Exploring EFL Students’ Experience in Developing Daily Lesson Plan for Teaching English for Toddler

Planning English for Toddler lesson is a sophisticated process faced by English as Foreign Language (EFL) students. The lesson plan should be available before implementation to increase the effective teaching process. By having a different lesson plan template to a regular lesson plan, this study explores EFL student experience in developing daily lesson plans for teaching English to toddlers. A narrative approach was employed in this study. The subjects of this study were 6th semester EFL students who took English for Toddler course. Drawing on semi-structured interview data, we found that students face several challenges in developing daily lesson plans for teaching English to toddlers. Participants experienced challenges in preparing content in a lesson plan, learning media, model, teaching method, and assessment. This study emphasizes the importance of training of developing a lesson plan for teaching English for toddler. Further studies will facilitate EFL students’ skills to develop a lesson plan for teaching English for Toddler.

Planning in a lesson is essential for a teaching-learning process (Sahin-Taskin, 2017). Planning will expand the various steps that will be carried out in the classroom, which is very helpful for teachers for the success of the learning. A lesson plan is a tool that can help teachers to process each step in a lesson. In the lesson plan, the teacher will prepare to start by reviewing the core competence and basic competence from the syllabus, searching for learning resources, choosing the media, determining the material, selecting the learning method, and compiling competencies and goals (Emiliasari, 2019).
Lesson plan templates will be different for different levels of education. Toddler education, kindergarten, and elementary, junior, and senior high schools have specific templates. For this reason, students or preteachers need to understand these differences. Emiliasari (2019) explained that many students, prospective teachers, and teachers in EFL still have difficulties formulating learning outcomes and indicators, selecting materials, determining learning activities, choosing materials and learning resources, time allocation, and developing assessment procedures (Jasmi, 2014). Briefly speaking, making lesson plans 96 is naturally challenging for pre-teachers and EFL teachers.
This study is interested in knowing students' opinions about the experiences and challenges they face while making lesson plans from the English for toddler course, which is also the final project in the lecture. During lectures, they have been taught about lesson plan templates, development programs, core competencies, basic competencies, media and learning resources, and evaluations that should be in toddlers.
Under the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia Number 146 of 2012 concerning the 2013 Curriculum for Early Childhood Education, the development program includes six parts, namely religious and moral values, physical-motor, cognitive, language, socialemotional and artistic. The regulation also describes the core competence and basic competencies. Media and teaching resources are adjusted to the characteristics and competence of achievement of early childhood development. Unlike the case with evaluations at the early middle and upper secondary levels, for toddlers, assessment or evaluation is carried out in the form of daily assessments, which include observation checklists, teacher anecdotal notes, and student work.

Research design
The research uses narrative design by Connelly & Clandinin (1990) by digging through sixth-semester students' experiences in one of South Kalimantan's private universities. We were looking for their experience in making a lesson plan for English for Toddler and their difficulty and obstacle while making it.

Participants
This research has two participants, which are participants one and two. Each of them is a student in a private university in South Kalimantan. Their participation was considered for two reasons. The first reason is that both of them agreed to share their experience. The second reason is that both participants obtained the highest score possible for their final assignments in English for Toddler course.

Data and data analysis
Data was obtained through a semistructural interview done through Zoom online application. The interview was done at two different times between the two participants. It was conducted in two languages, English and Indonesia; it depends on which language is easier for participants. While the interview was conducted, we asked for participants' consent to record the interview and translate the result of the interview to English after transcribing it. Three things have become the main themes in the conducted interview, which are students' understanding of developing teaching toddler lesson plans, training in developing a lesson plan, and challenges in developing teaching toddler lesson plan.

Result
Based on the analytic result, it was found that there were three research result themes. They are students' understanding of developing teaching toddler lesson plans, training experience in creating lesson plans, and challenges in developing teaching toddler lesson plans.

