THE USE OF INDONESIAN IN TEACHING ENGLISH
AT SMA 3 SALATIGA
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Bunga Respati Ayu 112008047
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
i
THE USE OF INDONESIAN IN TEACHING ENGLISH
AT SMA 3 SALATIGA
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Bunga Respati Ayu 112008047
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
ii
THE USE OF INDONESIAN IN TEACHING ENGLISH
AT SMA 3 SALATIGA
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Bunga Respati Ayu 112008047
Approved by:
Anne I. Timotius, M.Ed Listyani, M.Hum
Supervisor Second Reader
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
iii
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian University academic community, I verify that:
Name : Bunga Respati Ayu
Student ID Number : 112008047
Study Program : English Language Teaching Department Faculty : 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:
The Use of Indonesian in Teaching English at SMA N 3 Salatiga along with any pertinent equipment.
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.
This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in : Salatiga Date : May 20, 2013
Verified by signee,
Bunga Respati Ayu Approved by
Thesis Supervisor Thesis Examiner
iv
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 belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright @2013 Bunga Respati Ayu and Anne I. Timotius, M. Ed
All right reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
1
THE USE OF INDONESIAN IN TEACHING ENGLISH
AT SMA N 3 SALATIGA
used as a mean of communication by people all over the world. Therefore, English becomes a compulsory subject at school. At school, English could not be used maximally because of some reasons. The aim of this study was to answer the research question, “What are the teachers‟ purposes of using Indonesian in teaching English to High School students?” The context of the study was at SMA N 3 Salatiga. The data for this study were collected through interview with the teachers and observation in the classrooms. In the interview sessions, their talk were recorded and after that their teaching practices in the classroom were observed by recording and taking note. Then, those recordings were transcribed and put into some categories to be analyzed. Next, all the data gathered were analyzed to find out the teachers‟ purposes of using Indonesian in teaching English. The results of this study were divided into three parts, the first part was the teacher purposes of using Indonesian in teaching English that both occurred in the interview and observation, the second part was other purposes found only in the observation, and the last part was teachers‟ reason of using Indonesian in teaching English. It is expected that the study will help English teachers in developing their teaching, and also students to have a better understanding about the use of the first language.Key words:the use of Indonesian, English teaching, teacher‟s talk
INTRODUCTION
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world, which means that we will know many things about the world through English (Yulianti, 2007). English is an important tool for communication which is used to interact with others who have different first languages. Therefore, there is no doubt that English is an international language because many people all over the world speak English, either as first or second language.
In education and work, people should be familiar with English because English is the key to learn scientific and technical knowledge which is needed for the economic and political development of many countries in the world (Yulianti, 2007). Therefore, it could be said that when people are dealing with their works, English is important because English is usually becomes one of the requirements for those job seekers. Usually job applicants who master English are more fortunate than those who do not. On the other hand, in education, people should be familiar with the instructional language, which is English, since many educational books use English.
As the response to the importance of English, the Indonesian government, through the Department of Education and Culture, has decided that English is made as a compulsory subject in school from grade seven of Junior High School. According to the current curriculum, KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan), the learners are supposed to be able to use English, both oral and written English, which covers four language skills, such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing (Department of National Education, 2003).
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the classroom, it will help the students to acquire English faster. In my opinion, when students are familiar with the use of English in the classroom, they will acquire it faster because they often use it.
On the other hand, based on my own experiences in High School on my English teachers‟ talks, most of Indonesian teachers could not avoid using Indonesian when teaching
English. Based on my experiences, my English teachers often used Indonesian in the classroom when they teach English. This kind of condition may happen in Indonesia because firstly, many schools in Indonesia are still monolingual which use Indonesian to communicate daily. Secondly, Indonesian students are mostly taught by non-native teachers that unconsciously make students tend to speak in their first language (Indonesian) even in the English classes. Some experts like Long (1984), Charles (1987), and Spratt (1988), consider that Indonesian cannot be put aside from English acquisition since the education of Indonesia has not permitted that. We can see that Indonesian is still used in teaching English because there is no rule that forbid the use of Indonesian in English classes.
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outside the class, practicing English is limited only in the classroom. That is why the students do not feel encouraged to use English to converse with others.
Teacher‟s talk in classroom plays an important role in teaching and learning
process because the teacher dominates the classroom talks while teaching English (Yulianti, 2007). According to that statement, I can say that teacher-talk may influence the use of Indonesian in teaching English. Those teachers use Indonesian consciously for some reasons, so the use of Indonesian in classroom cannot be avoided.
Related to the use of mother tongues in English classes, there are still some controversies occur. Some experts such as Hammer (1989) and Boey (1975) believe that in teaching English as a foreign language, mother tongue, in this case is Indonesian, should be avoided because it will make second language learning go slowly. On the other hand, Long (1984), Charles (1987), and Spratt (1988) believe that the use of Indonesian can help learners acquire English faster because they can refer to their first language that might be very helpful for them.
