Abstract

Realia: the Effective Media for Teaching English for EYL

Siti Suharsih
[email protected]
Aisyah Hamidiyah
[email protected]

Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University, Serang-Banten

Since government declared that elementary school could add one lesson in their curriculum,
English is considered to be the favorite subject added to the curriculum. Since then, many
elementary schools put English as one lesson for the students. However, applying English for
elementary students, especially for state schools, gives big challenge. It becomes big
challenge since the teachers have to give best performance in teaching even in insufficient
condition of the schools. Many problems arise from the schools such as the lack of facility,
classroom management, books and also the educational background of the teachers. In the
aspect of classroom management is about media, method or technique.
It is important to set the classroom to be fun and to be interesting. One of the efforts of
making interesting teaching learning process is taking real object to the classroom. This
technique is called realia. Realia is various kind of visual which can be effectively by EFL
and EYL. Realia provides real-life object to class room. This study aims to describe how
realia applied by English teacher in their classroom. The writer observed the class and then
gave some questions to some English teachers who teac in some elementary school. The
school was located in Serang Kota, that is SDN 03 Serang Kota. The writer gave the
questions to some teacher of that school. From the answer from the questions, it can be found
out that realia can be interesting media for elementary students. They knew the objects by
experiencing those objects. This experience made them happy in learning English.
Key words: Realia, effective media, teaching English

I. Introduction
The Ministry of Education in Indonesia has made the decree no 060/U/1993 which stated that
all of the State Elementary Schools in Indonesia could put English lesson in the curriculum.
The basic reason why English should be taught from first grade of State Elementary School is
that, because English is considered as the important skill to be mastered. The skill is needed to
face globalization when English is used as international language all over the world.
Based on the observation from some state schools in Serang Kota, a capital city in Banten
province, some schools are still lack of facilityto support media for teaching English. They
don’t have English laboratory where the students can practice listening and pronunciation.
They don’t have sufficient material to teach English since books for children are very limited.
Moreover, some of the English teachers do not have English as their basic education.
Those problems might be more than what the writer has mentioned above. Especially for the
English teacher, she/he is the one who faces the real condition in class room. Knowing the
real problems of teaching English for the Elementary School, it is expected to find the
solution of those problems.
Regarding to the fact and phenomenon, the researcher is interested in conducting the research
dealing the implementation of teaching English using realia for Elementary Student. By doing
the research, the researcher will explore teacher’s answer and opinion about teaching learning
process during they teach using the media.
Teaching English for young learner needs creative effort to be more interesting. One of the
efforts is that preparing real object in teaching process in the classroom. Presenting real
objects in classroom is realia. As Chiarantano (2005) said that realia consists of real object or
items which are used in the classroom to illustrate and teach vocabulary. In other side,
Chiarantano (2005) added that realia is used as an alternative aid to facilitate language
acquisition and production. Realia concretizes vocabulary and language and places it in a
frame of language.
Realia supports the fact that young learners are in the process in acquiring new vocabulary in
their level. In acquiring new vocabulary or new words, young learners need to have the real
concept of world presented by words. To help the students to figure out the words and the
concept, teacher needs media to present the idea become reality. For the reason, realia is
considered to be the alternative media to run the teaching process to be more enjoyable and
interesting.

