41
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter the researcher would discuss the answer of the research questions as stated in chapter I. The research questions were: 1 What classroom
language functions are used by the Biology teacher in tenth grade of SMUN 1 Sleman Yogyakarta to deliver learning materials in English? 2 What are the difficulties
faced by the Biology teacher of tenth grade in SMUN 1 Sleman to deliver learning materials in English? To answer those questions the researcher would provide the
answers and discussion based on the data collected.
A. Classroom Language Functions Used by the Biology Teacher in Tenth grade of SMUN 1 Sleman in Delivering Materials in English
This section discussed the findings to answer the first research problem which was the classroom language function used by the Biology teacher in delivering
learning materials by using English in bilingual class. The table on the following page was the findings of this study describing classroom language functions used by the
Biology teacher while conveying learning materials in English.
42
Table 4.1The Findings on the Use of Classroom Language Functions In Biology Class, 10
th
Grade
No. Classroom
Language Functions
Observation First
Second Third
Fourth Fifth
Sixth 1. Greeting - - - - - -
2. Eliciting - - - - - -
3. Conveying
the meaning of new
language
- - + - - -
4. Instructing
- ± - - - -
5. Narrating
- - - - - -
6. Prompting
- - - - - -
7. Explaining
- + + - - ±
8. Checking
learning
+ + + + - - 9. Correcting - - ± - - -
10. Giving
feedback
- + - - - -
11. Closing
- - - - - - +
: teacher used classroom language function in English. -
: the teacher did not use the related classroom language functions in English. ±
: means that the teacher used both English and Indonesia to apply classroom language functions.
a. Greeting Table 4.1 showed that from the first until the sixth observation the teacher
never used English to greet students. From the fieldnotes, the researcher discovered
43 that the teacher always used Assalamualaikum Wr. Wb. when she opened the lesson.
Then, the teacher continued by asking whether or not there are any absent students by saying, “Who is absent today?” However, this English question was only used by the
teacher on the first observation. In the second until sixth observation the teacher always used bahasa Indonesia, for example “Siapa yang tidak masuk hari ini? or
“Sudah masuk semuanya?” The teacher rarely used English because it already been her habit to always use Indonesian in greeting the students.
b. Eliciting Table 4.1 showed that the teacher did not elicit any information from students
by using English. However, the researcher found that the teacher used some words in English and combined with Indonesian sentence, for instance, “Ikan apa saja
contohnya yang bisa digunakan untuk bio- indicator?” second observation. Through this question, the teacher was able to acquire some responses from the
students as additional information. In the other observation the teacher tended to employ Indonesian in eliciting information from students, such as “Bagaimana cara
memutus daur hidup cacing pita? Tau engga?” sixth observation. The purpose of this question was to elicit students’ opinion. Some other examples of the use of
Indonesian when the teacher elicited students response was “Reptil apa hayo? Yang ovovivipar contohnya apa? ”fourth observation, “Apa itu saccus pneumaticus?”
third observation. The whole eliciting questions were used when the teacher was
explaining the main learning materials and the function was to give students chance
44 to speak and convey their opinion. Besides, by eliciting students’ opinion, the teacher
was also able to get students involved and interest to the materials which were being discussed.
c. Conveying the meaning of new language According to Spratt et al. 2005, the function of this classroom language is to
explain the meaning of a certain word, phrase or structure. Table 4.1 showed that the teacher used English in conveying the meaning of new language was only in the third
observation. The teacher said, “Polikiothermic is cold blood. Homokiothermic is hot blood.”
In the other observations the researcher discovered that the teacher often used Indonesian to convey the meaning of a certain biology term. For example, “Corda
dorsalis adalah tali pada tulang belakang”, “Apa itu saccus pneumaticus? Anda pernah dengar kantong udara? Pundi-pundi hawa? Nha, itulah saccus pneumaticus.”
Both of the questions were found in the third observation, “Anterior dorsal itu apa? Sirip depan.”The teacher tried to convey a meaning of a Biology term by asking a
question to the students and then answer it by herself second observation. It took time for the teacher if she had to use English directly to convey a meaning of a new
term. Most of the time, the teacher prefer using Indonesia to English. The teacher used Indonesian because she asked the students spontaneously and she did not know
how to translate such terms into English.
