acquire not only the first language but also the foreign language. It is clearly explained that children can learn new language as they learn their first language.
English in Indonesian school is taught widely since kindergarten. Thus, Senior High School students who learn English as second or foreign language have
already had good knowledge of the target language. The teacher has to realize that each student has different characteristics. Therefore, the teacher can adjust his or
her talk to the background knowledge of the students in order to teach English as second or foreign language.
There is a belief saying that the earlier children learn the second language the better they master it. It is a true statement because according to it, brain of the
young learners is still elastic so they can easily learn the target language. However, it is also not late for the adult learners, such as Senior High School
students, to learn the second language. The most affected facilitation to learn the second or foreign language is a teacher’s talk. The teacher’s talk or the teacher’s
introductory language is believed as not only influential source for teaching and learning activities but also it is an easy thing to get since the teacher and students
meet in the classroom and school environment regularly.
3. Teacher’s Introductory Language
The teacher’s introductory language which is known as teacher’s talk is the language used by the teacher in classroom to teach the students whose complexity
varies according to the level of the learners. The theory of teacher’s talk is used to find out the purpose of the teachers talk in both English and Indonesian in English
classroom. Some kinds of the teacher’s talk according to some researchers are bad. Other kinds of the teacher’s talk are good and essential in language
classroom. The teacher’s talk is perceived as a negative because there is a belief, as stated by O’Neil 1994 says that the less the teacher talks and the more the
students talk the better the class goes. However, in order to achieve the goal of the classroom management, i.e. to create a classroom atmosphere conducive to
interact in English in meaningful ways, the teacher need to talk in class. It is through meaningful interaction that the students can make progress in learning
English. There are so many roles played by the teacher in language classroom as
written by Harmer 2001: 57. They have many roles such as a controller who control the teaching learning activities or the teacher takes charge on the teaching
learning processes, as an organizer who organizes the class activities. In other word, the teacher as an organizer acts to give the students information, tell them
how they are going to do an activity in classroom, put the students into pairs or in groups and finally close the activity down when the time is up. Another role is as
an assessor who assesses the students which knowledge is vary, gives feedback to the students and grade them in various ways according to the students’
performance. The teacher, overall, plays all those roles which are believed providing comprehensible input in the language classroom.
Considering the statement, the teacher is the most influential input in teaching-learning activity. The teacher’s talk is a means to deliver the lesson and
all kinds related to the learning to the students. In the teaching learning activities, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
the teacher’s talk plays an important role because it is essential in the organization of the teaching learning processes in the classroom and the processes of second
language acquisition. The teacher’s introductory language can be used as a determiner for the teacher failure or success in implementing his or her teaching
through the language. However, in the processes of acquisition, the teacher’s talk is the main input or source of target language which will be gained by the
students. Not surprisingly, the classroom observations have found that the
teachers tend to do much of the talking.
In content classrooms...it has been found that teachers tend to talk for about two-thirds of the available class time, leaving just a third for the learners.
In some language classrooms, it has been shown that teacher talks for up to 89 per cent of the available time.
Nunan 1991: 26 It is a good thing or not that the teacher’s talk is more dominant than the
students’ talk in the teaching learning activities depends on what one believes about the role of the language input in acquisition. If a teacher believes that the
students learn best by actually practicing in the target language, the teacher probably tries to manage classroom activities so that the amount of the students’
talk is increased. On the other hand, if a teacher believes that the teacher’s talk is a valuable source or comprehensible input, the teacher will be much less
worried by the teacher dominance. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
a. Characteristics of Teacher’s Introductory Language
