Types of TSs Interaction
students should guess whose paper it was. The information was spoken in English. The dialogue below was the illustration.
3 T : Okay, first student.
Ss : Boy
Girl T : Boy
Ss : Boy T : His hobbies are playing soccer and drawing.
Ss : Iwan?
Fidel? T : He was born on May.
Ss : Fidel T : Yes, Fidel
Ss : Yeay obsN1_36-45
Here the interaction began. The students were so enthusiastic and willing to respond the teacher. They considered it as a game so it was free for them to
express themselves. By having clues, the students were encouraged to think. They competed to guess the meaning so they could guess whose personal information it
was. This kind of activity was engaging for the students. It made the TSs interaction went successfully.
The other example was the interaction initiated by the teacher using simple question. First, the teacher drew a picture on the blackboard. Then, she asked
questions based on what the students saw on the drawing. 4
T : Nah, ms Nana want to… drawing a figure on the blackboard T : Nah, coba “well, see.”, is the eye big?
Ss : Yes T : Is the nose big?
Ss : Yes T : Nah well, two big eyes while writing
T : writing ‘nose’ and looking at the students Ss : one big nose
T : Kalo headnya bagaimana ini? “How about the head?” Ss : big
Ss : one big head obsN1_78-92
She asked about some characteristics drawn on the face. The students responded directly. It seemed easy for the students since they only had to describe what the
saw. Through having the interaction, they constructed the language to describe the drawing. First, the teacher guided them through giving question. They created the
language together as a model. Surprisingly, the students could construct the language by themselves at the end. It seemed that the students understood on what
they should do. Thus, when the teacher asked about the head, some of them directly said “one big nose”.
Based on the observation, sometimes the students gave responses that are grammatically incorrect. The teachers stated that it was acceptable as long as the
students could understand the teacher’s intention. However, the responses might be various either in English or Bahasa Indonesia. Actually, the teacher would be
happier if the students could respond in English too. However, responding in Bahasa Indonesia was also appreciated as long as the students understood. The
teacher stated that if they found such this case, they would inform the students about how to respond in English. They expected that the students could answer in
English in the future. Unfortunately, this case was not found during the observation.
During the interaction, everything did not always go smoothly. The students might misunderstand the teachers’ initiation or mispronounce a word.
Thus, the teacher gave them follow- up by giving corrective feedback. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
5 T : I have? touching eyes
Ss : Two eyes mispronounced T : Two eyes correct pronunciation
obsN1_25-27
Fixing mispronounced words was often done by the teachers. This kind of interaction often happened in the reading aloud activity. Teacher said that students
should know the right pronunciation. In Elementary school, the early stage in education, students should be taught the right one. It would be for the sake of their
future. If they still made mistake, it would not be a matter. At least, the teacher had informed the right one. Thus, the teacher also makes the use of interaction to
communicate the right pronunciation. Based on the interview, the teachers used English only for simple
conversation that the students had been familiar with. Moreover, she would expose more English to the students once they showed their interest to English. In
fact, in the first participant’s class, the students made rule not to speak using Bahasa Indonesia during the English class. Thus, English- English interaction was
promoted. During this interaction, teachers has bigger portion for speaking, since they
often dominate the initiation and give the follow- up to the students’ responses. The initiation can be in the form of asking question or giving incomplete
information. Then, the students’ response can be in the form of giving information. It was found that students also may initiate the interaction by asking
question as the response to what the teacher said. The teachers paid attention on the students’ responses. If there was a mistake, they would give corrective
feedback as the follow-up. Once the students responded using Bahasa Indonesia, the teacher would give follow- up by informing how to respond in English.
