Teacher and Child Talk in Pre-school English Class

Abstract

With globalization, the importance of English for young learners has been widely acknowledged in Indonesia in recent years and this is further enhanced by people's belief in early English education - the sooner their young children learn English the better. Therefore, many people send their young children to pre-schools that provide English fro m the first year of schooling. Today, a lot of pre-schools are running English programs that have attracted many parents to send their young children to the schools. This paper describes features of teacher and child talk in teaching English at one pre -school. The study was conducted in SatyaParahita pre-school, in Salat iga. The participant of the study was the English teacher at the school. The data for the study were collected fro m several classroom observations that were audio-recorded and then transcribed. The analysis of the data shows that the teacher used a variety of interactional moves in teaching young learners and that the teacher's feedback shows different functions which support learning in different ways. The paper concludes with implications for early English instruction for young learners. With globalization and the role of English as an international language, the need for English co mpetence has been widely acknowledged.Enthusiasm for Eng lish learning has intensified.With the imp lementation of the government's policy of teaching English early,part icipation in English learning has been rising in many pre-schools.For examp le, in Yarsi pre -school, 'English Time', 'Family Day', 'Market Day' are activ ities in its curriculu m designed as extra curricular activit iesand in some pre-schools English has been used as a mediu m of instruction.In Indonesia, pre-schools have accommodated 15.000.000 learners(5) and it can be assumed that with the acknowledged importance of English more and more pre-schools, especially those in the cities, will be offering Eng lish to young learners. The teaching of early-childhood English in pre-schools has impacted the field of Eng lish teaching in English Education Depart ments.The curriculu m has been adjusted to meet the needs for English teachersfor young learners. More and mo re research is now directed to investigating how English is taught inpre-school. Many students have been assigned to have their teaching practicum in pre-school and then many of these pre-service teachers work as English teachers inpre-schools. The interest for introducing early English to pre-schoolers has been based on the assumption that young learners can acquire a new language easily. This statement is often heard