Proceedings | International Seminar on English Language Teaching and Research (ELTAR) 2017

INTEGRATING CHARACTER BUILDING INTO TEYL IN INDONESIAN CONTEXTS:

WHY AND HOW?

Nasuha
Universitas Islam Malang, Malang
nasuha.nour@gmail.com

Abstract: The issue of character building on Teaching English for Young Learners (TEYL) has been
pervasive in English language teaching (ELT) practices. Research in this field has also been carried out for
years. Various ways to integrate character building have emerged and been employed by teachers around
the world since reinforcement on building young learners’ characters needs to be inculcated in teaching
process. As it is a good start to empower young learners not only through knowledge about language but
also through introducing positive characters, the current issues about how teachers implement character
building in English Language Teaching are worth to be discussed. Making the most of opportunities to
instil certain values of religiosity, nationalism, independence, cooperativeness, and others while teaching
English to young learners is a vital process that teachers should pay attention to. Therefore, this present
paper attempts to describe considerations of implementing character building as a closer look for EYL
teachers in teaching practices based on Indonesian national education goal. In this paper, furthermore,
the ways of how teachers promote character building for young learners are also depicted and
elucidated. The characters which are discussed in this paper focuses on Indonesian contexts.

Keywords: English language teaching, English for young learners, character building.

INTRODUCTION

Character building has been emerging to be one of the most current issues discussed in English
Language Teaching field especially in Teaching English for Young Learners (TEYL). A cornerstone of the issue
is that the inculcation of character building which is considered to be the most effective in early ages. It is
believed that whatever the children be in the future has a significant link with the characters imbeded in
them (Agboola & Tsai, 2012). Characters and values are not innate to young learners; however, they must be
taught, learned and honed through practice and a conducive environment (Shancez, 2000). Due to that
reason, it is very essential to reinforce good characters through practical ways in teaching learning process.
Hence, it is a responsibity for teachers to integrate character building into the teaching of English to Young
learners.
The implementation of character building plays a pivotal role in teaching young learners and the
main actors for this big responsibility are teachers whose duty is not only teaching but also educating. It is
the best way for teachers to help their students not only in developing their academic skills but also
developing their noble characters since children are ‘active learners and thinkers’ (Cameron, 2001). Good
character can assist young learners to adjust their behaviours, so they can be great and educated citizen in
the future. Good character starts from knowing a good thing, wanting a good thing, and something good
(Lickona, 2003). To actualize the reinforcement of good characters, teachers are required to choose learning
activities, materials, and methods which deal with the noble values insertion in teaching and learning
process. As a result, young learners can manifest those valuable characters in their way of thinking, habits
and actions.
The integration of character building into EYL classroom apparently brings some advantages for
learners of the early ages. It helps young learners learn to think before they act, to understand fundamental
differences between right and wrong, and to make good decisions. Furthermore, Ryan (1999) explained that
teaching and learning process emphasizing character development can help to improve students’ academic
 Proceedings | International Seminar on English Language Teaching and Research (ELTAR) 2017

