in which they were physically active, having the students share and play with others, having the students routine activities, developing motor skills, such as practicing their hand eye coordination required to color in drawing, copy simple letters and so on. Thus, the goals of the language program, which were actualized in the material, were to develop cognitive, affective and sensorimotor skills.
