An Analysis of the Use of First Language in Second Language Classroom in
aJunior High School
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
Debby YermiaSabbatikaRahayu 112008027
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
An Analysis of the Use of First Language in Second Language Classroom in
aJunior High School
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
Debby YermiaSabbatikaRahayu 112008027
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
An Analysis of the Use of First Language in Second Language Classroom in
a Junior High School
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
Debby YermiaSabbatikaRahayu 112008027
Approved by:
Anne I. Timotius, M.Ed Anita Kurniawati H, M.Hum
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An Analysis of the Use of First Language in Second Language Classroom in a Junior High School
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An Analysis of the Use of First Language in Second Language Classroom in
a Junior High School
Debby Yermia Sabbatika Rahayu
ABSTRACT
The use of L1 in English language classroom has been discussed for many years. It also raises confrontation between pros and cons. The pro sides argue that using L1 in L2 classroom will give bad effect to the learners in acquiring the target language. However, some agree that L1 should be used in L2 calssroom because it gives positive effect to both teacher and students. By knowing the pros and cons, this study conducted to investigate on why and when Junior High School English teachers use L1 in their teaching and learning process. This paper is based on the interview with three English teachers and classroom observations conducted in SMP Masehi Kudus. It purposes to show of why and when the use of L1 in teaching English to Junior High School students. The discussion suggested that the purposes of using L1 still take important roles in teaching learning process. As the result, the researcher found that the use of L1 in SMP Masehi Kudus really help the teachers in their teaching and learning process such as; to provide clear instructions, to give clear explanation,to check students’ understanding or comprehension, to translate difficult terms, to save the time, and as compensatory strategies.
Key words: First language (L1), Second language (L2), Junior High School, The Purposes of L1
Introduction
English has become increasingly important nowadays. It is because English used for business, science, and politics, and it becomes a Global Language. Besides, English also has
become very popular because the number of people learning and using English is highly increasing. People who learn and know at least how to speak and write English would be easier to achieve what they want. English is also the one of requirements in job fields. In job fields for
example, applicants will be interviewed using English. Therefore, many schools are starting to teach English as a second language (L2) from kindergartens, even in pre-schools, up to senior
important thing in education. Richards (2002, p.2) says that English as a foreign language may be important school subject, a prerequisite to enter a university and the language of a large
percentage of the students’ textbooks.Recently, parents want their children start to learn English in early age. In general, children are better second language learners than adults because their brains are specially organized to learn language (Birdsong, 1999). As the result, it can be concluded that children should learn English from the beginning and it will become their provisions for their future. Whereas, in Indonesia itself, English is not used in daily life, but it is
only as a subject that students have to learn in school.
The present discussion regarding the role of the L1 in the L2 class stems from the growing perception that the L1 is not so much prohibited by recent L2 methods as it is
disregarded (Cook, 2001). Among a number of professionals in the field of second language acquisition, there appears to be an increasing conviction that the first language (L1); L1 here
means Bahasa Indonesia, has a necessary and facilitating role in the second and foreign language (L2) classroom. This conviction may come from personal experience.The exact role of one’sL1 in L2 education has not been clearly defined. It is because there are some people disagree with the using of L1 in L2 education.
learning the L2. Some foreign language teachers believe that the best way for students to develop native-like language proficiency is to think in their L1.
Auerbach (1993, p.19) summarized her conclusion in the following way: "Starting with the L1 provides a sense of security and validates the learners’ lived experiences, allowing them to express themselves. The learner is then willing to experiment and take risks with English."
According to Nation (1997), he stated that when the classes where learners all share the same first language or national language, teachers need to use a range of options to encourage learners
to use the L2 as much as possible. Based on two experts’ statement above, the learners feel comfort and secure when they use L1 in L2 classroom. By using L1, it encourages students to take risks to use L2.Students working in pairs and small groups tend to experience higher levels of motivation and interest, collectively negotiate meaning, and employ the L1 as a mediating tool to collaboratively and successfully complete difficult tasks (Storch & Wigglesworth, 2003;
Alegria de la Colina & Del Pilar Garcia Mayo, 2009).
