TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH STUDENTS’ SILENCE IN
SMP KRISTEN LABORATORIUM SATYA WACANA SALATIGA
Sri Murtini
Abstract
Silence is a common problem faced by ESL/EFL teachers in classrooms, especially in those with mainly Asian students. L2 learners usually end up with silent and seldom give contribution to speak in English classroom to avoid mistakes in communication. Secondary level is demanded to be able to use English communicatively during the lesson. Lack of confidence, low English proficiency, shyness, fear of mistakes, and lack of motivation are the factors which cause their silent. In the classroom, it must be there are silent and noisy students, and the teachers often treat them in the same way. The same treatments can lead an unfair and inequality grading for the students with different personalities. Additionally, students have different learning styles and these different ways of learning may produce different results academically for either students silence or talkative one. It is important for the teachers to have the best strategies to cope with those problems. This paper aims to investigate the common strategies that are used by the teachers in dealing with students’ silence at the seventh grade in English classrooms. The data were collected through interview and supported by observations. The participant is only one teacher at SMP Kristen Laboratorium Satya Wacana, Salatiga because she is the one who teach speaking for seventh grader. The results show that teacher uses strategies which appropriate with the language learners’ environment in order to help reduce students’ silence. One of the strategies which often emerge and able to increase silent students to speak is motivation.
