The Natural Approach
A. Introduction
The introduction
of English to primary school students in Indonesia began officially in 1994,
though in teaching English in primary schools in most of the countries of
Southeast Asia have taken place over the past few decades. This situation can
leave Indonesia behind, especially in accelerating the improvement of human
resources as well as the mastery of science and technology. For it, should be
emphasized in the development of human resources, because English is a global
communications and as a second language. To obtain a second language, we can
apply the Natural Approach. The method used to make students rediscover their
innate ability to acquire language, to encourage naturalistic language
acquisition.
The Natural
Approach is a philosophy of language teaching proposed by Tracy Terrel, a
teacher of Spanish in California. His philosophy which introduced in 1977, has
been developed by combining it with Krashen’s theory of second language
acquisition. The Natural Approach
emphasizes the principles that are related to language acquisition, instead of
language learning as traditional methods. Traditional approaches are defined
as based on the use of language in communicative situations. A child’s aim,
when learning its mother tongue, is to speak it fluently. This also applies to
a student in a class using the Natural Approach. The Natural Approach "is
for beginners and is designed to help them become intermediates."
B. Principles Of The Method
1.
Comprehension
precedes production. The acquisition is the basis for production ability and
understanding message is the prerequisite to acquisition.
2.
Production
is allowed to emerge in stages. It can start with Total Physical Response
(TPR). Learners are not acquired to say anything until they feel ready, but
just respond the teaching command.
3.
The course syllabus consists of
communicative goals. The implication of this principle is that language
syllabus is organized by topic, not grammatical. At the beginning stage the
emphasis of language learning is communicative ability, not grammatical
accuracy.
4.
The activities done in the classroom
aimed at acquisition must foster a lowering of the affective filter of the
students. This can be done by creating an environment conductive to
acquisition. And the
topic of class should be interesting and relevant.
C.
Assumption
About Language
The
Natural Approach focuses on teaching communicative abilities, language in the
Natural Approach is viewed as a vehicle for communicating meanings and
messages. This is a similar assumption of the CLT. However, the communicative
function is not only underlying principle of the language in the Natural
Approach. In this method, Language teacher have to present visual aids so that
language learners will acquire the target language through meaning. Even
though, to some extent language is also seen as a set of grammatical rules, language
learning in the Natural Approach is not grammatically oriented.
D. Assumption About Language Learning
1. The
Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
The Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis claims that there
are two distinctive ways of developing competence in a second or foreign
language. Acquisition is the "natural" way, paralleling first
language development in children. Acquisition refers to an unconscious process
that involves the naturalistic development of language proficiency through
understanding language and through using language for meaningful communication
and only acquisition can lead to fluent language use. Learning, by
contrast, refers to a process in which conscious rules about a language are
developed. It results in explicit knowledge about the forms of a language and
the ability to verbalize this knowledge.
2. The
Natural Order Hypothesis
According to the Natural Order Hypothesis, the
acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in a predictable order. Research
is said to have shown that certain grammatical structures or morphemes are
acquired before others in first language acquisition of English, and a similar
natural order is found in second language acquisition. Errors are signs of
naturalistic developmental processes, and during acquisition (but not during
learning), similar developmental errors occur in learners no matter what their
mother tongue is.
3.
The Monitor Hypothesis
This states
that language knowledge that is consciously learned can only be used to monitor
output, not to generate new language. Monitoring output requires learners to be
focused on the rule and to have time to apply it.
4. The Input Hypothesis
This states that language is
acquired by exposure to comprehensible input at a level a little higher than
that the learner can already understand. Krashen names this kind of input “i+1”.
the hypothesis relates to acquisition, and not to learning. The ability to
speak fluently cannot be taught directly; rather, it "emerges"
independently in time, after the acquirer has built up linguistic competence
by understanding input.
5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
Krashen sees the learner's emotional state or
attitudes as an adjustable filter that freely passes, impedes, or blocks input
necessary to acquisition. This states that learners must be relaxed and open to
learning in order for language to be acquired. Learners who are nervous or
distressed may not learn features in the input that more relaxed learners would
pick up with little effort.
a.
Motivation
b.
Self-confidence
c.
Anxiety
E. How To Apply The Method In The
Class
The Natural Approach is designed to
develop basic communication skills. To illustrate procedural aspects of
the Natural Approach, we will cite examples of how such activities are to be
used in the Natural Approach classroom to provide comprehensible input, without
requiring production of responses or minimal responses in the target language.
1.
Use visual aids to introduce new vocabulary. The
teacher shows the pictures of food and drink, the students simply watch and
listen.
2.
The pictures are displayed around the room, combine
use of pictures with TPR. The students are asked to point at the appropriate
picture when the teacher names it.
3.
The students listen to a tape of a person (or the
teacher) describing what they habitually eat at different meals, the students
tick the items they hear on a worksheet.
4.
The students are then given a gapped transcript of the
previous listening activity, and they fill in the gaps from memory, before
listening again to check.
5.
The students, in pairs, take turns to read aloud the
transcript to one another.
6.
The students, still in their pairs, tell each other
what they typically eat, using the transcript as a model.
7.
They repeat the task with another partner, this time
without referring to the model.
F. Point of View
The Natural Approch is a good and
effective method to apply for teaching. Because of the Natural Approch is to
make students rediscover their innate capacity to acquire a language, to foster
naturalistic language acquisition in a classroom setting, and to this end it
emphasises communication, and places decreased importance on conscious grammar study and
explicit correction of student errors. Efforts are also made to make the
learning environment as stress-free as possible. In the natural approach,
language output is not forced, but allowed to emerge spontaneously after
students have attended to large amounts of comprehensible language input. So, students acquire the target
language in a natural and easy way. And the teaching materials are designed
very well. Students can acquire language from easy to difficult, from simple to
complex, and from concrete to abstract. But, the students may use the target
language fluently, but they cannot use it accurately and teachers should
collect various teaching aids and use them appropriately. Special teaching
designs are necessary for the students well.
G. References
Brown,
Houglas H. 1987.Principles of Language
Learning and Teaching. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Richards,
Jack C. And Rodgers, Theodore S.1986. Approaches
and Method in Language Teaching. United State: Cambridge University Press.
Setiyadi,
Bambang. 2006. Teaching English as a
Foreign Language. Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu.
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