THE LEVEL OF LANGUAGE LEARNERS

By Asarika Fajarini


INTRODUCTION

Teachers must have knowledge related to their concern. In language learning, teachers have to understand everything which supports the language. In this paper we will talk about parts of the learning language, those are language views and level of language learning.

A language is considered to be a system of communicating with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought. When we communicate, we need kind of rule. It’s related in the language views. The language views itself consists of three parts. Those are structural views, communicative views and interactional views of language.  It’s become very important if we study about language.

Beside talk about language views, it will also discuss about the level of language learning. In language learning, the learners will be divided into several divisions according in his proficiency about language.

DISCUSSION

A. Language Views

According to Richards and Rodgers (1986) there are three language views which are reflected in current approach of language learning. Those are:

1)      Structural view of language

The structural view of language is that language is a system of structurally related elements for the transmission of meaning. The target language learning is seem to be the mastery of the elements of this system. These elements are usually described as phonological units (phonemes), grammatical units (phrases, clauses, sentences), grammatical operations (adding, shifting, joining or transforming elements), and lexical items (function words and structure words).   

Some of the areas of research in this view of language: linguistic analysis and textual discourse analysis. The target of language learning, in the structural view, is the mastery of elements of this system.Some of the language learning methods based on this view of language are:the Audio-lingual method, Total Physical Response, and the Silent Way.

2)      Communicative view of language

Communicative view of language is also called functional view of language is the view that language is a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. The semantic and communicative dimensions of language are more emphasized than the grammatical characteristics, although these are also included.

Some of the areas of research in this view of language: sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and semantics. The target of language learning is to learn to express communication functions and categories of meaning.Semantics is the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, andsentences. Pragmatics is concerned with our understanding of language in context. Two kinds of contexts are relevant. The first is linguistic context—the discourse that precedes the phrase or sentence to be interpreted; the second is situational context—virtually everything non-linguistic in the environment of the speaker.         

The Wilkins’s Notional Syllabuses is an attempt to spell out the implications of this view of language syllabuses design. Some of the language learning approaches and methods based on this view of language are: communicative approaches, functional-notional syllabuses, and the natural approach. A notional syllabus would includes not only the elements of grammar and lexis but also specify the topics, notions, and concepts the learners need to communicate about. The English for Specific purposes begins from functional account of learner needs (Robinson, 1980).

3)      Interactional view of language

The interactional view of language sees language primarily as the means for establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships and for performing social transactions between individuals. Language is seen as a tool for creation and maintenance of social relation.

Some of the areas of research in this view of language: interactional analysis, conversational analysis and ethno methodology. Interactional theory        focuses on the patterns of moves, acts, negotiations, and interaction found in conversational exchange. 

The target of language learning in the interactional view is learning to initiate and maintain conversations with other people. Some of the language learning approaches and methods based on this view of language are:  Strategic interaction and communicative approaches.

B. The Level of Language Learning

According Harmer (1998) there are three basic levels of language learners. Those are beginner, intermediate, and advanced. These categories are further qualified by talking about real beginner and false beginner. Between beginner and intermediate, people often class the students as elementary. The intermediate level itself can be sub-divided into lower intermediate, upper intermediate, and even mid-intermediate. The following diagram shows the different level.

Beginners:

Success is easy to see at this level and easy for the teacher to arrange. But then is so failure. Some adult beginners find that learning language is stressful then they expected. However, if things are going well, teaching beginners can be incredibly stimulating and great fun. It may be restricting for the teacher, but the pleasure to see the success of the students is invigorating. 

The students at beginning level have little or no prior knowledge of the target language. The teacher becomes a central determiner in whether students accomplish their goals.  Beginners are highly dependent on the teacher for model of language. Some students who gain their proficiency are able to initiate few questions and comments of their own that may then occasionally shift the locus of control. At the beginning level, students can be creative only within the confines of a highly controlled repertoire of language. Innovation will come later when students get more language under their control.

The listening and speaking ability of beginners are limited by grammar, vocabulary, and length of utterance. The reading and writing topics are confines to brief but nevertheless real-life written material.

Intermediate students:

Intermediate students have already achieved a lot success in learning the language. Sometimes, it may seem to them, they don’t improve that much or that fast anymore. It is called Plateau effect and teachers should make strenuous attempts to show students what they still need to learn without being discouraging. One of the ways of doing this is to make the task we give them more challenging and to get them to analyse language more thoroughly. We need to get them to set clear goals for themselves so that they have something to measure their achievement by.