II. Theoretical Foundation

Teaching English to Young Learner

Teaching English to young learners need a very much understanding of the characteristics of
the learners, skillful in managing the classroom and good ability in the language.
Young learners are very special; they are in their period to get the ability in a second
language. There is a golden age for learning a language. Tahta, Wood and Loewenthal
(1981:45) state that children will be better in language learning before the age of 8, while
Long (1990:24) remarks under the age of 6 will be better for them in learning language. Many
experts go along together that sooner is better in language learning for children because they
will get difficulties in learning new language at puberty or adolescent stages. The young and
adult learners should have different treatment based on their characteristics, needs and ability.
Teaching English as a foreign language to young learners requires that teachers have a
thorough understanding of young learners’ development, needs, and characteristics. It needs a
skillful teacher to be involved in the teaching learning process. There are three assumption of
a skillful teacher as stated by Brookfield (2006:17)
1. Use whatever helps students learn
2. Adopt a critically reflective stance towards their practice
3. Do a constant awareness of how student are experiencing their learning and perceiving
teacher’s actions.
The teachers should also have not only the required personal qualities, but also training in the
discipline and fields of study appropriate to the language teaching process because young
learners’ needs are different from adults’ need, they need:
 Affirmation of their abilities and interests
 To believe that they are contributing to the class
 To feel a sense of belonging, that they matter to others
 Self-confidence, safety, trust, and acceptance
  Interaction with others
 To connect new information to their lives
 To learn in an orderly, clean, and well-light environment in which their work is
displayed
(Tomlinson, 2002; Miller and Tallal, 2006; and Gregory and Chapman, 2002)
The need of young learners to interact with others should bring the classroom into a
communicative and meaningful atmosphere. Classroom management is a key to skilled
teaching and enhances learning by optimizing time on task. It is the teacher’s responsibility to
create a welcoming and safe classroom which offers a rich learning environment. Thus, the
goal of teaching learning can be achieved.

Teaching Media
Teaching language needs good and interesting media. Media used in the teaching learning
activity will keep the learner focus on the teacher, thus the classroom will be on teacher’s
control. The media used should be effective and interesting; Suyanto (2007: 6.4) said that the
use of effective and interesting media in teaching can help the students understand the
material easily. There are kinds of media can be used in the teaching learning English to
young learners, they are:
• Flashcards
• Diagram
• Chart
• Poster
• Video/film
• Animation
• Audio
• Power point
• Smart board
• Puppet
• Realia
The creativity of the teacher will give functions to the media used.

Realia
If a teacher brings a rose or sunflower, a rabbit or a cat, a stove or a pan, into a classroom to
help her/him in teaching, she/he is using realia. Realia helps to make English language input
as comprehensible as possible and to build "an associative bridge between the classroom and
the world" (Heaton, 1979 in Smith, 1997). Learners can directly connect the language to the
objects mentioned in the material. By having realia in the classroom, young learners can
develop their multi-sensor function by experiencing the learning “through seeing, hearing,
touching, and manipulating" items (Rivers (1983, in Smith, 1997). The teaching learning
process will be effective and enjoyable, and most of all they will not forget the activities in
the classroom.
There are advantages of presenting realia in the teaching learning process:
• Kinesthetic learning is the type of learning that students will most effectively acquire,
mostly because they will have hands-on experience.
• The use of realia brings a welcome change in the class, a break from typical class
activities like reading and writing.
• The unexpectedness of having to suddenly interact with real objects will keep students on
their toes; it will create excitement, and they’ll have fun.
• Students have the chance to practice real life situations like using maps and asking for
directions in a foreign language, but with the guidance of someone who speaks fluently
and will help them get it right. Once they hit the street, they will feel more confident in
speaking the language with the locals.
• Students will clearly understand the reason they’re learning a particular ESL component.
Instead of wondering when and where they might have use for a particular language
element, they’ll know the reason. (Smith, 1997)

