Page 51 - E-Modul Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris SD

In 1960s, the matter of teaching a foreign language during the early
age was a topic of many discussions. After the war, in many methodological

books it was said that children can easily absorb, imitate and produce the
new language. Learning of languages in the early age is connected with the

habit of repeating words and sentences in a foreign language and acquisition

of language material with the help of various memory techniques. The
technique of frequent repetition of the material, as the main key to learning

a language, is also supported by many psychologists such as Watson and
Thorndike. In many psychological books, it is easy to find many completely

different definitions of habit. According to “May Saronic psychologizing”,

habit is well-practiced through numerous repetitions: actions which are done
always in the same way and automatically. This definition can bring one to

a wrong opinion that one should always react in the same way. Lade definite
habit as fluency in using units and models of a particular language in

answering while attention is not paid to units but to content. There are many

more definitions of habit written by A. Szulc, Lompscher or Rubinsztejn,
but all these definitions come down to the conclusion that the habit is way

of mechanic, unconscious repetition and conscious production leading to the
conscious process where consciousness is removed so long as the automatic

element is eliminated. In this case, the fact that the process of repetition is
the most important comes from the opinion of psychologists based on the

theory that acquiring the mother tongue comes from the imitation of adults.

There are also certain reasons directly influencing and shaping the process
of learning and its efficiency:

age - after the age of 10, language acquisition ease diminishes. Children’s
minds lose their flexibility and it is not that easy to acquire a language.

Younger learners have better and more specific memory but have less ability

to learn and need more repetitions. Children are more willing to imitate but
have a very short concentration span. Their mechanical memory is better

than that of the adults, and their short memory is more dynamic and more
effective. The older the child, the more specific the way of learning is. Older

children have their own range of memory, their long-term memory is more

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