It’s nothing

I. Summary of References

• H.H. Stern (1970) recommend procedures for second language teaching method on the basis of first language acquisition behaviorist: 1st LA is a rote practice: habit formation, shaping, over learning, conditioning, association, stimulus – response 1. practice over and over again all the time. 2. imitate everything 3. practice in natural order: separate sounds, then words, then sentences. 4. follow a child’s speech development: listen, then speak, and then you can understand 5. remember the natural order: listening, speaking, reading, writing 6. do not translate 7. no need to use grammatical conceptualization
• The Critical Period Hypothesis: biological timetable that puberty is the critical point of SLA
• Incorrect assumptions : that people above 12-13 year are impossible to be a successful SL learner.
• Some considerations on the issues:

1. Neurological brain function in the acquisition process (left = intellectual, logic, analytic; right = emotional, social) Neurological research gives evidence that language function is controlled in the left hemisphere Eric Lennenberg (1967): lateralization is a slow process from 2 years old – puberty Thomas Scovel (1969): plasticity of brain to lateralize and acquire SL is prior to puberty Norman Geschwind (1970), Stephen Krashen (1973): completed before 5 years old Obler (1981): in later age, there’s part of the right hemisphere involved Genesee (1982): language processing in bilinguals are more in the right hemisphere
2. Psychomotor speech muscle (throat, larynx, mouth, lips, tongue, etc) must be controlled to achieve the fluency of a native speaker. Scovek (1988) communicative and functional purposes of language is far more important than pronunciation of language
3. Cognitive intellect – Piaget stages of intellectual development: 0-2 = sensory motor, 2-7 = pre-operational, 7-16 = operational. Piagetian equilibration: as someone becomes more mature, the left hemisphere is more dominant. Doubt/uncertain = disequilibrium moves to resolution/certain = equilibrium – Cognitive Domain of Ausbel : LA is not a rote but a meaningful repetition and mimicking
4. Affective emotion – The factors are empathy, self-esteem, extroversion, inhibition, imitation, anxiety, attitude Guiora (1972): egocentricity = self-directed speech. ‘Language Ego” = someone’s identity in the language he develops. Younger learners are more egocentric – Some examples: negative attitudes can affect language learning; peer pressure; older people can tolerate linguistic differences more than children, so more excuses
5. Linguistic First language is the facilitating factor. E.g. children learning two languages simultaneously, they just distinguish two contexts. For second language learning in children after they acquire First L, the process is similar in learning Foreign Language

• In the classroom : The Audiolingual Method

It is he use of oral drill and pattern practice (repetition, inflection, replacement, restatement, completion, transposition, expansion, contraction). Also known as ASTP or Army Method

From Fenigar & Bresnie (1989): Language: ATS Structure and Use

• Principles of language Acquisition: 1/ any child who is capable of acquiring a particular human language is capable of acquiring any human language 2/ all children normally acquire their native language in childhood 3/ by the age of six, children can speak language fluently 4/ linguists and psychologists convince that language is not only a matter of imitation
• Adult input in Language Acquisition: In language acquisition, the important parts= process of imitations, exposure of linguistic input
• Stages of Language Acquisition 1/ 1 year old – 2 year old : one word, words 2/ 2 -3 : use words in appropriate context, know parts of speech e.g. Mama hurt me 3/ five-year old children: 4-6 words per sentence, adding 20 vocabulary per day e.g. That book doesn’t belong to me.
• Relationship between language and thought: language and thought appears simultaneously.

From Richard Amato (2003) : Making It Happen.

• Chomsky’s Contribution: Innatist theory: some language aspects are innate or inborn. The brain is not a blank slate; it contains highly complex structures that come into operation through an interaction process “language organ” called Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
• LAD is like a computer that has various pre-programmed linguistic sub-systems, through experience, someone makes sub-conscious choices of linguistic menu (e.g. S-V-O, V=S-O, S-O-V, O-S-V)
• Universal Grammar. It is the basic principles shared by all languages.

