THE DIFFICULTIES TEACHING SPEAKING FOR YOUNG LEARNERS: TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Speaking is one of four skills that should be mastered by EFL students. However, teachers found several difficulties while teaching speaking, especially for teaching young learners. The difficulties come from the students themselves, but the teachers’ techniques of teaching can cause a problem too. This paper intends to share the teacher's difficulties in teaching speaking for young learners and how to solve those problems. The methods that the writers use in this paper are descriptive research. The data were collected using a questionnaire delivered to elementary school teachers around Purwokerto, which are formal and non-formal schools. The finding shows that the teachers face the same problems in teaching speaking, such as students cannot remember the pronunciation and cannot understand the material well. This paper provides solutions that teachers can use to achieve a higher quality
of teaching speaking especially for young learners and make students improve their skills in speaking. To conclude, the teachers are suggested to employ the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM) and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in teaching speaking to young learners expected to help the class such as the use of drilling, pictures, and songs.