Teacher Talk to Early Age Children Applied in PAUD Lab.

Raudlatul Qur'an

R. Fikri Abdillah

, Alde Mulia Putra

and Rohmani Nur Indah

Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia

Keywords: Early childhood; teacher talk; speech strategy

Abstract: The current age demands the skills in many ways to cope with information enhancement, which makes the

need for education even higher. Consequently, the children are invited as early as possible to start learning in

a formal institution such as pre-kindergarten children, or known as Early Childhood Education (PAUD). This

study employs a qualitative research method focusing on how to talk with early childhood so that effective

communication occurs. The technique used in this study was observation and in-depth interviews with

teachers in a PAUD. In this study, PAUD teachers were selected with the category of having adequate

experience in PAUD teaching at least five years. The PAUD chosen uses bilingual, namely Indonesian and

also teaches the introduction of Arabic through short letter learning and prayer. The finding shows that the

strategy of talking to early childhood is conveying the message by first exemplifying what the teacher asks

students and as much as possible without coercion. In this case, the suggested strategies cover (1) learning

attitude with verbal, visual stimuli; (2) full interaction with the proper eye contact and gestures; (3)

conditioning classes to support interaction; and (4) maximizing context functions to facilitate understanding.

1 INTRODUCTION

The spread of Early Childhood Education during this

decade made institutions for early childhood

throughout Indonesia, especially urban areas, to

experience very tight competition. This has caused

the organizers of related institutions to make the

curriculum in PAUD very diverse. Some focus on

children's learning orientation on the cognitive side,

not a few also focuses on the psychomotor side of the

child. In some PAUD they have even begun to teach

foreign languages to their students.

This fact brings the view of psycholinguistics in

seeing this phenomenon. Communicating to children

is an important thing in everyday life, the unfortunate

thing is that parents interact or communicate often by

commanding (Wittke et al., 2013). Meanwhile, things

that might suit us well are not necessarily good for

children. A child often does not have good

communication with parents, and has no harmony in

interacting.

It is important to study the strategy of speaking

in early childhood, because parents play an important

role in the development and quality of the child's

growth and development. Therefore, parents need to

cultivate the right attitude in establishing effective

communication. In terms of speaking, it is also very

important to pay attention, whether using a soft,

gentle, or loving tone.

There are still not many studies exploring the

strategy of talking to early childhood, this is very

important in everyday life, remembering small

children like blank paper, they are very easy to enter

anything, we can give an example, can teach

anything, or can change it into any forms

The urgency of studying the strategy of talking to

early childhood is expected to be used as

consideration for parents, teachers and those who

interact with early childhood so that good

communication can be achieved (Bedore et al., 2011).

Accordingly, the focus of this study is to describe

how the strategy to speak to early childhood

appropriately.

Abdillah, R., Putra, A. and Indah, R.

Teacher Talk to Early Age Children Applied in PAUD Lab. Raudlatul Qur’an.

DOI: 10.5220/0009915800630067

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 63-67

ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9

2 THEORETICAL REVIEW

2.1 Child Language Development

There are at least three major streams in the theory of

child language development, namely nativism,

behaviorism, and cognitivism. Nativism argues that

the development of language in children is just a

biological gift that occurs without the influence of the

surrounding environment, according to Chomsky

language with its complexity is something that is

genetically inherited (Chaer, 2015).

Behaviorism is the opposite of nativism, which is

that language development is strongly influenced by

the environment because language has a very

complex structure and has certain rules, so that the

child will not be able to string his own language

without examples from others or the environment

(Chaer, 2015).

Whereas the view of cognitivism argues that the

development of language comes from cognition. So

that maturity and cognitive development are in line

with the development of language, especially in

children (Chaer, 2015).

2.2 Talk/Communication Strategy

Early childhood has unique characteristics. They

always think real and trust what they see directly than

they hear (Andrianto, 2011). In early childhood

education (PAUD) the teachers cannot force children

to follow instruction, instead of following their needs,

because in psychological terms the children are still

in the playing phase. In learning, what must be

prepared is learning media, which are educational

toys (Justice et al., 2009).

When a child behaves negatively, he does not

need scolding or critics, but he requires a deep

understanding of what does and donts in simple

language. In communicating to early childhood, the

main thing to do is to take their heart. When in

communication the child produces speech errors, they

need immediate modelling as the correct

pronunciation (McLeod & Harrison, 2009). Imitating

the error is not correct, for example: Lali - lali the

correct word is lari-lari.