Based on my own experience, when I was learning L2 in school, my teacher always use both of L1 and L2. Honestly, I sometimes found some difficulties in learning when my teacher
explained the materials using L2. That’s way my teacher also used L1 to explain the material in order to make the students understand. This is similar to Cook (2005), he suggests that if the L1
is always present in the learners’ mind, its role in the classroom might have positive effects on learning and teaching as “a way of conveying L2 meaning,” “a short-cut for explaining tasks,
tests, etc.,” “a way of explaining grammar,” and “practicing L2 uses such as code-switching”. It
students teach using L2 because the students usually use L1 as their communicative language. These findings imply that the fear of using L1 in foreign language classrooms, which results in
negative transfer, should be reduced. So that, whenever I do not understand and have difficulties in understanding the material when using L2, my teacher will explain to me about the material in
L1 happily. Using L1 in teaching L2 really gives me benefits in understanding the material. It helps me to reduce misunderstandings in understanding the material. Actually, I love to be taught in L1 because L1 gives more benefits, not only for the teacher, but also for the students. It can
save time, make students understand more and reduce misunderstanding.
According to Duff & Polio (1990), they said that there is a research which found the
result and reason of teacher and students in making errors of the L1 in L2 education. The rate at which both use the L1 however varies. The range of instructor or teachers use of the L1 is recorded between 10% and 100%, but as Swain & Lapkin (2000) the range of student use of the
L1 is between 0% and 100%. From the result that I stated before, it shows that both teacher and students used L1 in education. Clearly, the decision to use the L1 in the L2 classroom is a
personal decision that is motivated by a variety of factors. From the statement above, research showed that instructors or teachers are more likely to use the L1 in several different instances. Providing instructions and explanations of complex concepts and grammar is a common
reason given by instructors or teachers to justify their use of the L1. Also, instructors or teachers seem to prefer to perform classroom management duties in the first language to avoid any
confusion and to get their point effectively. The other reason of why instructors or teachers use L1 include explaining concepts that do not exist in the L2 (Duff & Polio, 1990; Macaro, 2001; Rolin-Ianziti & Brownlie, 2002; Kim & Elder, 2008), accommodating the needs of students with
Polio, 1990; Cook, 2001). Based on Atkinson (1987), he recommends the use of the L1 in the L2 classroom: eliciting language, checking comprehension, giving instructions, talking about
language, comparing the L1 and L2, translating, using compensatory strategies; try using another strategy usually the simple one, and saving time. Meanwhile, Harbord (1992) also agrees that
the L1 should not be avoided, but he little bit disagrees with Atkinson’s statement, he recommends that only a few of Atkinson’s statement: e.g. contextualized (not not word-for-word) translation. However, second language acquisition research (e.g: Dulay & Burt, 1973;
Johnson & Newport, 1994) has revealed that the difficulties and errors of foreign language learning cannot be completely attributed to interference by the learners’ first language.
The use of L1 for teacher is useful in explaining materials if there are some difficulties in delivering the materials. For example, teaching grammar is more comfortable and easier using L1; so the students are more receptive to the material that was explained. As I experienced, many
teachers use L1 in L2 classroom when they teach about grammar, it is because grammar little bit confusing and has many patterns and exception. Therefore, teachers prefer to teach grammar
using L1 than L2. Teacher also use L1 to mix knowledge that students have learned about the foreign language, such as its vocabulary, sentence structures, and cultural aspects (Duff & Polio, 1990; Kim & Elder, 2008). It is importantfor teachers to realize the effectiveness of students’ L1
and attempt to use it positively.
The use of L1 in L2 classroom sometimes raises confrontation but although it is possible
to use the L1 in L2 education, the use of L1 should be adjusted with the portions. So, L1 here only serves as a bridge if there are difficulties in the delivery of teaching materials. Based on Nation (2003) there are some reasons of choosing the role of using L1 was because L1 gives
the same L1. Second, it is easier and more effective in communicative to use the L1, and third, using the L2 can be a source of embarrassment particularly for shy learners and those who feel
they are not very proficient in the L2.