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On one side, if we take a look at High School English teachers, most of them are Indonesian. Therefore, they speak Indonesian. According to Abbott and Wingard (1981) many local teachers are not sure about their English command, so they use Indonesian to make the command clear. “Not sure” here means that the teachers are afraid whether their commands are correct or wrong, or whether the students understand them or not, so they prefer to use Indonesian in order to avoid misunderstanding.
Actually, the success of learning process can be seen from the learners‟
performance in performing the target language. According to Krashen (2005), learners who are highly motivated in learning English are supposed to be better prepared and be successful in the new language learning. Schütz (2005) on the other hand, states that less-motivated learners might find difficulties in comprehending the new language. So, there are two kinds of learners, well-motivated learners and less-motivated learners. However, the majority of the world‟s learners of English as foreign language are students who are not well-motivated
(Abbott & Wingard, 1981). They may think that they can live normally and communicate with other people without English, so they can use their local language or Indonesian. In this kind of situation, the use of Indonesian in English classroom is likely to happen, especially for the less motivated students. Spratt (1988) states that there is not any clear line about whether the students‟ first language can be used in a foreign language classroom or not. So, most students will prefer to use their first language to English because there is no rule that require them to use English, especially for the less-motivated students.
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explanation and justification. Sometimes it is more effective to use the first language to explain something complicated. The third one is for communicating meaning and checking comprehension. Sometimes teachers communicate meaning through paraphrasing and translating into their first language because sometimes students still do not understand about teachers‟ explanation in English. Therefore, in such condition, teacher will switch to the first
language to make it easier. Tang (2002), who is a lecturer in English at Beijing Foreign Studies University and who researched the use of Chinese as the first language in the English classroom, states that the use of Chinese as learners‟ first language in the English classroom is necessary in certain learning situations. For example, in his research, he stated that his participants who were three English teachers used Chinese to give instruction and to explain the meaning of words, complex ideas and complex grammar points. So, teachers had to consider things about the needs of the first language and the effective role that might be played in the use of the first language to decide whether first language can be used in the foreign language classroom or not. From this essence, I would like to know whether the teacher in Indonesia, particularly in SMA N 3 Salatiga, have the same reason as what Tang expressed in his study.
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points, which are dialing with feeling, praising or encouraging, joking, using students‟ idea, repeating students‟ response verbatim, and asking questions.
As I said before, environments are also one of the important things in learning a new language. If the environments do not support the use of English outside the class, practicing English is limited only in the classroom. According to Yulianti (2007) English as foreign language and English as a second language are very different. Countries that use English as a second language give more opportunities for people to speak in English like in public areas. On the other hand, Indonesia uses English as a foreign language. Thus, the use of English is limited only at school, especially in the English classes. According to Van Els et. al (1984), the nature of L2 input influences the probability of occurrence of L1 interference phenomena. It means that interference may occur only in certain situation and happen when the environment belongs to L1. For example, when the use of L2 is only limited in a scope and quantity (only in an English lesson classroom) like what happen in Indonesia.
Because of the reasons above, I conducted a study about teachers‟ purposes of using Indonesian while teaching English at SMA N 3 Salatiga. I hope that this study and the results can help English teachers in developing their teaching and inspire them to manage the language use for better results in mastering the target language. I expect that this study can also help students to have a better understanding about the use of first language in their English language learning.
THE STUDY
8 Context of the study
The setting of the study was State Senior High School 3 (SMA N 3) Salatiga. It was located on Kartini Street, Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. SMA N 3 Salatiga was one of the best schools in Salatiga, which could be seen from the “A” accreditation they received (Bureau of Accreditation School Province, 2011). English was not actively used as a mean of oral communication in this place. Students used English only in English classes when they had English lessons. However, not all students participated in English. Some of them preferred to use Indonesian to English. A further reason for selecting this school was I also graduated from this school. So, it would be easier for me to conduct the study there.
Participant
Since the purpose of this research was to find the teachers‟ purposes of using first
9 Instrument of data collection
In attempting to answer the research question, the data were collected through interview and observation. I first interviewed the teachers, after that I continued with the observation. The interview focused on the teachers‟ purpose of using Indonesian in teaching
English. The interview was done in two days. When I interviewed the teachers, I also recorded the conversation to make me easier in transcribing the result. The interview would be used to identify teachers‟ experience in using Indonesian while teaching, to find out teachers‟ purpose in using Indonesian, and their opinion about using Indonesian in English
learning. According to Doyley (2006), interviews could effectively be used for a wide variety purposes, like to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational or social program, to learn about cultural customs, to develop oral histories of historical events, etc. Therefore, I used interview to evaluate the effectiveness of educational program in SMA N 3 Salatiga. Then, the observation was done to find out the situation in the class when the teachers use Indonesian in teaching English. The observation was done in two days right after the interview. I observed two classes. The observation was done once for each English class. One time observation was considered enough because the data I got was clear enough and fulfilled what I needed. When observing the first teacher, I recorded the observation session and took note. However, for the second teacher I only took note because he did not want his teaching practice being recorded for personal reason that was not revealed to me. The observation was used to validate the interview data for further analysis and to see the real situation in the classroom. According to Langley (1988) observation allows the researcher to study people in their „natural setting‟ without their behavior being influenced by the presence of the
10 Procedure of data collection
In order to conduct a valid research, this study collected data by interviewing the teacher and observing the classrooms‟ activities. First of all, I asked permission to the school to conduct the study there. Next step was meeting with the first grade teachers to arrange the interview and observation schedules. After the schedule was arranged, the first thing I did was interviewing the teachers, which was scheduled to last around 10 minutes. After that, I observed the classroom activities to take a note and record the teachers-talk while teaching to enrich the data needed for analysis so that hopefully they could answer the research question, “What are the teachers‟ purpose of using Indonesian in teaching English to SMA students?”.
