CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

English, nowadays, has an important role in Indonesia. English is considered as

the foreign language that is used only in the formal situation. In education area,

English is taught in Indonesia as a compulsory subject beginning from elementary

school to the university level.

Most educators believe that English is very important for humans’ need. They

also regard English not only as a spoken skill but also as a written skill. In 2006,

Department of National Education released the curriculum known as Unit-Level

Education curriculum which focuses on the four language skills; speaking, listening,

writing and reading. The purpose of this curriculum is that the students have to

master those four skills.

However, teaching English is not an easy thing. For Junior High School students

the English itself is still difficult to be understood even though they have learned it

since elementary school. Although English teachers have repeatedly explained the

English materials, most of students still cannot understand the English material well.

Dealing with this condition English teacher can introduce various techniques in

teaching English as Foreign language; one of them is the use of L1 as a language for

instruction.

There has been much debate about the use of L1 in L2 classroom. According to

Panayota Kourou (2008), most educators believed that use of the target language

(L2) in the foreign language classroom is a primary goal of instruction. They believe
that L2 had to be used exclusively and without limit since outside the classroom L2

could not be used. The other reason of using full English during the lesson is to

make students accustomed to the English word and grammar. If learners are to

acquire a second language, they must be exposed to it and use it. Therefore, the

more L2 was spoken the better the result and the students’ performance would be

(Panayota Kourou, 2008). However, the complete ignorance of L1 that teachers had

been showing for years has been recently ceased. Mustafa Nazzary (2008) satates

that the first language of the learners has a necessary factor in all aspect of

Language acquisition. With the development of linguistics, there has been

developed another attitude as well; that there is also a time to use the L1 and that its

use can even be beneficial. The development of communicative approaches to

teaching accepts use of L1 in the teaching and learning situation as a device and a

facilitator for learning and as a strategy that may help effective communication to

take place (Papaefthymiou- Lytra, 1990).

The reason for the researcher to focus on the use of L1 as a language for

instruction in teaching English is because generally most of the students do not

understand teachers’ explanation about material while teaching using L2. As a result

English teacher tend to use L1 in explaining the material although they are

suggested to use English dominantly in classroom. For the reason, the researcher is

interested in writing a paper entitled “A Study on Using L1 as a Language for

Instruction in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to The First Year Students of

SMP N 3 PASIR PENYU”

1.2 The Setting of the Problem use

There are several points about L1 as a language for instruction that can be

investigated:

• What is the role of L1 in L2 classroom?

• When do the English teachers need to use L1 as a language for instruction in L2

classroom?

• What is the effect of the use of L1 in L2 classroom?

1.3 Limitation of the Problem

Based on the setting of the problem above; in this paper, the writer wants to

analyze the purposes/function of L1 as a language for instruction in English

classroom.

1.4 Formulation of the Problem

Based on the limitation of the problem, the writer formulates the problems

follows: “How is the use of L1 as a Language for Instruction in teaching English as

a Foreign Language?”

1.5 The General Objective of the Research

The general objectives of the research are to explain these following things:

1. To know the use of L1 as a Language for Instruction in teaching English as a

Foreign Language

2. To interpret the purposes/functions of L1 as a Language for Instruction in

teaching English as a Foreign Language

1.6 The Needs of the Research

By doing this research, the writer hopes the result will be useful in some sides:

1.6.1 To show how important the use of L1 as a Language for Instruction in

teaching English as a Foreign Language.

1.6.2 To give information and contribution to the readers about the use of L1 as a

Language for Instruction in teaching English as a Foreign Language

1.6.3 This study would be very useful for those who are interested in doing a

further research related to this study

1.6.4 The result of the study would be useful as the information for English

student who will be a teacher in order to improve their strategies in teaching

English.

1.7 Definitions of Terms

In order to understand clearly and to avoid misunderstanding of the terms used

in this study, the writer defines them as follows:

1.7.1 Language for Instruction is the language that is used in teaching; the

language used may or may not be the official language of the territory

(Wikipedia). In this research language for instruction means the main

language which is used by both teacher and students I communication in

Second Language Classroom

1.7.2 Teaching is giving instruction to someone or causes to know and be able to

do something (Hornby) in this research teaching means an action in giving

instructions, motivation, and knowledge for students.