Nevertheless, teaching L2 to junior high students is not easy because in Indonesia, L2 is
just as a subject that should be taught in schools, so they only learn in the classroom. Therefore, they need much practice that can make them learn L2 better, such as in the classroom by listening to teacher’s explanation. However, not all L2 teachers give enough instruction because
they do not use L2 all the time when in the classroom, it means that L2 teachers often explain and give instruction use L1 to make the students understand more, for example teachers use the
L1 in order to manage or discipline a class, provide instructions or explanations, motivate students to use the L2, accommodate students in mixed-ability classes, translate, comment on student work and progress, conserve time, and discuss the target culture (Duff & Polio, 1990;
Macaro, 2001; Rolin-Ianziti & Brownlie, 2002; Kim & Elder, 2008).
Based on the reason above, the writer conducted a research about the use of first language in
junior high school English language teaching. The writer investigated the situations and the reason why junior high school teachers used L1 when they were teaching L2. This study aimed to identify and to answer the following research questions: 1) Why do junior high school L2
teachers teach using L1 in the classroom? 2) When junior high school L2 teachers teach using L1 in the classroom? Hopefully, this study will give contribution on the other study of the purpose
The Study
Context of the study
The setting of the study is in SMP Masehi, Kudus, Central Java, Indonesia. I chose and conducted observation at SMP Masehi because I came from Kudus and know the teachers who teach there, so it was easy for me in conducting the research. The other reason I chose this school
because the English teachers in this school sometimes using L1 in teaching L2. In conducting research, I decided to conduct research in all grades in that junior high school because I want to
know more about the use of L1 in L2 teaching from different grade of students.
Participants
There are only three English teachers in SMP Masehi Kudus, so the participants of this study
are three English teachers in SMP Masehi Kudus. The participant is chosen based on a sample of convenience. A sample of convenience (McKay, 2006, p. 36) is the selection of participants
based on the people who are easily accessible.
Instrument of Data Collection
In collecting the data I needed, I used two instruments, interview and observation. Here are
the further expalantion of interview and observation:
This research used interview in answering the research question (see Appendix 1). According
to James K. Doyle, interviews can be used effectively for a wide variety of purposes, for example: to learn about cultural customs, to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational or social
program, to document expert opinions, to explore people's reactions to important events in their
interesting or influential people. The interview was used to find out their opinions, ideas, suggestion, and additional information about the class situation in using L1 when teaching L2.
I also used observation method to know the actual class situation when the teachers teach L2 using L1. It also aimed to convince and provide a rich and complete description of what happened in the classroom. As Richards and Farrell (2005) using observation offer several
benefits; it provides opportunity to see how teachers deal with many of the same problems teacher generally face, might learn effective teaching strategies that we have never tried and it
may also trigger reflections about our teaching practices. I conducted the observation in two different classes. Actually I would like to observe all of three classes, but the third grade was doing Try Out so I couldnot observe it. The interview and observation will be recorded and make
a check list to provide some evidences (see appendix 2 for the check list).
Procedures of Data Collection
In this section, I would like to explain on the procedures of data collection. The study used qualitative data. The qualitative data were taken from the interview and classroom observation.
To collect the data, I conducted interview and recorded it using my phone. I also conducted
the classroom observation and use observation protocol checklist (see Appendix 2) to know the exact situation. For the interview, I recorded the interview with three teachers from three
No. Participant When/Date Length of Interview
1. Mrs. A Wednesday, September 5, 2012 4 minutes
Saturday, April 13, 2013 3 minutes
2. Mr. B Wednesday, September 5, 2012 5 minutes
Saturday, April 13, 2013 4 minutes
3. Mrs. C Wednesday, September 5, 2012 4.5 minutes
Saturday, April 13, 2013 4 minutes
Table 1: Interview Data
After I did the interview, I did the classroom observation. For the observation, I used
observation protocol, here I used checklist to get the exact situation. Actually, I had to conduct the observation nine times, three times for each grade. Ufortunately, the third grade was doing Try Out so I couldnot observed them. Finally I just did six times classroom observation; I only
observed in the first and second grade.
No. Observation/Class When/Date Length of Observation
1. 1st/ 8B February 20, 2013 2 x 40’
2. 2nd/ 7C February 23, 2012 2 x 40’
4. 4th/ 8B March 6, 2013 1 x 40’
5. 5th/ 8B March 13, 2013 2 x 40’
6. 6th/ 7C March 16, 2013 1 x 40’
Table 2: Observation Data
I finished with the interview and classroom observation. For the interview, I did it twice because I still need additional information. In observation, I did six times in two difference classes in 3 weeks. Each week, I did twice classroom observations. I did the observation based
on the school schedule. After getting all the required data, I analyze it.