45 d. Instructing
Table 4.1 showed that the teacher did not use English in giving instruction to the students. However, based on the second observation, the teacher combined
Javanese with English sentence. The teacher said, “Angga, please repeat answer…sopo iki…Rani” Actually, she wanted to ask Angga to repeat Rani’s answer
but the English sentence that the teacher used was incorrect. The correct form should be “Angga, please repeat Rani’s answer” or “Angga, could you please repeat Rani’s
answer?” In the first until sixth observation the teacher used Indonesian to instruct some
students, for example, in the observation I the teacher said, “Mbak mbak, dibaca yang keras” The teacher preferred to use Indonesian in instructing some students to be
quiet because the class was so noisy while there was a group of students who was organizing a presentation second observation. The teacher said, “Sssst..lainnya
diam” In the third until sixth observation the teacher also discovered the use of Indonesian by the teacher to instruct the students. The teacher said, “Silakan berdiri
di depan kalau kamu belum siap” third observation, “Tolong ini viewer nya digulung aja” sixth observation, “Lainnya mbok memperhatikan, kok malah asik
sendiri” fifth observation, “Ayo dipercepat, waktunya nanti habis” fourth observation
The observation results showed that the teacher always used Indonesian to instruct students to do a particular thing. The researcher concluded that the teacher
had a difficulty to make an instruction especially by using English spontaneously.
46 e. Narrating
Based on Table 4.1, the researcher did not find any classroom language which was used by the teacher to tell a story or experience in English. However, the
researcher discovered one finding that the teacher used Indonesian to tell a past story about how Necator Americanus worm which could enter someone’s body through his
or her pore. The teacher said, “Kalau orang zaman dulu itu kan nyeker. Tau nyeker ta? Iya, tidak memakai alas kaki. Jadi cacing pita itu bisa masuk ke pori-pori kulit
karena sangat kecil” sixth observation.The teacher narrated a past story to give a clear description of Necator Americanus’s way of living to students.
f. Prompting Table 4.1 showed that the teacher never used English in prompting students.
In this study, the researcher only found two significance evidences that the biology teacher used Indonesian in prompting students. The teacher used verbal prompting to
help students remember a phrase because they seem to have a difficulty to remind it. Both of the evidences were found in the observation I. The first one was when the
teacher said, “5 kelas yang termasuk vertebrata itu apa saja? Amphibia, terus? reptil, Pisces, aaaaavv…aves, terus ,mamalia.” The second evidence was also found in the
first observation. The teacher said, “Nah, yang Pisces itu kan ada Agnatha, trus yang kedua itu ada placooo…placodermic.” The other one was when the teacher said, “Itu
tadi lho, mbak, ectoo….ectoderm, mesoderm dan endoderm” In these three
47 sentences the teacher pronounced the word aves, placodermic, and ectoderm with a
long pressure in the initial part of the words to make the students remember those all words. In the other observations the teacher did not find any other evidence of
prompting. Since the teacher always uses words to prompt students, hence, it can be
called as verbal prompt. Borich 1996 states that verbal prompts can be in the form of cues, reminders, or instructions to learners that help them perform correctly the
skill teachers are teaching.
g. Explaining From table 4.1, it was clear that the teacher employed English language to
explain a particular theory or to answer students’ question in the second and the third observation. Based on the result of the second observation, the teacher said,
“Polikiothermic, the same as cold blood. Temperature body is adaptation of environment.”After that, the teacher repeated the explanation with Indonesian to
make the meaning more understandable. The teacher said, “Jadi, suhu tubuhnya berdaptasi dengan lingkungan.” In the third observation, the teacher said,
“Polikiothermic is cold blood. Homokiothermic is hot blood. Body temperature is konstan ya?” The researcher also discovered that the teacher was hesitant with her
ability in using English. So, the teacher used the word “Ya?” in the end of the sentence while staring at one of the students in order to know whether the English
that the teacher used was correct or not.
48 In the other observation, the researcher also discovered that the teacher
combined English and Indonesian in one sentence to explain a particular theory. The researcher discovered this finding in the fourth observation. The teacher said,
“Memang untuk Plathyhelminthes belum punya anus, sehingga system diggestingnya atau sistem pencernaannya belum sempurna, no perfect yet.” The teacher used
English to translate some phrase into Indonesia so that the students were able to understand the meaning.