At the intermediate level some automatic processing has taken hold. Phrases, sentences, structures, and conversational rules have been practices and are increasing in number. Sometimes some students become overly concerned about grammatical correctness and may want to wander into esoteric discussions of grammatical details. Students are becoming more capable of applying their classroom language to unrehearsed situations.

Advanced students:

Advanced students already know English a lot. There is still the danger of Plateau effect so teacher should create a classroom culture where learning is not seen as learning a language little bit by little bit. At the advanced level, we need to be able to show students what still has to be done and we need to provide good clear evidence of progress. Teacher can do this through a concentration not so much on grammatical accuracy but on style and perceptions of appropriacy, connotation and inference, helping students to use language with more subtlety. At this level, teachers have to encourage students to take more responsibility for their own learning.

Advanced students develop their fluency along with a greater degree of accuracy and able to handle virtually any situation in which target language use is demanded. They are no longer thinking about every word or structure they are producing or comprehending. At this level students can focus more carefully on all the sociolinguistic nuances of language. Pragmatic constraints are common areas needing work as students fine-tune their production and comprehension in terms of register, style, the status of the interlocutor, the specific context of a conversational exchange, turn-taking, topic nomination and termination, topic changing and culturally conditioned language constraints. Advanced students’ reading and writing has progress closer to native-speaker competence as they learn more about such things as critical reading.

According to Brown learner variables divide into 2, teaching across age levels and teaching across proficiency levels. In teaching across age levels consist of teaching children, teaching adult and teaching teens. Otherwise in teaching across proficiency levels includes beginning, intermediate and advance level. 

1.      Teaching across age levels

a.       Teaching children (up to the age of about eleven)

To successfully teach children a second language requires specific skills and intuitions that differ from those appropriate for adult teaching. There are five categories may help give some practical approaches to teaching children :

1)      Intellectual development

2)      Attention span

3)      Sensory input

4)      Affective factors

5)      Authentic, meaningful language

b.      Teaching adult

Because of adult and children are different so there is a different treatment to. Some management “: do’s” and “don’ts

Do	Don’t
§  Remember that even thought adult cannot express complex thinking in the new language, they are nevertheless intelligent adult with mature cognition and adult emotions. §  Give your students as many opportunities as possible to make choices about what they will do in or out the classroom.	§  Treat adults in your class like children §  Discipline adults in the same way as children

c.       Teaching teens ( ages range between twelve and eighteen )

The “terrible teens” are an age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness, growing and changing bodies and minds. Teens are between childhood and adulthood, therefore avery special set of consideration applies to teaching them.

2.      Teaching across proficiency levels

a.       Beginning

b.      Intermediate

c.       Advance

The differences among them:

Term	Beginning	Intermediate	Advance
Student’s cognitive learning process	In focal controlled mode	Automatic processing	Full spectrum of processing
The role of the teacher	Teacher-centered	Only the initiator of language	Class run away with itself
Teacher talk	Crucial	Not occupy the major proportion of a class	Natural language at natural speed
Authenticity of language	Simple greeting and introduction	Overly concerned about grammatical correctness	Everything from academic prose becomes a legitimate resource
Fluency and accuracy	Limited utterance length	Crucial	An occasional treatment
Student creativity	The confines of a highly controlled repertoire of language	Give more opportunities to be creative	Can apply material to real contexts beyond
Techniques	Short, simple	Complexity	Full range of sociolinguistic and pragmatic competencies
Listening and speaking goals	Meaningful and authentic communication task	Increase steadily	More carefully on all the sociolinguistic nuances of language
Reading and writing goals	Their literacy level in their own native language	Increasing complexity	Progress closer to native speaker competence
Grammar	Very simple form	Small doses of short, simple explanations of points in English.	Beyond some basic grammatical pattern

CONCLUSION

Knowing the language views and level of language learning will help teachers to decide with technique and methods which suitable for their students. This also can help teacher to run the lessons effectively and efficiently.

E. REFERENCES

Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language. New York: Longman

Harmer, Jeremy. 1998. How to teach English. UK: Longman

Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching. UK: Longman

Richards, Jack C. and Theodore S. Rodgers. 1986. Approach and Methods in Language Teaching. UK: Cambridge University Press.

http://www-01.sil.org/lingualinks/LANGUAGELEARNING/PrepareForLanguageLearning/ThreeViewsAboutTheNatureOfLang.htm accessed on October 20th, 2015