Data Analysis Procedures
After I got the data from the interview and classroom observations, I transcribed and
analyzed the data. Then, I classified the observation data based on the point in the checklist which were related to when or why L1 was used in L2 teaching for Junior High School.
Moreover, I elaborated the data based on my interpretation and related to the literature review on the use of L1. In the end, I drew a conclusion toward the study that I had done.
DISCUSSION
In this discussion chapter I will present the data analysis from my interview and
observation results. I divide it into two parts. In the first part, I would like to share the result from interview which is about the reason why English teachers use L1 in their L2 calssroom. For the second part, I would like to share about observation result which is talking about when English
Based on Atkinson (1987), there are eight functions of the use of L1 in L2 classroom. They are eliciting language, checking comprehension, talking about language, giving instruction,
comparing the L1 and L2, translating, using compensatory strategies, and saving time. According to the data I got, from interview and observation, the function on when and why teachers use L1
in L2 classroom, there only five functions; checking comprehension, giving instruction, translating, using compensatory strategies, saving time and I add one more function, that is
explaining the materials.
A. The Reason of Using L1 in L2 Classroom
Based on the data I gathered through interviews, I found that there were two reasons of using L1 in L2 classroom, they were as compensatory strategies and saving time. Those reason I got from interviews with three teachers and were proved by observation. In the interviews, teachers
gave their statements of the use of Indonesian in teaching English and in the observation showed that the teacher used Indonesian in teaching English like their statements in the interviews. For
further information about that see the data analysis below. 1. Using Compensatory Strategies
Actually, a compensatory strategy used to make the teacher was easier in conveying
meaning and also explaining difficult material to the students. From the interview, those three teachers stated that using L1 was a teaching strategy to teach L2. They stated that it was used to
compensatory strategy. The teachers’ statement about compensatory strategy proved by observation result below.
In my six classroom observation, teacher used compensatory strategies only in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5thand 6thobservation. For the example:
1. Conversation between teacher (T) and student (S) when learning about opinion (3rd
observation; March 5, 2013):
T: Stevan, apa film kesukaan kamu?
S: Harry Potter Miss.
T: Oo Harry Potter yaa? Lalu apa pendapat mu tentang film itu?
S: Bagus Miss, keren filmnya.
From the example above, it shows that the teacher started her teaching by asking one of
the students about his favourite film then asks his opinion about the film in Indonesian. It aims to make students easy to understand about the lesson and topic of the lesson. After the teacher gave
example by asking the student and explaining a little bit about the example, she continues her teaching about giving opinion to the students.
The example above proved by statement from the three teachers I interviewed, Mrs. A
explained:
“I use Indonesia in my teaching and learning process and I think that is a strategy that I used. The reason I said using Indonesian as a
strategy because there are some students who did not understand the materials that I taught in English, so I should switch the language in
In line, Mr. B’s statement also similar to Mrs. A. Mr. B gave his statement:
“Yeah, I think using Indonesian considered as a strategy. As we know
that teaching English is not easy, so we should use Indonesian in
deliver the materials. It is because if we only use English, I’m afraid if
the students could not receive and understand the materials and it will affect on their achievement. So, if we use Indonesian, students will
easier in receiving and understanding the materials.”(April 13, 2013)
Mrs. C also agreed about using L1 as a strategy in teaching. In her intervie, she stated:
“Using Indonesian is a strategy I used in my teaching and learning
process. It is because English is a foreign language and the teaching time given to me just four hours a week, so the students still confused
and difficult in understanding English if we did not help using Indonesian.” (April 13, 2013)
From those three teachers, they agreed using Indonesian in the teaching and learning
process considered as a strategy because it is really helpful and easier to deliver the materials. They also said that not all students understand if they taught using English because not all
students have same ability in understanding the materials if they use English.
In compensatory strategies, teacher used or gave example using a simple thing and
Kasper (1986) note that in some cases a strategy such as L1 switch may have communicative value.
