LEARNING WORDS AND GRAMMAR

The paper is written to fulfill the assignment of

“English for Young Learners”

Lecturer :
Nur Aini Syah, M.Hum.

Compiled by:
Heppy Nur Cahyanti (204180035)
Iis Rulianawati (204180036)
Khoirun Nisa’i Sholihah (204180043)

English Education B / 6th Semester

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING
STATE INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC STUDIES PONOROGO
2021/2022
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background
EYL students are young learners who learn English. They are elementary
school age children who get English lessons as a local content subjects in their
school. Teaching English for Young Learners (EYL) is designed to introduce the
theory and practice teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to young learners
(elementary school students).
In learning English they should know about words and grammar, therefore they
should learning words and grammar. Learning vocabulary/ words is very necessary
and an indispensable part of any language learning process. In the EFL context,
vocabulary not only supports the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading,
and writing, but also mediates between EFL students and content-area classes in
that the students often find that lack of vocabulary knowledge is an obstacle to
learning.
Same as vocabulary/ word, grammar also necessary and vital part of any
language learning process. But, it could be argued that grammar has no place in a
young learner classroom, it is too difficult for children or is not relevant to their
learning. In this paper we want to open up the idea of grammar and to explore
grammar from the learner perspective. By doing this, we hope to convince readers
that grammar does indeed have a place in children's foreign language learning, and
that skilful grammar teaching can be useful. Opening up what we mean by
grammar will remind us that it is something much more than the lists of labels and
rules found in grammar books, and that grammar is closely tied into meaning and
use of language, and is interconnected with vocabulary. Then we will see how some

1
 2

current methods of helping learners develop their grammar can be adapted for
younger learners. Therefore in this paper we will talk about what is young learner?
What is learning words and how teacher teaching words and grammar to their
students as young learners.
B. Research Question
1. What is english for young learners?
2. What is learning words?
3. What is learning grammar?
C. Research Objective
1. To know about what is young learners
2. To know about what is learning words and how to teaching words to young
learners
3. To know about what is learning grammar and how to teaching grammar to
young learners.
 3

CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION

A. The Definition of English for Young Learners

EYL refers to children’s learning of English in pre-primary or primary (elementary)
school education, for whom English is not their first language. It includes children
whose first language is the national language of their country, when learning English
there as additional language.1
When we talk about learning English for children or what is commonly called EYL
(English for Young Learners), we need to understand who we mean by EYL students. 
EYL students are young learners learning English.  They are children of primary school
age who receive English lessons as a local content subject in their schools.  Young
learners here are elementary school students aged 6-12 years.  They can be divided into
2 groups, namely the Younger Group (6-8 years) and the Older Group (9-12 years). 
According to the class level, they can be called Lower Classes, namely children in
grades 1, 2, and 3 and Upper Classes students in grades 4,5 and 6. Meanwhile, Scott
and Ytreberg (1990) divided them into Level one or level groups.  Beginners (5-7
years) and Level two (8-10 years).  A Level Two group is also called beginners if they
are just starting to learn English at that age. 
Currently, many preschool children or kindergarten students are also learning
English so that we can classify them as very young learners.  Basically, what needs to
be remembered as an important goal in learning English is to foster children's interest in
learning English.2

1
Richard johnstone, Language Policy and English for Young Learners in Early Education, (711 Third
Avenue, New York: Routledge, 2019), 13.
2
Nadiah ma’mun, pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris Bagi Anak Sekolah Dasar Lewat Lagu dan Permainan,
(IAIN Walisongo Semarang, 2021), 97.
 4

B. Learning Words
1. The Definition of Words (Vocabulary)
According to Hornby (1974: 959), vocabulary can be defined in three ways:
total number of words (with rules for combining them) which make up language,
range of words known to a person and containing a list of words with definition or
translation. Similarly, Nunan (2003: 130-132) defines vocabulary in three ways:
multi-word unit, word families and core meanings.
While, Gardener in Adger (2002) states that vocabulary is not only confined to
the meaning of words but also includes how vocabulary in a language is structured.
It means that it relates to how people use and store words and how they learn words
and the relationship between words, phrases, categories of words and phrases.
Then, Cummin in Herrel(2004) states that there are different types of
vocabulary. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing vocabulary. Listening
vocabulary refers to all the words an individual can recognize when listening to
speech. Speaking vocabulary refers to all the words an individual can use in speech.
While, reading vocabulary refers to all of the words an individual can recognize
when reading a text. Then, writing vocabulary includes all the words an individual
can employ in writing.
Consequently, vocabulary is positively related to lexicon which refers to a
reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them
and can also refer to the mental faculty or power of vocal communication. 3
2. Vocabulary Development in Children Language Learning
Vocabulary development is about learning words, but it is about much more
than that. Vocabulary development is also about learning more about those words,
and about learning formulaic phrases or chunks, finding words inside them, and
learning even more about those words. Even the idea of what counts as a ‘word’
3
HendraEka Putra, Effective strategies for teaching vocabulary to young learners (BatuSankar : Ta’dib,
Volume 14, No.2, 2011), 182.
 5

starts to become confused when linguists try to produce watertight definitions

(Singleton 1999). However, we will start from words in the recognition thar infants,
children and adults talk about ‘words’ and think in terms of a word asa discrete unit.
Children will ask what a particular word means, or how to say a word in the foreign
language, and, in learning to read, the word is a key unit in building up skills and
knowledge.
The role of words as language units begins with the early use of nouns for
naming objects in first language acquisition, and of use of other words to express
the child’s wants and needs, e.g. ‘more!’ or ‘no’. Infants go through a period of
rapid vocabulary growth as they start to name, as well as interact with, the world
around them. There is an interesting coincidence in timing between infants learning
to point, and a well documented sudden increase in the rate of acquisition of nouns
for naming objects, as if the two reinforce each other by enabling the children to get
helpful adults to label the world for them. Many of these words are ‘names for
things’, acquired through ostensive definition, i.e. by the child seeing or touching
the object that a word refers to. Very often early words are used to do things, so that
when a young child says ‘daddy book’, she may be trying to get her father to give
her a book or to read a book to her, with the context of use making the intended
meaning quite clear.4
What implications does vocabulary and conceptual development across the
early years at school have for vocabulary development in children’s foreign
language learning? This is some of explanation:
a) The types of words that children find possible to learn will shift. Five year olds
learning a foreign language need very concrete vocabulary that connects with
objects they can handle or see, whereas older learners can cope with words and
topics that are more abstract and remote from their immediate experience.
4
Lynne Cameron, Teaching English to Young Learners, (England : Cambridge University Press, 2001),
73.
 6

b) Vocabulary development is not just learning more words but is also importantly
about expanding and deepening word knowledge. Chil dren need to meet words
again and again, in new contexts that help increase what they know about
words. Teaching needs to include the recycling of words.
c) Words and word knowledge can be seen as being linked in networks of
meaning. Meeting a word will activate the network and thus provide support for
understanding and for learning.
d) Basic level words are likely to be more appropriate for younger children, or
when learning vocabulary for new concepts. Older learners can benefit from
building up superordinate and subordinate vocabulary linked to basic level
words they already know.
e) Children change in how they can learn words. Whereas the very young learners
will learn words as collections, older children are much more able to make
connections between the words they learn and to use the paradigmatic
organisation of words and concepts as a help in vocabulary learning.5
3. Principles of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners
Teaching English vocabulary to young learners can be started by introducing
vocabulary to them. Teaching vocabulary to young learners should be interesting
and fun in order to interest them to learn and improve their motivation in learning
English, especially in mastering English vocabulary. According to Nunan (2003:
135141), there is a set of guiding principles that can be applied in a variety of
teaching and learning situations. They are focusing on the most useful vocabulary,
focusing on the vocabulary in the most appropriate way, giving attention to the high
frequency words across the four strands of a course, and encouraging learners to
reflect on and taking responsibility for learning. Focusing on the most useful
vocabulary means that some words can be used in a wide variety of circumstances.

5
Lynne Cameron., 81.
 7

For example, the word help can be used to ask for help, to describe how people
work with others, to describe how knowledge, tools, and to indicate material that
can make people’s work easier and so on. Focusing on the vocabulary in the most
appropriate way means the first principle looks at what words to teach and learn.
This principle looks at how they should be taught and learned.
Therefore, the teachers need to clearly differentiate the way they treat high
frequency words from low frequency words clearly. While, giving attention to the
high frequency words across the four strands of a course, high frequency vocabulary
should get deliberate attention through teaching and study and should be met and
used in communicating messages in listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Then, encouraging learners to reflect on and take responsibility for learning
refers to the learners need to realize that they have to be responsible for their own
learning. Taking this responsibility requires knowledge of what to learn and the
range of options for learning vocabulary, skill in choosing the best options, and the
ability to monitor and evaluate progress with those options.
In addition, Schmitt in Ikah (2006: 13-14) states some key principles of
teaching vocabulary. They are building a large sight of vocabulary, integrating the
new words with previous words, providing a number of encounters with a word,
promoting deep level of processing, facilitating imagination, making new word
‘real’ by connecting them to the students’ word in some way, using various
strategies, and encouraging independent learning strategies. Based on the theories,
teacher should master those principles before applying teaching in the classroom.
And, s/he has to use them based the students’ need to the vocabulary in order to
help them to communicate in real life communication both spoken and written
form.6
4. Children Vocabulary Learning Strategies

6
Hendra Eka Putra., 184-185.
 8

There are many strategies can be used by a teacher in teaching vocabulary to

young learners. Here, there writer will show some of the strategies proposed by
some experts. Manandhar (2009: 1) states that there are some strategies of teaching
vocabulary to young learners. They are as follows:
a) Using realia refers to real objects or things. Generally, any objects of things can
be carried out into school to represent the meaning.
b) Using matchstick figure, matchstick figure is known as pinmen. It refers to
simple sketch rather than a real picture drawn in fully artistic manner.
c) Using picture, relates to the object that cannot be brought easily into the
classroom, so unavailable object in the locality can be represented by using
picture.
d) Using synonyms, synonyms mean words that refer to more or less the same
meaning of thing.
e) Using antonyms, antonyms refer to the opposite meaning of a specific object or
thing. Mastering it will help learners to know new vocabulary.
f) Using definition, some words especially in advanced level can be taught by
giving their meanings.
g) Using demonstration, demonstration refers to the actions done by a teacher.
h) Using presenting lexical set/ enumeration, sets of related words can be presented
to refer to the meaning of the cover term as well as to the words involved in the
same group.
i) using games, games help to avoid the monotous learning process. There are
many games can be applied by a teacher such as cross word puzzle, guessing,
and so on.
j) Using audio/visual, many words can be more easily presented by a tape
recording or video rather than the above mentioned ways.
 9

Last, Nunan (2003: 141) states that there are four principle strategies that
can be employed in teaching vocabulary. They are meaning focused input activities,
deliberate learning activities, meaning focused on output activities, and fluency
activities. Deliberate learning activities involve learning to use vocabulary learning
strategies of word cards, guessing meaning from context, using word parts and
dictionary use. A professional teacher may select one of them for their teaching
target to promote the learners’ successful in learning.7

C. Learning Grammar
1. What is Grammar
According to Longman Dictionary of contemporary English grammar is: “The
rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences, or the
study or use of these rules.” (Longman Dictionary of contemporary English, 2001,
p. 619). For many teachers, grammar is the backbone of all language learning.
'Structure', as it is often called, is perceived as the core thread of the language
syllabus and, indeed, the majority of school curricula and the majority of course
books are designed according to grammatical criteria.
Grammar is taught to help learners to form sentences that could convey their
message clearly. Therefore, grammar is taught since early school age to enable
young learners to express themselves clearly too. However, teaching grammar to
young EFL learners can be challenging. Children are physically active, imaginative,
easily distracted and have short attention span (Shin and Crandall, 2014).
Explaining grammar rules elaborately to young learners and giving written practices
that engages no imagination might bore them. In addition, the practices that are
involved usually stay in the classroom without the learners actually practicing or
using it again outside the classroom.8 For many teachers, grammar is the backbone
7
Ibid., 185.
8
Annisaa Paradisa, Teaching English Grammar to Young Learners through Nursery Rhymes
Applications, (Jakarta: Universitas Indonesia, 2015), 35.
 10

of all language learning. 'Structure', as it is often called, is perceived as the core

thread of the language syllabus and, indeed, the majority of school curricula and the
majority of course books are designed according to grammatical criteria.
Young children are wonderful in absorbing new language. They can get
maximum of language through games and activities that they find funny. Their
success in learning foreign language does not depend on their knowledge of
grammar. As Pinter (2006) stated that children can use grammatical structures very
well, they can speak language clearly, but they are not able to say why they use
particular structure. Some children are able to deal with simple grammar at the age
of ten or eleven. Teachers, of course, should be aware of grammar and structures
that they want their children to know. But they should teach just a minimum of
grammar because mastering grammar is to help them speak with organized sentence
structures in order to make themselves understood. If our students learn proper
speaking habits while they are young, this should help them become good
communicators in the future.
If teachers teach grammar, it is very important to do it in context. For children
it is necessary to have lots of opportunities and chances to use the new language in
their real lives. Children have to learn new structures and rules in depth, they should
feel that they can use what they have learnt for everyday communication (Phillips,
1993).
2. Ways of Teaching Grammar
There is a question “How do children learn grammar?” it is not easy to
answer. According to Schrivener (2003), learning is a slow, messy business. It is
better to acknowledge that, because then you will not come out of class angry with
yourself and saying things like I taught it well, but they did not learn it. There are
two different ways of teaching new grammatical structure. The grammar can be
 11

covert or overt. There is a fundamental difference between teaching grammar

through these two ways.
a. Covert/inductive grammar - indirect grammar teaching, teacher does not provide
grammar rules. There is a text where new grammatical structure is introduced.
Children read the text and find out the new structure. Children’ attention is not
focused on the structure, but on the text. Children work with the text, they
practice new language and the focus does not have to be on the grammar.
Children play with the words, sentences and they can take the new grammar in
incidentally.
b. Overt/deductive grammar - explanation of the new grammatical rules and
structures to children.
Teachers of young learners tend to focus on vocabulary and pronunciation the
most, and these are certainly important areas. However, it is important not to neglect
grammar in the classroom. It is important that children develop all four skills
(reading, writing, listening and speaking), and grammar, along with vocabulary, will
allow them to do this.
At the other end of the grammar spectrum, a huge population of communicative
language teachers opposes the explicit teaching of grammar. They object to
isolating grammar as a system within a system. In line with what Pinter (2006)
assumes that teaching grammar in isolation can be a dry and boring activity.
Grammar should be learnt intuitively through context and should be inferred
through meaning and task.
However, it is important to keep in mind that children are often not able to think in
abstract terms, and are still developing mental concepts. This means they may not
be able to analyze language through a grammatical perspective. Try to avoid using
metalanguage (e.g. passive verb, subject, object) and focus instead on what
grammar can do to achieve communication.
 12

Teacher’s lesson plans should include tasks which use grammar to achieve a
goal. For example, teacher can ask children to describe a picture, which will involve
using present progressive, e.g. “The man is walking with his dog”. He can ask the
children to guess what object is in a bag, which will require them to formulate
questions. Activities which embed grammar and teach grammar indirectly motivate
children much more than drills or explanations.
Teacher should make sure all new grammar is taught before the activity. The
focus of this, however, should be that the children understand the meaning of the
grammar. Teacher can use Indonesia to make sure they understand. Keep in mind
that children may learn easily but forget quickly. Recycle new grammar frequently
to help them remember.9
3. Stages in Teaching Grammar to EYL
Grammar teaching includes four stages that children should go through
before being able to use a new grammar item (Scrivener, 2003) They need to:
a. Notice the grammar item in presentation
Presentation should be:
1) Clear-there should not be any difficulties in understanding, children should
understand the text
2) Efficient-there should be a maximum of new grammar, children should be
forced to use new language
3) Enjoyable and interesting-children should be motivated on the highest level
and be interested in the activity. Doing things that they find enjoyable and
are interested in them is the best motivation to learn.
4) Appropriate-it has to be proper for language that is presented
5) Productive-children should be allowed to make own sentences and questions
using the grammar that they have learnt (Harmer, 1987).

9
Annisaa Paradisa., 46.
 13

b. Understand the form of the structure

The way it is made up, how the words fit together, what the endings are.
They should know the meaning and use of new grammar item. Teacher should
show the structure in context, introduce it in the typical situations.
c. Practice new language
Children should be allowed to try the language in safe environment, they
need to practice structures as much as possible. There are some techniques that
allow children to practice grammatical rules. - drills - interactive activities
-games
d. Use the new grammar item
Children should be allowed to use the new language that they have learnt. It
may take time before children start to use the new language, even they have
practiced the items a lot. Teachers should encourage children to use the
language - sometimes getting things wrong and sometimes getting things right,
that is the way that people learn new things (Scrivener, 2003).10

4. A Different Meaning of Grammar

The word grammar has been used so far to refer to an aspect of how a language,
in this case English, is conventionally used, i.e. to the structure or system of a
particular language. But it is a slippery word, and is also used to refer to the way
that system is described by linguists.
a. The grammar of language
Language does not really exist as an object or entity, separate from people;
we tend to think of it that way, but we might also think of it as a collection of all

10
Annisaa Paradisa., 66-68.
 14

it is uses. As such, a language is constantly changing, i.e. it is dynamic

(LarsenFreeman 1997). If you are in contact with teenagers and listen to how
they talk to each other, the dynamic nature of language is very obvious; new
words and ways of talking come and go in days.
To teach a language to non native speakers, we need to stop it, to fix it so
that we can understand it as a more static set of ways of talking, and break it into
bits to offer to learners. Breaking a language into word sized bits produces
vocabulary, ending patterns in how words are put together produces grammar.11
b. Theoretical and pedagogic grammars
Theoretical linguists concern themselves with finding and describing the
patterns in the use of a language. The way they fix and then describe the
language depends on their theoretical views about language use and their
objectives. Chomskyan linguists aim to describe language as it is internalised in
the mind / brain, rather than as it is produced by speakers. Their main goal is to
explore, and unify, on a theoretical level, similarities in syntax across all
languages, and this work has little, if any, application to the language classroom.
At one stage in this research programme, the idea of a generative grammar was
developed. Halli-dayan linguists, on the other hand, view language as a tool for
expressing meaning, and so they categorize language in terms of how meaning
is expressed, and produce functional grammars.
Pedagogical grammars are explicit descriptions of patterns, or rules, in a
language, presented in ways that are helpful to teachers and to learners.
Teachers need an overview and description of the whole of the language that is
to be taught, but learners will encounter the pedagogical grammar bit by bit, as
parts of it are introduced in text book units. While older learners may use a
learners pedagogical grammar, such as English Grammar in Use (Murphy
11
Lynne Cameron, Teaching English to Young Learners, (England : Cambridge University Press, 2001),
98
 15

1994), which sets out and explains a description of the language on paper, it is
doubtful that learners younger than about ten years of age could benefit from
formal pedagogic grammars because of their cognitive demands.
c. Internal grammars
Every learner’s internal grammar is different from every other s because
each has a unique learning experience. Internal grammar is sometimes referred
to as” inter language” or as “linguistic competence”
I want to emphasize the distinction between external theoretical or
pedagogic grammars and internal grammars because it helps us understand why
a learner may have been taught a piece of grammar on the syllabus, but may not
be able to use that grammatical form in talking or writing. It is essentially yet
another way of pointing out the difference between teaching and learning, so
that learning can be made central to teaching.12
5. Development of internal grammar
A view of language learning as emerging from language use, in which repeated,
meaningful encounters with forms of the language produce dynamic and evolving
language resources. As the book proceeds, so we are making that general picture
more specific, and in this section, we trace a more explicit view of the development
of the language resource that is an “internal grammar”, before considering it in the
wider context of classroom language teaching and learning.
a. From words to grammar
There is evidence from adult second language learning and from school
based foreign language learning that, in the beginning stages, learners seem to
use words or chunks strung together to get their meanings across, with little
attention paid to grammar that would fit the words or chunks together in

12
Lynne Cameron., 99-100.
 16

conventional patterns (Klein and Perdue 1992; Mitchell and Martin 1997;
Weinert 1994).
Cognitive psychology suggests that our brains/minds i minds work always
with a limited amount of attentional capacity (or mental attention) that is
available to concentrate on getting a task achieved. When that task is
communicating an idea or message through the foreign language, then it seems
that finding the right words takes up attention early on, but that, once those
words or chunks are well known, using them takes up less capacity, and
attention is freed for grammar. This will be a repeating process of moving from
lexis to grammar, as language resources get gradually more extensive. As a
counterbalance to that, social factors will influence the actual need for grammar
to communicate. If you can get your message through without grammar, as
when a very small knowledge of a language makes it possible to buy food in a
foreign shop by naming the item and amount, then there may be little impulse to
drive grammar learning. It seems increasingly likely that paying attention to
grammatical features of a language is not something that happens automatically
in communicating, and that therefore some artificial methods of pushing
attention are needed, i.e. teaching.13
b. Learning through hypothesis testing
Hypothesis testing is the rather grand name given to mental processes that
are evidenced from a very early age: for example, as a baby drops her spoon,
watches someone pick it up for her, and then drops it again so that it will be
picked up again. The baby appears to have constructed a hypothesis “If i drop
my spoon, it will be picked up for me”, and to be testing it through repeated
trials. Of course, eventually the child learns that the hypothesis was right, but

13
Lynne Cameron., 101-102.
 17

only for a limited number of drops, after which adult fatigue sets in, and the
spoon probably disappears!
It is suggested that something similar happens when children learn the
grammar of their first language, once they move past holistic use of language
chunks. Children do not just produce random word orderings and forms, but
they somehow work out how to use the language and then try out their
hypotheses in saying things, amending them when they hear alternative
versions. It is as if the child has worked out a grammar rule and is testing it out.
c. Influence of the first language
It will be apparent that constructing hypotheses about the foreign language
is much more difficult than for the first language, simply because the learner has
relatively little amounts of data to work on. When you have only encountered
500 words and maybe 50 phrases, it is quite hard to work out grammatical rules,
and hypotheses are likely to be over-generalized and incomplete. So children
learning French may assume that je suis: ( I am) can be translated as the
pronoun I and use it together with other verbs: "je suis appelle.14

6. Teaching grammar in young learner

In this section, we move to practicalities and consider how teachers may
actually go about helping young learners develop their grammatical knowledge in
the foreign language. 15
a. Working from discourse to grammar

14
Lynne Cameron., 102-104.
15
Lynne Cameron., 111.
 18

Many types of discourse that occur in young learner classrooms have

grammatical patterns that occur naturally, but that can be exploited for grammar
learning
1) The language of classroom management
When children begin learning English, some very simple phrases for
classroom management can be introduced, and as time goes by, these can be
expanded. Some of the phrases originally used by the teacher can be used by
pupils when they work in pairs or groups. The language of classroom
management can thus act as a meaningful discourse context within which
certain patterns arise regularly and help with building the internal grammar.
2) Talking with children
Conversation with individual children can be very powerful for
language development, because they can pick up on exactly what an
individual child needs to know next to talk about what interests him or her,
the space for growth. If a child volunteers something, in the first language or
in what they can manage of the foreign language, the teacher can respond in
the foreign language, offering a fuller or more correct way of saying it.
Talk with children as a class can also offer incidental focusing on form.
Although grammar may not be the central language learning goal of a task, it
can be part of what is talked about.16
b. Guided nothing activities
Activities in the previous section are those likely to lead to noticing of
grammatical patterns in the language. It is possible to construct activities that
make noticing even more probable, and which fit all or most of the criteria for
good noticing activities.
1) Listen and notice

16
Lynne Cameron., 112-113.
 19

Pupils listen to sentences or to a connected piece of talk, e.g. a story or

phone call, and complete a table or grid using what they heat. In order to
complete the grid, they need to pay attention to the grammar aspect being
taught. Halliwell (1992) suggests using a grid to practice prepositions. It is
important that the top line includes at least two instances of each object with
a different location, so that pupils have to listen to the preposition in the
sentences to know which box to tick: e.g. the cup is on the chair/ the cup is
under the chair.
2) Presentation of new language with puppets
In language syllabuses that require teachers to present new language
regularly to children, the idea of learner noticing can be helpfully introduced
into more traditional ways of teaching grammar. When introducing a new
pattern, the teacher can construct a dialogue with a story line that uses a
repetition plus contrast pattern, to be played out by puppets.17
c. Language practice activities that offer structuring opportunities
Various types of classroom tasks can be used with grammar structuring
goals.
1) Questionnaire, surveys and quizzes
These are commonly found in young learner course books; after input on
favorite foods, for example, children are asked to interview their friends to
find out their favorite foods. The teacher needs to plan which language
forms the pupils will be encouraged to use. Preparation and rehearsal of the
questions is necessary to ensure accuracy, and the activity must be managed
so that the questions are asked in full each time.
2) Information gap activities

17
Lynne Cameron., 114.
 20

Activities with information gaps are often found in course books to

practice oral skills. Again, with just small adjustments, they can be used
with grammar goals rather than oral fluency goals.
3) Helping hands
This is a nice practice activity that I came across in a Maltese
classroom, and which offers opportunities for structuring the simple present
for routines. The topic was helping in the house, and the children, aged 5 or
6 years as I recall, had drawn round their hands and cut out the hand shape
(if this is too demanding on motor skills, the teacher can prepare cut out
hand shapes in advance) On each finger they wrote one sentence describing
something they do to help at home: I wash the dishes. I play with my baby
sister. Each child s sentences could be different. The paper cut outs were
then displayed on the wall, making a kind of palm tree out of the hand
shapes. It looked very effective, but was also interesting for the children to
read, to see what their friends did at home.
4) Drills and chants
Drills have been used in language classrooms for decades, and are a
useful way of giving all children some speaking practice when the class is
too large for individual speaking. They also offer language and involvement
support to children when used to practice new language, because the child
can listen to others to pick up bits that she or he is unsure about, and drills
can be lively and fun if the pace is kept up. The dangers of over-using drills
occur mostly if the children do not understand the content, and drills are then
a mechanical exercise in making a noise, rather than language learning
opportunities. I shall take it for granted here that the meaning of the
 21

