i
ii
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1. Findings 29
4.2. Discussions 55
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1. Conclusions 61 5.2. Suggestions 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY 64
APPENDICES
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 A Research Procedure 25
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Students’ Needs in the English Teaching at the Research Site 50
LIST OF APPENDICES
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 III
METHODOLOGY
Methodology is very essential step of the investigation. The present chapter accordingly will try to discuss the research methodology which deals with (1) research questions, (2) purposes of the study, (3) participants, (4) research location, (5) research design, (6) data collection, and (7) data analysis.
3.1 Research Questions
As indicated earlier in this thesis, this study is focused on the English teaching program in the research site, a tertiary institution focusing on social work education. The study attempted to address the following questions:
1. What teaching materials do the lecturers provide for the students? 2. What methods are used by the lecturers?
3. What are the students’ needs in the English teaching?
3.2 Purposes of the Study
On the basis of the above questions, the investigation is intended to meet the following purposes:
1. To describe the teaching materials provided for the students; 2. To describe the methods used by the lecturer; and
3.3 Participants
Participants involved in this study were not only the students and the English lecturers but also the non-English lecturers and the authorities in the research site. Their involvement was very useful because they could provide more constructive ideas to support the primary data taken from the students as well as the English lecturers. The two English lecturers, 10 students, 10 non-English lecturers and five authorities in the research site were asked to be interviewed.
The students chosen in this investigation were those in the academic year 2002. They had the same opportunity to be selected provided that they could provide information needed. Besides that, they were really the students taught by the two English lecturers. The non-English lecturers selected were those who have been teaching for more than ten years and were willing to be interviewed as well as could give the information required. The five authorities in the research site were the Chairman of the institution, the Deputy I, II, III, and the Head of Education Division.
3.4 Research Location
upon Ministry of National Education policy, since 1989 it has been running a four year diploma.
The researcher has chosen this college for her research location because of at least two reasons. First, she teaches here so that she can find the data easily. Second, hopefully that the implication of her conduct of study can provide improvement of the English teaching at the research site.
3.5Research Design
This study represents a qualitative research design because it wants to describe the situations or events in a natural setting. This is in line with what Mc Millan (cited in Idarafni, 2003:18) states that qualitative research is carried out in natural setting. In this study, the focus is on the English teaching program implemented in the research site.
Regarding qualitative research, Cresswell (1998:15) states that qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem. The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting. Whereas Maxwell (1996:17)
emphasizes, that qualitative researchers typically study a relatively small number of individuals or situations and preserve the individuality of each of these in their
Some qualitative research methodologists (e.g., Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Patton, 1990; Bogdan & Bilked, 1992; Gleans & Peshkin, 1992; in Mustafa, 2000) have identified several philosophical assumptions supporting qualitative research approach:
First, reality (or knowledge) is socially constructed. As reality (or knowledge) is a construction, there can be multiple realities in this world. Second, since reality (or knowledge) is cognitively constructed (in our minds), it is then inseparable from us, the researchers. In other words, we cannot separate what we know from ourselves. This also means that we can (only) understand particular constructions symbolically, especially through language. Third, all entities (including human beings) are always in a state of mutual, simultaneous shaping. It is therefore impossible to clearly distinguish causes from effects. Fourth, since the researcher cannot be separated from the researched, it follows that inquiry is always value-bound (page 2).
By this study the researcher wants to obtain the factual and deep data about the teaching materials provided for the students, the methods used by the lecturer, and the students’ need in the English teaching program in the research site. Accordingly, in order to ascertain information or data from various sources, the researcher did observation, interview, administered some questionnaire, and analyzed the document.
history and/or economy. The research focus can be on the case due to its uniqueness needs to be investigated or issues.
A case study is considered appropriate for this study because the researcher wants to obtain the information or data of the English teaching in
the research site especially in the academic year 2002 as deep as possible from the small samples through various sources.
3.6 Data Collection
In the present study, the data were collected through some procedures namely (a) the observation, (b) the interview, (c) the document, and the questionnaire.
1. Observation
Maxwell (1996:76) states that observation often enables the researcher to draw inferences of someone’s meaning and perspective that she could not obtain by relying exclusively on interview data.
