Making the Most of a Newsmagazine Passage for Reading-Skills Development
by Fredricka L. Stoller
Greater numbers of English-language newsmagazines are now becoming available worldwide. As a consequence, teachers have the option of bringing newsmagazine articles into their classrooms and integrating their use into reading classes. With the growing importance of reading for second-language learners (Lynch and Hudson 1991), teachers can use these authentic materials to help students improve their reading skills as well as to introduce them to content that is of interest to them. Rather than simply asking students to read a newsmagazine article on their own, teachers can integrate reading-skills development activities into their instruction to help students improve their reading ability. In this way, ESL/EFL instructors can provide students with opportunities to practice a variety of reading subskills as well as strategies for dealing with new topics, long passages, difficult passages, unfamiliar vocabulary, etc. That is, students can develop flexible reading skills and strategies that will vary according to the purpose of the reading task and the nature of the reading passage. (See Appendix A for a taxonomy of reading skills.) The readings and accompanying activities can also serve as a stimulus for other written or oral class work.
The reading-skills development activities that accompany the reading of a newsmagazine passage can be done before reading the passage (pre-reading exercises), while reading the passage (during- reading exercises), and/or after students have finished reading the passage (post-reading exercises). Depending on the article chosen, the objectives of the course, and available time, teachers can choose to integrate all three exercise types into their lesson or only one.
In this article I will outline steps teachers should take when planning their reading lessons. This will be followed by a taxonomy of pre-, during-, and post-reading activities that can easily be used with newsmagazine reading passages. While the focus of this article will be on the use of newsmagazine articles for intermediate and advanced students, the pre-, during-, and post- reading activities can easily be adapted for use with other text genres (textbook reading passages, newspapers, books, etc.) and/or modified for less skilled readers.
________________________________________
Preliminary lesson-planning steps
Teachers who use authentic materials such as newsmagazine articles have the responsibility to carry the task beyond simply distributing the article to their students and asking them to read it. The teacher has the responsibility to design exercises and activities that (a) prepare students for the reading task, (b) aid students in improving their reading abilities, and (c) help students comprehend the passage. Before designing pre-, during-, and post-reading activities for reading-skills development, instructors should follow these preliminary lesson-planning steps:
1. Select an article that will be of interest/ relevance to your students while considering the following questions:
a. Will the topic be of interest to the majority of students in the class?
b. Will the content of the reading passage be useful for the students? If so, in what way? Will it provide them with general world knowledge? Will it introduce them to useful vocabulary? Will it help them understand subsequent readings or classroom activities? Will it build upon information previously presented in class? Will the information be transferable to out-of-class settings? That is, will it allow them to communicate more easily with other speakers of the target language in the workplace, the classroom, or social settings?
c. How much do the students already know about the topic? Will it be necessary to introduce materials/concepts/vocabulary to them during pre-reading activities to familiarize them with the topic? Are there students in the class who could provide others with valuable information about this topic?
2. Consider the nature of the article chosen and appraise it in terms of language complexity, content, and text-type characteristics (Dubin 1986); diverse topics and text genres will offer opportunities for different types of reading-skill development activities. Think about the following questions:
a. How difficult will the article be for students to comprehend? What aspects of the article will be particularly challenging (e.g., length, lexicon, rhetorical structure, assumed knowledge)?
b. What strategies will students need to apply to comprehend part or all of the article?
c. What aspects of the article, if any, will simplify the reading task (e.g., redundancy, clear topic sentences, straightforward headings, charts and graphs)?
3. Determine the purpose for the reading task; that is, determine what you want the students to gain from the reading experience in terms of content and reading-skills development. Consider the following questions:
a. Will the passage be read in its entirety? Should it be read in detail or only for specific details?
b. Is the reading task an end in itself or does it lead into another classroom activity (Hood and Solomon 1985)?
c. How much content should the students be accountable for?
4. After considering the "demands" of the selected newsmagazine article and determining the purpose for the reading task, evaluate the options you have for pre-reading, during- reading, and post-reading activities. When actually designing reading-skills development exercises to complement the newsmagazine article, teachers must be selective, because different exercise types lead to different outcomes and require varying amounts of time. The activities should naturally evolve from the nature of the reading passage itself while the teachers consider (a) lesson objectives, (b) desired course outcomes, (c) the time available to devote to reading-skills instruction, and (d) characteristics of the learners (e.g., their interests, background knowledge, proficiency levels, and language needs).
________________________________________
Pre-reading options
The answers to the questions and issues raised above will influence decisions made about pre-reading activities those activities designed to prepare students for the actual reading of the selected article. Because comprehension will be determined partly by a student s own background knowledge, pre-reading activities can be utilized (a) to tap students already existing background knowledge, and/or (b) to provide students with new information that will help them comprehend the passage. Furthermore, these activities increase student concentration, stimulate curiosity, increase imagination, and foster motivation, as well as give students a sense of purpose, a reason for reading (Hess 1991).
If all the students, or some of the students, are familiar with the topic of the selected reading passage, pre-reading activities can be designed to encourage students to share their knowledge with their peers. If the instructor thinks that few, if any, of the students are familiar with the topic, but that the topic will be of interest to them, he/she should design pre-reading activities that highlight new information that will help students make sense of the passage.
Listed below are a number of pre-reading options; note that they are not listed in order of preference, nor is the list all- inclusive. Upon close examination, one will realize that the activities represent different types of pre-reading approaches. The background knowledge of the students and the nature of the selected article will dictate the types of pre-reading exercises that are most appropriate for your class. The pre-reading exercises outlined here can be used separately or in tandem. Note that for many of the exercises it is advisable to have students "letter" each paragraph in the passage (A Z) before beginning the pre-reading exercise. This "painless" procedure facilitates class discussion and prevents confusion between exercise items (often numbered) and paragraph designation (Rosenthal and Erb 1992).
1. Create a semantic map. Before even looking at the article, the teacher and students can create a semantic map on the blackboard that graphically displays information within categories related to a central concept and stimulates meaningful word associations. The teacher begins the process by introducing the major theme, a major concept, or a major issue from the article by writing it in the middle of the blackboard. For example, in the case of a Newsweek article by Starr et al. that focuses on post Olympic Game endorsements and advertisements (see Appendix B ), the teacher can write the following on the blackboard:
OLYMPIC GAMES
After telling students that they will be reading an article about the Olympic Games, the teacher can ask them what they think the article will be about. The teacher should be prepared to ask probing questions designed to elicit information from the students. The nature of these probing questions can lead students to mention terms/ideas that will be included in or inferred from the article to be read. As students contribute ideas, the teacher can create a semantic map, grouping students ideas in general semantic categories and/or in categories that reflect the organization or content of the article to be read. For example, after a brainstorming session on the Olympic Games, a semantic map such as the one shown in Figure 1 might be on the blackboard.
