ESSAY: CHARACTERICTICS OF YOUNG LEARNERS

Many have agreed that English is such an important subject since it is used to communicate globally. It has been taught in every level of learners, even in primary level. People believe that teaching English in the early age has many advantages because young learners still have flexible minds and malleable tongues which help them learn English words easily. However, young learners are of course different with the adult ones in which the teacher should pay attention to their characteristics in order to make a better teaching and learning process.

Before we discuss about the characteristics, it is better to know the definition of young learners first. There are many definitions as stated by some experts. According to Purwaningsih, young learners are learners in elementary school aging nine to ten years old who are learning English as foreign language. While Etty Maryati Hoesein stated that young learners are the students of elementary school who are at grade four up to grade six. Their ages range from ten to twelve years of age. They have learned English for about one up to four years. From those definitions, we can conclude that young learners are children in the first six years of formal education, from the age six to twelve. It is because the lower limit of six roughly corresponds to the start of formal schooling in many countries, while the upper age of twelve approximates to a time when many children have begun to experience significant cognitive and emotional changes.

Children are very special in which they have their own characteristics that differ them from adult. They may lack on experience, but they have great reasoning ability. Whenever they find new things, they will make a reason based on their background knowledge they have. Because they are inexperience, sometimes it will lead them on misconceptions. That is why the teacher should be aware to anticipate childrens’ confusion and recognize why children have difficulties grasping new ideas.

Teacher should conduct teaching and learning activities based on young learners’ characteristics. These characterictics influence their ways of thinking, their aptitude, their attitude, etc. There are so many experts who give a list of yong learners’ characterictics, hence I will write some of them below.

According to Clark (1990: 6-8), here are five characteristics of young learners:

1.      Children are developing conceptually: they develop their way of thinking from concrete to the  abstract thing.

2.      Children have no real linguistics, different from the adult learners that already have certain purpose in learning language, they learn subject what school provide for them.

3.      Children are still developing; common skill such as turn talking and the use of body language.

4.      Young children very egocentric, they tend to resolve around themselves.

5.      Children get bored easily.

Meanwhile, Halliwel (1992: 3-5) stated that children are already very good in interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual word, children already have great skill in using limited language creativity, children frequently learn indirectly rather than directly, children take good pleasure in finding and creating fun in what they do, and children have a ready imagination.

Brumfit (1997: v) gives a list of the characteristics which young learners share:

1. Young learners are only just beginning their schooling, so that teachers have a    major opportunity to mould their expectations of life in school.
2.  As a group, they are potentially more differentiated than secondary or adult learners, for they are closer to their varied home cultures, and new to the conformity increasingly imposed across cultural grouping by the school.
3. They tend to be keen and enthusiastic learners,
4. Their learning can be closely linked with their development of ideas and concepts, because it is so close to their initial experiences of formal schooling.
5. They need physical movement and activity as much as stimulation for their thinking, and the closer together these can be the better.

Young learners’ characteristics are also divided into three sides:

1.    Physical side

·      The physical world of young children is dominant and the understanding comes through hands, eyes and ears.

·      They perform physical activity in many ways; coloring, drawing and writing.

·      They are at the developing stage (critical period) in which they are capable of attaining native like second language because their organ of speech is still plastic.

2.    Social side

·      They are happy playing ad working in the company of others.

·      They are always aware of themselves in relation to others.

3.    Psychological side

·      They have short concentration span.

·      They are free of prejudice.

·      They get bored easily.

·      They are forgetful.

·      They like imitating.

·      They have high curiosity.

·      They are risk taker.

In conclusion, teacher should learn the characteristic of young learners whom she teaches because it will determine the success of language learning. By considering the characteristics that have mentioned above, hopefully teacher is able to choose the best teaching strategies so that young learners can understand the material well.

REFERENCES

Brumfit (1997) Young Learners Characteristics (TEYL/TMYL). (online) (http://peni.staff.uns.ac.id/2008/10/10/young-learner-characteristics/ accessed on March 9 , 2014).

Clark, J (1990) Teaching children: is it different? JET October 1990.

Halliwell, Susan (1992) Teaching English in the Primary Classroom. London: Longman.

Lecturing by Mrs. Dra.  Diani Nurhayati M.Pd. on March 10, 2014.

Prasetia, Cicik (2011) Teaching English for Young Learners. (online) (http://cicikprasetia.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/teaching-english-for-young-learners/ accessed on March 9, 2014)