THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH SENTENCES BY KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS ( A CASE STUDY AT PRIMEONE SCHOOL MEDAN).

THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH SENTENCES BY

KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS

( A CASE STUDY AT PRIMEONE SCHOOL MEDAN )

A Thesis

Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora

By:

Kartika Kasanopa

Registration Number : 8136112036

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM

ABSTRACT

Kasanopa, Kartika. Registration Number: 8136112036. The Acquisition of English Sentences by Kindergarten Students with Different Ethnic Groups ( A Case Study at PrimeOne School Medan). A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics. Postgraduate School. State University of Medan. 2015.

ABSTRAK

Kasanopa, Kartika. 8136112036. Pemerolehan Kalimat Bahasa Inggris Pada Murid-Murid TK Beda Etnis (Sebuah Studi Kasus di PrimeOne School Medan). Tesis. Program Lingusitik Terapan Bahasa Inggris. Pascasarjana. Universitas Negeri Medan. 2015.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, the researcher would like to express her thankfullness to God

the Almighty who has blessed her to complete this thesis in order to fulfill one of

the requirements in obtaining the degree of Magister Humaniora of the English

Applied Linguistics Study Program Graduate School at state University of Medan

(UNIMED).

This thesis would not have been brought into existence without the help

of several people. On this account, the writer would like to express her sincere

indebtedness to those who have given her valuable advice, suggestions and

guidance in the writing of this thesis.

First and foremost, she wishes to express her heartiest gratitude to Prof.

Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd, her first adviser as well as the head of LTBI and Dr.

Anni Holila Pulungan, M. Hum her second adviser, for their guidance,

encoragement, kindness and advice that have improved this thesis. Her sincere

thankfulness is given to all lectures: Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed., TESP, Dr. Sri Minda

Murni, M.S. and Dr. I Wayan Dirgayasa Tangkas, M. Hum, as her viewers and

examiners, tutors of English Applied Linguistics Department for transferring their

precious knowledge and experiences. Her indebtedness is also given to all staff of

Graduate Program at the State University of Medan for their kind services during

her study.

Further, her deepest appreciation goes out to those closest to her heart,

Sry Ulina, S.Pd, brother: Arswendo Karo-Karo and her fiance : Chevinta Marthin

Luther Meliala, ST. Thanks for your love, encouragement and prayer. Her beloved

friends Miranda, Rafika, Mey, Nora, Indra Jayanti, Umroh, her classmates in

LTBI B3/ XXIII, her friends in Permata and KAKR GBKP Nogio Delitua, her

friends in PrimeOne School for the support in finishing her study.

Last but not least, her humble gratitude also goes to the Chief of Prime

One School Foundation : Mr. Amrin Susilo Halim; Academic Director of Prime

One School: Ms. Fauziah, SS, M.Hum; the Principle and Vice Principle of

Pre-school Department of PrimeOne School: Ms. Rosmina Salim, BBA and Ms.

Giovani, Ms. Stephanie. Moreover her appreciation is given to Principle of

Elementary Department of PrimeOne School; Ms. Lieni and the vice principles.

Thanks to teachers, especially Ms Darlia and Ms. Lenni, for your cooperation and

kindness during collecting the data. A sincere thankfulness also goes to her great

and lovely students (Kindergarten-2 Dolphin) for their mental support and

comfortable friendship. She offers her regards and blessings to all of those who

support her in any respect during the completion of this study.