achievement and communication skills thus encouraging a tougher sense of indepence and self-confidence.
Some researchers argued that young learners possess a fascinating potency in learning new languages.
However, without putting their linguistic competence aside, it is a vital need to reinforce some noble
characters by ways of accommodating through lesson, instilling through learning activity, delivering through
teaching methods used, and planting or practicing through everyday life. This notion is also suggested by
Berkowitz & Bier (2004) that the central goal of such an education is the development of what can also be
understood as ‘sociomoral competency’.
The education stakeholders especially teachers should not disregard character building; however,
they ‘must find ways to infuse the curriculum with character building’ (McElmeel, 2002). Nevertheless,
character building might be one thing that tends to be absent in language teaching. The assumption is based
on the reality that education today emphasizes more on teaching materials (Creswell, 2008). Therefore, it
implies that teachers need to improve their knowledge about how to build characters of young learners. The
five core values of Indonesian context which include ‘religious, nationalist, independent, cooperative and
integrious’ are worth to be strengthened. Classroom habituation and language learning activities are
integrated to imbed noble values and good characters to young learners in their English classroom.
Accordingly, young learners are expected to improve their academics, emotional and cognitive
developments and social interactions. It is in line with Indonesian national education goal which states “To
develop the potential of learners to become human beings who has strong faith and believe in one God,
have noble character, healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become democratic and
responsible citizens”.
There has been some practical evidence connecting character building to the teaching of English for
young learners either in global and local context. One of the evidence is a study done by Maulidya and
Santihastuti (2011) reporting the integration of character building content in kindergarten English teaching
through the theme “The environment”. It explored the use of songs, games, stories, and other activities as
ways of building young learners’ character through routines and habit formation. The manifestation of
character building mentioned in the study is in line with philosophy of character education of Indonesia
stated by Ki Hajar Dewantara which includes four pillars; literation, estetic, ethics, and kinesthetic. Frankly
speaking, the insertion of character building is of necessary because language teaching requires more than
the teaching of language (Albantani & Madkur, 2016). In this sense, it transfers and reaches beyond a
particular language being learnt.
The empirical studies discussed above imply that character building on English for Young Learners
(EYL) has already been incorporated in instructional practices from time to time. Thus, the issue of character
building implementation in EYL classroom need to be highlighted. As the main holder of character building,
teachers need to be provided with ample references which emphasize the urgency of constructing young
learners’ characters which are basically different from adults and also manners in which teachers can help
learners to develop their own characters, especially when learning English. Therefore, this paper is worth to
be presented since it explores two essential points: (1) The reasons why character building should be
integrated into TEYL; (2) The ways to integrate characters such as ‘religious, nationalist, independent,
cooperative and integrity’ focusing on Indonesian context into TEYL. Those points will be elaborated as
closer look for EYL teachers to teach and educate students based the goal of Indonesian national education .

Definition of Character Building

Character building based on Oxford Dictionary is defined as a requiring effort or endurance to a
degree that strengthens or improves a person's character. The term ‘character building’ has been mentioned
by Indonesian national education system law no.20 of 2003 chapter 3, which states that the goal of national
education is to develop educated people with life skill and good character building. The expectation of
integrating character building into curriculum of education is to able to cope in crisis of human character and
culture. Character building as a smaller part of character education which is already implemented is
expected to bring great impact for many aspects of life.
Character education was developed into three different types; classroom-based, school culture-
based, and community-based character education (Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture,2013). For
classroom-based, there are three options of ways how to actualize character building in classroom. The ways
 Proceedings | International Seminar on English Language Teaching and Research (ELTAR) 2017

are by employing the integration of character into subject matter, optimization of local content and
classroom management. While the second type, school culture-based, can be manifested through
habituation of values in schools’ activity, exemplary educator, school ecosystem, and norms, rules and
school tradition. The last type is community-based which means involvements of parents, school
committees, education activist and so forth.

Teaching English for Young Learners (TEYL)

Young learners are children of 5 -7 years old assumed as the beginner level one and children of 8-10
years old as the beginner level two (Scott & Ytreberg, 1990). Teaching English for young learners put
teachers in a privileged situation because it is a chance to play an important role in helping them find their
direction in life and their place in the international world (Paul, 2003). This privilege also carries with it a
great responsibility and how we teach can have a profound influence on the learner’s future. Therefore,
focusing on the teaching of the English language is not enough for young learners. The deeper and wider
responsibilities must be carried out whenever interacting with young learners. In addition, whenever
teaching young learners, teachers also have to ask themself about what kind of adults that young learners
want to be in the future.
The first thought that teachers have to possess when teaching children is the long term goals of
teaching and best ways how to achieve them. For instance, teachers want them to communicate in English,
feel positive about English, have a deep understanding of English patterns, vocabulary and usage and
continue to be confident, self-motivated active learners. Furthermore, widers goals might be another long
terms mission. For instance, teachers expect that young learners are able to face difficulties and overcome
them, able to reflect and question themselves and treat each other with care and consideration.
Teaching English, according to Paul (2003), also can be the lens through which young learners view
the international world, and the lesson itself becomes a central role in encouraging or discouraging
international attitudes. In order to foster international attitudes, he elaborated some principles that
teachers should know and put them into practice when they are teaching English. The principles which are
meant to help them achieve their goals are stimulate their interests in the world, focus on similarities not
differences, introduce differences in a positive way, avoid stereotypes, help young learners to feel
comfortable with differences, help young learners to feel comfortable with themselves and their cultures
and lastly focus on attitudes more than knowledge. In brief, it can be obviously drawn that teaching English
for young learners are going beyond the apparent outcomes of making young learners the master of English
because teaching in this sense is also to help them to manage their attitudes or characters for better future.

