CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK. It can be said generally that primary school students are children.

Transcription

1 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK A. Literature Review 1. English for Primary School Students a. Who Primary School Students are It can be said generally that primary school students are children. However, in the scope of English learning and teaching, Linse (2005), Pinter (2006) and Harmer (2008) use the term young learners. According to Linse (2005), young learners are defined as children between the ages In addition, Harmer (2008) states that young learners especially those up to the ages of 9-10, learn differently from older children, adolescents, and adults. Based on that, it can be concluded that primary school students especially in Grade V in Indonesia are young learners. In this study, the researcher uses students, children, and young learners together based on the context. Different from adults, young learners are in the process of development in every part. Brazelton and Greenspan (in Linse, 2005) state that developmental parts in children are social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and moral. Linse (2005) argues that one of the indicators of cognitive development is language development. In the children language development, Krashen (in Linse, 2005) differentiates the process of language acquisition for the process of language learning. Language acquisition is the natural process used to develop language 11

2 12 skills in a child s native language. Language learning, then, is often used to describe the more formal approach to language instruction. Furthermore, Pinter (2006) states Piagetian stages of development which concerns on children ages and their developments. Those stages are sensory-motor stage (from birth to two years of age), pre-operational stage (from two to seven years of age), concrete operational stage (from seven to eleven years of age), and formal operational stage (from eleven years onwards). As a result, it is useful for children observers to know those stages if they want to do something related to children. Children are active learners. Piaget (in Pinter, 2006) refers to active learning as constructivism. According to him, children construct knowledge for themselves by actively making sense of their environment. In the process of constructivism, at first the children assimilate the information to fit his own interpretation and at a later stage he adopt or change his way of thinking based on new information he got. In the children development, Vygotsky (in Pinter, 2006) points out that social constructivism also has an important role to play in children learning and development. The most famous Vygotskian concept is Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). ZPD is described as the difference between the current knowledge of the child and the potential knowledge achievable with the help of more knowledgeable peer or adult. He points out that children are unique that individual children have capability to achieve something with the help or support of more knowledgeable partner. Wood, Bruner, and Ross (in Linse, 2005) have

3 13 used the term scaffolding to describe the type of support than can be given through interaction within a child s ZPD. Berk & Winsler (in Linse, 2005) adds that the type of scaffolding that is effective is not the same for all cultures and is only effective when it takes into account the child s culture. As a result, one important thing is that peer or adult partner s help is thought as a significant way to improve children s capabilities. Based on that development, in the context of English learning and teaching at primary schools, Halliwell (1993) states the general characteristics of students in primary schools. Those general characteristics are: (1) they are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words, (2) they already have great skill in using limited language creatively, (3) they frequently learn indirectly rather than directly, (4) they take great pleasure in finding and creating fun in what they do, (5) they have a ready imagination, and (6) they have the instinct for interaction and talk. In addition, Scott & Ytreberg (2004) mention detailed children characteristics in primary schools. They are: (1) they are competent users of mother tongue, (2) their basic concepts are formed, (3) they can tell difference between fact and action, (4) they ask question all the time, (5) they rely on the spoken word as well as the physical word to convey and understand meaning, (6) they are able to make some decisions about their own learning, (7) they have definite views about what they like and do not like to do, (8) they have a developed sense of fairness about what happens in the classroom and begin to

4 14 question the teacher s decision, and (9) they are able to work with others and learn from others. From the description above, it is clear that children are different from adults. Brewster & Ellis (2004) points out and mention that children are different from adults because they: (1) have a lot of physical energy and often need to be physically active, (2) have a wide range of emotional needs, (3) are emotionally excitable, (4) are developing conceptually and are at an early stage of their schooling, (5) are still developing literacy in their first language, (6) learn more slowly and forget things quickly, (7) tend to be self-oriented and preoccupied with their own world, (8) get bored easily, (9) are excellent mimics, (10) can concentrate for a surprisingly log time if they are interested, and (11) can be easily distracted but also very enthusiastic. Harmer (2008) agrees with what Brewster & Ellis point out and says that children are different from adults because: (1) children respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual words, (2) children often learn indirectly rather than directly, (3) children s understanding comes not just from explanation, but also from what they see and hear and have a chance to touch and interact with, (4) children generally display an enthusiasm for learning and a curiosity about the world around them, (5) children have a need for individual attention and respond well to learning, (6) children are keen to talk about themselves and respond well to learning, and (7) children have limited attention span; unless activities are extremely engaging, they can easily get bored, losing interest after ten minutes or so.