Teaching English to young learners using realia

Drinkwater suggested the use of realia in teaching English to young learners, she used tennis
ball, dried bean, plastic bags, scarf and many others to help learners to connect between words
and objects (2008).
A research done by Chiarantano (2005) proved that Using realia in the EFL classroom serves
to foster a more creative and active teaching-learning environment and promotes cultural
understanding. The realia used in the teaching learning should be appropriate with the
material and the learners’ condition.
Chiarantiano (2005) suggested some realia used for teaching English to young learners as
mention below.
- to teach vocabulary for animals, clothing, fruit, use actual objects or facsimiles thereof
(pieces of clothing, toy animals, plastic fruit). For young learners, it's a very useful tool in
making the abstract concrete.
- to introduce learners to Canada (or countries) use a Canadian flag, a map of the world, and
photographs of Canada. Create a picture of a country, introduce and practice target vocabulary
and sentence patterns (for example: I'm from Japan), and serve as a springboard to compare
and contrast Canada with Japan (Japan is part of Asia. Canada is part of North America.)
- to teach prepositions of place (such as on, in, under, next to, in front of, over). Objects can
be placed on a desk, in a desk, under a desk and so on.
- to create a dialogue using the present simple tense and present perfect tense use chado (The
Japanese tea ceremony)
- to tell a story use Christmas cards as a means to explain the concept of Christmas and some
of its many traditions, to illustrate Christmas images such as Santa Claus, reindeer, candy
cane, Christmas trees, poinsettia and to teach Christmas greetings such as "Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year. Christmas cards provided a springboard to get my students to talk
about their own holidays and customs.

Marier (2004) matched the use of realia with the activities can be done in the teaching
learning process. The students are designed to be involved actively in the activities. One
activity mentioned by Marier (2004) is below:
Alphabet Soup
Materials
One large soup pot
Eight cups chicken,beef,or vegetable broth
Various vegetables, such as carrots, green beans, cabbage, peas, potatoes, mushrooms, onions,
tomatoes
1⁄4 to 1⁄2 lb. alphabet noodles
One bay leaf
Two teaspoons each of oregano, thyme, and basil (or to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Knife for chopping (for adult use only)
Plastic knives (optional)
Activity
This is an excellent group activity and a great way to involve parent volunteers. About a week
ahead, send a letter home asking families to provide some of the ingredients for the soup.
Place the soup stock in a large pot. Simmer the stock as you chop the vegetables. If
appropriate, have the children help chop the softer vegetables using plastic knives. Then each
child can help add the vegetables he or she brought to share. Cook the alphabet noodles
according to package directions. Drain the noodles and add to the soup.
Season the soup with herbs, salt, and pepper. Provide bowls, spoons, and napkins, and ask
students to set the table for the meal. As children and parents eat their soup, talk about the
alphabet letters in the soup!
Note: You can also do this activity using canned alphabet soup. If you don’t have access to a
kitchen, portable stove, or microwave oven, serve children alphabet cereal with milk for a
healthy, fun snack.
Teacher can take the advantage form the activity above. Not only the teacher can teach the
vocabulary but also can advance the teaching to procedure text as it has a specific generic
structure.