Unfortunately, this kind of interaction was not found during the observation. As what has been stated above, the teachers interacted with their students in English
since they wanted their students to learn. Later on, they would use it to communicate. Here is the figure:
T S
enhancing language proficiency language acquisition implicit knowledge
fluency Figure 4.1. Concept in English- English TSs Interaction
1. INITIATION 1
greeting 2
ask info 3
giv info 4
giv inst
3.FOLLOW- UP: 1 giv confirmation
2 giv appraisal 3 echoing
4 give corrective feedback
2. RESPONSES 1 respond greeting
2 3 respond 4 respond to instruction
Goals: 1communicate
2check 3be input
4manage
behavior
Goals: 1 2 build
confidence 3 be input
4 be input •
school’s rule •
students’ proficiency •
students’ interest
4.1.1.2 English- Indonesia TSs Interaction In fact, English- English interaction did not always go smoothly.
Sometimes, the students did not respond what the teacher said. They ended up either with silent or showing confusion. Consequently, teachers would modify
their talk. Thus, sometimes the teacher decided to translate their talk code switching.
6 T : Yes, she does. Ini pertanyaan nomer satu, kalo nomer dua “This is
number one, how about number two?”. Does she have a flat nose? Ss : silent
T : Punya flat nose nggak? “Does she have a flat nose?” Ss : No, she does not. unclear
T : no, no? T Ss : She does not.
obsN1_247-251
Based on the dialogue above, although the teacher has switched her talk in Indonesia, she still expected the students to answer in English correctly. Thus, she
asked for clarification. By emphasizing the answer, the students could know how to respond correctly and the others could notice and learn it too.
Once the students found difficulty to respond, the teacher would translate it. Teacher realized that English was not used as a means of communication in
students’ daily life. Thus, they did not want to burden the students to understand language that they had not been familiar with. Consequently, they considered that
English could not be the only language used in English learning in Elementary school. There was also a teacher who sometimes translated her talk directly. She
stated that translating was her habit done in grade one up to grade six. When she gave a talk in English, she would translate the words that she considered as the
difficult one. She did not want to take the risk if the students became confused in the future. It would make the class messy and the learning would not go
effectively. Here is the illustration. 7
T : Have you finished? sudah selesai? 5 menit lagi yaa “have you finished? 5 minutes more.
Ss : Ayo bu, istirahat bu, laper e.Come on ms, let’s have a break, I am hungry.”
T : Ayok “Come on.”, 5 minutes. obsY1_384-386
Based on the illustration above, the teacher directly translated her saying. She assumed that her habit in translating was not done every time. It depended on
the students’ proficiency. Sometimes, she only translated the difficult word. It was shown when the teacher asked her students to open the textbook. She gave
instruction in English but she directly translated the page number. The teacher though that students were not familiar with the numbers. Thus, she would
translate it into Bahasa Indonesia. Thus, code switching and code mixing were commonly found in the classroom.
Besides that, building TSs interaction using English and Bahasa Indonesia also happened when the teacher wanted to discuss about meaning of vocabulary.
It was often done during the learning. Here was the illustration. 8
T : Sekarang kita liat “Now, let’s see.”, ssst, yang “for” Art, what is art? art itu apa “what is art”?
Ss : SBK art T : Ya, SBK ato pelajaran seni Yes, you can call it art science. Go home?
Ss : Pulang go home obsY2_67-70
Based on the teacher’s experiences, exposing language to students was not enough for the students to learn. She thought that her students had mastered some
vocabularies since they were mentioned and discussed many times during the classroom interaction. Unfortunately, when the students were having a test, some
students questioned the meaning of those vocabularies. It meant that things did not work as she thought. Thus, starting from that time, she decided to check
whether her students understand the meaning of the important words or expressions. This decision was also applied by another teacher. TSs interaction in
her class was dominantly aimed on discussing meaning of words which were in Bahasa Indonesia. She wanted to make sure that the students had understood the
input in their own language. If it was not done such a way, the students would ask a lot about the meaning of certain vocabularies during the exercise time.
9 Students should know the meaning in Bahasa Indonesia to help themselves
doing the task. Once they could understand the reading in Bahasa Indonesia, they must be know how to do the task. If they do not know, but it does not
always happen. Elementary students tend to need support in learning. If we directly give a text and we ask them to do a task, they will be confused.
intY2_14
Teachers assumed that through the interaction that helped students to understand in their own language, they could understand better so later on they could perform
better. However, the teacher did not always discuss the meaning of vocabularies. It depended on the difficulty level.
Once the students had understood English exposed to them, they could construct another model of language. It could be seen on this dialogue.
