PARENTS’ ROLES TOWARD THEIR BILINGUAL
KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE LEARNING: A
CASE STUDY
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dewi Indrawati
112008141
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
i
PARENTS’ ROLES TOWARD THEIR BILINGUAL
KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE LEARNING: A
CASE STUDY
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dewi Indrawati
112008141
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
ii
PARENTS’ ROLES TOWARD THEIR BILINGUAL
KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE LEARNING: A
CASE STUDY
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dewi Indrawati
112008141
Approved by:
iii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously
published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Dewi Indrawati and Hendro Setiawan Husada, M.A.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.
iv
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Name : Dewi Indrawati Student ID Number : 1120088141
Study Program : English Language Teaching
Faculty : Faculty of Language and Literature Kind of Work : Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive royalty free right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
Parents’ Roles toward Their Bilingual Kindergarten Children’s Language Learning: A Case Study
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With this non-exclusive royalty free right, SWCU maintains the right to copy, reproduce, print, publish, post, display, incorporate, store in or scan into a retrieval system or database, transmit, broadcast, barter or sell my intellectual property, in whole or in part without my express written permission, as long as my name is still included as the writer.
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Made in : Salatiga
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER... i
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ... ii
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION ... iv
TABLE OF CONTENT ... v
ABSTRACT ... 1
INTRODUCTION ... 1
THE STUDY ... 9
Context of the Study ... 9
Participants... 10
Instruments of Data Collection ... 10
Data Analysis ... 12
RESULT AND DISCUSSION ... 13
CONCLUSION ... 23
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... 26
REFERENCES ... 27
1
PARENTS’ ROLES TOWARD THEIR BILINGUAL KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE LEARNING: A CASE STUDY
Dewi Indrawati
ABSTRACT
This study examined parents‟ involvements in their bilingual kindergarten children‟s English learning at home. The participants of this study were two mothers and children of two families. The children were enrolled in a bilingual (English – Indonesian) kindergarten, and both mothers were multilingual speakers. A semi-structured interview and observations were conducted to collect the data. The mothers and children were interviewed separately, using different sets of questions but aimed for the same purpose. The results of this study indicated that in general both mothers played their roles as children‟s first teacher, partner, motivator and facilitator, but in different frequency and consistency. However, the mother in the first family played her role as the first teacher and a motivator more actively than the mother in the second family did.
Keywords: Parents‟ role, Indonesian-English Bilingual Kindergarten, English learning
INTRODUCTION
In order to elevate standards of education generally through the schools‟
development of „international standard‟, Indonesia started the bilingual school
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since nowadays many daycares, pre-schools or kindergartens offer bilingual (English-Indonesian) program.
A study of parents‟ attitudes toward bilingual study in New Mexico that was
conducted by Parkes (2008) as cited in Pugliese (2010), found that since bilingual education was widespread social, cognitive, academic, and economic advantages, it had successfully made parents feel attracted to it. Added to Parkes, Lee (2009) states that most parents believe that sending their children to bilingual schools could grant their children in communicative development. Furthermore, previous studies by Liu & Chien (1998), Lao (2004), Oladejo (2006) in Shang, Ingebritson, & Tseng (2007) had investigated three major reasons why Taiwanese parents sent their children to a bilingual kindergarten. The first, parents hoped that early exposure to English could enhance children‟s skills in this language for academic achievements or better career
opportunities. The second reason was Taiwanese parents would like their children to start formal English learning even before the official commencement age. And the last, parents would like to see their children began learning English as early as kindergarten, as opposed to the current provision of third grade level. In my opinion, the condition in Indonesia is almost the same with in Taiwan, where English is being introduced and taught at school as the second language. Hence, many Indonesian parents might have the same consideration in sending their children to bilingual schools, especially bilingual kindergatens. Furthermore, Cotton & Wikelund (1989) also suggested that the earlier in a child's educational process their parents‟
involvements began, the more powerful the effects would be.
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(about 4 to 6 years old) are included in this golden period of language learning, because their brain still retain plasticity. For these reasons, parents have to support and make use of this critical period. One ways to do that is by enrolling their children to bilingual schools, since bilingual school can help facilitating children to acquire second language. Besides parents could also actively involved in their children‟s
learning process. However, although young learners are in the golden period of language learning, they still need adults, or in this case parents as their closest relatives, to guide them in learning a language. In line with that, a thorough study about children language development by Hart & Risley (1995) in Barton & Coley (2007) found that children mimic their parents in vocabulary, language and interaction styles. Furthermore, Wu (2005 p.2389) also points out that “when children have close relation with their parents, they see parents as their language model. They see what language their parents use and make decisions about their use of language based on what they perceive”. Besides, parents‟ code-switch to English almost always lead to
the child using English (Pan, 1995 in Wu, 2005). Therefore, young learners do need their parents to actively involved in their learning process, because children need role models and encouragement in using English as their second language. In addition, according to Dimock, O‟Donoghue, and Robb (1996) in Berthelsen & Walker (2008)
deciding where children will study is also included as one of parents‟ involvement. Hence, since English is a new language for children, they require a lot of information to learn new things, such as new words, name of things, and grammatical forms, from elder (parents or teachers).
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parents play to motivate, stimulate, encourage, and develop children‟s thinking ideas.” Specifically, according to Kalia & Reese (2009), parental involvement refers to time parents spend engaging with their children in literacy-related activities, such as reading books together and teaching print skills.