2.3 Early Childhood (Developmental

Psychology)

For parents there is no amazing thing other than

watching the development of the child in saying

words, to become a complete sentence in a short time.

At the age of 2.5 years to 5 years the child has the

ability to convey short words or sentences and almost

all the words they convey are in accordance with good

grammar (Nicholas & Geers, 2006). When viewed

from the point of view of quality and quantity, it is

more advanced or better in its development. Experts

argue that early childhood is in the golden age or

called (golden age), they are generally still sensitive

and sensitive in observing the people around him

(Putra, 2018). The influence from their surroundings

has an impact in child's language development

(Schmitt et al., 2011).

Generally PAUD children do not want to be

ordered, or do not want to listen, they tend to follow

or imitate what they see from the teacher. For

example, when they were taught hadith, بضغت

ةنجلاك ف, when they were in school they tended to

be lazy in following, but when they were at home,

they found their parents angry, they immediately

practiced or issued the hadith, this was conveyed by

most parents who told teacher at PAUD school.

2.4 Previous Studies

Previous research raised the assessment of

parental student coping strategies for early childhood

problems (Wijayanti & Ramli, 2018). The study used

descriptive qualitative methods, namely by case

studies using the Miles & Huberman model analysis

technique and conducted in seven schools in Malang

City 9 Cluster 9. The findings of this model are

coping strategies using (1) problem focused coping

and (2) emotionally focused coping through first

problem review. The conclusion is that a model of

coping strategies for early childhood is needed by

children as capital to deal with stress and as a solution

to solve problems experienced by children.

Another study discusses the effect of parental

stimulation on language development in toddler-age

children in PAUD Asparaga Malang (Andrianto,

2011). The experimental study took a sample of 30

children. The result after being given stimulation by

parents, children's language development increased

significantly.

From some of these studies, further exploration is

still needed on how to model the right strategy to

foster early childhood language development in

PAUD institutions through teacher talk. Therefore,

this study focuses on the purpose of obtaining a

description of the speech strategy model and the

choice of words for PAUD teachers.

ICRI 2018 - International Conference Recent Innovation

3 METHOD

This research was carried out using qualitative

research, because to know about certain topics, the

technique used in this study was observation and in-

depth interviews with teachers in a PAUD.

In this study, PAUD teachers were selected with

the category of having adequate experience in PAUD

teaching which was shown by the minimum teaching

period of five years. The PAUD chosen is PAUD that

uses bilingual, namely Indonesian and also teaches

the introduction of Arabic through short letter

learning and prayer. Therefore PAUD Lab was

chosen. School Raudhatul Qur'an.

4 RESULTS

From the results of observations and interviews

obtained a description of the four main strategies in

communication with children in PAUD.

4.1 Learning Attitudes with Verbal,

Visual Stimuli

For example, learning for PAUD children to be

good in class is by inviting children to sit neatly,

"sitting neatly". This is the initial stage of learning

preparation to facilitate communication and

subsequent interaction. Verbal stimuli in the form of

effective command sentences consist of short

sentences so as to facilitate the child's understanding.

Verbal stimuli must be pronounced with perfect and

clear articulation. Emphasis on the word sitting and

neat helps both phonological and semantic

acquisition processes. Verbal stimuli will not be

effective without visual stimulation. In this case, as a

teacher from observations always shows faster visual

stimuli, for example, in practicing a neat sitting

before asking for a neat sitting child.

Verbal stimuli in early childhood have several

characteristics. From the observations, the words

chosen by the teacher are generally very short,

repetitive and with simple vocabulary. When talking

to some children who seem to talk more, the teacher

can reply to conversations with more complex

vocabulary. The choice of words is in accordance

with the results of a study which states that talking

about early childhood teachers or caregivers is more

effective if using a simple pattern rather than using a

word choice that is not familiar to children (Jessup et

al., 2008). This does not mean equating with the way

children talk (baby talk) but adjust to their cognitive

level (Kaye, 1980).

4.2 Full Interaction with Proper Eye

Contact and Gestures

When communicating with early childhood

requires full interaction involving children as

individuals, not partial communication that places

children as members of a group. A PAUD teacher

cannot provide a single instruction for all children at

one time. In early childhood, full interaction is needed

so that the child understands that an instruction is

directed at him. This is because the interaction is

accompanied by the right eye contact and gesture.

Children need full attention so that when speaking

cannot be interspersed with other activities, such as

talking while using a gadget. This behavior is

certainly not allowed when in class. When the child

sees the teacher using the cell phone in the classroom,

his attention will shift to the gadget so that the

intention of the interaction will fail.