10 T : Kalo beautiful dress? Gaun yang? How about beautiful dress? Dress
which is? Ss : cantik beautiful
T : Big dictionary? kamus yang? dictionary which is? Ss : besar big
T : Coba..kalo, buku…buku…besar. Besar itu apa kemaren? Try, if
book…book…big. What is the English of ‘besar’? Ss : big
T : buku? book? Ss : book
T : Brarti, a? “so, a?” Ss : big book
T : big? Ss : book
obsY1_82-93
First, the students were guided to understand the English exposure in Bahasa Indonesia. Then, the teacher gave another example in Bahasa Indonesia and asked
the students to construct it into English. Based on the description above, the TSs interaction using English and
Bahasa Indonesia could be presented in this figure. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
T Ss
enhancing language proficiency language acquisition implicit knowledge
fluency Figure 3.2. Concepts in English- Indonesia TSs interaction
Here, Bahasa Indonesia and English were used by the teachers. The proportion for each language depended on the students’ proficiency. Once it seemed that the
students did not understand, the teacher would directly modify their talk in Bahasa Indonesia. They only spoke English that was easy and the students were familiar
with. These code switching and code mixing were done to gain comprehension. The teacher stated that comprehension was the first priority on the interaction.
Later on, the teachers could give follow up so the students could understand and students’
proficiency
1. INITIATION 1 ask info
2 give
instruction 3 translate
3.FOLLOW- UP: 1 give
confirmation 2 giv appraisal
3 prompting 2. RESPONSES
1 2 respond comment, ask info
Goals: 1 check
2 manage behavior
3 gain comprehension
Goals: 1 build
confidence 2 build
confidence 3 corrective
feedback PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
respond it in English too. Thus, English- Indonesia TSs interaction was still focused to enhance English Language acquisition.
4.1.1.3 Indonesia- Indonesia TSs Interaction The teachers stated that if they could make their talk simple, they would
build the interaction in English. On the other hand, if the discussion was too complicated to be applied in English, the teachers would prefer to use Bahasa
Indonesia. The use of Bahasa Indonesia dominantly appeared when the teacher wanted to discuss materials. Here was the illustration for using Bahasa Indonesia
in TSs interaction. 11
T : Hhmmm, ssttt, ada penggabungan dua kata, kata sifat dan kata benda, ya.“There is a combination of two words, adjective and noun.”
Yang ditulis dulu apanya? kata sifat atau kata benda? “Which one is written first? adjective or noun?”
Ss : sifat “adjective” T : Naaa, kata sifatnya dulu. “Right, adjective comes first.”
obsY1_78-80
From the illustration above, it was seen that the students gave responses in Bahasa Indonesia. Teacher assumed that by using English, the students would feel
difficult to understand. At the same time, the point of discussion was to achieve the same understanding. Thus, the teacher decided to use Bahasa Indonesia. They
rarely explained in English since they did not want their students to misunderstand. If they spoke in English, it would make their students confused
and subsequently demotivated. Teachers emphasized on the importance of helping students to understand clearly. Using English to explain things would be useless
and make the situation getting worse. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
12 Full English, only at English teachers meeting, we teach the English teachers
so they must understand. It will be different for Elementary students, I mean their daily language. In school, the language used is not English. If I use
English all the time in class, the students may find difficulties. If I force to have full English in class, I’m afraid that they will not understand the
material. It must be different if it is in other school, such as SD Tumbuh. There must be full English in class, if the teacher uses Bahasa Indonesia,
there may be some students who do not understand. I teach in Elementary school, so it is still the basic. If I have high demand, they may hate English.
What is important is that they understand and happy.
intY1_22 Bahasa Indonesia was also used when the teachers connected the discussion
with the students’ real experiences. Besides using media as a topic to discuss, teacher also related what they were discussing about with the students’ reality.
