Communication Strategies Used by Young Learners in a Bilingual Classroom
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Agam Syahrial
112009042
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
Communication Strategies Used by Young Learners in a Bilingual Classroom
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Agam Syahrial
112009042
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
Communication Strategies Used by Young Learners in a Bilingual Classroom
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Agam Syahrial
112009042
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Communication Strategies Used by Young Learners in a Bilingual Classroom
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Communication Strategies Used by Young Learners in a Bilingual Classroom
Agam Syahrial
Abstract
Many primary schools nowadays offer an early English exposure for children. However, the status of English remains a foreign language in Indonesia so that English is not used on daily basis.As a consequence, young learners encounter difficulties in communicating, or interacting with their teacher in English. Therefore, they will employ communication strategies to compensate their inadequacy in English.This study investigates what compensating communication strategies that four third grade students of Bethany School used to compensate their inadequacy or “missing knowledge” in English as a foreign language communication.Video recorded interactions between four students and their teacher during lesson were identified using observational protocol derived from a typology of compensatory strategies proposed by Dornyei (1995) cited in Zhang (2007) and Tarone (1977) cited in Nimer (2012).The results showed that the participants used six out of seven compensatory strategies to compensate their inadequacy in English during their conversation with the teacher.This study concludes by suggesting several practical recommendations for teachers of young learners in English-only or bilingual approaches classroom.
Key words: communication strategies ,compensating, third grade students, speaking English.
INTRODUCTION
Many primary schools nowadays offer an early English exposure as a part of early
children education. According to Gordon ( 2007) , The earlier the children are exposed to
a foreign language, the better speaker of a language they will be as it is believed that
children can effortlessly “pick up” the language.Over the past five years, primary schools
which use English as the medium of communication have gained popularity among
parents. However,the status of English remains a foreign language in Indonesia which
means English is not used on daily basis.As a consequence, young learners of English
during the English lesson.Thus,they will employ communication strategies to overcome
the difficulties. Gordon (2007) stated that children whose home language is not English
can have various kinds of communication strategies when they are surrounded by the
language which is not their home language to compensate their inadequacy in the foreign
language knowledge to deliver their meaning across to the interlocutor.
Before writing this paper,I had an opportunity to observe a full English
kindergarten for a task that I had to fulfill.The kindergarten used English as their medium
communication in a particular day during a week.The class activities were mostly in
English.Then,during the teaching learning process, I noticed that not all the children were
fluent in English.They showed certain behaviors like asking for translation,translating
what they wanted to say in their L1 (Indonesian),and mixing the L1 (Indonesian) and L2
(English) in order to keep interacting with the teachers. It was an interesting classroom
phenomenon to further investigate.
This study is not the first study conducted on the field of communication
strategies. There are a number of previous studies on the communication strategies, such
as which were recently conducted by Zhang (2007) and Nimer (2012).In his study,
Nimer (2012) revealed that EFL Jordanian students have resorted to various plans in an
attempt to convey their ideas. These plans vary from one student to another.The subjects
of this study used words which are less specific than the intended meaning,described the
characteristics of the object or action,and started out talking about an object or action.
However,they stopped talking when they were faced with a communication problem.
teachers should motivate learners to apply communication strategies when facing
difficulties.
Another recent study on this field was conducted by Palupi (2008). She conducted
a study on communication strategies used by sixth grade students of Cita Hati elementary
school Surabaya.The study focused on indentifying communication strategies in the
student-teachers interaction during the English lesson especially when students are
questioned by the teachers. The data analysis revealed and described that certain types of
communication strategies were used.However,this study included gestures and avoidance
as part of communication strategies whereas a further investigation should necessarily be
connducted to conclude those strategies to be communication strategies.
Looking at the three studies previously mentioned,this study is more or less
similar to Palupi (2008) study.However,this study only focuses on compensating
communication strategies which learners use to compensate their “missing knolwdge”.
This study is important because it is derived from the fact that foreign young learners
have limited knowledge in the foreign language which get them to use various
communication strategies to compensate their gaps in the foreign language.