5 15 The differences between children and adults in learning language are explained by Pinter (2006). She says that adult learners can rely on a number of resources when they learn a new language. They can analyze language in a abstract way. They also can compare their mother language and other languages. Also, they have a good understanding of the rule of communication. However, children cannot make use of these advantages yet, or at least there are significant differences between various age groups in the extent to which they can do so. They will just pick up and learn the foreign language if they are having fun and if they can work out messages from meaningful contexts. However, children develop in different rates as Linse (2005) points out that children require and deserve professionals who interact with them in appropriate ways based on the child s development. Finally, in English learning and teaching, teachers have to provide appropriate learning experiences for their young learners by being aware of what children can and cannot do developmentally and understanding their specific characteristics as well. From the description above, it is clear that primary school students are regarded to young learners. They have their own characteristics and different from adults. However, it is not an impossible to teach them something that conversely adults can support them to learn everything included language in their ZDP. b. The Importance of Learning Language (English) in Early Years From young learners developments and characteristics described before, it will be explained why learning language (English) in early years is important.

6 16 Nowadays, early language learning has become popular. Pinter (2006) points out that one reason why early language learning has become so popular is that many psycholinguistics have explained the advantages by proposing a so called sensitive period in childhood for language learning. This idea comes from Lenneberg (in Pinter, 2006) who proposed Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH). Lenneberg argues that brain plasticity was only conducive to language learning until puberty. Therefore, children who start younger than years of age, given advantageous learning circumstances, such as plenty of input and interaction in an English environment, are more likely to acquire English to native levels without an accent. Scovel (in Brewster & Ellis, 2004) supports Lenneberg s idea and points out that language is best learned during the early years of childhood. In addition, an official reference bulletin for educators published by the French Ministry of Education, Bulletin Officiel de I Education Nationale, (in Brewster & Ellis 2004) argues that the aim of early foreign language learning was not the creation of bilingual children but more reasonably to prepare children linguistically, psychologically, and culturally for language learning. Therefore, learning language in early years is important for children. They can comprehend their native language and other languages in the early years, and they even can acquire English to native levels without an accent before years of age because of their brain plasticity.

7 17 c. English Learning and Teaching at Primary Schools Pinter (2006) mentions three contextual factors in language teaching especially at primary schools. They are language settings, educational frameworks, and status of English and attitude to English. She also points out the aims and objectives of primary English programmes. They include: (1) developing children s basic communication abilities in English, (2) encouraging enjoyment and motivation, (3) promoting learning about other cultures, (4) developing children s cognitive skills, (5) developing children s metalinguistic awareness, and (6) encouraging learning to learn. Pinter (2006) adds that most countries tend to emphasize one or both of the first two aims above. The first involves teaching children to talk about themselves and their immediate environments, to understand and respond to basic English instructions, and to communicate about topics of interest with partner. The second one is related to the need to make English an attractive school subject to children so as to foster their motivation and encourage them to want to learn languages in the future. The Ministry of Education in Indonesia, thus, puts English as the local content subject with maximum 35 minutes X 2 per week. In Indonesia, the aim of English learning and teaching is to comprehend four literacy comprehension which are performance comprehension, functional comprehension, informational comprehension, and epistemic comprehension (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, 2008).

8 18 Regarding to implementation of English learning and teaching in the language classroom, Departemen Pendidikan Nasional designed the standard of competence and basic competence for every grade in primary school. For instance, the standard competence and basic competence for Grade V in second semester for listening skills were designed as following: Standard of competence : 5. Memahami instruksi sangat sederhana dengan tindakan dalam konteks sekolah (Comprehend very simple instructions related to the school contexts by doing actions) Basic Competence : 5.1 Merespon instruksi sangat sederhana dengan tindakan secara berterima dalam konteks sekolah (Respond to the simple instructions related to the class and school contexts by doing actions), dan (and) 5.1 Merespon instruksi sangat sederhana secara verbal (Respond to the simple instructions orally) (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, 2008) To apply those competences, the English teacher plays an important role. The main point is that teaching English to primary school students is different from teaching English to adults. Pinter (2006) suggests that the government needs to invest in recruiting and training teachers. The primary class teacher who delivers the rest of the curriculum and has good knowledge of how to be a good teacher as well as the language is in the best position to succeed. However, a researcher Yuko Goto Butler (in Pinter, 2006) argues that many teachers may lack confidence in their own proficiency but with constant practice and good supplementary materials (such as tapes), they can both manage and improve. In order to teach English for the primary school students who are regarded as the beginners, Nation & Newton (2009) state five principles for teaching beginners; meaning, interest, new language, understanding, and stress-free. Firstly,

