ENGLISH FOR STUDENTS MAJORING IN INFORMATICS.

(1)

ABSTRACT

Kbairani Lubis, Fauziah. 2005. English Readings for Students Majoring in Informatics. Tbesist Applied Linguistic State University ofMedan.

An ESP course brings the idea of enabling students to function effectively in the target situations as it aims at specifying what exactly the needs of the learners in studying English. Thus a course designer is required to contribute his/her skill to design a specific syllabus and materials for the specific purpose of learning English.

And

this is likely to give an optimal result to achieve the learning goal. However, it is true that due to the lack of the understanding on needs analysis, the optimal result is still far to be reached. Related to the study the ditnculty in choosing suitable materials for the teaching is the result of one's being lack of understanding towards needs analysis.

This research is conducted by administering questionnaires as well as interviewing the subjects dealing with informatics.

(2)

ABSTRAK

Khairani Lu his, Fauziah. 2005. English Readings for Students Majoring in Informatics. Thesis, Applied Linguistics, State University of

Medan.

Ide dari English for Specific Purpose adalah agar siswa dapat berfungsi secara cfektif sesuai dengan situnsi dan kondisi dimana mereka beketja scjalan dengan tujuan ESP itu sendiri yaitu untuk merinci apa yang sesungguhnya dibutuh.kan s i~wa dalam mempelajari Bahasa Inggris. Oleh karcna itu seorang perancang peJajardll diharapkan dapat menyumbangkan keahliannya dalam merancang silabus dan matcri yang rinci atau khusus sesuai k.ebutuhan. Hal ini sangat memungkinkan tercapainya hasH yang optimal yaitu rnencapai tujuan belajar. Namun dikarenak.an oleh kurangnya pemahaman terhadap kegunaan melakukan analisa kebutuhan, basil yang optimal akan sulit tercapai. Dalam penelitian ini diungkapkan bahwa kcsulitan dalam memilih bahan-bahan pelajaran yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan siswa itu sendiri adalah ha.c;il

dari ketidakpahaman akan kegunaan analisa

kebutuhan.

Penelitian ini difokusk.an pada pemilihan bahan pelajaran yang sesuai

untuk

siswa kelas infonnatika. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan membagikan kuesioner kepada subjek penelitian serta mewawancarai mereka.

Hasil dari penelitian ini mcnunjukkan bahwa siswa kelas informatika membutuhkan bahan-bahan bacaan atau teks-teks dalam pclajaran mereka karena banyak buku mengenai informatika berber:tuk bacaan/tek.s-teks berbahasa Inggris. Jadi siswa-siswa kelas informati.ka membutuhkan bahasa Inggris untuk memaharni bahan-bahan bacaan. Teknik membaca menjadi masalah kedua dalam penelitian ini karena teknik yang bagus akan membuahkan pemahaman yang bagus puJa. Disin.i disebutkan juga bahwa teknik peneJjemahan kata perkata yang diaplikasikan kepada siswa-siswa menyebabkan kesalahpahaman makna.

(3)

OF TABLE...

Vll

LIST OF APPENDIX ... ._.. viii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

z

1.1 Background ... .

1.2 Research Problem ... ... ... ... .. . .. .. ... .. 2

1.3 Objective ofthe Study ... .

1.4 Scope of the Study ... .

1.5 Significance of the Study ... . 2

3

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 The ESP and Language Descriptions ... .. 2.1.1 ESP ... ..

2.1.2 Need Analysis ... ..

2.1.2.1 What are Target Needs... 8

2.1.2.2 How to Get Information About

TargetNceds?... 9

(4)

