Teaching English as the Second Language

Teaching English as the second language is not easy. We need to attract the students attention about English,. If they like English, they will easily learn it.

I've done some informal interviews to students in different level. I asks them whether they like English or not. Most of them answered not really like English. Do you know what is mostly their reason?

Because English is difficult.

Yes, that's their answer. They said when doing task in english class, they felt frustated because the did not understand most of the words given. Some teachers ask the students to find the meaning of words in the dictionary.Well,actually it's a good idea. But it's not effective when the students do not have or bring dictionary, or too lazy to open dictionary. Nothing to do..

Learning should be fun!

So, what can we do to help this kind of student?

Don't worry..

Apply some techniques to improve student ability in learning english. The teachers have to be smart and creative. There are so many techniques that can be applied in english class. It depends on the needs. There are some techniques can be applied in learning vocabulary, grammar, writing, reading, listening, etc. The techniques can be modified or combined based on the class situation. One technique that can be applied when teaching English is Think Aloud Strategy. It's a simple technique. The teachers can easily apply this technique in english class. I've approved this. I did a research of using think aloud strategy to improve the achievement of students in reading comprehension in SMKN 1 Sukasada in the academic year 2007/2008.