71 course participants’ expectation in joining the English course can be narrowed
down into communicative skill they could practically use to serve their interests, such as advanced study, future job, knowledge bridging and social
communication. The big question concerning the course participants’ expectations is:
“Why did they do not meet their expectations?” The answer to this question might be a long discussion, but it will be focused on what the information
collected from the data said about it. Therefore, there are three points to be considered as factors influential to the realization of the course part
icipants’ expectations, namely courage and confidence, challenge and threat, and the
communicative English course as the expected one.
a. The Course Participants’ Expectation on Joining the English Course
Held by the School
As it was stated in the finding section, the course participants’ expectation on joining the English course which are related to how they can use the target
language, which is English, in the real life. The course participants expected that having joined the English course they will be able to speak English fluently and
confidently. Appropriate pronunciation, sufficient vocabularies, good grammar knowledge, and English text understanding are some elements which the course
participants regarded as the requirements of having sufficient English for daily communication.
The course participants thought that the sufficient English communicative skill will be achieve if they are more exposed to better course materials. The
72 course materials, then, are thought to be contextual to the course participants’
daily life. However, the majority of the respondents said that the course did not yet successfully help them to reach their expectations.
b. Courage and Confidence
Courage and confidence in using English are considered as factors that influence the failure of the course participants in meeting their expectation,
namely communicative function of the learned language. While, communication itself can be defined as the process of expression, interpretation and negotiation
of meaning, as Savignon states, the lack of courage and confidence in using English, which had been learned before, has made this process paralyzed. On the
other hand, the communicative competence, which is, following Vazirani, described as underlying characteristics indicating people’s behavior and way of
thinking, was not obtained due to the lack of courage and confidence. If this lack of courage and confidence is the underlying characteristics of the course
participants, it is no wonder that the expectation, that is the communicative competence, was not obtained.
How could they be lack of courage and be unconfident? It is consequently the following question. Information collected from the data
indicated that the lack of courage and confidence were generated from the lack of ability in producing appropriate pronunciation, insufficient vocabularies and lack
of grammar knowledge. After a series of courses, the course participants thought that they found little improvement with their pronunciation, vocabularies and
grammar knowledge, which they considered as essential in assisting them to
73 produce English in a communicative way. This problem highlights the course
participants’ second expectation concerning the learning process they had been undergoing. The researcher then tends to see the association the course
participants made, even if it was unconsciously, that the lack of courage and confidence, and furthermore the unobtainable expectation, may indebt to the less
encouraging techniques and methods conducted during the English courses. Concerning the encouraging techniques and methods, one of the
interviewees stated that the course needed further improvement. The other interviewees implicitly stated the same thing by mentioning some techniques they
thought to be beneficial for the further development of the English course. They mentioned the use of music, videos, games, question and answer technique, story-
telling and freedom of choosing the learning materials they want to learn as some learning tools and technique to enhance the course performance and, eventually,
bring them to the expectation. However, the tutors’ opinions on what sort of teaching-learning
techniques the course participants’ wanted to be carried out by them resulted approximate similar statements, namely question and answer techniques, learning
with the assistance of music and drama, freedom of material choice and contextual learning materials, as they have been stated in the finding section. If
those techniques and methods had been conducted throughout the courses, and given the fact that the course participants did not think they had met their
expectation yet, the question might go to how this knowledge of the course participants’ needs had really been applied or in what extent the application of the
74 knowledge of the course participants’ needs was executed. This question,
furthermore, can be one of the indications of the failure the course participants experienced in reaching their expectation.
c. Challenge