The idea in optimizing parents‟ involvement in their children‟s education is also supported by other research findings, which revealed the existence of a positive relationship in parental involvements, which may vary by factors such as students‟
grade level, socioeconomic and race/ethnic background, and children‟s achievements (Epstein, 1992 in Barton & Coley, ibid.; Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Moreover, parents‟ role has long been thought to be centrally important to their children‟s
academic achievement (Nye, Schwartz, & Turner, 2003). This study implicitly reported that parents should involve actively in order to fulfill their children‟s needs in
language learning. Furthermore, some previous research findings supported the significant result that parental involvement in the form of „at-home good parenting‟ had a significant positive effect on children‟s achievements (Edmonds, 1979 &
Walberg, 1984 in Yap & Enoki, 1995; Abouchaar & Desforges, 2003). These research findings clearly showed how important parental involvements for children at home. In addition, home-based learning not only enhances children‟s learning but also reinforces, support and strengthen learning that has been introduced and shared at school (Trahan & Lawler-Prince, 1999 in Fuller & Olsen, 2008). Furthermore, parental involvement especially in their children‟s education is indispensable, so it is
important for parents to optimize their roles in their children‟s education. Vassalo
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Epstein, et.al (2000) in Hepburn (2004) divides parental involvements into six types. Since all of parents‟ efforts to help their children‟s learning process might
influence children‟s achievements, these involvements are also applicable to children‟s language learning process, The six types of parental involvements are:
1. Parenting; where parents assist their families with parenting skills and set home conditions to support children as the students, as well as, assist schools to understand families.
2. Communicating; where parents should conduct effective communication from school-to-home, and vice versa about school programs and development.
3. Volunteering, where parents organizing volunteers and audience to support the school and students.
4. Learning at home, it means to involve families with their children on homework and other curriculum-related to the activities and decisions.
5. Decision-making; where parents should involve actively in the process of making school decisions and developing parent leaders and representatives.
6. Collaborating with the community, where parents can coordinate resources and services from the community for families, students, and the school, and providing services to the community.
Furthermore, the first and fourth types focus on parent‟s cognitive or intellectual involvement which means behaviors that promote children‟s skill
development and knowledge, which include children‟s language learning process
(Wendy and colleagues, 1997 in Hartantyo, 2005). According to type 1 and 4, parents‟ roles can be divided into four:
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The importance of parents toward their children education is strongly supported by some researchers (Berger, 1987; Whitehead, 2002; Fuller & Olsen, 2008) who believe that parents are their children‟s first and the most influential educators. This is true, since the mother‟s and the children‟s relation begins even before birth.
Parents are also the ones who provide continuity as the child grows up. Since the children live with their family, home can be one aspect that must be recognized as a significant learning environment in the children‟s life. Furthermore, in line with this
idea, Pfannenstiel & Zigler (2007) states that education begins at home and parents are their children‟s first and most influential teachers.
In order to do this, parents should provide a home environment that can encourage and set an example in order to attract their children to commit in learning. Weinberger (1996) also echoes the same idea that the way parents behave as „teachers‟ and how they interact with their children on literacy practices and events is
one roles that parents can do in supporting their children‟s literacy learning.
Parents as Partners
Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler (1997) discusses three major factors of parental involvement in the education of their children. One of them is parents‟ beliefs about
what is important, necessary and permeable for them to do with and on behalf of their children. Once parents are empowered to assume the full measure of their responsibility to support their children‟s education, they will become partners with the
educators in creating and maintaining the schools their children need.
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experiences or academic masters. In addition, parents can also accompany their children when they are doing their homework or learning English, so children will feel comfortable and supported by their parents. By doing so, parents have become children‟s partners who assist and support the children (Einon, 1999).
Parents as Motivators
According to Dornyei (2001), motivation is probably the most frequently used term for explaining the success or failure of almost any complex tasks and it is a key to better performance. In order to gain better achievement and to reach the success in language learning, young learners need some motivation, especially from their parents.
Goss and Bernstein (1991) suggest some forms of motivation that can be used by parents to influence children‟s achievement. For example, parents may encourage
their children to attempt difficult tasks in learning particular subjects, by offering praise and other rewards for the success that they make later on or they could encourage their children to find ways to succeed instead of complaining their failure and punishing them. In addition, parents tend to give extrinsic motivation (such as toys, money, candy and excessive praise) instead of intrinsic motivation (National Association of School Psychologists, 1993 in Soedarmo, 2011). Besides, as motivator, parents may also act as a literacy model by reading a newspaper or writing a shopping list, so children will be encouraged to imitate what they do (Weinberger, 1996).
Parents as Facilitators
Psychologists believe that social environmental experiences result in a tremendous influence on the young learners‟ development (Souto-Maning, 2010).
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The first facility is home environment. Home is the center of learning beside schools. Since the most of parents contact with their children is at home environment, as supported by Clark (1990) in Michigan Department of Education (2003), who showed that school age children spent 70% of their waking hours (including weekends and holidays) outside of school, which was at their home or with their family. Home provides opportunity for both parents and children to spend time and do relaxed learning activities. Weinberger (1996) suggests that how parents resourced literacy in the home is also important for children‟s language development.