From Gasseschumaker (1994): Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction

• Some important definitions: Native language = first language a child learns Target language = the language being learned SLA = the learning of another language in the environment in which it is spoken FLA = the learning of nonnative language in the environment of someone’s native language
• The nature of language What need to be learned? 1/ sound systems = phonology 2/ syntax = grammar 3/ morphology and lexicon 4/ semantics = meaning 5/ pragmatics = context

II. Personal Opinion

I think First Language Acquisition and Second Language Acquisition are fundamentally different in that they take place at two different stages of a person’s development (child – adult). With the possible exception of children raised in a bilingual environment, people learn their first language as children, and there is a significant gap in the learning process before they begin to learn their second. Also, children learning their first language have less mental work to do to learn the words for the objects and ideas around them. How Indonesian acquire FLA? In my experiences, Indonesian students shows a great reluctance to stray from their first language, and they rarely take a chance while learning a second language. Comments on LAD: I totally agree. I believe that God blesses us with such a sophisticated brain that can do miracles in helping us learning a language. Although the ‘language organ” is invisible, if we are spiritual people, we can feel that the brain capacity to acquire and process language is very miraculous.

TEACHING READING

In my view, teaching reading is one of the best practices for EFL students, because it is a kind of an exercise of reason. As an expert said, it is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain, and provides huge advantage for EFL students (Harmer, 2004).

            In my context, I have experienced many activities dealing with reading practice. Mostly, the main objective is to understand a reading text or to get the important information from it. For this goal, I always convince my students that English text can be understood if they keep on reading it until the last sentence of the passage. For me, an English text can be comprehended even though there are new vocabulary and structures that my students have never seen before. They have to guess and predict the meaning the context and train their brain to digest the information on the passage. I usually make an illustration for them: they are just learning how to get to Blok M by car, and I told them the way to get there and that they just need to drive according to the instruction. Do not stop over if they find something strange or need to know (it’s the new vocabulary or structure), because the more often they did that, the longer it will be to get to the destination. To get the idea of what a text is about can be done in shorter time if they are skilled, or keep on reading for comprehension rapidly.

            After they get the idea of the text, I usually ask some questions to check whether they can extract the information on the passage. It can be a combination between open-ended questions and Yes/No questions. This activity can be a practice for speaking for my students.

            In other objective, I can also use reading as communicative task, i.e. activity to foster my students’ ability to communicate in English. For example, I give a text, and my students are asked to discuss it in small groups as the task assigned for them, such as:

-          to get a clue in a case study,

-          to rearrange the jumbled paragraphs into a good story

-          to discuss their stand points after reading certain issue

-          to discuss the moral value of a folk tale

-          to find the suspect in a crime story, etc

 

The last objective and also the most important for me is to stimulate them to pronounce better while reading aloud (another exercise for speaking). It’s a good practice because I can monitor my students’ progress in speaking by doing this. I can know easily whether my students keep on improving or not. (I usually motivate them to practice reading aloud at home, read bedtime story, or recite a poem. It’s a good exercise for pronunciation, stresses, and intonation). Reading a text aloud can indicate our speaking proficiency.

 

So, teaching reading is also a kind of teaching skills to my students. I like teaching reading, because it will also encourage me to keep on improving. In reading, we will continue to find something new: it can be some difficulty, some new skills, or more information that can widen our horizon.

 

 

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TEACHING THE LANGUAGE SYSTEM

Teaching the language system means that a teacher presents students with clear information about the language they are learning. It is a complex task, especially for me, because teacher must show students what the language means and how it is used, what the grammatical form of the new language is, and how it is said and written (Harmer, 2004).

In my experience, the best way to present language is in context. The challenge for teacher, in my view, is to provide good context for students that enable them to understand the language system. From my experience, the context for my students can be:

-          physical surrounding: classroom, campus, our Ministry of Finance, etc

-          student’s world: their lives, problems, hobbies, interests, etc

-          global world:  recent news, trends, stories, lifestyles, etc.