The aim of this study is to investigate and to describe what compensating
communication strategies EFL young learners use in English classroom to compensate
the gap in their English. As English foreign language learners, they often face difficulties
which they need to overcome. One way to overcome problems is by compensating their
The findings of this study are expected to contribute valuable insight in the field
of teaching English young learners. The finding of this paper can help teachers of young
learners recognize EFL young learners‟ pattern of compensating strategy when they
interact with their teacher in English. Therefore, the teacher could help the young learners
develop their language knowledge in order to improve their communicative competence.
By knowing the pattern of compensatory strategies used,the teacher could also teach the
students how to compensate their lack of foreign knowledge when they are facing
problem in communicating.
This study is also expected to give parents a picture of how children
communicate their ideas and thoughts in the classroom where English is the sole medium
instruction.Thus,they can take feasible actions with regard to their children‟s particular
reactions toward English instruction used in the English as second language classroom.In
addition to that, for English Department students, this study is hoped to function as a
reference for them to create an academic piece of written work about teaching English to
Young Learners.One question is used as a guide for this study: What are compensatory
strategies did four third graders of Bethany School use in speaking English with their
teacher?
Definition of Communication
Communication is one of the ways people interact with other.While
communicating or speaking,people are sharing their thoughts,feelings and intentions to
others.Communication or getting our message across is the concern in all our daily lives.
Palupi (2008), communication is definable as any act by which one gives to or receives
information about one‟s needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge or affective states
Communication maybe intentional or intentional, may involve conventional or
unconventional signals, may take linguistic or non linguistic forms, and lastly may occur
in spoken or other modes. One example of communication is conversation.
Learners Problems in Communication in a Foreign Language Learning
When foreign language learners are engaged in a communication, they often have
communicative intentions that they find difficult in expressing since their limited
knowledge in the target language.In many class encounters,such as classroom or teaching
activity, Palupi (2008) argued that the learners often encounter unfamiliar words or
phrases that limit their foreign language knowledge. Likewise, learners also experience
situations where limitations in their English knowledge prevent them from expressing
themselves effectively.Thus, learners should try to find a way to avoid confusion in the
message due to their gaps knowledge in the target language.
In this study,children are the learners of English.They are learners of English,
which means that their mother tongue is not English.They learn the language in the
classroom with the help of their teachers or caregivers.English remains a foreign
language for them so that English is rarely used outside the classroom. Young learners in
English as a foreign language classroom have to interact with their teachers and
communicate their ideas,for example through conversation with their teachers.The
conversation could take place when their teachers asked the students questions or
The problems they need to solve is when they encounter some difficulties in
conveying their messages in the foreign language.As a matter of fact, Cameron (2001)
argued that children do not find it easy to use a language.Therefore, they will encounter
some problems in the foreign language learning,such as in a communication.This is why
children as foreign language learners use compensatory strategies to communicate to
their teachers and to compensate their gap in the foreign language.
Communication Strategies
Bialystok ( 1990) cited in Zhang (2007) gave a five major definitions of relating
to the communication strategies of second /foreign -language learners. The first
definition is a systematic technique employed by a speaker to express his meaning when
faced with some difficulties.The learners use the communication strategy due to the fact
that their communication ends outrun confronted their communication means when
confronted with misunderstanding by a co speaker. The second definition a mutual
attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a meaning in situations where requisite meaning
structures are not shared.
The third definition is a potentially conscious plans for solving what to an
individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal; The
fourth definition is the techniques of coping with difficulties in communicating in an
imperfectly known second language. And the last, communication strategies are the
ability to successfully get one‟s meaning across to particular listeners. They also point out
that mastery of strategic skills in a language entails the ability to transmit information to a
communication strategies used to deal with problems,which may arise in the transmission
of information. From those definitions,it can be concluded that the above definitions
apparently share the same purpose of communication strategies, namely, to solve an
emerged communication problem by applying some kinds of techniques.
Types of Communication Strategies
Linguists have distinguished various kinds of communication strategies. In
addition,communication strategies in SLA have been seen with different perspectives.
The first typology is initiated by Dornyei (1995) cited in Zhang (2007). He reveals two
opposite directions in communication strategies. One is avoidance and the other is
compensatory.
Avoidance strategies can be further broken down into several subtypes, but the
most used strategies called topic avoidance and message abandonment. Faerch and
Kasper (1983) believed that topic avoidance occurs when the learners simply do not talk
about the concepts for which the vocabulary or other meaning structure is not known for
them. A refusal to enter into or continue discourse within some fields or topic requiring
the use of target language rule or forms that the learners do not know well. In a such
situation, learner may change the topic of discourse or remain passive.