This study was a qualitative study which meant to describe teacher‟s purposes of using Indonesia when teaching English. After I finished the interview session with the teachers and completed the observation, I continued to analyze the data. First, I analyzed the result of the interview and categorized the purpose of using Indonesian. Next, I transcribed the recording and filled the checklist through the recording and note taking. Then, the data were analyzed to answer the research question.
Data Analysis Procedures
11 DISCUSSION
This chapter presents the data analysis of the interview and observation. This data analysis will be divided into three parts, they are (A) part one that will discuss about the teacher‟s purpose of using Indonesian in teaching English that occurred both in the interview and the observations, (B) part two that will discuss other purposes of the use of L1 that occurred only in the observations, and (C) part three the will discuss about teachers‟ reasons of using Indonesian in teaching English in general. Each of the part will be discussed further below.
A. Teachers’ Purposes of Using Indonesian in Teaching English I
Based on the data I gathered through the interviews and observation, I found that there were 5 purposes of using Indonesian in teaching English like those proposed by Spratt (1988) and Moskowitz (1971). They were explanation, communicating meaning, joking, asking question, and giving instruction. I got those five purposes from the interviews with the teachers and those purposes were proved to likely occurred in the classroom by the observations in both of classes they taught. In the interviews, the teachers gave their statements of the use of Indonesian in teaching English and in the observation they showed the use of Indonesian in their teachings. The analysis of each theme will be discussed in the following section.
1. Explanation
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game to make them understand it faster. So it did not waste my time only for explaining”. In the observation, I found that only teacher one used Indonesian to explain the material.
Excerpt 1 (taken from the observation with Teacher 1) T1: “Bella ask Debora, “Where are you going?”
“How is the indirect sentence?”
S: “Bella ask Debora where she going was.”
T1: “Is it correct? Seharusnya sebelum V-ing itu ada to be-nya. To be itu posisinya selalu didepan, seperti bebek pemimpinnya slalu didepan.”
“So, how is the indirect sentence?” S: “Bella ask Debora where she was going.”
In excerpt 1 above, the teacher explained about the task done by one of the students because it was still incorrect. So, she repeated the explanation using Indonesian by giving
example from the real life to make the explanation clearer to the students and avoided students do
the same mistake in the next exercise. She gave the detail explanation about how to put “to be” in
the sentence by making an analogy from a real life event about a duck‟s leader that always stood
in the front in comparison to “to be”.
Using Indonesian in giving explanation was very helpful. It made the explanation clearer
and avoiding confusion. What the teacher did in giving explanation was in line with what Spratt
(1988) said: to avoid ambiguity and confusion among students about the information, the teacher
can use the first language.
2. Communicating Meaning
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From both of the observations, I found that only Teacher 2 used Indonesian in communicating meaning. Excerpt 2 below shows the use of Indonesian in communicating meaning.
Excerpt 2 (taken from the observation with Teacher 2)
T2: “Any question? For the next meeting please bring speech oration for dubbing explained it in Indonesian, students got the meaning of “speech oration”.
From the evidence above, it could be concluded that the use of Indonesian to communicate meaning was helpful. By translating the difficult terms using the first language, teacher could help the students to have a better understanding on the topic being talked. Spratt (1988) stated that sometimes teachers communicate meaning through paraphrasing or translating into their first language. In order to make the students got clear meanings of the words or terms, it was better when the teacher paraphrasing or translating them into Indonesian.
3. Joking
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the students confused. Some of the students would get the meaning of the joke right away but some would not. To anticipate that case, English teacher usually created a joke in Indonesian. Using Indonesian joke, students would get the clear meaning of the joke delivered by the teacher. From the interviews, only Teacher 2 said that he used Indonesian to give joke. He said, “I used Indonesian to give a joke because based on my experience, when I gave an English joke, they tended to be silent, and silent here means that they didn’t get the meaning
of the joke I gave”.
On the other hand, in the observation both of the teachers used Indonesian to make a joke. Teacher one used joke for ice breaking and teacher two to attract students‟ attention.
Excerpt 3 and 4 below showed how both teachers delivered their jokes. Excerpt 3 (taken from the observation with Teacher 1)
T1: “Okay, for example, give me two names!” Ss: “Tejo, Miss.”
T1: “Okay, Tejo and?” Ss:” Nita.”