The second facility is by providing books. To varying extents, parents can provide resources and opportunities for their children‟s literacy by supplying books,
going on a shopping expedition, involving some reading and writing (.ibid). Reading to child is very beneficial for language learning process, because by listening to stories, children learn about written syntax and vocabulary and develop phonological awareness and concepts of print, all of which are closely linked to learning how to read and write (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008 in Gillanders & Castro, 2011).
For young dual language learners, pictures storybook can help them in understanding the new words and the stories. Pictures and illustration will encourage children to make comments, predict events, and ask questions about the story and illustrations during reading (Crosser, 2007).
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Since the previous studies more concern in primary education (Suliestyorini, 2009; Hartantyo, 2005) and high school education (Soedarmo, 2011), this study would investigate how parents involved in the bilingual kindergarten students‟ learning
process, especially in learning English as children‟s second language. Besides, in my
opinion, parents who enrolled their children to bilingual school had to support their children‟s learning development by actively involved in their children‟s learning
process, since their children had to deal with more than one language acquisitions. Thus, this study would analyze deeper on what kind of contributions that parents could give to their children in learning English. However, parents in this study were mothers, who considered as the first as well as the best teacher and have more responsibility in children‟s learning process (Freiburger, 2010). In addition, Luo &
Wiseman (2000) in Wu (.ibid) found out that parents, especially mothers, served as important language model for shaping children‟s language behavior when they had
good family relation (p. 320). Hence, the research question that would be answered is “What are parents‟ involvements in their bilingual school children‟s English learning
at home?”
THE STUDY Context of the Study
This study was conducted in participants‟ houses, which were located in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. Since I focused on parents‟ involvements at home,
10 Participants
The participants of this study were two mothers and children of two families. Both families were from Salatiga, Central Java. In this research, I took both mothers as the participants because in those families the one who had bigger responsibility in the children‟s learning were mothers.
The first mother was a 33-year-old Indonesian woman. She graduated from the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga. She was working as an English teacher. Although she worked, she still had time for picking up her son from the school, and spent most of her time at home. She was a multilingual speaker who spoke Indonesian, Javanese, and English.
The second mother was a 33-year-old Indonesian woman. She graduated from the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Agama Islam, Salatiga. She was working as a housewife, hence she spent most of her
time at home with her child. She was a multilingual speaker who spoke Indonesian, Javanese, and English.
The first child was a 5-year-old Indonesian boy. He was studying in a bilingual kindergarten in Salatiga. He started to learn English in pre-school (about 3 years old). He was the one and only child in his family. The second child was a 5-year-old Indonesian girl. She was also studying in the same bilingual kindergarten with the first child. She started to learn English from 3 years old, also in the same pre-school with the first child. She was the second child in the family.
Instruments of Data Collection
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responses across participants (Patton, 1990 in Zacharias, 2011). The interview questions were adapted from Ratih‟s study (2010) and redesigned based on the
theoretical framework to answer what parents‟ involvements in their bilingual school
children‟s English learning. I interviewed both mothers and their children separately
and used different sets of questions. There were 14 open-ended questions that I asked to the participants (mothers), and the focus of the questions was related to the parents‟
involvements in their children‟s learning at home. Questions number 1-3 were designed to answer parents‟ role as the first teacher (e.g. when do you usually
communicate to your son/daughter in English?), questions number 4-5 were designed
to answer parents role as children‟s partners (e.g. what do you usually do when your
son/daughter is doing his/her English homework?), questions number 6-11 were
designed to answer parents role as the motivator (e.g. how will you react when your child got an A or a star for his/her English homework?), and questions number 12-14
were designed to answer parents role as the facilitator (e.g. what is your opinion toward learning English through book, song, movie, or other media?) .
For the children, I asked different questions but aimed for the same purpose, i.e. to find out parents‟ involvement from the children‟s perspective. Since the
interview was semi-structured, I also asked unprepared questions when I got difficulties in getting information from them. During the interview, mothers would leave the children alone so it would create convenient atmosphere for the children.
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interview results were transcribed manually for the analysis of this study and as the guidelines in conducting the observation.
The second instrument was observation. According to Zacharias (2011), the purpose of observation is to provide rich and thick description of what happens in a field research. Besides, the observations were also conducted in order to validate the results of the interviews as well as obtain further information on the roles of parents in their children‟s English learning process that could not be collected by the interviews.
The observations were carried out to both families using data saturation, i.e. I did the observation continuously to the point at which no new data emerge (Parahoo, 1997). In the first and second family, the observations were carried out for 5 times.
In the observations, I observed the activities between parents-children and wrote down all the activities which were related to parents‟ roles (As the first teacher,
partner, motivator and facilitator). I did the observation during the studying time, from 4.30 to 6 p.m. for the first family, and 6.30 to 8.00 p.m. for the second family. Sometimes, I also observed when the family were gathering at home in the evening or on the weekend. In order to ease the analysis, from the recorded data, I categorized the activities based on the kind of parents‟ roles.
Data Analysis
After the data had been collected, the interview data were all transcribed verbatim. Then, the transcription data were analyzed for the occurrence of parents‟
roles in their children‟ learning process. In order to find out what parents do in
supporting their bilingual kindergarten children learning process, I re-read the transcripts for several times and tried to find parents‟ statements about their
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Then, the observation data, which were collected through field notes, were used as complementary data to give the narrative explanation to the parents‟ roles in
their children learning process at home. Finally, based in the interview transcription and field notes, I categorized the roles of parents based on Epstein‟ (2002) four parents‟ roles as the first teacher, partner, motivator and facilitator.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The research question asked the parents‟ roles toward their kindergarten
children language learning. From the interviews and observations data, I found that parents in the first family and the second family played the same role as the children‟s
first teacher, partner, motivator and facilitator.