When asked a specific question, the student who does not know how to say what
is on their mind in the foreign language will just keep silent about it and lead to the
occurrence of topic avoidance.Most learners can hardly express their ideas or answers in
a flexible way; that is to say, they presumably have not learned to think over a foreign
not acquired basic knowledge of English and they seldom practice it. An example of this
strategy has been proposed by Brown (2007).
L : I lost my road NS : You lost your road?
L : Uh….I lost..I lost.. I got lost (p.138)
The learner was avoiding the word „road‟ because he could not come up with the word
„way‟ at that point.
The second strategy under the avoidance strategy is message
abandonment. According to Brown (2007),message abandonment occurs when the
learners begin to continue due to lack of meaning structure, and stops mid utterance. In
other words, to cut short the discourse or stop in mid sentence because the learner runs
into difficulty with the target language rules.The learner leave the message unfinished
because of language difficulties.
Besides avoidance strategy,the next type of communication strategy is compensatory
strategies which involves “compensation for missing knowledge”. Learners put effort on
compensating their lack in foreign language knowledge to keep the communication
going. Dornyei (1995) cited in Zhang (2007) outlines types of compensatory strategies in
a very comprehensive way which include circumlocution , word coinage, approximation,
appealing for help.
Circumlocution, is a very important strategy for second/foreign
language learners when expressing themselves but lacking the exact
vocabulary,especially when they are speaking in the target language.It is the description
elements of the object or action instead of using appropriate structure.The expression of
an idea in more words than necessary definition of it in other words.It happens when a
learner cannot remember a specific word that they intended to say, therefore they
describe the word into its function or form.
1. She is, uh, smoking something, like stick , white .. I don‟t know what its name. 2. It‟s something that we use to brush our teeth, it‟s like stick
Word coinage simply can be described as The learner makes up a new word in
order to communicate a desired concept. According to Maleki (2007) , learners create an
L2 word ,thinking it might work. The learners makes up a new word in order to
communicate a desired concept or the invention of a lexical item, which does not exist in
the target language.
3. Air bal for balloon 4. Fish zoo for aquarium 5. Goed for went
Approximation is the use of single target language vocabulary item or structure, which
the learners know is not correct, but the item shares enough semantic features in common
with the desired item. The intention is for the listener to build up a picture of the target
referent itself from the speaker‟s description. Nimer (2012) stated that this strategy is
employed when a learner uses another term that expresses meaning as closely as possible
than the intended word.Nimer (2012) gave some examples of approximation.
6. A fantastic buildings! They are triangles (for pyramids). 7. It is a woman carry (for carrying) a light (for a “torch”).
Tarone (1977) cited in Nimer (2012) also complemented Dornyei‟s
compensatory strategies by adding some categories, for example, literal translation,
language switch or language mixing, and appeal for assistance.
Literal translation is when the learner translates word for word from the native
language.This happens when the learners translate what they want to convey word for
word. When the learner employs this strategy, they may sound English but actually the
English that they use is not appropriate as it is directly (wor-for word) translated from
their mother tongue. For example in our context :
9. let‟s go walking-walking! (ayo pergi jalan-jalan) 10. who is your name? ( siapa nama mu?)
Language switch or language mixing occurs when the learners use term without
bothering to translate. Rather than trying to make up a new word, learners may choose to
use their own language to fill in the missing knowledge during the communication. In
this case, the learners‟ L2 utterance will form a mixture of the target language and mother
tongue.
11. „Balon‟ for „baloon‟ 12. “Buku” for “book”
Appeal for assistance or help occurs when The learner asks for the correct term or
structure. The learners‟ attempt to ask immediate help from his interlocutor for the target
language rule or form or refer to a dictionary.
THE STUDY
This is a qualitative descriptive study. The purpose is not to look for
predications generalizable to other populations. However, the qualitative descriptive
study is to gain insight, discovery and interpretation rather than hypothesis testing
(Merriam, 2001). It is a qualitative descriptive study since it provides a systematic,
factual, and accurate description of a situation of area (Issac and Michael, 1987). In this
study, the findings will be described and interpreted. It is hoped that the study will
contribute insight, for at least in the context of the study.