T1: “Okay, Tejo said to Nita I miss you, what else? Apa, I hate you?” Ss: (Laugh)
T1: “Lhoh..kalian putus kok hate-hate an?” Ss: (Laugh)
From the excerpt above, the teacher said “lhoh..kalian putus kok hate-hate an?” as a joke and as the result was the students laughed. The teacher used the combination of Indonesian and English. The word “hate” was an English word, then she mixed it with Indonesian structure into “hate-hate an” which meant that the subject told hated each other.
The teacher used this joke to break the ice in the class because some students seemed bored and the other was stressed because there were a lot of materials to be learned. The teacher also used joke to attract students‟ attention.
Excerpt 4 (taken from the observation with Teacher 2)
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The excerpt above showed that the teacher used joke to attract students‟ attention. By
saying that kind of joke, the students‟ names who were called by the teacher and also the other
students would left their activity, like writing or talking to each other, because the teacher had
already warned them by the joke.
According to Moskowitz (1971), the use of the first language in giving jokes might be
more effective since sometimes a joke will lose its essence when it is carelessly conveyed in
another language. By comparing with this statement, I could conclude that when teacher used that
kind of jokes, they were effective to attract students‟ attention and break the ice in the classroom.
4. Asking question
In asking questions, sometimes the teachers used Indonesian to help the students understood the questions easily. The use of Indonesian in this case was very helpful for both the teachers and the students. For the teachers, using Indonesian in asking questions could reduce the time consumption because if the teacher asked the questions in English, the students did not understand or gave proper responses. When this condition happened, the teacher had to repeat it for some times, which could waste the time. For the students, it helped them to get a better understanding about the questions. When they heard questions in English and they did not know the meaning, they tended to be silent and made a guess about the answers in their mind only, without expressed them orally. However, when the teacher used Indonesian, they would understand what the meaning of the question easily. From the interviews, only Teacher 1 said that she used Indonesian in asking questions. She said, “Then I used Indonesian to ask questions. Sometimes, I often repeated the same question because the students did not understand. To avoiding that thing, I asked question using Indonesian when the question was difficult.”
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Excerpt 5 (taken from the observation with Teacher 1) T1: “Do you still remember when should we use “that”?” S: (Silent)
T1: ““That” itu digunakan pada saat apa?” S:”Pada kalimat tidak langsung.”
T1: “Good! Remember that!”
On the excerpt 5 above the teacher used Indonesian in asking a question after she asked the same question in English. On the excerpt above, the students just kept silent when the teacher asked them in English. It could be that they did not understand the meaning of the teacher‟s question. Then after the teacher asked in Indonesian, students answered directly.
Excerpt 6 (taken from the observation with Teacher 2) T2: “Lilo asks Bagus “are you sleepy?”
“Lilo asked Bagus?” S: (Silent)
T2: “Setelah Lilo asked Bagus, trus selanjutnya apa?” S: “That”
T2: “Okay, good. After that?” S: (Mumbling)
Excerpt 6 above also showed that the teacher used Indonesian when asking question. At
first the teacher asked the students to continue the sentence “Lilo asks Bagus…?” but the
students were silent. Then the teacher explained to the students first by saying “Setelah Lilo
asked Bagus” and after that justified by asking question “Terus selanjutnya apa?” Actually this
sentence had same meaning with the previous when the teacher asked the students to continue the
sentence. When saying it in Indonesian the students got the meaning directly so they could
answer it properly.
In this study, using Indonesian in teaching English was very helpful both for the teacher
and the students. Based on the interview and the observation, asking questions in Indonesian
provided clearer meanings instead of rhetorical ones. The teacher should not include rhetorical
17 5. Giving Instruction
The next purpose is giving instruction. The teacher usually used Indonesian in giving instruction or direction to make it easier to be understood by the students. Sometimes, students did not understand the teacher‟s direction because it was a difficult instruction that contained several steps. The other reason was that the language used by the teacher was too difficult to be understood by the students. To help the students, the teachers usually used Indonesian in giving instruction. Based on the interviews, only Teacher 2 gave instruction by using Indonesian. He stated, “And then when giving difficult instructions, for example when I asked them to have a discussion, when I used English the students did not get what I meant, so I had to repeat it in Indonesian. “
In the observation the evidence showed that only Teacher 2 used Indonesian in giving instruction.
Excerpt 7 (taken from the observation with Teacher 2)
T2: “Okay, now your job is to make a direct sentence, after that I will choose one of you to read and the other students will change it into indirect sentence. Understand?”
Ss: “Silent”
T2: “Tugasnya buat satu kalimat langsung, setelah itu saya akan tunjuk salah satu anak untuk membaca dan siswa yang lain akan merubahnya menjadi kalimat tak langsung. Understand?”
Ss: “Yes.”
The excerpt above showed that the teacher used Indonesian in giving instruction. The teacher gave instruction to make direct sentence in English, some students answered “yes” as the response of instruction understanding, but the rest of the class were silent and kept talking to each other. It could be because they did not know what the teacher ordered to do. So, they talked to each other to get the instruction from their friends. After the teacher repeated the instruction using Indonesian, the students answered yes.
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Indonesian to help the students acquiring the right message. According to Moskowitz (1971), the purpose of the first language is to help students to successfully comprehend the direction. In this study, the use of first language was also helpful since it helped the students to understand the command from the teacher.
