Using Songs Effectively to Teach English to Young Learners

Using Songs Effectively to Teach English to Young Learners. A paper written by Neil T. Millington, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan. A paper, ©Millington, source: Language Education in Asia, 2011, 2(1), 134-141.

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Songs play an important role in the development of young children learning a second language. A testament to this is the frequency with which songs are used in English Language Teaching classrooms all over the world. This paper begins by looking at why songs can be considered valuable pedagogical tools. In particular, it will discuss how songs can help learners improve their listening skills and pronunciation, and how they can be useful in the teaching of vocabulary and sentence structures. The author will also discuss how songs can reflect culture and increase students’ overall enjoyment of learning a second language. The author will then attempt to show, through practical examples, how songs can be used as language tasks. Finally, the paper aims to explore how classic songs for children can be adapted to suit a particular theme or part of the curriculum a teacher might wish to teach.

Most children enjoy singing songs, and they can often be a welcome change from the routine of learning a foreign language. For the teacher, using songs in the classroom can also be a nice break from following a set curriculum. Songs can be taught to any number of students and even those teachers with the most limited resources can use them effectively. Songs can play an important role in the development of language in young children learning a second language. Yet songs may be used relatively ineffectively and the potential for language learning is not maximized.

This paper starts by analyzing why songs should be considered as useful pedagogical tools. The author then proposes using songs as language learning tasks to maximize the benefits of using songs and attempts to show how this might be done using practical examples. Finally, the paper explores how classic children’s songs could be modified to help teachers use them more frequently to teach a wider variety of topics.

Songs as Pedagogical Tools

One advantage of using songs in the young learner classroom is their flexibility. Songs can be used for a number of purposes and there are many reasons why songs can be considered a valuable pedagogical tool. Songs can help young learners improve their listening skills and pronunciation, therefore potentially helping them to improve their speaking skills (Murphey, 1992). Songs can also be useful tools in the learning of vocabulary, sentence structures, and sentence patterns, not to mention their reflectivity of mother tongue culture (Murphey, 1992). Perhaps the greatest benefit to using songs in the classroom is that they can be fun. Pleasure for its own sake is an important part of learning a language, something which is often overlooked by teachers, and songs can add interest to the classroom routine and potentially improve student motivation. »Click here to download this paper completely (pdf)»»…

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Reviewing School-Based Curriculum to Succeed the 2013 Curriculum

The new curriculum (2013 Curriculum) for education system in Indonesia has been gradually implemented since the beginning of 2013/2014 academic year, July 2013. The Education and Culture Minister, Muhammad Nuh, said that not all schools would implement the 2013 curriculum. It means that this new curriculum will be carried out in stages, and in 2015 all the schools in Indonesia will have been implementing it, including schools in remote areas.

Although the 2013 curriculum offers significant breakthroughs in improving the quality of teaching and learning process, I personally believe that the success of this curriculum depends on how schools apply it. The key words are teachers and students. They determine whether the curriculum can run well or not. The main concept of the 2013 curriculum is excellent. As an effort to improve the nation’s education quality, the new curriculum integrates science and civic education with religious and moral education. Students should be taught to think creatively. Education should be both accurate and offer the best lesson, and this can be achieved by teaching them to be creative.

But, once again, the result of the 2013 curriculum will be seen from its practice, not only from its theoretical framework.

Regarding the implementation of this curriculum, I would like to track back to the previous curriculum. In my mind, School-Based Curriculum (Indonesian: Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan – KTSP), also known as 2006 Curriculum, is actually good enough for Indonesia’s education system. The curriculum enables schools to develop their teaching learning process creatively in accordance with the condition of their schools and society. But the result of the 2006 curriculum is dissatisfying. It seems there is no great improvement in the quality of teaching learning process. The main cause is, as usual, schools are not ready to apply the concept of school-based curriculum. One of the reasons why this happens is because teachers are not often trained by the Education Department to update and upgrade their ability in teaching. English teachers, for example, are not given sufficient and regular training to apply the concept of the approach used in teaching English. Up to these days, it is admitted that there are many English teachers do not master Genre-Based Approach well.

The following writing is a review of school-based curriculum for English teaching and learning. The aim of this article is to discuss the framework of school-based curriculum; its advantages and disadvantages, and some recommendations how to improve it to integrate and succeed the 2013 curriculum. (Source: elihsutisnayanto.wordpress.com, posted by: Elih Sutisna Yanto).

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The Framework of The 2006 Curriculum, School-Based Curriculum (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan – KTSP)

The spirit of decentralization, as showed by act of local autonomy No. 22, 1999 revised by Act of local Autonomy No.32, 2004 and hand in hand with Act No. 20, 2003 has been seen in the 2006 curriculum (KTSP) launched by government. In this case, education is not merely central government’s responsibility; local government also has responsibility in managing and funding education.

Basically the 2006 curriculum (KTSP) is developed from standard of content by schools based their context and potentiality. Although KTSP varies between one and other schools, government gives some regulations stated in Governmental Regulation (PP) No. 19, 2005 concerning National Standard of Education (SNP) at May 16, 2005 such as standard of content and standard of competence of graduate.

English as stated in standard of content (PERMENDIKNAS No 22, 2006) is learned at elementary two hours in a week (as local content [MULOK] for class IV, V and VI), at junior and senior high school four hours in a week except for language program in SMA – five hours in  a week.

In addition, the standard competence of graduate of English (PERMEN No 23, 2006) for each level is communicative competence in the form of spoken of language accompanying action for elementary school, in the form of spoken and written for achieving functional literacy level for junior high school, in the form of spoken and written for achieving information literacy level for senior high school.

Hasil Penelitian Pendidikan di Indonesia

Free download: Hasil Penelitian Pendidikan di Indonesia, oleh Wamendiknas pada Simposium Nasional Penelitian dan Inovasi Pendidikan 2010, Kementerian Pendidikan Nasional, Jakarta 3 – 10 Agustus 2010. Jenis file: ppt-pdf. Sumber: Kemendiknas.

Makalah ini berisi beberapa temuan tentang kondisi pendidikan di Indonesia. Beberapa di antaranya: Studi di 12 kota / kabupaten [hal.2]; rasio jumlah siswa dan guru, jumlah jam mengajar di daerah perkotaan, pedesaan dan terpencil [hal.9]; Perbandingan rasio guru dan siswa di Indonesia dengan beberapa negara lain [hal.22].

Selain itu, disajikan pula data dan hasil temuan dari Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) yang mengulas seputar kondisi pembelajaran Matematika: Jumlah jam pelajaran dan prestasi di bidang Matematika di Indonesia, Malaysia dan Singapura [hal.27]; Tingkat penekanan kurikulum dan penggunaan kalkulator [hal.32]. Berikutnya, data-data seputar anggaran dan pengeluaran biaya pendidikan, termasuk perbandingan gaji guru di beberapa negara [hal.49-67].

Data menarik lainnya adalah Ringkasan Laporan Hasil Ujian Nasional 2009/2010 tingkat SMA/MA dan SMP/MTs [hal.88-107], di antaranya: Prosentase ketidaklulusan, nila rata-rata, terendah, tertinggi dan standar deviasi pada UN 2009/2010. Khusus Bahasa Inggris, terdapat pula contoh analisis daya serap pelajaran Bahasa Inggris terhadap materi yang diujikan / Standar Kompetensi Lulusan (SKL).

Download file selengkapnya (3mb), silahkan klik di sini »…

More downloads: Articles, Tutorials, Modules and E-Books, click here »…

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Modules for Teaching English Language Skills

Free downloads: Modules for teaching English language skills, intended for use in teaching  English in Indonesia, particularly for Junior/Senior High Schools (SMP/SMA). These modules contain methodological references and guidelines for teaching listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Source: Center for Development and Empowerment of Teachers and Education Personnel (CDETEP), Ministry of National Education.

Module 1: Teaching Listening. Listening is the basis for the development of all other skills and the main channel through which the student makes initial contact with the target language and its culture. Through active listening, students acquire vocabulary and syntax, as well as better pronunciation, accent and intonation. Though listening skill is very important, for some language learners it is considered to be the most difficult language skill… more › download here…

Module 2: Teaching Speaking. Speaking is a productive skill. It cannot be separated from listening. When we communicate we convey the message, which is meaningful. It comes from the meaning, which is expressed in the form of speech act. In teaching speaking teachers should know the concept of speaking, the element of the sound for instance phonemes because it seems the teachers still find difficulties in pronouncing them based on the classroom observation during the upgrading and it is important for teachers to pronounce correctly since they should be a good models for their students. The teachers also still have problems of understanding and applying models of learning and teaching, and various techniques of teaching speaking… more › download here…