Context of The Study
The setting of the study is Bethany school, a bilingual approach primary school
which is located in a small town in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. This primary
school uses English in all lessons they teach, including English lesson itself. Not all
subjects were observed in this study.English was solely subject observed. The students
and teachers are required to communicate in English during English lesson.
The Participants
The participants were four third graders of Bethany primary school that was
selected based on the preliminary observation.These students were selected because they
clearly showed and employed strategies to compensate their inadequacy in English
during their interaction with teachers in English. Moreover, they had desires to
communicate and interact in English with their teacher. The class consists of 12 students
.The students who are in those grades are commonly around 9-10 years old. Learners
Richards & Schmidt (1985) cited in Khatib and Mellati (2012) who stated that the term
young learner refers to students of pre-primary and primary school age.The development
of the area that accounts for language learning has been observed to begin when children
are about 6 years old and continue until the onset of puberty.
The Instrument of Data Collection
The instrument of data collection was observation protocol, video recorder, sound
recorder and field note.While I observed, I recorded the class interaction with a video
recorder to help me recheck the note. The figure 1 is the observation protocol I used to
[image:18.612.78.553.169.643.2]code the data.
Figure 1.
OBSERVATION PROTOCOL
Name of the course: Name of instructor:
Class Time : Topic of the day:
No Observations Compensatory Strategies
Examples
AH LM WC C LS LT A
AH = Assistance for Help LM = Language Mixing
LS = Language Switch LT = Literal Translation
A = Approximation
Data collection Procedures
After getting the permission from the school principal, I observed the third the
grade for a week as the piloting observation. During the piloting observation I noticed
that four students clearly had desired to communicate with the teacher in English and
employed some compensating strategies when they were unable to communicate in
English.Thus, I observed thes four students.While I did the note taking of those
students-teacher interaction,I recorded the classroom interaction using a video recorder to help me
later to recheck the field note.In this observation, I was the non a non-participant
observer. Therefore,the interaction was as natural as it was. After I finished with twelve
times observations ,I transcribed the videos which only contain those students-teacher
interaction using clean transcription method suggested by Zacharias (2011). The figure 2
[image:19.612.87.548.194.716.2]is the observation date.
Figure 2.
No. Classroom Observation Date
1. Classroom Observation 1 April 31st,2013
2. Classroom Observation 2 May 1st ,2013
3. Classroom Observation 3 May 3rd,2013
4. Classroom Observation 4 May 13th ,2013
5. Classroom Observation 5 May 15th ,2013
7. Classroom Observation 7 May20th ,2013
8. Classroom Observation 8 May 21st,2013
9. Classroom Observation 9 May 22nd, 2013
10. Classroom Observation 10 May 24th ,2013
11. Classroom Observation 11 May 27th ,2013
12. Classroom Observation 12 May 28th ,2013
Data Analysis Procedure
For the data analysis, the participants were given codes ; S1,S2,S3and S4.The teacher was given a code T.Based on the transcription and the field note, those students –
teacher interactions were identified using observation protocol.I identified the
transcriptions and the field note. I classified the data into several categories using the
protocol. Then, I descried each category as the findings.
Limitation of The Study
The study focuses on compensatory strategies.The strategies other than
those strategies were not discussed in this study such as topic avoidance or message
abandonment.Gestures and time gaining strategies using fillers strategies need a further
investigation to be concluded as communication strategies because they can also be
interpreted talking style.Topic avoidance and message abandonment cannot be directly
they want to say in the foreign language.The reason is that message abandonment or topic
avoidance can also happen when students actually do not know what is the answer to the
teacher‟s questions so that they avoided the topic or abandoned the message It is not
always because they are unable to deliver their message in English. Thus, a further
investigation is needed.
Due to the small scale nature of the study reported here, and the limitation of time
for the study, the data presented here are not intended to represent compensatory
strategies of all students in other contexts and findings are not generalizable to context
beyond this case.Nevertheless,the finding provides valuable insights into the knowledge
and information for both students and teachers in the context of the study.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This section presents the analysis ,description and the interpretation of the
compensatory strategies used by the participants during the observation. The result of the
observation shows that the participants used six out of seven compensatory strategies
proposed by (Dornyei (1995) cited in Brown (2000) and Tarone (1977) cited in Nimer ,
(2012).They are assistance for help,language mixing,word coinage, circumlocution,
approximation, literal translation.These compensatory strategies were used when the
participants were engaged in a conversation with the teacher. The conversations were
initiated by the teacher, as well as initiated by the participants themselves.