Once the semantic map is sufficiently developed, the instructor can (a) point out the topics that will be covered in the article, (b) ask students to quickly glance at the article (the title, subtitles, headings, pictures, etc.) to determine which topics will be included in the article, and/or (c) encourage students to develop further the "section" of the semantic map that reflects the contents of the article. For example, with the Starr et al. article, it would be appropriate to develop further the section on Olympic Game endorsements, advertisements, and money (see the bottom right-hand cluster of words on the semantic map above). The end result may look something like Figure 2 .
Semantic map exercises, such as the one described above, help students work as a group to gather their own resources; simultaneously, they prepare students to understand, assimilate, and evaluate the information to be read (Heimlich and Pittelman 1986). Bringing this knowledge to the conscious level helps students make sense of the topic of an article to be read.
2. Study the layout of the reading passage. Students can be asked to preview the article title, subtitles, headings, and/or "visuals" (e.g., photographs with captions, illustrations, charts, graphs) to see if they "reveal" the main idea(s) of the article. Students can quickly examine the layout of the article and try to (a) predict the content of the article, (b) form questions they will be able to answer after reading the article, and/or (c) share information they know about the topic.
3. Skim for the main idea(s). After examining the title and headings, students can be asked to read the first and last paragraph of the article to determine the main idea(s) of the article. Alternatively, they can read the first paragraph in its entirety and the first sentence of each subsequent paragraph before determining the main idea(s). The actual organization of the selected article will dictate which paragraphs, if any, should be skimmed for the main idea. For this pre-reading exercise to be effective in providing students with practice in skimming, students must be given only a few minutes to accomplish this task; otherwise they will read the article rather than skim it!
4. Scan for details. After examining the title and headings, students can be asked to scan for important information. If the article contains easily identifiable information that will help students understand the content of the article (e.g., names of countries, times and/or dates, names of people), the teacher can generate a list of questions that will help students discover this information quickly . Students can scan the entire article for an answer or be directed to specific paragraphs for the information (e.g., "Look in paragraph D. How much money can athletes earn for a public appearance?" "Look in paragraph G. Which woman athlete will endorse multiple products?" "Look at paragraph B. In what country is gymnast Scherbo popular?"). Again, to ensure that students scan rather than read, scanning exercises should be completed quickly, under timed conditions.
5. Match main ideas with paragraphs. The teacher can list the main idea of each paragraph (or groups of paragraphs) on the blackboard; this should be done in an abbreviated manner (i.e., short phrases) and should be presented in scrambled order (i.e., not in the order of the text). Initially, the teacher can ask students to look at the list of main ideas and consider questions such as these: (a) What do you think the title of this article is? (b) What is this article about? (c) Who is the article about?
Then students can be asked to skim/ scan the article quickly and match the letter of the paragraph(s) with the main idea on the blackboard. Consider the example in Figure 3 . An exercise of this type reinforces the notion that most paragraphs are developed around a main idea. However, because newsmagazine articles are not always written transparently in this manner, teachers should be aware of the fact that only certain reading passages can be used with an exercise of this type.
6. Examine the visuals. If the selected article has charts, graphs, or figures that are fairly easy to decipher without having read the article, students can be asked to examine those visuals in order to discover the main idea(s) of the article.
7. Read select paragraphs carefully. If the article is organized in such a way as to include one paragraph (or more) that summarizes and/or introduces most of the ideas to be covered in the article, students can be asked to answer a set of questions about the article by reading that particular paragraph or paragraphs.
8. Present main idea(s). If students are unfamiliar with the topic of the selected article, but the teacher thinks the topic will be of interest to the students, the instructor can give a "mini-lecture" about the article to orient students to the main ideas of the article and introduce key vocabulary. This approach is most effective if key vocabulary items are jotted down on the board, or a semantic map created, during the "mini-lecture."
9. Consult the dictionary. Students can be asked to look up key words in their dictionaries in order to find an appropriate definition, synonym, or antonym. Ideally, the key words should be presented in context, perhaps by "lifting" the sentences in which they are included in the article and writing them on the blackboard. This form of presentation not only introduces words in meaningful contexts but also indirectly introduces students to the contents of the article. Before planning an exercise of this type, teachers should check their students dictionaries to determine what information is included in the dictionary entry.
10. Consider new vocabulary. If the article includes vocabulary words that are likely to be new to students yet crucial for comprehension, these terms can be introduced to the students by means of pre-reading exercises before students are asked to read the passage. Vocabulary items can be introduced by (a) providing or having students discover definitions, synonyms, and/or antonyms, (b) pointing out contextual clues, (c) familiarizing students with word families, etc. (Gairns and Redman 1986; Morgan and Rinvolucri 1986). Students could also be asked to identify semantic groupings in an exercise similar to the one illustrated in Figure 4 .
________________________________________
During-reading options
The primary purpose of these during-reading options is to facilitate the actual reading of the selected passage. These activities encourage students to be active and reflective readers (Wallace 1992). Furthermore, during-reading options can provide more academically oriented students with practice in activities (such as note-taking) that are commonly practiced by skilled readers while reading for academic purposes. While at times it is appropriate to ask students to simply read the selected passage, at other times it is beneficial to provide students with opportunities to utilize different during-reading strategies while reading. The during-reading options outlined below can be adapted for different reading tasks. That is, whether students are reading the article in its entirety, just skimming the article, or reading it for specific details, these during-reading tasks can be modified to complement the assigned task.
1. Read for specific purposes. The teacher can encourage students to read selectively by posing a number of questions to the students that they should consider while reading or by creating grids or tables that students complete while reading. For example, while reading the article about the Olympics, students could be asked to identify the sports event associated with each athlete as shown in Figure 5 .
2. Highlight the text. Teachers can ask students to read with a highlighter (or pen) in hand so that the students can highlight (or underline) the main point(s) of the article and/or the answers to a set of questions posed to them just before reading.
?? Figure 4 The following words are used in the article about the Olympic Games. Group them into three logical categories: Las Vegas Albertville clothing pole-vaulter Barcelona shampoo cereal swimmer runner basketball player skater gymnast sunglasses Coke ??* 3. Take notes. Students can take abbreviated notes on a separate sheet of paper about the article while they are reading. At the beginning of the semester, the instructor might provide students with a "skeletal framework" of the notes that they can fill in. Later, students can take notes on their own. Another note- taking activity would require students to jot down a 2 5 word description of the main idea of each paragraph in the margin of the article. Later students can match their main ideas with the teacher s, listed on the blackboard. (Refer to pre-reading option #5, which can be modified easily to become a during-reading activity.)
4. Predict the contents of the article. After students read a portion of the article, they can then work in groups or as a class to predict what will happen next in the article. In this way, students are exposed to diverse reactions to and interpretations of the text. Then they can work together to hypothesize the contents of the rest of the reading passage.
5. Determine what has happened. Students can be asked to read the newsmagazine passage in "chunks." That is, students can be asked to read the newsmagazine article section by section, stopping at the end of each section to discuss the main idea(s) up to that point.
________________________________________
Post-reading options
Post-reading exercises, traditionally the only set of exercises accompanying a reading passage, give students the option to review, synthesize, summarize, and/or react to what they have read. Just as it is useful to prepare students for what they read through pre-reading activities, students need to follow up on what they have read through post-reading exercises (Moore et al. 1982). Time can be set aside for post-reading activities in class, or students can be asked to complete them as homework.
1. Discuss the article with classmates. Students can be asked to discuss the main idea or specific issues from the article with a classmate, in groups, or as a class. Rather than just asking students to summarize main points, teachers can pose questions that will create a more communicative interchange among students. The key to facilitating such an interchange is to pose a question that creates a true information gap and that leads to responses that students are genuinely interested in. For example, a post-reading question to accompany the article on the Olympic Games could be the following: "Which types of post Olympic Game activities do you think would be most satisfying for the athletes introduced in this article? Why?" In response to a question of this type, students are making use of information from the article, but bringing in diverse interpretations and opinions that would be of interest to classmates.
2. Generate summaries or reactions. Students can be asked to present oral or written summaries and/or reactions to the article utilizing information from the text.
3. Search for meaningful vocabulary. Students can be asked to go back to the article to (a) explore the meaning of useful idiomatic phrases that they have just read in context, (b) search for synonyms or antonyms of certain key lexical items, and/or (c) identify lexical items that belong to specific word families. For example, students reading the article on the Olympic Games could be asked to answer questions such as those shown in Figure 6 .
4. Scan for details. After having read the article, the teacher can either read a set of questions or put a set of questions on the board, and direct the students to scan the article for answers to those questions.
5. Make inferences. Questions can be posed that require students to infer meaning, that is, read between the lines. For example, students can be asked to characterize the attitude of the author(s).
6. Sequence events. Students can be given a list of events that were described in the reading passage and asked to sequence them. Timelines and chronology activities help students clarify the order of events in the reading passage.
7. Apply information from the article. Students can apply information from the article to an information-gap activity, problem-solving activity, debate, simulation game, roleplay, etc. In this way, students can apply information gained by reading the article to a situation that is both of interest and relevant to their lives. In these activities, students are obliged to move beyond the content of the reading passage to create questions and answers not necessarily found in the text (Hind and Brancard 1991).
8. Follow up on pre-reading or during-reading exercises. In follow-up activities, students reevaluate assumptions made prior to reading and while reading in light of information gained from completing the reading (Hind and Brancard 1991).
9. Create or revise semantic maps. Semantic maps, described under pre-reading activities, provide a useful means for summarizing the contents of a reading passage. As a post-reading activity, "semantic mapping affords students the opportunity to recall, organize, and represent graphically the pertinent information read" (Heimlich and Pittelman 1986:6).
10. Synthesize information from multiple sources. Because newsmagazines cover similar topics week after week, students can be asked to synthesize information from more than one article. This type of activity encourages students to relate information from more than one reading source.
________________________________________
Conclusion
Successful, mature readers, by definition, are able to read unedited texts written "by authors who make no accommodation to readers who are less than fully competent" (Dubin 1986:137). The use of newsmagazine articles in the ESL/EFL classroom provides students with opportunities to read authentic materials while developing skills that approximate those of the successful, mature reader. (See Grabe 1991, for a more detailed discussion of fluent reading processes.) The most efficient use of these newsmagazine materials requires that teachers (a) appraise students interests, language needs, and background knowledge, (b) select an article of interest and relevance to students, (c) define reading tasks, and (d) develop the most appropriate pre-, during-, and post-reading activities. By means of these activities, teachers can make the most of newsmagazine reading passages, preparing students to read articles like these on their own in the future.
This article only begins to highlight the activities a teacher can plan for a reading-skills development course. Teachers can broaden their repertoire of pre-, during-, and post-reading activities by consulting Grellet (1981), Heimlich and Pittelman (1986), Hess (1991), Holme (1991), Moore et al. (1982), and Wallace (1992), as well as the many ESL/EFL teacher reference books on the market.
Using Comic Strips in Language Classes
Noémi Csabay
Scholars and teachers agree that motivation is crucial in language teaching. One well-known way to arouse students' interest can be achieved by bringing something extraordinary and new into the language class. Especially among teenagers and young adults, comic strips can be used efficiently for this purpose. Comics are usually funny; therefore, applying them to methodological purposes will have the same effect as using games in teaching English-it brings a cheerful atmosphere into the class. Comic strips not only amuse and interest L2 students; there are plenty of other reasons to use them in education.
Oller's episode hypothesis
According to John Oller and his episode hypothesis, "texts (oral or written forms of discourse) which are more episodically organized can be stored and recalled more easily than less episodically organized material" (Oller 1983, 44). In other words, it is easier for students to learn a language if they are given connected sentences that have a logical structure and a story line, instead of disconnected, randomly organized phrases. Of course it has been stated many times before that vocabulary and language can be learnt in context; however, Oller goes one step further and states that context in itself is not sufficient (i.e. a simple dialogue). What is essential is that the dialogue or text should have a logical structure and a logical conclusion (Oller 1983). This way the students can follow the story line step by step and can recall its structure more easily because logic helps them, and they do not have to rely only on memory.
Oller's theory can be applied in the case of comic strips used in language classes. Comics have a story line; therefore, they have a conclusion or at times a punch line. This way the reader, in this case the student, is "motivated to continue reading and to become more involved in the content than in the language" (Brown 1994, 227). Consequently, the student will be eager to know what will happen, what will be the end of the story (as his/her curiosity has been aroused), and will remember the words, expressions, and grammatical forms more easily.
Comics also can be used to facilitate vocabulary teaching. As Brown points out, "the best internalization of vocabulary comes from encounters (comprehension and production) with words within the context of surrounding discourse" (Brown 1994, 365). This way students will associate the words with a certain context, and they can recall and apply it better than just learning a single word with a corresponding meaning. Besides vocabulary, grammatical competence can be improved as well. With the help of comic strips, new grammatical points can be introduced and practiced, and since these grammar points are embedded in a story with a logical structure, students will be able to better recall them later.
The visual nature of comic strips
Oller's episode hypothesis is further supported by the very nature of comic strips, namely that they are drawn, and therefore visual. This characteristic of comic strips also helps to increase motivation (especially when the comics are coloured ones); and more importantly, if a word, expression, or concept is accompanied by a picture (a visual image in one's mind), then the learner will memorize and recall it more easily.
The fact that comic strips are visual also contributes to improving communicative competence. In a comic strip, life-like situations and expressions are used in spoken, colloquial language: for instance, idioms, reduced forms, slang, and expressions that require shared cultural knowledge. Consequently, comic strips help students to deal with spoken and even informal language, preventing them from sounding "bookish," as students might when they are only exposed to written, formal language. Another advantage of the visual nature of comic strips is that they show the gestures and the body language of the characters. This contributes to the development of communicative competence, which includes nonverbal communication.
The importance of using authentic materials
Comic strips are authentic, and using authentic material is very important in language teaching and learning. It has several advantages, among which is the fact that if students comprehend a genuine text successfully, that can motivate them and build their confidence. However, it should be noted that the difficulty of the language presented to the class should be matched with the level of the students; otherwise the use of authentic materials will only frustrate them. Furthermore, by reading comics in class, "learners are asked to generate personal responses to something in the text, responses which necessitate the production of original discourse" (Hirvela 1996, 128). Consequently, comic strips can be used not only for reading exercises but also for improving the other three skills. Apart from reading, there are various types of exercises that can be used successfully in EFL classes.