The Current Practices and Researches of Character Building in TEYL

Several researches has been carried out to answer the question of why character building should be
inserted in teaching young learners. There are conceptual studies and field-based studies which attempt to
explore character building integration into young learners’ classroom. Character building can be considered
the same as character education since these two terms are used interchangeably in different studies. Some
of the studies in this topic were carried out in ESL and EFL contexts.
A study done by Maulidyah and Santihastuti (2011) reported the integration of character building
content in kindergarten English teaching. This study was carried out in Indonesia where English is positioned
as a foreign language or EFL context. Another one is Irwansyah’s study (2013) which investigated local
context particulary Islamic values internalization into teaching English for young leaners. In ESL context,
Almerico (2014) did a study on exploring character building through literacy of children’s literature. As a
conceptual study, it attempted to reveal the use of children’s literature in US to bring impact on learners’
characters. There are still many more of studies which discuss this topic in both ESL and EFL contexts. The
results of those studies maintaning the same answers that character building is paramount of inportance.
Those studies mentioned above are the evidence of the real action of teachers who are aware of the
need of character building integration especially for young learners who are learning new language. For
young learners, character education can become an everyday opportunities (Milliren & Messer, 2009).
According to Cooley (2008) the promotion of character education should not be just a leap service but has
an action plan for practice. He also states that the common belief of character education is psychological and
 Proceedings | International Seminar on English Language Teaching and Research (ELTAR) 2017

philosophical perspective that virtues can be taught and learned through the proper pedagogy. All in all,
teaching English is an opportunity to imbeded fundamental values to young learners rather than only
introducing new language.

METHOD
A library research under descriptive-qualitative approach was employed in this recent study.
Descriptive-qualitative is defined as a research design discovering the who, what, and where of events or
experiences and on gaining insights from informants regarding a poorly understood phenomenon. Through
the spirit of this design, this study attempts to describe the closer look of integrating character building in
teaching English for young learners which focuses on reasons and ways based on plethora of references. The
study was focused on reviewing literatures and previous empirical studies.

FINDINGS

The Integration of Character Building Which Focuses on Indonesian Context into TEYL
The initial goal of character building is to exemplify good character characteristics for students
(Skaggs & Bodenhorn, 2006). It should not be taken lightly because it would have foundational and
everlasting effects on the young learners of the future in displaying their character. When good traits are
gradually imbeded to young learners, teachers should think how their good trait can affect the lesson learnt.
Therefore, the promising hope of implementing character building is to make critical links between the
lessons in the classroom and benevolent action in life. Good values or characters being build and English
lesson being taught become two inseparable things since characters and language have to be integrated.

Why Should Character Building be Integrated into TEYL?

