It has long been believed that meaningful learning is an important element of language learning. Meaningful learning is about making connections between what learners already know and new information that we’d like learners to know. According to Ausubel (1978) if I had to reduce all of cognitive psychology to one principle it would be this: the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly. As a teacher, we need to help learners to activate what they already know about what we are going to be teaching as new information. Teachers need to help students feel a happy sensation when getting new information or receive new and useful information in learning. Becoming an English teacher in Indonesia has quite severe challenges because English is still considered a foreign language. Many people assume with the patience and intensity that is often in learning people will be able to master English. However, reality shows that years of learning English at school do not simply lead students to be able to communicate in English. The problems might then start from the ineffective process of learning. Maybe the factor of learning English is not optimal intentional learning, constructive learning, active learning, cooperative learning, and authentic learning as principles of meaningful learning are not implemented. Most of the highlighted meaningful learning principles are ignored in the teaching process. It leads to a conclusion that more meaningful and effective alternative methods need to be introduced to English teachers to help a student get positive sensation in learning.
Reference
Ausubel, D. (1978) Educational Psychology: a Cognitive View Holt, Rhinehart and Winston