My Original Master Piece: Story about English Learning in Junior High School

English Teaching When I’m  Junior High School

Here I will tell a little my experience I study English in High school exactly Junior High School. I won’t tell it completely (from I’m in 7^th class until 9^th class), I just tell it based on what I remembered at the time. Studying English is something fun but sometimes something boring (because it’s difficult to learn) and it may be depend on system of teaching or how the teacher teach. And I am one of people considered that English is lesson boring and hard to learn at the time, I don’t know why I stated like that, whether I am stupid or the teacher doesn’t teach with proper teaching technique. The most boring thing is when the teacher uses the same method and technique in teaching various materials.

My teacher is a woman. As the teacher does in general, when she entered to our class, she always gives us greeting and we answered her greeting. Then she would explain about the material that we learn for example the material is Simple Present Tense. She would write the form, characteristic of the tenses and several samples of Simple Present on the white board. Then she explained points of the material. After doing it, she asked us (the students) to read the points that are written on the white board together appropriated with what she said. As usual after asking us to read them, she would ask whether we are understand or not. If we don’t understand about the material, she would repeat to explain it. But if we understood, she would give us the exercises that related tense. Same treatment when she taught other material that related speaking and reading/writing such as expressions, recount text and others. But there is a little different of those, that is exercise. The exercise of Reading is she ordered us to read a text and analyze a text then translate it to Indonesian word. The exercise of speaking is she ordered us to make dialogue with partner then practice in front of class. Her teaching way used Grammar-Translation Method.

Almost the English lesson that my teacher taught related speaking, reading, and writing, so there is no listening drills whereas property is used is complete enough. Actually I myself don’t know why listening drill didn’t explore in the class. But how lucky I am, because on outside class hours I joined extracurricular “English Club” that is executed by School. In there I could increase my listening skill (that I didn’t get in my class) with watching English movie, listening English music and others. The class is used is very colourfull   and it’s different of our learning class is not interested. And in this extracurricular, English lessons looks more fun. Teaching is more attractive because it uses games and audio-visual media. And the games that I ever played is Scrumble, since that I do like the game so much. It is similar with Dessugestopedia Method. Honestly I get a lot of new vocabularies there, beside that I can’t find word “boring” in learning English any more so I felt I was playing.

From teaching English in the two different places (class and extracurricular), I get some benefits from both of them. When learning in the class I can learned more serious and more intensive although sometime it made me boring because I just sit, write and speak. But when I learn in the extracurricular, I felt happy and very spirit to learn English. I also can increase listening skill there.