The observation was conducted six times. Through the six times observation the researcher could know how the lecturers carried out the activities, the method they used, the students’ involvement in the whole activities, and what the students did during the class activities. The lecturers, however, did not allow their classes to be video-recorded. Therefore, the researcher tried to make the field notes of the activities of the students and the lecturers that can be found in the appendix.
2. Interview
observational access) of gaining a description of actions and events. Those can provide additional information that was missed in observation and can be used to check accuracy of the observation. The interview results were expected to be useful at the preliminary stage of designing a questionnaire to help get a sense of what topics and issues can be focused on in the questionnaire
The interviews were conducted in 2004. The English lecturers, the students, the non-English lecturers, and the authorities in the research site were interviewed and all interviews were recorded. To ascertain a more in-depth exploration of issues of the English teaching program in the research site, the researcher posed open-ended questions. The synthesis of interviews can be found in the appendix.
3. Document
In addition, the researcher gathered additional information from documents. This aimed to complete the information or the data, especially pertaining to the syllabus and the teaching materials. The teaching materials consulted were those from both English lecturers who prepared and used different materials. Meanwhile, the existing syllabus was obtained from the academic division (BAAK).
4. Questionnaire
communication difficulties, preferred learning styles, preferred classroom activities, and attitudes and beliefs (Richards, 2001:60). Questionnaires used are based on a set of structured items (in which the respondent chooses from a limited number of responses) administered to 58 students.
3.7 Data Analysis
As already mentioned previously, the data were derived from observations, interviews, and documents. The data from those sources were recorded, transcribed, classified, analyzed, and finally interpreted. The classification of the data is (1) The teaching materials, (2) The methods, and (3) The students’ needs.
The steps of data analysis are proposed by Creswell (1994:153) who states that in qualitative analysis several simultaneous activities engage the attention of the researcher: collecting information from the field, sorting the information into categories, formatting the information into a story or picture, and actually writing the qualitative text (Creswell, 1994:153). The initial step in qualitative analysis was reading the interview transcript, observational notes or documents that are to be analyzed (Maxwell, 1996:78).
The data from observations were analyzed to identify the teaching materials provided for the students and the methods used by the lecturers. Data
lecturers and also the method. The questionnaire data were analyzed to find out the students’ needs in the English teaching program in the research site.
Ultimately, to simplify the whole process of this investigation, the research procedure is illustrated in the following diagram:
Figure: 3.1 A Research Procedure
An Investigation of the English Teaching in a Tertiary Institution Background
Problem
Theory Fact
How is the English teaching program in a tertiary institution?
Research Questions
Data Collection
Observation, Interview, Document,
and Questionnaire
Data Analysis
Findings and Discussions
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This last chapter describes the conclusions of the present study and offers suggestions.
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the research findings and the researcher’s interpretation, she comes to the following conclusions, relevant to the research questions formulated earlier in this study.
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Moreover, regarding the methodology, the lecturers have employed various ways of teaching, such as communicative and structural approach. This would be better if the so-called methods facilitate one emphasized skill, for example speaking, so that the students can be trained to be able to communicate in English. They will have accordingly special competence in speaking.
Finally, what the students need are the availability of a simple English course book/text book containing materials relevant to social work profession that can be used as a guide to learn English in the research site implementing social work education. After learning English, the students are expected to be able to read social work English textbooks and to translate into Indonesian besides to be able to understand when people speak in English.
5.2 Suggestions
From the above conclusions, the researcher would like to provide some suggestions, as follows:
First of all to the English lecturers, especially in the research site, should be able to understand the significance of application of the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the teaching of English particularly the English teaching in the research site implementing social work education where the students major on the social work studies. In order to apply the ESP itself the English lecturers in the research site should consider creating or writing the teaching materials relevant to the students to be a guide both for the students and the lecturer, based on the needs analysis. In addition, the specific objectives of the English teaching and learning should be clearly defined (syllabus) in order to gain the expected outcomes.
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institution, specifically in the research site implementing social work education, further research involving extended periods of observations, in-depth interviews, and qualitative methods of data analysis, is needed to understand the limitations of the English teaching program in a research site implementing the professional education that should be mediated by the English for Specific Purposes (ESP).
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