Teaching the Language System

Summary of the Presentation

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Teaching the language system is very essential for the learners since it can be used to minimize deviations. Although they can experiment with it in their daily life, the teacher still becomes the main resources of learning.  The structure and the use of a language involve morphology which learn about the word form, syntax or the phrase and sentence arrangement or construction, the message in the sentece and phrase, and the language components such as pronunciation, vocabulary, and spelling.

In the teaching and learning activity, the teacher can perform it through three ways. The first is the main focus of the material. To make it clear, he can directly say it in the learning objective in the beginning of the lesson. The second is as a hideous focus where the teacher implicitly collaborate it with the main material. The third is after the task where the teacher response to the students task. In doing these, the teacher should be opportunistic and flexible. Those mean that he should be able o find opportunity to perform it and should not use the lesson plan or textbook as the only sources.

In choosing the kind of activities, the teacher should plan the principal framework to avoid repeating the material in the classroom. For the assessment, the teacher should be well-organized in holding the type of the activity, the duration, and the efficiency. It is similar to evaluation. However, the real condition sometimes cannot be predicted or expected. Therefore, the teachers are allowed to modify it based on their real teaching and learning situation.

In reality, the teacher are often faced through a mixed class involving good and poor learners. The good ones already learnt the material while the rest have not learnt yet. In overcoming this problem, the teacher may create a rapport to gain information from them. Then, drilling anad repetition can be done through the activities.

Explaining and practicing are the most common used techniques to drill the students. The teacher can show one picture which indicates an activity. Then, he asks the students about the activity by guiding them to produce a correct sentence. After that, he may show other pictures and do the same steps. On the contrary, the reality taht the students are lack of vocabularies impede this. Thus, the teacher should present more examples with the written form. After solving this, ask the students to make theior own sentences based on the stage of Bloom’s taxonomy: creating.

In teaching, to make the learners understand the meaning without using the L1, the teacher may utilize the things inside the classroom. He can pronounce it while holding the thing. Gesture can be used to tell about verb and mime for feeling. The esiest way to convey the meaning is translating it into their mother tongue.

In explaining the construction, the teacher can repeat each word then two words until the whole sentence. The fingers can be used to show the words such as I am become I’m  is by putting the thumb and the index finger together. However, theachers mostyly prefer to present the construction through written form such as maximizing the use of the board or other media.

In the practice, repetition is usually used by asking both individual learner and the whole class together. The second way id drilling. It can be done not only to strengthen the learners’ knowledge abot the material taught but also to help the teacher to assess the learners whether they already understood or not.

Commonly Found Questions

Question	:	Where to put focus of language system in lesson sequence? What is the effect of lesson plan for the students?
Answer	:	The teacher may implement the language study independently in the classroom . Moreover, he should consider the learners characteristics, proficiency, learning style, and their speed in learning. On the contarary, planning a lesson plan is right. The syllabus and the lesson plan form the government sometimes do not match with the real situation such as in the rural and isolated areas. Therefore, the teachers’ abilities in being opportunistic and flexible are required. They should see some opportunities in explaining it and to find more sources to enrich and strengthen the information or materials.

Critical Analysis

Teaching the language system is obligated to help the learners minimize the errors. Also, learning the detail parts of a language will help them understandable by other people especially the native people and foreigners. If they already mastered the language system, it makes them gain the proficiency in both receptive and productive skills. Although the learners consider that learning the language system is very difficult, the teachers are required to be flexible and ooportunictic. Teachers are not suggested to make the textbook as the only sources. Also, the teachers’ job is to make complicated things simple. It can be maximized through media, realia, or the techniques such as repetition and drilling. Repetition based on my experience is effective to check the learners’ pronunciation. It is better to start from the choral into the personal repetion. Also, in personal repetition, the learner may come forward to pronounce and followed the the whole class. One point that must be remembered by the teacher is that the learners should learn the use of the language not to learn about the language. The teacher should make sure that there are some activities for them to practice.

References

Harmer, Jeremy. 2007b.  How to Teach English. China: Pearson Education Limited.