What are the English Language Teaching students’ beliefs toward the materials used

12 Table 1. The percentages of students’ beliefs on the materials used in several English skills SKILLS Publish Materials Locally Produced From English Speaking Country Both No Preference Speaking other than pronunciation 10 70 13 7 Pronunciation 5 81 4 10 Reading 26 39 20 15 Grammar 19 58 8 15 Writing 23 41 16 20 Listening 13 63 16 8 AVERAGE 16 59 13 12 Figure 1. The average of students’ beliefs on the materials used in all English skills Table 1 and Figure 1 clearly showed that when the participants learnt English, more students preferred having materials published in English speaking countries 59 to materials published locally 16 in order to learn the language features, such as speaking, pronunciation, reading, grammar, writing, and listening. In particular, they preferred materials from English 16 59 13 12 Locally Produced From English Speaking Country Both No Preference 13 speaking countries for these particular skills, such as Speaking other than pronunciation 70 and Pronunciation 81. There were some reasons from the participants based on their answers from the questionnaire. Materials which were published by English speaking countries 59 were chosen to learn speaking 70 and pronunciation 81 skill because twenty one of the students thought that it was better to learn from the natives since the contents of the native-produced materials can be used as models for the correct English pronunciation. Many students 34 students had the same opinion that learning speaking and pronunciation from the English speakers’ materials were clearer and more valid so that they could speak English like natives. It was important because the main purpose of learning English was to communicate with the native speakers so that they needed to speak like natives. Besides that, fifteen of students also mentioned that when they learned English, they needed to learn about its cultures, so native speakers’ materials were considered better since it presented the real English cultures. Zacharias 2003 supported the assumption by sharing the following things regarding to the advantages of English-speaking published materials: - they provide ‘natural’, ‘authentic’, ‘real’, ‘original’, ‘realistic’, ‘accurate’ and ‘correct’ error-free exposure to English, - they provide appropriate cultural background to language teaching, - the quality is better in terms of content and appearance, - they are more easily available than locally-produced materials and thus provided more alternative and choice. In contrast, those who chose materials which were published locally 16 when learning speaking 10 and pronunciation 5 said that it was easier to understand local materials since 14 the topics presented in the materials came from the environment around them. An interesting fact was found that there were six of students who said that the students should learn language from what they were familiar with. Moreover, there were also some students 4 students who said that since students were more familiar with local cultures, it would encourage them to speak more.

b. Stated Classroom Practice

Still related to materials to be used in English language teaching, I would like to explore the extent to which English speaking countries materials were used in the classroom for several skills. The data was showed in Table 2 below. Table 2. The use of materials from English-speaking countries for several skills Skills Regularly Often Sometimes Rarely Never Speaking other than pronunciation 16 50 28 5 1 Pronunciation 26 45 22 6 1 Reading 18 43 33 5 1 Grammar 21 26 41 9 3 Writing 16 37 40 7 Listening 34 44 16 4 2 AVERAGE 22 41 30 6 1 Table 2 above presented how often the use of materials from English-speaking countries for several skills. From the data showed that 34 of the participants “regularly” used materials from English-Speaking country as a model in listening skill, 50 “often” used it in speaking skill, 41 “sometimes”, 9 “rarely” and 3 “never” used it in grammar skill. 15 Figure 2. The average of the use of materials from English-speaking countries for all skills It could be seen that the majority of the participants 71 students mentioned that the teachers used English-speaking-published materials either ‘often’ 41 or ‘sometimes’ 30 for all skills. From the experience of the participants, we could be seen that speaking 50 and pronunciation 45 classes used English speaking countries materials more often than other classes, followed by listening 44 and reading 43 classes. It proved that in classes which needed language models were more likely to choose western-published materials which contained more English speaking countries language models and cultures. Besides that, Zacharias 2003 supported that “materials from English-speaking countries are more accessible, especially since many books are donated to universities or institutions from foreign companies, foreign teachers, or even non-native teachers studying abroad.” So, they used the materials from English-speaking countries more often to teach their students. From the examples mentioned previously, it was concluded that although there were 16 students who chose local materials as tools to enhance students’ abilities and motivation to learn 22 41 30 6 1 Regularly Often Sometimes Rarely Never