 

For example, when I want to teach grammar, let say comparative sentence, I provide them a reading text taken from the Internet on recent topics that contains many sample usages of comparatives in a passage. The activities will be suited to the objective in the lesson plan. A good context can be motivating for students to learn  new language.

 

            Talking about the presentation of structural form, I do not really explain much on forms and pattern, since my students have got it in semester 1 (I teach Diploma IV or semester 7, so my students should know a lot about grammar). Rather, I use the lead-in model (in the hope that my students will be aware of the key concept) or elicitation (because it is more time saving and less frustrating for students don’t have to practice something they have already known). For me, elaborate explanation depends on whether there are corrections needed to be made. But sometimes, if they do not aware of certain mistake, I just repeat their sentence by using different intonation (like questioning), so as other students can think that it is an indication I doubt what a student said is correct.

            In short, a teacher should show students not only what language means but also how it is used, and the activity can vary depending on the topic and the context that the teacher planned before.

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My Notion about Lesson Planning and Classroom Management

In my view, Lesson Planning is vital for teachers for the success of the teaching and learning process. It will help teachers to resolve problems and difficulties, to provide a structure for a lesson, to provide a ‘map’ for teacher to follow and a record of what has been taught (Richards 1998). Thus, the class can run more smoothly and problems can be anticipated before they happen in class. For me, I need to make a lesson plan because I have to prepare and learn/review the material before teaching (although I have been teaching for almost 14 years, I still do that because the same content can be delivered using different strategies, depending on my students’ condition) so as to make me more confident in performing my teaching. If I am confident, I can maintain my students’ interest and attention to the Unit we discuss for the meeting. My preparation is usually for the ice-breaking activity, the language focus, and exercise practice for class activity and home assignment (topics are already plotted in the syllabus, so I can focus on the activity for the day: reading, writing, or speaking). I always prepare plan B in case something happen; for example, I prepare hand-out exercise to be written on WB or copied elsewhere if the electricity went out, while we are supposed to use the language lab , tape recorder, or LCD projector. With lesson plan, I can evaluate my teaching (some improvement or changes I should make for the next semester), and think of what other activities that are fun as well as meaningful for students in the next meeting.

Talking about classroom management, it can not be separated from motivating students, managing constraints, and managing teacher’s role (Harmer, 2004), and I am in full favor of that statement. English teachers are to deliver language skills, which needs application, not merely memorization. Therefore, teaching English needs teacher’s management skills to handle the classroom well in order to make the learning successful. In my experience, I motivate my students by explaining them the benefits to them if they can master English skills, especially in their workplace and career development in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia (Depkeu RI). In our Ministry, chances to gain scholarship for studying abroad and involved in international diplomacy are widely open. Moreover, those who succeed in our bureaucracy are mostly fluent English speakers, either graduated from abroad universities or had taken overseas courses very often. Also, I tell my students to give them score of A if they actively participate in class activities, do all assignments, and manage the mid/final exam successfully. Since my students are adult learners, this works well to motivate them to be active in the learning process.

So, teachers, make a plan before going to classroom.

CLT, Task-Based Learning, Lexical Approach

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) emphasizes interaction as the means and also the ultimate goal of learning a language. I don’t really get the real track of CLT, but from some other references, the activities in CLT can be Role Play , Interviews , Information Gap, Games, Language Exchanges , Surveys, Pair Work, etc., and I believe most English teachers have tried some or all of those strategies to make their students communicate and interact in English. But I think this will not work for low levels students because they will not able to communicate with limited vocabulary and limited range of grammatical functions (like my elementary school students). So, I think using CLT for teachers must involve equipping students with vocabulary, structures, and also strategies to enable the students to interact successfully.

I agree with the point by Richards and Rodgers that CLT is basically about promoting learning. But, we must ask ourselves as teacher why we teach English, who we are teaching, and why. Are our students aiming to learn or acquire English? Do they need to know certain vocabulary and linguistic rules as a means of passing an exam, or do they want to be able to interact in English? If we use CLT, we must think of why we use this to our students.