9 19 the teacher should focus on meaningful and relevant language. Second, he must maintain interest through a variety of activities. Then, he has to avoid overloading learners with too much new language. He must provide plenty comprehensible input also. Finally, he should create a friendly, safe, cooperative classroom environment. In addition, of course if the teachers want to focus on learningcentred teaching, it is vital that they are well-informed about the learner s physical, emotional, conceptual, educational, and linguistic characteristics (Brewster & Ellis, 2004). Supporting what is mentioned above, Linse (2005) says that as a teacher, it is important that the students are presented with language that they can understand. Dealing with that, Krashen (in Linse, 2005) states a comprehensible input which is an input that is a little bit above the learner s language but understandable. Although the language is above the learner s level, it is nevertheless meaningful and understandable because of the context and other support provided with the input. In conclusion, English learning and teaching at primary schools is a way to let the children acquire English in the early years that tends to be successful for them. In Indonesia, it is regarded as the local subject but the teacher should teach them properly. Because listening has its characteristics, the important thing is that the English class at primary schools should be fun and meaningful. Here, the English teacher brings an important role.

10 20 2. Teaching Listening a. The Nature of Listening It is important to describe what listening is according to experts. Helgesen (in Helgesen & Brown, 2007) defines listening as an active purposeful processing of making sense of what we hear. Similarly, Rost (2002) states that listening is the mental process of constructing meaning from spoken input. From the definitions above, it can be said that listening is different from hearing. Schultz (2003) argues that listening is more than hearing. Linse (2005) agrees what is stated by Schultz and says that hearing refers to the actual perception and processing of sound. In order to be able to listen, it is important to be able to hear. Listening, thus, is a spoken language, an active process after people hear something. Listening, and also speaking, thus, are receptive skills and productive skills for the rest (Linse, 2005). It is called receptive skills because the focus is on receiving information from an outside source. However, it does not mean that listening is passive. Learners, though, can and should be actively engaged in listening tasks and activities. Furthermore, Harmer (2008) mentions that listening is special because spoken language, especially when it is informal, has a number of unique features including the use of incomplete utterances (e.g. Dinner? serving as a perfectly functional way of asking Is dinner ready? ), repetitions (e.g. I m absolutely sure, absolutely sure you know that she s right ), hesitations ( Yes, well, ummm, yes, possibly, but, er... ) etc. Experience of informal spoken English together with an

11 21 appreciation of other spoken factors the tone of the voice, the intonation the speakers use, rhythm, and background noise will help students to tease meaning out of such speech phenomena. Those uniqueness and specialty, thus, lead difficulties for learners to learn. Brown (2001) states that clustering, redundancy, reduced form, performance variables, colloquial language, rate of delivery, prosodic features (stress, rhythm and intonation), and interaction are factors which make listening difficult, that learners need to pay special attention to. Pinter (2006) argues also that listening has the aspects of difficulty that it is important for the learners especially in the early stages to avoid these sources. She points out that those difficulties which happen to early stages learners are the type and the length of the text the learners listen to and the familiarity of the person who they are listening to. To comprehend listening uniqueness and avoid the difficulties, in English learning and teaching scope, it is known a term listening comprehension. Richards and Schmidt (in Helgesen and Brown, 2007) say that listening comprehension is the process of understanding speech in first or second language. The study of listening comprehension in second language learning focuses on the role of individual linguistic units (e.g. phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as the role of the listener s expectations, the situations and context, background knowledge and topic. Besides, we also know what is called listening skills in this scope. Listening skills are, thus, defined as the skills needed to comprehend meanings when the listener listens to something.

12 22 Dealing with that, Xu (2008) states that many research have been done about the skills of listening comprehension in order to make the effective listening activity. Richards analysis has been extremely persuasive in aiding language teachers to differentiate and prioritize the components of different types of listening. McDonough & Shaw (in Xu, 2008) claim that listening skills should be discussed under two related headings: 1) Processing sounds: To segment the stream of sounds and recognize word boundaries; To recognize sentence and clause boundaries in speech; To recognize significance of language-related features, most obviously intonation; To recognize changes in pitch, tone and speed of delivery. 2) Processing meaning: To organize the incoming speech into meaningful sections; To identify redundant material; To use language data to anticipate what speakers are going to say; To store information in memory and know how to retrieve it later, by organizing meaning as efficiently as possible and avoiding too much attention to immediate detail. In processing listening, Brown (2001) mentions two types of processing processes. They are bottom-up processing and the top-down processing. Pinter (2006) argues that those types are two basic sub-skills that competent and mature listeners use all the time. Therefore, it can be said that bottom-up and top-down