Assistance for Help by Asking the Translation to the Teacher
Assistance for help was used by the participants when they faced difficulties in
asked the teacher what is the translation of Indonesian word they wanted to say. The
participants asked the English word to the teacher mostly by using questions like :
“What is (the Indonesian word)?” or “Ms, What is (the Indonesian word ) in English?”.
After the teacher explained the participants the English word, they continued speaking in
English using word they already got from the teacher.
Extract 1
S1: Ms...Ms… my father has ever broke the road rules ,
he ever go in toll that is very crowded, he doesn‟t want to be… .. (short pause) … what is sabar?
T: What? S1: Sabar.. T: Oh… Patient.
S1: He doesn‟t want to be patient,..
he just go pass and then swwiiiinggg , and then there is a truck in front.
T: Then?
S1: Almost hit the car
(Taken from classroom observation 9)
Extract 1 is the example which shows that S1 needed some help for the
translation. The class discussed about the road safety and the student wanted to tell the
teacher his experience. S1 wanted to tell that his father had broken the rule because he
was not patient. Thus, his father‟s car almost hit a truck. He paused his talk for a few
seconds thinking of the “missing” word to express what he wanted to say in English .
Thus, he asked for the translation of Indonesian word sabar to the teacher. The result
from the extract 1 was in accordance with Huang (2010) who stated that this strategy
occurred when the experimenters (the learners) asked for the correct term to compensate
their missing knowledge. It can be seen from extract 1 that the participant paused for a
come up with the word so that he put an effort to keep the communication in English
going by asking translation for help from the teacher.
Language Mixing
The second type of compensatory strategies used by the students during
conversation with the teacher is language mixing. During the observations, two kinds of
languages were mixed in their English conversation with the teacher. The students mixed
the Indonesian with English and Javanese with English.
English was mixed with Indonesian
Indonesian is the language that majority of the students use every day except
during the English lesson. Indonesian becomes the language in which they often use as a
“way out” when faced with communication difficulty in English.The students mixed the
languages when they were unable to continue their English sentence during English
conversation with their teacher. Learners employed systematic technique in this case,
mixing two languages to express their meanings when facing difficulties Bialystok (
1990) cited in Zhang (2007 ).
Extract 2
T: I have much money bla…bla..bla….I can‟t buy anything…. What is the right conjunction for that?
What is it?
S: I have much money, but I can‟t buy anything…. T: Yes…. Right.
I have much money, but I can‟t buy anything.. T: Why you cannot buy anything?... (looking around)
T: Oh wow..really?
(Taken from classroom observation 7)
Extract 2 shows an interaction between the teacher and the students in which
English was mixed with Indonesian. The class was discussing about types of conjunction
in English. After the teacher was done with explaining the material to the students, the
teacher tested the students‟ understanding by giving sentences that they had to connect
using conjunction. The teacher asked the students what is the conjunction for the two
sentences: I have much money and I can’t buy anything. All of the students answered
that right by answering but as the right conjunction for those sentences.
The teacher questioned the students further,especially on the reason why they
could not buy anything whereas they had money. The teacher elaborated the questions so
that the class will be interactive.When answering the teacher‟s question, S2 mixed
English with Indonesian word miskin or poor when he was unable to continue or to find
the English word poor. It should be a notice that to keep the interaction from stopping
and being abandoned, the student put an effort to mix the language. They know that the
teacher understands Indonesian. Therefore, S2 mixed the languages to keep the
interaction going rather than being left unclear.
English was mixed with Javanese
Some students come from Javanese cultural background so that they know how to
say things not only in English, but also in Indonesia and Javanese. From my observation,
it can be seen that when talking to their friends, they sometime used Javanese. When
English with Javanese when they were likely to face trouble in communicating in saying
things in English.
Extract 3
T: Okay.. it‟s okay guys..everything is fine.. now back to your seat
S1: Every people always make mistakes , you know.. S4: Why Leon like that Ms?? ( pointing his friend)
he….like..( short pause) kepedesen .. T: It‟s okay.. It‟s okay..