2.1.3 Languag~ Description~... . ... 9

2.1.4 Learning Theories... 11

2.1.5 Approaches to Course Design... 13

2.1.7 Material Design...

18

2.1.8 Materials Evaluations... 23

2.2 V arieti~s of Language . . ... ... ... . . ... ... ... ... .. .... . .. .... . ... 27

2.2.1 Varieties Associated with Purpose ... .

28

2.3 The Nature of Informatics ... .

28

2.4 Reading ... . 30

2.4.1 Process in Reading ... . 32

2.4.1.1 Word Recognition ... ..

32

2.4.1.2 Syntactic Processing ... .. 33

2.4.1.3 Semantic Processing ... .. 33

2.5 Levels of Comprehension ... . 34

2.6 Models

of

Reading ... 35

2.6.1 Bottom- Up Model... 36

2.6.2 Top-Down Model ... :... 38

2.6.3 lnteractive Model ... 40

CHAPTER Ill METHOD OF RESEARCH 3.2 Population and Sample ... ... 42

(5)

3.3 Instruments of Data Collecting... 42

3.4 Technique in Analyzing Data ... ... 43

CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS AND RESEACII FINDINGS... 44

4.1 Data Analysis .... .. .... . .. . . .. ... ... ... .. .... .. .. . . .. ... . . ... 44

46

58 4.3 Material production and instructional design ... ..

4.3.1 Material Production ... .

4.3.2 es1gn ... . 4.3.3 Instructional Design ... . 56

c

4 .3.4 Syllabus ... . ₅₇

~

59

~

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ... .. 5.1 Conclusions ... .. 59

5.2 Suggestions ... . 60

REFERENCES 61

APPENDIX

(6)

LIST OF TABLES

[image:6.612.33.568.99.675.2]

Pages

Table 4.1 The Students, Target Need of Language Skills ... . 45

Table 4.2 Students' Lack ... .

47

Table 4.3 Students' Prefence of Teaching Methodology ... . 48

~

Cl

z

.b

~

m

&,,

(7)

LIST OF APPENDICES

Pages

APPENDIX I Needs Analysis Que-stionnaire ... .. ... ... ... 64

APPENDIX ll _Interviews_{···· ~ -- ~ ···} _{··· ·· ··· ·}_{.. ···--···--····...} ₇₁

APPENDIX Ill Interview With Students ... 72

APPENDIX IV Interview With Employees ... ... ... 73

APPENDIX V APPENDIX VI APPENDIX VII The English Background of Respondents (STIE IBBI).... 74

The English Background of Respondents ( Primeone.Staft) 75 The Material, Methodology of Teaching and Teachers' Ability ... . APPENDIX VIll Motivation Towards English ... . APPENDIX JX Skills to Improve ... . APPENDIX X Mode of Learning ... . APPENDIX XI Target Situation Analysis ... .. 80

APPENDIX XU Students Age ( N 30) ... ..

82

APPENDIX XIII Text 1 :What is an Information System ... .. 83

APPENDIX XIV: Text 2: Electronic Commerce ... . 85

APPENDIX XV Text 3 : A Computer- Based Information System CB 15. 87 APPENDIX XVI Text 4 : Telecommurucations. Networks and the Internet 89 APPENDIX XVII: Text 5: Data Versus Info rmation ... .

91

APPENDIX XVIII Authentic Materials ... .

93

APPENDIX XIV Curriculum Vitae ... ..

101

ix

(8)

CH Al~ TE R I

iNTRO DUCTION

l.l. Background

NIILIK PERPusr

AWr-UNJMED

- - .

As a means of communication, English has been one of the prestigious

languages used tor many years almost all over the world. It has been accepted as the

international language oftechnology and commerce. Thus more and more people are

motivated to learn English, and in its development. English is learnt for different

purposes which is especially based on the field of one's work. For this reason, we

have learners who leam Business English, Medical English, Technical English, etc.

This is what we call as ESP (English for S pecific Purposes).

ESP is based on needs analysis which is aimed at specifying what exactly the

needs of the student.""' in studying English. In order to meet the learners' needs, a

C

comse designer

is

required to contribute his skill to design a specific syllabus and

materials for the specific purpose of learning English. This is likely to give an

optimal result to achieve the learning goaL

'This thesis discusses English for a specific purpose especially tlle materials

for informatics students due to the fact that, based on the writer' s observation,

English lectures teaching in informatics find difficulty in choosing materials because

they do not quite understand the needs of their students in learning English.

(9)

Therefore she conc~ms with the materials especially reading materials. The

reason is that many textbooks on infonnatics are wrillen in English. Thus lhc students

of informatics need English for the purpose of understanding read ing materials.