The result of this study corresponded to what had been suggested by Epstein (2002) as cited in Suliestyorini (2009) & Soedarmo (2011) that as the first teacher, parents became the first models and teachers at home by behaving as children‟s
teacher, helping their children in learning English, accustoming the children to communicating in English, and helping the children to have speaking English practice. In regards to parents‟ roles as the first teacher, during my observations in the
first family I found that the first mother helped her son in learning English by using English in their daily life. During the observations, the first mother often made the children to communicate in English. She often gave simple instructions (e.g. “Do your
homework!”), asked questions (e.g. “Which one do you want, milk or tea?”) or
produced sentences in English (e.g. “We will go to Uti’s house.”). For example, in one occasion, she asked her child to pray before eating by saying, “Pray first before you
eat, dear.” The child agreed and then prayed. Usually, after school she asked in
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to answer in English or to correct the mistakes. When I asked the reason why she insisted in using English, in the interview she said:
I want him to be fluent in speaking English, although it is only in the form of a simple instruction or sentence.
The first mother‟s decision to use English to communicate with her son was in line
with the idea that parent‟s code-switching to English almost always leads the child to
use English (Pan, 1995 in Wu, 2005). Besides, by doing so, she also had provided a home environment that encouraged her children to have commitment in learning English, which was one responsibility that parents should do as their children‟s first
teacher (American Teacher Association, 2009).
Meanwhile, in the second family I found that the second mother played her role as the first teacher in a different form, frequency and consistency compared to the mother from the first family. From the interview, I found that she would communicate in English to her daughter when they were gathering with foreigners. In this situation, when her daughter made a mistake or got difficulties, she would help her and asked her to speak in English. She would also correct her daughter‟s mistake and asked her to repeat the correct one. What she had done was in line with what Weinberger (1996) suggests that the way parents behave as a „teacher‟ is one role that parents can do in
supporting their children‟s literacy learning.
However, she did not force her daughter to speak English regularly at home. She even rarely asked some questions to her daughter in English. During my observations at home, she only communicated in English after her daughter returned from school, during studying hours and sometimes when watching television. For example, when they were watching cartoon on TV, she asked her daughter, “What is
that?” while pointing at the TV or “What’s the color of Dora’s bag?”. Sometimes,
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daughter answered in Indonesia, she did not force her to repeat it in English. Thus, mother in the second family performed different attitudes in those two situations illustrated her inconsistency as the children‟s first teacher.
Based in the interview and observations both mothers showed their roles as the first teacher in different ways, frequency and consistency. The first mother did her role as the first teacher more dominantly by constantly using English to communicate with her son, on the other hand, this condition was rarely found in the second family. In the second family, the mother seemed to focus on her role as her daughter‟s teacher by
helping her when she got difficulties and giving examples for her daughter to repeat, but she did not do it regularly. Besides, her frequency and intensity in using English to communicate to her daughter was also less than that of the first mother. This condition might be caused by different purposes in teaching English to the children. The first mother wanted her son to be fluent in speaking English, so she insisted to in using English whenever it was possible. Meanwhile, in the interview, the mother in the second family had explained that she wanted her daughter to learn English as naturally as possible, so she did not want to push or force her to speak English.
Regarding to parents‟ role as children‟s partner, there were several ways that
parents could do, such as accompanying or supervising children when they were studying at home, helping them if they found difficulties in doing their homework, and assisting them in memorizing vocabularies. The results from the interviews and observations showed that the first mother and the second mother played their role as their children‟s partner in their daily life, commonly by helping and accompanying their children when they were studying or doing their homework. In the first family, the mother always checked her son‟s communication book from school to check
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homework, she would ask him to do it. Usually, she would sit next to him and monitor him. If there was no homework, she would check what his son had learnt on that day, and then used it as the material for studying. Just like in my first observation, there was no homework from school and her son had learnt a short story about animal life and mathematics. Then, she asked him to retell the story and checked her son‟s
understanding in mathematics.
I prefer to accompany my son‟s when he is doing his homework. You know, he is a boy, so his mood is up and down. Therefore, I often accompany him and help him.
This finding was in line with what Einon (1999) suggested that by accompanying their children when they are doing their homework or learning English, parents have become children‟s partners who assist and support them.
Almost similar to the first family, the mother in the second family also often accompanied her daughter when she was doing her homework, but it was not as intensively as the first mother was because the second mother had to divide her attention between her son and her daughter. However, when her daughter found difficulties and asked her, she always helped her and explained to her until she understood. Her daughter also inform me in the interview that whenever she found difficulties, she usually asked for her mother‟s help.
Interestingly, almost similar to the child in the first family, the child in the second family was also moody. Although the child in the second family was a girl, her mood was also up and down, as a result this condition influenced her studying time.
I prioritize my daughter‟s readiness in studying, so her studying time is flexible. Although the prime time is in the evening, it is possible for her to study after school, in the afternoon, even before she goes to bed.
