Beliefs about Difficulties in Learning English in ICE Program
67 The learners believe that practice speaking gives them good opportunity to
improve their English as they could remember more by doing speaking activities. Richards 2006 also stated that natural language use occurs when a speaker
engages in meaningful interaction and maintains comprehensible communication despite limitations in his communicative competence. Fluency is developed by
creating classroom activities in which students must negotiate meaning as well as use communication strategies. It is concluded that learners believe that applying
cognitive learning strategy would certainly improve their learning English. In term of communicating strategies, approximately 66 ICE learners
believe that they are allowed to describe the unfamiliar words using, for example, gesture. This strategy is known as paralinguistic strategy, meaning that this
strategy could be applied when learners are faced with unknown lexical items. The interview supporting the finding said, “We sometimes describe what we
would like to say as we try to use gestures. Int.Q44”. Theoretically, Saintz
2007 agreed that the use of body language and gestures inside the classroom is the union between comprehension and communication, which involves
movements, feelings, which are physical abilities. Gestures and body language allow people to communicate different feelings and thoughts; gestures are usually
combined with body language to communicate a message, to help understanding. Furthermore, 57 learners believe that learners should prepare themselves
with word foreignizing which are dictions and pronunciation, so that they are ready to communicate. Learners also believe that they are allowed to describe
words they found difficult to convey, known as circumlocution strategy. These PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
68 findings confirm Thornbury’s theory saying that word foreignizing and
circumlocution become a communication strategy in learning speaking. For 66 learners who think that they have not been good in producing
sentences, they tend to count on the classroom lecture with a reason as follow. “Asking the lecturer for helps is more favourable as
we could know meanings of new words as well as the pronunciation at the same time. Int.Q44-45”. Dornyei
1998 also states that learners can ask for help directly or indirectly. Therefore, it can be summed up that ICE learners believe in paralinguistic, circumlocution,
appealing-for-help, and word foreignizing strategies as ways to be successful in communicating in English in ICE classes.