Medan, August 2015

The Writer

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... i

ABSTRACT ... iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... v

LIST OF APPENDIXES ... viii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Background of the Study ... 1

1.2 The Problem of the Study ... 5

1.3 The Objectives of the Study ... 6

1.4 The Scope of the Study ... 6

1.5 The Significance of the Study ... 7

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Language Acquisition ... 8

2.1.1 Linguistic Approach as way to understand Language Acquisition ... 8

2.1.2 Psycholinguistics Approaches to Second Language Processing... 11

2.1.3 Language Acquisition of 4-5 years old children ... 12

2.1.4 Characteristic of 4-5 years old children ... 14

2.2 The Acquisition of English sentence... 17

ii

2.3.1 Declarative form ... 19

2.3.2 Negative form ... 20

2.3.3 Interrogative form ... 20

2.3.4 Exclamation form... .. 21

2.4. The Process of Language Acquisition ... 22

2.4.1 Stages of Language Development ... 24

2.5 Process os Acquiring English Sentences... 26

2.6 Reason of Acquisition English sentence ... 28

2.7 Kindergarten of different ethnic children ... 30

2.7.1 The meaning of kindergarten ... 30

2.7.2 The age and the charateristics of kindergarten student ... 31

2.8 Different Ethnic Children in POS ... 33

2.8.1 Chinese Ethnic Children ... 33

2.8.2 Bataknese Ethnic Children ... 34

2.8.3 Javanese Ethnic Children ... 36

2.8.4 Indian Ethnic Children ... 36

2.9 The Relevant Studies... 37

3.0 Conceptual Framework ... 39

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design ... 42

3.2 The Subject of the Study ... 43

iii

3.4 The Technique of Data Collection ... 44

3.4.1 Observation ... 45

3.5 The Technique of Analyzing Data ... 45

3.6 The Trustworthiness of study ... 47

CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Data Analysis……… 49

4.2 Research Findings ……… 64

4.3 Discussions……… 65

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusion ……… 69

5.2 Suggestion ……… 70

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1The Background of the Study

Studies of language acquisition in children concentrated on counting the

number of words children had in their vocabularies at a given age. The study of

language acquisition by children is very interesting. It will make better

understanding about the development of the children`s language and knowing

uniqueness of children in producing a language. Chomsky (1965) defines

children in a normal life from two until six years will acquire language with

structure and vocabulary. This is possible because since the birth, they have been

equipped with such a device, called Language Acquisition Device (LAD). The

Language Acquisition Device lets children analyze the language they hear and

extract the rules of grammar that allow them to create new word. It is the reason

why then adults or parents think that the early age the is good period for their

children to acquire English. But the ability and speed in acquiring language is

not relatively same among the children.

Consequently, language acquisition can be seen as a natural process that

will occur to every normal child. Each child will follow similar stages in

language development although they have different speed. Language acquisition

will be impossible when a child is not interacting with his environment. Through

social interaction with the family members and those are in the community, the

language as part of natural process and as a results of social interaction in the

community.

There is a wave of English building up. Within a decade nearly a third of

the world population will all be trying to learn English at the same time. English is

as the dominant medium of communication around the world. In the world of

globalization era, we have realized that English plays most important role.

Nowdays, In Indonesia some international institutions, companies, schools

hospital, hotels, shopping centres etc. They used English as the main language in

their communication. Commonly, the information and technology use English.

Without having knowledge in English, we can not operate computer and internet.

Most of import products which are sold in market are written in English. The

tourism department needs people who are qualified in English. Moreover trading

era also requires English.

Thus, the importance of English has pushed many parents to realize that

they need to introduce English earlier to their children. Parents sent their children

in language schools at early age, convinced that the earlier they start learning, the

better they understand language especially English language. Most of parents who

push their children to totally immerse to the English language will send their

children to those schools which provide teaching learning with full of English.

Children who are sent to this school are expected to be able to speak or

When visiting some international school standards, we will see the young

children are about three to five years old are able to speak English. They use

English to express their feeling in the simple way. The children who learnt in

PrimeOne School are expected to be able to speak or communicate in English.

Those children who study at PrimeOne preschool are come from different ethnics

group. In this study the four ethnics namely Chinese, Bataknese, Javanese and

Indian. The children are taught by using full of English language during teaching

learning in school. The writer can see that all of the children from different

ethnics who study there acquire English sentence. Moreover, the writer was

interested to observe the acquisition of English sentence by the different ethnics

children. The problem dealing with language acquisition here that the

kindergarten students with different ethnics children of PrimeOne School Medan

have different ability in acquiring English sentence.