13 23 are both processing models and sub-skills in listening. As the processing models, Brown (2001) says that bottom-up processing proceeds from sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings and to a final message. Brown (1996) adds that bottom-up processing occurs when the main source of information is the text itself and the listener cannot draw on preparation and previous experience to assist in comprehension. Beside that, top-down processing is evoked from a bank of prior knowledge and global expectations (Morley, in Brown, 2001). Brown (1996) adds that top-down processing is encouraged by getting learners to listen when the topic is very familiar to them, when the organisation and other genre conventions are familiar to them, when their attention is strongly focused on the message, and when there is not a concern for linguistic detail. Brown (1996) says that top-down and bottom-up processing tasks usually have different learning goals and set up conditions for different kinds of learning. Furthermore, it might happen when top-down is combined bottom-up processing. Xu (2008) calls it interactive processing. The interactive processing (the third type) overcomes the disadvantages of bottom-up processing and top-down processing to augment the comprehension. In the early 1980s, it was the tendency that only top-down processing was acknowledged to improve L2 (second language) listening comprehension. However it is now more generally accepted that both top-down and bottom-up listening processing should be combined to enhance listening comprehension.

14 24 Still about listening skills, Richards (in Brown, 2001) provides a comprehensive taxonomy of oral skills involved in conversional discourse. These skills are called micro skills that help the teacher to decide what kind of technique needs to cover in the domain of listening comprehension. In the evaluation of listening, these micro skills can also become testing criteria. These micro skills are: 1. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory. 2. Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English. 3. Recognize English stress patterns, words in stressed an unstressed positions, rhythmic structure, intonational contours, and their role in signaling information. 4. Recognize reduced forms of work. 5. Distinguish word boundaries, recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance. 6. Process speech at different rates of delivery. 7. Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance variables. 8. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g. tense, agreement, prulalisation), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms. 9. Detect sentence constituents and distinguish between major and minor constituents. 10. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms. 11. Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse. 12. Recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations, participants, goals. 13. Infer situations, participants, goals using real-world knowledge. 14. From events, ideas, and described, predict outcomes, infer links and connections between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification. 15. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings. 16. Use facial, kinesic, body language, and other nonverbal clues to decipher meanings. 17. Develop and use a battery of listening strategies, such as detecting key words, guessing the meaning of words from context, appeal for help, and signaling comprehension or lack thereof. (Richards in Brown, 2001)

15 25 In short, listening is one for language four skills that has to be comprehended in the early years. It has its own characteristics and difficulties, but there are many techniques that can be applied to children. The English teacher, thus, has to understand its characteristics and difficulties, and then design the most appropriate technique to be applied to students. Meeting the best technique in improving the listening skills to the students is the main point. b. Teaching Listening to Primary School Students 1) Background of Teaching Listening to Primary School Students It has been explained before about the importance of learning a language in the early stages. When primary school students as young learners tend to acquire or learn language, they must comprehend the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, from those four skills, listening is the foundation, the skill that has to be learned in the beginning. Paul (2003) says that it is useful to consider the listening skills as the first language skill that is taught to children when learning English. Linse (2005) agues the reason why listening should be taught first. By listening, the young learners are preparing to replicate the sounds when they speak. Nation & Newton (2009) adds that listening is the natural precursor to speaking; the early stages of language development in a person s first language (and in naturalistic acquisition of other languages) are dependent in listening. In addition, Pinter (2006) says that English should start with an emphasis on listening and then speaking. The reason is, children often cannot read and write at all yet, or not with much confidence. Also, Linse (2005) mentions that by

16 26 developing good listening skills, children are able to match the sounds with the corresponding symbols when they decode words. Moreover, children who are not able to listen and follow simple instructions are not ready to learn academic content yet. Rost (in Xu, 2008) supports Pinter and Linse idea and points out that of the four language skills listening is the most critical for language learning at the beginning stages. Large amounts of listening practice before speaking or reading may prepare the learner to acquire a second language with a greater efficiency than if he or she was taught all the skills simultaneously (Postovsky, Winitz & Reeds, Winitz, and Gary in Xu, 2008). Furthermore, Xu (2008) says that listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life. Researchers i.e. Rivers & Morley (in Xu, 2008) propose that we listen twice as much as we speak, four times as much as we read, and five times as much as we write. Therefore, listening is a highly integrative skill and research has demonstrated its crucial role in language acquisition. Listening is assuming greater and greater importance in foreign language classrooms. From those reasons, Nunan (in Nation & Newton, 2009) says that it has been claimed that over 50 percent of the time that students spend functioning in a foreign language will be devoted to listening. Moreover, Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE)/Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in Grugeon, 2005) puts the development and use of communication and language at the heart of young