Module 3: Teaching Reading. This supplementary material is developed to provide underlying resources for English teachers in improving their teaching competence and language proficiency in the framework of continuous professional development. This material specifically is intended to provide clear information of all aspects in reading and how to bring it in the classroom as well. Those aspects cover the levels of comprehension, text types and text situation. By having prompt perspective, the English teacher will be able to implement better teaching practices, reflect it continually, and recording in the form of classroom action research. Ultimately this experience can be dedicated to have continuous professional development… more › download here…

Module 4: Teaching Writing. Writing is transforming thoughts into language; it means that we need to think about the content of our writing first and then arrange the ideas using appropriate language (e.g. grammar and vocabulary). Consequently we must learn about organizational skills in writing. It also involves several sub-skills. Some of these are related to accuracy, i.e. using the correct forms of language. Writing accurately involves spelling correctly, forming letters correctly, writing legibly, punctuating correctly, using correct layouts, choosing the right vocabulary, using grammar correctly, joining sentences correctly and using paragraphs correctly… more › download here…

Module 5: Teaching Mixed Ability Classes. All classes are heterogeneous or in the other term “mixed ability classes”, especially in secondary schools most classes have a wide range of levels and abilities. Developing a teaching approach to deal with such diversity in one class seems to be almost impossible demand. By knowing of teaching mixed ability classes teacher will have fresh point of view to look at the mixture of skills and abilities as a factor and suggesting some approriate teaching approaches and strategies and also teachers will able to modify material to make it suitable for a range of abilities… more › download here…

More downloads: Articles, Tutorials, Modules and E-Books, click here »…

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Polling: Your Favorite Downloads

Dear my friends and all visitors…

Since its launching at the end of 2008, this site [www.haarrr.wordpress.com] has been frequently visited by thousands of people from all over the world, particularly Indonesia.  Most visitors look for materials related to English lesson. The most common files downloaded by the visitors are English listening materials and speech/drama scripts.

As stated on page about, this blog mainly concerns on education and teaching learning materials, especially English for Indonesian students. It aims at providing free files to share and use widely for the educational purposes. Many of Indonesian teachers and students have been taking an advantage of this blog as a reference site for improving their English. It is, of course, a pride and challenge for us to make www.haarrr.wordpress.com better and more useful.

To improve its contents, my friends and I plan to upgrade this site into a new domain and file hosting. We, therefore, need your feedback and suggestions. We ask you all to participate by joining our polling. The question is: “What is your favorite download?” There are 4 answers given: (1) English Speech and Drama Scripts,  (2) English Listening Materials — audios, videos and scripts,  (3) Test Sheets/Manuscripts– UN, SNMPTN and STAN,  (4) Materials and Answers/Discussion of English Tests (UN, SNMPTN and STAN). If none of the 4 answers above is your choice, you can choose the last one: Other, then type your answer, and finally please click ‘vote’.

We do hope all visitors will spend a few minutes to vote. Help us improve www.haarrr.wordpress.com. The result of this poll will be a reference and priority in updating/uploading new files. Thank you very much for joining. We highly appreciate your participation. Please follow the poll by voting straightly on the right-side bar of this site… or you can click the picture below:

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Pembahasan Soal B. Inggris UN SMP/MTs 2010

Free download: Kunci Jawaban dan Pembahasan ringkas soal Ujian Nasional (UN) SMP/MTs 2010, Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris, Paket Soal B, Kode: B-P49-C2. File: pdf. upload by har, ©2010_www.haarrr.wordpress.com

Sebelum Anda men-download Kunci jawaban dan pembahasan, sebaiknya terlebih dahulu Anda men-download soal kode b-p49-c2. Silahkan klik di sini»»

Berikut ini Kunci Jawaban dan pembahasan ringkas (metode penerjemahan)  soal Bahasa Inggris UN SMP 2010 kode b-p49-c2:

1. Bill dan Simone mengarungi lautan Amerika Tengah dengan menggunakan……  Jawab: C. Yacht (perahu layar)
2. Paragraf ke-2 bercerita pada kita tentang……  Jawab: A. The reason why the yacht sank (penyebab mengapa perahu layar tenggelam).
3. Berapa lama Bill dan Simone berada di lautan Amerika Tengah? Jawab A. 66 days (66 hari)
4. Urutan kata-kata yang membentuk kalimat yang benar/bermakna adalah ……  Jawab: C. Eye protection is needed beyond this area.
5. Urutan pengaturan kalimat-kalimat untuk membentuk sebuah teks yang baik adalah ……  Jawab: D. 3-5-2-1-6-4
6. Apa yang turis sukai di Grand Canyon?  Jawab: B. The changing colours of the rock (Perubahan warna pada bebatuan – Lihat paragraph ke dua: Many tourists come to the canyon just to watch the rocks change colour).

