CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1Research Background
Language is a tool for human communication. Therefore, every country
in the world has its own language which is well known as a native language or a
mother tongue. Language is defined by Wardhaugh (in Brown, 1994:4) as a
system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. While
according to Pei (in Brown, 1994:4), language is a system of communication
by sound, operating through the organ of speech and hearing, among
members of a given community, and using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary
conventional meanings. However, not all languages can be used as a tool of
communication all over the world. It is only English that can be used by a great
deal of people in the world as a tool of communication because it has been a
foreign language internationally used.
As a foreign and international language, English is considered to be
important to learn and to teach. Accordingly, due to its importance, English has
been learnt and taught beginning from primary schools to universities or
colleges in the world including in Indonesia. The important role of
English in Indonesia especially in the tertiary institution or higher education has
been stated by authorities, such as Abdul Hamid (in Adyawardhani, 2003:1) and
Alwasilah (2001:56). Abdul Hamid states that the formal status of English as a
foreign language in Indonesia is guaranteed in the 1999-2004 State Board
Guidelines (GBHN) that explicitly acknowledges it as the prime tool in uplifting
implies that education should provide appropriate programs for this purpose. The
1989 Education Law No. 2 and the 1999 Government Regulation on Higher
Education No. 60 have accommodated the guarantee that foreign languages,
especially English, are the tools that function not only as effective and efficient
means of interaction but also the medium of instruction, as long as they help to
develop and spread the technology and arts that would uplift the quality of life
enhanced by the national cultures.
In the meantime, according to Alwasilah, in Indonesia universities
or colleges, English is included in the curriculum as a mandatory subject, and
given to the students at all departments. He states that College English that is
popularly called mata kuliah umum Bahasa Inggris (general course of English) is
commonly offered to freshmen in the first two semesters with two credit hours.
He, further (p.56) distinguishes between English for General Purposes (EGP) and
English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which comprises English for professional
and occupational purposes. According to him, EGP, like math and Indonesian, is
part of a general education, i.e., an education to provide citizens with the basic
skills to survive and function in society. But, at the college level, students
use the acquired EGP skills for digesting textbooks and general references as an
integral part of developing professionalism and the specialization of their
choice. English skills are part of academic or study skills for college success. On
entering college, students begin their exposure to a professional or
specialized discourse of knowledge mediated by a special variety of English.
In relation to the above statements, Harmer (1991:1) puts forward some
reasons why people learn language especially English, which is one of them is
English for Specific Purposes. He states that the term English for Specific
for wanting to learn the language. Supporting this idea, Alwasilah (2001:57) notes
that college students are no longer to learn English as a language. The emphasis
should be on the substance or field of study that is mediated by English for
Specific Purposes (ESP).
The concern to make language courses more relevant to learners’ needs
also led during this period to the emergence of the Language for Specific Purposes
(LSP) movement, known in English-language teaching circles as ESP (English
for Specific Purposes) (Richards, 2001:28). An important principle of ESP
approaches to language teaching is that the purposes for which a learner needs a
language rather than a syllabus reflecting the structure of general English should
be used in planning an English course. Rather than developing a course around
an analysis of the language, an ESP approach starts instead with an analysis
of the learner’s needs (Richards, page 32). In ESP learner’s needs are often
described in terms of performance, that is, in terms of what the learner will be able
to do with the language at the end of a course of study (Richards, page 33).
It seems to the researcher that ESP should be applied in the English
teaching in tertiary institutions including in the research site, which is
a professional educational institution implementing social work education.
The students here are educated and trained professionally in the field of social
work knowledge and skills in order that they are able to be professional social
workers who have competences in the field of social work and are able to apply
the profession in their workplaces and in the society.
In supporting their learning process, there are many social work textbooks
that can be used as references to read. Through reading those references, the
students are indirectly expected to be able to enhance and deepen their knowledge
profession. They should not solely depend on what the lecturers provided in the
classroom. Besides that, if the students are in the thesis (final scientific
work) writing, they are also expected to take some original references from the
social work/welfare textbooks. In reality, however, they cannot do that because
they are not able to read English textbooks, they have difficulty in understanding
them including reading English textbooks, even in knowing English basic words.
The students think that English is difficult to learn so that they encounter
difficulty in learning English.
Therefore, if they need references of social work/welfare, they usually try
to find Indonesian ones which are still very limited in number. In addition, they
are expected to be able to communicate in English as well.
From my personal experience there has not been any research looking at
the teaching of English in the research site. It is not analyzed yet what the
students’ need to study, it is not known yet what competences or skills the
students want to master. The present study accordingly attempted to examine the
teaching of English in the research site, particularly to do with the teaching
materials provided for the students, the methods used by the lecturers, and the
students’ needs in the English teaching.
1.2 Research Significance
This study is significant so that it is concerned with investigation of the
English teaching program conducted in a tertiary institution especially in the
research site specified to the teaching materials, the methods, and the
students’ needs in the English teaching. The results are expected to lead to the
improvement of the English teaching program in the research site. Moreover, the
research site as well as for the lecturers in other institutions organizing
English for specific Purposes (ESP) to understand the students’ need in learning
English.
1.3 Thesis Organization
The thesis will be organized as follows:
Chapter I describes introduction with research background, research
significance, and thesis organization.
Chapter II explains definitions of English for Specific Purposes (ESP),
characteristics of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), needs analysis,
methods, and materials for English for Specific Purposes (ESP).
Chapter III illuminates research questions, purposes of the study, participants,
research location, research design, data collection, and data analysis.
Chapter IV portrays findings and discussions.
Chapter V describes conclusions and suggestions.