2. Saving Time
As three teachers I interviewed, they did not find any problems if they use L1 in their
teaching. They said that using L1 give benefits and advantages, not only to make their teaching and learning process easier, but they also said that using L1 save the time because when teaching using L1, they could move from one topic to another topic, they also can give extra exercises to
their students. They said that using L1 could save the time. If they taught using L1, it would make them teaching faster than using L2. It was proved from Mr. B’sstatement:
“Talking about the efficient of time, for me using Indonesian really
effective and efficient because I could deliver the materials deeper and not only one material, it can be two materials in the same time. If I
should teach one material only, the explanation could be deeper and I could explain more, so the students could really understand.” (April
13, 2013)
In the interview with Mrs. C, her statement also similar to Mr. B:
“The advantage using Indonesian, in the matter of time, I think there is
no problem so far. I think it saves the time because it is more effective, so I could teach the students deeper and clearer. I also could give them
Those two teachers’ statements also similar to Mrs. A, she also agreed about the
advantages of L1. Here is her statement:
“The benefits or advantages using Indonesian for me are students will understand more and also about time management. If I use Indonesian, I could save the time, so the materials that I will deliver could be
deeper and variations. Besides, I also could give more evaluation and excercisesto the students.” (April 13, 2013)
Duff & Polio (1990), Cook (2001) and Atkinson (1987) recommended that teacher should use L1 to make light of teaching, because using L1 gave more benefits in teaching and learning process. Saving time is one of the benefits in using L1 when teaching using L2. As I observed, I
concluded that the teacher used L1 in their teaching was not only for delivering material, but for saving the time.
B. When L1 is Used in L2 Classroom
This following table presents the relevant data from the classroom observations about the
teacher’sperspective of when they use L1 in their L2 teaching.
When use L1
Classroom Observation
1 2 3 4 5 6
1.Eliciting Language - - - - -
-2.Checking Comprehension √ √ √ √ √ √
3.Talking about Language - - - - -
5.Comparing the L1 and L2 - - - - -
-6.Translating √ √ √ √ √ √
7.Using Compensatory Strategies - - - - -
-8.Saving Time - - - - -
-9.Etc (Explaining the Material) √ √ √ √ √ √
Table 3: Data of Classroom Observation
The table above is showing the result of my observation. From the data that I gathered, it showed about when the L2 teachers use L1 in their teaching. Teachers use L1 when they were
checking students’ comprehension was found in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th observation. I also knew that teachers use L1 when they were giving instruction to students from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,
5th and 6th observation. Not only when they checked students’ comprehension and giving instruction, but the teachers also used L1 in translating that can be seen in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th observation. The last important thing for L2 teachers in using L1 is when they were
explaining the materials, especially when teaching about grammar; it was found from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5thand 6thobservation.
The purpose of classroom observation was to know the actual situation and support the result of interview about when and why English teachers in Masehi Junior High School use L1 in their teaching then divided into several themes. From my observation, the themes of when L2
teachers use L1 in their teaching were checking comprehension, giving instruction, translating, and explaining the materials. Each of the themes will be explained and discussed further below.
1. Checking Comprehension
comprehension, teacher used L1 in most of her teaching. In this case, teachers needed to use L1 when they checked students’ comprehension to make it easier and save the time. When teachers
used L2 in checking students’ comprehension, students’ tent to be passive and some of them were confused. Here is an example of checking comprehension in classroom observation taken
from 6thobservation; March 14, 2013:
1. T: Kalau subjeknya my mother and my mother itu drink atau drinks?
Ss: Drink Miss.
The conversation between teacher and students above shows that the teacher was trying to check the students’ understanding about the right verbs they should use in a sentence. When
checking students’ comprehension, the teacher used L1 to make it easier and the students will
understand about their teacher intention. It would make the students easier to answer or give respon when the teacher used L1.
Checking students’ comprehension is very important in teaching learning process.
Checking comprehension is one of ways to check students’ understanding about the material.
Sharma (2006) points out that L1 might be used for checking learners’ comprehension. The use of L1 is helpful in checking comprehension. Atkinson (1987) suggests using L1 in checking comprehension can be done by asking questions to the students and it is often quicker and more
accurate.