B. Teachers’ Purposes of Using Indonesian in Teaching English (Observation Result)
Beside those five purposes I have mentioned above, there were some other purposes of using Indonesian in teaching English that occurred in the observation but not stated in the interviews. They were, praising and encouraging, checking comprehension, dealing with feeling, repeating student, and giving information. By doing observations, we could see that teachers used Indonesian in teaching English not only for several purposed like what they stated in the interview before. This kind of situation showed that teachers were in their natural setting with their own behavior, in this case was using Indonesian for some other purposes, like what is stated by Langley (1988).
1. Praising and Encouraging
In teaching and learning process, sometimes teachers praised their students when they got good marks or could do the exercise given, in order to motivate them to do better. In addition sometimes teachers also encouraged the students to build their confidence through asking the students to do some exercises. Usually teacher used both Indonesian and English to praised and encouraged their students, but in this study I would only discussed about praising and encouraging students by using Indonesian like what happened in SMA 3 Salatiga. In both of the observation, teachers used Indonesian to encourage their students.
Excerpt 8 (taken from the observation with Teacher 1) T1: “I hate you, can you change it?”
“Cuma dirubah ke bentuk tak langsung, jangan lupa satu langkah kebelakang. Itu simple kok.”
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From the excerpt 8 above we could see that the teacher tried to motivate or encourage the
students that the students could do the task because it was not difficult. By hearing that statement
“itu simple kok”, I think student would feel more confident to do the task because the teacher
already said that it was a simple sentence to be changed. As the impact of using that statement,
there was a student came in front of the class to do the task and his answer was correct. Teacher
also used it to build students‟ confidence.
Excerpt 9 (taken from the observation with Teacher 2)
T2: “Okay, now I want you to change this sentence into indirect, who wants to try?” Ss: (Silent)
T2: “Ndak usah takut salah, ayo sapa yang mau coba maju? Yak Lilo mau coba?” Lilo: (shake his head)
Excerpt 9 above showed that teacher used Indonesian to encourage the students. He tried
to build students‟ confidence to do the exercise he gave. I think both of the statements in excerpt
8 and 9 were very helpful in teaching, because those kind of terms were familiar for the students‟
ear since the expressions were used in their daily life. They heard those kinds of terms in several
subject. If the teacher used English to encourage students, maybe it would be difficult for the
students to understand. However, by saying them in Indonesian, teachers made it simpler to be
understood by the students.
From those two excerpts above, the teacher gave encouragement to the students to build
students‟ confidence to help them gained a better performance in front of the class. Using
Indonesian to encourage students or to praise was effective. Indonesian encouragements were
impressed students better because sometimes they did not understand with what theteacher‟s
meant if the teacher used English. This statement is in accordance with what Moskowitz (1971)
says that it may be more effective to praise and give encouragement in the first language than in
20 2. Checking Comprehension
In teaching and learning process, usually the teacher asked some questions to check students‟ comprehension. Usually it happened after the teacher gave some explanations to the
students. After that, the teacher would check the students‟ understanding by asking several questions. English teacher at SMA 3 Salatiga also used Indonesian to check comprehension. I found that Teacher 2 used Indonesian to check the students‟ comprehension.
Excerpt 10 (taken from the observation with Teacher 2) T2: “Raka said, “Don’t believe me!””
“How we change it into indirect?” S: “Raka said not to believe him.”
T2: “Are you sure? Okay, good. Sampai disini sudah jelas?” S: “Sudah”
T2: “Now, open your book on page 57 and do the exercise!”
Excerpt 10 above showed that the teacher used Indonesian to check the students‟
comprehension. Before that, he had explained about the task, and before he asked the students to
do the follow up exercises he checked their comprehension by asking questions. He used
Indonesian to check to make it easier to be understood and to avoid wasting time because later he
asked his students to do another exercise.
Using Indonesian to check the students‟ comprehension was helpful. The teacher could
check students‟ understanding about the material by asking questions. This way would encourage
students‟ ability in the whole learning. Harbord agrees with the use of the first language for
comprehension check, though he also believes that the presentation of new structure should be
done in second language (1992: 354).
3. Dealing with Feeling
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Excerpt 11 (taken from the observation with Teacher 1)
T1: “OK, today we will review about direct and indirect, what is the rule, what is the main rule, what is the main rule of direct and indirect?”
S: (Silent)
T1: “Halah!How is the rule? One step….” S: “Back.”
From the excerpt 11 above teacher used Javanese word “halah”, which approximately
meant “Oh, my gosh!” to deal with her own feeling. It seemed that she felt disappointed with the
students because they could not answer her question. I could see it from her face expression and
her intonation when she said that word. From the word “halah” I think the teacher wanted to
show to the students that it was not difficult, and she expressed her disappointment on why they
could not answered it.
Here the teacher offered a solution by opening the rule and after that, the students
answered it although in a doubt expression. This kind of activity could happen as a teacher
reaction toward students‟ attitude. In this situation the teacher was allowed to use Indonesian to
deal with her own feeling. Like stated by Spratt (1988), using the first language at this stage was
permissible.