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assume that girls are less outgoing than boys are, and girls can perform better in studying. However, from the observations I found that child in the second family was also outgoing. In the fourth observation, the second child wanted to do her homework while watching TV. Since her mother had committed that her daughter‟s readiness in
studying was the most important aspect in her learning process, she did not prohibit her, and kept helping as well as monitoring her although her daughter only focused on her homework during the commercial breaks.
The findings of the current study was consistent with those of Soelistyorini (2009), Ratih K.W. (2010) and Soedarmo (2011) who also found that regarding to the parents‟ role as partners, accompanying or monitoring their children when they were
studying was the most dominant activity that parents did. However, although the first and the second parents had a different style in helping their children, as long as they kept assisting their children during the studying time, they had showed their role as children‟s partners. Besides, they were also helping their children when they got
difficulties in doing their English homework. From the interview with the children about what they did when they got difficulties on their homework, both of them told me that they usually asked their mother, and their mother would help them. However, during my observations or interview, I did not see any activities about memorizing the vocabularies in both families.
Regarding the parents‟ role as motivators, there are several ways that parents can do, such as offering praise and other rewards for the success that children make, encouraging their children to find ways to succeed, and acting as a literacy model whom children will be encouraged to imitate what parents do. The overall responses to the questions related to parents‟ roles as motivator were very positive. From the
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(praise the children) rather than extrinsic motivation. The finding was in contrast with what National Association of School Psychologist (1993) in Soedarmo (2011) had suggested that parents tended to give extrinsic motivation (such as toys, money, candy and excessive praise) instead of intrinsic motivation. In one of my observation in the first family, when the first child showed to her mother that he got a star for his homework, his mother praised and kissed him. Then, he asked her mother for another reward, he wanted to play a computer game. Then she allowed him to play it, but at a limited duration. Additionally, mother in the second family also preferred to give intrinsic and extrinsic motivation when her daughter got a star for her assignments.
I congratulate her, and then I thank her, so that she will keep doing that. Sometimes I also buy her a gift, but it is for something accumulative, for example, when she can maintain her achievements and got stars for all of her homework.
Interestingly, in my observation I found what mother in the second family said was work well. In my fourth observation, the second child got an „Excellent‟ for her
assignment. When her mother saw it, she cheered and said, “You’re great!” and gave two thumbs up for her daughter. The finding was in line with what Dornyei (2001) has suggested that children do need parents‟ appreciation and motivation to encourage
them during their learning process. Besides, what both mothers had done according to Goss and Bernstein‟s (1991) motivation forms, was essential to influence children‟s
achievement.
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book, except when they were doing their homework. However, mother in the first family realized that reading in early age was important.
Yeah, I think reading is very important. However, my son‟s environment does not support it because in his kindergarten focuses more on how to speak and communicate in English rather than reading.
From this, it could be concluded that children‟s interest in reading was not only
affected by parents‟ attitude as their literacy models but also school policy.
In contrast, a previous study on parents‟ roles toward elementary school
students‟ English learning by Ratih (2010) revealed that parent‟s role as a motivator
was the least role that parents did to enhance their children‟s English learning. It might be because of the different participants‟ English proficiency level. For that
reason, parents‟ English proficiency level might influence their role as children‟s
motivator.
Parents can also play their role as facilitator at home by resourcing literacy at home, for example by providing conducive room for studying and suitable books for their children, reading to children, enrolling their children to an English course, and facilitating media such as television, computer or laptop, video, song, and other media that can support children‟s English learning process.
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Yes, I do like it (studying at home). Because, it is easier than studying at school. Besides, I enjoy it.
During my observations, I found that the first mother really made used of the small whiteboard and the colorful markers during the studying time. She created relax atmosphere by doing his son‟s homework using games. It was like a TV quiz, she
asked the questions from his homework, counted down from ten to one, and during the ten seconds he had to find the answer and wrote it down on the whiteboard. After all the questions were answered, he rewrote them on his book. In another observation, she taught subtraction in English to him by drawing some objects like marbles, apples, and oranges. By doing so, she had provided an opportunity for both parents and children to spend time and do relaxing learning activities (Clark, 1990 in Michigan Department of Education, 2003).
Meanwhile, the mother in the second family also facilitated comfortable environment for her daughter‟s study. She facilitated her by enrolling her in an
English course. Twice a week she learned English in that English course. According to the mother, she really enjoyed studying in this new place.
She likes studying in the English course because she has lot of friends here, so she is more encouraged to learn.
Besides, parents can also facilitate their children by providing books (Epstein, 2002 in Suliestyorini, 2009 and Soedarmo, 2011). Although their children did not like reading, the mothers in the two families always tried to provide books, either textbooks or story books. From the observations, I saw that the first child had a few bilingual children stories. However, he preferred to read any kind of books that were written in Indonesian.
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His mother also informed me in the interview that her son preferred to read the science book about the Earth because he could relate it directly to his daily life.
Like the mother in the first family, the mother in the second family also provided some books and kids magazines for her child. For her, the most important was to introduce books to her child, although her child could not read well yet.
The most essential for me is to make her interested in books; it is either a magazine or something else. Although she only looks at the pictures on the book, I will buy it for her. The point is, I want her to get used to books in the early age and know that book is important.
From the observation, I found that they subscribed a girl‟s magazine, which had many pictures on it. The second child really liked this magazine, because there were princess characters which she liked.