17 27 children s learning. The National Literacy Strategy: Framework for Teaching (DfEE in Grugeon, 2005) puts speaking and listening at the centre of its definition of literacy: Literacy unites the important skills of reading and writing. It also involves speaking and listening which although they are not separately identified in the framework, are an essential part of it. Good oral work enhances pupils understanding of language in both oral and written forms and of the way language can be used to communicate. It is clear that listening comprehension for the language learners is important. As a result, the development of early teaching listening firstly and speaking after that has been increasing by years. For instance, Beverton (in English & Williamson, 2005) says that common in the 1970s and into the 1980s, was that children arrived in their schools without many of the speaking and listening skills that they need. This is called a deficit model: it implies that the role of the teacher and school is to supply what s missing, to implant and then nurture what s lacking. However, over the last two decades researchers have established that very young children can possess many oral skills long before they arrive. That is the evidence that early listening teaching tends to be successful for developing children s oral skills. The reason is that, children, and human being in general, have learning channels (Linse, 2005). The three main learning channels are auditory, tactile, and visual. Auditory learners are better able to learn material when it is presented in an auditory format such as listening to someone read a story aloud. Visual learners often recall visual images or pictures easily. Tactile learners are better able to remember information, language, and content when they

18 28 have physically manipulated or touched the information. In order to make the language comprehensible to all learners, the teacher should try to present information using all three learning channels. Furthermore, according to Nation & Newton (2009), the aims of a beginners course in listening and speaking are: (1) to help the learners to be able to cope with meaning-focused input and meaning-focused output as soon as possible; (2) to motivate them in their language study by getting them to engage in successful listening and speaking; and (3) to make the early learning as relevant as possible to their language use needs. From the definitions, reasons, and aims of teaching listening, Helgesen & Brown (2007) mention some principles for teaching listening to beginning learners. They are as follows: a) Be aware of the goal of the task. If tasks require a clear outcome, then it follows that learners need to be aware of what the goal is before they begin the activity. b) Use a variety of tasks. Learners need to become comfortable with a variety of tasks. This is because learners listen to different things in different ways. c) Be aware of the difference between spoken and written language. One of the biggest differences between spoken and written language is that in informal conversation people usually do not speak in sentences. They speak in short phrases called idea units. Since spoken language is very different from written language, it is important for a teacher to

19 29 give the students experience in listening to spoken language than recordings of written texts. d) Build on success. To help the students become successful listeners, the teacher needs to give them successful experiences. Dornyei (2001) in Helgesen and Brown (2007: 36) suggests three ways to do just that: (1) Provide multiple opportunities for success in the language class. (2) Adjust the difficulty level of the tasks to match the students abilities and counterbalance demanding tasks with manageable ones. (3) Design tests that focus on what learners can do rather than what they cannot do, and also include improvement options. From the description above, teaching listening to primary school students is important because in learning a language listening should be taught at the first. Since they have brain plasticity, they can acquits and comprehend language well by learning listening at the first. Therefore, early listening teaching tends to be successful for developing children s oral skills. After that, they can improve other skills easily. 2) Techniques in Teaching Listening for Primary School Students Brown (1996) devides the process of teaching listening comprehension into two sections. The first offers analysis of some of the problems which foreign learners (and sometimes native speakers, too) experience in understanding speech.

20 30 The section will consider some of the methods available in helping our students feel more comfortable in listening. Based on what is said by Brown, after considering the methods, the next step is deciding the most appropriate techniques to solve the problems. It has been described before that there are many difficulties in listening specially for young learners. Those difficulties and local problems occur in English learning and teaching settings are the factors to desing the best techniques. In order to that, Brown (2001) states principles for designing listening techniques in general. They are: (1) in an interactive, four skill curriculum, make sure that you don t over-look the importance of techniques that specifically develop listening comprehension competence, (2) use techniques that are intrinsically motivating, (3) utilize authentic language and contexts, (4) carefully consider the form of listeners responses, (5) encourage the development of listening strategies, and (6) Include both bottom-up and top-down listening techniques. For beginning-level listeners included young learners, Peterson (in Brown, 2001) determines techniques for teaching comprehension based on bottom-up, top-down, and interactive exercises described in the table below: Table 1. Techniques for Teaching Comprehension for Beginning-Level Listeners For Beginning-Level Listeners Bottom-Up Exercises 1) Goal: Discriminating between intonation contours in sentences Listen to a sequence of sentence patters with either rising or falling intonation. Place a check in column 1 (rising) or column 2 (falling), depending on the pattern you hear. 2) Goal: Discriminating between phonemes Listen to pairs of words. Some pairs differ in their final consonant, and some (continued)