Selengkapnya Kunci Jawaban dan Pembahasan soal B. Inggris B-P49-C2, download di sini»»…

Download soal dan pembahasan lainnya:
soal_dan_pembahasan_un_smp_2010_matematika
soal_dan_pembahasan_un_smp_2006_2010_matematika_topik_statistik
soal_dan_pembahasan_un_sma_ipa_2010_matematika
soal_dan_pembahasan_un_sma_ips_2010_matematika
soal_dan_pembahasan_un_smk_2010_matematika_pariwisata_seni_kerajinan_sosial

Beberapa pembahasan lainnya: UN SMP/MTs | UN SMA/MA/SMK

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Analisis Singkat Soal UN SMP/MTs 2010 Bahasa Inggris.

Bentuk Soal UN SMP/MTs 2010 Bahasa Inggris tidak jauh berbeda dengan UN 2009. Boleh dikata masih full reading. Silahkan Anda  ambil salah satu sample, soal kode b-p49-c2. Anda akan mendapati bahwa hanya ada 2 nomor yang bukan berdasarkan teks reading, no soal 4 dan 5 yang merupakan bentuk soal menyusun kata/kalimat acak. Ada juga soal dengan bentuk melengkapi (completing) teks, no soal 46 – 48. Tapi itupun masih masuk kategori reading text.

Idealnya soal Bahasa Inggris mengacu pada penilaian (assessment) empat skill bahasa: listening, speaking, reading dan writing. Dari empat skill tersebut, hanya reading yang tercover dalam ujian nasional. Jadi, sebenarnya sebutan yang tepat untuk UN Bahasa Inggris adalah Ujian/Tes ‘English Reading’.

Jika kita menyimak silabus pelajaran Bahasa Inggris dan Standar Kompetensi / Kompetensi Dasar, jelas sekali bahwa penekanan pelajaran Bahasa Inggris untuk Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi (KBK) dan Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) adalah Communicative Approach yang menitikberatkan pada kemampuan siswa dalam menggunakan Bahasa Inggris sebagai alat berkomunikasi. Sebuah pertanyaan sederhana: indikator apa yang menandakan seorang siswa mampu berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Inggris? Kita pasti menjawab: mampu bercakap atau berdialog dengan menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Tentu saja, idealnya, empat skill tersebut semuanya harus dikuasai dengan baik. Namun jika kita bicara tentang prioritas, jelas ada pada kemampuan berbicara. Oleh sebab itu, tidaklah mengherankan kalau dalam silabus Bahasa Inggris, Standar Kompetensi mendengarkan (listening) dan berbicara (speaking) mendapatkan jatah alokasi waktu/jam lebih banyak daripada membaca (reading) dan menulis (writing).

Namun kenyataan justru sebaliknya. Bentuk soal Bahasa Inggris UN SMP 2010 ternyata lebih menitikberatkan pada kemampuan pemahaman bacaan, total ada 17 teks dengan genre narrative, descriptive, procedure, report, dan recount. Dengan demikian soal UN tersebut jelas tidak matching dengan misi pendekatan komunikatif dan tidak merepresentasikan indikator yang ingin dicapai dalam silabus dan muatan kurikulum. Ada 3 skill lain yang tidak tercover, utamanya speaking.

Modules for Teaching English

Free download: Modules for Teaching English in Indonesia, especially for English teachers in SMP and SMA. File: pdf. Source: Center for Development and Empowerment of Teachers and Education Personnel (CDETEP) or known as Pusat Pengembangan dan Pemberdayaan Pendidik dan Tenaga Kependidikan (PPPPTK). There are five modules/articles you can download for free:

(1) Introduction to Genre Based Approach. This module describes the features of Genre Based Approach involving its methodology, text types, learning cycles and application in the teaching of English… » Click here to download…

(2) Materials Development. This module discusses the concepts, principles, procedures and techniques in developing materials for teaching English… » Click here to download…

(3) Designing Lesson Plan. This module explains how to design lesson plan. It describes the concepts, components, principles and stages in designing lesson plan… » Click here to download…

(4) Instructional Media. This module tells about the definition, kinds and samples of instructional media used for teaching English… » Click here to download…

(5) Language Assessment. This module talks about assessments on the students’ achievement in learning English. It gives description on how to assess listening, speaking, reading and writing skills… » Click here to download…

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