Teaching Techniques For Elementary Students
As an international language, English should be accepted in the communication which involve some countries, in all condition both formal or informal communication. People are aware that there are so many developing countries and modern countries which adopt English as their second language. Almost all developing countries take English as their foreign language and it is one of the subjects that must be learned in formal school.
The role of vocabulary teaching in the context of learning English as a foreign language, a learner is forced to be autonomous and independent and make conscious effort to learn vocabulary outside the classroom simply because the exposure to the target language is limited in class. So teachers cannot rely on their 'picking up' lexical items. This makes explicit vocabulary teaching necessary. However, vocabulary is notoriously difficult if not impossible to teach because of the complexity of its linguistic, semantic and psycho-cognitive aspects (Visnja Pavicic; 2006).
Teaching-method has an important role to understand English. Several methods have been developed by any institutions or schools to recognize English from beginners. English is a strange communication for Indonesia people, therefore they should study this from early stage. In Indonesia, students already study English lesson from elementary school. In line with the effort to improve English in elementary school, several methods of teaching are used and developed by teachers or institutions based on the basic competence regulated by the Ministry of Education.
Teachers have responsibility to motivate the students and try to make them interested to learn English. In elementary level, students are mostly encouraged to get the vocabulary as many as they can. Vocabulary is an interesting subject if the techniques or methods of teaching are applicable and also easy to understand. Without a good and interesting ways of teaching, it is almost impossible that the students can develop practical English like writing, translating, even speaking.
In line with the writer’s experience in teaching new vocabulary for elementary students, after the teacher gave the texts of vocabulary and the meaning of the words, most of the students got difficulties to complete the tasks given. They can not retell most of the vocabularies given by the teacher and they only could memorize 3 or 4 words from 10 words given. Therefore, the writer decided to find a good technique and method that can be used to assist the students to understand and memorize new vocabulary easier and enjoyable. Teaching of new vocabulary for elementary has been developed with several techniques or methods. The method of vocabulary teaching can be successful if it is right implemented for the elementary students.
Visnja
Pavicic (2006) has proposed several
techniques to understand vocabulary well as below : a) Presenting A Varied New Vocabulary. First of all, ways of presenting new vocabulary should be varied. In order
to improve the efficiency of vocabulary learning (memorizing and retrieving
lexical items) students should be encouraged to make use of learning strategies
that are at their disposal, and be taught, either implicitly or explicitly, new
strategies for vocabulary learning. According to one research (Pavicic, 1999)
strategies can be divided into four groups. b) Self-initiated
Independent Learning. These strategies involve planned, active and
motivated learning and exposure to language outside the classroom (media).
Examples of strategies : Word grouping,
Making notes of vocabulary while reading for pleasure/watching TV, Word cards /
Leafing through a dictionary, Planning, Recording and listening, Regular
revision. In this group cognitive strategies which include direct manipulation
of lexical items are connected to meta-cognitive strategies that make the use
of cognitive ones more effective. The aim is communicative use of vocabulary. c) Formal Practice.
These strategies promote systematic learning and vocabulary practice. The
aim is accurate reproduction and is often connected to the tasks of formal
instruction. Examples of strategies : Loud repetition, Bilingual dictionary ,
Testing oneself, Noting new items in class. d) Functional
Practice. These strategies are based on context as a vocabulary source. They also
include exposure to language, but without making a conscious effort (incidental
learning). They also have a social aspect, i.e. interaction. Examples of
strategies : Remembering words while watching TV/reading, Using known words in different contexts,
Looking for definitions, Listening to songs and trying to understand, Using
words in conversations, Practice with friends. e) Memorizing.
This group includes a number of memory strategies based on inter-,
intra-lingual and visual associations. Examples of strategies : Using pictures,
illustrations, Associations with L1 (cognates or key word method), Looking for similarities between words,
Visualisation. f) Best Approach. There are no
universally useful strategies and they contribute to vocabulary learning in
different ways. Students use a number of strategies, often simultaneously. The
efficiency of vocabulary learning depends on how students combine individual
strategies. If students combine and employ individual strategies from different
groups they will be more successful in developing the target language lexicon.
Thus, the ideal combination would be that of strategies from all four groups.
References
- Brumfit, C.J. 1983.
‘Communicative’ Language Teaching : An Educational Perspective. In C.J. Brumfit
and K. Johnson (Eds). The communicative approach to Language Teaching. Oxford;
Oxford University Press.
- Dulay, Heidi, Burt, Marina and Krashen, Stephen. 1982. Language Two. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Jimmy G. Cheek and Carl E. Beeman. 2005. Using Visual Aids in Extension Teaching. University Of Florida, Gainesville FL 32611.
- Setiyadi, Ag. Bambang. 2006. Teaching English As A Foreign Language. Penerbit Graha Ilmu, Jakarta.
- Visnja Pavicic, MA. 2006. Vocabulary And Autonomy. Pedagoski fakultet (Faculty of Education) University of Osijek, Croatia