21 31 (continued) For Beginning-Level Listeners pairs are the same. Circle the word same or different, depending on what you hear. 3) Goal: Selective listening for morphological endings Listen to a series of sentences. Circle yes if the verb has an ed ending, and circle no if it does not. Listen to a series sentences. On your answer sheet, circle the one (of three) verb forms contained in the sentence that you hear. 4) Goal: Selecting details from in the text (word recognition) Match a word that you hear with its picture. 5) Goal: Listening for normal sentence word order Listen to a short dialogue and fill in the missing words that have been deleted in a partial transcript. Top-Down Exercises 6) Goal: Discriminating between emotional reactions Listen to a sequence of utterances. Please a check in the column that describes the emotional reaction that you hear: interested, happy, surprised, or unhappy. 7) Goal: Dotting the gist of a sentence Listen to a sentence describing a picture and select the correct picture. 8) Goal: Recognize the topic Listen to a dialogue and decide where the conversation occurred. Listen to a conversation and look at the pictured greeting card. Listen to a conversation and decide what the people are talking about. Interactive Exercises 9) Goal: Build a semantic network of word association Listen to a word and associate all the related words that come to mind. 10) Goal: Recognize a familiar word and relate it to a category. Listen to words from a shopping list and match each word to the store sells it. 11) Goal: Following directions Listen to a description of a route and trace it on a map. The techniques above are addressed for beginning-level listeners in any ages. As it is explained before that teaching children is different from teaching adults, there are special techniques for teaching comprehension for children. Paul (2003) proposes some techniques to teach listening such as dictation, stories, comprehension and communication, and TPR (Total Physical Response). From

22 32 those techniques, TPR is regarded as an efficient technique for young learners because they, who are very active, can physically respond to oral commands which are given. According to Pinter (2006) Total Physical Response (TPR), an approach to language learning originally developed in the 1960s in America, links learning to physical actions and ensures that learners will hear a lot of natural English in meaningful contexts without having to response verbally. As children listen, they are engaged in working out what is going on and for some of time they may choose to remain silent and just absorb the language. The important principle is that children have the opportunity to absorb the language before they have to say anything. Such responses to listening are associated with TPR. TPR was developed by Asher (Linse, 2005) who studied the way very young children acquire language. At first, Asher wondered why very young children were so good at developing language skills when students in college and university classes had so much difficulty. Asher (2000) elaborates the principles of those techniques which are: a) Second or foreign language learning should be parallel to the first language learning and reflect the same naturalistic process. b) Children learn best by doing things. c) Listening should be developed before speaking. d) Once listening comprehension has been developed, speech develops naturally and effortlessly out of it. e) Delaying speech reduces stress.

23 33 Moreover, Asher (in Linse, 2005) adds that TPR has several positive aspects. First, it utilizes the auditory, visual, and tactile learning channel. Second, it helps to teach children to follow directions and listen attentively two important skills for academic success. Third, in keeping with developmentally appropriate notions or thoughts, children are allowed to listen and then choose when they feel comfortable to start speaking. Fourth, this method can easily be adapted in many different ways for young learners. In addition, TPR can also be used with songs, finger-plays, and even storytelling. As a result, the young learners can and should be actively engaged in listening tasks and activities through TPR as Brown (2001) argues that types of classroom listening performance are reactive, intensive, responsive, selective, extensive, and interactive. In short, there are principles, an approach, and techniques that can be applied to improve young learners listening skills. The teacher can choose the appropriate technique in teaching listening. Moreover, TPR is recommended in young learners class because it has several positive aspects that can support the young learners learn everything easily. 3) Listening Activities for Primary School Students In conducting the listening class, Brewster & Ellis (2004) divide listening into three stages: what pupils do in preparation for listening (pre-listening activities); while they listen so they remain active (while-listening activities), and after they have listened (post-listening activities). For the English teacher who teaches listening skills, those stages should be concerned.

24 34 Linse (2005) mentions some activities to be applied in a listening class. Those activities are yes/no cards, TPR drawing, syllable clapping, rhyming word activities, and minimal pairs. When using yes/no cards, the teacher asks questions and students respond by showing the cards. TPR drawing is done by asking students to draw something based on the teacher s instruction. Syllable clapping is clap the words in syllables. It is useful for giving children a good phonological awareness. Rhyming word activities, then, are especially useful in the forms of finger plays and song. To make children be aware of similarities and differences in words, the teacher can conduct minimal pairs. By applying them to listening classroom, the teacher can also measure children s listening capacity. Furthermore, Brewster & Ellis (2004) explain kind of listening tasks as follows: Table 2. The Listening Activities Type of Activities Purposes Materials 1. Listen and repeat 2. Listen and discriminate 3. Listen and perform action/follow instruction - listening for details to improve memory and concentration - listening with enjoyment to improve listening attitude - listening to physically settle or calm pupils - listening for detail to discriminate between sounds and rhythmic pattern - providing ear-training to improve pronunciation - listening to physically settle or calm pupils - listening to encourage mental activity and problem-solving - listening for enjoyment - listening to improve memory and concentration span - listening to the use of prepositional phrases, e.g. on short, spoken messages such as instructions, or statements containing no more than ten words sets of three or four words which contain a matching pair, songs and rhymes, rhyming stories action songs and rhymes, plans or maps, instructions for games, e.g. origami (paperfolding) (continued)