The majority of research on the acquisition of language focuses on

children`s early utterances, the order in which they emerge and the kinds of errors

they contain. Two complementary methods of data collection are used naturalistic

observation and experimentation. In the naturalistic approach, the researcher

observes and record children`s spontaneous utterances. One type of naturalistic

investigation is the so-called diary study, in which a researcher keeps daily notes

on child`s linguistic progress. A more sytematic way to collect naturalistic data

involves regular taping sessions to gather samples of the child interacting with

teacher or friends. Here is a transcript, containing a fragment of a conversation

that I have observed on the first week of March, 2015 in one of the preschool class

in PrimeOne School :

Teacher : Good morning everybody

Students : Good Morning ms

morning before going to school and at night before going to sleep

The conversation above has shown the acqusition of English sentences by

kindergarten students with different ethnic groups, Jesslyn and Jason are Chinese

students, Agnes is Bataknese student, Tasya and Gulraz are Indian students and

Vanya is a Javanese student. They are able to utter some sentences in descriptive,

interrogative, imperative and exclamation forms.

Therefore, the writer realizes that the acquisition of sentence patterns of

the children are really different which inspires her to conduct a research on

language acquisition. Moreover, Rowland (2014:4) states that it is also important

to note that differences across languages are not the only differences between

children. There are also individual differenecs between children acquiring the

are born with cognitive impairments that prevent them from acquiring language

without a lot of specialist help. This phenomenon has led the writer to make a

research at the age of five years old children. Despite any possible weakness, this

point of view the writer intends to focus on the declarative, imperative,

interrogative and exclamation sentences patterns. It will give a great deal of

knowledge about the psychological and intellectual functioning of the children as

they have been born with some form of innate knowledge.

1.2 The Problems of the Study

Based on the background above, the problems of the study can be

formulated as following questions :

1. What type of English sentences are acquired by the kindergarten

students of different ethnic groups at PrimeOne School ?

2. How do the kindergarten students of different ethnic groups at

PrimeOne School acquire the English sentences ?

3. Why do the kindergarten students of different ethnic groups at

1.3 The Objectives of the Study

In line with the research problem, the objectives of the study are :

1. to find out the types of English sentences acquired by the kindergarten

students of different ethnic groups at PrimeOne School

2. to find out how do the kindergarten students of different ethnic groups

at PrimeOne School acquire the English sentences.

3. to find out why the kindergarten students of different ethnic groups at

PrimeOne School acquire the English sentences in the way they do.

1.4 The Scope of the Study

The study of children language acquisition is a broad are to be studied

because there are so many aspects to be discovered. In this study, the writer only

focused on the English sentences acquisition by the children of different ethnic

groups. The types of English sentences that will be analyzed are limited on

declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamation sentences. The different

ethnics children that will be analyzed here are Chinese, Bataknese, Javanese and

Indian ethnic group. The children who were observed kindergarten students at the

age 5-6 years old at PrimeOne preschool Medan. They had been observed for one

1.5 The Significances of the study

The findings of the study are expected to contribute significantly to

different parts theoretically and practically.

Theoretically these finding will be helpful for;

1. To add teacher`s knowledge in the process of English language acquisition

and as guidelines for them in the process of introducing English to the

students.

2. To enrich knowledge and notice toward children`s language development.

Practically these findings will be helpful for;

1. To enable the teachers to recognize the students`s ability from different

ethnic in acquiring English sentence.

2. To help the other researchers who are interested in gaining some

knowledge about English sentence acquisition by kindergarten students or

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusions

Based on the data and the findings presentd in the previous chapter, the

researcher has formulated the conclusions as the following:

1. The kindergarten students with different ethnic groups in PrimeOne

School have acquired declarative, imperative, interrogative and

exclamation form. The kindergargen students with different ethnic groups

in PrimeOne School has able to form sentences by using to + infinitive

form and able to form their interrogative sentences by using wh-question.

