Teacher’s use of simple English

13 taught. When asked about it, the participant explained, “Of course I explain the material in English. In here, I use simple English, it means in teaching process, I use simple English for student. Then the students can apply English language in a simple way in mathematics class.” Teacher, 10-1-2013 From the interview data above, it is clear that the teacher’s focus on using English in teaching mathematics was more as an instruction, it was because the curriculum that the school was adopted and the standard of the school that was given by the government The teacher also uses very simple language to the students because the students are young learners. The teacher use simple language in teaching also to make students understand about mathematics in English with simple way. The teacher considered about the English language that the teacher used in class to deliver the material in teaching process. The student would easy to understand about the material that the teacher delivered by using simple English language in teaching mathematics. From the discussion above it is seen that the participants’ idea is in line with Barwell 2008 who stated it will be taken effect of communication in teaching. Finding a balance between focusing on mathematics and focusing on language is perhaps the biggest challenge of teaching mathematicss. So the teacher should make balance between language use and mathematics to make students understand. The data above is also connected with Moschkovich’s 2005 idea about the learners problems that the teachers face in bilingual mathematics. The teacher found the way to make students understand the material in class. So it was clear that there was the learners problem that needs to be faced in bilingual mathematics like from the data above showed, the teacher use simple language to face it.

b. Purpose in using English

14 Other than that, the use of English in teaching mathematics for first grade students is not only because of the standard or curriculum that had made that the teacher use it, but also the teacher had some purposes why she used English in teaching mathematics. The use of English in teaching is very useful for students. There were reasons from why the participant state that using English in teaching is useful: Of course there are a lot of advantages, for example the students will be exposed to foreign language outside this school. Although it will only be in beginner level, Im sure the students will not get any difficulties. Take a look at the example of the use of comparison. They can apply it in their daily life, like in games they are playing, science or math book they are reading. Therefore, I apply simple but fun learning for the students. Teacher, 10- 1-2013 According to the data above, I can conclude that the use of English is very beneficial to the students. The students could recognize or understand mathematics registers even when they were still in very beginner level. The example of the benefits that were found from the data was the students would not find Mathematics in English as new and difficult things. For example, the students would be familiar with comparison material about things like small or big, whenever they read or watch about that outside their school context. Therefore, English is very beneficial for the student whether in school context or in real life environment.

2. The use of Indonesian

The use of Indonesian are sought to still has importance in bilingual teaching context. In some bilingual schools in Indonesia, the medium instruction of teaching