In the other observations the teacher used Indonesian to explain the learning materials to the students, for instance, “Yang ekto, endo, meso tadi kan tiga
lapisannya. Yang endoderm tadi berkembang jadi alat gerak tubuh, yang ectoderm jadi kulit dan rambut, lalu yang mesoderm menjadi rongga tubuh” first
observation, “Cungur bebek itu mamalia yang punya paruh, bertelur juga.” sixth observation, “Ular bisa merusak ekosistem dan jaring –jaring makanan. Tokek bisa
menguntungkan dan merugikan” fifth observation.
h. Checking Learning A teacher should know whether the students already mastered the materials or
not after conveying new learning materials. Hence, a teacher needs to use a classroom language in order to check students understanding. This classroom language is
commonly known as checking learning and it could also be done in the early part of the meeting. Table 4.1 shows that the Biology teacher used English to check students
understanding in the observation I, II, III, and IV. Based on the observation I, the
49 teacher used some English classroom languages to check students understanding such
as, “What’s the mean corda dorsalis, Indra?”, “What’s mamalia?”, “So, fertilization internal or external?”
In the second observation, the researcher discovered some related classroom languages, such as “What is a reproduction system of the reptile?”, “What is the
meaning polikiothermic?” and “Do you understand?” In the third observation and fourth observation the researcher also discovered some English classroom languages
used by the teacher to check the students understanding, such as “What are the different polikiothermic and homoiothermic?”, “What are chambered heart of Pisces
and Amphibi? How many?”, “What kind classification of Pisces?”, “What different Agnatha and Placodermic?”,”What is the function saccus pneumaticus?”.
i. Correcting Table 4.1 showed that the teacher tended to use Indonesian to remind students
that they had just made a mistake after they answered a question or conveyed an idea. In the observation I the teacher corrected one of the students’ mistakes in stating a
term. The teacher said, “Itu tadi yang bener Posterior, bukan Posterio” In the second observation the teacher made a correction to a group of students after they organized
a presentation. The group presented a wrong statement during the presentation, and then the teacher said, “Tadi sebenernya untuk Pisces yang bener ada 4 kelas”. In the
other observation the researcher also noted that the teacher used Indonesian to correct
50 students’ mistake in pronouncing a biological term, for example, “Itu tadi bacanya
bukan semosensory ya, tapi kemosensory” fifth observation However, the researcher found a teacher statement in correcting students’
mistake by using English combined with Indonesian was in the third observation. The teacher said, “Role harmful-nya pemakan buah-buahan harusnya dikasih contoh,
misal kelelawar, kalong. Trus yang beneficialnya mungkin untuk manusia juga punya manfaat”
j. Giving feedback Based on table 4.1, it was clear that the teacher used English to give feedback
to the students in the second observation. The teacher said, “Ok, thanks. Good, very good” The teacher gave a compliment to students after they were able to answer the
teacher’s question. In the other observation, the researcher did not find any English or Indonesian classroom language used by the teacher to give feedback to students.
k. Closing Based on the data of first observation until the last observation, the researcher
did not discover any English classroom language used by the teacher to close the meeting. The teacher always used Arabic expression combined with Indonesian, such
as “Sekian, Wassalamualaikum Warokhmatulah Wabarakatuh” In the second interview the teacher said that it already been her habit to always close the meeting by
using either Indonesian or Arabic.
51
B. The difficulties faced by the Biology teacher of grade tenth in SMUN I Sleman in using classroom language functions in English
After conducting some interviews and observations, the researcher discovered that there are several problems faced by the Biology teacher in applying classroom
language functions. After analyzing the problems faced by the biology teacher in applying classroom language functions, the researcher classified them into three
categories based on the cause of the problems. In this study, the first category was that the problem caused by the teacher’s habit, the second category was that the
problem caused by the limited English proficiency faced by the teacher, and the third category was that the limited of time to learn English. This step was called as coding
categories. Bogdan and Biklen 1992 said that coding categories can be carried out
by separating data that have been collected by researcher and group each of the data based on a certain topic.
1. The difficulties faced by the biology teacher in grade tenth in applying classroom language functions caused by the teacher’s habit to always use
Indonesian
a. The teacher had a habit to open the meeting by using Arabic greeting Based on the observations conducted by the researcher, the teacher usually
started the class using Assalamualaikum Warohmatuloh Wabarokatuh followed by a question to know whether there were any absent students or not in Indonesian. The
teacher never used English expression to open the class. The teacher felt that it had
52 been a habit to use Arabic expression to open the class instead of “Good morning”.