Research states that early childhood is more

interested in objects that are carried than looking at

the subject who is talking (Estigarribia & Eve 2007).

Therefore, the object brought by the teacher needs to

be used to reach the attention of early childhood,

namely as a bait to start speaking. After that, verbal

stimuli and gestures were developed to provide

information related to the object. This is where the

joint attention is created so that a conducive

conversation can be achieved and persisted so that the

interaction takes place smoothly. As for the PAUD

teachers observed, the objects brought to open

communication in the classroom were very varied,

such as dolls, finger puppets, cards, props, picture

books, and various toys.

Proper gesture is done for example by lowering

the body so that the position of eye contact is parallel

to the child. When appreciating children's learning,

thumb gestures strengthen the praise. If you show

rejection it can also be accompanied by a

disapproving expression, shaking your head or

shaking your palm. Eye contact, gestures and facial

expressions are more easily captured as visual stimuli

that support full interaction

Facial massage is a communication factor that is

no less important in the model of talking with early

childhood. Based on observations during the

classroom interaction process, the teacher relies

heavily on facial expressions to support the delivery

of material and speech messages. Expressive facial

expression is the optimal exposure for child

pragmatic acquisition. Here the child will learn to

Teacher Talk to Early Age Children Applied in PAUD Lab. Raudlatul Qur’an

read the face or understand the emotional expression

emanating from the expression on the face (Cabell et

al, 2011). Research shows that the ability to read

emotional expressions from facial expressions

correlates positively with early childhood social skills

(Sullivan & Lewis, 2003; De Rosnay, 2014;

Riquelme & Munita, 2017).

4.3 Conditioning Classes to Support

Interaction

The interaction in early childhood classes is very

different from the interaction model in kindergarten,

elementary, and even junior high school students.

Class conditioning is very important to facilitate

communication. Examples of conditioning are

limiting the number of children in one class and

involving more than one teacher. With team teaching

such as this can be managed the task of delivery and

attention to the behavior of children in the classroom.

4.4 Maximizing Context Function to

Facilitate Understanding

Speech context is very important in supporting

children's understanding. For example, to teach about

reading prayer, it cannot be done by forcing children

to sit quietly and start reading prayers. The teacher

needs to maximize the speech context, for example by

inviting to listen to the story (Tyler et al., 2014;

Handayani, 2013). When the stories begin with media

such as hand puppets, picture books, puppets or other,

children will understand the context of storytelling

(Antoniazzi, 2011). Without being forced, the child

will sit quietly and be ready to listen. Prayer reading

is inserted in the context of the fairy tale.

Another example is the application in the real

context, which is in accordance with the child's

recognition. The teacher can take advantage of the

break time to teach the correct prayer pronunciation.

Teachers can also use the opportunity to play pretend

or play animal characters. In addition to the

development of student character, the language

stimuli delivered will maximize the process of

acquiring children's language, both phonologically,

morphologically, syntactically, semantically and

pragmatically.

In the observed class, it appears that the use of the

speech context is maximized through the example of

teacher expression so that the child can grasp the

purpose of a speech act. For example, from the words

"I want to see your smile Danis" Here is exemplified

how to express desires. Similarly, when forbidding to

cry, substitution is used for the word "do not" by

using other words "let's smile so that it looks beautiful

and handsome, if you cry, the teacher can't see her

beautiful and handsome".

The speech context by giving a full pragmatic

exposure in the form of giving examples of the right

expressions to obtain a positive response is the

teacher's efforts to manage the child's ego (Schacher,

1976; Newton & Harrison, 2018). A child's ego that

is more self-emphasizing can be managed with

speech patterns that utilize the context as exemplified

by PAUD teachers.

5 CONCLUSION

Based on the research conducted on several teachers,

namely Early Childhood Education teachers in

PAUD Lab. Raudlatul Qur'an, the strategy of talking

to early childhood is to convey a message by first

exemplifying what the teacher asks students and as

much as possible without coercion. The right choice

of words in accordance with the stage of child

acquisition, full interaction with the right eye contact

and gestures, conditioning the child and the use of

speech context are early childhood teacher speech

strategy models.

It is said in the developmental psychology, that

early age children experience a golden age of humans,

including in their language acquisition. So their

sensitivity in many ways, including language,

communication and speech is very high. They tend to

imitate what is before them. So, it should be as much

as possible for people who communicate with them

as much as possible to provide appropriate verbal

stimuli to maximize the process of early childhood

language acquisition.

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Teacher Talk to Early Age Children Applied in PAUD Lab. Raudlatul Qur’an