Using Games to Teach Speaking

Speaking is considered as a difficult skill in teaching English to young learners. Many teachers have problems to teach speaking. First, many teachers teach English in serious atmosphere. They prefer spending the time in class reading textbook and writing assignments. Hardly any time is devoted to speaking the language. Therefore, students do not have enough change to practice speaking in the classroom. Furthermore, many English teachers have limited reference and experience in providing speaking activity in the class. Therefore, students do not pay attention to the class activity as they do not enjoy the class.     

            One of the solutions of the above problems is by using games in speaking class. Games are appropriate for teaching speaking to elementary school students for some reasons. First, using games will create a relax situation that it will encourage the students to practice speaking. It is suitable with the idea of enjoy learning. Next, young children (elementary school students) are happy to work with their friends; and by taking parts in a game they can cooperate with their friends. Besides, children learn something indirectly through games. Playing a game has a purpose to make the students say something. So, they have reasons to communicate rather than just repeat things back mindlessly. In shorts, using games in the classroom give many advantages.

            In this paper and presentation, the writers will share ideas and experience with other English teachers, especially elementary school teachers, how to apply games to teach speaking. The example of the game is Potato Game. It covers the theoretical background underlined Teaching English to Young Learners and the preparation that teachers need, the media, and the teaching procedure. 

Teaching English to young learners is not easy. It needs a serious preparation. Successful language instruction must be carefully prepared and implemented. The English teachers to elementary students must understand who the earners are, how they learn language, what materials they need, and so forth. Therefore, in this section the writers try to discuss the characteristics of young learners, their learning strategy, games, and teaching speaking.

1. Characteristics of  Young Learners

Young learners means children from the first year of formal schooling (six to seven years old) to eleven 9 or twelve years old. It means that they are equal to the elementary school students of the Indonesian schooling system. The years of elementary are extremely important in their development which influence the way they learn English. Therefore, the characteristics of the children are very important to describe.

Talking about teaching a foreign/second language to young learners, there are some theories underlying behind it. First, from the point of view of certain biological or physiological characteristics, Penfield and Roberts (1959) and Lannenberg (1967) in Larsern-Freeman (1991: 164) produced evidence to show that two halves of the brain become specialized for different functions around puberty, a process called lateralization. Prior to puberty, they argued, a critical period exists during which the brain is more plastic and allows the transfer of a function from one hemisphere to the other. The implication of this theory to the foreign/second language learning is that young learners seem capable of attaining native-like second language abilities as their nerve and ability to control the articulations are being developed. Furthermore, Krashen, Long and Scarcella in Larsern-Freeman, 1991: 155) found out in their research that older learner is faster, but younger is better in terms of accent-free and native-like performance in second language acquisition.

On the physical side, Scott and Ytreberg (1990: 5-7) state that children at this age need to develop balance, spatial awareness, and fine control of certain muscles in order to play sports and perform everyday action such as coloring, drawing, and writing. Then, Philips (1995: 2-3) adds that the physical world of young children is dominant at all times. Furthermore, he said their own understanding comes through hands, eyes, and ears. In short, as the physical development of young learners is going on, it is better to consider activities in the English class which involve active movement.

Based on the social and psychological explanation, children differ from adults. For example, they might be inhibited or their identity as a speaker of certain L1 might not be firmly established. Adult learners may prefer to speak accepted L2 speech which indentifies them as speakers of a particular L1. Sometimes they have negative attitude towards the L2, while children do not have such attitude.

            Then, socially children need to develop a series of characteristics to enable them to fit into the society they live in, to become aware of themselves in relation to others, to share and co-operate, and to be assertive without being aggressive (Scott and Ytreberg, 1990). Besides, they are happy playing and working in the company of others. They like to have other children around them, and sitting with others encourages co-operation (Philips, 1995).

            If the concentration spans between adults and young learners are compared, it can be said that the first learners have a longer concentration span that the second (Philips, 1995 and Ur, 1996:226). They say that the concentration and attention spans of young learners are short. Therefore, it is suggested to the English teachers should make variety in teaching the language.

            Moreover, young learners learn a foreign language because of the external motivation. Most of them learn the language without knowing the purpose. Other people, such as the school policy makers, the teachers, or their parents, make them learn English. They do not know why they have to learn it. Therefore, the materials and techniques must be designed carefully, to motivate the students.

            In conclusion, by understanding the characteristics of young learners, the teachers will select the materials carefully, vary the teaching techniques, and make the class interesting.