Teaching English for Young Learners
CHAPTER I
BACKGROUND
A. Introduction
There are many
media is use in teaching learning process. Usually media is use in teching
english to young learners because use it the teaching learning process will
more easily.Young learners will be interesting and enjoyable in class room. For
example Realia. realia is various kind of visual media which can be efectively
use by EFL and EYL. Realia
is a term used in library science and education to refer to certain real-life
objects. In library classification systems, realia are objects such as coins,
tools, and textiles that do not easily fit into the orderly categories of
printed material. In education, realia are objects from real life used in classroom
instruction.
CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
A. What is Realia
Real objects
should be small enough to bring into the classroom but large enough to be
clearly seen. Real objects can be used for various purposes, such as teaching
pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar. For example, you can bring a map into the
classroom and use it to practice comparative and superlative adjectives. (which
country in Europe is bigger than Turkey? What is the longest river in Turkey?
Etc.)
Other examples
of realia are clock faces, toys, brochures, magazines, catalogues, newspapers,
board games, posters, wrappers, labels and logos from various products,
records, stamps, coins, old tickets, postcards, timetables, tv guides,
calendars, containers, cans, bottles, flags, restaurant menus, puppets, etc.
B. Realia and Culture
Content-Based English for Young Learners
Universities and high
schools throughout Asia hire foreigners to teach the languages and the cultures
of their home countries in content-based English courses. Many of those teachers
complain that commercially produced language textbooks, especially those for
culture content-based English language classes, are problematic. Common
problems include inappropriate levels for the target group, insufficient focus
on active language skills development, out-of-date information, and cultural
topics that do not match the interests of the both students and teachers. Thus,
teachers often end up creating their own teaching materials, but these
materials may also have shortcomings due to the inexperience of the materials
designer, a lack of other enthusiastic teachers to help with editing, and in
particular a shortage of useful “realia” to use with or to be adapted for
teaching materials.
However, the literature
suffers from a serious lack of discussion regarding the connection between
realia and culture and how best to use realia for teaching culture in
content-based courses. In the culture content- based language classroom, realia
can be utilized for a valuable teaching purpose that has not received enough
attention in the ESL/EFL field. The realia can be considered to be a cultural
object that is very useful for “cross-cultural analysis,” a way of studying
similarities and differences among cultures. (Corsaro, 1992).
Culture includes “language, ideas, beliefs, customs,
codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, and ceremonies,
among other elements” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2004, culture section, para.
1). Language is obviously an essential aspect of
culture, but it is rarely taught or examined from a cultural perspective.
Language is usually studied in isolation, yet teaching language points in the
context of their cultural environment is optimal.
C. Needs Analysis
Before searching for
materials, teachers should do a needs analysis to discover what aspects of the
target culture that students want to study. There are many ways for a teacher
to discover the needs of students. One simple way is to give students a list of
target-culture related topics and ask students to rank them according to
preference. Another method is to simply ask students to write the specific
topics that they want to study.
In addition to
discovering the cultural interests of students, teachers must attempt to
understand their linguistic needs. Language tests used for grading purposes can
also serve as sources of diagnostic information regarding language needs of
students.
Furthermore, in order to
better assist students, a teacher should also consider the linguistic needs of
students for various language tests that students may take outside of school.
For example, a number of my students regularly come to my office to request
practice with the speaking section of an important examination called the
Standardized Test for English Placement (STEP); a high test score on the STEP
test can assist students with finding employment with companies that require
English skills.
D. Example of
Activities and Materials Based on One Realia
Food, shopping, and the
cost of living were three aspects of American culture that many of my students
expressed an interest in. Grocery store advertisements are useful for teaching
these. I brought twenty of these back to Japan. The linguistic needs that I
wanted to focus on were names of common food items, terms for units of weight
used in America which are not used in Japan (i.e. pounds and quarts), American
money terminology, and expressing likes and dislikes. Additional cultural
points that students studied were differences and similarities in packaging,
eating habits, and shopping habits. To create the condition for students to
actively use the linguistic items in conversation practice and to make them
think about prices, additional teaching materials needed to be created, as well
as a scenario.
The scenario is a role
play in which pairs of students pretend that they are American housemates who
buy groceries together and plan meals together. Each student has only
thirty-five dollars to contribute for a week’s worth of food. Students read the
grocery advertisements and discuss which items to buy. They must fill in a
chart with the names and prices and quantities of the food item. Students
cannot spend more than the allotted amount of money and they must have enough
food for three meals each day. As homework, students took the advertisements
into Japanese grocery stores and compared prices, keeping in mind and adjusting
for how the same items are packaged differently. Students were instructed to
choose and compare the prices of five food items that are sold in both America
and Japan. In the following class, students reported their findings to other
students and discussed the cost of living in America and Japan. Students
participated very enthusiastically in this experiential learning experience.
E. Searching for
Appropriate Realia
One solution for
culture-content based EFL teachers who are able to return to their home
countries during their vacation time or research time is to keep their eyes
open for useful realia such as magazines, adult education pamphlets, menus,
newspapers, advertisements, maps and voting brochures. Teachers must develop an
awareness of what can be utilized in a classroom. This involves both becoming
more creative as materials designers and also more sensitive to the target
culture and to the culture of the students.
Teachers involved in
materials development can benefit by developing two useful skills when working
with authentic materials: One skill requires being able to spot and extract
useful linguistic elements (i.e., grammar, vocabulary, vocabulary) for language
teaching. Teachers must be aware of what is missing from the linguistic
knowledge or linguistic skills of students and then find useful elements in the
realia which can strengthen the weaknesses of students.
The second ability
involves being able to notice and extract cultural information (i.e., beliefs,
food, clothing styles, values, and customs). In regards to these cultural
elements, the concepts of material and non-material culture can be a useful
guide. According to Goodmacher and Kajiura, (2005) “Material cultural refers to
things people make with their hands or by machines…non-material culture
consists of products not made by hand – languages, religions and other beliefs,
customs and traditions (p.8). In this way of thinking about culture and
materials development for culture related classes, what might be considered as
a simple sort of realia, for example, a personal advertisement, a comic strip,
or a college brochure can, after a careful analysis, be used to teach both
material aspects and non-material aspects of culture.
Most students can learn
to recognize and superficially understand many material objects fairly easily.
However, non-material products are usually much more difficult to identify and
understand. Creating exercises that train students to be more sensitive to both
aspects of another culture will greatly benefit the students with not only
understanding another culture but also with understanding their own culture.
CHAPTER III
CLOSING
A. Conclusion
Real objects
should be small enough to bring into the classroom but large enough to be
clearly seen. Real objects can be used for various purposes, such as teaching
pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar.
There are many
examples of realia are clock faces, toys, brochures, magazines, catalogues,
newspapers, board games, posters, wrappers, records, stamps, coins, old
tickets, postcards, timetables, tv guides, calendars, containers, cans,
bottles, flags, restaurant menus, puppets.
The value of authentic
materials for English teaching in the average English language class has been
extensively discussed, but there is still room for more analysis and creativity
regarding the use of realia in culture-content based English teaching. Teachers
need to increase their ability to find useful realia, to create teaching
objectives from the realia, and to design materials to help students to better
understand a foreign culture and to better use the target language.
REFERENCES
Tomalin, B., and S. Stemplesky.
(1993). Cultural awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tomlinson, B. (2003).
Introduction. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.). Developing Materials for Language
Teaching (pp. 1-11).London: Continuum
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar