EMPLOYING REALIA AS INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA IN TEACHING ENGLISH

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study As a teacher, we have a wealth of information to choose for our students. Nowadays, teaching a language is not as difficult as the past. We can bring the history into the classroom through pictures, music and others visual to a degree never before possible. We can communicate with students from other countries and we can take classes from teachers who we have never met before. We can apply the physics from the classroom to simulations available for us through the internet and we can develop project across grade level. Students are no longer limited by the walls of classroom or the knowledge of the single textbook. The world is available to most classrooms, even when students do not have their own computers. Teaching language needs good and interesting media. Media used in teaching learning activity will keep the learner focus on the teacher, thus the classroom will be on teacher’s control. The media used should be effective and interesting because it can help the students understand the material easily. We can bring the media into the classroom such as visuals, sounds, smell and tastes because our brain rely heavily on stimulus from the outside for learning. In addition, some studies shown that using media in teaching English can help the students and improve their ability and performance in learning English. In education, realia are objects from real life used in classroom instructions by educators to improve students‟ understanding of other cultures and real life situations. A teacher of a foreign language often employs realia to strengthen students‟ associations between words everyday objects and the objects themselves. In many cases, these objects are part of an instructional kit which includes a manual and is thus considered as being part of a documentary whole by librarians. Realia is real things represent the actual conditions with which the learner will live. As such, realia should be used whenever possible. Real things are available. The task is to locate them and put them to use in helping students learn. Object that is intrinsically interesting can provide good starting point for variety of language work and communications activities (Harmer, 2001: 140). Therefore, the writer want to give the information about one media which we can use in teaching English. 1.2 Objective of the study 1. To give the information about a media in teaching English. 1.3 The significance of the study 1. To help the English teacher in using media in teaching English. 2. To help the English teacher to improve their performance in the classroom by using media. 3. To enrich the students’ knowledge about media in teaching English. CHAPTER II DISCUSSION Teaching to young learners need a very much understanding of the characteristics of the learners, skillful in managing the classroom, comprehend the materials and good ability in the language, particularly in teaching English. Young learners are very special because they are in their period to get the ability in a second language. The young and adult learners should have different treatment based on their characteristics, needs and ability. It needs a skillful teacher to be involved in the teaching learning process. There are three assumption of a skillful teacher as stated by Brookfield (2006 :17): 1. Use whatever helps students learn. 2. Adopt a critically stance towards their practice. 3. Do a constant awareness of how students are experiencing their learning and perceiving teacher’s actions. One of the medias that can help the teacher is realia. Realia helps the teacher to make English language input as comprehensible as possible and to build an associative bridge between the classroom and the world (Heaton, 19779 in Smith 1997). Learners can directly connect the language to the objects mentioned in the material. By having realia in the classroom, young learners can develop their multi-sensor function by experiencing the learning through seeing, hearing, touching and manipulating items (Rivers, 1983, in Smith, 1997). The teaching learning process will be effective and enjoyable and most of all they will not forget the activities in the classroom. Realia or real items are useful for teaching and learning in the classroom. Objects that are intrinsically interesting can provide a good starting point for a variety of language work and communication activities. Realia also make learning process more enjoyable. In language teaching, realia are actual objects, which have a purpose outside the classroom and can be used in the classroom. Meanwhile in the EFL classroom, the word realia means using real items found in everyday life as an aid to teaching English. (Nugroho, 2010: 17). As English teachers, the use of realia is only limited by your imagination. It is possible to use realia to teach almost any subject. There are advantages of presenting realia in the teaching learning process:  Kinesthetic learning is the type of learning that students will most effectively acquire, mostly because they will have hands-on experience.  The use of realia brings a welcome change in the class, a break from typical class activities like reading and writing.  The unexpectedness of having to suddenly interact with real objects will keep students on their toes; it will create excitement, and they’ll have fun.  Students have the chance to practice real life situations like using maps and asking for directions in a foreign language, but with the guidance of someone who speaks fluently and will help them get it right. Once they hit the street, they will feel more confident in speaking the language with the locals.  Students will clearly understand the reason they’re learning a particular ESL component. Instead of wondering when and where they might have use for a particular language element, they will know the reason. A research done by Chiarantano (2005) proved that using realia in the EFL classroom serves to foster a more creative and active teaching-learning environment and promotes cultural understanding. The realia used in the teaching learning should be appropriate with the material and the learners’ condition. Based on the basic competence 1.5 for the first grade of junior high school, the realia that I will employ is town map. A map is a graphic representation of a portion of the earth's surface drawn to scale, as seen from above. It uses colors, symbols, and labels to represent features found on the ground. A map provides information on the existence, the location of, and the distance between ground features, such as populated places and routes of travel and communication . By using a town map, I will teach the students at the first grade of junior high school about speaking, vocabulary and preposition of place. Below are the steps to using town map: 1. Teacher will hang the town map in front of the class. 2. The students will be divided into several groups. They are asked to identify the name of places or buildings in the map. For instance, city park = taman kota, post office = kantor pos, hospital = rumah sakit, school = sekolah and others place or building. The first activity will help the students to enrich their vocabulary about places and buildings that they can find in daily life. After identify all of the places and buildings in the map, each group have to have one delegation. The delegation will be asked to come in front of the class and mention the name of the places and buildings in English by pointing the them in the map. 3. Next, the students will learn about preposition. First, the teacher will explain about the preposition of place and its examples. After they learn about preposition of place, they are asked to identify all of the position of places and buildings in the map with their group. Each group is asked to present their discussion in front of the class. In this part, the teacher also make a game. The teacher will ask position of a place or building in a map. Then all of the group snatch or struggle to answer the question. The group who can answer most of the questions will become a champion. 4. After learning vocabulary and preposition of place, the students will learn about speaking. In this part, the teacher will divide them in pair and explain them how to make a dialogue about asking and giving direction. Then, they have to make a dialogue or conversation about asking and giving direction and perform in front of the class. CHAPTER III CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion As a teacher, we need a very much understanding of the characteristics of the learners, skillful in managing the classroom, comprehend the materials and good ability in the language. We should differentiate treatment between young and adult based on their characteristics, needs and ability in language. The teacher also need to be creative in teaching by using media which can bring them as if they are not in the class but in the real world. Realia is one of the medias that can help the teacher to teach English and make the students understand easily. By having realia in the classroom, young learners can develop their multi-sensor function by experiencing the learning through seeing, hearing, touching and manipulating items. Suggestion A teacher should employ a media in the classroom because it can stimulate the students’ brain and they can not forget the activity in the classroom. The teacher also need to be a creative in making and using a media in the classroom. A media should related to the material and effective and efficient in using. The teacher also need to consider whether the students have to make a media or not. REFERENCES Brookfield, Stephen. The Skillful Teacher: on technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom. Fransisco: Jossey-Bass. 2006 Chiarantano, Stefan. ‘Realia’.http://www.usingenglish.com/weblog/archives/000228.html. (in Siti Suharsih, Realia: the Effective Media for Teaching English for EYL, Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University, Serang-Banten) Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The practice of English language teaching third edition. Pearson education limited: longman. http://www.map-reading.com/ch2-1.php (diakses tanggal 1 Juni 2017) Nugroho, Muhamad. 2010. The use realia in teaching speaking. UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.