Sample exercises
First of all, it is important not to throw away the comic sections of newspapers (especially for coloured comics) so that one will have an abundance of comic strips to use in class for a variety of activities, such as those described below.
Activity 1
The teacher cuts apart the individual panels of a comic strip and puts them in an envelope. The students (either individually or in groups) then are asked to arrange the pieces into the proper sequence to tell the story, either in written form or as a speaking exercise.
For more advanced learners, the task can be made more difficult by giving a different panel to each student in a group and asking students to describe to the rest of the group what is on their panels. The students should not show their pictures to each other until they have figured out the correct order for the panels.
Activity 2
In a variation of the first exercise, the teacher removes the speech or thought bubbles of the comic strips, hands out copies of both the comic strip and the text of the bubbles to the students. The students' task is to figure out the proper order of the speech or thoughts.
Activity 3
The teacher hands out a comic strip from which the last panel is cut out. Students are asked to continue the story and come up with an ending. Similar to the first activity, this can be a writing or speaking exercise and can be organized as either an individual or a group activity, depending on the needs of the students. (Naturally, the first exercise could be continued with this exercise as well; however, this way is more challenging than having to continue a story that already has a conclusion).
A follow-up for this exercise could be that the students act out their stories in class. After acting out a story, they could continue it as a role-play activity.
Role-plays are useful for providing the teacher with feedback on how well the students learnt the new language (grammar, vocabulary, etc.). Besides, this activity reduces Teacher Talking Time and facilitates the speech of the students. It is generally true that people are less inhibited to talk when they have a personality "to hide behind," so when they play a role, they tend to forget about the surrounding circumstances (i.e., the classroom or the presence of the teacher).
Activity 4
Another interesting (and slightly more complex) exercise is to organise students into groups and give them a written story with missing information. First the groups should discuss what might be missing from the text. Then the teacher gives them a comic strip version of the text. They must fill in the blanks in the written story by describing what they see in the pictures. After that, they are asked to think of speech and/or thought bubbles for the comic strip. Naturally, as a follow-up activity, they can act it out and continue the story as a role-play.
The variations of these kinds of activities are almost endless. They can be combined with other activities, or used as supplementary material.
Conclusion
Comic strips are not only for fun in a language class, but there are also methodological reasons for teachers to use them. According to Oller's episode hypothesis, a text that has a story line and a logical structure is easier to remember and to recall. Comics strips provide the structure and stimulus to which students respond, and, as Brown points out, since stories are universal, students from different cultures can understand their structure and can identify with the characters (Brown 1994), which helps them to acquire vocabulary, grammatical and communicative competence, and provides them with special cultural knowledge as well.
Using the News in the Classroom
A Discourse Approach
by Adriana Merino and Maria Palmira Massi
This paper discusses the advantages of using news items coming from both the visual and the print media, that is, television and newspapers. The focus of attention lies on the ample variety of thought-provoking tasks that can be derived from viewing , reading and analyzing. It briefly discusses the methods of implementation and presents samples containing various possibilities of their use. From a more general perspective the authors will examine the evolving roles of EFL teachers. This examination is based on information gathered as part of a research project carried out at Comahue University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
A CRITICAL REVIEW ON SUGGESTOPEDIA
Suggestopedia is a teaching method, which focuses on how to deal with the relationship between mental potential and learning efficacy. Since it arose, the arguments on its advantages and disadvantages have never stopped. However, the particular features and special theories implicated in this method do influence the practice in language teaching area deeply. Although Suggestopedia is far from a perfect method, it is fair to say that Suggestopedia could be a favourable teaching method as long as it is used properly.
Background
“Suggestopedia, also known as Desuggestopedia, was originally developed in the 1970s by the Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov ”(Richards and Rogers 1998: 100). At that time, the idea of considering the student as a “whole person” arose as a result of the reflections of humanistic approaches to the field of language teaching. In other words, language teaching is not only upon teaching language but also helping students to develop themselves as people. This belief has led to a number of teaching methodologies and techniques which have stressed the humanistic aspects of learning. In such methodologies the experience of the student is what counts and the development of their personality and the encouragement of positive feelings are seen to be as important as their learning of a language. (Harmer 1991: 35) Some of these methods have been called “alternative methods”, but this suggests there is a common conventional method to which they provide an alternative and that they are themselves united in their approach (Cook 1991:148).
Principles and Theories
Being one of the humanistic approaches, Suggestopedia is a specific learning method derived from Suggestology, which Lozanov describes as a “...science...concerned with the systematic study of the non-rational and/or nonconscious influences” that human beings are constantly responding to (Stevick 1976: 42). Concerning the effect of Suggestopedia, Lozanov declares that memorisation in learning through Suggestopedia would be accelerated by up to 25 times over that in conventional learning methods. In Lozanov’s view, the reason why we are inefficient is that we set up some psychological barriers to learning such as the fear of being unable to perform or the fear that we will be limited or we will fail. One of the results of such case is the fact that we do not use the full mental power that we have, and the amount of capacity that we use is not more than five to ten percent of its full capacity. In order to make better use of our mental reserves, the limitations we think we have need to be “desuggested”. (Larsen Freeman 1986:72)
According to Krashen, in second language acquisition, the only way to acquire is to provide comprehensible input. However, “language acquirers may have a mental block that prevents input from reaching the Language Acquisition Device. An important part of language teaching involves lowering or weakening this block, termed the Affective Filter” (Krashen, 1989: 28-29). In this sense, Suggestopedia is just such a teaching method that intends to lower Affective Filter to help learners obtain comprehensible input.
Psychologically speaking, Suggestopedia relates a range of theories that intend to describe how attentiveness is manipulated to optimise learning and recall. Within different mental states from sleeping state to anxious state of mind, Lozanov believes that most learning takes place in a relaxed but focused state. This state might be called aware-alert state, and it is claimed that this will lead to “superlearning” (Brown 1994:97). Lozanov acknowledges ties in tradition to yoga and Soviet psychology. From raja-yoga, Lozanov has borrowed and modified techniques for altering stages of consciousness and concentration, and the use of rhythmic breathing. From Soviet psychology, he has taken the notion that all students can be taught a given subject matter at the same level of skill (Richards and Rogers 1998: 100).
Interpretation of Suggestopedia
In the interpretation of this paper, Suggestopedia is an effective comprehensible input based method with a combination of “desuggestion” and “suggestion” to achieve “superlearning”. Suggestion is the core of Suggestopedia. The most important objective of Suggestopedia is to motivate more of students’ mental potential to learn and which can be obtained by “suggestion”. Lozanov distinguishes his theory of suggestion from the “narrow clinical concept of hypnosis as a kind of static, sleeplike, altered stae of consciousness” (Lozanov 1978:3). Desuggestion means unloading the memory banks, or reserves, of unwanted or blocking memories. Suggestion then means loading the memory banks with desired and facilitating memories. The combination of “desuggestion” and “suggestion” is to lower the “Affective Filter” and motivate students’ mental potential to learn, aiming to accelerate the process by which they learn to understand and use the target language for communication to achieve “superlearning”--- the final goal of Suggestopedia.