Here is the illustration. 13
T : Coba, nih, gambarnya siapa ini? “Well, try, whose picture it is?” Ss : Alana? Oliv? Aji? Valen
T : Knapa kok kalian bisa nebak? “How could you guess that way?” Ss : Karena rambutnya curly “because the hair is curly”
T : Rambutnya curly, sekarang kalo ini cewe, berarti ini apa disini kalo
diberi nama?“The hair is curly, now, if this is a girl, what should be written here?”
obs1N_97-101 She asked whose face it was. The students guessed it. They were enthusiastic on
defending their answers. The teacher responded it by asking why they have such guesses and the students mention the characteristic of the drawing together. They
mentioned ‘curly hair’. The teacher expected that relating the learning with the students’ reality could ease the students to acquire the language.
14 yes ms, I expect that by relating the learning with the students’ reality and
funny things around them, it will be easy for them to remember the vocabulary that they learnt. Thus, they could still remember.
intN2 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Besides, Bahasa Indonesia was also used when the teachers gave direction to the students.
15 T: Oke ya, temen- temen ya, ssssst. Kan disitu sudah ada apa namanya
sudah ada contoh gambarnya, kalo lebih bagus lagi, kamu gambar, ya. “Okay, friends, ssssst. There has been, I mean, there is a picture as the
example. It will be better if you draw it.”
Ss: waaaa T: Yo rapopo to, kan hanya simple, itu balonnya. “That’s okay. It’s simple,
the balooon” Ss: halaaahhh, haaaa, huuu.
T: Yo, yo, tidak usah persis nggak papa. Balon kan tinggal bulet- bullet aja “Okay, it doesn’t have to be similar. Just make some circles.”
Ss: Yaah… obsY1_137-142
Based on the illustration above, the teacher negotiated with the students about the task. The students respond naturally in Bahasa Indonesia. They
complaint since the task was too demanding. The teacher did not want to make her students feel demotivated. Thus, she tried to explain that it was not that hard.
She interacted with their students to soothe her students. Based on the observation, it seemed that the teachers cared about the students’ condition. They
interacted with their students to talk about the students’ experiences and feeling. It was found that the teachers wanted to make sure that the students did not feel
burden during the learning. If it seemed that their students were demotivated, they would motivate their
students. As the example, the teacher also motivated the students before they did an exercise. She did not want her students stop learning because afraid of making
mistakes. 16
T: Okay, number one, dengarkan yuk nomer satu. Menggunakan jawaban PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
lengkap, kalaupun salah tidak apa- apa, boleh . Nanti dibetulkan ya, yang penting intinya sudah tau. Okay, number one, what toys does Helen
like?“Okay, number one, listen, number one. Use the complete answer. If it is false, that is okay. You can revise it. The important one is that you
know.”
Ss: Doll obsy1_396-397
They said that these efforts might be beneficial for building positive relationship with the students.
Interacting using Bahasa Indonesia was also used when the teacher made jokes for the students. Here is the illustration.
17 T : Sekarang wajahnya juga, tadi ms Nana lupa. Kalo ini? pointing at
the figure drawn “Now, the face, please. I almost forget. How about this one?”
Bentuk wajahnya kira- kira apa ya? “What kind of face is it?” Ss : round face
T : yak, round face, anggep ini bulat, jangan benjol “right, round face, consider this as a round shape.”, round face.
Ss : Kalo yang ini? “How about this one?” T : Oval
Ss : Kayak round juga jadinya ya. Ini masih round juga e, yo sementara
agak ditiruskan sedikit. Dikasih shading, kok malah jadi punya brewok. S : Apa itu bu? brewok laughing “It is still like round face. Okay, make it
slimmer. I will put the shading. It looks like moustache.” T : Bukan, ini maksudnya biar…anggap ini oval ya.“No, I make it so
that…just consider that it is oval.” obsN1_151-158
The teacher was explaining the difference of round and oval face through drawing. She made a joke from the drawing in Bahasa Indonesia. She tried to
create fun environment. She expected that it could make the students to notice and remember what they learnt from what they laugh at. Here is the figure.
T Ss
1. gaining comprehension 2. saving time
3. building relationship 4. creating fun atmosphere
Figure 3.3. Concepts of Indonesia- Indonesia TSs interaction
4.1.1.4 Javanese Language TSs Interaction The use of Javanese language also existed in TSs interaction. Javanese
language was the students’ local language. As what has been described above, Javanese English was spoken by the teacher when she negotiated about students’
task. The interaction was quite informal. Besides, the teachers also spoke using Javanese language to warn the students when they did mistakes.