The method of Task-Based Learning (TBL) in concentrated on learning tasks that students are involved, not on the language input (Harmer: 34). By task, I mean a goal-oriented activity with a clear purpose. I think TBL is related to CLT, because doing a communication task involves achieving an outcome, creating a final product that can be appreciated by other.

I once tried some strategies on TBL to my students of diploma III of STAN Jakarta for English 2 (third semester). I didn’t teach grammatical points formally, because the purpose is to make them speak better than the previous semester. Then I forced them to use English without telling them anything about grammar (they got it in English 1). The activities can be making a list of reasons, comparing things, enlisting procedures or things that need doing in certain condition, reading graphs and figures, personal sharing, or solving a problem.

For example when the topic is “Accounting”, a listing task is: List ten reasons why accounting is important (my students must know the answer since they got Principles of Accounting in semester 1). A comparing task might be to compare budgeting and accounting. A problem-solving task could be to think what might happen to a company that doesn’t have an accounting department. An experience sharing task could be sharing stories about their learning activity on Principles of Accounting class. My students do the tasks in pairs, then we discuss their works by some pairs presenting their answers and others comparing or commenting the work. By doing this, my students learn to communicate with whatever English they can recall; they have no fear of failure and teacher correction in front of classmates. In the language focus session, I explained specific features that they did in discussion, then I gave some practice to do at home (e.g. when I found they use comparatives, the exercise will be making three comparative sentences).

I find out that my students enjoy this strategy, because they also love challenging activities (indeed both STAN students and lecturers are assignment lovers…). I think this TBL is also a challenge for teacher too because the language focus part does need careful preparation. Teacher must be ready with whatever analysis activity to explain some problems. But, I have my own strategy: if I may not know the answers to incidental language questions, I just encourage them to explore the further answer on their own, and I will discuss it with them in the next meeting.

According to the literature that I read, the Lexical Approach develops many of the fundamental principles advanced by proponents of the Communicative Approach. The most important difference is the increased understanding of the nature of lexis in naturally occurring language, and its potential contribution to language pedagogy. Just like CLT, I think I do not have a clear idea of what the Lexical Approach actually looks like in practice.

As I see it, teaching vocabulary cannot be separated from grammar and topic of learning (e.g. accounting, taxation, families, pets, etc). I will tell an example of my teaching activity related to vocabulary building for my students at diploma III STAN Jakarta; I don’t know whether that uses Lexical Approach or not, but that activity gave my students new words in an organized and sequenced way.

Teaching vocabulary to me can be integrated with reading activity or communicative activity. I teach vocabulary material by taking the topic as listed in the syllabus . Since this was ESP class, I told my English 1 students before to learn by heart the list of special terms on the chapter at home. This because I do not want to always give everything to my students, sometimes they have to workout themselves. Then in the classroom, I gave an exercise (Fill in the blanks with the appropriate special terms listed in the right column. E.g. The profit that results from investments into a capital asset, such as stocks, bonds or real estate, which exceeds the purchase price is called…. The answer is capital gain). For me, it was a true vocabulary learning by students’ discovering themselves.

Communicative Language Learning

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I was quite interested in reading Chapter 8 of Richard’s and Roger’s book on CLL because the language used in the chapter is much easier to understand than in other chapters in the book. Community Language Learning principles are from the “Counseling Learning Approach” developed by Charles A Curran, and I see it was created especially for adult learners who might fear to appear foolish; so the teacher becomes a language counselor who understands and leads students to overcome their fear.

Dealing with the types of learning and activities in CLL, they are combination of conventional and innovative tasks: translation, group work, recording, transcription, analysis, reflection and observation, listening, and free conversation. As I see it, those activities are good to improve student’s oral proficiency, because as members of a community, students must be more active and attentive as the teacher is more focused as counselor. I think the techniques used in CLL can build relationship between students because they feel in control and interact among them without any fear. Especially noteworthy is the non-threatening atmosphere and the non-defensive learning, which can enhance security, involvement, attention, and cooperation.