Leon..Leon.. are you okay? (approaching the student)
(Taken from classroom observation 8)
Extract 3 was taken while the teacher was preparing AVA for the lesson. It can
be seen from Extract 3 that S4 could not describe what his friend was experiencing. He
would like to tell the teacher that his friend ate spicy food at lunch and now his friend
was feeling a sensation of his tongue burning. S4 was trying to describe his friend‟s
condition. He did not describe it in English to the teacher, but by using Javanese word
“kepedesen”. He made an attempt to communicate by mixing Javanese and English to
both express his thought and describe his friend‟s condition.
Extract 4
T: The word here carefully..slowly..quickly what else? What are other adverbs?
Well,..quickly.. carelessly.. what else? S1: Greedily
T: No..no.. greedily? S1: Funnily
T: Funnily?
What do you mean?
S1: Sometimes when we do the test while gojekan T: Oh..no it‟s not that....
The class discussed about regular adverbs. The teacher at first gave some
examples of regular adverbs. Then the students were asked to give examples of other
regular adverbs. The teacher gave examples on regular adverbs that can be used with the
word study .S1 gave some examples of regular adverbs he knew.S1 gave one example of
an adverb which the teacher thought was uncommon to be used with the word study. That
was an adverb “funnily”. As the teacher was curious, she asked what the student meant
by “funnily”. S1 then tried to explain what he meant by funnily to the teacher by mixing
English and Javaneese. What he meant by “gojekan”is that the way of doing the test
which is not serious.Extract 4 shows that S1 mixed the English with Javanese when he
was required to keep the interaction with the teacher in English.S1 was unable to use full
English sentence to express what he thought, so he resorted to mixing the Javanese with
English as a way to keep interacting with the teacher.
As stated by Shogren (2002), language mixing can occur due to lack of facility
that a language has on a certain subject.This can be seen from extract 3 and extract 4 that
S1 and S2 expressed their mind in Javanese as there might not be an exact word that
learners could easily came up to describe the word “kepedesen” and “gojekan”in
English. Therefore, S1 and S2 resorted to mixing the English with Javanese to keep the
communication going.
Word Coinage
Word coinage was used by the students as one strategy during English
conversation. The students made an attempt to create and use words which do not exist in
was found that there were two ways that learners use to create new words ; generalizing
prefixes, and generalizing the verb form.
Making a New word by generalizing prefixes
The result of the classroom observation shows that the students generalized
prefixes by adding inappropriate prefixes to certain word that usually is used with
prefixes. When used with prefixes the word will mean the opposite. Even though the
students used the word with inappropriate prefix, it can be seen from extract 5 that the
meaning of the word is still understandable for the interlocutor. Thus, the communication
went well.
Extract 5
T: what the word carefully tells us?
S1: She is not doing the test really fast and not uncarefully T: Okay excellent...
she is not careless, what else? S3: She is doing the test slowly .
T: The word carefully here, actually shows how Rachel is doing the quiz. The word can be slowly, carefully, fast.. what else?
S1: Uncarefullly .. T: Carelessly Austin
What else?
(Taken from classroom observation 5)
The class had a lesson on types of adverbs. As usual, to make the class more
interactive , the teacher wanted the students to give examples of adverbs they knew. The
teacher asked the students what the word carefully means. S1 raised his hand and gave
his opinion by saying that that doing the test carefully means doing the test really fast and
not uncarefully. After answering that, S1 gave examples of other adverbs. The student gave uncarefully as an example. The teacher then right away corrected the students‟
Making a new word by generalizing the verb form
During the writer‟s classroom observation, the writer could see that an attempt to
generalize the verb form to express what they had in mind was made. Without bothering
to think about transforming the verb into past verb or past participle form, the learners
created a new word by generalizing the rules. This attempt resulted to a well
communicated message.
Extract 6:
T: Ya…good
What else?
Okay ..those are road safety rules or good behavior, good things to do on the road.
Now, what are unsafe things on the road?
S1: ehm..… (short pause) not stop , not look and not listen , and just go and walk briskly and be hitten by a car T: okay good.. really good…
(Taken from classroom observation 9) Extract 7
S1: Ms..when I see there is the danger.