language being drilled is supported and made clear to children in appropriate

ways. We can then ask whether drills can help in grammar learning.18
d. Proceduralising activities
At this point: We want learners to automatise their use of the grammatical
form so that it is available quickly and effectively for use in communication.
1) Polar animal activities re-visited
We can see now that doing a description does need some grammatical
knowledge that has already entered the internal grammar through noticing
and structuring. Because it is a public performance, it will justify attention to
getting forms exactly right through rehearsing and perhaps writing down a
text. The students could choose their animal, so that they will have to select
and adapt the grammatical forms for their own particular choices. The
presentation might be repeated several times: to another class, to parents, on
tape for another school, and each repetition moves the child towards greater
fluency with the new forms. A similar effect might be had by repeating the
task, but describing a bird rather than an animal, or a tropical animal rather
than a polar animal; there is practice in using the grammatical patterns, with
attention to accuracy but with increasing automaticity leading to increasing
fluency as well.
2) Dictogloss
The basic idea of Dictogloss is that the teacher reads out a text several
times, the pupils listen and make notes between readings, and then
reconstruct the text in pairs or small groups, aiming to be as close as
possible to the original and as accurate as possible. During the collaborative
reconstruction, learners will talk to each other about the language, as well as
the content, drawing on and making their internal grammatical knowledge.

18
Lynne Cameron., 116-118.
 22

Through this talk, a student may learn from another about some aspect of
grammar.19
e. Introducing metalanguage
1) Explicit teacher talk
Here is a teacher doing some metalinguistic work with 11 year-old
pupils on plural forms in English. Notice how he uses the repetition contrast
pattern, and how he formulates the rule at the end.
We can see that it is both useful and quite possible to talk about
language without using technical terms. However, since these children seem
to have the concept of plural and singular, the technical terms might be
usefully introduced to them. This will also depend on whether they have
learnt metalanguage terms in their hrs: language lessons.
2) Cloze activities for word class
A new rhyme, song or poem could give a discourse context to focus on
word classes through a simple cloze activity. The song, say, is mitten out
with gaps; in one version, all the nouns are omitted, in another, all the verbs,
and in a third, all the pronouns.This kind of activity focuses attention on
word classes and how they contribute to discourse, without going into any
heavy grammar. It is more challenging with a less predictable content20.

CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION
1. Conclusion

19
Lynne Cameron., 118-120.
20
Lynne Cameron., 20-121.
 23

EYL refers to children’s learning of English in pre-primary or primary

(elementary) school education, for whom English is not their first language. It
includes children whose first language is the national language of their country,
when learning English there as additional language.
Vocabulary can be defined in three ways: total number of words (with rules for
combining them) which make up language, range of words known to a person and
containing a list of words with definition or translation. Vocabulary development is
about learning words, but it is about much more than that. Teaching English
vocabulary to young learners can be started by introducing vocabulary to them.
There are many strategies can be used by a teacher in teaching vocabulary to young
learners, there are; using realia, picture, synonym, definition, demonstration and
presenting lexical set/enumeration.
English grammar is the rules by which words change their forms and are
combined into sentences, or the study or use of these rules. In this paper, we
practicalities and consider how teachers may actually go about helping young
learners develop their grammatical knowledge in the foreign language, there are;
working from discourse to grammar, guided nothing activities, language practice
activities that offer structuring opportunities, proceduralising activities, introducing
metalanguage.
2. Suggest
In making this paper, the authors realize there are still shortcomings and errors
caused by the limited knowledge that the author has. therefore, the author asks for
criticism and advice from the readers.

REFERENCE

Cameron, Lynne. 2001. Teaching English to Young Learners. England : Cambridge

University Press.
 24

Eka Putra, Hendra. 2011. Effective strategies for teaching vocabulary to young learners.
Volume 14. BatuSankar : Ta’dib.

Johnstone, Richard. 2019. Language Policy and English for Young Learners in Early
Education. 711 Third Avenue, New York: Routledge.

Ma’mun , Nadiah. 2021. pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris Bagi Anak Sekolah Dasar Lewat
Lagu dan Permainan. IAIN Walisongo Semarang.

Paradisa, Annisaa. 2015. Teaching English Grammar to Young Learners through Nursery
Rhymes Applications. Jakarta: Universitas Indonesia.