It is claimed that there are some theoretical components through which desuggestion and suggestion operate. These are: (Richards and Rogers 1998: 101-102)
(1) Authority: people remember best and are influenced when information comes from an authority.
(2) Infantilisation: learners may regain self-confidence in a relation of teacher-student like that of parent to child.
(3) Double-Planedness: learning does not only come by means of direct instruction but also comes from the environment in which instruction takes place.
(4) Intonation, rhythm, and concert pseudo-passiveness: varying tone and rhythm of presentation frees the instruction from boredom, and presenting linguistic material with music gets the benefit of the effect produced on body.
Key Features of Suggestopedia
In order to make the term Suggestopedia much clear, eight key features are summed up as follows:
(1) Comfortable environment: learning is facilitated in an environment that is as relaxed and comfortable as possible. Besides a spacious classroom where activities can be held, dim lights, soft music, comfortable chairs, various posters relating to the target language are necessary.
(2) Peripheral Learning: it is based on the idea that people perceive much more from environment than that to which they consciously attend. Students may acquire with posters, pictures and decorations containing grammatical patterns, placed on the walls of classroom. And the posters, pictures and decorations need to be changed from time to time.
(3) Authoritative Teacher: the teacher takes a role of complete authority and whole control in the classroom during the teaching. Therefore, the teacher must be well-trained. To some extent, the teacher is not only a teacher but also a psychologist.
(4) Suggestible students: students are encouraged to follow the teacher’s suggestions without doubts and assume new roles and names---new identities in the target language in order to become more "suggestible". Furthermore, students could be asked to close their eyes and to concentrate on their breathing to relax accompanying the soft music when listening to the dialogues.
(5) Music: soft music, especially Baroque music, is played softly in the background to make the students have mental relaxation and increase their mental potential to take in and retain new material during the lesson.
(6) Dialogue: a Suggestopedia course lasts 30 days and consists of ten units of study. The central focus of each unit is a dialogue consisting of 1,200 words or so, with an accompanying vocabulary list and grammatical commentary (Richards and Rogers 1998: 102). However, when listening to the dialogues, students could be asked to close their eyes and to concentrate on their breathing to relax accompanying the soft music that is chosen carefully according to Lozanov’s theory.
(7) Positive Suggestion: it can be achieved in two ways, direct and indirect means. Direct suggestion might be teacher’s encouragement which states that learners are going to be successful. Indirect suggestion might be achieved by suitable classroom setting mentioned above. Errors are tolerated and the emphasis focuses on content but not structure. Grammar and vocabulary are presented and given treatment from the teacher, but not emphasised in details.
(8) Variety of Activities: various activities such as music, drama, role play and the like are integrated into the learning process as frequent as possible.
In all the features of Suggestopedia, the most conspicuous one is the centrality of music and musical rhythm to learning. Suggestopedia has some relationship with other functional uses of music, particularly therapy. Gaston defines three functions of music in therapy: (Richards and Rogers 1986: 143)
(1) To facilitate the establishment and maintenance of personal relations.
(2) To bring about increased self-esteem through increased self-satisfaction in musical performance.
(3) To use the unique potential of rhythm to energize and bring order.
This last function seems to be the one that Lozanov calls upon in his use of music to relax learners as well as to structure, pace, and punctuate the presentation of linguistic material. The type of music is critical to learning success. The most important point here is to find the right kind of music for just the right kind of effect. According to Lozanov, the Baroque music, with its 60 beats per minute and its specific rhythm creates the kind of “relaxed concentration” that leads to “superlearning”. During the soft playing of Baroque music, one can take in tremendous quantities of material due to an increase in alpha brain waves and a decrease in blood pressure and pulse rate. Former East German researchers of Suggestopedia at Karl Marx University in Leipzig observed that slow movements from Baroque instrumental music featuring string instruments gave the very best results (Richards and Rogers 1986: 146).
Main Stages of a Suggestopedia Class
In order to conduct a Suggestopedia class successfully, four main stages are as follows:
1.Presentation
Presentation is the basis of conducting Suggestopedia in class successfully. In this stage, a discussion of previously learned material could be conducted first, involving micro-studies or macro-studies in the real practice to make an integrated teaching procedure. However, the main aim in this stage is to help students relax and move into a positive frame of mind, with the feeling that the learning is going to be easy and funny. Desuggestion and suggestion happen at this stage at the same time.
2. First Concert
This involves the active presentation of the material to be learnt. The original form of Suggestopedia presented by Lozanov consisted of the use of extended dialogues, often several pages in length, accompanied by vocabulary lists and observations on grammatical points. Typically these dialogues would be read aloud to the students to the accompaniment of music. The most formal of these readings, known as the "concert reading", would typically employ a memorable piece of classical music such as a Beethoven symphony. This would not be in the form of background music but would be the main focus of the reading, with the teacher’s voice acting as a counterpoint to the music. Thus the "concert reading" could be seen as a kind of pleasurable event, with the learners free to focus on the music, the text or a combination of the two. The rhythm and intonation of the reading would be exaggerated in order to fit in with the rhythm of the music. Pay attention that the most conspicuous feature “music” appears in this stage.
3. Second Concert
The students are now guided to relax and listen to some Baroque music---the best choice of music according to Lozanov, with the text being read very quietly in the background. During both types of reading, the learners would sit in comfortable seats, armchairs rather than classroom chairs, in a comfortable environment. After the readings of these long dialogues to the accompaniment of music, the teacher would then make use of the dialogues for more conventional language work. The music brings the students into the optimum mental state for the effortless acquisition of the material.
4. Practice
The use of a range of role-plays, games, puzzles, etc. to review and consolidate the learning. Homework is limited to students: re-reading the dialogue they are studying - once before going to bed and again before getting up in the morning. (Lozanov 1978: 272).
Advantages of Suggestopedia
As a particular teaching method, Suggestopedia provides some valuable insights in teaching practice, which are also the advantages of it:
1.Comprehensible Input Based “Desuggestion” and “Suggestion” Principle
Although Lozanov does not state a theory of language explicitly, the comprehensible input based “desuggestion” and “suggestion” principle, which aims to lower Affective Filter and motivates the mental potential, can give us a great deal of enlightenment.
When stating the effective methods that can lower Affective Filter, Krashen mentioned: “One can interpret the use of music and relaxation exercises in Suggestopedia as having this goal, and the reported success of this method is at least consistent with this interpretation. Suggestopedia classes, in addition, are not held in classrooms but in ordinary rooms with comfortable chairs, a practice that may also help students relax. Teacher can do numerous other things to lower the Affective Filter. Activities that allow students to get better acquainted with each other may help lower anxieties and make students to adopt new names for the duration of the language course may have a similar effect”( Krashen, 1989:29).
In today’s teaching, the opinion of providing an as relaxed and comfortable environment as possible to lower the Affective Filter, such as the reluctance to learn, the inefficient communication of students, etc., still helps in our teaching.
2. “Authority” Concept
People remember best and are most influenced by information coming from an authoritative source. Lozanov appears to believe that scientific-sounding language, highly positive experimental data, and true-believer teachers constitute a ritual placebo system that is authoritatively appealing to most learners (Richards and Rogers 1998: 101).
Undoubtedly, the “authority” of Suggestopedia needs a lot of hard work from both the school and the teacher, which does help teaching and learning. If a teacher does a lot in self-improvement and self-confidence, the students will get a lot in self-improvement and self-confidence as well. In this sense, the writer highly agrees with Lozanov’s idea of being the “authority” in teaching because it means that both the teacher and the learners should work hard in order to achieve success in learning.
3. “Double-planedness” Theory
The learner learns not only from the effect of direct instruction but from the environment in which the instruction takes place. The bright decor of the classroom, the musical background, the shape of the chairs, and the personality of the teacher are considered as important in instruction as the form of the instructional material itself (Richards and Rogers 1998: 102).
Double-planedness Theory refers to the learning from two aspects---the conscious aspect and the subconscious one. Suggestopedia suggests that on the conscious plane, learners attend to learn the linguistic forms directly. On the subconscious plane, factors influence the linguistic forms, such as the physical environment and various background ways which help the students relax and feel that the learning process is as easy, natural and stress-free as possible.
4. “Peripheral Learning” Method
“Peripheral Learning” Method is a rather effective method in encouraging students to apply language more independently, thereby taking more personal responsibility for their own learning and getting more confidence. Peripheral information can also help encourage students to be more experimental, and look to sources other than the teacher for language input.
For example, the posters containing vocabulary and grammatical inflections can encourage students to try and start building sentences on their own rather than imitating a model from the teacher. If the students get the correct answer by themselves, they will get confidence and be more interested in the target language. If they get the incorrect answer, it doesn’t matter because they are provided with stress-free learning.
5. “Choosing a New Identity” Technique
One of the major obstacles learners have to overcome in learning is the anxiety of speaking things out that are wrong, stupid, or incomprehensible. Choosing a new identity and behaving as a fictional person in the target language can help students solve the problem because they have become “other people” of the target language community. Therefore, any of the mistakes or errors are made by others but not themselves, however, any improvement and progress will give students more confidence and encouragement to expect success in learning.
Disadvantages of Suggestopedia
The main disadvantages of Suggestopedia are as follows:
1. Environmental Limitations
Suggestopedia requires too much from the environment of teaching and learning. It does not provide for the majority of language teaching environments teachers typically encounter. The size of class---normally twelve students, the dim lighting, large comfortable chairs and music selections are not readily available to the majority of schools, and these environmental factors are almost impossible to be obtained in large classes. For example, in China, a normal class of primary school or secondary school usually covers 40-50 students. As for universities and colleges, there are normally 20-30 students in one class.
2. Infantilization Theory
The writer believes that Suggestopedia is suitable for beginners and young learners, especially young learners because they are more likely to be suggestible and they are more likely to accept the comparing speaking child-like ways of learning. In contrast, Suggestopedia is not very suitable for adults because they are too mature to follow the teacher’s authoritative instruction. Moreover, behaving like a child without reluctance to an adult is hard to imagine, not to mention the parent-child like relation between a teacher and an adult student who are of the similar age.
3.” Suggestible Students”
It does not take account of the fact that many learners in many countries do not necessarily have an intrinsic desire to learn a foreign language. For instance, in the writer's college, many students choose to study English just because that can help them in job-seeking. Moreover, to a learner who does not want to learn the target language from the bottom of heart, listening to the soft music could probably make him or her too relaxed to concentrate on the learning materials. It may cause a student of that kind to sleep or talk with others about the composer of the music. That did happen in the writer's class.
4. Teacher’s Role
Lozanov lists several expected teacher behaviors that contribute to these presentations (Richards and Rogers 1998: 102).
(1) Show absolute confidence in the method.
(2) Display fastidious conduct in manners and dress.
(3) Organize properly and strictly observe the initial stages of the teaching process---this includes choice and play of music, as well as punctuality.
(4) Maintain a solemn attitude toward the session.
(5) Give tests and respond tactfully to poor papers (if any).
(6) Stress global rather than analytical attitudes towards material.
(7) Maintain a modest enthusiasm.
It can be stated that such a teacher that can meet all the requirements mentioned by Lozanov, is very difficult to be found, especially in the countries where the level of education is still low. Moreover, in order to meet the requirements, it is very important for the teacher to get enough training besides his/her teaching talents. However, if such a well-trained talented teacher could only teach the beginners and the young learners because of the factors that have been mentioned above, it would be embarrassing to say that it is a big waste of time and money.
Conclusion
Generally speaking, this paper suggests that Suggestopedia should not be used solely. It is because teaching in a foreign language is very easy to get students confused and too much or repetitive using of the same method will easily make students bored and inattentive in learning. However, the combination of Suggestopedia and other methods, such as the Grammar-Translation Method or Content-Based Instruction will be more effective and helpful. In real teaching, using only one method or approach to teach is rare, even impossible. Although Suggestopedia does not contribute a lot to the approaches and methods in language teaching theoretically and researchers have been questioning the feasibility and effect of it from the day of its existence, its positive impact and enlightenment in teaching practice cannot be denied.
Moreover, the key factors of effective teaching are not the approaches and methods in language teaching themselves but the teacher’s deliberate selection of different approaches and methods and the devoted practice of putting theories into real teaching activities in a corresponding social-cultural context. “Serious theory is not armchair speculation but is based on real events in the world” ( Krashen, 1989:45).It is a fact that no approach or method is perfect. However, there is no end for us to seek the perfection of the approaches and methods in language teaching.
Sumber : http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8661738051958094644
Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris di tingkat Taman Kanak kanak atau TK sangat penting mengingat di era globalisasi sekarang ini anak-anak TK sudah mengenal komputer walaupun hanya sebatas bermain game. Tujuan Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris sendiri mengikuti perkembangan dunia anak dimana saat ini hampir setiap hari anak TK mendengar kedua orang tuanya menyebut printer, di print , di upload, di install dsb. Untuk itulah pengajaran Bahasa Inggris di tingkat Taman Kanak Kanak ini penting diperkenalkan sejak dini. Pertanyaannya bagaimana caranya untuk membuat pengajaran bahasa Inggris ini menjadi menarik di mata anak anak TK ? bukan menjadi momok atau sesuatu yang menakutkan. Menurut teori pendidikan, anak anak suka akan benda, gambar, warna, dan binatang . Untuk itu dengan media flash inilah di coba untuk mengantarkan materi pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris untuk TK, dengan tujuan mengenal benda, mengenal warna, mengenal binatang, menyanyi, bercerita sendiri, dsb.
Tehnik pembelajarannya sebaiknya menggunakan laptop, yang disambungkan dengan LCD untuk disorotkan ke dinding atau layar . Anak Anak tinggal di instruksikan untuk meng click dan menirukan suara dari CD yang di putar, meng click gambar binatang yang muncul, atau meng click warna yang di sukai dan menyebutkannya / menirukan dalam bahasa Inggris. Dengan animasi flash, anak anak di usahakan dapat bercerita sendiri dalam bahasa inggris mengenai cerita/ gambar dari dalam CD.
Disini penulis telah mencoba membuatkan CD dengan animasi flash untuk pembelajaran di tingkat Taman Kanak Kanak seperti tampak di samping ini dan dapat di download gratis dengan judul TK. Untuk dapat membuka file flash dengan extension swf di belakangnya anda harus mempersiapkan software nya terlebih dahulu dengan meng install macromedia flash 8 di komputer anda. Bukalah flash playernya dan akan tampak semua file yang berakhiran swf.
Mengapa orang beralih ke animasi flash? Animasi flash
cenderung lebih menarik dalam pempilan dan mudah dalam aplikasinya, lebih hemat
dalam pemakaian memory komputer, dan lebih interaktif. Didalam praktek, file
flash yang berakhiran swf, hanya dapat dimainkan dengan flash player. Sekalipun
demikian, file ini dapat juga dibuat dengan extension HTML sehingga dapat dibuka
dengan internet explorer. Untuk dapat membuat file yang berakhiran swf, melalui
sebuah proses yang cukup rumit dimana kita terlebih dahulu harus membuatnya ke
dalam file yang berakhiran dengan fla. Nah dari sini kita dapat melanjutkan
proses menjadi file yang berakhiran dengan swf. File ini tidak dapat di edit
oleh orang lain melainkan oleh si pembuatnya.
Persiapan
Untuk dapat membuat file yang berakhiran dengan swf, kita
perlu mempersiapkan beberapa software antara lain jika kita ingin membuat sebuah
web kita perlu memiliki dreamweaver 8 program, disana kita dapat lebih mudah
membuat dan lebih praktis, karena kita hanya mengganti judul dan perubahan lain
seperlunya.Sedangkan untuk aplikasi program flash untuk sebuah media
pembelajaran, kita dapat mengambil gambar atau background seperlunya. Adapun
software lainnya adalah program aplikasi flash 8, dan microsoft frontpage untuk
editornya. Internet explorer sangat dominan untuk media pengetesan
Kegunaan program flash antara lain dapat digunakan untuk
media pembelajaran sehingga Bapak Ibu Guru dapat dengan mudah di dalam
menerangkan suatu materi pembelajaran. lebih praktis karena cukup dikemas dalam
c d sehingga mudah dibawa ke mana-mana.dan tidak usah repot repot membawa alat
peraga. Ternyata para siswa lebih antusias karena interaktif dan mudah
dioperasikan. Dengan program animasi flash pelajaran terasa lebih hidup, karena
kita dapat mendengarkan musik serta memasukkan suara ke dalam cd sehingga bapak
ibu guru dapat sedikit menghemat energI.
Learning English For Kindergarten Using flash animation
Source: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8661738051958094644
Learning English at the level of preschool or kindergarten children is very important considering the current era of globalization kindergarten children are familiar with computers, although only limited to playing games. English Language Learning Objective itself follows the development of the world where the child is now almost every day kindergarten children hear the parents calling the printer, in print, uploads, etc. installed. For that teaching English in the Kindergarten level is an important introduced early. The question of how to make the teaching of English will be attractive in the eyes of children, kindergarten? rather than a scourge or something scary. According to the theory of education, children will love objects, pictures, colors, and animals. For that purpose with this flash media in trying to bring English language learning materials for kindergarten, with the aim of familiar objects, recognize colors, learn about animals, sing, tell yourself, etc..
Learning techniques should be using a laptop, which is connected with the LCD to flashed on the wall or screen. Children living in instructing child to click and imitating the sound of the CD which in turn, to an animal that appears click on the image, or to click on the color that you act like / imitate in English. With flash animation, children can try to tell myself in english about the stories / pictures from the CD.
Here the author has tried to make a CD with flash animation for learning in the Kindergarten level, as seen on this side and can be downloaded free of charge with the title of kindergarten. To be able to open files with extension swf flash behind her you must prepare in advance with the software to macromedia flash 8 installed on your computer. Open flash playernya and will appear in all files that end in the swf.
Why do people switch to the flash animation? Flash animation
tend to be more attractive in pempilan, and easy in application, more efficient
in the computer memory usage, and more interactive. In practice, file
ending flash swf, can only be played with flash player. Although
Thus, these files can also be created with an HTML extension that can be opened
with internet explorer. To be able to create a file that ends in swf, through
a fairly complicated process whereby we must first make it into
in a file that ends in fla. Now from here we can proceed
the process of becoming an ending with swf files. This file can not be edited
by others but by the manufacturer.
Preparation
To be able to create a file that ends with swf, we
need to prepare some of the software, among others, if we want to make a
web we need to have Dreamweaver 8 courses, where we can be more easily
make and more practical, because we just replaced the title and other changes
seperlunya.Sedangkan for the application program to a flash media
learning, we can take a picture or background necessary. Now
Another software application program flash 8, and microsoft frontpage for
editor. Internet explorer is very dominant for testing media
Uses include flash program can be used for
instructional media, so you can easily Mother Teacher in
describe a learning material. more practical because it is packed in
cd so easy to carry everywhere, do not bother mana.dan bother to take the appliance
boaster. Apparently the students more enthusiastic because it is interactive and easy
operated. With flash animation program lesson feels more alive, because
we can listen to music and sound in the cd insert so that the father
teacher can be a bit to save energy.
Teaching English at the Kindergarten
I. Introduction
Mastery of English has long become the knowledge to be learned by the people of Indonesia. Starting in 1960 until now, English has become the subject of the lesson is no less prestige than other subjects like Mathematics and Science. The amount needs to learn English has made this knowledge becomes a commodity business in itself. Private English language teaching institutions also emerged, such as LIA, Jakarta College, Oxford, BBC, IEC, EF, TBI, and others. If the first new Indonesian children learn English at high school level, now they start at an earlier level, elementary, and if necessary to kindergarten. Therefore, children should not protest when obliged his parents to learn English. Funny thing is, many parents require their children to follow a foreign language course this one without being able to give one obvious reason why English is important for them, similar to the proverb about the importance of learning mathematics. Children also learn a foreign language is only because their parents told them as an important subject. There are still many parents who think that English can make a person successful in life, able to make people get good jobs, be able to get people to go abroad, and others. Huh, if only life that easy. Through this article, I stated the factors of geography, communication, access to information to be three plausible reasons behind the need to learn English for Indonesian people.
First, Indonesia is surrounded by countries that most people use English as their first or second language. These countries include Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. Besides in this country, where there's more people using the Indonesian language as a mother? Melayu language and Indonesia are still brothers, but not necessarily the people of Malaysia and Indonesia understand each other when speaking to each other's language. Who master the Indonesian language in Singapore is not much more than anything else in Australia, Papua New Guinea or the Philippines. Geographic factor becomes the first reason why people of Indonesia should learn English. If someday a citizen to travel to one of the countries mentioned above, the stock of knowledge of English will make it easier to communicate with that person in the local citizens. This also happened in the Netherlands. There, the students at the high school level are encouraged to learn and master a foreign language since the Dutch language is not used by the nations around them. Germany uses its own language. Belgium uses French. Across the strait, there is a British subject.
The second and most common reasons, English needs to be studied because of wide use as the language of international communication. To be able to communicate with people of different cultural backgrounds and nationalities, English has become the main option that is often used in communication. Examples are easy to see there in the world of tourism. The tourists who travel in foreign countries commonly use English to communicate with native citizens visited. Not only speakers of English identity, tourists who do not use English as their mother also chose English as its lingua franca. Japanese who travel to Indonesia, using the English language when he was about to ask something in the first person he met in the street. Indonesian tourists who walk the streets of Paris will be very happy to meet with residents that who mastered English to for help. There are also less likely to Italians who dared to travel to India without having adequate supplies of the English language. English also became the official language of instruction in the world of air and sea transportation. Was he flying the plane in Asia or in Africa, he must communicate in English. Similarly, the airport control tower had to be adept at speaking English, because the plane that landed at the airport not only came from one country but also abroad. Similarly, the shipping world, English is the language of official communication. The port authority to control a situation will always be confronted with the arrival of foreign ships. In order to communicative smooth, and Syahbandar officer must be able to speak in English with captain of ships which came from America, Russia, France, South Africa, Korea, or the Salomon Islands. Issues to work smoothly, the sailors and port workers must use a common language and neutral.
The last the world's information is mostly published in English. Many books published in English. No matter who ran it, which is sure to gain wide market many publishers publishing in English writing. Major magazine, Newspapers like the Washington Post, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Sun also published in English. Scientific books were published in English. If there is any reading materials published in non-English language, the English translation also must be directly created and marketed. Popular website in the Internet world more use of English as an introduction to an article in it, just look at Yahoo, Google, Wikipedia, Amazon's, YouTube, and Reuters. Popular television shows around the world - F1, MotoGP, World Cup, Champions League, American Idol, 24, CSI, MacGyver, etc. - are presented with the English language. World-famous television stations also broadcast in English - CNN, BBC, NBC, Discovery, National Geographic, Animal Planet, ESPN, HBO, and many more. Scientific journal that circulates among the world's elite universities are also printed in English, even indirectly require students to have knowledge of English stock. Whatever your interest, the information available in your area today requisite knowledge of English would be very helpful in gaining knowledge and expanding horizons. English language skills a person has will help him to access the things that, so far is not in the readings published in Indonesia. Therefore, English language proficiency will facilitate the people of Indonesia to develop insights into knowledge by providing access to knowledge that is outside of Indonesia.
II. Kindergarten Children Need To Learn English
Based on the three reasons above, English’s knowledge develop an individual in the Indonesia country to be an inevitable thing. Like it or not, this one became the subject of things that need to be studied by every Indonesian. Even if you're not sure will get a chance to go abroad, this knowledge is still needed as well. At a minimum, you should not watching the news on CNN because there is no translation at the bottom of television screens or confused when reading the manual for the use of electronic tools that only printed in English.
Education observers who are also members of the representatives of Education Society of North Sulawesi (MPS) Matrona Mamudi, in comments Tuesday (04/03) said that the earlier the children learn English so more easily he mastered the language. There is no harm if a child is at School Kindergarten (TK) from an early age to get English lessons. Moreover, according to him, now this reporter no longer parents bring children aged under five courses or even place to obtain such materials. In recent years a variety of foreign language courses, especially the UK, increasingly vibrant. It is not only for adults but also children. Schooling institutions did not want to miss a day. Teaching English that was originally only known at the SMTP level, is now given to elementary students, school pupils and even kindergarten.
Such phenomenon is according to him, among others, encouraged by the obsession of parents who wanted their children can speak a foreign language quickly. They argued, the earlier children learn a foreign language, the easier he mastered the language. He added that the earlier children learn a foreign language, the easier child to master the language. "Children acquire language more quickly without much difficulty as compared with adults," he said.
Indeed, he argued before puberty, the power thought (brain) child is more flexible. Hence, it is easier to learn the language. While thereafter diminishes and their achievement was not maximal. He also explained that the age of 6-12 years old is gold or most ideal time to learn a language other than mother tongue (first language). The reason for the child's brain is still plastic and flexible, so that the absorption process language more smoothly. Besides of the language function in children use to, enough with the exposure on a specific language, for example, he lived in an environment other than his native language, children will easily be able to master the language.
III. The advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of teaching English at Kinder Garden level are :
1. Learning English at the level of preschool or kindergarten children is very important considering the current era of globalization kindergarten children are familiar with computers, although only limited to playing games.
2. The children can prepare themselves for the next level of their education.
3. The students of kinder garden still have pure brain and intelligent to catch English material such as there memorial is easy to catch the vocabulary.
4. The students can play while there learning process.
5. The earlier children learn a foreign language, the easier child to master the language.
6. Children acquire language more quickly without much difficulty as compared with adults.
7. The power thought (brain) child is more flexible. Hence, it is easier to learn the language, While thereafter diminishes and their achievement was not maximal.
IV. Conclusion
English for kinder garden students is necessary to teach because English is some of window of the word and English one of language will the students used when they have been adult. But teaching English at kinder garden level have advantages and disadvantages they are : Learning English at the level of preschool or kindergarten children is very important considering the current era of globalization kindergarten children are familiar with computers, although only limited to playing games, The earlier children learn a foreign language, the easier child to master the language, Children acquire language more quickly without much difficulty as compared with adults, The power thought (brain) child is more flexible. Hence, it is easier to learn the language, While thereafter diminishes and their achievement was not maximal. Beside the advantages of although there are the disadvantages of it, such as : Children must be trouble, let alone the national language is not English or their native language often heard in everyday life, students psychologically burdensome, a controlled vocabulary the children are not perfect and the concept that must be contained.
From the above description can know that English really important for Children right now because they must prepare themselves to take on Globalization era. The effectiveness is teaching English to the children it about 4- 6 years old until adults because this age really easy to them to accept the information and understanding the language. There are three reasons that I think English important to teach in Kindergarten students.
First, Indonesia is surrounded by countries that most people use English as their first or second language. For example : Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The second and most common reasons, English needs to be studied because of wide use as the language of international communication. To be able to communicate with people of different cultural backgrounds and nationalities, English has become the main option that is often used in communication. The last the world information always use English for example : News, Magazine, Newspapers, internet, etc. So that why I think English really important to teach from the kindergarten students.
References
- Latief, M. (26 November 2009 ) KOMPAS. Jakarta : KOMPAS.
- http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8661738051958094644
- Mustafa, Bahrudin. ( 2007 ) EFL for Young Learners. Courses Material. Bandung : UPI.
- Brown, H., D. ( 2001 ) Teaching by Principles : An interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. San Francisco : Adison Long Man, Inc.
