Accomplished teachers of English should know how children learn English as a Foreign Language
The status of English as a foreign language in Indonesia and as “local content” in elementary school entails extra hard work for teachers. This is so for at least three reasons. First, English as a Foreign Language means that the language has no/or very limited function in social intercourse in Indonesia. Learning English with no clear social function can pose a real challenge to teachers because the student learning motivation can be low and the exposure to the language use outside the class can be very limited. Second, English as local-content means very limited contact hours: two to four hours only per week.
This very low frequency of instructional encounter virtually precludes skills development on the part of learners. Third, as the decision to teach English to young learners is not complemented with a systematic preserve and in-service training, the teaching of English to elementary school children means a “perfunctory” activity and this can put teachers’ reputation on the line. Curtain & Dahlberg (2000) reminds us that teachers who cannot comfortably use the target language for classroom purposes will not be able to surround learners with the language— an essential component of an effective language learning environment. And these kind of English teachers are more a rule than an exception in Indonesian elementary school context (see Musthafa, 2001)
Accomplished Teachers of English Should Know the Principles and Should Be Able To Do Things to Facilitate Children Learning English as A Foreign Language in Indonesia
As exposure to English in use is very limited outside of the classroom, teachers of English should use English all the time/or as much as possible during the session in the classroom. To support the idea of increasing exposure to English use, print-rich environment should also be created in and around the classroom.
As children learn more readily when engaged in physical movements, teachers should use activity-based teaching-learning techniques such as TPR, games, and projects teachers should focus on functional English, for vocabulary development, and for immediate fulfillment of communicative needs of the young learners.
As children have relatively short attention span, teachers of English should use various techniques for short periods of time to maintain the interest level of the children in engaging the English lessons. Also noteworthy is the idea that teachers should reiterate often to ensure the acquisition of English. Effective teachers of English are those who can fluently use English for functional communicative purposes, including for instructional purposes. With their good command of English and skills in using the language for communication, the teachers can serve as a role model to the learners they teach.
That is about the ways of teacher understand their student. If the teacher find the difficulty to solve this problem the teacher can ask to the other teacher.