18 Javanese language was used as ice breaking. I used it when I warned the
students so that they were not upset. I made a joke also. intN2
Here is the illustration. 19
S : Ms, nomer tiga kok Ms, how come number three be like that?” yes, he doesn’t?
T : Sing nggarap iki sopo to? “Who did this?” Ss : Sabrina
T : Nek yes ki yes bagaimana? “If it is yes, how to write it?” Ss : yes, he does
1. INITIATION 1
ask compre 2
explain inst 3
soothe Ss 4
tell jokes 2. RESPONSES
• give info show
comprehension, negotiate
• respond instruction
jokes Goals:
1 check 2 gain
comprehension 3 4 maintain
Ss motivation PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
T : nek ‘nt’ ki nggo sopo? “What is ‘nt’ for?” Ss : no
T : ini singkatannya dari? “It is the abbreviation of?” Ss : does not
T : brarti nek yes yo rasah nganggo n? “meaning that, if it is yes, you do
not need to have ‘n’.” Ss : ‘t’
obsN1_347-357
In fact, the use of local language as a language used in TSs interaction was being a controversy. One teacher stated that interacting using Javanese language
was acceptable. It aimed to make the situation not too tense. On the other hand, there was a teacher who assumed that Javanese language was not really suitable to
be used in English learning since classroom language was only English and Bahasa Indonesia. In fact, she responded her students using Javanese language
and she stated that she spoke unintentionally. T
Ss
1. ease the situation
2. create fun atmosphere Figure 3.4. The concept of Javanese TSs Interaction
1. INITIATION 1
ask inf 2
warn 3
tell jokes 2. RESPONSES
1 giv inf 3 respond jokes
4.1.2 Pattern of TSs Interaction 4.1.2.1 Teacher- Students Interaction
4.1.2.1.1 Initiation In classroom, TSs interaction existed at almost the whole session of
learning, started from greeting to closing. Teachers initiated the interaction by asking information. Those questions might be from their own ideas or from the
students’ previous question. As what has been described on the goal of TSs interaction above, teachers might vary the purpose of asking question. If they had
already known the answer, it meant that they aimed to check the students’ proficiency. Here was the illustration for checking students’ vocabularies.
20 T : Oke, yuk, kita baca dulu. Sshhh, kita masih belajar tentang kata sifat.
”Okay, come on, let’s read first. Sshhh, we still learn about adjective.” Ss: Adjective
T : Ya “Yes” adjectives, apakah masih ingat? “do you still remember?” Ss: Masih “Yes”
T : What are they? Apa saja? “what are they?” what are the adjectives? Ss: Ss mention some adjectives
obsY1_10-15
Seen from the dialogue above, the teacher wanted to check the students’ background knowledge. Actually she had known the answers but she only wanted
to make sure whether the students had master what they had learnt from the previous meeting. By answering those questions, students could share what they
had in mind. Later on, the teacher could observe whether the students had responded correctly or not. They also could notice which students who had not
understood yet. Then, she could decide whether it was needed to explain the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
previous material again or not. Thus, if teacher would like to know the students’ knowledge, they often initiated the interaction by asking questions.
Initiating TSs interaction was not merely aimed for checking students’ knowledge. At the other time, teachers also asked about things of which answers
they had not known yet. 21
T : Kelas V harusnya disana to? “Class V, you should have been in another room, right?”
Ss : Tadi pagi disuruh kesini. “This morning, we were asked to come here.” T : nodding
obsY1_153-154
By having the students’ answer, the teacher could get the information. Actually the information also could be in the form of students’ feeling, for instance by
asking whether the material was easy or not. Teachers stated that the interaction happened in English learning was not merely about English materials. The teacher
thought that interaction in class should not be monotonous. The subject for discussion was not only focused on materials but it should be varied by other talk
which was fun. Thus, sometimes, teachers should also communicate with students about the things around them and how they felt during the learning. It was seen
during the observation in which the teachers asked students about their background knowledge, experiences or opinion that were related to the topic
being learnt. Sometimes, what was discussed was not related to the topic learnt. Teachers assumed that by asking such questions, the students would feel like
being in the teachers’ attention. Consequently, it could give positive impact toward the TSs relationship.