If I am to use CLL, I think I will use it for diploma I students of STAN (State College of Accountancy) Jakarta from Eastern Indonesia classes, and I put it in the introductory speaking class. I just can adopt the lesson plan of CLL to my class. This will be different for my diploma IV classes, because all students have intermediate-advanced level mastery of English. I think I will put it on class presentation activities and I don’t allow students to use native language (Bahasa Indonesia) in this level (English for diploma IV focus on the ability to write academic paper and make presentation). Indeed, it is a tough task for me to teach at STAN, since my classes are ESP, which means I must not only rely on my proficiency but also have to improve my knowledge on Accounting to explain the technical terms. I am not quite sure that I can be such that counselor, who must be non-directive (teaching traditionally or correcting mistakes), but I can be a sympathetic teacher to cope with any responses by my adult learners.

Another thing is on the analysis and reflection techniques. The objective of English classes in my campus is more on the student’s fluency, so actually minor grammatical mistake is alright for me. I explain grammar only if my students make fatal or major mistakes in grammar. What I can do according to CLL is then I must repeat the correct sentence over and over again until students learn from the mistake.

In other words, I can say that CLL will work with my elementary classes; but to deal with more advanced students, I cannot use a hundred percent CLL technique. This method is constrained by the system under which it operates, and I don’t guarantee that using it will help my students in the examination (UTS and UAS). But, to conclude, I think CLL also has contribution to make lessons communicative and interactive.

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Teaching Speaking and Listening in My Context

Speaking activities are inseparable with learning foreign language, because they give chances to practice real-life speaking and to use the language knowledge as well as opportunities to produce language automatically without very much conscious thought (Harmer, 2004). In my classroom setting, speaking becomes a rule in the teaching and learning process, especially for Diploma IV students (STAN Jakarta). It’s like a habit between us to communicate in English in and outside the classroom. Therefore, whatever topic or plan stated in the syllabus, it is always speaking integrated with the class activity. Especially for me as the teacher, I always try to use a 100% of English in the language of instruction. I put myself as the model for my students in practicing speaking.

 

For my Diploma III and Diploma IV classes, I use different activities. Diploma III is of intermediate-level students, with the average age of 17, so they like something fun. Therefore, I use communicative games, simulation and role play, or buzz-group discussion. For Diploma IV, in which the students are on the advanced level and their average age is 24, the students prefer something more challenging. So the activities can be discussion on controversial topics or moral dilemmas, debate, and individual presentation.

 

As a facilitator of speaking, I try not to dominate the class activity, but I will intervene if the activity is not running smoothly. In making correction, too, I do it after the speaking activity is over (based on the notes I took during their activity). This usually leads to further discussion in the language lesson since usually more questions will arise from critical students.

 

I think teaching listening is also important for EFL students. Listening will expose students with what native speakers are saying, both in authentic or inauthentic source. It is good for students’ pronunciation, because they can listen to examples of appropriate pitch, intonation, stresses, and sounds.

 

For my classroom activities, I use intensive listening, i.e. listening to get the gist purpose and the gist-topic, the specific information, the pragmatics, and the summary information. The sources can be from such CDs as TOEFL (listening to academic lectures), Pusintek, Tell-Me More, Speak More, etc. It can also from DVDs like National Geography, movies, and so on. For students’ home assignment, I make them use the Internet for free listening sources and practices (I usually tell them to visit www.ets.org, www.npr.org, www.bbc-english.org, and so on), and they must report their activities. For me, that will encourage them to listen more and more.

In short, in teaching speaking or listening, teacher must design activities that are desirable for communicative activities and improving their language. Listening and speaking are actually getting students to actually do thing with language, so it is the “doing” that should form the main focus of each session. Lastly, make them independent learners by assigning them individual practice outside the classroom.

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