4. Repeating Students’ Utterance
Sometimes teacher would repeat students‟ utterance for some reasons, like to make sure that the students‟ answer was correct or not. In some cases, teachers repeated students‟
utterance in Indonesian like what happened in observation with Teacher 1. She repeated student‟s utterance in Indonesian.
Excerpt 12 (taken from the observation with Teacher 1) T1: “Yang diubah yang mana, Gisella?”
S: “Yang tanda petik Miss.”
T1: “Yang tanda petik? Yang ini?” (pointing on the quotation mark on the whiteboard) S:”Yes Miss.”
From the excerpt above we could see that the teacher repeated the student‟s utterance
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student‟s meant. So, she wanted to know whether her student‟s utterance was same with hers. It
showed when the teacher said “yang tanda petik?” then she continued with saying “yang ini?”
and at the same time she pointed a sentence in quotation mark on the whiteboard and the student
agreed.
Repeating the students‟ utterance in the first language meant that teacher tried to make the
students feel at an easy thought. The teacher used the students‟ language and made herself at the
same level as the students and tried to clarify the material (Moskowitz, 1971). In this study, the
teacher was trying to make students feel more comfortable and had an easy thought because the
teacher clarified the material by using simple and easy language.
5. Giving Information
Giving information is one function of explanation, although the purpose of giving information is just to inform about something in a not-too-detail manner like in giving explanation. Giving information can be in English, in Indonesian or both in English and Indonesian. In my study, the teacher used Indonesian to give information to the students. I found that in the observation with Teacher 1.
Excerpt 13 (taken from the observation with Teacher 1)
T1: “Tejo said to Nita, I hate you, can you change it? Cuma dirubah ke bentuk tak langsung, jangan lupa satu langkah kebelakang. Itu simple kok.”
S: (Come in front to do the task) T1: “Is it correct?”
S: “Correct.” T1: “Okay, good!”
On the excerpt 13 above, teacher informed the students how to do task on the whiteboard.
She used English to make the student understood her explanation. She gave an outline to the
student on how to do the task, but she did not give detail explanation because she had already
explained them in the previous section.
In order to make the information clearer and to avoid ambiguity, the teacher used
23
and right away. To avoid ambiguity and confusion among students about the information, the
teacher can use the first language here (Spratt, 1988).
C. Teachers’ Reason of Using Indonesian in Teaching English
The use of Indonesian in teaching English classroom sometimes raises a confrontation among people. On one side, there is a theory that English teacher should avoid using the first language in an English classroom because it will make the second language learning goes slowly (Hammer: 1989 & Boey: 1975). On the other hand, Long (1984), Charles (1987), and Spratt (1988) believe that the use of Indonesian can help the learners acquire English faster because they can refer it to their first language that might be very helpful for them. Besides that, there are several reasons for whether we can use first language or not.
In this study, based on the interviews, I got several reasons from the teachers on why they used first language in teaching English. According to Nation (2003), there are some reasons of using L1, because L1 gives more benefits in teaching L2. Such as, first it is more natural to use the L1 with others who have the same L1. Second, it is easier and more communicatively effective to use the L1. 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. The following statements will explain about their reasons.
The first teacher who taught English for three years at SMA 3 said that Indonesian was very helpful in teaching.
24
The second teacher who taught English at SMA 3 also said that Indonesian was very helpful in teaching English especially first grade students.
“As I mentioned before that first grade students were in their transition period, so they still adapted with new environments. There were still a lot of students who did not understand if I used English. The most important thing for me was that students felt confident to speak.” He also said, “Indonesian helped me in teaching.”
From those statements from both of the teachers, I sum up their reasons of using Indonesian in teaching. In general the teachers used Indonesian in teaching English because it helped them in teaching English, especially when students got difficulties in learning the material and because they taught first grade of Senior High School and that was their transition periods and they have to adapt with their new environment. So, the teachers used Indonesian to help students understood the material easier.
CONCLUSION
After analyzing the data from the interviews and the classroom observations, several purposes of using Indonesian in teaching English at SMA 3 Salatiga were drawn. The conclusion, then, was used for answering the research question of this study “What are teacher purposes of using Indonesian in teaching English to high school students?”
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the teachers used Indonesian in teaching English because it helped both the students and teachers. Because they taught the first grade of Senior High School, and that was their transition period, they used Indonesian to help students understand the material easier.
Despite the positive response of using Indonesian in teaching English, there were also negative responses of using Indonesian. To note some of the negative response, students tended to depend on the teacher, therefore, the students became lazy when they did not know the meaning of some words. They kept waiting for the teacher to translate it into Indonesian. Moreover, the students did not have enough opportunity to explore their English skill because sometimes the teachers used Indonesian to explain something. If the teacher used English, it would motivate the students to use their English skill to understand the material given. Another negative effect of using Indonesian was students did not have enough courage to take a risk and make mistakes when they communicate in Indonesian. They played save in order to avoid mistakes.