22 ...to maintain the relationship between the teacher and the students, it was not
only about academic things. By asking, they also…what to say…it was such the emotion, in class, we may not only focus on studying but we also should
building interaction by asking questions. The example is like asking about holiday, how was your holiday? where did you go? was it fun?
obsk3_13
Moreover, by having such discussion, the teacher could introduce some vocabularies related to what they were talking about. It would increase the
students’ proficiency. Unfortunately, this kind of discussion was not seen during the observation. The teacher only asked and did not give further responses. The
teacher argued that this kind of interaction was not always done in every meeting. It depended on the students’ condition. If they were so noisy and not cooperative,
the teacher would not make it. Besides asking information, teacher also initiated an interaction by giving
information. The example was when the teachers informed about what they were going to learn at that day. It was commonly done by the teachers in the beginning
of session. Due to the observation, students would not respond to such initiation. They would respond only if the information was incomplete or if the information
was used as a clue to solve. The teachers wanted all her students to participate on the discussion. Thus,
they often asked for the students’ attention e.g by calling the misbehaved- students’ names. They expect that everybody would get the same understanding
and nobody missed the information. Once it worked, it would save more time. On the other words, through successful TSs interaction, teachers could build efficient
learning. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
They did not need to spend much time for explaining the same things to each student. They believed that knowledge could be obtained as long as the
students were aware of and involved in the process of interaction. Thus, teachers interacted with their students to negotiate students’ manner. She expected to have
cooperative students. 23
T : Temen- temen nanti kalo rame, ms Yeni tidak mau memberikan lima menit untuk ganti lho.Friends, if you are still noisy, ms Yeni will not
give you time to change your clothes.” Ss : Halah
Yo nggak bu No ms T : Makanya yuk, dengarkan. Helen’s doll artinya apa? So listen. What is
the meaning of helen’s doll?” Ss : Bonekanya Helen helen’s doll.
obsY1_325-328
Teacher realized that it was difficult to have all her students involved in the TSs interaction. Quiet atmosphere in Elementary students’ class was
something which was rarely found. Thus, she tolerated if there were some students who still made noises. At least, she had tried to manage the situation.
The third move was by giving instruction. This was common initiation done in Elementary class. Teachers used this kind of interaction to manage what
the students do or how the students behave. Once the teachers initiated the interaction, the students rarely gave verbal respond. They did it only if they
needed clarification. Commonly, they would end up with either doing what the teacher asked them to do or being silent to show that they did not understand.
24 T : Nah, sekarang, now, please open your rainbow. Kita menyelesaikan ini
dulu “Okay, now, please open your rainbow. We finish this first.” Ss : halaman? what page?
T : page seventy four PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Ss : tujuh puluh empat “seventy four”opening their books obsN1_74-77
What commonly found was when the teachers gave verbal warning to keep the students from not being noisy. During the learning, the teachers emphasize the
important of noticing the discussion. They kept warning the students to behave properly by paying attention and participating on the interaction. Teachers had
experienced that students would ask lot of questions on the exercise time if they did not pay attention during the learning. In fact, they often asked the same
question. Consequently, students often spent time more than the given time when they were doing exercise. Based on the interview, they stated that students should
notice what was discussed on the interaction. 25
If I do not remind them to pay attention, they will come to me for asking and asking again. It will be better if now we understand it together. Once
everybody has understood, everything will go smoothly. If one student asks, another student will ask again. In fact, it was the same question. Thus, it is
better to make all of the students understand first. intY2_16
It would be better also if the students could respond. As the students give responses, it meant that the students had understood. In fact, eventhough the
teachers had warned the students to pay attention, there were still some students who came to the teacher for asking clarification. Teachers realized that sometimes
students will not directly learn about what has been discussed. They said that at least they had provided learning atmosphere.
In fact, not all language exposed to the students will be acquired by the students. giving many language exposures to students during TSs interaction did