Using Learning Strategy of English for Young Learners to Create the Textbook of Gorontalo Language for Elementary School as an Effort to Maintain Gorontalo Cultures

Abstract

Teaching Gorontalo language is one of the Gorontalo government efforts to maintain Gorontalo culture. It has been being taught in elementary schools for years and continuously becomes the government concern. In the previous research (Husain, Bay and Mamu, 2017), the result of questionnaire generally indicated that the textbook used in teaching Gorontalo language was not colorful and attractive and the content was too monotonous. Additionally, certain teachers did not even use any textbook to teach and just tried to browse material on the internet. This research intends to create a textbook that will be used for teaching Gorontalo language in elementary schools based on the syllabus produced in the first year of research. Syllabus and textbook are created by adapting English for Young Learners (EYL) learning strategy. The content focuses on traditional musical instruments, traditional songs, traditional games and traditional dances and is introduced simply and nicely to the students as in EYL learning strategy. The students will have two benefits; they can learn Gorontalo language and its cultures at the same time. The research applies the Research and Development Method (Sugiyono, 2014, p. 297) to create the textbook of Gorontalo language with five main steps namely (1) creating the textbook; (2) validating the textbook; (3) textbook trial in elementary school; (4) Evaluating the textbook; (5) producing the textbook. Textbook as the research output is expected to provide a new sight of Gorontalo language learning for both teachers and students by adjusting EYL learning strategy to sustain Gorontalo culture.