THE TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING SPEAKING TO YOUNG LEARNERS
1.1 Background
It is said that speaking is the basic skill of language learning. It is because speaking as verbal communication is the most common way for people to communicate to each other (Herlinda, 2010 : 18). This is the greatest challenge for young learners because to speak means that children, with the limited ability they have, have to speak and think at the same time. They are expected to be able to express their feelings, play and joke with their peers, deliver opinions in classes and communicate orally in English (Scott and Ytreberg, 2004 : 33).
However, Widiyanto and Yomartono (Wahyuningsih, 2009 : 1) state that there is still lack of stimulation given in a classroom in formal school. It is observed from the fact that classroom tend to be quiet and learners are less motivated to speak. It is supported by Hartiyana (2008 : 1) who claimed that teachers in Indonesia are mostly missed in giving opportunities to their children to give a meaningful and contextual teaching and learning. In fact, students rarely speak English in other places except in their class. They can listen to English at home, read English at library, write English at blogs, but they have small opportunity to speak at somewhere else but in their classroom (Sriyati, 2010 : 15). Therefore, students nowadays are improving their speaking skill using various ways. One of the common ways is by taking English Course.
According to the statements of parents who were interviewed in preliminary research conducted informally by the researcher, their children were expected to be more fluent in speaking English than their classmates who did not go to English Course. It is because they believed English Course would give students room to speak English more than at school. As Lawti (2004) states that :
... if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. If the goal of your language course is truly to enable your students to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practiced in the language classroom.
Teachers in English Courses have more willingness to maximize the quality and the quantity of teaching techniques for practicing English because language classroom exists to provide enough support from the environment, something that most of students do not have, to talk in English naturally (Scott and Ytreberg, 2004 : 33).
Having some information about the significance of techniques implemented in English Courses, teachers in public schools can adapt or adopt the techniques to be implemented in their language classrooms. Hence, this research is conducted to discover, describe, and compile in-depth information about techniques of teaching speaking to young learners employed by one of English Courses in X, and to identify whether there is obstacle from the techniques the teacher employs. The theory of Harmer about the P-P-P procedure (Presentation-Practice-Produce) is the grand theory of this research (Harmer, 2007 : 64). There is one children class of an English Course and one instructor of an English Course involved in this research. The result later is expected to be able to give significance contribution in teaching English to young learners in Indonesia.
1.2 Research Questions
There are two research questions addressed in this research :
1. What techniques does the teacher at a children class of an English Course employ in teaching speaking to young learners?
2. Is there any obstacle from the techniques employed?
1.3 The Aim of the Research
This research is aimed at :
1. Discovering teaching speaking techniques employed by a teacher at a children class of an English Course in teaching speaking to young learners.
2. Finding out whether there is any obstacle from the techniques employed.
1.4 Scope of the Research
This research focused on discovering the teaching speaking techniques employed by a teacher in an English Course for children class. Furthermore, this research was conducted to reveal whether there is any obstacle of implementing the techniques. Therefore, the researcher did not observe any other part of English language skills or any other age of learners.
1.5 Significance of the Research
The research is important to conduct since it is expected to contribute professional source in the teaching profession in Indonesia in particular, and to add more references in general. Having new information in professional source related to teaching speaking techniques for young learners, teachers in public schools as well as English language instructors in English Courses will improve their ability and provide various yet effective activities for their students especially in speaking skill. Furthermore, the research gives beneficial information about the present condition that appears in the teaching-learning activities in speaking lesson in an English Course. The findings later also provide some information to conduct other investigation in the same field with certain interest.
1.6 Clarification of Terms
1. Teaching Speaking Techniques
The teaching speaking techniques in this research is the way teachers in an English Course teach children classes in speaking lesson.
2. Techniques
Technique is any of a wide variety of exercises, activities, or devices used in the language classroom for realizing lesson objectives. (Brown 2001 : 16 as cited in Meisara 2006 : 6)
3. Speaking ability
Speaking is the active use of language to express meanings so that other people can make sense of them. (Cameron, 2008 : 40)
4. English course
English course is a course of teaching English with a series of lessons or lectures on an English learning in which the aim is to make its students to be capable of using English fluently (Kastrena, 2005 : 1).
5. Comprehension
Comprehension is a process where the students understanding upon new language taught in the classroom is represented in order to organize and arrange material well. (Sadker and Sadker, 1977 as cited on Wahyuningsih, Weni, 2009).
1.7 Organization of paper
This research is divided into five parts. The first part of the research is Research Background which consists of burning issue, research statement and sample or population.
The second part of this research is Theoretical foundation. In this chapter, the researcher delivered the theories used to analyze the data gathered.
The third part of this research is Research Methodology which is divided into Research Design, Sites and Participants, Data Collecting Methods, and Data Analysis. The fourth part of this research is the Findings and Discussions and the last one is the Conclusion.
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