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Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

I.1. Background

English is an international language that is very useful and important

for us to communicate over the world. English is taught in almost all levels

education stages. Teaching English to children was seen as something

additional to the normal curriculum of the school system. Increasingly, the

educators have come to recognize the importance of starting foreign

language learning at an early age.

Teaching English for young learners is very completely different with

teaching English for adult. Young learners are unique and different with

adult, they have very different needs, interest and abilities from adult and

more enthusiastic than adult in language activity. Therefore, it is needed

proffesional teacher who can teach them. The young learner teachers should

different with usual teacher, because they have to know and understand

what the students need, especially young learners.

Teaching English for young learners should be handled if it is to be

successful. Therefore, it needs highly skilled and dedicated teaching. The

young learner teachers need to have a sound understanding of how students

think and operate, that is how young learners learn a language.

I.2. Statement of Problem

This paper will discuss about young learner teacher. This paper tries to

answer some questios, they are:

1. What is the definition of young learner teacher?

2. What are the characteristics of young learner teacher?, and

3. What are the roles of young learner teacher?

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Chapter II

DISCUSSION

II.1. Definition of Young Learner Teacher

Teacher is someone who teaches or instructs. Young learner teacher is

someone who competent and responsible to teach 5-10 year old children.

Teachers of English for young learners need to have a sound understanding

of how students think and operate, that is how young learners learn a

language. This will serve as the foundation for the implementation of

teaching English to young learners.

Knowing that children learn from the world around them, it is

necessary that teachers provide conducive environment for children to learn.

Teachers should also make sure that the subject is taught in a very practical,

hand-on way that they can interact with actual and physical which is

appropriate with their concrete operational stage.

Young learner teachers should be prepared with various activities and

be flexible to move from one another to prevent boredom, considering

children’s short attention span. For example, teachers can provide

interesting pictures, photos, realia and other visual media to facilitate visual

learners. The room can be colorfully decorated to attract their attention.

Teachers can also give music, songs or audio stimuli for auditory learners

and invite students to make physical movement (drawing, jumping, dancing)

for kinesthetic learners.

II.2. Characteristic of of Young Learner Teacher

Teacher is a central to the learning process in the early stage of

educations. As young learners are still learning about their environment, a

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young learner teacher has to be active, creative, and helpful, open, and of

course, has sufficient English profenciency.

There are two main characteristics of young learner teachers. Those

are:

1. Abilities

As young learner teachers, they need to have abilities as follows:

Having excellent oral fluency. A young learner teacher should

command English very well, particularly oral mastery, including

excellent pronounciation and lovely voice. This requirements is

very important as she will become the initial model for children,

and maybe the only model.

Having knowledge of child psychology. Knowing child

psychology would be a great asset for young learner teachers as

they would be able to handle young children’s problem with full

of understanding. It is much worthy if a teacher is equipped with

plenty of knowledge of child psychology.

Mastering various teaching techniques. By mastering teaching

techniques, young learner teachers will be able to adjust her

teaching with the class situation. They should be flexible in

teaching because children’s behaviour is unpredictable.

2. Attitudes

Beside having some important abilities, young learner teacher

should maintain their attitude. By respecting our students and being

realistic about what they can manage at an individual level, our

expectation will be realistic too. There are important attitudies that

teachers must have, as follows:

Loving children

Thinking like a child

Humorous

Patient

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II.3. The Role of Young Learner Teacher

A teacher's role involves more than simply standing in front of a classroom and lecturing. In fact, even though a teacher spends the majority of the day in the classroom, the actual teaching component is only part of the job. An effective teacher understands that teaching involves wearing multiple hats to ensure that the school day runs smoothly and all students receive a quality education.

According to Suyanto (2007), teacher is an executor who have to translate the component of curriculum, that are the objective, methodology, material and evaluation, to be a practical activity in English class. By this thought, young learner teachers have some roles in teaching English. Here are five roles that a teacher often has to fill in order to be the best educator they can be; a. As executor and guide who have good relation with the students that

can create a comfortable learning. b. As helper. YL teachers have to be ready to help the students. If there

are students who have difficulties in the learning process, the teacher will help to solve that problems.

c. As model. YL teachers give example for using English, so they must have good skill in using English and can give example for using English correctly.

d. As facilitator. The YL teachers facilitate what the students need in learning process.

e. As decision maker. Teacher is not only teach students, but also make good decision. They decides what kind of method that suitable to use for the students, what kind of activity that can be used to teach them, etc.

Language teachers also have roles as mentors who must support and scaffold the learning and as modelers who must provide good examples of the language in use. As a good model, teachers should make sure that they use the correct forms of language and pronunciation, because children imitate their teachers with deadly accuracy. Providing incorrect model will lead children to fossilize the error until they are adults.

A teacher is a person who will have to fill many roles. They are people with educational leadership skills and they must continue to grow and develop as professionals. Anyone seeking to be a teacher should take advantage of any chance they get to grow as a person and as a teacher.

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Chapter III

CONCLUSION

Young learner teacher is someone who competent and responsible to teach

5-10 year old children. YL teacher should be professional, should have many

skills to teach the students, and have to understanding the students needs, because

the students of young learners have very different needs, interest, abilities and

more enthusiastic than adult.

YL teachers have abilities of having oral fluency to give example to the

students, having knowledge of child psychology to understanding and help the

students problem, and having various teaching techniques for their students. YL

teacher also have a good attitudes and love children, because they must teach

them.

The young learner teachers is one of important element in a teaching-

learning process. They have some roles in teaching process, they are: as executor,

guide, helper, model, facilitator, decision maker, and as a mentor. By thats roles,

YL teacher will be able to teach their students to be good and excellent students.