2. The result indicates that the way of different ethnic students of Prime One

School in acquiring English sentences are different. The way of Chinese

and Bataknese students acquired English language by experience and

interaction, imitative naturally, play and work whereas Javanese and

Indian acquired English sentence by imitating and by having little

interaction. The way of Chinese and Bataknese students utterance English

sentences by showing glad, happy, cheerful and curious towards English

then they get a lot of input from their surrounding. While the way of

Javanese ethnic students utterance English sentences by showing shy,

quiet and passive toward English and also by getting less inputs from their

3. The reason why different ethnic of PrimeOne School acquiring the

English sentences in the way they do, the Chinese and Bataknese students

are active, talkative, whereas Javanese and Indian students are passive, less

talkaive and shy. It is due to the role of their parents in caring for the

children, the amount of inputs they got from surroundings in addition of

Chinese and Bataknese ethnic children highly encouraged and motivated

their children whereas parents of Javanese and indian tend to be not really

strict to their children in their interaction.

5.2 Suggestion

After concluding the research, the suggestion are stated as follows :

1. To improve the English acquisition since the early age, the kindergaren`s

teachers and parents are suggested to consider about its supporting factors.

2. For those who are interested in children language acquisition at early age,

suggested to use this study as the small reference

3. Other researchers can develop further study about English acquisition

REFERENCES

Adanza, Estela G.1995. Research Method; Principles and Aplications.

Philihine: Rex Book Store, Inc

Berk, L., & Winsler, A. (1995). Scaffolding Children.s Learning: Vygotsky and

early childhood education. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. (ERIC Document No. ED384443)

Becker-Bryant, J. 2001. Language in social contexts: Communicative competence. In J.

Bogdan, C.Robert., and Billen Sari Knopp.1992. Qualitative Research for

Education. An Introduction to Theory and Methods. 2nd _Edition. Washington: Simon & Schuster.

Chen, X., Rubin, K. H., & Li, D. 1997. Relation between academic achievement

and social adjustment: Evidence fromChinese children. Developmental

psychology, 33(3), 518-525.

Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspect of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press.

Clark, V. Eve. 2003. First Language Acquisition. Cambridge : Cambridge

University Press

Cole, M., & Cole, S. (1993). The development of children. New York: Scientific

American Books.

Creswell, John W. 1995. Educational Research, Planning, Conducting, and

Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Ohio: Pearson Merill Prentice Hall.

Dardjowidjojo, S.2000. Echa, kisah pemerolehan bahasa anak Indonesia.

Jakarta: Gramedia Widiasarana Indonesia.

Dutwin, P. 2010. English Grammar Demysitified. New York : Mc. Graw-Hill

Gasol, Gilman & German .1993. Children and their Environments. United

Kingdom: Cambridge University Press

Gleason, J.B. 1998. Psycholinguistics. USA : Harcourt Publisher.

Goode & William, Hatt. 1982. A Critical Introduction to Its Methods. London:

Greenbaum, S. & Gerald.N. An Introduction to English Grammar. United

Stage. Jurnal Linguistik Terapan Pascasarjana UNIMED, ISSN

0216-5139, Vol. 5, pg.58. Medan : PPs Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris.

Ingram, D. 1989. First Language Acquisition : Method, Description and

Explanation. New York: Cambridge University press

Johnson, Howard..2007. Words, Meaning and Vovabulary . An Introduction to

Modern Lexicology. Great Britain: Cromwell Press

Krashen. 1987, in /http:// LanguageLearning article-A Summary of Stephen

Krashen`s Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition.

htm accessed on Wednesday, June 4th _{,2014 at 9.19 pm.}

Krashen, S.1983. Principles and Practice in School Language Acquisition.

Oxford: pergamon

Lincoln Yvonna S. & Guba Egon G. 1985, Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills

California: Sage Publication

Lindfors,J.W (1991). Children`s language and Learningn (2nd ed). Boston:

Allyn and Bacon.