The books that those children liked had a lot of colorful pictures and a few texts. The mother in the first family really made use of those pictures in learning English. I found that when her son was enjoying take a look at the pictures, she asked some questions in English, such as “What picture is that?”, “What is the color of
this?”, “What happened to the character?”, and “Which characters do you like?”.
Usually, he would answered the questions in English, but when he realized that he was studying English subconsciously, he asked her mother to stop disturbing him. This finding was consistent with what Crosser (2007) states that pictures and illustration will encourage children to make comments, predict events, and ask questions about the story and illustrations during reading.
22
daughter and her son. Her son was ten years old, so he still needed her attention and guidance. Meanwhile, although the mother in the first family was working as a teacher, she dedicated all of her time at home for her one and only son. The mother in the first family had spent more time with her child than the mother in the second family. Therefore, I might conclude that mothers‟ time availability could be another
factor that could influence parents‟ role toward their children‟s English learning.
Furthermore, parents can contribute to their children‟s success at school by facilitating media, like video, audio or computer. From the observations in both families, I found that media which played the most important role in their children‟s
language learning was a laptop or computer. The first child‟s hobby was playing computer games. During my observation, he often asked permission to play computer games as a reward after he did something good, for example, when he finished reading a page of a story book. However, playing games was not the only activity that could encourage him to learn English.
Besides playing games, sometimes I asked him to type some vocabularies or sentences (in English) or draw something using Paint application. After that, I asked him to describe what he had drawn and mention what the colors were. He was more interested.
The mother in the second family also agreed that the laptop was the most effective way to learn English, especially through games. In my observations, I found that there was an ESL game from British Council which her daughter really enjoyed to play. Sometimes, her mother also connected the laptop with the internet to play online games for ESL learners.
23
During my observations, he often shouted, “Make a way-make a way!” when someone
blocked his way. In the interview, he told me that he got those words from a movie. Besides, from the observation, I also found that song was also a good media to learn English. Usually when he learnt a new song from school, at home he would keep singing that song.
In the second family, besides the laptop, the mother provided interactive cartoons (e.g. Dora the Explorer) for her daughter. Although in the interview her daughter told me that she did not like watching the cartoons; in the observation I found that she enjoyed watching it and even sometimes she answered what the character asked. For example, when the character asked, “Where should we go?”, and there were a picture of a bridge, a forest and a mountain, she shouted, “Bridge!
Bridge!”. These finding of the current study were consistent with what was suggested
by Suhartatik (2008) that the main role of the media is as a tool to arouse students‟
motivation in learning English.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of the current study was to determine what parents‟
involvements in their bilingual school children English learning at home are. This case study found that in general both mothers in the first and second family played their role as children‟s first teachers, partners, motivators, and facilitator.
Furthermore, from the interviews and observations, the result of this investigation showed that mother in the first family played all of the roles more dominantly than mother in the second family, especially on parent‟s role as the first
24
regularly monitored and accompanied their children during their studying time. Regarding to parent‟s role as a motivator, the mothers in both families also preferred
to give intrinsic motivations by praising their children. Therefore, regarding to parent‟s role as a facilitator, the mothers in the first and second families agreed that playing ESL games on a computer or laptop was effective media for their children‟s
English learning.
The following conclusions could be drawn from the present study. First, the major role that parents played to enhance their children‟s English learning at home was their role as facilitators. They had provided media that could enhance and support their children‟s English learning. Second, parents‟ different purposes in teaching
English to the children might influence the role of parents as the first teacher. Third, this study showed that parents‟ jobs did not influence their roles, but their time
availability at home might be another factor that could have impact to their roles. Fourth, this study revealed that young learners, either boys or girls, were dependent language learners. Therefore, they did need their parents‟ supervision, guidance,
motivation, and support. Hereafter, young learners‟ parents had to play their roles as
first teacher, children‟s partner, motivator, and facilitator actively.
This study provided some insight on how Indonesian mothers were involved in their kindergarten children‟s English learning at home, which could help parents,
25
data, more in-depth findings may be found. Besides, in my opinion it would be better if an interview was also conducted after the observations in order to answer the researcher‟s questions that might emerge during the observations.
A further investigation on parents and schools‟ roles toward young learners‟
English learning is strongly recommended to establish a greater degree of accuracy on this matter. Because, school is one important aspect on children‟s development, as
26
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
27
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30 APPENDICES Interview Questions
1. Biasanya dengan siapa Anak belajar bahasa Inggris?
2. Kapan Anda berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa Inggris dengan anak Anda? 3. Apa tujuan Anda saat menggunakan bahasa Inggris saat berkomunikasi dengan
Anak?
4. Biasanya siapa yang menemani Anak ketika mengerjakan PR?
5. Apabila menemui kesulitan ketika mengerjakan PR, apa yang biasanya anak Anda lakukan?
6. Apa reaksi Anda ketika anak Anda berprestasi dalam bidang bahasa Inggris, misalnya mendapat nilai terbaik di kelas?
7. Menurut Anda, buku bacaan seperti apa yang sesuai untuk anak Anda? 8. Apa pendapat Anda mengenai membiasakan membaca sejak dini?