III. Methodology
Place of research was taken from one of state elementary schools in Serang Kota. It is SDN
03 Serang. SDN 03 Serang is located in city center and it is in the middle of housing complex.
The number of students in this school is quite large, since each class has around 48-50
students.
Research methodology is qualitative. Researchers used qualitative design to describe the
implementation of realia. Qualitative is a method which gives descriptive data in written or
spoken from the observed community (Surahmad, 1986:21). Data were taken from the result
of the interview and source of data are two English teachers who teaches English in SDN 03
Serang. The questions were designed to get vivid picture of the classroom situation during the
teacher implementing realia.
In qualitative, the instrument is the researcher herself (Miles and Huberman, 1996: 23). To
collect the data researcher use interview with 5 questions. The questions are listed in
appendices. Interview is chosen since this technique helps the researcher get sufficient data
for the research. A type of interview is individual interview (Kvale, 1996: Silverman, 2005).
Researcher used semi-structured interview (Nunan, 1992: 142) that is one technique in
interview which tries to give a freedom for the researcher to get the data. Interview was done
individually in class room.
 IV. Discussion
Data were taken from the interview b y the researchers to some English teachers. There are
two English teachers in SDN 03 Serang. They are Miss Iis and Miss Neni. The questions are
spread to gain the information about the implementation of realia in teaching English. The
result of interview is described as follows:
The implementation of Realia in teaching English
When researchers asked about the concept of realia, both of the teachers said that they have
not got the idea of realia. However, when the researchers explained that the concept of realia
was taking real object to classroom, both of respondents understood the concept. The two
respondents agreed that realia was an alternative media to help students understand the
meaning through real object. By teaching English using realia, students were easy to
memorize some words. One of the respondents, that was Mss Iis, said that realia was best
used for students in first level. In this level, students were having many problems in
understanding their new language, that is English. By realia, the concept of meaning did not
only rely on abstract one, but it relied on the concrete one. The implementation of teaching
English using realia had some varieties. One of the respondents implemented teaching using
realia by providing some real object. If the teacher wanted to give some vocabulary about
fruit, the teacher asked the students to take the fruit from their home. Then, teacher gave the
name of the fruit. Here was the illustration of teaching vocabulary using realia (based on
teacher explanation)
Teacher: anak-anak sekarang keluarkan buah-buahannya dan letakkan diatas meja
(then the students put the fruit on the table).
Teacher: Siapa yang hari ini membawa apel?
(some of the students raise their hand)
Teacher: Ya.., apel dalam bahasa Inggris adalah apple. Sebutkan sama-sama ya.., apple
(Students follow their teacher’s instruction. They mention the name of the thing, that was
apple)
Students: Apple (they mentioned the name of the fruit together)
Teacher: yang membawa pisang siapa?
(Some students raise their hand and show the fruit)
Teacher : pisang bahasa Inggrisnya banana. Sebutkan lagi bersama-sama. Banana
(Students said together, banana)
Teacher : ada yang membawa jeruk? Siapa yang membawa jeruk?
(Some students raised their hand)
Teacher: siapa yang tahu apa bahasa Inggris nya jeruk?
(Students answered, orange…..)
Then teacher asked the students for every fruit they took. After they knew the name of each
fruit, teacher asked them to eat it. During the activity of introducing new vocabulary of fruit,
the teacher also gave the concept of another part of speech. For instance, when they were
eating the fruit, the activity of eating was also introduced by the teacher. Here, the students
didn’t only recognize noun, but they also recognize verb.
Miss Iis then gave the opinion that implementing realia was a basic concept of understanding
the meaning of word. By implementing realia, teacher had given interesting and fun situation
in learning English, especially in vocabulary. Interesting and fun situation was considered as
PAKEM (Pembelajaran Aktif, Kreatif, dan Menyenangkan). By realia, students were
promoted to be active; trying to find new words based on the thing they brought. The activity
of students led the students to be more creative for they also tried to find new word in others
part of speech. Finally, the students felt happy in learning new words. When the process of
acquiring new words make them happy, Miss Iis said that the media was effective enough to
help teacher. The opinion from the teacher (Miss Iis) supported Read’s opinion (2003), that
was young learner should be accommodated with interesting and enjoyable situation.
Moreover, realia also met the criteria of having natural, contextual and part of a real event
(Read, 2003)
In other hand, based on the result of the interview with other the teacher, that is Miss Neni,
she sometimes asked students to go around the classroom. She explained that for acquiring
new vocabulary of flower, teacher mentioned the name of flowers which were planted outside
the classroom. Mss Neni gave others examples that she brought some miniature of car when
she wanted to introduced new vocabulary related to car. She explained the components of car,
such as door, wheel, and also shape of the car. Besides, she also took some pictures to the
classroom. She felt the response of students was very good, and they were motivated in
learning English. However, one of the obstacles in implementing realia was that the number
of students. Most of state elementary schools have large students. Miss Neni complained that
she couldn’t manage the class very well. Particularly, when she asked the students went
outside, the students must be in chaos. To cope the problem, the teacher (Miss Neni) used
mixture technique, that was realia and contextual teaching learning. She explained the mixture
of the two techniques by asking students to mention some words related to the things in their
class. Here was the illustration given by the teacher:

Teacher: coba perhatikan, apa nama benda yang diduduki oleh kalian?
(Students answered together, kursi….)
Teacher: kursi bahasa Inggris nya apa?
(chair…)
Teacher: ya betul. Kalau kursinya panjang seperti ini (show the long object made from wood)
namanya apa?
(Students answered bangku…)
Teacher: ya, bangku bahasa Inggrisnya apa? Ada yang tahu tidak? (no students can answered
the question) ya, bangku itu adalah bench. Ayo ucapkan sama-sama
(students mention the name of the object, bench…)
Teacher: mana dinding?
(students touch the object)
Teacher: dinding bahasa Inggris nya apa?
(some students answered wall)
Teacher: ya, good. Dinding itu dalam bahasa Inggrisnya adalah wall

The illustration above showed that the teacher led the students to relate real object in their
classroom and the name of the object. The teacher said that it is called a mixture technique
with media; they are between contextual teaching learning (providing object based on
students’ environment and students’ life). Basically, As Chiarantano (2005) said that realia
consists of real object or items which are used in the classroom to illustrate and teach
vocabulary. In other side, Chiarantano (2005) added that realia is used as an alternative aid to
facilitate language acquisition and production. Realia concretizes vocabulary and language
and places it in a frame of language. From the opinion and also the fact, realia needs to be
contextual since the object is around the students. Miss Neni added that she also asked the
students to have little observation around their school. She mentioned one example, that was
when she wanted to describe toys, the students were asked to go to the nearest kindergarten
where there were many kinds of toys. She watched the students while the students were
having observation. Next, after the students finished, they worked it with their group and they
had to find the name of the objects using English. Finally, the students reported it and then she
discussed with the students. Therefore, she thought that realia is media that can be combined
with many techniques.

The result of discussion above shows that realia is an alternative media which provides many
advantages for teacher and for students. One of the advantages got from this media is giving
classroom more interesting. Interesting design of classroom is a fundamental way for
elementary teacher to persuade and asked students learn English without forcing them. Realia
also supports students to be more creative and active. They can involve in work group, and
they can find the name of the object by having discussion with the group. From this case,
realia can be a bridge to build cooperative and collaborative activity.
To provide real object, teacher can use many ways. She doesn’t only take a real object, but
she can bring a picture of the object, miniature of the object, and also pointing some objects
around students’ environment. For this case, realia can be also combined with contextual
teaching learning. There for, realia can be one alternative to give English teaching learning
effectively.

References

Brookfield, Stephen. The Skillful Teacher: on technique, trust, and responsiveness in the
classroom. Fransisco: Jossey-Bass. 2006.
Chiarantano, Stefan. ‘Realia’. http://www.usingenglish.com/weblog/archives/000228.html.
Drinkwater, Nicola. Games and Activities for Primary Modern Foreign Language. UK:
Pearson Longman. 2008.
http://busyteacher.org/2842-realia-esl-classroom.html
http://iteslj.org/articles/smith-Realia.html
Marrier, Lisa Schwimmer. 101 Alphabet Activities. Michigan: Totline Publications. 2004.
Miles and Huberman. Analysis Data Qualitative. A Source book of Method. Baverly Hills.
Sage Production. 1996.
Nunan. Research Methods in Language Learning. New York, Cambridge. University Press.
1992.
Surahmad, Winarso. Pengantar Penelitian Ilmiah 1982.
Watkins, C, Carnell, E, Wage, C. Effective learning in classroom. London: Paul Chapman
Publishing. 2007.
biography
1. Nama : SITI SUHARSIH
2. NIP : 197608052001122003
3. Jabatan Fungsional : LEKTOR/ III B
4. Tempat dan tanggal lahir : SERANG, 05 AGUSTUS 1976
5. Jurusan : PENDIDIKAN BAHASA DAN SENI
6. Program Studi : PENDIDIKAN BAHASA INGGRIS
7. Alamat Kantor : JLN. RAYA JAKARTA KM 5 PAKUPATAN
SERANG
8. Alamat rumah : KOMPLEK KELAPA GADING BLOK T/20 KSB
SERANG - BANTEN
9. Pendidikan :
a. S1
1) Program Studi : -
2) Jurusan : BAHASA DAN SASTRA INGGRIS
3) Perguruan Tinggi : UNIVERSITAS DIPONEGORO SEMARANG
4) Tahun Lulus : 2000
b. S2
1) Program Studi : PENDIDIKAN BAHASA
2) Jurusan : PENDIDIKAN BAHASA
3) Perguruan Tinggi : UNIVERSITAS NEGERI JAKARTA
4) Tahun Lulus : 2008
c. S3
1) Program Studi :
2) Jurusan :
3) Perguruan Tinggi :
4) Tahun Lulus :

10. Mata kuliah yang diampu :

a. Reading 1
b. Reading 2
c. semantics
d. sociolingusitics
e. general English

11. Bidang kepakaran : Reading dan Sociolinguistics

12. No. Telp. Rumah : 0254 209855
13. No. HP : 081513069008
 14. Penelitian yang dilakukan (5 tahun terakhir)

No. Judul Penelitian Tahun

Students Difficulties in Speaking Ability
1. 2007
2. Is Female Better Than Male in Speaking? 2009
3. Jane Eyre: Pengenalan nilai-nilai Kesetaraan Gender 2010
Melalui Karya Sastra Klasik

I. IDENTITAS DIRI

1.1 Nama Lengkap (dengan gelar) Aisyah Hamidiyah

1.2 Jabatan Fungsional Lektor

1.3 NIP 197803022001122002

1.4 Tempat Tanggal Lahir Serang, 2 Maret 1978

1.5 Alamat Rumah Kp Kareo rt 03/05 Baros-Serang

1.6 Nomor HP 081911165434

1.7 Alamat Kantor Program Studi Pend. Bahasa Inggris

Fakultas Keguruan Dan Ilmu Pendidikan

Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa Jl.

Raya Jakarta Km.4 Pakupatan Serang

1.8 Nomor Telepon (0254)280330

1.9 Alamat e-mail [email protected]

1.10 Lulusan yang telah dihasilkan S1 = 25 orang

1.11 Mata Kuliah yang diampu 1. Morphology

2. Phonology
 3. PPLK
4. Structure II
5. Reading II

II. RIWAYAT PENDIDIKAN

2.1. Program S1 S2 S3

2.2. Nama PT Universitas Pakuan Universitas Negeri UNIKA

Jakarta (UNJ) Atma Jaya
(dalam
proses)

2.3. Bidang Ilmu Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Metodologi dan

Pendidikan Bahasa

2.4. Tahun Masuk 1996 2004 2011-

sekarang

2.5. Tahun Lulus 2000 2007

2.6. Judul The correlation between Pelafalan B,Inggris

writing achievement and mahasiswa FKIP prodi
Skripsi/ speaking ability Ing Untirta
Tesis/

Disertasi

2.7. Nama 1. Haedar Alwasilah. 1. Prof. Emzir

2. M. Sanyoto 2. Prof. Jenny
Pembimbing/
m.t. Harjatno
Promotor

III. PENGALAMAN PENELITIAN

No Tahun Judul Penelitian

 Sumber pendanaan

Sumber Jumlah

1. 2004 Students’ Difficulties in LPPM- Rp. 3000.000

Improving Speaking Skill Untirta

IV. PENGALAMAN PENULISAN ARTIKEL ILMIAH DALAM JURNAL

No Tahun Judul Artikel Ilmiah Volume/Nomor Nama Jurnal

1 2005 Is female better than male in III/5 LPPM

speaking ability
Journal

2 2010 Faculty of Teacher: Some I/I1 DEALT Journal

Logical Reasons