2. Giving Instruction
Based on my six classroom observation, the finding showed that the teacher used L1 when give instructions. Here is the example in using L1 to give instruction:
Ss: Ok Miss. (4thobservation; March 6, 2013)
The finding above displayed that the teacher used L1 to give instruction. As stated in the
example above, the teacher asked the students to write the summary of the lesson they learnt that day and they should write it in a big size, so that when they are studying, it will help them to
study easily.
From the classroom observation and example above, it could be seen clearly that L1 was really helpful in giving instruction to the students. Students would pay attention more if their
teacher gave instruction using L1 than L2. Not only pay attention, but the students also did what their teacher had asked quickly. The students followed and understood the lesson when the
teacher used clear language instructions. In English language classrooms, the language instructions also took important roles in the teaching learning process. Instead of using English,
Indonesian could be useful language to give the instructions to the students.
Cook (2001) as cited by Zacharias (2002) argued that the purpose of using L1 is useful to give instruction about classroom activities. Tang (2002) adds teacher uses L1 in beginning and
intermediate classes to give instruction. In the primary level of English language teaching, L1 takes an important part in giving instruction to the students. Giving instructions in L1 has been considered to be effective in helping the learners achieving the goal of classroom activities
(Atkinson, 1987; Cook, 2001; Lucas and Katz, 1994; Macaro, 1997 in Manara 2007).
3. Translating
The use of L1 in L2 teaching was also used in translating. Teacher sometimes translated
materials. Here are two examples of L1 used when translating based on 2nd classroom observation on February 23, 2013:
1. T:“Asking for something” itu meminta sesuatu.
2. T:If it is add “pay” it becomes pay you attention please itu berarti kalau pakai tambahan “pay” artinya sama untuk mohon perhatian.
From the examples above, it showed that L1 was also helpul for teacher when teaching
L2. In the example number 1 and 2 showed that teacher used L1 when translating a new thing or conveying a meaning to the students. It was used to decrease their confusion in learning and
convey a meaning of a sentence.
The data above was supported by the result from Mrs. A, in her interview, she said that the use of L1 in teaching L2 was really helpful when she taught and found something new or a
new word for students. She used L1 to convey the meaning and sometimes also to explain the new words to students. Sometimes teacher conveyed meaning through paraphrasing or
translating into their first language to make students get clear meaning of the word. As stated by Franklin (1990), teacher use L1 for conveying word and sentence meaning recognizes that the
two languages are closely linked in the mind.
4. Explaining the Materials
The last finding in my classroom observation of the use of L1 in L2 teaching was when explaining the materials. Using L1 was really helpful for teaching especially in explaining the
1. T: Di simple past tense pola yg digunakan untuk kalimat positif yaitu: S + V2. Kalau untuk yang negative, S + did + not + V1. Karena sudah pakai did, jadi verbnya kembali ke bentuk awal. Sedangkan untuk kalimat tanya polanya, Did + S + V1? (1
st
observation; February 20, 2013)
2. T: Ok. Miss akan beritahu cara paling gampang untuk menanyakan opinin atau pendapat. Paling gampang itu caranya menggunakan kalimat seperti ini: (3rd observation; March 5, 2013)
e.g. : what do you think
What is your opinion
Those examples showed that the teacher used L1 to explain grammar. The data showed that in explaining materials L1 really helped the teacher. The teacher would easily explain and
deliver the materials, especially materials related to grammar or structure. As those two examples, it shows that the teacher is trying to deliver the material about simple past tense
(example 1) and talking about opinion (example 2). In explaining grammar or structure like those two examples, it is true that using L1 is more effective and helpul because it could cut down students’ confusion in understanding the material.
Using L1 in teaching grammar gave more benefits not only for students, but also for the teacher. The use of L1 in teaching grammar helped students understand easily and got the main
point of a lesson. It also helped the teacher in managing students’ confusion in learning grammar. According to Duff & Polio (1990) and Swain & Lapkin (2000), they found that both teacher and students used L1 in L2 teaching make less error than who use L2. Based on the
interview result from one teacher, he said that he used L1 in teaching grammar or anything related to structure to help students’ understanding and reduce difficulties in delivering the
material.Besides, the use of L1 in explaining the materials made the explanation clearer and avoided confusion.