The actualization of building character will provide beneficial learning experience that can be
obtained not only to develop in ethical, experiential, and intellectual foundation of character, but also those
experiences continue extending throughout learners’ lives. As an illustration, young learners who learn
English encounter new experiences from the classroom. These experiences might help their ethical,
experiential, and intellectual development, so young learners can manifest ‘those so-called new experiences’
to their future life.
For clearer and further elaboration, the following points are some reasons underlying the practices
of connecting character building to teaching English for young learners which are depicted as follows:
(1) Formation of self-identity as a nation will be formed indirectly. If intercultural approach is used in
teaching and learning English, young learners in the future has the purpose to understand something
‘unknown’ or foreign culture. However, it can happen only if learners understand and recognized their own
culture, so a good understanding of their culture will be a base moving to foreign culture understanding.
Therefore, it is the role of character building to make learners firstly aware of their own culture; (2)
Development of the emphaty and the tolerance on something ‘unknown’. Young learners need the ability to
train themselves to be emphaty and tolerant. These good characters should be developed properly.
Moreover, Indonesia are multicultural, so emphaty and tolerance are paramount of importance; (3)
Elimination of the negative stereotype towards foreign cultures within the learners. In the future, young
learners will need to avoid negative stereotype. In their age, they need to be taught either directly or
indirectly how to prevent negative stereotype, especially towards their friends. As a consequent, teachers
should find the appropriate ways to teach positive attitudes to young learners.
The character building is more effective under the condition of encouraging students with good
character traits which also are “legitimized, modeled, and reinforced by school and teachers” (Romanowski,
2005; Agboola & Tsai, 2012). Therefore, there are several beneficial suggestion for the implementation of
character building confirmed by Romanowski (2005) which should be taken into account by teachers and
those are (1) the involvement of the teachers in program planning will increase faculty support and
commitment, which in turn improve the effectiveness of the program; (2) with regard to the curriculum, it
 Proceedings | International Seminar on English Language Teaching and Research (ELTAR) 2017

should be relevant to students’ life and also challenge them intellectually, emotionally, and socially; (3)
administration should support and give enough space for teachers to exercise flexible pedagogy in specific
character traits; (4) conducting class discussions could effectively engage students in the program. Further,
through the reflection, it will lead to the opportunities of in-depth discussion; (5) finally; the responsibility of
the school is to develop an environment in which reinforces bright sides of students learning and behavior,
thereby students practice those good values they learned from the character education program.

How is Character Building Integrated into TEYL?

According to Albantani and Madkur (2016), the integration of character education in foreign
language teaching, especially English can be implemented through: (1) accommodating the character values
with the lesson, (2) instilling character values in every learning activity, (3) delivering the character values
through teaching method used, and (4) planting and practicing character education values through everyday
life.
a. The Integration of Character Building through Instructional Practices
Character Building in Lesson Plan
One of the ways to observe what characters are to be incorporated in English teaching is by
observing the indicators which are written in teachers’ lesson plan. Indicators refers to basic competence
from which the basis for teaching materials, learning activities and learning outcome assesment and
designing are developed.
As the example of indicators in English lesson plan for young learners under the theme “Times” are
(a) students can identify ‘times’ in English correctly; (b) students can respond the teachers’ instruction well;
(c) students can mention ‘times’ with a good pronunciation and correct intonation; (d) students can make
questions and answer about ‘times’ in English correctly. These indicators do not mention the values or
characters briefly; nonetheless, some values are implied from indicators. In point (a), the value which is
implied is ‘independent’ and ‘hard-working’ because students is not likely able to identify times in English
correctly without ‘being independent’ and ‘hard-working’.

Character Building in Teaching and Learning Process

It is the most essential for teachers to instil certain values and noble characters into teaching and
learnings process. Since English as a subject being learnt consists of four-integrated skills namely listening,
reading, speaking and writing, teachers are given wide opportunities to put many forms of values into
practices. Teachers might employ different ways of teaching. There are three main stages in the process of
teaching and learning which include pre activitiy, main activity and post activity.

Pre Activity
In this stage, the pre activities are commonly praying together, greeting the teacher, warming-up
activities or some other kinds of activities to begin the lesson. Young learners are encouraged to developed
religiosity and courtesy, for example. These two values are inherent in praying activities before lesson is
started, so teachers encourage young learners to possess religious characters. The teaching of building
characters can also be reinforced through childrens’ routines in order that they are accostumed to behave
well. It was confirmed by a study carried out by Qoyyimah (2016) in Indonesian state schools in which the
value of religiosity was strongly infused through the religious ritual activities promoted by the school
community and through routine activities in their EFL classes.