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For further research, it will be better if there is much time available for the study because the researcher can do observation for several times. It also can be done by comparing the use of Indonesian in different levels of students to find out the purposes of using Indonesian in different levels.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
27
References
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Alan, M. & Spratt, M. (1988). At the chalkface. Singapore: Compugraphic Baskerfille.
Badan Akreditasi Nasional Sekolah/ Madrasah – BAN SM (2011)
Bellack, A., H. Kliebard, R. T. Hyman, and F.L. Smith. (1966). The language of the classroom. New York : Teacher Collage Press.
Boey, L. K. (1975). An introduction to linguistic for language teacher. Singapore: Singapore University Press.
Charler, J. K. (1987). Dealing with difficult people, how you can come out on top in personality conflict. New Jersey : Paulist Press.
Cullen, R. (1998). Teacher talk and the classroom context. English Language Teaching Journal,52,3,pp.179-182. Retrieved May 19, 2012 from http://203.72.145.166/ELT/files/52-3-1.pdf
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Doyle, J. K. (2006). Prepared for the interdisciplinary and global studies division. Worcester Polytechnic Institude.
Harbord, J. (1992). The use of the mother tongue in the classroom. ELT Journal vol. 46 (4), 350-355.
Harmer, J. (1989) The practice of English language teaching. Hongkong : Longman Group (FE)Ltd.
Krashen, S. & Terrel, T.D. (1983). The natural approach language acquisition in the classroom. New York: Pregamon Press Ltd.
Langley, P. (1988). Learning object models from visual observation and background knowledge. Institute for the Learning and Expertise, Stanford University.
Long, J.C. R. (1984). Breakthrough. Hongkong : Oxford University Press.
Moskowitz, G. (1971). Interaction analysis new modern language for supervisor. Foreign Language Annals 5:211-212.
Nation, P. (2003). The role of the first language in foreign language learning. Asian EFL Journal , vol. 5 (2), 1-8. Retrieved August 7, 2012 from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/2003-Role-of-L1-Asian-EFL.pdf
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http://perso.univylon2.fr/~giled/050801Stephen%20Krashen‟s%20Theory.htm
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Tang, J.(2002). Using L1 in the English classroom, English Teaching Forum Journal,40,1,pp.36-42. Retrieved December 17, 2012 from http://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/02-40-1-h.pdf
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30 Appendix 1
Interview Questions
1. Sudah berapa lama bapak/ ibu mengajar disekolah ini?
2. Apakah bapak/ ibu menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar Bahasa Inggris? 3. Seberapa sering bapak/ ibu menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar?
4. Kapan bapak/ ibu menggunakan bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar Bahasa Inggris? 5. Menurut bapak/ ibu kapan waktu yang tepat dan kapan waktu yang tidak tepat
menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar Bahasa Inggris? 6. Mengapa bapak/ ibu menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar?
31 Appendix 2
Observation Checklist
Teachers‟ talk coverage
according to Spratt and
Moskowitz
Is it
used
or not?
Note Example
1 Instruction and
classroom management
2 Explanation and
justification
3 Communicating
meaning
4 Checking
comprehension
5 Dialing with feeling
6 Praising or encouraging
7 Joking
8 Using students idea
9 Repeating students
10 Response verbatim
11 Asking questions
32 Appendix 3
Interview Result with teacher 1
Teacher 1: teaching English at SMA N 3 Salatiga for 3 years
May, 24 2012
1. : sudah berapa lama ibu mengajar disekolah ini?
: saya sudah tiga tahun mengajar disekolah ini sejak tahun 2009
2. : apakah ibu menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia dalam mengajar?
: iya, sampai saat ini saya masih menggunakan bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar karena tidak dapat dipungkiri bahwa Bahasa Indonesia sangat membantu saat mengajar terlebih lagi bahasa Indonesia adalah bahasa sehari-hari yang sering kita gunakan.
3. : Seberapa sering ibu menggunakan bahasa Indonesia saat mengajar?
: tergantung pada tingkat kesulitan materi yang saya sampaikan. Apabila materi yang saya sampaikan terlalu sulit saya akan lebih banyak menggunakan bahasa Indonesia. Namun apabila materinya tidak sulit saya tidak terlalu sering menggunakan bahasa Indonesia, saya lebih sering menggunakan bahasa Inggris supaya siswa juga terbiasa menggunakan bahasa Inggris di dalam kelas.
4. : kapan biasanya ibu menggunakan bahasa Indonesia saat mengajar?
33
mengguanakan bahasa Indonesia untuk mempersingkat waktu. Kemudian saya gunakan untuk memberi pertanyaan (asking question), terkadang saya sering mengulang-ulang pertanyaan dalam bahasa Inggris karena para siswa tidak mengerti, untuk mensiasati hal itu saya memberi pertanyaan menggunakan bahasa Indonesia apabila pertanyaan yang saya ajukan sulit.
5. : menurut ibu kapan waktu yang tepat dan kapan yang tidak tepat menggunakan bahasa Indonesia?