CONCLUSION
The study was set out to determine the teachers’ use of L1 in teaching English to Junior High School students. The study has found that a generally teacher used L1 when they were
checking comprehension, giving instruction, translating, using compensatory strategies, saving time and explaining the materials.
In checking comprehension, the teacher used L1 to ask the students understanding about
materials that were delivered. In giving instruction, the teacher used L1 to ask the students to give instruction, in doing excercise and to write about the summary. For the translating, the
teacher used L1 to explain and give example related to the topic which was stated in English first, and then was translated into Indonesian. In using compensatory startegies, the teachers used L1 when giving examples that were related to the topic by using simple and daily language, so
the students will understand easily. In explaining the materials, the teacher used L1 in explaining the materials actually to save the time and make the students understand easily, especially if the
topic is about grammar or structure. Last, saving time also played an important role in the teaching learning process. It could help teachers in delivering deeper materials and could give more excercises to students. That is why, the teacher use L1 to explain new words and materials
Based on my classroom observation and interview, I could say that L1 take important rules in L2 teaching for Junior High School students in order to get a successful teaching and
lerning activity. The use of L1 gives more benefits and positive contribution on the development of teaching in L2 classroom. The interview result showed that those three L2 teachers agreed that
the use of L1 was beneficial and really help them in the teaching and learning process. They said that, they used L1 more frequent in their L2 teaching than L2. The use of L1 helped them in explaining materials and conveying a new word meaning because not all the students understood
if the teacher used L2 in their teaching. They also said that the use of L1 helped students to get goal achievement in their grade. It also helped students to overcome the difficulties they found in
the L2 teaching and learning process.
All in all, these results implied that L1 takes important role in L2 teaching and learning process in order to get successful teaching and learning activity in the SMP Masehi Kudus Junior
High School because in that school not all students understand when the teachers teach using L2. It is by knowing the uses of L1 give positive contribution on the development of teaching because the findings guided the L2 teachers to know the uses of L1 in the L2 classroom. The
result supported that the teacher still used L1 in teaching was beneficial. From the study, the author hopes that the study on the use of L1 in L2 classroom will give general overview about
the teacher used L1 to teach in the Junior High School.
From this research, teachers knew why and when they should use L1 in the teaching learning process. However, the limitation of this study is on the findings. In this case, this study
different from the use of L1 in L2 classroom of Senior High School or University level. From this research, the researcher suggests for the further research to do a research and study more in
the use and purpose of L1 in L2 classroom in the same grade, here is in Junior High School, or in the lower and even higher grade of school. It is because there will be many data that explore the
Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to say thank to my Almighty God, Jesus Christ, who has guide and give me His strength in doing this thesis. So, this thesis would not have been possible without the
support of many people. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Anne I. Timotius, M.ed who was helpful and offered invaluable assistance, support and guidance. My gratitude also due to Anita Kurniawati, M.Hum. without her knowledge and assistance this study would
not have been completed. I also thanks to my participants, the English’s teacher ofMasehi Junior High School Kudus for their contribution for this study.
I also would like to express my love and gratitude to my beloved parents and families for their support, understanding and love. Besides, I also would like to express special thanks to my special one, Roland B.F Koroh and his parents who also give support, guidance and love. The
last but not least, I also thank to five of my best friends; Riska, Yenny, Anita, Desi, Aya, and I also say thank to Yayan and Bunga for their contribution in helping and give support in doing
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Appendix
Appendix 1
Appendix of interview questions:
1. Sudah berapa lama Anda mengajar di sekolah ini?
2. Bahasa apa yang Anda gunakan pada saat mengajar? Berikan alasannya!
3. Kapan Anda menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia saat mengajar?
4. Seberapa sering Anda menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia saat mengajar?
5. Mengapa Anda menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia saat mengajar?
6. Menurut Anda, bagaimana Bahasa Indonesia membantu Anda pada saat mengajar?
Appendix 2 Appendix of checklist
Observation Protocol
Date :
Name of the course :
Class time :
Class :
Name of teacher :
Topic :
Situation Yes No
Eliciting language
Checking comprehension
Talking about language
Giving instructions
Comparing the L1 and L2
Translating
Using compensatory strategies
Saving time