The teacher said, “Untuk seperti itu kan sudah kebiasaan sehari-hari, jadinya menurut saya sendiri kan lebih enak kayak biasa” second interview. The teacher
thought that it is difficult to change the habit from using Arabic utterance into English.
b. The teacher never tried to use English to close the meeting Based on the data obtained from the observations, the teacher never used
English to close the meeting. The teacher tended to use Indonesian or Arabic expression, such as Assalamualaikum Wr. Wb and then followed by Indonesian. The
teacher stated that she always used that kind of word to close the class. In short, it had been a habit for her to use Arabic word.
2. The difficulties faced by the Biology teacher of grade tenth in applying classroom language functions caused by her limited English proficiency.
a. The teacher did not know what question to be used to elicit students’ opinion in English
From the observations data, the researcher discovered that the teacher always used Indonesian to ask students in order to obtain their response towards the question
related to the learning materials. The teacher argued that sometimes she met a difficulty in eliciting students’ response through English. There is a big possibility
that the teacher did not know how to make a question to elicit students’ response.
53 Besides, from the second interview, the researcher identified another cause
why the teacher mostly used Indonesian than English. In the second interview the teacher said, “Tapi kan anak-anak maunya pake bahasa Indonesia” second
interview. The teacher said that the students would be able to understand what the teacher said quickly if the teacher used Indonesian in delivering speech. Therefore, in
this case, the teacher followed what the students wanted in order to avoid a misunderstanding.
b. The teacher did not know how to construct a good sentence with an appropriate grammar to convey a new meaning in English.
Based on the observations, the researcher noted that the teacher had tried to use English in conveying the meaning of new terms or words. Meanwhile, it was
obviously that the teacher was not sure about what she was saying. The teacher said, “Nha itu kadang-kadang bahasa Inggris-nya. Untuk meng-Inggris-kannya itu lho.
Kalau artinya kan tau bahasa Indonesia-nya, tapi dalam bahasa Inggris penyusunan bahasa Inggris yang baik itu kan belum bisa. Cuma sepotong-potong” second
interview. Sometimes the teacher checked whether her English was already correct or not by asking to a student who was sitting next to her. The researcher considered
that the teacher was not able to make an English sentence in a good structure to convey a meaning of a particular term.
54 c. The teacher did not know how to instruct students by using English
spontaneously. According to the observations, the teacher often used Indonesian to instruct
students to do a particular thing. Sometimes, the teacher combined two languages between English and Indonesian or Javanese. The teacher argued that sometimes she
instructed students spontaneously, so she never thought whether she wanted to use English or Indonesia. “Kalau kesulitan sih engga, karena saya biasa pakai bahasa
Indonesia, jadi ya spontan” second interview. In some situations the teacher needed to instruct students quickly. For example, when the teacher wanted to ask some
students to be quiet she said “Ssst..lainnya diam” second observation other than “Be quiet, please”. Using English would slow down the teacher’s response in
conveying her purpose because she had to think the English word she wanted to use and it took time.
d. The difficulty in narrating a particular event using English with an appropriate sentence structure.
In order to support the clarity of an explanation, sometimes a teacher needs to give an example by narrating a story. Spratt et al. 2005 state that this function of
language classroom is the same as telling a story that has happened in the past in a chronological order. Based on the observations, the teacher still used Indonesian in
narrating a story. The difficulty that the teacher faced was that the ability to make a good structure of English sentence and also how to translate Indonesian sentences
55 into English. “Nah, makanya tu tadi seperti awal tadi kan kalau memakai bahasa
Inggris yang bagus kan saya ngga bisa. Ya kadang–kadang aku ngga tau Inggris-nya jadi ya campur-campur bahasa Indonesia” second interview There was also a
possibility that the teacher also had a lack of vocabulary mastery so that she tend to use Indonesia or Javanese language. Besides, to make a good English narrative story
a teacher needs knowledge about English basic tenses.