Main Activity
For the main activity, it usually focuses on language skills activities. When teachers give team-work
activities as their instructions, the value of cooperativeness is inherent in team-work activities inherent.
When teachers give individual activity such as drawing or matching as the main instruction, the value of
independence were strengthened through those activities.
 Proceedings | International Seminar on English Language Teaching and Research (ELTAR) 2017

Post Activity
The post activity is when lesson almost comes to the end, so they are kinds of giving homework to
young learners, asking about learners’ impression about the material, and the last is praying together. The
teachers can also tell directly to young learners that they have to be diligent and responsible in doing
homework. It means that the values of ‘diligence’ and ‘responsibility’ in this sense are taught directly.
Although the activities might not be exactly the same as what have been mentioned above. It is
important to note that it depends on teachers’ decision and creativity to match learning activities and
character values since Shin (2012) argued that creativity is the key when teaching English for children, both
in English as foreign language or EFL context and English as a second language or ESL

b. The Integration of Character Building through Activities

Teachers can make the most of songs and games in young learners classroom because of their
powerful engagement for students. It will be more valuable for the songs and games if moral values and
positive characters are enacted in those kinds of ativities.

Character Building through Playing Games

Games are activities that seem to be favourite for all young learners. These activities are suggested
for children since games activate all senses and make them actively move and play. Games are much often
played in group, so it can motivate children to get involved in the class activities and good develop their
social skills such as responsibility and collaboration. This is in line with the statement of Berkowitz and
Hoppe (2009) that effective character education relies heavily on a set of strategies that promote or even
require peer-to-peer interaction. When playing games, young learners can stimulate their encouragement to
be winners and loosers. Hence, it is like a competition for young learners to win the game by raising one of
their characters namely ‘competitive’.

Character Building through Singing Songs

Song is one of the effective ways in teaching children. By teaching English using songs, children can
gain vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, rhythm of the language, grammar, listening skills in a fun way
without necessarily realizing that they are actually learning. For the purpose of integrating character
building, teachers need to choose English songs with magnificent content. What is more, songs can also
accompanying students’ routines since there are multi-various of songs which is good for young learners.
Rukiyati, et. al. (2014) confirmed that the inculcation of values through traditional songs becomes a model of
character education in kindergartens in Indonesia. Several songs are applicable for espousing character
building and one of which is ‘Hello My Dear’ which composed by Neno Warisman and Aulade Gumintang. In
this title, religiosity can be derived.

c. The Integration of Character Building through Media

Teaching young learners often have a great demand on the use of interesting media. The followings
are several media that are considered useful for espousing character building based on previous researches
either in ESL or EFL contexts.

Character Building through Puppets

It is no exaggeration to say that puppet is the simplest form of creativity teachers can make. The
puppets can be made as characters which are familiar for students such as characters in animation movie.
The characters were utilized as the teaching aids to show a simple dialogue in English. These characters are
used to bring concepts and actions to life and allow for a unique and effective brand of communication.
Since there are so various kinds of puppets, teachers also can use traditional puppets ands bring the
traditional story of Indonesia. Hence, the puppets’ character should be embodied as the good ones, so
young learners can be influenced by the characters.
 Proceedings | International Seminar on English Language Teaching and Research (ELTAR) 2017

