ENGLISH FOR YOUNG LEARNER TEACHERS (EYL)

The role of teachers is a central to the learning process in the early stage of

educations. Therefore, teachers need special skills. As young learners are still learning about

their environment, an EYL teacher has to be active, creative, helpful, open and of course, has

sufficient English proficiency. Helping the children learn and develop becomes more

important than simply teaching the language (Phillips, 1995). If an activity is enjoyable, it

will be memorable.

There are two main characteristics of EYL teachers. Those are:

1. ABILITIES

We may not all brilliant music teachers, but most of us can learn to sing or even play

a musical instrument. All music teachers would agree in any case that everyone can sing,

although perhaps not always in tune. In additions, teachers for young learners need to have

other abilities as follows:

Having Excellent Oral Fluency . An EYL teacher should command English very well,

particularly oral mastery, including excellent pronunciation and lovely voice. This

requirement 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 an EYL teacher as he/she 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 various teaching techniques,

an EYL teacher will be able to adjust her teaching with the class situation. He/She

should be flexible in teaching because children’s behaviour is unpredictable.

2. ATTITUDES

Beside having some important abilities, an EYL teacher should maintain his/her

attitude. By respecting our students and being realistic about what they can manage at an

individual level, our expectation will be realistic too.

As a teacher, we have to show the students that we like them equally. Children need

to know that the teachers like them.

There are important attitudes that the teachers must have, as follows:

Loving Children

Thinking like a child

Humorous

Patient

AcadSpeaking_Ach Philip

AcadSpeaking_Ach Philip