the lesson material, they limitedly produced spontaneous utterances. It seemed that they felt difficult to speak spontaneously without reading.
d. Language function
In using English as medium of instruction at the classroom, the immersion teachers encountered problems on:
1 Communicating with the students
The immersion teachers used to speak Bahasa Indonesia instead of English when they were communicating to the students.
2 Using language expressions
The immersion teachers produced limited expressions. They used to express greeting at the most, but they did not make use of the other
expressions in teaching like asking clarifications, confirming check, asking repetitions, requesting something imperative, suggesting
something, asking questions, giving instruction, praising, thanking gratitude, opening the lesson, closing the lesson, warning, persuading,
commanding, apologizing, etc.
2. The Immersion Teachers’ Acts Dealing with the Language Problems
Conducting observations at the classroom, the researcher understand the immersion teachers’ acts which showed how they dealt with the language
problems at the classroom. By identifying their actions at the classroom, it could
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
be seen whether the immersion teachers attempted to conquer their language problems at the time and whether they successfully coped with the problems.
a. Dealing with problems on Pronunciation
As mentioned above, the immersion teachers encountered some problems on pronunciation. They did not pay attention on their pronunciation while
speaking. As a result, so they made errors in pronouncing words. The examples of pronunciation errors they produced are listed in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Immersion teachers’ pronunciation errors No.
Words Incorrect
pronunciation Correct
pronunciation 1. equal
[ikuw ǝl]
[ ΄i:kwǝl]
2. example
[eks ʌmp
ǝl] [
ɪg΄zɑ:mpl]
3. three
[tri:] [
θri:]
4. question
[ku ɪʃǝn]
[ ΄kwestʃn]
5. right
[r ɑɪg]
[r ɑɪt]
6. symbol
[s ɪmbɔl] [΄sɪmbl]
7. adult
[ ɑdʊl] [΄ədʌlt]
8. write
[wr ɑɪt] [rɑɪt]
9. difficult
[d ɪfɪkʊlt] [΄dɪfɪkəlt]
10. complete
[k ɔmplɪt] [kəm΄pi:t]
11. answer
[æns ʊər] [΄ɑnsər]
12. finish
[f ɪnɪs] [΄fɪnɪʃ]
13. mouth
[m ɔʊθ] [mɑʊθ]
Source: Observation 3 5
From the examples, it could be seen that the teachers made some errors in pronouncing the words. They seemed to be serious delivering the subject matter
without paying attention on their language. Even when they were reading through
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
a discourse, they incorrectly pronounced some words. Ironically, the students realized that the teachers’ pronunciation was incorrect. Some of the students were
talking among themselves about the teachers’ incorrect pronunciation but they did not tell it to the teacher. The teachers did not realize that they pronounced the
words incorrectly. Hence, the teachers did not make any correction to their pronunciation.
The immersion teachers spoke English with unclear intonation. They spoke English without any distinction between the rising intonation and the falling
intonation. Based on Table 4.1, it could be seen that the teachers also did not pay attention on the word stress. The teachers did not realize the problem.
Furthermore, they admitted that they actually did not really know about word stress. They did not know at which syllable the stress should be placed. It was
clearly seen at the classroom that the teachers could not cope with the problem successfully.
b. Dealing with Problems on Grammar
In fact, the immersion teachers used to produce incomplete utterances. For example, they omitted parts of the sentences like subject and verb, they used
double subjects, and they used present tense to express past event, and so on. Those problems occurred mostly when they were speaking English spontaneously
rather than when they directly read the text on the Power Point slides. It seemed that they faced difficulty in constructing sentences so that they either missed some
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
parts or made some mistakes. Table 4.2 presents some examples of the immersion teachers’ errors in grammar.
Table 4.2 Immersion teachers’ grammatical errors No.
Description Incorrect Correct
1. The use of double
subject “OK, let’s we
continue our lesson.” “OK, let’s continue
our lesson” 2.
The absence of subject and verb at
the same time “Because only one
leg.” “Because it has only
one leg.”
3. The omission of ‘s’
sound of the plural form
“Two variable are different.”
“There are five part of the body.”
“Two variables are different.”
“There are five parts of the body.”
4. The omission of ‘s’
sound on the verb of singular subject
“It live in water and land.”
“It lives in water and land.”
5. The use of present
tense instead of past tense to
express past event “This morning Mr.
Didik ask me to replace him…”
“The Ohm Law is formed…”
“This morning Mr. Didik asked me to
replace him…” “The Ohm Law was
formed…”
6. The use of
declarative sentence to express
interrogative one “It is true equation?”
“Its body tripoblastic?”
“You finish the exercise?”
“Is this equation true?”
“Is its body tripoblastic?”
“Have you finished the exercise?”
Source: Observation 1,68
In the classroom, it could be seen that the problems on grammar occurred when the teachers spoke English spontaneously, for example when they answered
the students’ questions or when they explained the lesson. On the other hand, they limitedly produced grammar errors when they read the text or discourse. If they
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
had prepared the lesson material using Power Point, they could have directly read it; hence, they did not make any grammar mistake.
c. Dealing with problems on Vocabulary
In the classroom, it could be seen that all of the teachers did not master vocabulary well. The teachers made some pauses while they were speaking. They
missed the words which were going to say. They forgot or did not know any word to say. At the time, they did not attempt to look for another word which had close
meaning to the word missing. They used to replace the missing words with the words of Bahasa Indonesia. They mixed the language between English and
Bahasa Indonesia. In the classroom, the immersion teachers also encountered problem on
translating several contexts either from English into Bahasa Indonesia or from Bahasa Indonesia into English. It could be seen that the teachers used to look up
their dictionary frequently. After looking up the dictionary, they told the students the words’ meaning.
d. Dealing with problems on Language Function
From the observation, it could be seen that the teachers frequently spoke Bahasa Indonesia instead of English. In the classroom, the teachers limitedly
produced English conversation. They only spoke when they were explaining or when they giving instruction to the students. They did not make any conversation
in English, except when they asked the students some questions which were
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
related to the lesson. They spoke Bahasa Indonesia to communicate with the students. They did not try to keep speaking English all the time. As they did, the
students were less motivated to speak English all the time in the classroom. In teaching, the teachers also limitedly used English language
expressions. The expressions which were appeared in the classroom were only the expression of greeting and asking for question. Even they did not make use
expression of opening and closing the lesson. After greeting the students and leading a prayer, the teachers directly presented the lesson material without
opening the lesson with an introduction. They did not attempt to make various expressions to keep the communication with the students.
B. Discussion
