Media in Teaching English to Young Learners

ABSTRAK Abstract: This study was aimed at helping English teachers to implement interesting, useful and suitable media in teaching English to young learners especially in kindergarten. This study discussed two interesting, useful and suitable media used by the English teachers in teaching English to young learners. The two media were songs and flashcards. The research design of this study was a library research. Therefore, the researcher chose and analyzed any kinds of information about the interesting, useful and suitable instructional media in teaching English for children. The information was taken from books and articles. The books and articles were about songs and flash cards to teach English to young learners. The research findings showed that the two media were interesting, useful and suitable to be implemented in teaching English to young learners especially for kindergarten students. The songs were good at enriching the children’s vocabulary. The flashcards were the great way to present, practice and recycle vocabulary. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that this research could give beneficial contributions to the English teachers and other researchers. For the English teachers, the result of the study could give them useful information about songs and flash cards which could be implemented in teaching English to young learners. Besides, for the future researchers, the result of this study would be beneficial for background knowledge of future research that they would conduct. Keywords: media, English for young learners, young learners. English language was very important because it would ease people to update new information around the world globally. Millions of children, especially in Asia, has been learning English. It has made English teachers work hard to teach them. This was because teaching English to children (young learners) was not easy. The teachers should search for and use interesting, effective, and suitable media to teach English in the class. The use of interesting, effective, and suitable media was to attract the children’s attention in learning English. Suyanto (2008: 22) stated that young learners liked the materials that were visualized. It was more interesting and joyful. Using songs and flash card were the examples of interesting, effective, and suitable media to make the children happy in learning English. According to Medina (2003) as cited in Heriyawati (2010: 154), songs could share all the same aspects of oral story. Songs also could ease the children to remember words, patterns, and chunks of language (Paul, 2003: 58). While flash cards were important teaching resource that could be used to introduce and practice specific language targets (Paul, 2003: 109). METHOD The research design used in this study was a library research. This was in line with George (2008: 23) who stated that library research included classifying and finding sources that delivered factual information or personal or expert opinion on a research question. The technique was collecting any kinds of information from books and articles. The researcher chose and analyzed the information about the two interesting, effective, and suitable media for children in learning English. Indeed, the purpose of the study was to make appropriate notes about the use of songs and flash cards in teaching English to young learners. FINDINGS The findings of the study presented the data obtained from the library research and the interview with two English teachers for young learners. Based on the library research, the researcher found that songs are quite interesting, effective and suitable media in teaching English to young learners especially for kindergarten students. This was in line with Heriyawati (2010: 153) who stated that children liked singing interesting songs because songs were good for enriching the vocabulary. Music, songs and chants also could add to the pleasure of learning a language and make it easier to remember. Besides, the researcher also found that flash cards were interesting, effective, and suitable media that could be used to teach English for young learners. According to Budden (2004), the flash card could be good and colorful to make a real effect on visual learners. It could be also useful at every stage of the class. They were a great way to present, practice and recycle vocabulary. Therefore, the student’s became familiar with the activities using flash cards in the class. Meanwhile, the interview was addressed to two English teachers who were from two different institutions: English First (EF) at Malang and TK Al Istiqomah at Sawojajar, Malang. During the interview, the teachers were asked two main questions: (1) have you used songs and flash cards in teaching English to your students? And (2) are songs and flash cards interesting, effective, and suitable media in teaching English to your students? Based on the two questions, the researcher found that both of the teachers gave positive answers about the use of songs and flash cards in teaching English for young learners. DISCUSSIONS Based on the result of the interview, the researcher could conclude that songs were quite interesting, effective, and suitable to help young learners (especially for kindergarten students) in learning English. But, the English teachers should select the simple songs in terms of tones, lyrics, and rhythm in order to make the children interested in learning English. This was in line with Heriyawati (2010: 159). She stated that there were lots of advantages to introduce English to children through songs. The children would easily remember the words in the lyrics. While flash cards, the researcher could conclude that this medium was very interesting, effective, and suitable to help young learners (especially for kindergarten students) in learning English. The English teachers could make the children enthusiastic in learning English. The children also could understand the materials easily. This was in line with Budden (2004) who stated that this medium could help the children to present, practice and reprocess vocabulary. Referring to the previous explanations, it could be seen that songs and flash cards were interesting, effective, and suitable media to help the children in learning English easily. However, flash cards were more interesting, effective, and suitable media than songs to be implemented in teaching English to children. This was because the songs had more complicated characteristics than the flash cards. The songs’ complicated characteristics were tones, lyrics, and rhythm that should be selected well in order to make the children understand the songs and interested in learning English. CONCLUSIONS Referring to the background of the study, the purpose of this study was to explain about the use of interesting, effective, and suitable media in teaching English to young learners (kindergarten students). The media that were discussed in this study were about songs and flash cards. By using songs, the children easily remembered the words in the lyrics. By using flash cards, the children could memorize the new words easily. Based on the previous explanations, it could be concluded that those two media were interesting, effective, and suitable to be implemented in teaching English especially for young learners (kindergarten students). But, flash cards were more interesting, effective, and suitable than songs because of some complicated characteristics (tones, lyrics, and rhythm) belonged to songs. SUGGESTIONS Based on the conclusion that had been explained in previous sections, there were some suggestions addressed to the English teachers and other researchers. For the English teachers, the result of the study could give them useful information about some media which could be implemented in teaching English to young learners. Besides, for the future researchers, the result of this study would be beneficial for background knowledge of future research that they would conduct. REFERENCES Budden, J. 2004. Teaching English: Using Flashcards with Young Learners, (Online), (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk), retrieved on 21 January 2015. Cahyono, B. Y. (Ed.). 2010. The Teaching of English Language Skills and English Language Components. Malang: State University of Malang Press. George, M. W. 2008. The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Paul, D. 2003. Teaching English to Children in Asia. Hong Kong: Pearson Education Asia. Suyanto, K.K.E. 2007. English for Young Learners. Jakarta: Bumi Aksara