Philosophical Basis of TEFL Methodology

Project Number :1

Complete Name : Auliah Dwi Purnama

Std. ID : 1182040024

Class : 4A

Teaching Vocabulary Doesn’t To Be Hard

The title of this video is Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners Through Brain-Based
Teaching Strategies, this video was published by YouTube accounts, ELT IRL, the author is Setenay
Celik she is from Turkey and she has been teaching English for 8 years. Her particular areas of
interest are teaching English to young learners and creating new, useful classroom materials and
activities, the content of this video is about teaching vocabulary by improving their memory skills
and the context is to remember vocabulary with games so students don't feel bored, the reason I
chose this video because interesting and when I see it I don't feel bored, I also memorize the
vocabulary in the video.

According to H Douglas Brown (2000 p.4), the teacher in the video indicates begins the 50-
minutes class hour with some small-talk with the students, commenting on the weather, one
students previous evening’s shopping attempts, etc. The first part of this video shows a teacher,
Setenay who greets her students and invites them to follow her. The teacher begin the class with
some small-talk with the students and then the teacher invites them to follow her to dance as warm
up, after that the teacher introduce herself.

According to Jeremy Harmer (2002 p.28), “When speaking, on the other hand, we construct
word and phrases with individual sounds and we also use pitch change, intonation and stress to
convey different meanings”. The teacher in this video uses different intonations and pitch when
singing and when she explains expressing from images such as being tired, sleepy and hungry.

According to Jeremy Hamer (2002 p.33), “Physical paralinguistic features, we can convey of
meanings through the way in which we use our bodies. The expression on our face, the gestures we
make, and even proximity or the way we sit, for example, may send powerful messages about how
we feel or what we mean”. In this video, when warming up the teacher uses his expression as well as
interesting movements to make the students not feel bored.

According to Jeremy Hamer (2002 p.37), “The age of our students is a major factor in our
decisions about how and what to teach. People of different ages have different needs, competences,
and cognitive skills.” The teacher in this video said, “While I’m teaching, I came across with some
difficulties and challenging with the young learners. The problems I had mostly were based on their
characteristic because young learners were are actually so energetic and curious”.

According to Jeremy Hamer (2002 p.64), “One of things that we are uniquely able to do on
the spot is to use mime, gesture and expression to convey meaning and atmosphere”. This video
shows a teacher who uses his expression when explaining how to remember vocabulary. Besides
that she also uses gestures to make it easier to remember. Not just remembering vocabulary, but
when dancing together and inviting students to stand and clap the teacher use the gesture.

According to Jeremy Hamer (2002 p.57), “Roles such as prompter, resource, or tutor may
well fulfil this concept. Yet in one sense any role which the teacher adopts-and which is designed to
help students learn-is to some extent facilitative. All roles, after all, aim to facilitate the student’s
progress in some way or other”. Here the teacher can show it, she as a controller, controls when
lessons begin and as a tutor when he explains how we remember vocabulary using brain-based
strategies. She applies it in class.

According to Jeremy Hamer (2002 p.66), “However, we do need to be aware of how much
we ourselves are speaking. If we talk all the time, however ‘comprehensible’ our language is, the
students are denied their own chance to practice production, or get exposure through other means
(from reading or listening to tapes, for example). They may also become bored by listening to the
teacher all the time”. Here the teacher doesn't talk much, she talks a little but clearly means and the
teacher can also turn on the atmosphere, not feel bored.

According to Jeremy Hamer (2002, p.18), “What a word means is often defined by its
relationship to other words. For example the meaning of full by saying it is the opposite of empty;
we understand that cheap is the opposite of expensive”. The teacher here uses word means on
vocabulary memorization. She shows several pictures, where each picture has a partner. We have to
guess it and that's how we memorize vocabulary. For example, she shows a picture of a child who
feels hot and the partner of the picture is a scooter. The teacher connects the words hot and
scooter, "the child feels hot because that child has played scooter"

I was impressed by this video because Setenay (the teacher), she is not a native speaker but
he can be a good English teacher. Especially in memorizing vocabulary that uses brain-based
strategies. the way he explained was quite interesting, she always made a positive atmosphere in
her class like smiling when explaining. I who watch it only from YouTube can feel the atmosphere.

The conclusion of this video is how to remember vocabulary for young students in an
interesting and effective way. By using a brain-based strategy, she means to connect several
interconnected words. She likens the brain that controls the nerves in his body, such as the hand,
the brain connects the nerves to the hand so that the hand can move. Therefore, he uses this
method to practice memorizing vocabulary on his students.
 REFERENCES

Brown, H Douglas. (2000). Teaching by Principles, 2-12. New York: Pearson ESL.

Harmer, Jeremy. (2002). The Principal of English Language Teaching; third edition, 37-55.
Malaysia: Longman
Picture 1: The teacher warm up with students

Picture 2: The teacher discusses the connection of the brain to the hand

Picture 3: Explain vocabulary using picture that have the same meaning