I see a people is almost hitted by a car because it is.. the car is in a high speed and it almost crush the people
T: That‟s because some people also break the rule.. so it‟s dangerous (Taken from classroom observation 2)
It can be seen from extract 6 and 7 that the learners created a new word by
generalizing the verb form rule. The extract 6 and 7 show that S1 created a new word “
hitten” and “hitted “ to express passive voice. As stated by Maleki (2007), learners
communicate a desired concept which does not exist in the target language.With this
strategy, the communication can happen. As a matter of fact, the communication took
place.
Circumlocution
Circumlocution appeared to be used by one of the participants during his
interaction with the teacher. In this category, S3 described the characteristics or elements
of the object instead of directly using the appropriate structure. S3 actually intended to
ask an English word. I could see from my observation that S3 did not ask for the
Indonesian translation,but he made an effort to ask what is the word he had been thinking
by describing of the word in English. In other words he was asking the teacher by giving
descriptions of the word in English.
Extract 8:
S3: Ms..Ms..
What is in English … ehm.…. the road is full? T: The road? is full?
Crowded? S3: no (shaking head) T: What do you mean?
S3 : uhm….the traffic is full …like that.. T : oh.. traffic jam?
S3 : yes.. traffic jam. The traffic jam is full of transportation. T : then, what do you want to ask?
S3 : the traffic jam.
T : oh okay Leon .. okay class..in English please! Five minutes more!
(Taken from classroom observation 11) Extract 7 was taken when the class had an exercise on the road safety. It was
about things that they should or should not do when being on the street. When S3
put an effort by describing the characteristic of the word traffic jam. As he could not come up with the word traffic jam, he described the characteristics of traffic jam by
giving characteristics or elements of traffic jam by saying “the road is full”. Dornyei
(1995) cited in Zhang (2007) stated that such a phenomenon happens when a learner
cannot remember a specific word that they intended to say, therefore they describe the
word into its function or form so that they described the intended word using more words
than necessary.
Literal Translation
Another type of compensatory strategy was used by two of the participants. Two
of the participants translated their words into English literally. They translated what they
were thinking word-for word. The word they literally translated sounded English,
however they followed Indonesian pattern of the sentences.
Extract 9:
T: I want you to write the connectors of time from the text When ..before…. or after….
The connector of time that you have learned is before and after. in this text, what can you find from the text?
S: The connectors of time..
T: Yes… The word that shows you about the time..
S3: Ms…if the astronaut came first before the alien, (short pause) can miss? T: Yes.. but is that really before?
Did you see the word before in the text?
(Taken from classroom observation 3) The topic in the classroom was about types time connectors in English. In that
meeting, the students were given a reading text in which they needed to find some time
connectors. They had learned types of connectors in the previous meeting. As the
reading text that was about an alien and astronaut. It can be seen from extract 9 that The
students asked a question which was literally translated during the lesson: “Ms…if the
astronaut came first before the alien,(short pause) can miss?”. The students used English word to express their thought, but the pattern of the word was still in Indonesian pattern. When his sentence is translated into Indonesian it would be “ Ms..Jika alien nya datang sebelum astronot ,
(short pause) bisa tidak? . It shows that S3 translated literally his sentence to communicate his message. When the learner employs this strategy, they may sound English but
actually the English that they use is not appropriate as it is directly (wor-for word)
translated from their mother tongue. This is similar to the result of extract 9.
Approximation
Approximation which refers to an attempt to communicate desired concept
appeared during the observation. Approximation happens when a single target language
item ,which is not correct, but might carry general meaning of the target item is used by
the speaker to fill lexical gap or to overcome communication problem.
Extract 10 :
T: Okay , the unsafe things on the road are .. for example children forget to cross the road at the safe place Where is the safe place to across the street?
S1 : Ms.. Ms..In the… in the….(short pause) in the white area…. T: White area, what is that??
S1: Emm..soemtimes.. sometimes.. it is…zebra cross! zebra cross! T: Yess.. zebra cross…
What else?
(Taken from classroom observation 1) The extract 10 was taken when the teacher reviewed several things that children
some things that might get children into accidents on the road . One example is the
students forgot to cross the road at a safe place. The teacher then asked the students
where the safe place to cross the road .What S1 intended to say by white area is zebra
cross. It can be seen that to fill the gap or the missing knowledge S1 resorted to use a
language item ,which is not correct, but carries general meaning of the target item. The
„white area’ in the extract 10 carries general meaning of zebra cross. According to
Dornyei (1995) cited in Zhang (2007),this strategy is employed when a learner uses
another term that expresses meaning as closely as possible than the intended word. By
approximating, what S1 intended to say was understood by the interlocutor which
signified a successful communication.
CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
This study sought for describing what compensatory strategies that the third grade
students of Bethany school used in conversations with their English teacher. The result of
the study answered the research question by analyzing video recorded conversations of
four students with their teacher using observational protocol derived from Dornyei
(1995) cited in Zhang (2007) and Tarone (1977) cited in Nimer (2012) typology of
compensatory strategies. The result shows that the participants used six out of seven
compensatory strategies which are;assistance for help by asking translation,language
mixing,word coinage,circumlocution,literal translation and approximation.
Assistance for help was the most common strategy that the participants used
English sentence during conversation with the teacher, they made an effort to fill the gap
or their missing knowledge by asking the teacher the English word of the word that they
faced difficulty in expressing. Language mixing is the second strategy. During the
observation , there were two types of languages that were mixed with English.Those
languages were Javanese and Indonesian. The Indonesian and Javanese were used as a
“way out” when they needed to fill the gap during their communication. The third is
word coinage. It was also one strategy appeared during the observation. It was done by
creating new words by generalizing the verb form and generalizing the prefixes of a
word.By generalizing the verb form, the participant could communicate their intention
without bothering to transform the verb into past form verb or past participle verb form to
express passive voice in English.
Another compensatory strategy was circumlocution.In this category, one
participant described the characteristics or elements of the object instead of directly using
the appropriate structure. Another participant, also literally translated what they wanted
to say in English so that in sounded like English,but the word still follows Indonesian
sentence pattern. The last strategy was approximation.Approximation is used to fill the
gap or the student‟s missing knowledge. By using a language item which is not correct,
but carries general meaning of the target item.
The results of the study show that to compensate their gap in English, one
commonest strategy the students used was by asking for help for translation for the
Indonesian words they wanted to say to the teacher. Looking at this finding, teachers of
also as a helpful assistant when the student faced difficulty in communicating in English,
moreover in bilingual classrooms where the medium of instruction is English.Teacher‟s
proficiency in the target language then becomes one important factor. For example, when
the teachers are proficient in the target language, they will provide students with
appropriate answers when they need help of translation from the teacher. When the
answer is appropriate , they will memorize the appropriate answer which will lead to the
development of students language proficiency in the target language.
It can also be seen from this study that to cope with the school language policy,
the students put various kinds of efforts to keep the communication in English with the
teacher.However, there were times when they missed and were unable to fully
communicate in English. Thus,they mixed English with other languages. It is my
recommendation that the teachers encourage the students to keep up this effort while
teachers are developing student‟s ability to communicate in English. The teacher could
tell explicitly the students that to mix the language in a communication is acceptable as a
foreign language learner.
The finding of this study has limitations that should be kept in minds. First, the
result of the study cannot be generalized to all cases, because there are many factors
which will make the differences in finding. If the study was conducted in different
contexts, for example bilingual school outside Java, it would have yielded different
result especially in the language mixing category. Second of all, the study might yield
different result if the study used the bigger number of participants. Lastly, the students
researchers to conduct a further study in this field, especially for other communication
strategies that were not discussed in this study and different context of study.
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AKNOWLEDGEMENT
Allah, terima kasih atas kecukupan yang Engkau anugerahkan kepadaku. Ajarlah
aku selalu bersykur dan ajarlah aku untuk membagi karunia mu itu dengan orang lain.
I would not be able to write this piece of academic work without the support of the
beloved ones. I cannot mention all of them here. My gratitude exclusively goes to:
My Lord, Allah SWT who graces me with knowledge.
My supervisor, Maria Christina Eko Setyarini M.Hum who was helpful , understanding and offered me invaluable assistance, talk, support, and guidance. My examiner, Anita Kurniawati M.Hum who gave her time to read and grade my
thesis.
Bethany School Family who gave me permission to do my observation.
My beloved Mama, Siswati Rahayu and my Bapak, Teuku Iskandar for their never ending support and prayers.
Dra. Irene Talakua for the constant prayer, support and encouragement.
All niners family ,especially Pratiwi, Pembayun, Jessica, Erlina and Dian Pramesti for the constant support.
