PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION

(LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION)

Submitted to Fulfill the Requirement for Principles of Education Subject

Compiled by

Compiled by
Ahmad Fadhli
1408066004
Class 3-B-1

UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH PROF DR. HAMKA

GRADUATE SCHOOL DEPARTEMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
2015

Education is one of the ways for people to move out of poverty as they
continue to get better life. For instance, children who receive a good educational
foundation at primary school levels are in a much better position when they are in
the process to be adults.

According to Keraf (1980), language is a tool of

communication among the societies through symbol of the sound. Language in

education is essential since it is used as a medium in the communication. Through
language, people communicate, share meaning and experience their sense of
individual and community identity. Fostering language education helps to reduce
alienation and conflict since language is the channel through while peoples
cultures are transmitted.
Some education experts have been reporting that how language is used in
schools is an important factor to make learners succeed in education.
Consequently, language programs providing lots of subjects are held in one
semester in order to make learners practice a lot. Language acquisition is one of
the most captivating phenomena which has intrigued many linguists and
psychologists to conduct research on the process of how children a language in
their environment (Djonhar, 2012: 3). Everyone can be amazed with how the
children develop themselves around their surrounding that involves lots of
aspects. Some experts called the behaviorists believe that the childs mind at birth
is like a blank state: all knowledge and reason come from experience (Djonjar,
2012: 3). It can be inferred that language learning is the result of imitation,
practice, feedback, and habit formation. Then, a question is occurred about what is
the relationship between language used for learning at school and language that
children grow up with in daily life. Broadly, children learn best in the language
that they use most often, particularly when they are surrounded by the language.
Chomsky (1981) claims that language learning is not something that a child does
but it is something that happens to the child if he or she is placed in an appropriate
environment. This can be conducted because they build their understanding of the
world based on linking new concepts into what is already familiar to them through
appropriate exposure and practice so that learners can learn all materials in the
classroom.

Most of the time, materials in the school are separated from the reality of
learners. Some primary teachers seem trained in promoting the nurture theory
which is promoted by Skinner (1957), they deliver the curriculum where the
language is not used in context within the childs surrounding so that the difficulty
in making meaning from it is far greater. Expecting children to do something great
,like doing rote memorization, under these conditions is extremely unrealistic,
particularly when they may also be affected by hunger and poor nutrition, poor
health, or even their parents are unable to help them with the learning process. It
would be preferable to develop teaching practices which make learning easier for
children rather adding extra levels of difficulty. Examining or assessing a child in
a language which they do not use outside school is likely to generate misleading
knowledge about a childs real level of skills and capabilities. Such tests are
simply testing how good the child is at second language, they are not deciding the
fate of children at all. The children need support to develop their mother tongue
although, new second language vocabulary or structures should also be introduced
after a child has learned the corresponding concepts in their first language, so that
they can link meaning across to the new language easily. It is also beneficial for
the education of children who live in communities that regularly speak one local
language, and do not have access to second language materials. They may also
face other difficulties in education, such as poverty, living in rural areas or having
illiterate parents. Adults can believe those young children are good at picking up
language, and that children need to be surrounded by a language for not very long
time if they are eager to be success and taught properly. Chomsky (1959) states
that children are actually programmed in order to use language. He argues that the
ability to learn language is innate, distinctly human and distinct from all other
aspects of human cognition. It completes the previous theory that language is
learned from experience or habit (Skinner: 1957). The combination between the
theories encourages the process of socialization through language that does not
need to involve a lot of burden for children.
There is no research that already examines the relationship between positive
thinking development and the study of language. But language education can be

delivered in ways which make learners study with eagerness or curiosity to always
learn something new. In order to make learners be able to master second language
skills, it is essential to transform the school environment to provide lots of
exposure for learners as early an age as possible since it is easier than older age.
Hoff (2001) says the pre-puberty brain is like a sponge all learning knowledge
and experience can be absorbed. So in the classroom practice, teachers do not
need to overwhelm learners with language rules. The absorption of language in
the brain makes the learning of a language, first or second, easier for children than
for adult learners. Principally, learners need practices and gradual exposure to the
language as soon as possible. Language is learned through active interaction
between the childs innate capacity and environment. It should be noted that the
concept of the native language ought to be mastered before learning another
system so learners can link meaning across the new language easily. I believe that
with the mother tongue, learners can develop their critical thinking in the best
way. The need to mix two or more languages in producing language may not be
happened if both foundation of native and second language are established
successfully. Information in the lesson can be started from the context of a
childs reality. In the beginning, it is not needed to learn materials which are too
far from learners environment. Hence learners will not think or feel their study is
useless in the future implementation but as the opposite, it develops learners life
concretely.
REFERENCES
Chomsky, Noam. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Djonhar, S. C. (2012). Introduction to Language Acquisition: the Acquisition of
English as a Foreign Language.Jakarta: UHAMKA PRESS.
Ellis, Rod. (2003). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University
Press.
Keraf, G.(1980). Composition: An Introduction to Language Kemahrian. Ende:
Nus
Beautiful.