e. The teacher did not know how to give a clue to help students remind a particular learning materials
Prompting students is one of the classroom language functions which is used to help students to remind some parts of learning materials. Spratt et al. 2005 state
that a teacher may give a clue to the learners to help them memorize words or difficult idea so that they will be able to understand or do a particular task. Based on
the observation, the researcher noted that the teacher used verbal prompt to help students to remind some ideas. The teacher did not use English to prompt students but
by mentioning the first letter of a word to help the students to guess the exact word or term, for example, “Aaaaavv…veeess, Amm…phibi” The teacher said that she did not
need to give any clue in a form of sentence because the students already know the answer but they only did not know the right sequence. “Ya dia kan dari SMP sudah
tau klasifikasinya dari yang rendah ke tinggi, cuma lupa urutannya gitu lho. Hanya mengingatkan” second interview
56 f. The teacher had a difficulty in constructing a correct sentence by using English to
explain a certain part of learning materials Based on the observations, the teacher had attempted to use English to explain
some learning points. However, the English sentences used by the teacher were mostly grammatically incorrect. For example was when the teacher said
“Polikiothermic, the same as cold blood. Temperature body is adaptation of environment.” The teacher said that she had a difficulty in constructing a good
sentence in English, which is grammatically correct. Therefore, the teacher used English in a simple way to explain some parts of the materials. “Nha itu, kadang –
kadang mau pake bahasa yang bahasa yang bagus itu kan sulit ya, Mas. Itu kan hanya to the point aja. Misalnya, Homoiotherm kan hot bloods gitu ya, tapi kan
temperature body is constant gitu. Kita kan kalo memakai penjelasan dalam bahasa Indonesia berarti kan temperatur tubuhnya sudah tetap dan tidak terpengaruh oleh
lingkungan, gitu. Itu kan kita ga bisa kalau secara detailnya” second interview
g. The teacher still made a mistake in using a correct question in English to measure the students’ understanding level
Based on the observation, the teacher had tried to use English to measure students’ understanding towards the learning materials that had been conveyed
before. Some of the English utterances that the Biology teacher used were including “What’s the mean corda dorsalis, Indra?”, “What’s mamalia?”, “So, fertilization
internal or external?” “What is a reproduction system of the reptile?”, “What is the
57 meaning polikiothermic?” “Do you understand?”, “What different agnatha and
placodermic?”,”What is the function saccus pneumaticus?”, and many more. Mostly, the questions were given to the students in the beginning of the meeting and also after
the teacher conveyed the learning materials. Some of the sentences used by the teacher were considered as grammatically
incorrect. The teacher focused on the main point to ask without considering the grammatical correctness. “O, trus kalo aku disuruh menjelaskan lagi secara men-
detail dengan bahasa Inggris yang bagus kan saya ngga bisa. Saya kan bisanya cuma point-point-nya aja. Jadi kalo pake bahasa Inggris yang bagus ya ga bisa saya, Mas.
Belum bisa” second interview. From the interview the teacher also stated that she could not be able to make a good sentence in English to check students’
understanding.
h. The teacher felt that she was not fluent enough to correct students’ mistake in English
Based on the observations, the researcher discovered that the teacher did not use English to correct students’ mistake in answering a question or when they made a
wrong statement during the presentation. The teacher tended to use Indonesian or Javanese language to tell students if their statement was incorrect. The teacher stated
that it was her spontaneous effect to correct students’ mistake using Indonesian or Javanese. “Udah otomatis itu.hehehe… Ya kalo pake bahasa Inggris terus ya lupa
atau apa karena belum fasih, Mas. Belum bisa” first interview. The teacher also
58 said that she was not fluent enough to speak in English and that was why she
preferred to use the simplest way.
i. The teacher had a limit utterance to commend on students’ performance From the observations data, the researcher discovered that the teacher already
attempted to give feedback to students in English after they answered a question correctly or after they shared their idea. However, the utterance that the teacher used
was still restricted. “Aku taunya kan cuma excellent, good, gitu.” second interview. This statement meant that the teacher did not have enough variety of words to
encourage students.
j. The teacher had a difficulty in memorizing any kind of new words Based on the data obtained from the interview, the researcher discovered that
the teacher faced a problem related to her memorization system. “Saya udah tua juga jadi ya mudah lupa, ingatannya kan udah laen dengan yang muda” second
interview. This condition took two influences towards the teacher. First, it slowed down the teacher’s learning progress to be more proficient. Second, the quality of the
teaching performance was degraded when the teacher tried to use English. Teacher’s degradation of learning progress and teaching performance happened because the
teacher forgot some words that she already had memorized before.
59
3. The difficulty faced by the Biology teacher in grade tenth in applying classroom language functions caused by a limited of time to learn English
The teacher had a lack of time to learn English because of she had so many businesses to do. Based on the data obtained from the interview, the teacher stated
that once her mother was sick and she had to take care of her mother in the whole day until the condition turned into normal. That situation was practically decreasing her
chance to learn English at home and to reread the materials which had been given by the English tutors who help RSBI teacher to learn English. “Ibu saya sakit..kan jadi
pikiran saya baru kacau gitu lho..ga’ konsen” first interview. The researcher concluded that the teacher had a lot of things to do so that she also had a lack of
opportunity to learn English.
60
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS