Resume International Webinar

The international webinar on teaching English to young learners was held on Saturday, November 14th 2020 via Zoom with more than five hundred people attended this webinar. The topic of the webinar was “Effective English Teaching for Young Learners during the pandemic: Critical Issues”.

The very first speaker as keynote speaker of International Webinar was Prof. Bachrudin Mustafa, M.A., Ph.D from Indonesia University of Education. He explained the topic about "Essentials in Teaching English Young Learners for Indonesian Elementary Schools: An Update 2020". Here are some summary notes that I got from his explanation:

•• Excellent teachers of English know who children are and how these children learn. Teaching English for Young Learners, the principle is “Start from where children are”. 

1. The teacher must know exactly what children are like. And, those children learn by direct experience. For example, when we teach the vocabulary "touch", then we are actually "touching" something. Apply the "Compare-Contrast" concept.

2. Don't be tempted by the application of "spelling", as this will only confuse the children and the teacher themselves. Better to apply "Repeat after me". Apply the method to children by studying then practicing. Simple concept, see and say. Namely, teach anything that is visible to them, the teacher also thinks contextually.

3. Children think holistically (something global, general) don't give them anything too specific. Teach the children simple but diligent words to repeat. Follow rules that they can do it in English. Children are easily distracted (distracted). So, teachers must be able to design ways of learning that are fun for them.

•• Excellent English teachers to young learners know how children acquire a language. A handy rule is as follows: Exposure-Engagement-and Supports. These three components represent a requirement for learning to happen.

1. Exposure: Children must be "immersed" in English. Hear yourself what English is like, how it is pronounced for everyday life, and so on. So that their ears gradually get used to the language.

2. Engagement: Children need to be directly involved in English by practicing it.

3. Supports: Give children full support and motivation in each learning period. To what extent do they see for themselves that learning a language is useful and the language they learn is recognized as a prestigious language.

•• Excellent English Teachers take a responsibility to ensure children’s English learning

1. Good English teachers will often speak English in class. This is so that children have good examples and can understand complex English. Pay attention to the classroom environment, it needs to be filled with lots of pictures or captions, and other similar objects in English.

2. The teacher focuses on teaching functional English to develop vocabulary and improve communication needed in the classroom. In order for high repetition, make sure the teacher also repeats it a lot, such as how the vocabulary is pronounced, in what way it is used, and so on.

3. To "call for attention" children who are contextual, replace the use with English. After finishing the lesson, go back to it again, asking the children what they learned before actually ending class.

4. There should be a special effort for English teachers to be able to familiarize students with English. Also, English teachers are not only fluent in the language. But also have time to learn how children learn, so that everything is right on target.

5. English teachers must also be disciplined in using English. Use a level of English that is simple and easy for children to understand, do not use word choices that are still too foreign for their age.

After that, I chose Dr. Fatiha Senom, Ph.D. from University of Malaya as the speaker on parallel session one. She brought up a subject "English Language Teaching Education amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Malaysian Experience". 

Ms. Fatiha Senom explains and describes about how is e-learning situation in Malaysia during covid-19. She told us many things of the experience and scholarly discussion. It started from telling us about her experience as what I have summarized as below:

1.  How Malaysia government handling covid-19 pandemic and higher education in her country

2. Mitigating the impact of covid-19 pandemic on teacher preparation programme. This one includes Online Teaching and Learning (OTL) design, delivery, and the assessment applying to her students. She told us a lot about these. I can only mention some from each part. 

-First, OTL design is all about student learning time, it divided by seven parts. One of the most important is spectrum. From what I got, Dr. Fatiha Senom, Ph.D said that spectrum is the platform that special made for University of Malaya lecturers and students. They can have discussion, course material, and many other things there, at one app. 

-Second, OTL delivery that she used is ADeC. For synchronous learning, she use such as zoom, cisco webex, microsoft teams, google meet, streamlive, also social media to do learning during covid-19. For asynchronous are divided by 12 activities that has respective goals and also has many strategies on it. 

-Third, OTL assessment, there are alternative assessment (formative/continuous and summative), five dimensions, and so many methods using in this parts. It is also using spectrum platform. For final/summative assessment are divided by 3 big points, there are course learning outcome, conventional assessment, alternative assessment. In OTL, Ms. Fatiha Senom checks validity and reliability, cheating and plagiarism, special considerations, and collect all of frequently asked questions (FAQ).

Now, it turned to scholarly discussion that still explained by Dr. Fatiha Senom, Ph.D.

1.  Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework. In this part, there are circle diagrams that mentions creating an Educational Experience, and point big 3 the types of presence, namely social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive present that has its own descriptions and how to application in online learning environment.

2.  Language Teacher education by Distance (LTED). This part includes characteristics and the terms.

3. Current approach and practice. In the discussion of LTED includes technology, online discussion, learner and teacher challenges, practicums, and autonomy & independence. There are certainly have their own objectives and ways of implementing them that aim to assist learning activities during pandemic.

And the last speaker that I followed on International webinar on session parallel 2 was Yuna Tresna Wahyuna, S.S., M.Hum. from University of Singaperbangsa Karawang. She brought up the interesting topic to follow, that was "The Three Period of Lesson: A Key Part of Montessori Method". Here are my summarize notes from what she explained on webinar:

• The Montessori method is founded by Maria Montessori’s educational philosophy. . The teacher’s role is to prepare the classroom, and observe and guide their students in their learning. As a result, children progress at their own pace, according to their own abilities.

• The Montessori motto is “Help me to do it myself”. The area in Montessori: Exercises of Practical Life (EPL), Sensorial, Language, Math, Cultural . And, the first essential for the child’s development is concentration

• The purpose of Three-Period Lesson: to introduce a concept or vocabulary and demonstrate the purpose of a material.

• The Three Period Lesson:

1. First period lesson is naming. Teacher describes using montessori materials, whether sand phonic letters, color tablet, or miniature of animals. For example, teacher holds miniature of animals, in this context the animal that teacher holds is 1.   cow. So, teacher will say, “This is cow”. What teacher says based on the following material that teacher use to known about to students.

2.   Second period lesson is recognition. Same as the first one, but in the second, teacher will ask student something that has told about in the first, and usually more than one yet less than five. So, teacher will say, “Show me cow”, she lets student to choose which one is true from some materials that teacher holds.

3.   Third period lesson is recall. In this part, teacher describes using “What is this? This is …” the answer is according to the material that has known about to students in the previous part.  

All of these periods are one unity. So, teachers have to make sure that student known well what they have learnt. That is why, after doing step by step of period lesson, teacher must repeat the step again, at least twice or three times until all students really understand it.

The last I say, the international webinar last week was interesting for me. I got so many new knowledge how to teach children properly. All speakers on webinar were people who are experts and competent in their fields. Thank you.

Name: Widya Anatasyah

Class: 3E

NPM: 1910631060204