Background of the Study

to university level. Moreover, many kindergarten schools have already introduced English to their young learners, especially for kindergarten schools in cities. As it has been mentioned above, English has been introduced to elementary school level, high school level, as well as university level. In short, if we look at the fact, students in Indonesia have already learnt English for up to eight years from the elementary level to the high school level. Unfortunately, although they have learnt English for many years, it is most unfortunate to say that most students in Indonesia still have low English proficiency level. This is clearly shown by the fact that most students still having problems in using English, for examples most students are still facing difficulty in translating English-Indonesian words and vice versa, grammar and pronunciation, listening, writing and grammar. In addition, the main concern of the problems is the way of learning. No matter how good the teaching method, how competent the teachers or how excellent the media are, if the students do not use proper strategy on their learning, then the learning will not be effective. In university grade, the problems even become more sophisticated, although the problems which mostly appear in university grade are quite similar to the problems in high school grade. English is indeed being taught in university grade, but the purposes of learning English in university grade are different from one field study to another field. Some field studies which are concerning in English clearly have different purposes than other field studies in term of their English needs, for example English education study programme students have different English needs than Engineering or Nursing study programme students. Different from most common people, the students of English Education study programme need to know how to use English more than just using it as a second language. They need to know many things about English in general and English teaching, from how to teach every English skill, appropriate methods, techniques in teaching, and many others. In short, they are being prepared as competent English teachers so that in future they will become a good English teacher. English learners need to know more about learning strategy so that they can manage to use it to improve their learning in more efficient ways. According to many theories and studies from experts, learners need good language learning strategies in order their learning to be successful. Chamot 2004:18 mentions that differences between more and less proficient language learners have been found in the number and range of strategies used, in how the strategies are applied to the task, and in the appropriateness of the strategies for the task. The knowledge of learning strategy should be provided as early as possible. This is due to the fact that the senior students who have already been used to certain ways of learning; it is more difficult for them to change their way of learning and especially, their habit in learning into more effective ways. Good learning strategies enable learners to learn more effectively and efficiently. The importance of learning strategy for English education students is indeed crucial. As it has been mentioned above in regard with given the benefit of learning strategies, learners who have already equipped with the knowledge of learning strategies need to be able equiped their future students with the same knowledge which is very useful for effective and efficient learning. English is considered as a foreign language in Indonesia. That is why English is still only used in certain occasions. Oxford 1990:6 defines foreign language as a language that does not have immediate and social communicative functions within the community where it is learned; it is employed mostly to communicate elsewhere. The claim above is in line to what really happen in Indonesia currently. Some problems arise in this context. The first problem is that almost all English learners in Indonesia only have little chance to use English in real communication, if they do; they only use them occasionally in some activities like chatting, internet browsing, watching movies, reading English novels or magazines and so on. This means that they only have little experience in using English on a real oral communication. The second problem is that most of English teacher are non-native English. Almost of them learn English in Indonesian universities, which is a non-English speaking country. The teachers do have sufficient skills in teaching, but they share almost the same problem with most learners, they only have little time and experience to use English in a real communication. The last problem is that the characteristic of English that is a little different from m ost of learner‘s native language. This can be proved by some English sounds, vowels, diphthongs and consonants do not exist in native language; neither Indonesian nor learners‘ native language. Moreover, the structures of English as well as English pronunciation are also different than learner‘s native languages that mostly become problems. Learners of English Education Study Programme need to know what is teaching at first because they will deal more with this term. The term teaching and learning are inseparable things. Teaching and learning are two terms which are always come together. Learning cannot be done without teaching as well as teaching will not bring any significance without learning. This is one among major problems which are commonly found. Oxford 1990:10 states that based on the culture condition and educational system, many language students even adults are passive and accustomed to being spoon-fed. They like to be told what to do and they do only what is clearly essential to get a good grade. Learners mostly spent their time to learn English only in the formal classroom. And most importantly, they only doing what they are told what they have to do and only focusing to get good mark or grade. Learners can use their free time to learn English more through reading books, watching English TV programmes, browsing for online learning and etc. In short, there are a lot of ways that they can do to improve their English. But in fact, most students do not use their time appropriately for self learning. Above all, their orientation is only focused on GPA Grade Points Average rather than focusing on their self-skills or English proficiency. In conclusion, learning English to improve proficiency is not the same as getting high grade for English education study programme.

B. Identification of the Problems

As it has been mentioned above, the main problem of most English learners is how they can manage to learn English using learning strategy, so that they learn in a more effective and efficient way. Oxford 1990:1 defines learning strategies as steps taken by students to enhance their own learning. Learning strategies are especially important for language learning because they are tool for active, self-directed involvement which is essential for developing communicative competence. Appropriate language learning strategies result in improved proficiency and greater self-confidence. Oxford 1990:10 further claims: ....based on the culture condition and educational system, many language students even adults are passive and accustomed to being spoon-fed. They like to be told what to do and they do only what is clearly essential to get a good grade — even if they fail to develop useful skills in the process. Attitudes and behaviours like this make learning more difficult and must be changed, or else any effort to train learners to rely more on themselves and use better strategies are bound to fail.... Based on the claims above, it is clear that most of learners tend to do only to what teachers on their English classrooms have told them. Although in some recent years, regarding to the recent curriculum, the learners are being more active than they used to be in the past. But still, they are not maximizing their learning in an efficient way. Most of them prefer being told of what they have to do rather than being actively searching the necessary information. They need these information to enhance their learning and practicing the knowledge they already have. Thus, they only spend little time for practicing. This can be seen in the fact that in many of classrooms, teachers spend most of their time on talking and explaining the material rather than letting the learners be actively experimenting to look for information. Thus, learners only have little time to practice the language they learn; means that they only have few times and chances to use English. There are many factors that cause learners to learn English less appropriately. The first is that the learners ‘ attitude as it has been mentioned earlier in the previous part that most learners are likely to be spon-fed. The second is the environment around the learners. Mostly in Indonesia, English is used rarely in real daily communication. That causes most learners to have less chance on using English in real comm unication. The last problem is that learners‘ learning strategy. Most learners are being used to their way of thinking that the method of