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language skills development, out-of-date information, and cultural topics that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
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