Furthermore in understanding the r~d i n g mat e rial ~ one has to know the steps.

Related to this, based on the data she obtained, in order to get the students

comprehension in reading, the lecturers mainly gave all the meaning of the words

found in the t.exts to the studenls. l.>ue to this, reading comprehension tends to

qe

more like a word for word translation which might lead to misWidcrstanding. Thus

she also concerns with the betterment of the reading comprehension. Other skills of

language such as speaking and writing are not neglected to support their needs of

English.

1.2 Research Problems

Related to this study, the problems arc formulated as follows:

1. What reading materials do the students of infonnatics need?

2. What reading techniques do the students of informatics need?

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The purposes of this study are : 1) to find out the appropriate reading

materials the students of informatics need, 2) to fmd out the appropriate reading

techniques the students of informatics need.

(10)

1.4 Scope of the Study

The present study is aimed at developing ESP materials as well as reading techniques for the first year-students oflnformatics in order to put a stronger ba<;ic of

English for be those students.

1.5 Significance of the Study

(11)

5.

t

Conclusions

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

j

MILIK

PERPUSTA~t

. ~ ~

. UNIME' ·

The research conducted on "English Readings Lor

S tud~L"

Majoring in Informatics", was intended tu find out the students' need in terms of language ski ll

especially English.

The data obtained from the questionnaires and interviews suggested lha~wh.at

the students really need in their study in order to enable them to function effectively in the working places are reading materials related to information system covering the

principles of information systems, technology especially one which deals v.rith computer. By being able to grasp the idea of thf' reading materials students are

expected to Wldcrstand correctly English readings, information, letters, instructions

found in the computer. Students are also expected to be familiar with the words,

terms, phrases related to information system covered in the suitable reading materials.

Related to the techniques of reading, the writer concluded that lecturers have

to improve the way they teach reading on and on in order to better the students,

performance in reading. The data showed that the lecturers at IBDI still depend on a

word for word ~ la tiO:fl in their teaching of reading that the students also did the same way. As a result of this the students stopped their reading whenever they

encountered words thgt did not know the meanings.

(12)

T he point in schema theory is also in harmony with the top-down model of

reading '"'hich refers to the activation of the students' prior knowledge in order to

improve the ir performance in reading. TI1is can be applied to avoid students' depending o n a word to word meaning ac; well as interpretation .

. l.he result of the analysis can be COW1ted as the ways of identifying what the student<; actu::~lly need in their study. By identifying the students' needs, the process of teaching and learning English at STIE IBBI would be effective. It is said effective

for the reason that the students get what they really need and for lecturers, it is easy

for them to design the syllabus, the materials and the mode (ways of teaching) that

match to the students' needs.

5.2 Suggestions

So as to achieve the effective teaching and learning process especially in the

teaching of English for specific purposes, needs analysis of the students are

absolutely needed. Lecturers of ESP course should be fully aware of this. by knowing

the needs of the students, the lecturers can design the course syllabus, can choose the suitable materials and the right c1assroom modes.

As for the technique of reading, I suggest that a word for word translation

should be avoided. Activating the prior knowledge toward the text as a technique can

be applied to the students.

(13)

Adams, M. Jr. 1980. Failures Tv Comprehend and Levels ofPrvcessing in Reading.

In R and J. Spiro, Bertram C. Bruce and William F. Brewer (Eds.) Theoretical Issues in Reading Comprehension. Hills Dale, New Jersey : Lawrence .Erlbaum Associates.

Adams, Penny. 1989. Socio-Cultural issues in English for Academic Purpo.<>es.

London :

Macmillan.

Bogdan, Robert, C. 1992. Qualitative Research for Education. Boston : Allyn and

Bacon.

Branner, Julia. 1992. Mixing Methods : Qualitative and Quantitative Research. Great

Britain: Avcbury.

Carrel, P.L., Joanne, D. and David, E.E. (Eds.) 1988. Interactive Approaches to

Second Language Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge

Press.