Students' understanding of developing teaching toddler daily lesson plan
Before developing the lesson plan process, students have to understand the lesson plan components which should be included. Daily lesson plan for teaching toddler has different format than senior or junior high school lesson plan. Participants one enjoy the process of developing daily lesson plan. Previously, she has teaching experience for toddler and is fond of teaching toddler. Therefore, she understands the components should be included in daily lesson plan for On the contrary, Participant two has confused at the beginning of developing daily lesson plan because many components should be organized in it. She consequently asks for lecturer assistance to have a proper lesson plan.

Training session for developing lesson plan
In English for Toddler class, Toddler teachers are presented in the class to share their experience on how to teach toddler and how develop lesson plan for teaching toddler. Then, it was followed by classroom project to develop lesson plan for teaching toddler. Students can consult their project with the lecturer to get constructive feedback. Participant one is assisted by regular consultation meeting with the lecturer as the lecturer give constructive feedback. She meets the lecturer once a week to report her progress. While participant two is helped by the existence of toddler teacher mentoring, provided by the lecturer on English for Toddler class. Toddler teachers present how to develop daily lesson plans for teaching toddlers and explain the process clearly.

I experience a comfortable training program when our guest speaker or toddler teachers explain the concept of daily lesson plans for teaching toddlers.
Their explanation is so easy to understand and gives us a real example. (Participant two, Zoom Interview, June 10, 2022)

Challenges in developing teaching toddler lesson plan
Students face the challenges of organizing among the components, competencies, teaching activity, theme, and assessment. Participant one felt that is quite complicated process when she had to create one classroom activity. Still, at the same, she has to adjust the activity with all of the lesson plan components such as cognitive, psychomotor, social-emotional, gross motor, and fine motor. She is also in doubt about how effective her daily lesson plan is because she does not perform her lesson plan in an actual classroom setting.

Discussion
Developing lesson plan allows EFL pre-service teachers to implement pedagogical theories in teaching students in classrooms (Emiliasari, 2019). Both participants are Sixth semester students who have enrolled English for Toddler class. They learn how to develop daily lesson for teaching toddler by lecturer assistance and toddler teachers' explanation. Both participants understand the process lesson plan designed especially for teaching toddler. They recognize what components should be included and why the lesson plan for teaching toddler has its arrangement.
According to the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia Number 146 of 2012 concerning the 2013 Curriculum for Early Childhood Education, the development program includes six competencies, namely religious and moral values, physical-motor, cognitive, language, social-emotional and artistic. From the finding, it is indicated that participants face similar challenges in developing daily lesson plans. As a classroom project, they must design their daily lesson plan for teaching toddlers with the theme given by their lecturer. Both participants have difficulty finding appropriate material to match toddler competencies. Participant 1 is helped by lecturer feedback and her prior toddler teaching experience during the daily lesson plan for teaching toddlers. While participant 2 is supported by the toddler teacher's explanation during lesson plan development. The role of mentors is quietly essential to assist the pre-service teacher in developing daily lesson plan. In this process, pre-service teachers can understand why certain practices do or do not work in the classroom (Boreen et al., 2009). It is also vital to help EFL preservice teachers check their knowledge on the language teaching and learning principles by identifying the gaps in the learners' selection activities (Li & Zou, 2017).

Conclusion
Developing lesson plans is a complex process that teachers should be careful designing. Teachers will get lost during the teaching process without a proper lesson plan. An ideal lesson plan should meet the minimum component of lesson plan. The lesson plan for teaching toddler has its components, and some the pre-EFL pre-service teachers might face several challenges in developing the lesson plan. This research intends to explore pre-service teacher experience in developing daily lesson plans for teaching toddlers and their challenges during the daily lesson plan process. Both participants share similar difficulties in organizing teaching material, classroom activity, teaching media, and assessment. The existence of training sessions by toddler teachers and lecturers during the process of lesson plan development is considered valuable support for EFL preservice teachers. This research only focuses on EFL pre-service teacher developing daily lesson plans for teaching toddlers. Further research is suggested to explore more about how the EFL students develop weekly and monthly lesson plan for teaching toddler and