: menurut saya waktu yang tepat adalah ketika siswa benar-benar membutuhkan terjemahan kedalam bahasa Indonesia, seperti saat mendapat kesulitan menterjemahkan arti kata atau waktu memberi arahan yang sekiranya sulit dimengerti oleh siswa karena hal itu akan sangat membantu siswa unruk lebih memahami materi yang saya sampaikan. Waktu yang tidak tepat adalah ketika kita tahu bahwa hal itu mudah dan sudah pasti siswa juga mengerti tapi disitu kita malah menggunakan bahasa Indonesia, contohnya seperti memberi salam, siswa sudah tahu kalau good morning itu berarti selamat pagi, jadi saya rasa malah salah kalau kita menggunakan bahasa Indonesia disitu.
6. : mengapa ibu menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar?
34 Appendix 4
Interview Result with teacher 2
Teacher 2 : teaching English at SMA N 3 Salatiga for 7 years
May, 25 2012
1. :sudah berapa lama bapak mengajar Bahasa Inggris di sekolah ini? : saya disini sudah kurang lebih tujuh tahunan, dari tahun 2005. 2. : apakah bapak menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia dalam mengajar?
: iya, saya menggunakan bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar, karena jika saya terus menggunakan bahasa inggris dikelas, siswa banyak yang tidak mengerti, terlebih lagi jika mengajar kelas sepuluh, saya lebih banyak menggunakan bahasa Indonesia dibanding kan dengan kelas sebelas dan dua belas. Ya bisa dimaklumi karena siswa kelas sepuluh kan baru masuk SMA, masa-masa transisi dari SMP.
3. : seberapa sering bapak menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar?
: untuk kelas sepuluh, lebih sering menggunakan bahasa Indonesia jika dibandingkan dengan kelas sebelas dan dua belas, alasannya seperti yang sudah saya sebutkan tadi siswa kelas sepuluh masih dalam masa transisi jadi masih perlu penyesuaian, masih banyak yang tidak mengerti kalau saya menggunakan bahasa Inggris terus, yang terpenting untuk saya, siswa itu punya keberanian untuk berbicara.
4. : kapan biasanya bapak menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia saat mengajar?
: saya menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia ketika para siswa tidak mengerti dengan apa yang saya sampaikan menggunakan Bahasa Inggris. Semisal ada suatu istilah dalam Bahasa Inggris yang sukar, pertama saya coba jelaskan dan jabarkan dulu
35
bahasa Indonesia (communicating meaning). Kemudian ketika memberi arahan yang sekiranya sulit dimengerti (giving instruction), misalnya ketika memberi tugas untuk diskusi, jika menggunakan bahasa Inggris banyak siswa yang tidak mengerti dengan maksud saya, sehingga saya harus mengulangi lagi dengan menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia. Terkadang saya gunakan juga untuk memberi lelucon kepada siswa (joking), karena dari pengalaman jika siswa saya beri lelucon menggunakan Bahasa Inggris, siswa malah diam, diam dalam arti mereka tidak mengerti dengan apa yang saya maksud. Kemudian ketika ada aktifitas diluar kelas, seperti game atau semacamnya, saya selipkan Bahasa Indonesia untuk memberi penjelasan tentang game tersebut (explanation) supaya siswa lebih cepat mengerti jadi tidak menghabiskan waktu hanya untuk menjeleskan.
5. : menurut bapak kapan waktu yang tepat dan kapan yang tidak tepat menggunakan bahasa Indonesia?
: waktu yang tepat adalah ketika siswa benar-benar tidak mengerti dengan apa yang saya sampaikan, bagaimana cara mengetahui siswa mengerti atau tidaknya yaitu dengan sikap siswa yang cenderung diam. Siswa kebanyakan malu jika disuruh bertanya sehingga mereka lebih cenderung diam. Kemudian waktu yang tidak tepat adalah ketika siswa sudah mengerti dengan apa yang kita sampaikan seperti sapaan atau kata-kata yang sering kita pakai setiap hari. Menurut saya, disitu malah guru yang salah soalnya siswa sidah mengerti kenapa kita masih memakai Bahasa Indonesia.
6. : mengapa bapak menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia ketika mengajar?
36 Appendix 5
Observation result with teacher 1
Date : May, 24 2012
Topic : Direct and Indirect
Teachers‟ talk coverage
S: Bella ask Debora where she
going was.
S: Bella ask Debora where she
was going.
37
it? Cuma dirubah ke bentuk tak
38
T: yang tanda petik? Yang ini?
(pointing on the quotation
T: do you still remember when
39
langsung, jangan lupa satu
langkah kebelakang. Itu simple
kok.
S: (come in front to do the
task)
T: is it correct?
S: correct
40 Appendix 6
Observation result with teacher 2
Date : May, 25 2012
Topic : Direct and Indirect
Teachers‟ talk coverage
will choose one of you to read
41
meeting please bring speech
oration for dubbing activity.
S: speech oration itu apa pak?
T: speech oration itu pidato,
page 57 and do the exercise!
5 Dealing with feeling
6 Praising or encouraging To make the students
feel confident with
T: okay, now I want you to
42
their answer. indirect, who want to try?
43
they silent. S: that
T: okay, good. After that?
S: mumbling