9. Selain belajar, adakah kegiatan lain yang berhubungan dengan bahasa Inggris yang biasa Anda lakukan dengan Anak?
10. Sejauh apa interaksi orang tua-guru antara Anda dan guru anak Anda? 11. Aktifitas yang berkaitan dengan bahasa Inggris yang biasa Anda lakukan? 12. Menurut Anda, seperti apakah situasi belajar di rumah yang kondusif?
13. Menurut Anda, fasilitas apa saja yang dapat menunjang pembelajaran bahasa Inggris?
31
Interview Transcripts 1. The mother in the first family
Date : 12 July 2012
Duration : 8 minutes 19 seconds I : Interviewer
M1 : Mother W
I : Biasanya dengan siapa dek R belajar bahasa Inggris? M1 : Emm…Sehari-harinya dengan saya, atau dengan tantenya.
I : apakah…mbak Wid juga berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa Inggris dengan R?
M1 : Iya…
I : Biasanya kapan?
M1 : Biasanya…sebentar ketika dia pulang sekolah atau sore hingga malam hari. I : Biasanya apa saja yang dibicarakan dengan R?
M1 : Eee… Simple instructions. Jadi biasanya perintah atau apa…larangan…atau apa ya? Pelajaran dan bisa juga hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan TV ketika dia sedang nonton TV ada pertanyaan yang ada hubungan dengan yang ditontonnya. Atau waktu dia belajar buku yang biasa dia pelajari atau ketika dia mengerjakan PR. Jadi bisa bermacam-macam
I : Tujuan Mbak W bicara menggunakan bahasa Inggris sebagai media komunikasi dengan R apa?
M1 : Yang pertama sih untuk eee… Jadi utamanya untuk melancarkan bahasa Inggrisnya.
I : Terus, biasanya siapa yang nemeni dek R kalau ngerjain PR?
M1 : Yang terutama saya, terus kalo nggak tantenya, terus pilihan terakhir baru
I : Mm… jadi kalo misalnya ada kesulitan langsung dibantu mbak W gitu? M1 : Iya…jadi biasanya dia tanya “ini disuruh apa bunda?” terus saya jelaskan seminggu sekali pergi ke warnet, main internet atau boleh main apa game di computer atau di laptop dengan durasi, misalnya 30 menit, kalau dapat nilainya bagus bisa satu jam, kadang dibelikan mainan yang dia suka.
I : Oo… Kalau menurut mbak W, buku bacaan seperti apa yang sesuai buat dek R?
M1 : Buku bacaan… Yang pertama, pernah saya nyoba buku cerita, kayaknya kok dia tidak tertarik, jadi sekali baca udah ganti buku… satu halaman udah. Dia lebih suka jenis buku ensiklopedia, jadi yang ada pengetahuan dan dia tahu dalam kesehariannya dia bisa lihat, terus itu… apa… dikaitkan sama bukunya.
32
I : Kalau pendapat mbak W sendiri mengenai belajar membaca sejak dini? M1 : Penting sekali itu. Cuma eee… dari lingkungannya R tidak begitu
mendukung itu. Karena di TK nya tidak terlalu ditekankan untuk membaca, tapi lebih ke bicara.
I : Oh gitu… Selain belajar, ada kegiatan lain nggak yang berhubungan dengan bahasa Inggris, yang biasanya mbak Wid lakukan sama dek R?
M1 : Yang paling sering menonton film. Film-film kartun yang berbahasa inggris, dan main games dengan… Memang saya pilihkan instruksi-instruksi yang bahasa Inggris.
I : Oh gitu. Kalau sekarang di sekolah ni. Kalau di sekolah, sejauh apa interaksi antara orang tua-guru antara mbak W dengan gurunya dek R?
M1 : Interaksi kita intens sekali. Jadi setiap kali eee…Rafa dikasih orange book nya Rafa itu kan, communication book antara guru dengan orang tua ada note ini langsung saya baca dan terapkan. Mungkin di rumah ada PR yang metodenya tidak terlalu bagus, saya langsung SMS atau besoknya konsultasi dengan gurunya untuk… untuk apa… membicarakan tentang PR nya atau kegiatanya, atau kemajuan atau kesulitanya R di sekolah.
I : Ooo…emm…kalau bagi mbak W sendiri, aktifitas yang berkaitan dengan bahasa Inggris yang biasa mbak W lakukan apa?
M1 : Aktifitasnya yang pertama jelas speaking itu, instruksi, atau apa…beberapa kalimatnya disisipkan bahasa Inggris. Ya yang paling sering ya itu nonton
M1 : Yang kondusif… Lha ini pertanyaan yang jawabannya agak susah karena R itu kan moody, jadi kalau Rafa mood-nya gak bagus susah sekali mengaja dia konsentrasi terutama. Situasi belajar yang penting tenang, tidak ada suara pengganggu, jadi tidak ada suara TV, atau radio, atau tape yang nyala. Kemudian terang, kemudian medianya itu menarik, jadi misalnya papan tulis bersih, ada flashcards, gambar, atau mungkin dengan apa… bentuk games tapi dimodifikasi ke metode belajar. Gitu…
I : Oh gitu…menurut mbak W, fasilitas apa saja yang dapat menunjang pembelajaran bahasa Inggrisnya R?
M1 : Yang… kalau …yang umum… buku dan lain lain. Kalau yg khusus, dia punya whiteboard sendiri, kemudian marker berbagai warna, kemudian flashcard itu agak membantu. Jadi gambar-gambar itu, dan apa ya… Mungkin itu, media computer yang jelas malah.