1.7.3 L1 is the language human being learns from birth (Wikipedia) in this

research L1 refers to Bahasa Indonesia in which it is the main language used

in educational area.

1.7.4 Foreign language is a language not spoken by the people of a certain place. It

is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred

(Wikipedia). In this research foreign language refer to English in which it is

the target language of teaching and learning process.

 CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Second language use in the foreign language classroom needs to be maximized

wherever possible, by encouraging its use and by using it for classroom management.

However research shows that the first language has a small but imprinting role to play

in communicating meaning and content (Paul Nation; 2001)

2.1 First Language (L1) and Second Language (L2)

A first language (also native language or mother tongue) is the language human

being learns from birth. The term is also used for the language that the speaker

speaks best. While a second language (L2) is any language learned after the first

language or mother tongue ( http://www.answers.com/topic/second-

languagetongue). According to some researchers, the defining difference between a

first language (L1) and a second language (L2) is the age the person learned the

language. For example Critical Period Hypothesis states that second language to

mean a language consciously acquired or used by its speaker after puberty. In most

cases, people never achieve the same level of fluency and comprehension in their

second languages as in their first language

2.2 L1 vs L2 in English as a Foreign Language Classroom

There has been much debate about the use of L1 in the L2 classroom. Some

educators think that L2 have to be used exclusively all the time in classroom while

the others think that L1 still has an important role to play in some occasions.
 In his article entitled “The Use of L1 in The Foreign Language Teaching

Process”, Panatota Kourou claimed that most educator would agree that use of target

language (L2) in the foreign language classrooms is a primary goal of instruction.

There are two reasons which support that statement. The first, If learners are to

acquire a second language, they must be exposed to it and use it. The second, L2

had to be used exclusively and without limits since inside the classroom and

especially in social environments where the L2 could not be practiced outside the

classroom. That opinion also supported by Anne Edstrom who said that use of the

second language (L2) has long been consider a foundational principal of second

language pedagogy. Paul Nation (2001) also stated that L2 use in foreign language

classroom needs to be maximized wherever possible, by encouraging its use and by

using it in classroom management.

However, the complete ignorance of L1 that teachers had been showing for

years has been recently ceased. With the development of linguistics and after the

conducting of several studies, there has been developed another opinion as well; that

there is also a time to use the L1 and that its use can even be beneficial. Mustafa

Nazzary (2008) stated that the first language of learners (L1) has a necessary and

facilitating role in all aspects of language instruction. Another opinion stated by

Auerbach, she stated that starting with the L1 provides a sense of security and

validates the learners’ lived experiences, allowing them to express themselves. The

learner is then willing to experiment and take risks with English. Actually both

experts suggest to use L1 in the L2 classroom. Both of them think that L1 as a tool

or device for learning and as a strategy that may help effective communication.
 Although some expert regard L1 have to be used exclusively all the time in

the teaching and learning situation, I think L1 still have an important role to play. If

the teacher use L1 in the appropriate ways, L1 will be effective for understanding

English material and it will help students to reach language acquisition. So L1 just

like a bridge that connect to L2 acquisition.

2.3 L1 as a Language for Instruction in Foreign Language Classroom

Nowadays it is common for EFL teachers to use the students' mother tongue as a

tool for conveying meaning as a means of interaction in the classroom. Teachers

never showed their ignorance to the use of L1. Thus, nowadays, one can argue that

the debate about the use of either the L1 or L2 in the classroom has been replaced by

a debate about in which occasions/ activities the L1 should be used, for what

pedagogical purposes and to what extend.

According to L. Prodromou the mother tongue may be useful in the procedural

stages of a class, for example setting up pair and group work, giving instructions,

sorting out an activity which is clearly not working and checking comprehension in

reading and oral activities.

Moreover, some of the possible uses of the mother tongue in the EFL classroom

pointed out by Dedrinou (2006) could be for evaluation of the teaching/ learning

process, for emotive purposes, in activities based on translation for the development

of fluency in L2, for presenting the meaning of a new lexical item or expression, for

discussing classroom methodology and for giving rules of usage in order to facilitate

the learning process.

 Also, Cook (2001) argues for deliberate and systematic use of the L1 in the L2

classroom. He says it can be used positively for conveying meaning, for explaining

grammar, for organizing the class (giving directions, maintaining discipline,

providing feedback, and administering tests), and for student use (such as code

switching) and for scaffolding that is to provide connections between what student’s

know and what they don't know).

Actually, those expert opinions above came from their personal experience.

However others experts have done some researches and showed some accurate data

about in which occasions/ activities the L1 should be used.

In the first study, Schweers (1999) conducted a study with EFL students and

their 19 teachers in a Spanish context to investigate their attitudes toward using L1 in

the L2 classroom. He found that 88.7% of Spanish students studying English wanted

L1 used in the class because they believe it facilitates learning. Students also desired

up to 39% of class time to be spent in L1 (Schweers, 1999, p. 7). The second study is

from Burden (2001). He investigated the attitudes of 290 students and 73 teachers at

five universities. The results showed that both students and teachers believe the

importance of L1 in explaining new vocabulary, giving instruction, talking about

tests, grammar instruction, checking for understanding and relaxing the students.
 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the research design, location and time of the study,

Specific objective of the study, the population and sample, research instrument, data

collection technique, and data analyzing technique.

3.1 Research Design

This research focuses on the role of L1 as a language for instruction in English

classroom during the teaching and learning process. This is the descriptive text,

Isaac and Micheal (1986:46) say that a descriptive research is done to describe

the facts and characteristics of a given population or area of interest factually

and accurately. According to Gay (1990), the descriptive research involves

collecting data to hypothesis or to answer the question concerning the current

status of the object of the study. It consists of one variable since the writer

wants to describe the role of L1 as a language for instruction in English

classroom by the first year students of SMP N 3 PASIR PENYU. The data will

be described and classified based on the problem discussed.

3.2 Location and Time of the Study

This research was carried out at SMP N 3 PASIR PENYU in academic year

2009/2010. It conducted from the first week of June until July.

3.3 Specific Objective of the Study

The specific objective of this research is to find out the purposes/functions of

 L1 as a language for instruction in English Classroom by the first year students

of SMP N 3 PASIR PENYU.

3.4 Population and Sample

The population of this research is all the English teachers of the first year

students of SMP N 3 PASIR PENYU. They consist of two English teachers.

Because of the small number of the population, the researcher will take all the

population as the sample of this research.

3.5 Assumption

Connecting to the problem, the writer assumes that the English teacher who

uses L1 in English classroom will be able to make students easier to understand

the English material.

3.6 Data Collection Technique

To collect the data about the use of L1 in English classroom, the writer will

use questionnaire. The reason chooses these techniques because they seem to be

effective and efficient in gathering the data required in this study. Not only that

reason, but also these techniques can be used to collect valid and reliable

information.

3.7 Data Analyzing Technique

The data analysis techniques use in this study is descriptive methods. In

collecting the data, the writer uses an observation and a recorder to carry out the
observation data. The observation is used to get some data about the use of L1 in

English classroom. While the recorder is used to reanalyze the functions of L1

used the teacher in interacting with the students in the classroom.

The writer will observe each teacher and record the teaching and learning

process and analyze the use and functions of L1 used by the teachers while

explaining the English material in the classroom. The result of the observation

and the recorder then will be presented descriptively in this study. The writer

just explained all the result of the observation of the data in words. Finally the

writer’s explanation presented in this study is used as the final result in

analyzing the use of L1 in English classroom for the first year students of SMP

N 3 PASIR PENYU.
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 A STUDY ON USING L1 AS A LANGUAGE FOR
INSTRUCTION IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS THE FOREIGN
LANGUAGE TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP N 3
PASIR PENYU

A THESIS

BY
ROBI ESHA AKHMADI
Reg No.0605120814

ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM

LANGUAGE AND ARTS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHERS’ TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF RIAU
PEKANBARU
2010