Character Building through Children’s Literatures

Childrens’ literatures bring character education into a crowded curriculum by embedding character
lessons in reading and language arts instruction. The primary reason given for using literature in character
education is the relevance to the lives of the children that literature can afford (Edgington, 2002). The U.S.
Department of Education Office of Communication and Outreach (2005) suggested reading character
themed books to and with children, encouraging older children to read on their own, and discussing the
books with children will help them absorb and develop the values of strong character (Almerico, 2014). This
kind of children literatures vary in terms of genre such as fiction, information, poetry, and picture books for
all age levels. Teachers should select and find the best-suited literature for young learners. There has been
ample evidence on previous researches that children literature is highly recommended for actualizing
character building.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Conclusion
Character building is a very essential element which is inseparable with English Language Teaching,
especially in Teaching English for Young Learners. Pertaining the fact that young learners are children who
are in the golden age, it is the best time for them to be instilled with good moral values. They need to be
gradually introduced with noble values and characters, and also need to be accustomed to keeping good
traits. Therefore, character building plays an important role in teaching EYL. However, it can not be
implemented in very short time and also can not provide direct results. It is a gradual process which needs
endless support from education stakeholders, especially teachers. Regarding with its advantages, it brings
positive impacts for students in academic, social interactions and emotions. Therefore, the integration of
character building in the teaching and learning process should not be taken for granted. To implement
character building in young learners’ classroom, teachers has many options to determine the ways they
should incorporate it with learning activities. In addition, for reinforcing character building, teachers also can
utilize learning media and supplementary materials. In a nutshell, character building is a vital component of
Teaching English for Young Learners (TEYL).
Suggestions
It is suggested for future researchers to explore more ways of integration of character building since in this
present study, the researcher decided to review only some literatures which is closest to the topic being
discussed due to time constraints. There area still many insightful references to be explored in order to give
the readers more informations about whys and hows of integration character building in Teaching English for
Young Learners (TEYL). Since this present study is non research-based, it is suggested for next researchers to
put this conceptual research into practices.

REFERENCES
Agboola, A., & Tsai, K. C. (2012). Bring character education into classroom. European Journal of Educational
Research, 1, 163-170. doi: 10.12973/eu-jer.1.2.163.

Albantani, A. M., & Madkur, A. (2016). Integrating character education values in language teaching: Why and
how? Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309556734.

Almerico, G. M. (2014). Building character through literacy with children’s literature. Research in Higher
Education Journal, 26, 1-10. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1055322.pdf

Berkowitz, M. W., & Hoppe, M. A. (2009). Character education and gifted children. High Ability Studies, 20,
131-142, doi: 10.1080/13598130903358493.
 Proceedings | International Seminar on English Language Teaching and Research (ELTAR) 2017

Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching language to young learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cooley, A. (2008). Legislating character: Moral education in North Carolina’s public schools. Educational
Studies, 43 (3), 188-205. doi:10.1080/00131940802117563.

Creswell, J. W. (2008). Educational research planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and
qualitative research. 3rd Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Edgington, W. D (2002). To promote character education, use literature for children and adolescents. The
Social Studies, 93, 113-116, doi:10.1080/0037799029599893

Irwansyah, D. (2013). Integrating local context to teaching English for young learners (EYL). Rumah Jurnal
IAIN Metro, 1, 69-77.

Lickona, T., Schaps, E., & Lewis, C. (2003). CEP’s eleven principles of effective character education,
Washington, DC: Character Education Partnership. Retrieved from
http://www.character.org/uploads/PDFs/Eleven_Principles.pdf

Maulidyah, H. & Santihastuti, A. (2011). Integrating character building content in kindergarten English
teaching. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/4726537

McElmeel, S. L. (2002). Character education: A book guide of teachers, librarians, and parents. Greenwood
Village, CO: Teacher Ideas Press.

Milliren, A., & Messer, M. H. (2009). Invitations to character. Journal of Invitational Theory & Practice, 15, 19-
31.

Paul, D. (2003). Teaching English to children in Asia. Hongkong: Longman Asia ELT

Qoyyimah, U. (2016). Inculcating character education through EFL teaching in Indonesian state schools,
Pedagogies: An International Journal, 11, 109-126. doi: 10.1080/1554480X.2016.1165618

Romanowski, M. H. (2005). Through the eyes of teachers: High school teachers' experiences with character
education. American Secondary Education, 34 (1), 6-23

Rukiyati, et. al. (2014). Value inculcation for early chilhood through traditional Javanese songs. Retrieved
from http://staff.uny.ac.id/sites/default/files/penelitian/dr-rukiyati-mhum/b19-value-inculcation-
early-chilhood-through-traditional-javanese-songs-2014.pdf

Ryan, K., & Bohlin, K. (1999). Building character in schools: Practical ways to bring moral
instruction to life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.