33
M1 : Selain main game, kadang suruh ngetik, atau eee…menggambar pake apa itu…paint itu kemudian tak suruh mendeskripsikan itu gambar apa, warnanya apa, kalau gitu dia malah lebih tertarik.
I : Kalau pendapat mbak W sendiri mengenai belajar bahsa Inggris melalui media kaya buku, video, film, gitu gimana?
34 2. The child in the first family
Date : 12 July 2012
Duration : 7 minutes 15 seconds I : Interviwer
C1 : Child R
I : Biasanya dek R kalau belajar bahasa Inggris sama siapa? C2 : Sama Miss Rati.
I : Kalau di rumah yang ngajari bahasa inggris siapa? C2 : Mm…Bunda.
I : Oh, sama Bunda. Mmm…Terus, kalau ngomong sama Bunda pakenya bahasa Indonesia apa bahasa Inggris?
C2 : Kadang kadang pake Inggris, kadang-kadang Indonesia? I : Kapan kalo ngomong bahasa Inggrisnya?
C2 : Mmm… gak tau… Pas belajar gitu. Kalau belajar buku bahasa Inggris itu pake bahasa Inggris.
I : Seringnya pake bahasa Indonesia apa bahasa Inggris? C2 : Bahasa Indonesia. Bahasa Inggrisnya sedikit-sedikit… I : Kalo sedikit-sedikit misalnya ngomong apa…
C2 : Misalnya mau ambilin susu gitu pake bahasa Inggris. Bunda bilang “Do you
want milk?” terus bilang “yes, please.”
I : Oh, gitu… Eh dek, kalau di sekolah dikasih PR nggak sama bu guru? C2 : Iya…
I : Terus, kalau ngerjain PR sama siapa? C2 : Sama mmm… Bunda.
I : PR nya gampang apa susah dek?
C2 : Kadang-kadang susah, kadang-kadang gampang. I : Oh…kadang-kdang susah juga ya?
I : Mmm…misalnya nih, kalau PR nya dek R dapat bintang atau dapat nilai bagus, Bunda bisanya gimana?
C2 : Senang. Kalau dapat nilai bagus, atau apa…apa… dapat bintang gitu Bunda senang.
I : Oh, Bunda senang…. Terus dek R digimanain? C2 : Diciumin…
I : Diciumin? Hmm… terus apa lagi? Ada yang lain ndak? C2 : Ndak.
I Diciumin tok? Dek R ndak minta apa-apa?
C2 : Ndak… Tapi kadang-kadang kalau minggu ke warnet, kalau nggak main game di laptop.
I : Oh, main game? Main game apa dek?
C2 : Macem-macem. Gamenya banyak di laptop. Ada mobil, ada Angry bird, ada macem-macem.
35 C2 : Iya. Semuanya.
I : Wah, susah dong?
C2 : Nggak. Gampang. Aku bisa main semuanya. I : Hmm… kalau baca buku dek R suka nggak? C2 : Hmm…su… hmm…agak suka.
I : Agak suka?
C2 : Tapi kalau buku pelajaran ga suka. Hehe
I : Oh, ga suka kalau buku pelajaran. Tapi kalau buku cerita suka? C2 : He‟eh…
I : Buku ceritanya dek R kaya apa to?
C2 : Ada buku…buku…tentang bumi. Terus itu…adaaa…Naruto. Terus…adaaa peri bermata hijau.
I : Oh, kalau buku cerita yang bahasa Inggris dek R suka ga?
C2 : Ndak suka. Tapi kalau aku mau baca buku nanti boleh main game di computer… Angry Bird, aku sukaa.
I : Oh, gitu… Baca satu buku? C2 : Nggak… Cuma dikit. Susaaaah.
I : Biasanya Bunda bacain cerita bahasa Inggris nggak? C2 : Nggak. Bunda bacainnya dongeng dari buku cerita… I : Terus, dek R suka ga belajar di rumah?
C2 : Suka. Soalnya gampang, ga kaya di sekolah. I : Oh…kenapa kok kalo di rumah gampang?
C2 : Kan belajarnya asik…Tapi kadang-kadang males. Hehe I : Oh, males?
C2 : Iya, gak suka.
I : Terus, kalau belajar bahasa Inggris nih, dek R sukanya film, lagu… C2 : Film!
I : Filmnya apa?
C2 : Film transformer, avenger… I : Terus apa lagi?
C2 : Hmmm…Spirited away! Itu Chihiro-nya pas mau lewar bilang “make a way,
make a way.”Terus pada minggir semua. Lucu…
I : Oh…dek R suka ya? C2 : Iya. Bagus.
I : Kalau kaya lagu gitu suka ga? C2 : Suka.
I : Di sekolah sering diajari lagu bahasa Inggris? C2 : Tiap hari…
I : Tiap hari? Dek Rafa apal nggak? C2 : Hafal semua… nyanyi enak og.
I : Terus sampe rumah cerita nggak sama Bunda? C2 : Iya, cerita. Ada lagu baru.
I : Terus, biasanya dek R cerita apa lagi sama Bunda? C2 : Hmm…lupa.
I : Lho, kok lupa? Misalnya…dek R diajari nyanyi lagu baru. Cerita nggak sama Bunda?