25 35 (continued) Type of Activities Purposes Materials the left-right; or discourse - markers, e.g. first, then, next; and action verbs, e.g. put, fold, turn - listening to stir pupils, make them more lively, relieve boredom, etc 4. Listen and draw/color 5. Listen and predict 6. Listen and guess 7. Listen and label - listening to develop concentration on specific items, e.g. specific verbs/actions - listening to consolidate understanding of concept and new vocabulary, e.g. round, square, large, small, blue, yellow - listening to physically settle or calm pupils - listening to increase motivation and concentration - listening to activate schemata or previous knowledge - listening to encourage mental activity and problem-solving - listening for detail to pick out key vocabulary used to describe, e.g. parts of an animal s body - listening to encourage mental activity and problem-solving - listening to develop reading and writing skills or to develop concepts - listening to physically settle or calm pupils - listening to encourage mental activity and problem-solving short, spoken descriptions which can be accomplished by drawing which pupils finish or color in question and answer sessions based on, e.g. general knowledge, pictures or the cover of a book or story, predict content or key words from a picture, draw a word or mind maps about a topic, complete a quiz to draw attention to what pupils already know short, spoken descriptions which can be accompanied by a selection of items for pupils to eliminate written labels provided for pupils or written words on the blackboard for pupils to copy (continued)

26 36 (continued) Type of Activities Purposes Materials 8. Listen and match 9. Listen and sequence 10. Listen and classify 11. Listen and transfer information - listening to consolidate new vocabulary and structures activity and problem-solving - listening to physically settle or calm pupils - listening to improve memory and concentration span - listening to consolidate new vocabulary and structures - listening to physically settle or calm pupils - listening to encourage mental activity and problem-solving - listening to improve concentration span and to consolidate new vocabulary and structures - listening to physically settle or calm pupils - listening to encourage mental activity and problem-solving - listening to improve interactional skills - listening to encourage mental activity and problem-solving - listening to develop key study skills, i.e. using and interpreting charts, simple date handling bingo cards, worksheets on which children draw a line to connect a picture with the correct words or written labels or speech bubbles to match with pictures pictures or written statements, worksheets with boxes in which children number the order of details listened to Pictures, worksheets using written words on the blackboard which pupils copy into the appropriate column of a chart while listening, key visuals, e.g. tickchart, Venn diagram, matrix or grid worksheets to carry out surveys and questionnaires with columns for pupils to complete When the teacher designs listening materials for primary school students, it is important to consider the meaningfulness aspect of the input to the learners. Xu (2008) proposes some suggestions for designing listening materials which are: (1) resent students with different kinds of input, such as lectures, radio news, films, TV plays, announcements, everyday conversations, interviews, story-telling,

27 37 English songs, and so on, (2) attempt to discover visual aids or draw pictures and diagrams related to the listening topics to aid students to guess or imagine actively, and (3) grade listening materials according to the students level, and offer authentic materials rather than idealized filtered samples. In addition, at the lowest proficiency levels, listening materials that offer very familiar and/or predictable content and that are connected with student s interests will be best, if students will be able to take advantage of their knowledge of the world to assist them in comprehension when their linguistic skills are deficient. The materials should progress step by step from semi-authenticity that shows most of the linguistic features of natural speech to total authenticity (Xu, 2008). In conclusion, there are several listening activities for primary school students. The teacher can determine the best activity for his class after understanding his students characteristics. The type of materials and activities depend on the purposes of the lessons. Fortunately, there are several activities which are compatible to TPR technique. 4) Listening Assessments for Primary School Students Assessment is the gathering of information for a specific purpose (Linse: 2005). Pinter (2006) adds Linse s definition by referring assessment to the process of data analysis that teachers use to get evidence about the learners performance and progress in English. Brindley (in Helgesen & Brown, 2007) supports those ideas and says that assessment is important because teachers need to give grades and because they want to provide feedback.