Lindquist, C.2009. The Use of L1 and L2 in L3 French : Examining Cross

Linguistic Lexemes in Multilinglual Learners1s oral Production. International Journal of multilingualism, vol. 18, No.6, 281-297.

Lorge, I, &Chall, J. 2007.Estimating the size of vocabularies of children and

Adults: An Analysis of Methodological Issues.Journal of Experimental Education, 32, 147-157. vol.17, No.2, 105-125.

Lyons, M. 1970. Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 10.

Malau, Lestari. 2011. The Acquisition of Indonesian Words by Four Year Old Batak Toba Children. Un published M. Hum. Thesis. Medan. English Applied Lingusitics Study Program, Postgraduate School.State University of Medan.

Miles, Matthew B and Huberman Michael A. 1984, Qualitative Data

Analysis. A sourcebook of new Methods. California: Sage publication.

McCharty, D.1954. Language Development in children. Manual of Child

Psychology, 2nd Edition. New York:John Wiley & Sons, inc., pp. 492-630.

Infant Development. USA : Johnson

Napitupulu, V. M. (2011). “Pendidikan sebagai Faktor Dinamisasi dan Integrasi

Sosial dalam Masyarakat Tapanuli Utara”, Pemikiran tentang Batak Setelah 150 Tahun Agama Kristen di Sumatera Utara.Bungaran Antonius Simanjuntak, ed. Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia.

Pavio, Allan & Begg, Ian. 1981. Psycholinguistic. USA: Prentice Hall (

Englewood Cliffs, N.J)

Perales, S., Garcia Mayo, M.P &Liceras, J.M.2009. The Acquistion of English

Negation by Bilinglual( SpanishBaque) Learners in An Institutional Setting. International Journal of Bilingualism, Vol.18, No 2,3-33)

Pulungan, A.H. 2003. The Acquisition of English Negation “No” and “Not” :

Evidences from an Indonesian child in Non-native Parents Bilingual Program. Puslit. Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra, vol.5, No.1, 41-48

Purba, Happy,S.R. 2010. Phonological Processes of Children`s Language

Rowen ML. Pan. BA. 1998. Predictors of variation in maternal talk to children. Parenting : Science and Practice.

Rowland, C. 2014. Understanding Child Language. Great Britain : CPI Group (

UK)

Saragih, A (2008). Teaching Today To Face Challenges of Tomorrow. JurnalLinguistikTerapanPascasarjanaUnimed, ISSN 0216-5134, Vol 5, Pg.8. Medan: PPs LinguistikTerapanBahasaInggris.

Sauter, K and Vespoor, M. 2000. English Sentence Analysis. Amsterdam: John

Benjamins

Shatz & Gelman. 2010. Understanding Second language Acquisiton . Oxford: (

Oxford University Press.

Shaughnessy, J.J., and Zechmeister, Eugene.D.1994. Data Analysis and

Interpretation in the Behavioral Sciences. Michigan: Thomson/

Wordsworth.

Sinaga, Junita E. 2010. The Acquisition of English Words by Hokkien

Children. Unpublished M.Hum. Thesis. Medan. English Applied

Linguistics Study program, Postgraduate School. State University of Medan.

Siregar, B. (2011). ICT For Second Language Teaching and Learning.

JurnalLinguistikTerapanPascasarjanaUnimed. ISSN 0216-5139, Vol.8,

Pg.73. Medan: PPs LingusitikTerapanBahasaInggris.

Tabors, P. (1997). One child, two languages. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

(ERIC Document No. ED405987)

Wasow Thomas & Ivan A. Sag .1999. Syntactic Theory A Formal Introduction.

Stanford, CA. CSLI

Winner, E., McCarthy, M., Kleinman, S., & Gardner, H. (1979). First metaphors.

In D. Wolfe (Ed.), Early symbolization (New Directions for Child

Development, No. 3). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wrembet, M. 2010. Ascented Speech in Production.International Journal of

Multilingualism.Vol.19, No 1, 59-75.