Rabu, 02 Juli 2014
Why
are we must use English to communicate with young learners? There are some
reactions that we know. First, children ability to grasp meaning. Very young children are able to understand what is
being said even before they understand the individual words.
Intonation, gesture, facial
expressions, actions and circumstances all help to tell them what the unknown
words and phrases probably mean. By understanding the message in this way they
start to understand the language.
Second,
children's creative use of
limited resources. In the early stages of their mother tongue development
children excel at making a little language go a long way. They
are creative with grammatical forms. They are creative with concepts. Children
often create new words by analogy. Sometimes they make up words that do not
actually exist. This phenomenon is fundamental to language development. In the
process of manipulating the language to convey meaning we may produce inexact
language, but we usually manage to communicate. In doing so we are actually building
up our grasp of the language because we are actively recombining and
constructing it for ourselves. The language demanded by the
activity activity is unpredictable and is not just asking the children to
repeat set phrase, but is encouraging to construct language actively for
themselves.
Third,
children’s capacity for indirect learning. Language activities which involve children in guessing
what phrase or word someone has thought of are very good examples of this
phenomenon in action.
They will have got the
phrases firmly into their minds. Guessing is actually a powerful way of
learning phrases and structures, but it is indirect, because the mind is
engaged with the task and is not focusing on the language.
Both conscious direct
learning and subconscious indirect learning, or 'acquisition', are going to
help someone to internalise a new language: the first encourages accuracy, the
second fluency.
Second-language acquisition theory may help explain the puzzling situation of children who acquire languages more quickly and apparently with much less effort than do their parents when placed in a second-language environment.
- Caretaker talk or baby talk is language use by caretakers when they talk to children or special speech style, or simplified register, used by adults and caretakers when talking with young children. There are some features in caretaker talk such as caretaker is intellegible and grammatically well formed, lots about the here-now, simply sentence by using short sentence, repeat a lot. Those characteristics can be adopted by the English teacher in elementary school to give model and to make the students understand the target language.
- Foreigner talk is speech by native speaker to nonative speakers in modified in the sameway as that of caretaker speech or a simplified and pidgin-like variety sometimes used to address strangers and foreigners. The feature which is most characteristics in foreigner talk as well as in caretaker talk it is focus on communication with a less proficieant and less experienced language user (Snow & Fuguson, 1977). Native speaker’s speech or foreigner talk is employed with the focus on communication rather than the teaching of the language itself. In foreigner talk, we can use simple language, a lot of repetation, etc.
- Teacher talk is the teacher language or the time when the teacher is speaking. H. Douglas Brown, in Teaching by Principles, recommends that teachers articulate their language, slow it down, use simpler vocabulary, and speak in structures just above the student's level. He warns against speaking loudly as the students have no problems hearing. The fuction of teacher talk are to asking information, checking the student’s answer, controling the class, prasing, providing example of target language and checking the student’s understanding.
Reference :
1. (http://docenti.unimc.it/docenti/renata-morresi/laboratorio-di-didattica-delle-lingue-moderne-inglese-2007-4/working-with-young-learners).
2. (http://bogglesworldesl.com/glossary/teachertalk.htm).
3. Brown, H.Douglas.2000.Teaching by Principles.New York.Longman
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