28 38 Two important concepts in assessment are validity and reliability (Linse, 2005). Bailey (in Helgesen & Brown, 2007) says a test is considered to have validity if it measures the skill it supposed to measure and test what has actually been taught. When a test is considered to have reliability, its results are consistent. It also can be said that a person being evaluated at different times or by different people would get a similar score. Besides validity and reliability, Linse (2005) mentions that when the teacher assesses especially young learners, he has to concern some considerations such as reasonable expectations, wait time, transitioning into English, and instructions to learners. First of all, the teacher should make sure that the expectations of the young learners are reasonable. Then, when he assesses students, it is important that he waits at least five seconds for a response. Transitioning into English is also important because before children are given an English-language assessment, they need time to transition into English. Finally, when he assesses young learners, he has to make sure that they can understand the instructions and format of the test. Pinter (2006) explains some techniques for assessing learners. They are observation (assessment checklist done by the teacher), self-assessment (assessment checklist done by the students), portfolio, project work, and the combination of them. Rost (in Helgesen & Brown, 2007) agrees with Linse s idea and adds some listening assessment and testing techniques. They are discrete-item tests, integrative tests, communicative tests, and interview tests. According to Rost (in Helgesen & Brown, 2007), discrete-item consist of multiple choice questions following a listening text (responses scored right or

29 39 wrong), true-false format (responses scored right or wrong), open questions following presentation of a listening text (questions scored on a scale of correctness and completeness), and standardized test scores (e.g., TOEFL or TOIEC). The example of integrative tests are open summarizing of a listening text (scored in scales of accuracy and inclusion of facts and ideas), cloze summarizing of a text (scored on correct completions of blanks), dictation, complete or partial (score based on supplying the correct missing words). Moreover, Rost (in Helgesen & Brown, 2007) states that communicative tests includes written communicative tasks involving listening (scored on the basis successful completion of a task, such as writing a complaint letter after heading a description problem). Interview tests consist of face-to-face performances with the teacher or another student (scored based on a checklist of items, such as appropriate response to questions, appropriate use of clarification questions) and extended oral interview (scoring is keyed to a scale of native-like behaviors, such as the Foreign Service Institute scale). In order to assess the young learners listening ability, Linse (2005) points out that there are two main components of listening assessment in the young learner classroom which are phonemic awareness the ability to distinguish between different sounds, and listening comprehension. Certain tasks such as yes/no questions and TPR instructions can be conducted to assess them. Therefore, assessing young learners are different from assessing adults. The experts in that purpose many kinds of children learning assessments. Again, the teacher should choose the appropriate assessment for his students. He can also

30 40 apply TPR assessment. The important thing is that the young learners teacher has to have in his mind that the assessment has to be fun as the activity which is fun. 3. Storytelling According to Chambers (in Fitzgibbon, 1998), storytelling is described as a technique of teaching that has stood the rest of time. Storytelling for first language children is being promoted as an ideal method of influencing a child to associate listening with pleasure, of increasing a child s attention span and retention capacity, or broadening vocabulary, and of introducing a child to the symbolic use of language (Cooper in Fitzgibbon, 1998). In the scope of English learning and teaching, it is said that storytelling is a significant factor in the development of oral language across the primary age range (Grugeon, 2005). It is because story in storytelling has so many benefits in the development of language learning. He says that stories, rhymes, alliteration and word play help pupils to hear, identify, segment and blend phonemes in words. Brown (1996) agrees with Grugeon s idea and states that stories and rhymes are very repetitive. They tend to be spoken with big pauses between each tone group so that the child has plenty of opportunity to process the content of the tone group- but within each tone group the correct rhythm of stress and unstressed is preserved and a certain amount of normal phonetic simplification goes on. This sort of material can very well be used for primary school English teaching. Supporting Grugeon and Brown s idea, Nation & Newton (2009) argues that for young learners, listening is given a high priority. He proposes two

31 41 activities for that. Firstly, several days a week learners listened to an interesting story, chapter by chapter. Then, the teacher also read to the learners a complete story taken from a blown up (very large) book. The learners interacted with the teacher during the reading. Often learners heard the same story several times which helped them develop fluency in listening. The main goal of the activity is for the learners to follow and enjoy the story. Listening to the story becomes an eagerly anticipated activity, similar to following a serialized programme on TV. Furthermore, Pinter (2006) mentions that listening to stories, rhymes, and songs can also lead to learning the words and phrases by heart and this can be very useful because songs and rhymes contain reasonably fast connected speech in English, which shortened sounds. Both younger and older learners need plenty of practice with listening and speaking activities and need confidence building to be able to speak up. Similarly, Grugeon (2005) points out that the listening corners are being developed now in classrooms to include a tape recorder and a selection of tapes of stories or songs for the children to listen to. He argues that the importance of these is that they encourage children to interact and are based on children using their imagination in listening. They also provide different models of listening which move beyond the purely instructional listening that can become the exclusive mode in the busy classroom. The teacher needs to put children in situations in which they are invited to listen and respond. Nowadays, listening to stories is the most authentic and popular activity for all children and primary English teachers can use storytelling as additional