Cunnin sworth, Alan. 1984. Evaluating and Selecting

EFL

Teaching Materials.

Oxford : Heineman Ltd.

Dubin, Fraida & Okhtain, Elite. 1986. Course Design : Developing Programs and

a

Materia/:,for Language Learning. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Goodman, K.S. 1988. The Reading

Process.

In Carell, P.L., Joanne, D. and David, E.E (Eds.). Interactive Approaches

to

Second Language Reading. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Gwnperz, John, J. t 962. Types of Linguistic Community Anthropological Linguistics. 4 (1): 28-40.

HuschinSon, T. & Waters, A. 1987. English

for

Specific Purposes : A Learning Centred Approach. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Johnson, R.K. ~). 1989. The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge

Cambridge University Press.

Johns, A. & Dudley-Evans, 'F. 1991. English

for

Specific Purposes: International in

Scope, .Spe ~ in Purpose.

TESOL Quarterly.

(14)

Kirkman, Jolu1. 1984. Common Groung : Shared hzt er e~ls in £.<...P and

Communicative Studies. Oxford :Pergamon Press.

Kustaryo, Sukirah. 1988. Reading Te chniques (~l College Stude nts. Jakarta :

Depdikbud.

M. Stair, Ralph & Reynolds, George, W. 2002. Principles o/ fn/(Jmwtion Systems · (61h ed.) Cicinatti : Florida State University Pres!>.

Maria, K. 1990. ReadinK Comprehension lnstruc:tion, l\·sues and Straregies.

Parkton

MD : York Press.

Munby, J. 1978. Communicutive Syllabus Design. Can1bridgc : Cambridge University Press.

Murphy & Cooper. 1995. Teaching Reading Skills in A Foreign Language. London:

Heineman.

Nordhotten, Joan, C. 1969. The Analysis and Design of Computer-Based Information

System. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

· sin A Forei The Chaucer Press. Ltd.

Nunan, D. 1989. Syllabus Design. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

a

Nunan, D. 1999. Second Language Teaching and Learning. Canada Ileinlc &

Heinle Publishers.

O'brian, James, A. 1993. Management Information Systems. (5th. cd) Delhi

Pashupati Ltd.

Pearlson, Keri, E. & Saunders, Carol, S. 2004. Managing and Using Information

Systems: A Strategic Approach. (200• Es) New Caledonia: Leigh Press.

Posner, G.J. and Rudnitsky, A.N. 1978. Course Design, A Guide to C11rricu/um De velopment/or Teachers. New York: Longman. ·

Robinson, P.G. 1991. ESP Today A Practitioner's Guide. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Saville, Muriel. 1982. The Ethnography of Communication. Oxford : Basil Blackwell Ltd.

(15)

Seidman, L E. 1 991. lnlerviewinK as Qualities Research : A Guide for Researchers in Fducation and the S'ocial Science. New York: Teachers College Press.

Sutrisno, H. 1987. Statistik . .Jlilid 2). Yogyakarta : Yayasan Penerbitan Fakultas

Psikologi UGM.

Swales, John. i 985. l.:.pisodes in ESP. New York: Pcgamon Press Inc.

Swales, John M. 1990. Genre Analysis: J::,'nglish in Academic and Research Settings. Cmnbridge : Cambridge University Press.

Stair, Ralph, M. 2003. Principles of Information Systems. Canada: Elm. Publishing

Services, Inc.

Stevens, P. 1998. ESP After Twenty Years: A Re-Appraisal. Singapore : SEA MEO Regional Centre.

Taba, It. 1962. Curriculum Development Theory and Practice. New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

Ucr, Leo Van. 1996. The Classroom and the Language Learner. England: Longman Group UK Limited.

Van Lier, Leo. 1988. The Classroom and the Language Learner. New York Addison Wesley Longman Inc.

Williams, Eddie. 1989. Reading in the Language Classroom.

Hongkong: Macmillan

Yalden, Janice. 1987. Principles of Course Design for Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Zak.aluk. Beverly, L. 1982. A Theoretical Overview of the Reading Process: Factors

Which Influence Performance and Implications for Instruction. University of

Manito bu.